Screen shots with php

[unknown1]

I would like to create a script that will take screen shots of a sites home page and then create a thumb nail image of the screen shot.

 

The issue is I can't seem to find any information on this at all and not even sure if this can be done in php. does anyone know if it can be done and is so point me in the right direction...

 

Thanks in advance.

[MadTechie]

Yes it can be done, it depends on your server,

do you have a Linux, Mac or PC server ?

do you have full control over the server ?

[unknown1]

No control over server... it's hosted on godaddy.

Any other ideas or options you can think of??

[sug15]

No control over server... it's hosted on godaddy.

Any other ideas or options you can think of??

Can't you access shell with godaddy?

[unknown1]

I don't think I have shell access but not 100% sure...

In the case that I do how would I go about making this script?

[dreamwest]

I looked into this a while back when i was trying to snapshot swf files - like ffmpeg does with videos.

 

It can be done, i was playing with a script that could do it beggining of this year , ill dig it out for you

[MadTechie]

It can't be done, unless you have full control,

you need to use a COM control over a browser, to open the URL then you change to full screen and do a screen shot, of course the screen shot look different depending on the browser user.

however you need to give apache user level control instead of system

[unknown1]

It can't be done, unless you have full control,

you need to use a COM control over a browser, to open the URL then you change to full screen and do a screen shot, of course the screen shot look different depending on the browser user.

however you need to give apache user level control instead of system

 

I have found a script that will work fine but just wont work fine for me =)

It works great if you have windows hosting and the ability to run .exe files...

But I don't, my hosting is linux so I need to find a way to do this on a linux box and limited access.

If anyone has an idea of how I can do this on a linux hosting plan, it sure would help... I maybe able to get shell access if that helps at all.

[MadTechie]

if you can't get the access you need then as a last resort (apart from changing hosts) you could probably find a site that provide this service.

 

for a windows platform its very simple

1. open services and change Apache service to "Interact with the desktop".

<?php
$browser = new COM("InternetExplorer.Application");
$handle = $browser->HWND;
$browser->Visible = true;
$browser->Fullscreen = true;
$browser->Navigate("http://www.phpfreaks.com");

/* Still working? */
while ($browser->Busy) {
    com_message_pump(4000);
}
$im = imagegrabwindow($handle, 0);
$browser->Quit();
imagepng($im, "iesnap.png");
imagedestroy($im);
?>