[drupal-devel] node aggregator image/file handling

[Boris Mann]

On 21-Jun-05, at 1:24 AM, Bèr Kessels wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> I have been working on node aggregator (now named naggregator,  
> because of the
> 16 char limit in the type-col of node table ;) ).

You should also at least look at the work done here:
http://drupal.org/node/18498

It may or may not be the right approach, but it treats both feeds and  
feed items as nodes.

> But i have some problems / concerns about images. As it stands now,  
> we can
> receive two kinds of files: embedded images, and enclosed files  
> (podcasts). I
> will not yet work on the latter. The first has my concern.
>
> Now, img tags will be simply re-posted in the aggregated item, thus  
> "stealing"
> images from the originating host.
> I want to know what you people say about this behaviour. Should it  
> the image:
> a) remain deeplinked, thus stealing it (Its up to the feed-provider  
> to strip
> image tags if she does not want them deeplinked, after all)
> b) strip the image tags. thus maybe taking the feed out of its  
> context.
> c) fopen() and copy the file into our own file-sytem, then  
> rewriting the url
> of the image to the one we now server local.

I can see legitimate uses for all three options. Richard made a patch  
that adds a tag filtering screen to the admin of the "regular"  
aggregator,  precisely because the default behaviour is to strip  
<img> tags, which is not something that Drupal should decide, but  
users should decide.

Some use cases:
a) Flickr is fine with deeplinking
b) copyright / usage restrictions may not be allowed
c) I have a local (at home) installation of Gallery, and want my  
hosted Drupal account to host thumbnail images for better performance

Please make this configurable. The same option should (probably)  
apply to enclosures as well.

--
Boris Mann
http://www.bmannconsulting.com