Topic: Remote Avatar
There should be an Option for Remote Avatar i.e We can Give link Of the image hosted on any other Server.
Is it Possible?
Please Tell me
Re: Remote Avatar
If you make it a mod 
There are issues with it (the fact that the pic might not exist, might not fit the max width/height, could be an image file served by the server holding it as PHP, etc).
Re: Remote Avatar
it could look something like this
could some one make it
Re: Remote Avatar
This feature would be great!
Re: Remote Avatar
I made a mod like that a while i ago, I'll see if i can find it.
Re: Remote Avatar
Smartys wrote:
There are issues with it (the fact that the pic might not exist, might not fit the max width/height, could be an image file served by the server holding it as PHP, etc).
The problem is not that you can't check the image size, that it exists, and it's dimensions. The problem is that you can't guarantee that they will not change because the image was changed/replaced/regenerated on the remote server. However, if someone is trying that hard to subvert the forum then it's probably grounds for banning/deletion by a moderator. That's one of jobs of the moderator after all.
- Jérémie
- PunBB Donor
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Re: Remote Avatar
A fixed size avatar would not be too much of a burdain to have this feature.
Re: Remote Avatar
fixed dimensions, yes it's possible, but the avatar could be 90MB, how would you limit that?
Re: Remote Avatar
is any 1 making it or no
Re: Remote Avatar
There is a Option In IPB
It is 'Image Scale' ...U can either switch it off or u can Switch it on
If u switch it on then It will Scale the Image (Even a Third Party Image) down to the size Filled by the Admin!
Image Scale On
(This will scale the image down for you if it's too big in pixel size)
I start thinking from where you stop thinking!!!
Re: Remote Avatar
Can it be Done ?
I start thinking from where you stop thinking!!!
- Jérémie
- PunBB Donor
- Offline
Re: Remote Avatar
It can be done, PunBB is open source.
Frank, I know but that's a moderation issue, not a software one. And it's pretty easy to handle.
- Connorhd
- Former PunBB Developer
- Offline
Re: Remote Avatar
waiting for what?
15 2005-09-17 20:38 (edited by Tx 2005-09-17 20:47)
Re: Remote Avatar
Bit late to join this topic I know, but I too would like to see this feature implemented.
Anyway, there's an easy solution. You make a wrapper, say image.php, that accepts a userid as a variable (image.php?uid=123) and then you simply query the databse for the user, fetch the url specified for their avatar then within image.php you download the image, check it's size etc and if all is well, you display it.
Only thing is this adds the extra bandwidth usage of the server having to retrieve the image, then send it to the client whereas a direct url would have it downloaded from the remote server. Would make a nice option in the CP though
But if no one on the core team is willing to do this then....
Would this be possible with a mod? I've not played with punbb's mod system but is it possible to manipulate the user "Personality" pages? so I could insert a text field or 2. also is it possible for a mod to add extra options to the control panel? (note, by mod I mean using an API, not by patching files)
If there's a decent mod API I'd be happy modding this.
PS, you could make it so the first time a url is is specified it's downloaded and cache'd locally.
Re: Remote Avatar
Tx: There's already a function that does exactly that for the img tags.
But the reason you don't make it a wrapper is that you don't want to be downloading the image to your servers everytime someone views the thread, since you're just leeching bandwidth then, and you don't want to be caching it either, since people who create dynamic sigs using PHP will be annoyed
Re: Remote Avatar
I wouldn't really call it leeching. All you're doing is instead of letting the client make their own request for the image, you do it for them. In fact you could save the other host bandwidth by at least cache'ing for 90 secs or something (depending on board activity).
As for people with dynamic sigs, I didn't really think of that but I presonally don't see the point of those so at least in my implentation, I wouldn't care. A short cache time would stop them even noticing probly, much less caring.
And so what does this function do that you speak of? I didn't catch what you was refering to when you said it does "exactly that".
Re: Remote Avatar
The function checks the images and then caches them, I don't exactly remember where it is but I can certainly dig it up somewhere.
And caching for 90 seconds is only really helpful if you have a board where you'll have hundreds of people looking every 90 seconds, versus one or two every 90 seconds (or less).
And atm, when a user views the thread again, they can load a cached version of the image if it hasn't changed. Not so with this file.
Re: Remote Avatar
Oh, I see.
However, the 90 secs was an example, and ideally it would be an option. Also, it's trivial to make image.php send a cache header to the browser
But so ok, I see no one's probably going to be willing to make this core functionality but would be it be possible to insert a few text fields into the user pref's page without touching any exisintg files?
Re: Remote Avatar
Nope