php website taking screenshots of other websites...
Posted by thomase, 09-08-2008, 04:29 PM I'd like to be able to take a screen shot, similar to the small thumbnail of the mix stream site like webhostingstuff.com has. I've seen a few other sites with something similar and I wouldn't mind being able to use it myself. http://www.webhostingstuff.com/review/MixStreamnet.html Anyone point me in the right direction? Cheers.
Posted by chilifish, 09-09-2008, 11:11 AM This should get you going in the right direction. This task is easier on a windows machine at the moment. I am not able to post a link but you want the iecapt project at sourceforge.
Posted by luki, 09-09-2008, 11:38 AM On the Linux platform you could do it along these lines (didn't try it): 1) Start a VNC server 2) Start Firefox on the VNC virtual display, providing the URL (or file) at the command line to display 3) Grab a snapshot of the VNC display 4) Crop the title/menu/status with say imagemagick 5) Kill Firefox and the VNC server (or reuse them) In theory it should work fine.
Posted by AntX, 09-09-2008, 12:18 PM Google for "dynamic thumbnails from websites" and you'll find a LOTS of results on how to achieve this. Basically, some services offer this for free (I'm thinking girafa.com here, but there are others), or you can code something up yourself that will "take" a thumbnail of the websites you want. Good luck!
Posted by thomase, 09-09-2008, 02:54 PM Windows' isn't a possibility but thanks Again not possible, and it should be automated. Sounds like the right thing...the one which does it for me (not coding it haha) Cheers
Posted by chilifish, 09-10-2008, 09:26 AM I did some more digging and khtml2png seems to be an option for *nix operating systems?
Posted by luki, 09-10-2008, 11:56 AM And who said it cannot be automated? Of course it can. It can all be run and controlled from one script...
Posted by thomase, 09-11-2008, 02:10 PM I'm sure it could be done (just not by me) thanks for the help everyone still!