Re: Programmatic Browser Rendering Engine?

I've seen screenshots of websites using Live website rendered and shown in an IFRAME scaled down to say.. 50% . IFRAME is your keyword I guess. However, your idea is realy creative. On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 13:39:00 -0800 (PST), Richard Lynch <ceo@l-i-e.com> wrote: > Please Cc: me, as it's been quite some time since I posted 50 emails per > day to this list... :-^ > > I'm interested in anybody's experience, good or bad, in what I am naively > coining as a "Programmatic Browser Rendering Engine": > > In an ideal world, it would be a PHP function definition not unlike this: > > ------------------------ > bool imagesurfto(resource image, string url, [int width, int height]); > > This function surfs to the given URL, as if a browser window the > dimensions (imagesx, imagesy) of image were opened to that URL, and places > in image a representation of what the user would see if they surfed to > that site. > > If width and height are provided, the surfing is done as if the browser > window were the provided width and height, and the result is then scaled > to fit into image. > > Example: > <?php > $image = imagecreatetruecolor(800, 600); > imagesurfto($image, 'http://php.net'); > header("Content-type: image/jpeg"); > imagejpeg($image); > ?> > > This displays what a user would see surfing to the PHP home page, if their > browser window was open to 800x600. > > <?php > $image = imagecreatetruecolor(400, 300); > imagesurfto($image, 'http://php.net'); > header("Content-type: image/jpeg"); > imagejpeg($image); > ?> > > This displays the same image as the first example, only scaled down to > half-size. > ------------------------ > > In my case, I have a GUI to admin a web-site by adding links, and I want > to give the user some Interface Feedback that the URL they have typed as a > destination for their link looks like what they expect. > > If this is all known technology and everybody is already doing it, please > tell me what everybody else has decided is the correct term for this, as > I've got No Clue. :-) > > I'm also very very very open to other ideas how to achieve my goal: > The user should see an image of what the link goes to, so they will notice > if it's not the right URL, as they edit/review their link choices. > > This could be useful in sites that allow administrators maintain a "Links > Page" semi-automatically. > > It could be particularly useful these days now that domain squatters and > speculators are taking over every expired domain and throwing a bunch of > advertisement/pay-per-click links on them. Just checking that a link is > valid is no longer "Good Enough" to know that you are linking to what you > want to link to. But that's only one portion of the problem I want to > address, so keeping an eye on domain expiration records would solve this > case, but not the more general issue. > > And, of course, if you somehow magically allowed another optional argument > of which browser to use... Wow! I could visually compare side-by-side the > images of what my layout looks like on all the browsers? Sign me up! > Okay, so this is probably NOT do-able. But the rest doesn't seem like it > should be that tricky... > > Hmmmmm. Does a frame allow a "scaling" factor? Might actually make me > want to use frames [shudder] if they do. > > PS If somebody familiar with, say, Mozilla, were to create a PHP function > such as I described above, you'd have instant fame and glory. Hint, hint. > > -- > Like Music? > http://l-i-e.com/artists.htm > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > -- M.Saleh.E.G 97150-4779817