Tool to use Google Drive Images in TheFretboard Classifieds

StephenB · September 2023

Hi folks!

I know that many people (including myself) struggle with embedding images on their ads in the Classifieds section, so I thought I'd make a really basic online tool that can be used to generate embed-able links from Google Drive Links.

Let's get started.

What you need:

1) A Google Account

2) A nice Guitar or something that you want to sell/list so people on TFB can post thirsty comments about it and offer trades instead of hard cash money (guilty!).

Steps:

1) Upload your images to your Google Drive (http://drive.google.com/ ) . I usually create a new folder for each of the things I want to sell, it just makes things a bit more organised. To make a Folder > Rightclick and click 'Add folder'

2) Once you have your folder with the images uploaded, click on the Folder, click Share, go to the options and set access to 'Anyone with the link' and ensure the right hand side says 'Viewer'

3) Open The link below to the Google Sheets tool (The Fretboard Google Drive Image Tool, or "FGDIT" - pronounced FUG DIT, which is similar to something else I say when uploading images here) that I made to reformat the links:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gYLMw0wDsvAawJqcZXAuiblQ3h79H0mQrgLjRbpXkCg/edit?usp=sharing

Click File > Make a Copy or if you have Excel or another editor, just download the .xlsx file. Keep this open.

4) In Google Drive, Copy the links for your images individually, by clicking the three dots next to the image, clicking Share and then clicking Copy link

Image: https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1EMyXHO-Ob3htMJzcOUioqzEU1HQhrrOi

5) Paste the copied link into Column A of the FGDIT tool, another link should appear in column B - you can do up to 100 links at once

Image: https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1KCxdJWpU5AF35zNAdk2zl94knrVgdMdM

6) Copy the link from column B and paste it into the Image embed feature on Thefretboard

Image: https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1vyRC8iXlMT8zTFzClngW1z5MUIrcfU0f

7) Repeat with all links. You can keep copying and pasting and the images will appear one after the other in the listing.

I hope that this guide and the FGDIT tool will help someone sell that special guitar!

If I've missed anything here, or something isn't working, please let me know and i'll try to help!

Cheers,

Stephen

TTony · September 2023

Or ....

Subscribe and (a) get free and easy drag-and-drop image uploads and (b) contribute to the running costs of the forum.

The issue with *all* of the "free" image hosting services is that they regularly change their terms of service (free becomes not free), and/or functionality (worked yesterday, doesn't work today), or even just disappears completely. Plus, what you think works, doesn't always, or for everyone, or without annoying pop-ups. You test it on your set-up (device, OS version, browser), but those images aren't always visible on a different combination, or on the next OS version, or without clearing multiple pop-ups first.

Anyone remember Picasa? Or FotoFucket. Or free Flickr?

I say that because I put a lot of time into defining "how to" for the typical image hosts and platform combinations. But that was outdated pretty quickly when the host changed their service, or a new OS version was released, or (etc).

StephenB · September 2023

TTony said:

Or ....

Subscribe and (a) get free and easy drag-and-drop image uploads and (b) contribute to the running costs of the forum.

The issue with *all* of the "free" image hosting services is that they regularly change their terms of service (free becomes not free), and/or functionality (worked yesterday, doesn't work today), or even just disappears completely. Plus, what you think works, doesn't always, or for everyone, or without annoying pop-ups. You test it on your set-up (device, OS version, browser), but those images aren't always visible on a different combination, or on the next OS version, or without clearing multiple pop-ups first.

Anyone remember Picasa? Or FotoFucket. Or free Flickr?

I say that because I put a lot of time into defining "how to" for the typical image hosts and platform combinations. But that was outdated pretty quickly when the host changed their service, or a new OS version was released, or (etc).

Fair enough, point taken, I obviously didn't think of subscription when writing this, just wanted a solution to a problem that I was having at that moment and figured it might help someone else in the same position.

pt22 · September 2023

Sorry this is way more complicated than Imgur album and copying the direct link. It’s very straightforward and there are easily searchable instructions on the site.

Or, yes, subscribe.

GoldenEraGuitars · September 2023

A subscription is about £4 a month, it allows you to add a picture in about 20 seconds with about 3-4 clicks.

Given that there are no listing or selling fees (classifieds is free to use) I think £4 is a bargain if you wanna sell a guitar, amp or pedal.

TTony · September 2023

To clarify my post last night - and with apologies to @StephenB - I didn't mean to dismiss his guidance or the time/effort he put into creating that guide.

But we've seen it repeatedly with all the hosts, and platform OS or browser updates - a process may work today, but they invariably break sooner or later, or may break for someone using an Android device and Firefox but not for someone else using a PC and Chrome, unless the PC user is still on Windows 10, or they forget to close all south facing windows and make sure that Planet Rock isn't playing on next door's digital radio (streaming via the app is fine) before they try to upload something ...

Alternatively, as noted above, the upload facility for subscribers (which StephenB now is) is as-simple-as.

roberty · September 2023

I might have look at it. My phone camera syncs to Google photos and I pay a little bit for Google cloud storage. My current workflow is Google -> Imgur

fretfinder · September 2023

pt22 said: Or, yes, subscribe.

TTony said: Alternatively, as noted above, the upload facility for subscribers (which StephenB now is) is as-simple-as.

I’m a subscriber but I keep getting the message ‘pic to large’ when trying to post something. And at that point it’s quicker and easier to go back to good ol’ Imgur rather than have the faff of turning the iPhone pic into a jpeg and reducing the size and then trying to upload it again.

TTony · September 2023

@fretfinder ;

There's a limit on the file size you can upload - it's ~2mb/file.

It's a balance between the subscription rate and the cost of storage that comes with that rate, which is modelled down to a file size per upload (obviously lots of assumptions/variables in that calculation).

I just reduce the size/quality of the files I upload here, which isn't hard, rather than uploading the original photo.

GoldenEraGuitars · September 2023

fretfinder said:

pt22 said: Or, yes, subscribe.

TTony said: Alternatively, as noted above, the upload facility for subscribers (which StephenB now is) is as-simple-as.

I’m a subscriber but I keep getting the message ‘pic to large’ when trying to post something. And at that point it’s quicker and easier to go back to good ol’ Imgur rather than have the faff of turning the iPhone pic into a jpeg and reducing the size and then trying to upload it again.

If doing it from an iPhone click on “show selected/actual size” and change it to medium or large. That way the image is usually under 1mb

fretfinder · September 2023

TTony said:

@fretfinder ;;

There's a limit on the file size you can upload - it's ~2mb/file.

It's a balance between the subscription rate and the cost of storage that comes with that rate, which is modelled down to a file size per upload (obviously lots of assumptions/variables in that calculation).

I just reduce the size/quality of the files I upload here, which isn't hard, rather than uploading the original photo.

I’m aware there’s a size limit. Digitalscream was talking about possibly increasing it to 3mb.

If you’re on iPhone/iPad, how do you reduce the size /quality of a photo and turn it into a jpeg? I email it to myself and then resave it but that’s rather laborious, compared with the relative simplicity of using Imgur.

stickyfiddle · September 2023

I subscribe and still use Imgur just because I'm in the habit. But honestly using Google/Dropbox/facebook/icloud is such a pain I'm amazed people ever do it

GoldenEraGuitars · September 2023

@fretfinder i have detailed this in my last post

GoldenEraGuitars · September 2023

Offset · September 2023

TTony said:

Or ....

Subscribe and (a) get free and easy drag-and-drop image uploads and (b) contribute to the running costs of the forum.

For less than the price of a pint of beer each month (in fact considerably less these days), subscription is a total no-brainer.

roberty · September 2023

stickyfiddle said:

I subscribe and still use Imgur just because I'm in the habit

Yeah same. "Repetitive and restrictive behaviour"

GoldenEraGuitars · September 2023

Offset said:

TTony said:

Or ....

Subscribe and (a) get free and easy drag-and-drop image uploads and (b) contribute to the running costs of the forum.

For less than the price of a pint of beer each month (in fact considerably less these days), subscription is a total no-brainer.

For the non drinkers here (HAHAHAHAHAHA) it’s less than any Heinz products right now

roberty · September 2023

You can lob the end off those Drive URLs with forumula:

=mid(A1,1,len(A1)-20)

Where A1 is the URL

It's a little more fragile but Google could change anything tomorrow without warning

57Deluxe · September 2023

I post to my Pinterest page and link that to the Fetboard

fretfinder · September 2023

GoldenEraGuitars said:

@fretfinder i have detailed this in my last post

Thanks!

Lebarque · September 2023

Great band but what are they doing in the classifieds?

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Tool to use Google Drive Images in TheFretboard Classifieds

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