Feature:90144 Check for and use Amazon images


 * Feature:90144 Check for and use Amazon images OPEN One of the editors left a comment on how to get from the URL for an Amazon "Look Inside" image that has a white box around it and the arrow on top into the original image. It turns out that for a given ISBN, 0886777992 in this example, or ASIN you can use the URLs
 * http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0886777992.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg - large - limited to 400 pixels high and/or wide. http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0886777992.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
 * http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0886777992.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg - medium - seems to be 140 pixels high and/or wide. http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0886777992.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg
 * http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0886777992.01.THUMBZZZZZZZ.jpg - thumbnail - 60 pixels high and/or wide. http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0886777992.01.THUMBZZZZZZZ.jpg
 * This only works for images uploaded by the publisher or a dealer. It does not work for customer uploaded images. If you use an invalid ISBN/ASIN, or one that does not have a publisher/dealer image, then Amazon returns a 1x1 image. ISFDB could also check via AWS to see if the images exist. My thinking as a feature request would be to auto-check to see if an image is available, to display the medium by default, and when you click to link to either the large image or to the containing page. See the detailed notes page for a version that shows the images.  12:33, 14 Apr 2007 (CDT)

Another thing I've noticed is that the Amazon images disappear after a while (presumably after the book is no longer available new from the publisher). At that point, sometimes you can get a "customer-uploaded" image from Amazon, but the URL will be different and, as far as I can tell, not predictable. --WimLewis 13:47, 14 Apr 2007 (CDT)
 * Now that we have support for our own iamges, it may be better to download amazon images and upload them here. -DES Talk 15:12, 23 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Furthermore, the ZZZZZZ images turn out to display the most recent image for a given ASIN or ISBN; they therefore can and do change without warning when a new edition or printing with a different cover is released. (That is, the same URL may lead to a different image by a different artist.) This makes them undesirable for our purposes. From an actual amazon display page right-clicking a displayed cover image and chooseing "Copy Image Location" or 'Properties" will lead to an apparently more stable URL, but this does not appear to be predictable from the ASIN or ISBN, and so is not suitable for the sort of auto-mated check&insert requested above. I advise against implementing this proposed feature. I also advise against inserting any new ZZZZZZ URLs -- I routinely convert them when/if I notice them. -DES Talk 22:42, 2 September 2009 (UTC)