before I start, I'm just new to Joomla and Torrent tracking. I know my request may be odd, but I wish to start Torrent site for a Railroad Simulator. People share locomotives, buildings and even farmyard equipment in the same way Flight Simulator enthusiasts share aircraft. There are several thousand people currently sharing over 100,000 items and the current server is choked. Torrents sound like a good way to go.

Unfortunately, all the Torrent Trackers I've seen only offer written descriptions, but my community relies on pictorial representations. I can hopefully add a picture to the main torrent page, but I really need to add thumbnails to the listings. Please have a look at my current site which shows exactly what I mean.

Would this be possible? People could then add CD covers or other graphics to brighten up the somewhat bland listings.

Example site: http://trainzresources.com/directory/index.php?book_authors_id=69&typefilter=book_authors&main_page=index

You can use another editor, like JCE of FCKEditor and add images to the torrent description.

Thanks for your swift reply.

Yes, I've already added FCKEditor (version 2.xx ) which has that facility. It's the actual alphabetical listings I'm concerned about and I've already resigned myself to having a similar database possibly using Virtuemart with a link to the torrent download page.

I realise that not many people would require thumbnail graphics in torrents especially if they're used for used for piracy reasons, but but I'm sure lots of private users could find it useful.

I use a tracker for the last 4 years to share music bootlegs (not pirate) so i guess when people tell that trackers are all about warez i stay a little frustrated.

Regarding your issue, are you talking about having an image instead of the name of the torrent?

That can be achieved, I'll add it to the new features.

Thanks again for your very swift reply.

I'm suggesting an "optional" thumbnail as well at the Torrent title which is essential. If the thumbnail could be linked to a larger pic in the Torrent details, even better. (See at bottom.)

If you take your current Torrent listing as a starting point:

http://www.visigod.com/xbt-tracker-frontend/component-frontend/torrent-list

I'd like to see thumbnails of the Torrent contents (i.e. CD Cover around 100 x 100) rather than a thumbnail of the category. After people have reached this point of their search, they're probably not concerned about categories, but only the contents of the Torrent itself.

If you look at my Catalogue example:

http://trainzresources.com/directory/index.php?book_authors_id=69&typefilter=book_authors&main_page=index

A person who has entered "Beatles" as a search query for example, would see thumbnails of each Beatles album as well as a description. Most people would find it easier to scan the thumbnails for Yellow Submarine, rather than reading each description.

In the case of my Trainz site, "houses" come in many shapes. Any description would never be able to tell the user what the house actually looks like, but a thumbnail would.

Most shopping cart and catalogue programs offer this "optional" thumbnail feature in their product listings, but all the Torrent Trackers I've seen don't.

I'm using Zen Cart with an additional module called Image Handler2. I'm not sure it it's an open source script adapted for Zen Cart, or written especially for it. You may be able to adapt it to your script or come up with something similar if you want to go the whole hog.

The Zen Cart code can be downloaded here:

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&products_id=117

I realise it's a lot of work for a small niche, but maybe you enjoy the challenge.

Edit: I came across this site. It looks like it was written for Zen Cart: http://breakmyzencart.com/image-handler

Ok, I've now understood what you mean. It's possible to do it, just need to add an extra field to the torrent record and allow the upload of images.

I'll add it to the new features to develop list.

And then there's all the additonal code!

Thanks for considering it.

John

From a developer point of view it's not that hard. I just need to add a new field to the torrent table and allow the user to select an image to add to it (or link it to another site).

I also have a request for more fields from another user so right now I'm thinking in how to have additional fields without have to recode the component everytime.

Considering the number of Torrents I'm likely to have, I know I'm hoping for too much, but I do have my fingers crossed. With ZC, you're prompted for an image (which you can also ignore), and it uploads it from the selected folder to the directory of your choice. The same as FCKEditor does.

The Image Manager then makes two thumbnails on demand, the first in the listings, and a second on the detail page. That one is about 200 x 200 I think. The full size image is only displayed in a separate window if the user clicks that image.

I'll be happy just to have thumbnails which I can batch create, but it would be fantastic if the one image could be used in the listings as a thumbnail and a full size version in the detail page. I'm not fussed about the intermediate image because most people want to look at the full size one anyway. I make mine 350 x 350, which seem to be more than enough.

I haven checked how the VirtueMarket extension does it, but it possibly uses a similar method.

I have several other questions I need to ask, mainly due to my lack of knowledge when it comes to Torrents. Hopefully other users will also benefit from the answers. I'll ask them in the appropriate sections.

Thanks again.

I use that kind of code on another component I've made (private use only). It's a concert list for a band and I have the CD/DVD covers thumbnails on the details and the user can click on them to see the full size image.

I just need to adapt that principle to the com_tracker.