Photo of the Day: AutoTimg Browser Extension

G'day crew,

As many of you know, MacRumors recently underwent some site-wide changes that modified the behaviour of quoting images.

Background:

Originally, images would appear in full size when quoted.
People in the photography forum were (as a majority) very well behaved in this regard, changing the IMG tags to TIMG tags. Unfortunately it seems this wasn't the case in other sub-forums.

With the recent changes, images now become a link - TIMGing has become a more involved task.
I'm sure you've noticed a significant drop in the number of TIMG'd quotes in POTD, and (IMO) this detracts from interactive nature of Photo of the Day and the Challenge, I know other members share this feeling.

Solution:

To encourage the use of TIMGing, I've completed a browser extension called AutoTimg that converts your whole post to use TIMGs with the click of a single button.
(It's actually now a lot easier and faster than the original IMG->TIMG editing many of you were use to).

Download:

Currently AutoTimg available for Safari and Chrome, but a Firefox version is in the pipeline.

Safari Version 1.0 - Manual version - click to TIMG (For those who like the added control)
Safari Version 1.1 (Button removed, now TIMGs automatically)
Chrome Version - Thanks to mackmgg for the conversion!
Firefox Version 1.02 - Manual button only

If you're interested, the source code can be found here:
http://code.google.com/p/autotimg/downloads/list

03/08/2014 UPDATE: FIX IMAGE WIDTHS

I have an experimental version for Safari only which restores the image width in the forums to 1024px.
As always no garuntees this actually works 100% of the time, but feel free to give it a try, you can always uninstall it if it's no good.

I have also attempted to fix the Flickr quoting issues present in previous versions of AutoTIMG.

Get it here:
Safari Version 2.0 (Experimental)

Installation:

Safari:
Installation is simple - download the plugin and double click it.
Safari will ask you if you want to install it, approve and the extension will be installed.

Firefox:

1. Download AutoTIMG for Firefox from the above link.
2. Drag the downloaded AutoTIMG.xpi file into a Firefox window. Wait a second or two, Firefox will ask you if you want to install it. Accept and restart Firefox.
3. Important: Right click the toolbar > Customise Toolbar > Drag AutoTIMG to your toolbar.

Usage:

When on the page where you enter your reply, simply press the "IMG" button up the top near your URL field and the links will be converted to TIMGs!
It also works when quoting multiple images.

Thanks to Phrasikleia, Dale and Ish for some intitial testing

Please reply if you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know what you think.

Cheers,
Reef

Thanks for the comments all.

Designer Dale said:

This is an extremely slick bit of hacking. This is the easiest answer to the MR photo post dilemma that I have come across. The only foreseeable issues are the inevitable changes in browsers. It may need to be updated on a regular basis.

Now how about an AutoPost extension? Think it. Click it. Post it...

Nice work.

Dale

Click to expand...

I'm hoping major browser updates won't have too greater an effect here, but it's always something to keep an eye on.

mackmgg said:

I just converted this to a chrome extension. It's slightly different that the Safari one because of the way Chrome handles extensions. With the Chrome one, the URLs are automatically turned into thumbnails, there's no button you have to press.

Ok, now it's up: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ilngllficbicjlhkjmipmnknckdmmnlh

If anyone here thinks I should use a different icon, please suggest it. I'm not a designer

Edit: Now it's up here.

Click to expand...

Excellent! Thank you for the conversion Works great!
I'll update the first post in this thread.
I'll have a play and see if I can do away with the button in the Safari extension.

EDIT:
Just converted the Safari extension to button-less (so now it's automatic), will upload soon.

Update: AutoTIMG 1.1 For Safari

Version 1.1 for Safari is now available.

Changes:

• Removed button - now automatically TIMGs when on the reply page.

Installation:

Like before, download and double click the file.
It will overwrite the old version and the button will be removed.

Designer Dale said:

My only question at this point it that the manual version - TheReef's - original should remain available to users along with the automatic version. It has more flexibility in case you don't want to include an image thumbnail.

Click to expand...

The old manual (click to TIMG) version of the Safari extension is still available. I shan't remove it for those users who like the added control.

fcortese said:

Reef and Dale, thanks for all of the effort and making the rest of our lives on DP so much easier. Great worK!

Click to expand...

Thanks!

Designer Dale said:

Hi. This is a draft of the addition to the "Welcome to POTD" post. I would like to add it to my manual TIMG PDF, but the Chrome link won't remain clickable in a PDF. Security settings, I think.

Questions or additions??

To automatically restore thumbnails to quotes, it is recommended that you download one of these extensions:

AutoTIMG Safari Edition (clickable menu button)

AutoTIMG Safari Edition (automatic)

AutoTIMG Chrome Edition (revised)


Post any comments HERE.



Dale

Click to expand...

Yep, looking good, thanks Dale

AutoTIMG for Firefox released!

For all those waiting for the Firefox version, it is now available.
It uses a toolbar button that when clicked will convert the tags in your post to [img] tags.

[B]Installation:[/B]

[LIST=1]
[*]Download AutoTIMG for Firefox from the above link.
[*]Drag the downloaded AutoTIMG.xpi file into a Firefox window. Wait a second or two, Firefox will ask you if you want to install it. Accept and restart Firefox.
[*][B]Important: [/B]Right click the toolbar > Customise Toolbar > Drag AutoTIMG to your toolbar.
[/LIST]

And you're all ready to go!