# About the 1 [IMG] in sig limit.....



## morpha (May 16, 2009)

I went to add another image to my sig when I remembered that the forum only allows one.
I understand that its in there to reduce clutter and keep the forum neat as well as keep page loading times down.

But I kinda want to have two images in my sig.

Would you Mods mind If i wrote a script that grabbed two sig images, and sent them as 1 image to use in my sig?
I thought id ask first to be polite. Since it IS a forum rule and some mods might think any form of subverting it is a ban able offense.

oh... I would of course keep to the imposed sig image size limit.


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## thraxed (May 16, 2009)

Why not merge the photos in photoshop and upload em as your pic?


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## morpha (May 16, 2009)

because they are not static images... they are served live from different websites.


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## Kreij (May 16, 2009)

I doubt they would allow it, as then they will have to allow it for everyone.


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## Triprift (May 16, 2009)

Dammit Kreij thats what i was going to say.


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## morpha (May 16, 2009)

as far as the foums system is concerned it is only 1 image. Its only breaking a rule on a technicality. Im only asking before doing as a matter of politeness...

its not like I would be sharing the source code with everyone on the board so only those who can program in a server-side language would be able to make one.

Also I was addressing the mods and admins of the forum, not other forum users.......


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## mike047 (May 16, 2009)

morpha said:


> as far as the foums system is concerned it is only 1 image. Its only breaking a rule on a technicality. Im only asking before doing as a matter of politeness...
> 
> its not like I would be sharing the source code with everyone on the board so only those who can program in a server-side language would be able to make one.
> 
> Also I was addressing the *mods and admins* of the forum, not other forum users.......




You could PM a mod/admin as I did...no response yet


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## Triprift (May 16, 2009)

Pm a admin and see what they say my quess would be in negative but who knows.


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## aCid888* (May 16, 2009)

morpha said:


> Also I was addressing the mods and admins of the forum, not other forum users.......



Why make a topic in a public forum if you don't want peoples input?? 

If you wanted to ask someone who knows the answer then PM Wizzard before making a thread like this.....I'm sure that way you will get your 'No' answer without us telling you first.


*Edit:* Being polite may get you what you ask for.


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## morpha (May 16, 2009)

I agree... I probably SHOULD have PM'ed Wizzard instead of making a public thread...


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## W1zzard (May 16, 2009)

write a server side app that pulls your two images, combines them into one image and serves it to the original request. then put a link to your script into your img tag and it's done. make sure this whole process doesn't take too long, maybe cache your images



> *Edit:* Being polite may get you what you ask for.


i dont think so. be creative. figure out ways to solve your problem. think outside of the box.


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## aCid888* (May 16, 2009)

Being creative and thinking out the box is one thing, but being polite while doing so is another.


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## morpha (May 16, 2009)

Annnnd DONE!
complete with cache.

the image only redraws once every 24 hours... however I should change the way it checks how long its been (it could be better).

This will only be temporary aswell... since its currently being hosted off a friends server. Once i get my own server up itll be a permanent thing...


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## Kreij (May 16, 2009)

I'm glad you got it working Morpha, and it's good to see you proved us ney-sayers wrong about what might be allowed. My hat goes off to you. Good job


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## mike047 (May 16, 2009)

morpha said:


> Annnnd DONE!
> complete with cache.
> 
> the image only redraws once every 24 hours... however I should change the way it checks how long its been (it could be better).
> ...



Nice work, I had asked about something similar with FAH and WCG stats. I am not smart enough to do the require script


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## morpha (May 16, 2009)

If wizzard gives an okay... I wont mind making a combined sigpic for WCG/F@H.

HOWEVER:
you require access to your own php web server with the following criteria.
1: It needs to have GD classes installed. They are used for drawing the image, most php servers have this...
2: Fopen() needs to be allowed to open URL's outside the local network. This is a security setting managed by the admin in charge of the server.
3: Any hosters that attempt to place banner adds into the pages they serve mess it up (such as godaddy)

... I am using my friends server right now because NEITHER of mine could do it because of 1 or more of the above problems... once I get my ITX rig up I might try serving it from home


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## W1zzard (May 16, 2009)

if you can come up with something that is more complex ie. allows a broader range of users to benefit from it, i'd certainly be willing to host this off tpu's servers


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## W1zzard (May 16, 2009)

morpha said:
			
		

> however I should change the way it checks how long its been (it could be better).



filemtime() + random value to avoid multiple processes trying to create the same image at once.


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## morpha (May 17, 2009)

It will add more complexity to the script. However...

The F@H sig pic is generated via a URL with a user ID in the action string. Id say the WCG one does the same. I can make it so that the user can pass those parameters to my script via action string(GET) and then it will create the image. 

Handling 100+ sig images though might be a pain in the but...


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## morpha (May 17, 2009)

Wizzard: would you mind if It was setup as a Cron Job to redraw all the sigs every X time? And do you mind if I uses a MYSQL table to store user info?


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## W1zzard (May 17, 2009)

mysql is fine. dont use a cronjob. every time you generate an image and have sent it to the browser, close the connection and look for expired images to regenerate, so the load will be spread more evenly over the day and the script wont slam the origin servers


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## morpha (May 17, 2009)

Development update!

>> Background Image; If not specified a random color is used. 
>> Supports 2 images. Users have control of where these are placed on the canvas. Clipping and overlapping can occur.

are people fine with this? Do they want to be able to add more images? as many images as you want?
What about the actual image size: should you get to choose the dimensions of the canvas?


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## mike047 (May 17, 2009)

morpha said:


> Development update!
> 
> >> Background Image; If not specified a random color is used.
> >> Supports 2 images. Users have control of where these are placed on the canvas. Clipping and overlapping can occur.
> ...



They both look very good.  Well done.


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## corrykid (May 19, 2009)

Im impressed.


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