Update 4: 19 November 2025
The Imgur problem is now officially solved... for real!
I couldn't help it. I went ahead and completed this task:
I want to update the links directly in the SQL database but there is no rush for this. I'll have to be careful here. I may end up doing this later as part of other database maintenance work that might be needed.
And I reverted this one:
I have added some code that replaces the Imgur links with the new PianoTell one.
So now the links are all updated in the database and this work is complete.
Update 3: 18 November 2025
The Imgur problem is now officially solved!
DONE:
- I've now copied all of the images from Imgur to cdn-01.pianotell.com. CDN is short for content delivery network. Here's an example of the old image location versus new home:
https://I.imgur.com/5xzuDBT.jpeg -> https://cdn-01.pianotell.com/imgur/5xzuDBT.jpeg
- I've disabled Imgur uploads.
- I've enabled uploads direct to PianoTell. New images will now be safe going forward and will be accessible worldwide. If you want to test this, post pictures of your pianos here.
- I have added some code that replaces the Imgur links with the new PianoTell one. You should be seeing this gradually taking effect once cache expires or you reload the pages.
NOT DONE YET:
- I want to update the links directly in the SQL database but there is no rush for this. I'll have to be careful here. I may end up doing this later as part of other database maintenance work that might be needed.
Here's a quick test of the new PianoTell image uploader.
Here's a run down of some of the technical details of the migration.
Update 2: 17 November 2025
DONE:
- I've copied the bulk of the images (except for the past week) from Imgur to cdn-01.pianotell.com. CDN is short for content delivery network. Here's an example of the old image location versus new home:
https://I.imgur.com/5xzuDBT.jpeg -> https://cdn-01.pianotell.com/imgur/5xzuDBT.jpeg
- I've disabled Imgur uploads.
- I've enabled uploads direct to PianoTell. New images will now be safe going forward and will be accessible worldwide. If you want to test this, post pictures of your pianos here.
NOT DONE YET:
- I need to get last week's images uploaded to Imgur.
- I need to update all the existing links from Imgur to PianoTell. Please don't re-upload your old images. I will fix all the links at once.
Too bad it's time to sleep! 😃
Here's a quick test of the new PianoTell image uploader.
Update 1: 11 November 2025
Hi folks. I've learned from Simonb that our current image host Imgur is blocked in the UK. Imgur has served us very well so far, but this won't do.
I downloaded all our images yesterday, there are over 3500 of them and they total 1 GB!
Btw, please continue to use the current image functionality on PianoTell if it works for you. It should be working in general except for the UK. I will migrate everything, so there isn't any risk here.
My plan will be to upload these images to another S3 provider and then update the links on PianoTell. First I will rewrite the links dynamically, and eventually I will update the links directly in the DB.
Tentatively, I've chosen Cloudflare R2 for the S3 provider. Cloudflare has proven absolutely world-class in everything I've used it for so far. Let me know if any of you have any suggestions or experience with S3 providers!
I will also change the image upload extension so that images are uploaded directly to the new provider instead of Imgur.
Just to set expectations, this is a recital week and I've got a ton of work to do. The transition will take a minimum of a week, starting today.
Depending on how I do it, there may be some downtime. Sorry in advance for the inconvenience!
