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Answered: Discussion Open

State DOT traffic cameras

Jeff Todd 7 years ago in Media Tiles / Weather & Traffic • updated by Lance 7 years ago • 7

I think I know the answer to this but I'm going to post anyway.  I'm trying to set up live traffic feeds with no luck.   All the state camera links in Connecticut are "https", not "http".


Am I correct in thinking that ActionTiles does not support "https" media feeds?


Thanks, Jeff

Waiting for Customer
Terry (ActionTiles) (Co-Founder) 7 years ago

There should be no problem with "https://"... In fact, it's very much preferred.


Please list a few example feeds that you find are not working. What type of streams are they? ActionTiles will currently only embed MJPEG sreams (or still images or GIF).

Jeff Todd 7 years ago

Hi Terry, thanks for the reply.   Below is a link to one of the State traffic cams. It works and updates fine with Chrome but doesn't seem to work with ActionTiles.  I'm not sure of the format though.


https://cttravelsmart.org/map/Cctv/404452--1#1512845231708


Answered: Discussion Open
Terry (ActionTiles) (Co-Founder) 7 years ago

That URL does not open for me in Chrome.


But this one does:

https://cttravelsmart.org/map/Cctv/404307--1#1512846253604

(but it doesn't embed, due to rules from the source...)


I believe that the problem is the "#1512846253604" portion. This is formatted as an in-page "bookmark", but it really isn't a bookmark. And/or, actually, the source site is just "forbidding" stealing the image, which is a very common and reasonable practice. It's not your image to steal!


cttravelsmart.org/map/Cctv/404307--1#1512846567724?rand=1512846669556:1 GET https://cttravelsmart.org/map/Cctv/404307--1 403 (Forbidden)
Image (async)

https://www.google.com/search?q=html+error+403


BTW: To paste a URL and not have it expanded in a Forum post, use the "code" formatting option on the formatting bar:



Jeff Todd 7 years ago

Ok but I'm still a little confused.  Is there anything I can do to get the links to work?  Can they be edited to work with ActionTiles?


https://cttravelsmart.org/map/Cctv/404452--1#1512849841936
https://cttravelsmart.org/map/Cctv/404450--1#1512849888904
https://cttravelsmart.org/map/Cctv/404366--1#1512849924031
Terry (ActionTiles) (Co-Founder) 7 years ago

I doubt these can be used.


There likely are two blocking techniques in effect:

  1. Hotlink Theft protection. Read about it here: http://altlab.com/hotlinking.html
  2. Image cache breaking (the #1551123...), which changes the URL periodically, thus making embedded old ones obsolete after a period of time. We have no way to refresh these.
+1
Sean Miller 7 years ago

I struggled with this for a few days. What I found best is to use the Still Image - GIF and have it refresh every 2 or 3 seconds. 


If you don't need absolute real-time this is the best way to go. 

Lance 7 years ago

I'm guessing that sources like these cannot be used. Is that the case?


http://mobile.gatewayguide.com/docs/camerasRoute.aspx?route=55

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