RelaX

As some of you may be aware of, the TFP TB post generator is gone for reasons unknown (to me at least).
Instead most posts are now manually crafted or generated with Kreskin's Post Generator (found here).
Which is a kewl thing, but limited in functionality.

So I was thinking... how hard would it be to kill 2 birds with one stone and copy some functionality from the EZpics and the TFP TB generator, add some more functionality and make it into a super-duper PHP script?

So I made some notes and I now submit these for review, maybe if I find some time I may make it and have my own server run the script. Fortunately, the counter shows 'only' 545 people have used Kreskins generator, so I believe my server could handle the load, although I have limited bandwith so people may have to wait for the result a bit.
I AM however concerned with the potential legal consequences, could I be sued over it?
I'm too young to go to jail .

Doesn't sound too difficult to make though... and pretty kewl. Upside would also be that, with logging, I could have access to all the ezcodes and everybody that does the zip2go action would be downloading pics for me.

Anyway, here are my notes:
EZcode format:
$url/$num1.$ext?$num2.$ext?$rename
example: http://www.tekno.com/01.jpg?99.jpg?tekno

EZCode generator:
$url (www.tekno.com/test{1}/test{2}.jpg)
the url of the pic
$nums ({1} 00/99-06/60+140/160, {2} 2220/310, {3} a/Z)
the nums, 00 till 99 minus 06 till 60 with 140 till 160 for {1} and counting back from 2220 till 310 for {2} and from a till Z (abc...xyzABCD...XYZ) for {3}
$rename (teknopics)
rename the pics to teknopics.extension

GUI:
([] = input field
{} = action button
() = auto-generated text
ASCII box = textbox input field)

Generator
[url]
{getnumfields/changeURL}

[num1-0] [num1-1]
[num2-0] [num2-1]

[rename]

{generate}

Grabber

---------
|ezcodes|
---------

{generateAndOrShow} {zip2Go} {generateAndMakeBBCode} {test}

(log)

Features:
- Multiple EZcodes
Using the textbox, you can enter multiple EZCodes (seperated by : | : )
and the script will execute them all, also, if you generate your own EZCode
it will simply be added to the bottom of the EZCodes that are already in place

- Generate & Show
Generates the ezcode and html equivalent
and shows them in a new window with the ezcode up top.

- Zip2Go
Generates HTML code, wgets all the pics, zips the result and sends it back

- Generate and make BBcode
Makes it into:
- Test
Test ezCode by wgetting pics
- Log
Logs all generated queries and shows the 5 last generated

Trouble areas:
- Security, input has to be scrutinized, what if someone desides to do .sh (linux system, comparable to .exe for windows)?
- No more than 10 nums, to prevent the server load from getting to high
- Legality?
- Can the server handle the load of several people executing the Zip2Go action with multiple EZcodes? Should the number of users be restricted?

__________________
The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.
- Nathaniel Borenstein

kreskin

I’m not too familiar with Zip2Go and I can’t find much on Google about it. If I understand this right, you plug in the in URL and the ranges and it downloads and zips the files for you to save on your own system. That sounds good, but that means your server will be doing all the downloading for everyone.

I don’t think that is such a good idea. I think it would be nice to include the auto EZCode at the bottom of the post for those who actually use EZPics, then one click and they can download the pictures themselves.

The idea here is to make a tool that works with the TFP and keeps people coming here, the poster can use the EZCode once created as well as anyone who views the post, I think that is the best way to do it. It also minimizes the work your own server has to do.

I just threw a simple post generator up because I’m too lazy to type all that out, I found I wasn’t posting anymore at all. Since I use a free host, I don’t have any PHP or other scripting languages to generate a webpage, so I can’t test the hot linking of the pictures, that still has to be done in a preview post.

If you could make a page that would include a test picture and tacked the EZCode onto the end of the pictures, I think that should meet everyone’s needs just fine.

__________________
I believe in the inner beauty of a woman: When you’re in’er – beauty.

RelaX

I can understand that you didn't find much about Zip2Go on Google as I thought it up . It's just something that I would want, to replace EZPics. Although, thinking about it, it may cause a PHP timeout, so if I wanted to make something like that I would probably need to cron the procedure (make it hourly or something like that) and have people come back later for the zip file.

Yes, well, I doubt the posters would refrain from posting if they had the Zip2Go option available to them, they could even make a link at the bottom of the post to the zip file on my server for people who would want to download the set. I don't know about the people browsing the TB, wether they would all go to my phpEZPics script instead of the TB... usually you only save the pics if you have seen them and really like em.
It might be a problem if too many people downloaded the zips from my server though.
Maybe, when (and if) I decide to create it I'll make the zip2go thingee and turn it on for a while and just see how it goes... if it ends up being too much for my bandwidth then I'll just turn it off for everyone except me .

Yeah... testing would be nice. Too bad you're not posting any more though... I posted some pics a few times, but I'm not really big on it either, however, bless the people that do post and I would like to help them as much as possible.

__________________
The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.
- Nathaniel Borenstein