zimbra_url - balloon but no preview

[DGS_David]

OS = FC4
ZCS = 3.1.4_GA_518
RAM = 1Gb physical / 2Gb swap

I have two installs of ZCS, one on my server (above) and the other is the FC4 vmware instance downloaded from yourselves. I have also upgraded the vmware instance with the latest beta ZCS4.-RC1 for FC4.

My problem is that the zimlet url is not working in both instances of ZCS. The URL's are highlited correctly and the popup ballon does show - but I never see any previews.

The live server is running over https(port 10443) and the vmware is default http. I know the preview is supposed to only show http url's which I why I tested the vmware version running on http.

My browser is the Firefox 1.5.0.2.

Any suggestions as to how to debug this, out of interest the jscipt debugger in firefox does not show any error.

Below is the output of zmzimletctl on my live server:

[zimbra@gw ~]$ zmzimletctl listZimlets
Installed Zimlet files on this host:
com_zimbra_amzn
com_zimbra_phone
com_zimbra_tracking
com_zimbra_url
com_zimbra_wikipedia
com_zimbra_xslt
com_zimbra_ymaps
Installed Zimlets in LDAP:
com_zimbra_amzn
com_zimbra_phone
com_zimbra_tracking
com_zimbra_url
com_zimbra_wikipedia
com_zimbra_xslt
com_zimbra_ymaps
Available Zimlets in COS:
default:
com_zimbra_amzn
com_zimbra_phone
com_zimbra_tracking
com_zimbra_url
com_zimbra_wikipedia
com_zimbra_xslt
com_zimbra_ymaps


Thanks,
David.

[DGS_David]

I just tried to see the zimlet in Firefox 1.5.0.5 running on XP Pro and still the same issue, balloon but no preview,

Thanks.
David

[preese]

I'm having the same problem with my new install too.

Phil

[dkarp]

Alexa provides webpage thumbnails, and this may be an issue with their service. We'll take a look.

[cosmicwombat]

New install...same issue. Any fix yet?

[cdamon]

It looks like Alexa thumbnails has become a fee-based Amazon web service:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=236156011

The URL that our code uses to fetch the thumbnails (from pthumbnails.alexa.com) is no longer valid, so you get a connection error and a blank canvas.

I'm not sure what our plans are with regard to the Amazon service. Nothing in the short term, I imagine. The best thing to do for now is to disable the URL zimlet.

-Conrad

[phoenix]

Doesn't disabling that zimlet also disable the one-click launch of the link? Usefule for getting to the forums posts.

[Dirk]

This sucks. Introduce a service, let people start to use it and then turn it off and tell everyone they need to pay to get it back. Like Amazon dont make enough money already.

I didnt need another reason to stay away from Amazon (paying extra for next day delivery and having the goods arrive 5 weeks later was more than enough for that, but that's another story). This just makes them look cheap in my eyes.

So, suggestions.

1. Contact google, they do everything else, I wonder if they want a piece of the website thumbnailing market?

2. Do it locally. When a zimbra user hovers a link, the zimbra server checks itself to see if it knows the domain, shows the picture if it's seen it before and gets the image if it hasnt. It could be reactive rather than proactive, as most of the links people get tend to be from the same place anyway, after a few weeks it would have most previews it would need. Image size is small so overhead and diskspace could be quite minimal.

Any others?

[StefanD]

2. Do it locally. When a zimbra user hovers a link, the zimbra server checks itself to see if it knows the domain, shows the picture if it's seen it before and gets the image if it hasnt. It could be reactive rather than proactive, as most of the links people get tend to be from the same place anyway, after a few weeks it would have most previews it would need. Image size is small so overhead and diskspace could be quite minimal.

I wouldn't do that, if a user then receives a spam message with a coded URL that spammers can track, then they would know if the email address realy exists.
The user doesn't have to click then on the link but just hover the link could be painful, and de spammer know.

[greenrenault]

It looks like Alexa thumbnails has become a fee-based Amazon web service:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=236156011

The URL that our code uses to fetch the thumbnails (from pthumbnails.alexa.com) is no longer valid, so you get a connection error and a blank canvas.

I'm not sure what our plans are with regard to the Amazon service. Nothing in the short term, I imagine. The best thing to do for now is to disable the URL zimlet.

-Conrad

This is very disappointing guys. Why not simply include this functionality as part of the Zimbra server?