Member Avatar for AK777

Is there a way to insert a thumbnail that displays a live screenshot of another website? This would be for an ecommerce site.

I am not looking to simply create a screenshot where one takes and saves an image (e.g., jpg, png, gif, etc.) I want the thumbnail to always display the current image of another site (not a video).

The effect I am looking for is to create a miniaturized live image of another website. I do not need to be able to have users click on that image to be redirected to that site (the links for that will be placed elsewhere).

When the user visits my site, I want them to see live (current linked) thumbnail size images of other websites (promoting their products) that do not constantly need to be updated.

Thanks.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by mmcdonald
Member Avatar for Dani

Do you mean something like what we use at Thumbshots.org??

The links are not live though. They are snapshots that get updated on an infrequent / semi-frequent basis.

Member Avatar for AK777

What I want is for a user visiting my site to see the thumbnail but not as a saved image.

If a user was on my website and the company within the thumbnail was to update their page, when the user refreshed the page on my website they would see that update.

I want to insert a "live" thumbnail that is always linked live to the company that I am promoting in such a way that I do not have to constantly update the image when the company is marketing new products.

I want the thumbnail to link live so that it "automatically" updates itself. Is this possible?

Thanks.

Member Avatar for mmcdonald

You can use HTML2Canvas to grab a screenshot of a remote URL and save the captured image locally, their libraries are dead easy to use/understand too, in fact, in 4-6 lines of code you could collect, name and store a screenshot of a URL.

If you want users to see 'live' updates you could have a cronjob constantly running with a loop, constantly getting new screenshots every cycle. Or you could use a class to collect a new screenshot and use it as an avatar every page load (NOT RECOMMENDED).

If you don't need to collect new screenshots that frequently that they seem live you could make your cronjob run every few hours or days.

Edited by mmcdonald
Member Avatar for AK777

Thanks. (:

Member Avatar for bradly.spicer

AK777 What is the reason for 100% live?

I really wouldn't recommnend it because of bandwidth issues.

Member Avatar for mmcdonald

AK777, if you have your answer please don't forget to mark the topic as solved :)

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