Own screenshot sharing service (on the knee in 20 minutes)

Good afternoon% habr%

Working in the JIRA / Redmine / basecamp / Wiki, there’s a familiar way of inserting an image :! Http: //blah.com/img.png! But free services, to one degree or another, do not allow working effectively.

Clip2net, for example, does not provide a direct link to a file, and it takes time to erase it from the page if there are 20 screenshots and each needs a URL ...

Gyazo on a free account is limited in time of use, the URL has to be modified by appending ".png" at the end , the pictures have a limited shelf life, and gyazo ads beyond which it is already difficult to find the screen itself is something.

The thought to use Dropbox prompted this comment. The idea seemed interesting to me and I sat down on my bike. DIY implementation of the "service" and the client part, with its pros and cons, under the cut.

Requirements

• Hot Key Launch
• Arbitrary area selection
• File name (like gyazo) as an MD5 hash
• Direct link to clipboard file
• PNG image format
• Ability to change settings

Logics

• System hotkey hook
• Launch a screenshot app
• Mark area
• Get the MD5 hash of the current timestamp
• Save file to Dropbox public folder
• Put link to file on clipboard

Instruments

• Dropbox - the famous file storage and synchronization service
• autoit - a task automation tool for Windows
• MiniCap - application for creating screenshots (understands the command line)

Configuration is done through editing config.ini in the directory with the program:
config.ini

[MAIN]
; куда сохранять файлы скринов
DBOX_DIR = "C:\Dropbox\Public\pic\"
; путь до приложения создающего скриншоты
CAP = "C:\Program Files\MiniCap\MiniCap.exe"
; часть внешнй ссылки (можно получить на странице Dropbox)
; пример http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2058666/pic/1c40b047e22875c8396b029b00ea9a14.png
DBOX_URL = "http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2058666/pic/"
; hotkey по которому делаем скриншот
shoot_key = "{PRINTSCREEN}"

Actually, AutoIT script:
BoxShoot.au3

#include  
$hotkey 	= IniRead("config.ini", "MAIN", "shoot_key", "NotFound")
$DBOX_DIR 	= IniRead("config.ini", "MAIN", "DBOX_DIR", "NotFound")
$DBOX_URL 	= IniRead("config.ini", "MAIN", "DBOX_URL", "NotFound")
$CAP 		= IniRead("config.ini", "MAIN", "CAP", "NotFound")
HotKeySet ( $hotkey, "SHOOT" )
TraySetToolTip("BoxShoot")
Opt("TrayMenuMode", 1)
$exititem = TrayCreateItem("Exit")
TraySetState()
While 1
    $msg = TrayGetMsg()
    Select
        Case $msg = 0
            ContinueLoop
        Case $msg = $exititem
            CLOSE()
    EndSelect
WEnd
Func SHOOT()
	$CurTime = @YEAR & "_" & @MON & "_" & @MDAY & "_" & @HOUR & "_" & @MIN & "_" & @SEC
	$hash = _Crypt_HashData($CurTime, $CALG_MD5)
	$result = StringTrimLeft($hash, 2)
	$fname = $result & ".png"
	$fname = StringLower($fname) 
	Run($CAP & " -captureregselect -exit -compress 7 -bordershadow -noaero -save " & $DBOX_DIR & $fname , "", @SW_MINIMIZE)
	ClipPut($DBOX_URL & $fname)
EndFunc
Func CLOSE()
	Exit 0
EndFunc

After starting, the program hangs in the tray, waiting for pressing PrintScreen.

It takes up 1.5mb in memory

Auto start - in manual mode, that is, through creating a shortcut in the "Start - Startup"

Statistics

Files: ~ 400
Volume: ~ 17mb
I have been using it since October 31.

I’m almost completely satisfied, the links do not look very nice, I’m thinking of screwing the URL shortener.

Bonus

Using scrot, xclip and a bit of Bash scripting - you can easily get an analog for your favorite * nix:

#!/bin/bash
F_NAME=`date +%s | md5sum | awk '{ print $1}'`'.png'
DBOX_DIR='/home/username/Dropbox/Public/pic/'
DBOX_URL='http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2058666/pic/'
S_NAME=$DBOX_DIR$F_NAME
scrot -s -q 0 $S_NAME
echo -n $DBOX_URL$F_NAME | xclip

It remains to fasten XBindKeys.

Source code and ready exe are available on GitHub

PS

DropBox ID changed for security reasons, I apologize to the poor fellow, whose ID appears in the scripts.