Thumbnailer

Thumbnailer is an ecosystem around thumbnails:

  1. a thumbnail generation service, i.e. a web application providing an API;
  2. tools to integrate the service in your favorite framework, i.e. template tag for Django;
  3. various recipes to easily generate, host and serve thumbnails, i.e. server configuration samples and deployment scripts.

Contents

About Thumbnailer

This document presents the vision of the Thumbnailer project, as shared by Authors and contributors.

Why thumbnailer?

Thumbnail generation is a feature often used on websites. As developers, we do not want:

  • to install and configure thumbnail-related modules, again and again, on every project we start.
  • to use a different solution for every framework we use to build a website.
  • to deal with deployment.
  • thumbnail generation to downgrade our overall website performance.
  • increase server’s memory just to be able to perform operations on images.

Moreover, as internauts, we do not want:

  • to manually edit images before we publish them.
  • to install some image edition software just to create thumbnails.

That’s why we need a thumbnail generation service.

Some Alternatives exist, but Thumbnailer has the following valuable features:

  • Open-source. It can be used to create a hosted thumbnail service (saas), but you are also free to deploy it on your own infrastructure if you want.
  • Extensible. Create, plug and configure Engines, Writers and Readers.
  • Full ecosystem. If you want to manage your own thumbnail generation service, Thumbnailer provides ready-to-use recipes, including thumbnail generation, serving, caching...
  • Generate thumbnails out of almost any document. Input can be images, PDF files, HTML pages, ...

However, this version of is still a proof of concept: all features aren’t available yet.

Development status

Thumbnailer is under active development.

Currently, Thumbnailer project may contain parts of the ecosystem, so that it forms a product. Later, this project may be limited to the glue between ecosystem parts, these components being shipped as external projects.

Features

This document presents features of the Thumbnailer project.

As described in About Thumbnailer, the project is an ecosystem made of several components. So some features are, in fact, features of ecosystem parts.

Key features

  • Open source;
  • Simple but powerful API;
  • Extensible;
  • Easy to deploy.

Specifications

Feature: Get a thumbnail
  To get a thumbnail of an image
  As a user
  I want to send access an url and get my thumbnail

  Scenario: With an image to resize into a box
    Given /<engine>/?url=<url>&width=<width>&height=<height>
	When I access the api url
	Then I get my image at max size <width>x<height>
    
	Examples:
      | engine    | url												| width | height |
      | scale     | http://localhost:8000/images/horizontal.jpg 	|  800  |  600   |
      | scale     | http://localhost:8000/images/vertical.jpg		|  200  |  300   |
      | scale	  | http://localhost:8000/images/vertical.jpg		|  200  |    0   |
      | scale     | http://localhost:8000/images/vertical.jpg		|    0  |  200   |
      | document  | http://localhost:8000/documents/document.pdf	|  500  |  500   |

  Scenario: With an image to crop
    Given /<engine>/?url=<url>&width=<width>&height=<height>
	When I access the api url
	Then I get my image at size <width>x<height>
    
	Examples:
      | engine    | url                                         	| width | height |
      | crop      | http://localhost:8000/images/horizontal.jpg 	|  800  |  600   |
      | crop      | http://localhost:8000/images/vertical.jpg   	|  200  |  300   |
      | upscale   | http://localhost:8000/images/horizontal.jpg 	|  600  |  600   |
      | upscale   | http://localhost:8000/images/vertical.jpg   	|  600  |  500   |

Architecture

This document presents typical architecture components of the Thumbnailer ecosystem.

Thumbnail generation service

This is Thumbnailer‘s core.

As input or configuration, the thumbnail generation service uses:

  • a reader: gets the original resource and passes it as adequate input to the engine. Example: read an image identified by an URL. Learn more at Readers.
  • an engine: transforms the input. Example: resize an image. Learn more at Engines.
  • engine parameters: options that the engine understands. Example: width and height of the thumbnail.
  • a writer: puts the result of the operation somewhere. Example: returns the thumbnail in an HTTP response. Learn more at Writers.

Thumbnails cache

Optional (but strongly recommended) component to improve performance and scalability.

If a thumbnail already exists in cache, serve it from cache.

When a new thumbnail is generated, store it in cache.

Asynchronous thumbnail generation

Optional components to be able to generate thumbnails asynchronously.

Provider

Emits requests of asynchronous thumbnail generation.

Broker

The brokers holds the queue of thumbnails to generate.

Worker

Consumes the broker’s queue, communicates with the thumbnail generation service.

Readers

The thumbnail generation service uses readers to retrieve original documents. Readers return document in an adequate format for Engines.

Available readers:

  • default reader: reads an image identified by an URL. Returns a PIL.Image ressource.

Engines

The thumbnail generation service uses engines to transform original documents into thumbnails. Engines take input from Readers, process them then pass result to Writers.

Engines also accept parameters. Typical parameters are width and height of the thumbnail.

Available engines

scale

Scale the input image to enter the box, if either width or height are empty, it will scale to fit provided value.

> curl -o thumb_scale.png 'http://localhost:5000/scale/?url=http://localhost:8000/images/horizontal.jpg&width=200&height=150'

< 200 OK + image/png thumb with max size 200x150
crop

Crop the input image at the right size.

> curl -o thumb_crop.png 'http://localhost:5000/crop/?url=http://localhost:8000/images/horizontal.jpg&width=200&height=150'

< 200 OK + image/png thumb with a center crop at size 200x150
upscale

Upscale the input image if it is too little for a crop.

> curl -o thumb_upscale.png 'http://localhost:5000/upscale/?url=http://localhost:8000/images/horizontal.jpg&width=200&height=150'

< 200 OK + image/png thumb with an upscale crop at size 200x150
document

Thumb a PDF file at the wanted size:

> curl -o thumb_pdf.png 'http://localhost:5000/document/?url=http://localhost:8000/document/document.pdf&width=200&height=150'

< 200 OK + image/png thumb with an upscale crop at max size 200x150

Writers

The thumbnail generation service uses writers to return thumbnails. Writers take result of Engines as input, and:

  • actually put thumbnail content somewhere, typically in an HTTP response, but could be on some storage.
  • return response to client, i.e. inform client of success or failure of the request.

Available writers:

  • default writer: gets a PIL.Image and returns a HTTP response.

Installation

This document covers deployment of Thumbnailer [1] project.

OS specific

Here are repcipes for specific operating systems. They should help you go fast or automate installation procedure.

Debian

The first lines in the following sh commands define some variables. Adapt them to your needs.

# Define some variables.
thumbnailer_dir=~/thumbnailer  # Installation directory.
thumbnailer_venv_dir=${thumbnailer_dir}  # Virtualenv
upstream_url="git://github.com/Natim/Thumbnailer.git"  # Main repository.
fork_url=${upstream_url}  # Your fork.
system-install() {  # Shortcut for system package installer.
  su -c "aptitude install --without-recommends ${*}";
}

# Install base system dependencies.
system-install git-core python-virtualenv
# Download project.
git clone ${fork_url} ${thumbnailer_dir}
# Create a virtualenv and activate it.
virtualenv ${thumbnailer_dir}
cd ${thumbnailer_dir}
source bin/activate
# Install core.
cd src/thumbnailer.core/
python setup.py develop
cd ${thumbnailer_dir}
# Install images engine.
system-install libjpeg8 libjpeg8-dev libfreetype6 libfreetype6-dev
system-install python-dev
pip install PIL
cd src/thumbnailer.engines.images/
python setup.py develop
cd ${thumbnailer_dir}
# Install documents engine.
system-install rubygems graphicsmagick poppler-utils pdftk ghostscript
su -c "gem install docsplit"
pip install -U pip  # Recent version of pip is required.
pip install git+https://github.com/anderser/pydocsplit@dev#egg=pydocsplit
cd src/thumbnailer.engines.documents/
python setup.py develop
cd ${thumbnailer_dir}

# Done!
# Run the server.
make provider_server

Generic guidelines

System requirements
Base
Provider (server)
Images engine
Documents engine
Get the source
git clone git@github.com:Natim/Thumbnailer.git
Install Python packages

Install thumbnailer.core, thumbnailer.engines.images and thumbnailer.engines.documents in your Python environment.

You can use setup.py files provided at:

  • src/thumbnailer.core/setup.py
  • src/thumbnailer.engines.images/setup.py
  • src/thumbnailer.engines.documents/setup.py
Run

Use the provided Makefile to run the server:

make runserver

By default, Thumbnailer’s serves:

Development guidelines

This section is about contributing to the Thumbnailer project.

Table of contents

Install a development environment

Here are guidelines to get a development environment.

  • You should create a ticket on Thumbnailer’s bugtracker [1] before you fork and hack. Maybe someone already has a solution to your problem or feature request ;)

  • Fork original repository if you plan to perform a pull request.

  • Install Thumbnailer, as explained in Installation, except you use your fork’s URL.

  • Install additional Python development tools:

    pip install sphinx lettuce
    
  • Run tests:

    make test
    
  • Contribute:

    • work in a separate branch, i.e. not in master. Prefix your branch name with the bugtracker’s ticket number, so that we can identify it quickly.
    • hack, test, commit and pull request...
Generic guidelines
Dependencies
  • Python-2.7. You may use a virtual environment.
Install
# Download project from original repository... or use your own fork.
git clone https://github.com/Natim/Thumbnailer.git
cd Thumbnailer/
# Install Thumbnailer base with zc.buildout.
python lib/buildout/bootstrap.py --distribute
bin/buildout -N
# Install standard development tools.
bin/buildout -N install development
# That's all!
Testing

How to run and write tests for Thumbnailer.

Run tests
bin/lettuce
Contributing to the documentation

This document presents documentation conventions and tools.

This documentation uses Python-sphinx [1]. It uses reStructuredText [2] syntax.

Conventions
Language

The documentation is written in english.

Line length

Limit all lines to a maximum of 79 characters whenever possible. Exceptions can be long URL or some literal blocks.

Headings

Follow the Sphinx’s recommendation about sections [3].

As an example:

##################
H1: document title
##################

*********
Sample H2
*********

Sample H3
=========

Sample H4
---------

And sample text.

If you need more than H4, then consider creating a new document.

Code blocks

Use the code-block directive and explicitely specify the programming language.

As an example:

.. code-block:: python

  import this
Install Sphinx

Python-sphinx [1] installation is covered in Install a development environment.

In other cases, please refer to Python-sphinx [1] documentation.

Export documentation to HTML

Go to docs/ folder in Thumbnailer project and use the provided Makefile:

cd docs/
make html
cd ..

HTML documentation is exported to docs/_build/html/.

Doctests

This documentation uses the Sphinx’s doctest extension [4].

Write doctests

Here is a RST code sample to write doctests.

.. doctest::

   >>> print "Hello world!"
   Hello world!

See Sphinx’s doctest extension [4] and Python’s doctest [5] documentations for details.

Run doctests

Go to docs/ folder in Thumbnailer project and use the provided Makefile:

cd docs/
make doctests
cd ..

License

GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

Version 3, 29 June 2007

Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. <http://fsf.org/> Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

This version of the GNU Lesser General Public License incorporates the terms and conditions of version 3 of the GNU General Public License, supplemented by the additional permissions listed below.

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An “Application” is any work that makes use of an interface provided by the Library, but which is not otherwise based on the Library. Defining a subclass of a class defined by the Library is deemed a mode of using an interface provided by the Library.

A “Combined Work” is a work produced by combining or linking an Application with the Library. The particular version of the Library with which the Combined Work was made is also called the “Linked Version”.

The “Minimal Corresponding Source” for a Combined Work means the Corresponding Source for the Combined Work, excluding any source code for portions of the Combined Work that, considered in isolation, are based on the Application, and not on the Linked Version.

The “Corresponding Application Code” for a Combined Work means the object code and/or source code for the Application, including any data and utility programs needed for reproducing the Combined Work from the Application, but excluding the System Libraries of the Combined Work.

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If you modify a copy of the Library, and, in your modifications, a facility refers to a function or data to be supplied by an Application that uses the facility (other than as an argument passed when the facility is invoked), then you may convey a copy of the modified version:

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