Gossamer Forum
Quote Reply
Alex thumbnails
Hi,

can someone explain to me, how I can integrate http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=323&categoryID=80 - alexa Thumbnails into my webpage?
___________________________________________
http://www.westalgarve.de
http://www.portugalforum.org
http://www.portugal-links.de
Quote Reply
Re: [kailew] Alex thumbnails In reply to
This looks to be a pretty easy integration. The only question I have is whether or not the URL's for the images expire after a given time. If not, you can limit server load by retrieving and storing the thumbnail HTML whenever a link is added or modified, so as to not have to do it for each page request.

If you can find out if they're permanent or if they expire, that'll be a big help.

Philip
------------------
Limecat is not pleased.
Quote Reply
Re: [fuzzy logic] Alex thumbnails In reply to
Hi,

to be honest, I don't know anything about expiration. I think they check the thumbnails regulary, maybe every half year.

What I'm looking for is the way to integrate that into my lsql ... should be easy but not for me ... ;)

Kai
___________________________________________
http://www.westalgarve.de
http://www.portugalforum.org
http://www.portugal-links.de
Quote Reply
Re: [kailew] Alex thumbnails In reply to
I gave up on the Amazon integration several years ago, not because it was hard -- it wasn't. But because of all their rules, some of which made no sense, were contradictory, and which just made life miserable for the programmer -- for no reason.

I got an email a week or so ago, announcing changes, or updates, I didn't bother to read it.

Looking at that package, it seems maybe they have changed -- again -- the rules?

I will look at it again, if I can find my access code and such, and see if they allow building a catalog that makes sense -- for example, building in all the information you need, and only pulling availability/pricing data (which is the only stuff that changes for most people). In the past, they only allowed you to cache stuff for 6 hours -- except the stuff you couldn't request more than once every 24 hours, and you couldn't request more than N number of items at a time, or per unit of time, and then TOTAL requests had to be limited to under 300 per hour, or day, I just quit :) Made no sense at all.

If they've changed their requirements, we have the tools to integrate the images and feeds, but it wasn't worth working on given the convoluted rules they wanted. I never made much from amazon, and while it always seemed easy, DVD's are the main item (books, sometimes) we would link to, some of the other affiliate programs and independent resellers gave better returns -- by far -- than amazon did.

The short is, they never took the AWS stuff seriously, changing it's name several times hoping people would stick around and keep playing with it. Only a few larger players had hung with it, the simple, easy 3rd party integrators for the most part gave up. I was one of them. But that was 2 years ago, so maybe they've changed.

BTW: There are/have been great CPAN modules to access the AWS data, it's just that amazon's rules and regulations made them moot.


PUGDOG� Enterprises, Inc.

The best way to contact me is to NOT use Email.
Please leave a PM here.
Quote Reply
Re: [pugdog] Alex thumbnails In reply to
Hi Pugdog,

it's Amazon but it's not Amazon ... ;)

What I'm asking for is not the Amazon catalogue but a service from Alexa (which is probably an Amazon company ...) to put screenshots thumbnails from websites into my directory.

I like this feature for detailed pages and looking for a way to make it on the fly because it is very time consuming to do it by hands.

I've only found that one http://www.artviper.net/ but it seems not to be very reliable and Alexa might be much better. There ar some costs but I like to give it a try.

Kai
___________________________________________
http://www.westalgarve.de
http://www.portugalforum.org
http://www.portugal-links.de
Quote Reply
Re: [kailew] Alex thumbnails In reply to
Hi Kai,

If you can PM me your key and secret code, then I can make a test and send you the code to try with that. It could be a small plugin because we need to copy another file onto the site.

Cheers,

Cheers,

Dat

Programming and creating plugins and templates
Blog
Quote Reply
Re: [kailew] Alex thumbnails In reply to
Attached is a plugin for you. I can't test to be sure it works since I don't have an Alexa account.

I *did* make sure it compiled. I needed to install all the XML::* modules.\ or it kept spewing out missing module errors. I uploaded those to 'admin/Plugins/lib' and then it worked (except, obviously, that it won't get images since I don't have a valid account)

To use the plugin, add:

Code:
<%Plugins::AlexaThumbnails::load($URL)%>

There is one optional parameter. If you want to specify "small" or "large" size (default is "small" if the parameter is missing), use:

Code:
<%Plugins::AlexaThumbnails::load($URL, "large")%>

Philip
------------------
Limecat is not pleased.

Last edited by:

fuzzy logic: Aug 20, 2006, 10:52 AM
Quote Reply
Re: [fuzzy logic] Alex thumbnails In reply to
Hi Philip,

I will try it ... but which xml-Modules do you mean?

Kai
___________________________________________
http://www.westalgarve.de
http://www.portugalforum.org
http://www.portugal-links.de

Last edited by:

kailew: Aug 21, 2006, 3:16 PM
Quote Reply
Re: [kailew] Alex thumbnails In reply to
Hi,

I use

Code:
<%Plugins::AlexaThumbnail::load($URL)%>

(without "s" in Thumbnail)

in my template ... but nothing ...

Kai
___________________________________________
http://www.westalgarve.de
http://www.portugalforum.org
http://www.portugal-links.de

Last edited by:

kailew: Aug 21, 2006, 3:53 PM
Quote Reply
Re: [kailew] Alex thumbnails In reply to
okay after editing the no_image-field with "xxx" ;) I get the link to the site ... but no image.
Kai
___________________________________________
http://www.westalgarve.de
http://www.portugalforum.org
http://www.portugal-links.de
Quote Reply
Re: [kailew] Alex thumbnails In reply to
Did you set the options correctly?
Did you try it with a well known site?

If no image is available, my understanding is that it will provide a default image, unless you implicitly override it.

That being said, the limited documenation available wasn't clear if the service expects only a domain name or if a fully qualified URL works also.

Try, instead of $URL, use 'www.google.com' (keep the quotes), and see what happens then.

Philip
------------------
Limecat is not pleased.
Quote Reply
Re: [fuzzy logic] Alex thumbnails In reply to
Hi,

I used a URL from wghich a screenshot is in Alexa ... "www.carvoeiro.com" -> no picture at me.

I don't know, whether a trailing slash or not in the URL have some influences?

I could send you my keys with PM if you want. But you could also set up an own account. AFAIK it costs you nothing if no image is dsiplayed ...

Kai
___________________________________________
http://www.westalgarve.de
http://www.portugalforum.org
http://www.portugal-links.de
Quote Reply
Re: [kailew] Alex thumbnails In reply to
is this like the OTP project for DMOZ?

I have some nice working code for that and could see if it works the same for the alexa service (which I have not used at all).

The code I have caches the images locally for a specified time period, before trying to fetch them again, usually about 6-8 weeks. I have it working on a number of sites using OTP and my own generated thumbnails.


PUGDOG� Enterprises, Inc.

The best way to contact me is to NOT use Email.
Please leave a PM here.