Showing my pictures

**CDNSushi** · 23rd November 09, 06:04 PM

Hey guys,

This is a technical question -- but one that does not directly concern vBulletin or this forum per se, so I did not post this into the tech forum area. Besides, I think I may get more views in this area...

I've been trying to find an effective way to share some of my photos on XMTS.

What I USED to do was: upload my photos to imageshack.us and just copy/paste the pre-formatted link/image into the thread. This works well when you have a one-off photo or similar. Any more than that and it starts to take a while and get kinda annoying.

Then, I started hotlinking photo URLs from either my Flickr or my Picasa Web Albums accounts, as that is where I tend to share my photo albums with friends and family. The problems with that were, that not everyone could see the hotlinked photos (because hotlinking is generally seen as poor netiquette). So then, to resolve that issue, I just fed the hotlink URL to Imageshack and reverted to method 1, which works great -- and it was a fair bit quicker than before, because when you feed an image URL to Imageshack instead of uploading a pic from your HD, it goes very quickly -- and re-hosts the photo in a flash! The problem arose when I ran out of space on my Flickr and Picasa accounts, and I really didn't feel like feeding them a yearly fee for more space...

Well, I already pay for a perfectly good domain that has domain space which I haven't been using at all, so I opted to use my own domain and webserver space. I figured, to heck with Picasa and Flickr. I'll provide MY OWN stinkin' Flickr... The company I use gives me 10GB, which is plenty -- so I installed Gallery (v. 2) and have been using a direct iPhoto-->Gallery shunt, which has made life oh-so-simple, but NOT if I want to share those photos on forums like here on XMTS. Gallery doesn't really let me hotlink either, (and I have no desire to change the permissions or edit the code to bypass the built-in security because if I can hotlink, that means others can too)...

I'm really scratching my head here... What would be the quickest/easiest way to share a few photo galleries here on XMTS, short of individually re-uploading them to imageshack? Anyone have any good suggestions?

**dfmacliam** · 23rd November 09, 06:55 PM

if you load them in your photo album, here on XMarks, you can use that URL to post a pic... especially if its for a short time..few months. or so...

**English Bloke** · 23rd November 09, 07:10 PM

Robertson (Pour1Malt) came up with a great idea. Upload pics to an account in photobucket (or whatever you fancy) and when that account reaches it's limit open another account with a number variable. ie. "my-pics-01, my-pics-02" etc. ad infinitum. No fees, loads of pics. Makes sense to me...

**GDub** · 23rd November 09, 07:21 PM

Since you have an ISP all you have to do is point to your images...

For example, if your images on your web site are in a folder/directory called "images" the URL to the photo would be something like:

Code:

http://www.yourdomain.com/images/yourphoto.jpg

If you don't have a domain name (eg, cdnsushi.com) then use your IP address:

Code:

http://123.45.67.89/images/yourphoto.jpg

If you don't have a static IP address then create a domain name and register it (might take a few days and cost a few bucks--your ISP should have instructions) and you'll be able to use something like this:

Code:

http://www.cdnsushi.com/images/yourphoto.jpg

Piece 'o cake.

**CDNSushi** · 23rd November 09, 08:09 PM

GDub: Under normal circumstances you would be correct. Unfortunately the Gallery setup doesn't work that way.

If I try to hotlink the picture itself, Gallery's javascript re-formats it -- because the picture itself is stored in a hidden folder on the server, made up of a random hex string. I can't link to the original photo in that folder because it results in a 403 error. I would literally have to change permissions for the files and folders, which defeats Gallery's built-in security features.

If you like, you can try it. Here is one of my photos:

http://zayith.com/v/HG2009/DSCF0161.JPG

If you put this into your address bar, you will be able to see the photo... But there will be no way to "embed" that photo into this thread, for instance.

**CDNSushi** · 23rd November 09, 08:12 PM

Aha! Wait! I think I got it!

I played with it some more, and it looks like I can do it after all, but the image is in a completely unexpected location. (I suspect it's another Gallery feature).

Please tell me if you can see the picture in this posting or not....

**HarborSpringsPiper** · 23rd November 09, 08:19 PM

Yep. Highland dancing comp in Japan?

**CDNSushi** · 23rd November 09, 08:30 PM

Yeh. 2009 Tokyo Highland Games.

**dfmacliam** · 23rd November 09, 08:39 PM

nice pictures

**GDub** · 23rd November 09, 08:49 PM

Are you trying to prevent hotlinking? If so, it ain't working:

edit: I see now. Slightly different addresses. The gallery you're using must have some kind of a database feature (could be a flat file--xml, or...). Cool pic!