The recent decision by imgur to delete non-account-associated uploads
got me thinking about WWW resource persistence and self-hosting yet
again. People used imgur because it was convenient and free; uploading
an image and sending a link was a simple process.
Imgur also had an API which applications could integrate with, so for
example flameshot can just upload your screenshots directly to imgur if desired. Most of these applications just assume you're uploading to
imgur, but if some other server implemented the same HTTP API endpoints,
it would be a drop-in replacement--but I haven't heard of anything like
that!
Is anyone aware of open-source servers which implement an
Imgur-compatible API, or of efforts to define a "standard" set of
endpoints for image uploading and retrieval?
In comp.misc John <john@building-m.simplistic-anti-spam-measure.net> wrote:
The recent decision by imgur to delete non-account-associated uploads
got me thinking about WWW resource persistence and self-hosting yet
again. People used imgur because it was convenient and free; uploading
an image and sending a link was a simple process.
It wasn't convenient for me receiving those links. Links to Imgur
images don't work without Javascript, so not in my preferred
lightweight web browsers, and even in Firefox it takes ages to load,
and (with my configuration, at least) sometimes a few page reloads.
99% of the time I just ignore Imgur links, and for the other 1% it
usually turns out that it wasn't worth the effort.
Is anyone aware of open-source servers which implement an
Imgur-compatible API, or of efforts to define a "standard" set of
endpoints for image uploading and retrieval?
Why does it need to be a standard? HTTP makes this very easy to
build from scratch, it's a typical HTML form example task. If Imgur
makes it so complicated that it could be its own standard, that's
their problem. Rip all that out and put in something sensible
instead!
A quick search suggests that Imgur use OAuth 2 in the API for
restricting API access, so that's just for their own benefit.
Even better, set up an SFTP (FTPS, FTP) server and allow people to
use that for uploading photos without a clunky web interface. Bulk
uploads are _far_ easier using SFTP than via web interfaces, and
photos are often uploaded in large numbers. Heck that's probably
why those API applications get used instead of the Imgur website
in the first place. Use SFTP and you've got lots of wonderfully
easy to use FTP clients available already. Just write a script that post-processes them for displaying in HTML after they've been
uploaded. HTTP is the wrong route from the get-go, if you ask me.
not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) writes:
In comp.misc John <john@building-m.simplistic-anti-spam-measure.net> wrote: >>> The recent decision by imgur to delete non-account-associated uploadsThe people sending you the links were screwing up, then. What you do is upload the image, then right-click the image on the resulting page and
got me thinking about WWW resource persistence and self-hosting yet
again. People used imgur because it was convenient and free; uploading
an image and sending a link was a simple process.
It wasn't convenient for me receiving those links. Links to Imgur
images don't work without Javascript, so not in my preferred
lightweight web browsers, and even in Firefox it takes ages to load,
and (with my configuration, at least) sometimes a few page reloads.
99% of the time I just ignore Imgur links, and for the other 1% it
usually turns out that it wasn't worth the effort.
copy the image link. No JS, it's just a JPG.
Is anyone aware of open-source servers which implement an
Imgur-compatible API, or of efforts to define a "standard" set of
endpoints for image uploading and retrieval?
Why does it need to be a standard? HTTP makes this very easy to
build from scratch, it's a typical HTML form example task. If Imgur
makes it so complicated that it could be its own standard, that's
their problem. Rip all that out and put in something sensible
instead!
If a variety of different self-hosted options accept POST requests to /imageapi/upload, then it's easy to use them interchangeably. That's the advantage of a standard API.
Even better, set up an SFTP (FTPS, FTP) server and allow people to
use that for uploading photos without a clunky web interface. Bulk
uploads are _far_ easier using SFTP than via web interfaces, and
photos are often uploaded in large numbers. Heck that's probably
why those API applications get used instead of the Imgur website
in the first place. Use SFTP and you've got lots of wonderfully
easy to use FTP clients available already. Just write a script that
post-processes them for displaying in HTML after they've been
uploaded. HTTP is the wrong route from the get-go, if you ask me.
The reason you use HTTP is because basically every device can access
it. Damn near every firewall lets port 443 out. I love non-HTTP
protocols on a philosophical level, but I don't suggest "oh well
obviously the best way to let my mom share a picture is to have her
mount a 9P filesystem via FUSE..."
If there's a common/standard way to throw images at a backend service,
that means you can interface with it via curl, via a little HTML+JS application you hack up, or from basically any program written in any application which supports HTTP.
John <john@building-m.simplistic-anti-spam-measure.net> wrote:
not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) writes:
John <john@building-m.simplistic-anti-spam-measure.net> wrote:
The recent decision by imgur to delete non-account-associated uploads
got me thinking about WWW resource persistence and self-hosting yet
again. People used imgur because it was convenient and free; uploading
an image and sending a link was a simple process.
If a variety of different self-hosted options accept POST requests
to /imageapi/upload, then it's easy to use them interchangeably.
That's the advantage of a standard API.
If there's a common/standard way to throw images at a backend service,
that means you can interface with it via curl, via a little HTML+JS application you hack up, or from basically any program written in any application which supports HTTP.
Is anyone aware of open-source servers which implement an
Imgur-compatible API, or of efforts to define a "standard" set of
endpoints for image uploading and retrieval? Seems like it ought to be
an RFC or something but maybe that's a little out of their scope.
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