Time For a Sites Module Upgrade

It would be nice to see the Sites Module upgraded to allow Automated Screenshots from sources other than Shrink The Web; even an option to manually grab screenshots and then use the generated images for thumbnails.

There used to be a way to hack the code to bring in other screenshot services but this now seems harder to do; unless I'm looking in the wrong place.

Since we were forced to look for new hosting after the Zarconia mess, we ran into a new ShrinkTheWeb problem; where they don't allow calls from shared IPs if someone else is using the IP.

I moved server again to get a new IP (that I tested for STW availability before hand) but still get 'Invalid account credentials detected' in Sites Module admin settings.

Support at Shrink The Web is worse than here at Dolphin.

Screenshot Generators:

https://www.bitpixels.com/

http://www.page2images.com/
https://screenshot.net/
http://webthumb.bluga.net/home

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michel - Meta-Travel.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have you asked Modzzz if he could develop a module? He offered to do one for me at a reasonable price, but my colleague didn't want to go ahead with it. I guess Modzzz is "Once bitten - twice shy" and wants to see a serious financial interest before beginning to code any future modules. I spoke to him some time ago about a crowd funding module specifically aimed at getting members to financially commit to a new module, but he seemed to lose interest. I don't think I told him I was aiming my gun at him, but my idea was to get "several people to promise to purchase once a module was completed.

I have a use for the Sites module as well, but I don't use it because of having to link to ShrinkTheWeb. I would have thought it would be easy enough for a module to go to the URL page you want, take a snapshot and convert it to the size you want. I agree that the module wouldn't supply  "today's" image every time your user accessed the Sites module, but is that what you need?

Jerome does have an 'Ultimate Sites' module but it doesn't address the (now hopeless) Shrink The Web issue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michel - Meta-Travel.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tired of waiting for any support from ShrinkTheWeb, or any kind of module fix from Dolphin, I went ahead and created a manual workaround; having failed to come up with a clean solution in the code myself.

Not totally happy with the result, as it's a lot of extra work.

Website Screenshots.