Photo link migration - yo JamesC and admins

[bradnic]

ADMINS: I'm sure you know Photobucket, Dropbox and several other image hosting services have moved to paid service now. Dropbox is going even further and DROPPING publicly shared pic links entirely. this SUCKS obviously.

Updating existing links on posts is a major undertaking. you could potentially help here by supporting a "batch update" capability. Here's what I mean:

I use dropbox. A typical pic link looks like this, based on the folders I have in my image hosting services.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/783836/callie/0417/callie-shadowline%20europaint.JPG

As long as I copy the entire folder structure intact to a new service, I should be able to modify the picture link by replacing the red part only.

It would be GREAT if I can tell r3v "hey change any pic link on any post I have made that starts with [the red part] with [replacement part]"

otherwise, who the hell is going to take the time to update their links on each post manually? I have several thousand pics posted on this forum.

thoughts? anyone else asked this question before?

[agent]

That's a good idea. I'd think it could be done with a script, though that would require database access. As far as I know, that is exclusive to James.

This is a pervasive problem affecting lots of forums with lots of users who've posted lots of images. vBulletin software is one of the most popular, so hopefully soon someone will build a tool or a plugin to address this.

[bradnic]

it's a really serious problem no doubt about it. r3v is losing a boatload of content as are other forums.

transferred most of my pics to Flickr, but turns out my URL scheme won't work. their terms of service don't allow you to link directly to an image. you have to link to the page for each individual pic, which means one of two things:

1) you have to manually cut/paste the URL every single image you migrated.
2) you need a more comprehensive admin tool that will cycle through each one of your pics from their existing location, migrate them to a new service for you and then replace the URL.

a tool for (2) doesn't exist yet. it's something vbulletin should build to protect their forum customer base. otherwise their customers won't have any reason to pay them anymore.

this sucks so bad it just hurts man.

[bradnic]

Flickr test, trying to post a pic I uploaded to their service.

Here's the short URL they provide for the pic when you hit the share icon:

https://flic.kr/p/XqgXak

there's a tab for BBCODE which gives you this (I modified it with curly braces and highlighted in blue to show the different parts, otherwise you couldn't see it here)

{left bracket}url=https://flic.kr/p/XqgXak]{left bracket}img]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4377/36374330385_ed79fd5198_b.jpg[/img][/url]{left bracket}url=https://flic.kr/p/XqgXak]callie-shadowline europaint[/url] by {left bracket}url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/bradn/]bradn[/url], on Flickr

So reading through all that stuff:

It includes this Link to the picture page: {left bracket}url=https://flic.kr/p/XqgXak]
and this Link to a 1024 wide static image: {left bracket}img]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4377/36374330385_ed79fd5198_b.jpg[/img]
followed by the end of the URL tag, so if you click on the pic it takes you to the Flickr page[/url]
there's also this
Caption with link back to Flickr page pic name and Flickr user name: {left bracket}url=https://flic.kr/p/XqgXak]callie-shadowline europaint[/url] by {left bracket}url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/bradn/]bradn[/url], on Flickr

if you try to paste just the Flickr straight short URL as IMG it won't work - you get this:


If you paste the short Flickr URL as URL you just get the link of course:
https://flic.kr/p/XqgXak

If you paste the whole Flickr BBCODE as IMG it works but you get the IMG tags as extra stuff
[IMG]callie-shadowline europaint by bradn, on Flickr[/IMG]

If you just straight paste the Flickr BBCODE directly to your post it works - you get what Flickr wants you to share, and if you clock on the image it takes you to Flickr.
callie-shadowline europaint by bradn, on Flickr

If you just paste the Flickr static image part as IMG, without the URL link back to Flickr, you get just the pic (which is probably what you wanted right?)


That's great, but it's not what Flickr wants you to do.

[bradnic]

photobucket browser extension - Firefox & Chrome!!!!

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showpost.php?p=4818265&postcount=1

we'll see how long it keeps working... good opportunity to download pics before they're gone.

Just migrated most of my pics from Dropbox. it was EXCRUCIATING.

[James Crivellone]

ADMINS: I'm sure you know Photobucket, Dropbox and several other image hosting services have moved to paid service now. Dropbox is going even further and DROPPING publicly shared pic links entirely. this SUCKS obviously.

Updating existing links on posts is a major undertaking. you could potentially help here by supporting a "batch update" capability. Here's what I mean:

I use dropbox. A typical pic link looks like this, based on the folders I have in my image hosting services.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/783836/callie/0417/callie-shadowline%20europaint.JPG

As long as I copy the entire folder structure intact to a new service, I should be able to modify the picture link by replacing the red part only.

It would be GREAT if I can tell r3v "hey change any pic link on any post I have made that starts with [the red part] with [replacement part]"

otherwise, who the hell is going to take the time to update their links on each post manually? I have several thousand pics posted on this forum.

thoughts? anyone else asked this question before?

I've done a little bit of research looking for a temp plugin, but with this issue being somewhat recent I cannot find one. In theory I could write a SQL script to do it on the backend, but the overall risk to the stability of the database is too high. VBulletin 3.8 is approaching EOL and I'll need to make a decision to move to 4.X or 5.X, and at that point I could look into photo hosting again (we dropped vbgallery due to lack of updates/support after 5 or so years of using it)

[Northern]

If you just paste the Flickr static image part as IMG, without the URL link back to Flickr, you get just the pic (which is probably what you wanted right?)

This exactly. Unfortunate that they force you to copy all the gibberish with it. Currently my biggest dislike about flickr.

[agent]

Unfortunate that they force you to copy all the gibberish with it.

Only if you copy/paste their canned links.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=405411

[robrez]

So to all the photobucket users who have created build threads, if you put "~original" after the .jpg in your links your pics will work.

lifesaver

[bradnic]

So to all the photobucket users who have created build threads, if you put "~original" after the .jpg in your links your pics will work.

Cool.. this is easy to auto-replace.. probably what the browser extension is doing