Embed externally hosted pictures into post(s)

[Robinhood]

In the previous incarnation of the forum, it was possible to embed externally hosted pictures into a post, allowing for quality illustrations without using up the somewhat limited amount of space allocated for image (file) uploads on the new forum.

I can't find any way of doing that on the new forum, though it would appear that the Invision software does have that capability, but might need a plugin enabling.

Would it be possible to enable such a feature (or if it is already available, can someone advise me of the method)? 

[Derek Uzzell]

I did come across something about this on the Invision Community forum, but the thread was several years old. It seemed that, when selecting a file to attach to a posting, when clicking on the "Other Media" button  it used to be possible to specify the URL of where the file was held.

However, for the O&AL forum, clicking on the "Other Media" button only causes "Insert  existing attachment" to display. When I chose "Insert  existing attachment", I was startled to be presented with 188 pages with 12 attachments per page (that's 2256 attachments!) and, as there's a Search facility, this MIGHT be useful to me in future now that I know about it.

I remember that, on the previous O&AL forum, some people included in their posts images held on Photobucket or Dropbox as there was a real incentive to do this then with the maximum file-size for attachments being 100kb. (I never felt a need to do this myself.)

Hopefully one of the Warners techies can comment.

[Robinhood]

I've also come across the same information, Derek. I suspect the facility is only available if the forum software has one or a number of "plug-ins" installed and/or enabled.

Whilst the new forum is less prescriptive on the size of attachments, there appears to be a maximum total amount of storage allocated per user for attachments. Posting larger attachments could defray this quite quickly, and so the ability to embed an image externally hosted is of some interest.

[Derek Uzzell]

I notice that, in 2022, you mentioned it not being practicable with the Invision Community version of the O&AL forums to post pictures via links to an external site as used to be possible with the superseded O&AL forum.

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/topic/54857-two-go-mad-post-pandemic-the-trip-log-returns/

This 2023 thread on the COMBAT PILOT forum may be of interest

https://forum.combatpilot.com/topic/68-images/

and, as I understand the May 24, 2023 posting from wheels-up_cavu, (copied below)  an Invision Community forum Administrator should (may?) be able to address this issue just by enabling the "Insert image from URL" choice in the Other Media 'box'.

(I don't know which of the Administrators is tasked with technical oversight of the O&AL forums nowadays. It used to be PaulD, but it may now be MichaelR as his last forum visit was 18 hours ago.)