Help on protecting my images.

[Johnny Doomo]

So if I turn off Photopost from creating medium sized images, and store the full size images in another directory than the thumbnails, then couldn't I block the directory where the full sizes are with a htaccess file and have another htaccess file where the thumbnails are and block all hotlinking?

I don't know too much about htaccess, but I do understand if they are in different directories from each other, it should be possible as long as they don't contain the same path to their directories.

Would something like this work and if so, could you step me through the process of how I set it up so that the full sized images are stored in a seperate place away from the thumbnails?

I would really appreciate it.

[Chuck S]

yes you could turn medium off.

You would not even need to htaccess the large images if you placed them below the web root

However yes you would easily do that.

Yeah sorry never been a big mod rewrite guy here so I am the wrong one to help anyone with that. Only know the basics there.

[Johnny Doomo]

Opps, in the above I ment:

"Then couldn't I block the directory where the full sizes are with a htaccess file and have another htaccess file where the thumbnails are and ALLOW all hotlinking?"

Will that still work? Is there anyway to get it so that I can keep the medium sized images? If you aren't sure about all this htaccess (as I am new to it also) can we get some more PP tech support peeps to look into this? It's a big project that I'm working on and I really don't want to remove the medium sized images if at all possible. If it's possible I'd really like to allow thumbnails to be hotlinkable, but hotlink protect medium and full sized images in Photopost.

Even if it takes rewriting the code a little bit for me for a price or not I am willing to consider this. Should I contact MP or can you hand it off to other PP techs that may no a solution without removing the medium sizes?

BTW Thanks for your help this far Chuck.

[Chuck S]

You do not need to use htaccess on large images if the photo path is below the webroot which is what I was stating

as far as protecting medium images and still allowing thumbs you would need to place an htaccess in every medium directory and leave the main data directory open

[Johnny Doomo]

When you say "every medium directory" are you reffering to user directories as well? How would I make it put a htaccess file into new registered users directories to block their bigger images and not their thumbnails?

Also, I don't understand what you mean by "below the webroot"?

[Chuck S]

No I am talking your data directories Johnny

You can with IPS make a path for large images and move them to below the webroot if you have access to things below the webroot

Otherwise I know of no other way to allow thumbnails and not medium and large

[Johnny Doomo]

Sorry, I still don't understand. What do you MEAN by "below the webroot"?

OK so no matter what user you are, thumbs go into "data/500/thumbs/" BUT when users start creating albums they start going into "/data/506/thumbs/", "/data/507/thumbs/", "/data/508/thumbs/" etc.

The same thing happens for medium sized images, but they are in a directory called medium instead of thumbs. So I don't understand how you say that you can help me protect thumbs in newly created user albums that are being created on the fly, but not the medium images? Or did you forget that user albums create new directories with their own medium/thumbs sub directories apart from the "500" directory?

On my PP install I am allowing users to register and create user albums, all in the members category or gallery. Then my 2nd category allows unregistered users to upload images as well, but cannot create albums. These are the only categories I have, however, the registered users will constantly be creating new albums. ALL of these images need protection against hotlinking of the full and medium sized images, while allowing the thumbs to allow hotlinking. But I need it to also protect the images in the user albums that will constantly be created.

Is this still possible for what you were thinking before? Maybe you can help me understand how if it can be done for the thumbs directory in user albums, why it can't also be done for medium sized images.

Thank you.

[Chuck S]

Okay I dont know how to make you understand honestly. Let me explain it again.

An htaccess file works by locking a directory contents from other sites. Normally this is placed centrally in the photopost data directory to prevent any images from being hotlinked.

Now with IPS you can store your large images in some other directory you create. Okay You can then htaccess lock this directory

Now your issue is you also want to stop medium images and not thumbnails which means you CAN NOT place an htaccess file in the data directory itself. Instead you would need to place an htaccess file in each and every medium directory to block those and thumbs would still be allowed to be hotlinked

I hope you understand this now.

[Johnny Doomo]

OK, I understand that. My question is, what can you guys mod to make it work the way I have mentioned and how much would we be talking about?

I remember a while back I got an email from Photopost saying that they also do custom mods for a price, but ever since then whenever I try to get more info out of you guys for doing these so claimed custom mods I don't get any final answers to a price, or even that you can or are willing to do them.

Do you guys not offer this service any more?

I now understand what the native Photopost is capable of. So now that we have that covered, can we talk about the realm of modding up a PP install so that it can both block full and mid graphics while keeping the thumbnails hotlinkable? Keep in mind my PP install is already changed so I would need the price tag for you to modify my specific install, not a fresh install.

Let me know if you/the company can do this for me or if I'm SOL with my idea that I wanted to use PP for.

Thanks Chuck.

[Chuck S]

Hello I would suggest you already simply move your large image directory which is already a feature of the product by using the storage options thing and protect that new directory with an htaccess file.

You can then simply FTP to your data folder of Photopost and in every data/xxx/medium directory place the htaccess file to protect those images. Your thumbs would be open an this whole process would take you probally 15-20 minutes.

If I was to code this up let alone have to work with your hacked files and not a default code to start with I can say the pricetag would not be something that would make this worthfile.

[Johnny Doomo]

The PROBLEM is that new folders are created for each user album. So FTPing into all my medium folders wouldn't work. Users will constantly be creating user albums and unfortunantly turning off user albums is not really an option.

So the main question I have right now is, if I use the built in Image Protection that comes with PP that moves the directory where the fullsized images are stored. Does that work with user albums as well? I ask because it seems that you keep forgeting that new directories are created for every user album. So if it doesn't seperate the fullsized and the thumbnail inside of the user album directories on the server, it makes it a little buggy considering that it doesn't protect user albums at all.

It's looking more and more like if I want all the features PP includes that I will end up having to block every single last image in the data directory.

Please let me know about the image protection question as I might be able to live without medium sized images, but only if the protection will work in user albums as well. Not allowing user albums is not an option that's one thing for sure I know right now.

Thanks for all your help Chuck, I feel I'm closing down on a solution.

[Johnny Doomo]

Did you have any ideas on how I can combat this problem? I didn't want to make it so the only way users could link to their images was by text link, but I starting to think it might be for the best for the time being.

Let me know if you do or don't have any more suggestions so I know if I should wait or proceed.

Thank you.

[Chuck S]

First off IPS is not buggy

IPS move the data directory for large images for all the other images. Example my large images are stored at /var/www/photos. My website webroot is /var/www/html my photopost is /var/www/html/gallery

Does that make sense.

[Johnny Doomo]

So large images even if inside a user album are protected?

But I would still have to give up medium sized images and I'm not sure if that's worth it. I'm sorta still debating this in my head. medium size images vs. thumbnails... BUT if the IPS DOES infact protect the large images even in newly created user album directories then I may still try this.

So IPS protects large images in constantly created user albums?

[Chuck S]

A user album is a category under the data directory and ALL LARGE IMAGES ARE MOVED in IPS

[Johnny Doomo]

Would it be possible to make it so that it doesn't make a medium size image, but instead puts the large image in smaller proportions in it's place? So you click the thumbnail and it takes you to the page where the medium sized image normally is, but it shows the fullsized image, but with the smaller dimensions and then if that is clicked it enlarges to the full image size?

Is that at all possible? Debating back and forth between loosing protected thumbnails vs. loosing medium sized images, this is the only solution I can think of that I will even be partly happy with. Please tell me you could help me put this feature together?

EDIT: Also, in your opinion how well does watermark.php protect image locations? Specifically medium sized images? Watermark.php only has the purpose of attempting to hide the image location right? It doesn't have any type of hotlink protection does it?

[Chuck S]

watermark hides the image correct and it does not prevent hotlinking except that normally you can not use a script link in other sites

I dont rightly get what your asking about mediums. what your describing is a medium image so its either thumb medium large or thumbnail large those are the options that I see to use. It would be up to you what you like to do

[Johnny Doomo]

Is what I mean is that if I take out the creation of medium images and put in it's place or the pages that would contain the medium sized images with the fullsized image, but that the html code makes it appear in a dimension that will make the entire picture viewable on the screen without scrolling. So it's the full image but shrunk (by html width and height code) to appear as the medium.

The problem is, I don't want the images unproportional, so I can't just go into the code and change the medium image size code with the fullsize image code and hard code the width and height. Could you help me with something like that? And if you can, then I also need help on how the heck I turn off the creation of medium sized images?

I don't like the idea of somebody posting a 1600x1200 wallpaper and then posting the thumbnail on another site and people clicking that thumbnail, coming to my site and seeing the full 1600x1200 image where they have to scroll just to see it.

[Chuck S]

The settings are as posted you either have mediums or you do not.

You can set image max height and max width in upload options as well as medium

You know you can show large images in a popup window

[Johnny Doomo]

grr

A MOD! I am talking about modding the code so that instead of the medium sized image it shows the full image but it appears smaller because of the html code width=blah and height=blah. Then you click on that and it shows you the full sized (native pixel resolution) image.

Can you could something like this? This way the fullsized image is there, the medium size image is gone, BUT when the first click the thumbnail it displays an image that fits on their screen, instead of only showing the top left corner of a image that is 2048x 2048 or whatever huge size.

Can you could something like that for me and what type of pricetag would we be looking at?