Backing up all linked images in all posts

[mistyPotato]

Links to images posted in a forum can become broken after a while. Images placed on ImageShack and PhotoBucket or any off-site host for that matter for example sometimes become unavailable if the account holder closes the account or the photos for the account are for any reason no longer available. Also, if a member leaves your forum under "bad" terms, he can cut access to all the photos he posted by changing the account.

On my particular forum, lots of technical "how to" photos are posted and the posts are practically useless without the photo. I also have a posted forum rule that images posted on my forum(s) grants the site ownership rights to a copy of the image.

So, I developed an easy way to actually save ALL images posted to my forum. With a few clicks, it saves a copy of all off site photos onto my hard drive in case a link becomes broken, I can simply change the link (also automated) in any post to point to the saved copy of the photo. I'm working now on making it all a dynamic process so that periodically, with a button click, I can Backup all photos referenced by a link to my local hard drive, then, any links that do not point to an available image would self correct to point to the local copy....no more missing images....ever.

It was a challenge but I enjoyed it.
But doing this made me wonder how everyone else does it?
What software does this ?
I can be contacted at ubuntu172@bellsouth.net


Keywords:
Broken Image Links
Missing Images
Deleted Images
Photobucket
Imageshack
Links to Pictures
Links to Images
Links to Photos
Photos not available

[Opserty]

Originally Posted by mistyPotato

I also have a posted forum rule that images posted on my forum(s) grants the site ownership rights to a copy of the image.

What if the user doesn't own the image itself? (Say they found it on google for example?) I doubt it is still legal for you to own the image in this (though I am not internet law expert ).

You should insist that users attach the images to your forum instead of just linking to them. Then once they have been uploaded you can edit the original post to link to the images if you need to. Just a suggestion instead of going to all this trouble.

[mistyPotato]

Good point.

At least on my forum, the vast majority of pictures are created by members. I suppose if someone links a picture to my site (obviously not a member picture...ie a new GM car, sensitive info etc) , and later someone who owns it asks that I remove it I will.

I am hoping that would be a very, very small percentage of the images on my site.

There a 2 problems with asking members to post pictures directly to my site.

1). It's hard to tell people what to do They like to do what they want.
Some say it's just easier to upload all their pictures in batches to a place like photobucket then link them when they need them.

2). Hosting the photos on my server would significantly increase bandwidth usage so It's actually preferable to have them hosted elsewhere and just have a link to them. I backed up over 5,000 images yesterday (not all FROM yesterday however).

[mistyPotato]

Go it all working like a Swiss Watch now. I have a script I run from inside my browser and with just a few clicks of the ole mouse, every image linked from my site is downloaded and then tagged so that it can be matched to the post in question and saved.

My site has lots of technical pictures and diagrams so losing them was not a option.

[andie215]

So how is this done, i to dont want to lose all the linked images on my site. I cant find any info on how this is done anywhere,,,please help. ,,, desperate

[mistyPotato]

Hello,

I have been using this process for a while now and have backed up over 100,000 images that are stored in my DVD database of forum images.

However, I used Coldfusion templates to do it so your host would have to have Coldfusion or another engine called Railo available for it to work.

[andie215]

Ummm, dont think thats going to happen on my server but thanks for getting back