News:

Bored?  Looking to kill some time?  Want to chat with other SMF users?  Join us in IRC chat or Discord

Main Menu

External Attachment Directory

Started by aw06, February 11, 2011, 07:51:33 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

aw06

I think this should be a standard feature in SMF now ..

With so many Free/Cheap online Storage sites, can it be added into SMF so we can use an external data storage server to host attachments ??? I have many gigs of free storage and would love to send all smf attachments there.

Good or bad idea for standard feature ?
:: ShopinJA.com Powered by SMF 1.1.19 | Ig-Oh Theme by Koni | 70 Rock Solid Error Free Mods | Many Custom Edits & Tweaks ::
- Host Unlimited Websites - Free Website Builder & Templates - Unlimited Disk Space & Bandwidth

Illori

bad idea for a core feature, not everyone has a free storage account they can use and it would take a long time for the developers to code this, for it to just break the next time that free storage host changes their website. maybe this could be a mod but it would face the issue when the hosting site is changed.

Arantor

Firstly, do you plan to make attachments unrestricted by quota and available to all users regardless of anything else? Unless you do that, you still have to serve the attachment *through* SMF. In which case you will have to consume far more bandwidth - you will have to use 1x the bandwidth to send it to the remote server, then the bandwidth used to request it from the server, to pass through your forum and on to the user. Oh, and it'll be slower too.

If it's all open to guests in the first place, just upload it to the free host and link to it in the post.


There are already mod solutions for storing to things like ImageShack and Photobucket but even they need updating periodically, far more often than core features need to be changed, and in any case the dev team are reluctant to code core features with implicit dependencies on external services that might change regularly (heck, even OpenID changes)

aw06

Quote from: Illori on February 11, 2011, 07:53:24 AM
bad idea for a core feature, not everyone has a free storage account they can use and it would take a long time for the developers to code this, for it to just break the next time that free storage host changes their website. maybe this could be a mod but it would face the issue when the hosting site is changed.

I agree on those points .. But it would be good to have the option available

Quote from: Arantor on February 11, 2011, 08:01:43 AM
There are already mod solutions for storing to things like ImageShack and Photobucket but even they need updating periodically, far more often than core features need to be changed, and in any case the dev team are reluctant to code core features with implicit dependencies on external services that might change regularly (heck, even OpenID changes)

ok cool .. i just wanted to send some things over to my dropbox lol
:: ShopinJA.com Powered by SMF 1.1.19 | Ig-Oh Theme by Koni | 70 Rock Solid Error Free Mods | Many Custom Edits & Tweaks ::
- Host Unlimited Websites - Free Website Builder & Templates - Unlimited Disk Space & Bandwidth

Arantor

QuoteBut it would be good to have the option available

There are far better things for the devs to spend their time on, than something like this that actually has no good points for the vast majority of users, since I don't know many site owners who would want their attachments to be visible and accessible to all.

Stumpy

I could sure use the ability to store attachments on remote servers, be they free ImageShack type things or my own servers.

Maybe I run several, physically separate, sites and I want for them to share attachments.

Oh wait - that's not a "maybe."

Mick.

Keep in mind that once you fulfill whatever you're allowed at remote sites, you'll have to pay a membership for a bigger space.

I use photobucket and havE over a thousand images. I filled the space allotted and now I pay a membership.

Arantor

Quote from: Stumpy on March 08, 2011, 07:43:59 AM
I could sure use the ability to store attachments on remote servers, be they free ImageShack type things or my own servers.

Maybe I run several, physically separate, sites and I want for them to share attachments.

Oh wait - that's not a "maybe."

Interesting thought: SMF's site here is physically served from two different webservers, that have a shared drive between them. In fact the bigger problem isn't even the shared drive but the fact you'd have to share the attachment tables between forum installations too.

NFS is how it's done here, I believe, and it's the approach to use to sharing between multiple physical sites from a single common source, but doing it anything other than at system level like that will make it slower and chew through bandwidth because you have to download it from the other source before serving it to users - unless you want to make it so that even guests can get to your attachments...

R-one

Quote from: Once Upon A Star on March 08, 2011, 08:56:37 AM

NFS is how it's done here, I believe, and it's the approach to use to sharing between multiple physical sites from a single common source, but doing it anything other than at system level like that will make it slower and chew through bandwidth because you have to download it from the other source before serving it to users - unless you want to make it so that even guests can get to your attachments...

let's assume that I did want to allow guests and the entire public access to my attachments... 
what would be the easiest way to relocate and then serve thousands of existing image attachments from an external source?

my particular installation is used entirely for image sharing via the attachment feature. not [img] tagging in external links.
would there be a transparent way to syphon my attachments from a cheaper external host? and how would that work in the database/uploading stages?

Advertisement: