Kovah/LinkAce

Generate screenshots for links

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#18 opened on Jan 18, 2019

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 (8 comments) (7 reactions) (0 assignees)PHP (1,761 stars) (111 forks)batch import
EnhancementHelp wanted

Description

Implement a method or web service to generate screenshots for links to display the content of a site as a small preview.

Update as of Apr. 2021: A "light" version of this feature was implemented by @jeop10. LinkAce saves a thumbnail URL to the database if the websites provides a og:image or twitter:image. I will keep this issue open for a possible full implementation in the future. Support for thumbnails were released in v1.6.0.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
None
Domain
backend
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
4
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
over 1 week
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
PHP/LaravelLinkAce architectureScreenshot generation toolsDatabase migrations
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
35
Research direction
Review the existing partial implementation that saves og:image thumbnails in the database, likely in the Link model or a service class. Investigate how to integrate a screenshot generation service (e.g., using Puppeteer or an external API like Screenshotone) and store the generated screenshot URL. Check the current codebase for related files such as LinkController or ThumbnailService. Discuss with maintainers whether a headless browser approach or an external service is preferred.