Show Thread Enhancements - AME 2.0 -Auto Media Embedding for posts, blogs, visitor and group messsages

From the creators of French and Toast comes a sweet and sticky enchanement to the New York Times best-seller: AME - Auto Media Embedding

AME 2.0 - The Embedder Strikes Back!

AME has won Mod of the Month for Spetember 08. Thanks!

Note that 2.5 Gold has been released. Click Here.

Discussions for AME 2.5 RC 1 start here

AME 2.0 is the next version of the "Mod of the Month" winning media embedder that:

• Allows user to simply 'paste' in a URL (i.e. a youtube link) without needing to know any special tags. However instead of displaying just the URL, it will show the media within the post
• is lightweight as it does all of her chores without the overhead of having 1 bbcode per pattern or trying to parse a post every single time it gets displayed with a bunch of patterns. AME radically reduces overhead and speeds up processing. The only time ame will kick in is after creating a new post or after editing an existing one (or if an ame tag is found)
• is extensible. She allows you to add, edit, delete, import and export patterns. That way you can decide which services to support, how they should look and then share them with others! At time of typing this, there are over 150 media sites that have been contributed by vBulletin.org members
• can extract the title (requires your server to allow url wrappers with fetch_contents)
• can extract embed code from sites whose URLs do not contain sufficient information to embed the video
• can rebuild your old posts to convert your 'other' mediaish tags into URL tags.
• can rebuild your old posts, blogs, comments, visitor and social group messages to convert URL tags into ame tags where needed
• can convert her codes BACK to url codes so you're not stuffed with a bunch of dead tags if you uninstall!
• won't uglify your site by having videos appear in quotes, php, code or html blocks (blech!)
• can be globally disabled
• can be excluded from forums
• can exclude usergroups
• can be toggled on/off per post, blog, comment, visitor and social group message
• would cook dinner for you if she had arms
• can wrap the output in a 'container' with original URL
• has a super comprehensive admincp help system. Yes, I actually took the bloody time to add all the info you need into vB's admincp help system. If you ask a silly question in this thread that is addressed in the help system, you will be taunted.
• is fully phrased
• has hooks around integral operations so you can extend it
• Supports embedding in vbBlog, Visitor Messages and Social Groups.
• Can be disabled in one or more of the following sections: Posts, vbBlog, Visitor Messages and/or Social Groups

Apart from the additional areas of support around vbBlog, Visitor Messages and Social Groups, little has changed about AME since version 1.0 released over a year ago. I cleaned up a few minor bugs, trimmed and updated the default definitions.

Which sites are supported?

At time of counting this, there are about 170 sites supported. But I have only included a few common standards as default (yahoo, youtube, myspace, google and Amazon). Why only these? AME was designed with its own import and export system that enables users to create or modify definitions and share them with the community. This keeps the system lightweight, customisable and saves us all from having to upgrade every time a media site changes their URL structure or if I add another site.

Check out the 'add ons' section of this post below to see availible add-ons.



Installation/Upgrade

• Upload the contents of the forums folder into your forums directory and import the product-ame.xml file into your product manager (if upgrading, choose 'yes' to overwrite previous installation).
• After installation, make sure that the system is on (admincp->AME CP->Settings)
• Then you may want to try to rebuild old URLs via the tools option.

Big thanks goes out to all those in the community that have supported this mod. Especially Digital Jedi Who has created about 155 definitions for this system alone!

Change Log


2.0.2 - fixed added slashes in quote blocks (DoH!), vm advanced error and incrimented product version. You need to replace include/ame_bb_code.php and re-import the product-ame.xml to upgrade
2.0.1 - fixed missing backslashes in code blocks

2.5 Pre-Release information

Attached to this post is pre-release of version 2.5

2.5 is a pretty major upgrade from the 2.0 series and adds the following functionality to 2.0:

• New in Beta 3 - Validation ability. This will help prevent media being embedded that can not be embedded (i.e. youtube videos that the author has stipulated can not be shown off of youtube). This option requires the extraction option to be turned on and a valid validation regexp. I have included one in the default youtube version. When a video on you tube gets embedded, but the author doesnt allow embedding, a link (with icon) is shown instead.
• Ability to prevent non authorised usergroups from viewing (see Readme file in zip for more info)
• Usergroup permissions (edit usergroup to adjust edit/view permissions)
• Template driven system - uses templates now instead of 1 master replacement (see Readme file in zip for more info)
• Signatures supported
• Different sizes and template configurations for each supported zone (posts, blogs, groups, visitor messages and signatures)
• A couple new hooks (Mainly to support a future add on for AME media in profiles)
• Notfication system (similar to vB's to check for errors)
• Definition keys for easier updating of definitions and to use in templates
• File caching system which radically reduces processing
• And more that I cant think of off the top of my head!

Note that while previous definitions will work with the new system, they will not be sizeable by zone. Since DJ helped with the private beta testing, I am sure he will be releasing 2.5 versions of his definitions soon.

Please note that 2.5 is a pre-release so there will be issues. If you want more stability, use 2.x until this version becomes gold FWIW: The only items currently outstanding are to add some missing admincp help. The rest is working as intended as far as I can tell

nJoy

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by Cars2007

Ok, I upgraded to the 2.5 Beta. However, when I go to Admin CP > Usergroups > Usergroup Manager > Registered > AME Create and Modify Permissions and select "No" for all of the options in that area, Registered members can still post videos, even though they belong to no groups that have access to post videos.

Am I missing a setting?

Ok. This looks like a bug. To fix this until next release, do this:

in include/ame_bbcode.php find:

PHP Code:

        if ($vbulletin->userinfo['permissions']['automediaembed_edit_permissions'] & $vbulletin->bf_ugp['automediaembed_edit_permissions']["can_$zone"])
        {
            
            return true;
            
        } 


and change to:

PHP Code:

        if (!($vbulletin->userinfo['permissions']['automediaembed_edit_permissions'] & $vbulletin->bf_ugp['automediaembed_edit_permissions']["can_$zone"]))
        {
            
            return false;
            
        } 


[The Geek]

Originally Posted by akulion

man im going bonkers!! cos...

the mod was working A-ok, then suddenly youtube videos stopped working yet google videos were working fine....

Then the next day youtube videos start working by themselves and now googlevideos wont load!!

whats goin on?!!

aku

More than likely a provider error (i.e. youtube was down and then google)

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by kingmotox

i didnt see anything in the readme about usergroup permissions?

Limitations with usergroup viewing permissions
----------------------------------------------
The new system uses javascript to attempt to 'hide' the embedded media and 'show' a default URL. If the user doesnt have javascript enabled or places an embedded video in their post, it will appear to them until they refresh the page. Of course, if the person doesnt have permission to view, I doubt they would have permission to embed anyway!

[Magz]

Originally Posted by The Geek

Cant duplicate this?

Sorry, Can you explain a little more. Are you saying you cant Duplicate this, or can I?

Each time i try to convert tags, i get "You are missing the \1 parameter in at least one of your conversions". Yet i havent edited anything in either Codes, or conversions box.

I just want to get rid of old [media] tags

[The Geek]

I copied what you had exactly but it works for me? Make sure there are no trailing spaces maybe?

[Magz]

Ive just double checked, and can see no trailling spaces anywhere. I also even copied what what i pasted earlier, and still same. Any other ideas?

[The Geek]

AME 2.5 Beta 3 has now been uploaded into the first post.

This beta addresses some bugs found in the previous beta, completes more of the admincp help (though there are still a few more admincp help items to do) and adds a couple of new features:

nomedia tag

I have implemented the ability to wrap a URL in a [nomedia] tag. Matching URLs found within these tags will not embed, but rather link with an icon to indicate that it is an offsite media link.

Embedding validation

This will help prevent AME from embedding videos that can not be shown offsite. A good example is a music video on youtube where there is no embed code displayed because the author has stipulated that the video can only be shown on youtube. Curently, the video will embed, however when you play it, you get a message saying the video is invalid (or similar).

The new validation feature will check for the embed code on the destination page. If it isn't found, AME won't embed the video. Instead, AME will wrap the URL in a [nomedia] tag (see above) which shows a link and icon to indicate that you must go offsite to view it.

For this feature to work, the extract destination data setting must be on (and working). Furthermore, the definition must have a valid validation regexp. I have updated the default youtube definition to get you started

Please be aware that 2.5 is still beta so treat it as such!

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by Magz

Sorry, Can you explain a little more. Are you saying you cant Duplicate this, or can I?

Each time i try to convert tags, i get "You are missing the \1 parameter in at least one of your conversions". Yet i havent edited anything in either Codes, or conversions box.

I just want to get rid of old [media] tags

Sorry, I don't. I copied and pasted your entries from above and it seems to work fine (though in fairness I was trying it in the latest beta - though that shouldnt make a difference). Feel free to PM me admincp details and I will take a look when I have a minute.

[akulion]

about to install the beta 3 soon

just downloaded it

ok i installed it,

the nomedia tag seems to work but it dislays the url with the URL tag on each end (opening and closing tags) so i think people who use this will want that not to display..

apart from that working oki doki

[furst]

Originally Posted by The Geek

The new validation feature will check for the embed code on the destination page. If it isn't found, AME won't embed the video. Instead, AME will wrap the URL in a [nomedia] tag (see above) which shows a link and icon to indicate that you must go offsite to view it.

Great improvement.