Protocol agnostic server paths and facebook images in links

Question

I had a fun time tracking this down. Every time I would copy/paste a link from a site's blog, the title would display, the link would display, but the images would return nothing. The link was correct and clicking the link would take me to the correct post. I went through my settings in NSM Better Meta and included all of the recommended OG meta tags, but still, nothing.

What I found was that by changing my URL of Upload Directory from just "//" to "http://" fixed the issue. That's all fine and dandy, but it doesn't help me keep relative protocols for images. I have both http and https on this site in different locations. It also depends on where they are coming from and if that section of the site has a link that was entered as https. (Not under my control)

Is there any way to set a relative path in the URL of Upload Directory field and have the templates render the path with the protocol from the address bar used?

EXAMPLE:

This renders as:

Which is correct. I can switch from http: to https: without issues of mixed content.

When I copy the link and paste it in FB, the issue is seen:

NOW... Change over to the http: or https: in the settings...

This renders as:

Which is correct, but not what I want...

When I copy and paste this link into FB, I am given the images...

THIS is why I am confused....

Answer 1

We forked and modified Bjørn Børresen's SEO Lite module to support basic OG meta tags. The module setting default image still requires an absolute URL; however, for the publish tab and per entry meta, we employed a file upload capability that taps into the native EE file manager and will add a full url dynamically based on file upload settings.

Our changes are open source. Not sure this is the answer you are looking for, but thought I'd share. https://github.com/Minds-On-Design-Lab/modl_meta.ee_addon

Answer 2

You can use relative URL paths for you upload directories. Say you images are located at http://example.com/assets/uploads/images/image.jpg you can set your upload url to be relative by entering /assets/uploads/images/ for the uploaded destination url.

Alternatively if you are using something like FocusLab's Master Config file you can use the upload config overrides to set the URL dynamically based upon which protocol/url the user is accessing the site. In your config file you

$protocol                     = (isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) &&$_SERVER['HTTPS'] == 'on') ? 'https://' : 'http://';
$base_url                     = $protocol . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
$base_path                    = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
$system_folder                = APPPATH . '../';
$uploads_folder            = 'assets/uploads/';

$env_config['upload_preferences'] = array(
 1 => array(
     'name'        => 'Main Uploads',
     'server_path' => $base_path . '/' . $uploads_folder . 'images/',
     'url'         => $base_url  . '/' . $uploads_folder . 'images/'
 )
);

You would need to repeat that for each upload directories that you have.