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Adding external images into the forum (broken attachement era)

MadKoiFishMadKoiFish9714 Posts: 5,302Member
edited October 2016 in Tutorials #1
Well as many know there is no longer functions to attach image here at SFM. Because this forum uses a odd GUI to do this I figured I would create a post showing people how to do this.

FIRST: I do not recommend you use anything like photobucket or imageshack as they push you to link to a html/php page full of crap spam and other bull$hit.
Go with a host like wordpress or imgur who you can direct link a image url. imgur will try to fool you with lazy precoded links just use the image url itself and follow the tut!
There are other odd ball sites like tinypic etc out there too.

Why do I suggest Wordpress or imgur? because both support PHP so you can add code to the end like ?w=300h=200 to control width and height of your displayed image. It wont RESIZE it in pixels so it wont help in bandwidth but it will avoid breaking some forums and is good to know. It also allows you to control the way your post displays. Such as a tutorial. ((OK apparently imgur has removed this feature))

Additional benefit to wordpress is you get a free blog! and each blog allows 4gigs of uploads! I do not know if there is a blog count limit.

In this tut code will appear with {} brackets vs [ ] as the forum does not use the code tag properly.

________________________________________________________________
Generic I gots a url only! or using wordpress urls
Ok you have a url already and just want to plug it into the forum.
Click insert image icon
4LYQb4u.png
this loads up,
H86rpJl.png
MAKE SURE to unclick "Retrieve remote file and reference locally" as this wont work. It would normally store it on SFM as an attachment but as attachments are broke ATM well, it wont work.
It should create a code that looks like this:
To add a link on the image highlight the entire img code and click the link icon.
eTsB2XA.png
and paste the image url into the UI that loads up.
CMjR9Yh.png
so it should look like this:
And now you have a inlined hotlinked image and a link that should open to the image only. NOw you could create a thumbnail embed that image into the img tags and then link to the larger image. It adds work but has the advantage of cutting down on how much a person has to load in bandwidth. Just think about 40posts with 5 or 6 1mb images per post loading on a modem.
Example:
thumbnail.png
PHP width and height. NOW this would only work in wordpress or other hosts who have the php support for it.
You add this code after the image url only.
?w=XXX X=width in pixels.
Example:
clownpiece-01b.jpg?w=300

clownpiece-01b.jpg?w=200


clownpiece-01b.jpg?w=100


If it works hooray it means the host supports it if not then the host does not and creating a small thumbnail as a separate image is your only recourse. SFM however does support anti page widening and will scale images too large to display. Well it will display them smaller but it will not resize physically.
________________________________________________________________
Using imgur:

Upload your image.
2SF18EJ.png
you will get a window like this copy the BBCode, this links directly to the image. Anything that has a hash like code (see image link list in image) only with no filetype will link to a garbage page that will annoy your viewer and waste their BW.
code:
now this will insert your image and that is it.
You can paste the code as is and then highlight it all and click the icon
eTsB2XA.png
and paste the image url into the UI that loads up.
CMjR9Yh.png
DO NOT use the line of code called Linked BBCode from imgur. It links to the spam page. The method I mention above will AVOID all of that and direct link to the image.
Imgur has an advantage though if you have a group if images and put them into a gallery. Sadly you will have to live with a link to a gallery as SFM does not support html but any forum that does will allow these galleries to display inline!
Advantage if you have a large group of images it is easier to share as they allow the viewer to download the images as a set via a zip file.

I have not used imgur in ages and longer still as a nonmember or anon so I am not sure what services are available to anons or for that matter members.________________________________________________________________
hope this works will edit as time passes if I missed something. If you need clarification of the code used cause all the {{}} confused you, click "reply with quote" and have a look at the code I used directly.

If you have suggestions for other FREE image hosts who do not force you to link to a spam page like photobucket or imageshack feel free to suggest them below. Please list any limits or things you have to do to use the services like signing up or getting invites etc.

Also keep in mind for googledrive users you have to verify EVERY TIME that a image is set to PUBLIC view. And keep in mind often it wont take right away or often sets privileges to whatever it wants. What sucks is YOU will see the image but no one else can.
Post edited by MadKoiFish on
Each day we draw closer to the end.

Posts

  • MadKoiFishMadKoiFish9714 Posts: 5,302Member
    Host
    http://tinypic.com
    Issues:
    requires advert based captcha to upload.
    Does not support php scaling.

    OFFERS
    Direct link.
    resizing of images, makes for lazy thumbnailing as you just upload it at default and then reupload as a smaller sample and follow above tut to embed it.
    includes direct link and BBCode.

    http://i68.tinypic.com/2ufvede.jpg
    TEST
    2ufvede.jpg
    Do not know how stable it is
    do not know what membership entitles (spam free uploading?)




    OH I forgot DA if you have a deviantart account you can direct link your images too. I forget if it supports the php display code or not. Just do not link to the html as non members cannot see all features and are limited on display size if I remember correctly.
    Each day we draw closer to the end.
  • SamuraiSamurai185 Posts: 408Member
    MKF, thanks for putting the time into publishing this.

    Gang, this is on the Admin team's radar- we're exploring options for resolving the inability to post images and realise it's a pretty base requirement for an art forum. Bear with us, and stick with MKS's tutorial for linking images in the meantime. :)
    "Perfect. Then that's the way it shall be."
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