Show Thread Enhancements - AME - Auto Media Embedding (youtube, Amazon, google, myspace, etc...)

From the inventors of Swiss Cheese and the Egg comes AME - The Automatic Media Embedding System.

Note that Version 2.0.0 can be found here

AME is derived from GAL 6 base code but instead of linking keywords, it converts URLs that users paste or enter in their posts into inline embedded video streams.

Big credit goes out to mfyvie for the original concept that jazzed me up enough to lift code that I have been working on to radically improve his fresh idea. Though the same goal, I have taken a totally different approach to his initial release. This mod is 100% steaming fresh code straight from the Geeks oven of love.

First... the overview

AME scans new and edited posts for pre-defined patterns of URLs (i.e. youtube's). If it finds a match, it swaps the url tag for an ame tag.
When a post get parsed for bbcode and an ame tag is found, instead of hammering away at the post with umpteen bbcodes, AME quietly figures out which pre-defined embedding should be placed there and... viola', you have a pretty little embedded video like this:

Attachment 66927

This is significantly faster, has much lower overhead and is much easier to manage than loads of bbcodes or a than scanning every single post as the user views it to see if there are any conversions that need to be made.

Now for the bells and whistles

AME:

• 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. This radically reduces overhead and speeds up the 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 in a post)
• 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!
• 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 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
• 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 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

Add ons

AME comes configured with YouTube, Myspacetv, Google Video, Bolt, iFilm, Yahoo, Dailymotion, Amazon and MetaCafe Support built in. Since the amount of providers are always changing and most sites will only need a particular amount, AME has been designed with an import and export system to allow members to easily share formats with one another. In fact, the second post of this thread is updated periodically to relflect those add ons. Currently there are over 12 more additional formats contributed by AME users. Click here to see them.

Installation

• Upload the contents of the forums folder into your forums directory and import the product.xml file into your product manager.
• 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.

Troubleshooting

See this post on troubleshooting

A note about support and such

I have my plate pretty full with taking care of my commercial mods and the support that comes with them. Saying that, I will help when I can - but to be honest, I have ensured that there should be little to no support needed on this mod as it is very much self contained.
Please do not PM or post asking me to give you regexp's to support additional media streams. I built the system so that you can add your own providers as well as the ability to import and export them. If you still need a pattern but are not great with regular expressions (who is?) then I suggest getting RegExpBuddy. Although I am not expert at regular expressions, I did a quick start tutorial on AME regexps here if you want to check it out. I don't mind you guys asking amongst each other for these things, but just note that I will most likely not respond to the requests.

I will reserve the first couple of posts in this thread to periodically add user contributed patterns to import and for additional information (I hate mega long first post's in the release section). So check there for up to date information.

nJoy

[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by The Geek

Here is beta 1 of 2.0 if you want to test and give me your feedback. Only things I have identified so far are:

1- First posts in a groupmessage via the quick reply wont AME (though subsequent ones will and editing it will)
2- I havent removed any of the defunct definitions yet

nJoy

So far so good. I can confirm the Social Groups behavior you mentioned. Some of the videos didn't' seem to want to continue to load on page reload, but then again, I was testing GameSpot, so all bets are off there. I don't have vBlog yet, so I can't confirm anything on that end.

Backend looks great. Everything seems to be working. I'll try and put it to the full test tonight.

Just a heads up to anyone who has maybe has some customized definitions. Make sure you back those up, because upgrading will replace all your definitions.

[Digital Jedi]

One trivial error I noticed there under settings. Social GRoups is accidentally spelled with a capital R.

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by Digital Jedi

One trivial error I noticed there under settings. Social GRoups is accidentally spelled with a capital R.

Bah!

Hey... what about visitor messages?

[Digital Jedi]

Whoops! Forgot to check. BRB

Doesn't seem to be working on profiles.

[The Geek]

VMs werent in the previous version as I just thought of adding it!

brb... ok... added VM support and fixed previous issues. Only thing I can think of adding now is to a rebuild option for visitor messages and removing defunct definitions. On that note... which ones would you think I should remove?

On another side note, I have also whipped up most of the profile media block add on. I thought it would make sense to have something that integrated with AME's definitions. Not sure when Ill get around to finishing it though

[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by The Geek

VMs werent in the previous version as I just thought of adding it!

Silly me, I misread. Just upgraded and it appears to be working. I need to test more thoroughly though. I only checked a few videos.

brb... ok... added VM support and fixed previous issues. Only thing I can think of adding now is to a rebuild option for visitor messages and removing defunct definitions. On that note... which ones would you think I should remove?

Well, lets see. I've updated almost all of these at least once. iFilm is now Spike. I keep updating YouTube to keep up with new functionality, rather then because it's not working. DailyMotion won't leave their URLs alone. I don't know. On the one hand, a list of commonly used websites gets updated frequently and on the other hand, the sites that have remained fundamentally the same are kind of obscure.

On another side note, I have also whipped up most of the profile media block add on. I thought it would make sense to have something that integrated with AME's definitions. Not sure when Ill get around to finishing it though

People will go absolutely crazy over this if you do finish it. Out of curiosity, how will it handle the size of the videos if they're defined too large in the definition?

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by Digital Jedi

People will go absolutely crazy over this if you do finish it. Out of curiosity, how will it handle the size of the videos if they're defined too large in the definition?

One of the things I am working on

As far as the definistions go... How about a few standards? I am thinking:
Youtube
Myspace
Google
Yahoo
Amazon

This should play to each element of AMEs strength and those shouldnt change too much. If you have updated versions, can I check those out for possible replacement of the 1.0 versions?

[Digital Jedi]

Sure, here's what I have.

Amazon (Links) is turned off incidentally by default because I have the optional Amazon (Thumbnails) in the Master XML turned on.

[tormodg]

You guys rock. Keep it coming!

[The Geek]

Can you believe it. I had it totally done last night apart from these definitions and I overwrote the product with the last b2

Luckily it wasonly a couple hours worth of work mainly consisting of phrasing and admincp help. The file changes are still intact

Anyhoo... I was updating the core definitions but noticed the amazon is pretty different from the original. Any particular reason why?

The profile block tool I sussed, but not sure I am totally happy with it. If I have time, I am going to play with a few more concepts that will encompass the ability to add multiple blocks (i.e. a video, a bookshelf, CD shelf, DVD shelf). It will be a bigger project, so we will have to see how it pans itself out.