Embedding Foreign Objects in Posts

[The subject of this topic sounds painful!]

Problem
  People want to write about something — such as an image, a map, or a
  movie — and not require readers to have to break the flow by clicking a
  link to view the object. Instead, the author would line the object to
  appear in the middle of the post.

Solution
  GroupServer replaces recognised URLs — such as links to YouTube — with
  embedded objects, such as the Flash movie player from the aforementioned
  Google department. This would be done as part of the post-rendering
  code. The same code already replaces URLs with links; the idea is to
  extend this code to create a pluggable architecture of URL handlers.

Comments? Suggestions?

Michael JasonSmith wrote:
> [The subject of this topic sounds painful!]
>
> Problem
>   People want to write about something — such as an image, a map, or a
>   movie — and not require readers to have to break the flow by clicking a
>   link to view the object. Instead, the author would line the object to
>   appear in the middle of the post.
>
> Solution
>   GroupServer replaces recognised URLs — such as links to YouTube — with
>   embedded objects, such as the Flash movie player from the aforementioned
>   Google department. This would be done as part of the post-rendering
>   code. The same code already replaces URLs with links; the idea is to
>   extend this code to create a pluggable architecture of URL handlers.

How would this work if you used a text-only email client ? Presumably it
would require the sending of HTML emails ?

A.

I think this is a swell idea.

Mediawiki has a number of extensions which allow a wiki host to offer embedded
content. Mostly videos from third-party sites. However they all require a tag
of some kind. Press edit here: http://pages.e-democracy.org/Video

If GS can be smart enough to simply read the URL from videos on key services
and using their APIs embed a player in the web view (while simply passing on
the URL in text via e-mail) then you'd have the easiest forum tool out there
for sharing videos.

I would say you might want a limit on the number of videos displayed per post,
say three, to keep web view download times in check.

Displaying a small version of linked Flickr photos might also be nice, but
would probably not be used as much as an integrated thumbnail display of
uploaded photos straight to the group.

Also, a positive name might be Empowering Users to Share Related Third-Party
Content.

Finally, while renderring web feeds within posts probably doesn't make that
much sense (there are mediawiki and wordpress plugins that do this, but I don't
know how much they are used within posts/pages), this does raise the issue of
how to best raise the profile of group related "new" content. The group
"mashup" if you will. I could see the value in designing your embedding
framework to include evolving content. An example might be YouTube videos or
Flickr photos tagged "mnpolitics"  which could be called the default external
"tag" for our mn-politics group. Note this pilot "mashup":
http://e-democracy.org/voices

Again, I think starting with post is great, but if the code can be leveraged
for content in pages down the road, I think you have a win win.

Steven Clift

That sounds reasonable. Instructions might be as simple as:

"To display a video from YouTube, X, or Y, simply place the full link to that
video's page, including the http://, by itself on its own line."

I agree on the coolness factor. This will definitely give us a wow moment when
we show off our forums.

Steve