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

[Morrus]

I'm getting an error (I've tried searchng this thread, but didn't see anything - but it's 50 pages long!):

include([path]/amecache/findonly.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in [path]/includes/ame_bbcode.php on line 74

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '[path]/amecache/findonly.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in [path]/includes/ame_bbcode.php on line 74

Any thoughts?

[bbcentral]

Silly question, but why does this need to support Amazon?

From what I can see in the description and the code, it searches Amazon links for an ASIN (product ID), and then modifies the link to point to the Amazon product page.

So doesn't it essentially just simplify the link to make it shorter?

And what about if someone is deliberately linking to a specific Amazon URL, such as a list of the 3rd party sellers for the item. Will this replace that link with one pointing to the product page?

The only real use I see for Amazon support is that you could modify the links to include your Amazon affiliate link, which could definitely come in handy

[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by Boots

Anyway to get this to work with the RSS feed poster?

For the moment, it seems the post has to be edited to get the video to embed. We don't know just yet if the The Geek will have time (or can) change that.

Originally Posted by Eneswar

Any chance to make this to add the HD quality version of You Tube videos if there is, if not it adds the normal version?

It will be included in a future update to the extended definitions in my Add-On thread. Link it at the bottom of the first post.

Originally Posted by Morrus

I'm getting an error (I've tried searchng this thread, but didn't see anything - but it's 50 pages long!):



Any thoughts?

Which version are you using? Did you set the path to your AME cache folder as recommended in the Admin CP?

Originally Posted by bbcentral

Silly question, but why does this need to support Amazon?

From what I can see in the description and the code, it searches Amazon links for an ASIN (product ID), and then modifies the link to point to the Amazon product page.

So doesn't it essentially just simplify the link to make it shorter?

And what about if someone is deliberately linking to a specific Amazon URL, such as a list of the 3rd party sellers for the item. Will this replace that link with one pointing to the product page?

The only real use I see for Amazon support is that you could modify the links to include your Amazon affiliate link, which could definitely come in handy

It's there to demonstrate that this mod does more then convert media. It will take a grotesquly long link like this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000013G3/ref=s9subs_c6_15_img1-rfc_g1_si1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-5&pf_rd_r=0EHN0PCM9M858EF4FAVT&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=463383431&pf_rd_i=507846

And convert it to this:

Attachment 90675 Amazon.com: Boomerang: Original Soundtrack Album...

And yes, it can be configured to include your Affiliate ID automatically. In my add-on thread we have a definition someone created that will convert them to this:

Attachment 90674 Attachment 90676 Attachment 90677

I've also done the same for a CafePress definition as well as a formatted download link for zSHARE links. The point is, this is capable of formatting far more then just media.

[Finster]

One of the things I liked about Goldbrick was it did the whole Highslide thing where the video or images lightbox.

Any plans on this feature?

I do like that this mod seems to be well supported.

Any up to date examples of this hack on any forum anywhere?

[Digital Jedi]

I don't want to speak for The Geek too much, but I know it will be a while before he does anymore major updates to the modification. He usually does them so well they don't need too much support, other then tweaking the definitions. I'm curious how the lightbox would work with the unique things that AME can embed, which is sometimes just auto formated links.

I'm about to open my development subforum here in a few. I've been debating doing this but this should give you a good idea of what the mod can do.

[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by Finster

One of the things I liked about Goldbrick was it did the whole Highslide thing where the video or images lightbox.

Any plans on this feature?

I do like that this mod seems to be well supported.

Any up to date examples of this hack on any forum anywhere?

Had to set up a few things first. Note that a lot of things here are under development and I'm running 2.0.2

http://www.cogonline.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=858

[DDolphins]

K I have an odd problem you can see it at http://www.clarifiedjudgement.com/showthread.php?t=23 (2nd post)

Basically the problem is that the top part with the title shows fine and the video shows fine but then it repeats itself except the title of the 2nd video is just all coding and the 2nd video is thumbnail size.

Any idea what I did wrong if anything?

[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by DDolphins

K I have an odd problem you can see it at http://www.clarifiedjudgement.com/showthread.php?t=23 (2nd post)

Basically the problem is that the top part with the title shows fine and the video shows fine but then it repeats itself except the title of the 2nd video is just all coding and the 2nd video is thumbnail size.

Any idea what I did wrong if anything?

It's not an odd problem at all. You have two copies of the same YouTube definition. You probably imported the definitions from my thread without deleting the stock definitions that come with AME.

[Finster]

DJ, nice forum you have. Ligthboxing seems to be a popular thing these days. Whether one types in a url to a video or image, Goldbrick usually rendered the photo or video as a thumbnail, then upon clicking git, it opened it up full size with the lightbox effect from the Highslide folks.

The problem with Golbrick is it is poorly supported and buggy. I can't blame him, it IS free, but I would rather pay and get support and updates than get something free.

Most Golbricked videos also show a thumbnail image taken from the video which tends to make people want to click on it and view it, but half the time it just shows a lame blue M.

I don't know what would happen to the existing video links if one switched from Goldbrick to AME....

[sickofregister]

awesome !!!