Re: Generate Website(HTML) thumbnails on the fly
"aussie" <aussiestaceus@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1175000525.797355.197600@d57g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
Our team needs to have a on the fly website thumbnail. I have found
few scripts for php and .net but nothing for java. Preferably I would
like to set up a servlet that can take url as a parameter and return a
thumbnail image of that website. The only lead I have found on the web
was to use JEditorPane(URL) and then invoking the paint method to a
BufferedImage. Any Java GURUs out there who have an idea or an example
on how to do this?
The only .NET script I know that does this uses an external COM to
hook directly into Internet Explorer. I suspect your PHP solution also
uses an external browser to render the content. To emulate that solution
in Java, I'd probably use the same approach you're using: Load up a
webbrowser (you used the JEditorPane), capture a screenshot, and use that
as the thumbnail. If JEditorPane doesn't work, try other Java browsers
like http://jrex.mozdev.org/
If there's something about Servlets that prevent the proper rendering
of Swing components, then you're probably stuck, and any further solution
(e.g. using System.exec() and AWT.Robot) will probably get progressively
more and more hackish.
If you can afford it, you might consider install a second server
(either PHP or .NET) and using a SOA design where your Java server uses
your PHP/.NET server solely to generate these thumbnails.
- Oliver