Re: Static URL to profile picture
We should also consider the user experience. Some of my friends change their avatar daily (if not hourly). If each application caches the avatar, the user might end up with a different avatar on each application. That would especially apply to applications that do not need to update data regularly. I like the 302 redirect approach. On Oct 9, 8:26 am, jstrellner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I don't think they should do anything, but ask you guys to cache the > profile pictures yourself. By linking directly to the file, you are > increasing their Amazon costs. It doesn't take much to cache it > yourself, and then every time someone does an update, you just check > to see if the old URL that you have matches the new one, and if it > doesn't, go get another copy of it to replace your cached file. > > I am not sure if they have encouraged, or discouraged hot-linking to > their files, but it probably is the best solution to cache it, and one > that Twitturly uses. > > -Joel > > On Oct 8, 4:25 pm, Nicolas Grasset <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > Is there a way to get a static profile picture URL when using the API, > > since picture updates will break old links? > > > My > > photo:http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/38643882/av... > > > ... will have a different URL if I change it on Twitter, which means > > we cannot trust our local cache of events, which means we would need > > to call the APIs for all events all the time. > > > And in our case that is not really an option. > > > Thanks!!- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text -
Re: Static URL to profile picture
On 10 Oct 2008, at 10:26, jstrellner wrote: Alex: Any easy way to appease everyone who needs to access it, without doing any infrastructure changes on your part, is to add a new API call, http://twitter.com/statuses/user_avatar/username (for example). Then when someone requests that URL, you just do a 302 redirect to the avatar's current location. Some of the nice things about doing a 302 temporary redirect are: - For API Users, they never need to worry about where it is or what it is named, they just need the twitter username (user id would be good to support too) - If you guys ever need to move all of those images out of amazon to your own, or other solution, you can and it wouldn't effect anyone. - ability to perform statistical analysis on who is requesting them, and how often. - doesn't require any changes to your current caching system, just a minor change to the API I like this idea except that doing that is no different to providing an unlimited API call to get the current avatar URL - it's still hitting their data retrieval systems just as hard. -Stut -- http://stut.net/
Re: Static URL to profile picture
Carl: They provide the URL to the image in all of that users updates, so if you are getting tweets for a user, you are getting their profile picture (avatar) URL. It shouldn't require any additional calls. Alex: Any easy way to appease everyone who needs to access it, without doing any infrastructure changes on your part, is to add a new API call, http://twitter.com/statuses/user_avatar/username (for example). Then when someone requests that URL, you just do a 302 redirect to the avatar's current location. Some of the nice things about doing a 302 temporary redirect are: - For API Users, they never need to worry about where it is or what it is named, they just need the twitter username (user id would be good to support too) - If you guys ever need to move all of those images out of amazon to your own, or other solution, you can and it wouldn't effect anyone. - ability to perform statistical analysis on who is requesting them, and how often. - doesn't require any changes to your current caching system, just a minor change to the API Xeoncross: The image files can also have endings in '.gif', '.jpeg', or '.png'. They do not currently convert the images into a single format, which is another reason the 302 redirect that I proposed above would be ideal. -Joel On Oct 9, 8:38 am, Carl Crawley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > jstrellner wrote: > > I don't think they should do anything, but ask you guys to cache the > > profile pictures yourself. By linking directly to the file, you are > > increasing their Amazon costs. It doesn't take much to cache it > > yourself, and then every time someone does an update, you just check > > to see if the old URL that you have matches the new one, and if it > > doesn't, go get another copy of it to replace your cached file. > > > I am not sure if they have encouraged, or discouraged hot-linking to > > their files, but it probably is the best solution to cache it, and one > > that Twitturly uses. > > > -Joel > > I can see what you're saying Joel, but surely to reduce the number of > API calls to the API would be more of a saving to the load on Twitter > rather than the 0.1$ saving by caching the images on my servers > > C.
Re: Static URL to profile picture
jstrellner wrote: > I don't think they should do anything, but ask you guys to cache the > profile pictures yourself. By linking directly to the file, you are > increasing their Amazon costs. It doesn't take much to cache it > yourself, and then every time someone does an update, you just check > to see if the old URL that you have matches the new one, and if it > doesn't, go get another copy of it to replace your cached file. > > I am not sure if they have encouraged, or discouraged hot-linking to > their files, but it probably is the best solution to cache it, and one > that Twitturly uses. > > -Joel > > I can see what you're saying Joel, but surely to reduce the number of API calls to the API would be more of a saving to the load on Twitter rather than the 0.1$ saving by caching the images on my servers C.
Re: Static URL to profile picture
Just set the profile image as "USER_ID.jpg" so that no mater what they use for their image it will always be a unique file name to the user.
Re: Static URL to profile picture
We are developing an iPhone application which among other things aggregates content from different social networks to create a pulse view. Given the bad tools for memory management on the iPhone, cached photos are quickly swapped out so this solution is our temporary one but still requires a fix. What happened to the API for photos documented on the unofficial documentation? Ever existed or removed for performance issues? http://static.twitter.com/system/user/profile_image/1050881/normal/rickm.png?1173740203 Thanks a lot! On Oct 9, 10:17 am, "Alex Payne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The changing URLs have been an asset for quick cache expiry for us, > but I understand that more predicable URLs would be easier for > developers. We'll consider changing this behavior in the next major > release of the API, but it's not going to change in the current > version. > > I would suggest caching on the client side where possible, as Joel suggests. > > > > On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 8:26 AM, jstrellner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I don't think they should do anything, but ask you guys to cache the > > profile pictures yourself. By linking directly to the file, you are > > increasing their Amazon costs. It doesn't take much to cache it > > yourself, and then every time someone does an update, you just check > > to see if the old URL that you have matches the new one, and if it > > doesn't, go get another copy of it to replace your cached file. > > > I am not sure if they have encouraged, or discouraged hot-linking to > > their files, but it probably is the best solution to cache it, and one > > that Twitturly uses. > > > -Joel > > > On Oct 8, 4:25 pm, Nicolas Grasset <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Is there a way to get a static profile picture URL when using the API, > >> since picture updates will break old links? > > >> My > >> photo:http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/38643882/av... > > >> ... will have a different URL if I change it on Twitter, which means > >> we cannot trust our local cache of events, which means we would need > >> to call the APIs for all events all the time. > > >> And in our case that is not really an option. > > >> Thanks!! > > -- > Alex Payne - API Lead, Twitter, Inc.http://twitter.com/al3x
Re: Static URL to profile picture
The changing URLs have been an asset for quick cache expiry for us, but I understand that more predicable URLs would be easier for developers. We'll consider changing this behavior in the next major release of the API, but it's not going to change in the current version. I would suggest caching on the client side where possible, as Joel suggests. On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 8:26 AM, jstrellner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I don't think they should do anything, but ask you guys to cache the > profile pictures yourself. By linking directly to the file, you are > increasing their Amazon costs. It doesn't take much to cache it > yourself, and then every time someone does an update, you just check > to see if the old URL that you have matches the new one, and if it > doesn't, go get another copy of it to replace your cached file. > > I am not sure if they have encouraged, or discouraged hot-linking to > their files, but it probably is the best solution to cache it, and one > that Twitturly uses. > > -Joel > > On Oct 8, 4:25 pm, Nicolas Grasset <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Is there a way to get a static profile picture URL when using the API, >> since picture updates will break old links? >> >> My >> photo:http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/38643882/av... >> >> ... will have a different URL if I change it on Twitter, which means >> we cannot trust our local cache of events, which means we would need >> to call the APIs for all events all the time. >> >> And in our case that is not really an option. >> >> Thanks!! > -- Alex Payne - API Lead, Twitter, Inc. http://twitter.com/al3x
Re: Static URL to profile picture
http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/detail?id=117 On Oct 9, 9:03 am, Shannon Whitley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I agree too. This request could really cut down on API calls. > > On Oct 8, 4:25 pm, Nicolas Grasset <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Is there a way to get a static profile picture URL when using the API, > > since picture updates will break old links? > > > My > > photo:http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/38643882/av... > > > ... will have a different URL if I change it on Twitter, which means > > we cannot trust our local cache of events, which means we would need > > to call the APIs for all events all the time. > > > And in our case that is not really an option. > > > Thanks!! > >
Re: Static URL to profile picture
I don't think they should do anything, but ask you guys to cache the profile pictures yourself. By linking directly to the file, you are increasing their Amazon costs. It doesn't take much to cache it yourself, and then every time someone does an update, you just check to see if the old URL that you have matches the new one, and if it doesn't, go get another copy of it to replace your cached file. I am not sure if they have encouraged, or discouraged hot-linking to their files, but it probably is the best solution to cache it, and one that Twitturly uses. -Joel On Oct 8, 4:25 pm, Nicolas Grasset <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Is there a way to get a static profile picture URL when using the API, > since picture updates will break old links? > > My > photo:http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/38643882/av... > > ... will have a different URL if I change it on Twitter, which means > we cannot trust our local cache of events, which means we would need > to call the APIs for all events all the time. > > And in our case that is not really an option. > > Thanks!!
Re: Static URL to profile picture
I agree too. This request could really cut down on API calls. On Oct 8, 4:25 pm, Nicolas Grasset <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Is there a way to get a static profile picture URL when using the API, > since picture updates will break old links? > > My > photo:http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/38643882/av... > > ... will have a different URL if I change it on Twitter, which means > we cannot trust our local cache of events, which means we would need > to call the APIs for all events all the time. > > And in our case that is not really an option. > > Thanks!!
Re: Static URL to profile picture
Kee Hinckley wrote: > > On Oct 8, 2008, at 7:25 PM, Nicolas Grasset wrote: >> Is there a way to get a static profile picture URL when using the API, >> since picture updates will break old links? > > That would really be nice. Given the security checks you have to do > when you use the user-provided filename, it seems like standardizing > on a filename and file ending would only make things easier for everyone. Absolutely agree with this as well - I have to have a batch job to run through all my followers in my web-app to check changes of profile images - this would reduce my API calls significantly. Rgds, C.
Re: Static URL to profile picture
On Oct 8, 2008, at 7:25 PM, Nicolas Grasset wrote: Is there a way to get a static profile picture URL when using the API, since picture updates will break old links? That would really be nice. Given the security checks you have to do when you use the user-provided filename, it seems like standardizing on a filename and file ending would only make things easier for everyone.
Static URL to profile picture
Is there a way to get a static profile picture URL when using the API, since picture updates will break old links? My photo: http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/38643882/avatar_bigger.JPG ... will have a different URL if I change it on Twitter, which means we cannot trust our local cache of events, which means we would need to call the APIs for all events all the time. And in our case that is not really an option. Thanks!!
