monkeytooth Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 I'm curious. Is it possible with lets say the GD lib and cURL to come up with a concept that can grab a screenshot of a particular site? I would like to take screen shots of sites in my "network" and display them / catalog them but I am wondering if this is something thats even possible, and if its possible would it be possible on a production server thats provided by someone like lets say hostgator, or would I need a dedicated box to pull something off like this? I guess what I am looking to figure out ultimately which technologies revolving around PHP would I need to use in order to get a screenshot of a page like I would like to get. Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/239280-is-this-possible-with-solely-php/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psycho Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 Since the "page" is just HTML code, there is no "screenshot" you could take. Could you do something with PHP? Absolutely! But, you would have to build your own HTML parsing engine in PHP to convert the HTML code into an image file. Basically you would have to build a browser within PHP. That would be a herculean task for what you are wanting. There are 3rd party solutions though that you could use to generate "screenshots" of web pages using PHP. Though, any good ones are going to cost you. Also, it will likely require you to install software on the web server (unless the company provides a web based service). Here is one possibility http://www.acasystems.com/en/web-thumb-activex/ $130 for a personal developer license. Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/239280-is-this-possible-with-solely-php/#findComment-1229270 Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeytooth Posted June 13, 2011 Author Share Posted June 13, 2011 Yea, I figured there would be something a bit easier about it lol. I'll stick with my regular means of screen capping for now I think, as Im not about to build a browser within a browser based on PHP to just take a snap of a couple sites now and again. I figured if it was a task I could do in a day or 2 maybe I'd consider doing it. But this sounds like a much larger scale concept than what I want to sink my teeth into right now so, yea.. lol, thanks for the input though at least it gives me an idea should I change my mind about such a larger task. Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/239280-is-this-possible-with-solely-php/#findComment-1229277 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psycho Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 There may be free alternatives, I just didn't bother looking. Wouldn't be a bad idea to spend some time googling to see. Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/239280-is-this-possible-with-solely-php/#findComment-1229281 Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeytooth Posted June 13, 2011 Author Share Posted June 13, 2011 I did, I just wanted to see if it was something I could build on my own... Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/239280-is-this-possible-with-solely-php/#findComment-1229285 Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeytooth Posted June 13, 2011 Author Share Posted June 13, 2011 also wasn't fully sure how those solutions may have tried o approach it so i was tryin to figure it out here.. Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/239280-is-this-possible-with-solely-php/#findComment-1229287 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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