Scratch

sparks wrote:

LiquidMetal wrote:

Hi sparks,
I just updated my signature, and while I was playing around with it, I noticed it can be slow to load, and does not load all at once.  I was wondering if you could make a single call script to get an image that links directly to the project.  You would put all the images in one call to the api, and there would be less overhead.  I'll explain more in depth if you need it.

Thanks!

Hey! I like the new sig!

I understand that loading time would be much reduced, but it may lower the level of customization available. I suppose it could be done in one image using a really long url like

http://www.blocks.scratchr.org/API.php?type=myProjects&display=nlfd&number=1&lovesImage=anImageUrl&favesImage=urlToImage&downloadsImage=urlToImage&background=urlToImage

or something. (nlfd would tell it to display name, loves, faves and downloads in that order)my main worry with this is that it would still be accessing image urls for all the parts of the sig, which would slow down the loading of the one image so that whole sig would take longer to load...

Maybe display should have number codes:
0= link
1= name
2= views ----> Does this exist yet?
3= loves
4= faves
5= downloads
6= everything

How about one single background image for the whole thing? When I put my sig images into an html document, clicking on any leaves a little dotted grey outline around the segment of the image that I pressed.  If the api returned only one image, then...

http://www.blocks.scratchr.org/API.php?type=myProjects&display=6&number=1&bgImage=anImageUrl&font_size=10&xpos1=12&ypos1=25&xpos2=35&ypos2=25&xpos3=58&ypos3=25&textr=0&textg=0&textb=0...

it would be a lot cleaner.


Are there font size / color defaults?

Would it be possible to use an image of a one pixel wide column of picture, and tile it until there is enough room for the required text + X pixels, then use the next logo image, etc;?

Would it be possible to return an image that links directly to the newest project, instead of linking to the API, which thinks a little bit and only then sends you to the project?  This would also provide a better feeling of security for anyone who doesn't know anything about this API, so the link is going to scratch and not some "random" website.

Thanks!

Last edited by LiquidMetal (2012-04-01 11:54:28)

If you can return an image, can't you return an image with a link tag on it?

Maybe the API's being faster would help.  Is there really no way to get the url as text before the click?

Images and links are very different, and you can't return either an image OR a link tag to this page.

Here's how the API works:

for an image:
Scratch is asked to display an image using the bbcode:

www.blocks.scratchr.org/API.php?user=sparks&action=projects&type=newest&return=image&num=1

This never changes on the Scratch site, that code will always look the same. You may notice that it isn't linking to an image, it's linking to a page and just sending a little info to the page too. When Scratch views the page to try and display the image, a PHP script on that page notices that Scratch is looking at it, grabs the information about the person and such and then quickly draws up a picture to match what Scratch is asking for. It then displays this image and nothing else on that page and Scratch it tricked into thinking that it's just an image and displays it on the page.

for an URL:

Scratch is asked to make a link in the text with the code:

[url]http://blocks.scratchr.org/API.php?scratchify=imageshack.us&user=sparks&action=projects&type=newest&return=link&num=1[/url]

This never changes on the Scratch site, that code will always look the same and Scratch will always link to the API page. When a Scratch user clicks the link, they're taken to the API page, which notices that because return is set to link, the user just wants to be taken to another place, so it quickly works out a new URL based on the info sent, such as working out the URL to the newest project of that user, and then redirects the user to that page.

Essentially the problem is the Scratch does not allow HTML or PHP to be used on the forums. Everything dynamic like the API has to be processed off-site.

I'm very annoyed that I was unable to put the image URL in the example above into a code box with img tags, please go here to support the oddness of this and raise awareness

Last edited by sparks (2012-04-02 12:24:11)

They use BBcode. That's the square-bracket tags you see like [b]bold[/b]

The reason that HTML is not allowed in posts is that HTML can be used to do a lot of things that could damage the forums or make them less safe. HTML, for example, could include an external javascript file and cause a popup to appear each time the page loads, which is something that can obviously be abused.

PHP is not allowed because it is a very powerful tool that could be used very maliciously on the forums to gather data on people, or hide rude comments from admins.

BBcode is basically allowing a few HTML tags that cannot really be abused whilst blocking all others.

LiquidMetal wrote:

Is there anything we could try pushing for that would help here and have a chance?

Why? The API works fine via image rendering and redirects, why increase the risk levels of the fora just so it can be a few seconds faster?

On the text render-er, it blocks any image that is not a png. Could that be edited so it allows gif, jpeg and bmp, and also let it allow the text render-er ITSELF as a background, and allow tinyurl? Because right now, i cannot  get more than one line by tynyurl-ing the image with the first line of text and inputing that as a background image, nor can i replace & and = with their encoded values (namely %26 and %3D) and passing that url as a background image for the second line of text. Also it means i cant write text on any images generated by the API such as my latest projects.

Last edited by joefarebrother (2012-04-09 11:53:46)

When is my random text coming? 

My sig stopped working?

I copied the urls, and verified that the images are still there, but the api does not return them.  It is strange, because it worked the day I submitted it...

Last edited by LiquidMetal (2012-04-09 14:42:47)

I think i figured it out! Because the scratch team are blocking the api, maybe it's blocked in sigs, too!

Fixed it 

now your a mod, you could talk to lightning about allowing images from blocks.scratchr.org

Cos I wrote that by hand.

I video-chatted with Lightnin just now and he's making sure to whitelist the images!