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Getting thumbnails for *all* file types...is it possible?

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8 comments

  • tillkrueger

    I did see this post by Priyajeet, which - to me - looks like it's a solution to my problem, but my developer tells me that this is only for image/video thumbnails...is this really true? it appears to me that the OP had exactly the same problem as I do, and then said that this is exactly what he was looking for...so which is it? does this solution cover *all* file-types or not?

    by Priyajeet:

    Working example

    https://codepen.io/box-platform/pen/WEwXQy

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  • LoCortes

    Hello ,

     

    if you check here https://developer.box.com/reference#get-a-thumbnail-for-a-file you will find a disclaimer clearly stating "Thumbnails are only available for images and video file formats. You can also specify min=max in order to guarantee the thumbnail size requested."

     

    Said that, there's a pretty brand new (maybe some weeks?) feature called representations. You can see that the list of supported formats is much longer now. Check here: https://developer.box.com/reference-edit/fetching-a-thumbnail-representation

     

    Documents

    'doc', 'docx', 'gdoc', 'gsheet', 'gslide', 'gslides', 'odp', 'ods', 'odt', 'pdf', 'ppt', 'pptx', 'rtf', 'wpd', 'xls', 'xlsm', 'xlsx', 'key', 'pages', 'numbers'

    Images

    'ai', 'bmp', 'gif', 'eps', 'jpeg', 'jpg', 'png', 'ps', 'psd', 'svg', 'tif', 'tiff', 'dcm', 'dicm', 'svs', 'tga'

    Audio

    'aac', 'aifc', 'aiff', 'amr', 'au', 'flac', 'm4a', 'mp3', 'ogg', 'ra', 'wav', 'wma'

    Video

    '3g2', '3gp', 'avi', 'm2v', 'm2ts', 'm4v', 'mkv', 'mov', 'mp4', 'mpeg', 'mpg', 'ogg', 'mts', 'qt', 'wmv'

     

    Regards,

     

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  • tillkrueger

    thank you, LoCortes, for this clarification!

    like I said, I am not a developer, so forgive me for asking:
    what is the difference between thumbnails and representations, if I may ask?

    but I did forward your reply to my developer and hope that he can make sense of this and make it work...the file-types listed in that link go a looong way (if not all the way) toward what I was hoping could be done.

    as far as I am concerned, your link provides the answer I was looking and hoping for...I just hope that my developer can actually make it work for retrieving the thumbnails we need.

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  • LoCortes

    Hello  ,

     

    basically, the thumbnails was the simple representation for images and videos, as your developer said, that BOX has provided always.

     

    Lately, a weeks ago, they have created this concept of representation that goes much further. "Representations" allow to convert to PDF on the fly certain types of documents, generate thumbnails from others, retrieve single pages of a document with hundreds of them... so they allow now, not only retrieve the documents the way they are but do some processing to them.

     

    Actually, I discovered it because we have the need of converting to PDF and to retrieve single pages and was a great surprise.

     

    I hope this helps you to solve the issue you were facing 😉

     

    Regards

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  • tillkrueger

    that does sound exciting and like what I was hoping would be possible.

    Since my developer told me that he sees no record or documentation of such possibilities, would you be so kind as to give me a URL where these new representations are documented? a search for "representation" in the developer area comes up empty, curiously.

    so by the sound of it, not only are thumbnails possible for all of the listed file-types but much more than that? (on the fly conversion and extractions from multi-page docs?)

    thanks so much for you help with this LoCortes, much appreciated!

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  • LoCortes

    Hello ,

     

    all the info is in the box reference URL 🙂

     

    I shared the specific one to the representations: https://developer.box.com/reference-edit/fetching-a-thumbnail-representation

     

    That is the API reference website where everything is explained.

     

    Regards

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  • tillkrueger

    when I send this link to my developer, all he replies with is "please understand in that link they just said it supports but they didn't explain the way".

    could it be that he is simply unable to understand how to use the Box API properly? I don't understand what other info he is looking for or what other info is necessary to implement these representations.

    I know your role is not to educate other programmers, LoCortes, but should I be looking for another developer to help me with this? I have a feeling that mine has reached his limit.

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  • tillkrueger

    again, I don't expect anyone here to tell my developer how exactly to do it, but he sent me this photo of what he has done, and asked whether I can post it to see whether anyone can see anything wrong with this.

    My gut-feeling, like I said, is that he has reached his limit and that I may have to go to Upwork and look for someone more familiar with the Box API...he is an inexpensive PHP guy that kinda hacks his way through my requirements, but maybe this is where this buck stops:

    Box-code_Arun_01.jpg

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