Google Book Covers

Hello @wbecker
That field is used for adding a custom URL to the book cover on the frontend review page.

As for replacements for the Gr API, right now I am looking at using Open Library. Though I should note that OL API is not as extensive as Gr’s, so in my tests about 4 in 10 queries return a book cover.

As for Google Books, its about 3 in 10 queries return a cover and about 1 in 10 if the book is new. Plus, the returned covers have a max width of 128px.

As for Amazon, I don’t they have a public books API since they own Goodreads.

Thanks for you quick response.
Is it possible for me to use the “rcno_reviews_book_cover_url” in the template. I would like to modify the template (I’m using the default template).

Also, is there a way to modify the “Book Description/Synopsis” text box to prevent striping HTML tags? I would like to add some links in that section.

For removing the striping of tags in the book synopsis you can add the code below to your theme’s functions.php file.

add_filter( 'rcno_book_description_strip_tags', function () {
    return false;
} );

For the issue with the rcno_reviews_book_cover_url field, can you tell me specifically you’re trying to do so that I can provide you with a filter (if one is available).

Thank you for the fix to the description field removing tags … worked like a charm.

For the rcno_reviews_book_cover_url, I would like to modify the default template to use that field where the book cover is. WordPress has a limit on images and i would like to serve my bookcover images from another site (google photos for example). I would like to also include a caption, if possible, below the image.

So what you want is a custom meta field where you add the URL to a book cover? And if it is present is shows up as the book cover image on the frontend?

That is what I was trying to do with the rcno_reviews_book_cover_url is have the image show up on the book’s review page where the “NO COVER AVAILABLE” image shows up on this page: https://bestfx.com/review/stonewall-jackson-the-man-soldier-legend/

OK, I have an extension that I can provide you to do that.

Just download it from the link, install and activate it as a WordPress plugin, then enable it in the Recencio extensions page. It will provide you with a specific metabox to add a URL for the book cover.

Thank you, I’m not seeing a link. I have “Custom User Metadata” extension installed but can’t figure out how to make the image appear in my page.

Gimme a minute to test and prepare it. I’ll provide the link in a follow up reply.

Mahalo

Here is the link: https://gitlab.com/w33zy/rcno-external-book-covers/-/archive/local/rcno-external-book-covers-local.zip

I greatly appreciate your help and hard work. I installed the plugin and found the “Custom Book Cover URL” field and populated it with an image URL. What I get on the review page is a link to the image rather than the image … have I missed a step?

(https://bestfx.com/review/churchill/)

Thanks in advance.

Gimme a sec to look at that

I have pushed an update to the main Recencio plugin to resolve a minor part of this new issue you’re having.

However, you’ll still have issues with that URL you’re using. If you visit the URL you used https://photos.app.goo.gl/pcNGtrJaSBK4Uma17 you’ll be redirected to a Google Photo web page, not an image. I can only work with an image because I am using it as the src atrribute in an <img> tag.

There is no easy way to get at the actual image URL with Google Photos because Google obfuscates it as a security measure. The actual URL for that book cover is https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AM-JKLWIIZJ3FCrOf_WVwoy-u5I8pg4plFC72z3TbDAuXy0DEoJuG6tVjrofHd4oC8RUf_ykecdZFynS5bjeGGfF0bkL2qxGz8rDJfjqkClzJvcRoNHFrflaeAiqNHgCEqm7xAVn5AzIG3lk-swKa8zk3Vq3=w260-h400-no?authuser=0

And there is no easy way to get to this actual image URL.

So, you can’t use this feature with images stored on Google Photo.

Thanks so much … it is working fantastic now. Just needed to us TinyURL and bada bing bada boom images shows up! You are fantastic. (https://bestfx.com/review/churchill/)