html email image links - help

2blue4u

2blue4u

Messages
3,769
Name
John
Edit My Images
Yes
I've never managed to master this and yet I know it can be done.

I have the html code for a small animated graphic to be included in an email.

When I construct the email, I see the graphic but it doesn't animate. But the recipient only sees a square outline with some text within. And yet, the underlying link does work correctly.

Any idea how to get the animated graphic to work for the recipient?

Thanks
 
you need to show what you have so it can be corrected...


Plus not all email recipients will see html or graphics... my email client has been set to text only for 20 years and its impossible for me to get a virus or infected by email (unless i was stupid enough to open an attachment)
 
Last edited:
2blue4u said:
I've never managed to master this and yet I know it can be done.

I have the html code for a small animated graphic to be included in an email.

When I construct the email, I see the graphic but it doesn't animate. But the recipient only sees a square outline with some text within. And yet, the underlying link does work correctly.

Any idea how to get the animated graphic to work for the recipient?

Thanks
Click to expand...

When it is working on your computer, where is the actual graphic?

Look at a text dump of the html code, is it referring to the graphic at say www.blah.com/graphic.gif.....

If it does refer to it locally try uploading the gif to a site and referring to the actual location in the email.
 
That was quick!

I suspect that the code is correct. I was reluctant to post the code in case someone thought I was pimping :nono: But I've encountered this problem in the past with different images and links for differing purposes.

Today's problem centres around this html code:


<a href="http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-4057355-10423449">
<img src="http://www.lduhtrp.net/image-4057355-10423449" width="125" height="125" alt="MyFax.com - Faxing Simplified" border="0"/></a>
 
change your code to this and it will work...

<a href="http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-4057355-10423449">
<img src="http://www.yceml.net/0153/10423449-5.gif" width="125" height="125" alt="MyFax.com - Faxing Simplified" border="0"/></a>

You needed to point to the actual .gif file and not a link to the .gif file
 
Last edited:
I have copied it into a text file and dropped it onto firefox and it works fine although it took about 6 seconds before the graphic appeared and just showed a place holder with the text until then
 
KIPAX said:
change your code to this and it will work...

<a href="http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-4057355-10423449">
<img src="http://www.yceml.net/0153/10423449-5.gif" width="125" height="125" alt="MyFax.com - Faxing Simplified" border="0"/></a>

You needed to point to the actual .gif file and not a link to the .gif file
Click to expand...

Thanks. That does work.

The first version is what I was provided with :shrug:
 
It's because the server is implementing an HTTP 302 redirection.

Using a transcript of a session with telnet to demonstrate, this is what happens when you attempt to fetch the URL http://www.lduhtrp.net/image-4057355-10423449

telnet www.lduhtrp.net 80
Trying 63.215.202.74...
Connected to track.cj.akadns.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET /image-4057355-10423449 HTTP/1.1
Host: www.lduhtrp.net

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Server: Resin/3.1.8
P3P: policyref="http://www.lduhtrp.net/w3c/p3p.xml", CP="ALL BUS LEG DSP COR ADM CUR DEV PSA OUR NAV INT"
Cache-control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma: no-cache
Expires: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 20:23:04 GMT
Location: http://www.yceml.net/0153/10423449-5.gif
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 78
Connection: close
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 20:23:04 GMT

The URL has moved <a href="http://www.yceml.net/0153/10423449-5.gif">here</a>
Connection closed by foreign host.
Click to expand...

What the HTTP client should do next is make a new request to fetch the data from the new URL.

It may be that some mail applications' built-in HTTP clients don't bother doing that (possibly to keep the code footprint small) so what they attempt to display is the redirection notice as an image - which ain't going to work.

edit: putting the final destination URL [www.yceml.net/0153/10423449-5.gif] will work, but there's always the risk that it may eventually break - the one you were originally supplied is probably a pointer to a resource that could move somewhere else at a later point in time.
 
Last edited:
KIPAX said:
my email client has been set to text only for 20 years
Click to expand...

20 years ago there were no HTML mail clients. In fact there were no HTTP servers or clients either and so no www ....

Email should all be in plain text, of course.
 
Musicman said:
It's because the server is implementing an HTTP 302 redirection.

Using a transcript of a session with telnet to demonstrate, this is what happens when you attempt to fetch the URL http://www.lduhtrp.net/image-4057355-10423449

>gobbledegook stuff

What the HTTP client should do next is make a new request to fetch the data from the new URL.

It may be that some mail applications' built-in HTTP clients don't bother doing that (possibly to keep the code footprint small) so what they attempt to display is the redirection notice as an image - which ain't going to work.

edit: putting the final destination URL [www.yceml.net/0153/10423449-5.gif] will work, but there's always the risk that it may eventually break - the one you were originally supplied is probably a pointer to a resource that could move somewhere else at a later point in time.
Click to expand...


I think I understand about 2% of that :thinking:

I've just tested the html code on a phpforum I have control over and it worked fine. I think I'm picking up from your post (thank you) that this is a problem that only appears with emails and doesn't manifest itself when used on/in web pages, forums and blogs.

I sort of figured the last part (your edit) myself. I think I'll place the .gif somewhere under my control, at least for use in the occasional email.

This now gives me the clue I need to sort out email-related link problems I encountered and then ignored from the last four years :bonk:

Thank you, Rob
 
the internet is over 30 yrs old
Click to expand...

True

KIPAX said:
the www is over 20 yrs old...
Click to expand...

Marginally false

Tim Berners-Lee had the idea in private development in mid 1990 (he'd been kicking the idea around for a year or so) but first aired his concept at a developer conference in September 1990. His got his first http server working in December 1990.

It was only in August 1991 that he published the work, including the first, simple text-only web browser, and made the code available the on alt.hypertext Usenet group and other people started using it.

He had settled on the name World Wide Web by May 1990, but in August 1990 there were no working http servers and no web browsers.

edit: I first got my hands on the first popular web browser, NCSA Mosaic, in about October 1993.
 
Last edited:
so 19 yrs old then... jeeze man.. My original statement still stands that my email has been on text only for over 20 yrs... plus I may come back to you on the 20yr bit.... you cant trust wikpedo you know :)
 
I wouldn't attempted to put an animation in an HTML email if I were you, most email clients won't display it, or will only display the first frame.

Plus, they're annoying.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top