Description

Use the [browser-shot] shortcode to automate the process of taking website screenshots. An icon is also added to the TinyMCE editor to make the shortcode creation process easy.

The plugin uses the ‘mshots’ functionality, from WordPress.com, to automatically take screenshots of websites. This function is free for non-commercial use.

The images are stored on the wordpress.com servers and are not saved onto your own website. The images are cached for roughly 24 hours before being generated again.

Shortcode Preview

// basic shot 600px wide
[browser-shot url="http://link-to-website" width="600"]

// shot with link to other website
[browser-shot url="http://link-to-website" width="700" link="http://www.binarymoon.co.uk/"]

// shot with caption (uses default WordPress caption styles)
[browser-shot url="http://link-to-website" width="700"]Add Caption[/browser-shot]

Available Parameters

url (required) – the url of the link to shorten
width – the width of the image
height – the height of the image
alt – the image alt text
link – where the image links. Left blank it will point to the website where the screenshot is being taken
target – browser target. Set to _blank to open in a new window
class – add a class to the browsershots wrapper
image_class – change the default browsershots image class from alignnone to your chosen class
display_link (true or false – default true) to display a link in your screenshot
post_links (true or false – default false) to link to the permalink of the post the screenshot is on

Generating Screenshots with code

If you want to create screenshots in a theme using this plugin then you can do so using the BrowserShots::get_shot method.

For example:

<img src="<?php echo BrowserShots::get_shot( 'https://prothemedesign.com', 600, 450 ); ?>" />

Keep in mind that the plugin must be installed and activated for this to work.

The get_shot method has 3 parameters.

The url.
The width.
The height.

The other parameters, from the shotcode, can be implemented manually when outputting the html.

Multisite Compatibility

The Browser Shots plugin is compatibly with WordPress Multisite, just use the Network Activate feature to enable the shortcode on every site. If you only want to enable the shortcode for a specific site, activate the plugin for that site only.

More…

The code can be found on Github
You can reach out to me with questions or problems on Twitter

Screenshots

New Gutenberg block.
A view from inside of the WordPress TinyMCE editor.
The formatted front-end view of generated screenshots.

Blocks

This plugin provides 1 block.

Browser Shots

Installation

Install easily with the WordPress plugin control panel or manually download the plugin and upload the folder browser-shots to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

Reviews

koronavirusu January 27, 2021

Great plugin. Thanks

Ropebu January 27, 2021

Awesome plugin, ideal for automatic websites. Using the php manual implementation combined with custom fields is amazing and saves a ton of time.

wasanajones August 3, 2020

yep, recommneded

meingarten June 12, 2019

I would like to thank everyone involved for the great work. The fast response time and the helpful support are unique. The adaptation to my special wishes saved me weeks of working time. Thank you very much for that.

kategorgeous June 11, 2019

I love this plugin. I used to use ShrinkTheWeb but the support was rubbish and it was costing me $5 per month. This is so much more customisable. I can change the sizes, put in backgrounds, add captions and links. So pleased I found this plugin it works great on my site.

Ronald Huereca June 9, 2019

I was recently blessed to help contribute a Gutenberg block to Browser Shots. The shortcode, and now the block, are amazing additions. Thanks, Ben, for this great plugin.

Read all 16 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Browser Screenshots” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

“Browser Screenshots” has been translated into 6 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Browser Screenshots” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

1.7.6 – 18th June 2021

Fix possible XSS vulnerability as reported by WPScan.

1.7.5 – 27th January 2021

Fix variable comparison that could cause errors in some situations.
Add missing text domain for translations.

1.7.4 – 15th July 2019

Add a $shortcode parameter to the shortcode_atts function call so that the shortcode properties can be filtered.
Added option to allow screenshot to link to the post’s URL.
Make get_shots static so it can be used outside of the shortcode/ gutenberg block.

1.7.3 – 12th June 2019

Add PERMALINK as a link property. If you set the link url to PERMALINK then the url will point to the currrent page or post.
Improve the default alt text. Previously it would display the url for the screenshot, but this could be messy, and is not actually useful. Now displays “Screenshot from domain-name”.

1.7.2 – 11th June 2019

Ensuring display_link is a boolean in the shortcode.
Code formatting and cleanup.

1.7.1 – 11th June 2019

Add a new parameter display_link that allows you to disable the link around the screenshot. Defaults to true. Set to false to remove the link.
Add some placeholder text to the input fields to make it clearer what is expected.
Change the rel link property to a toggle for one click changes.

1.7 – 8th June 2019

Add Gutenberg block for including Browser Shots.
Fix image alignment so that it works properly :).

1.6 – 30th May 2019

Add rel property to shortcode so that links can include rel=”nofollow” or similar.
Fix output of target attribute.
Tidy codes.

1.5.2 – 7th January 2017

Improve output html to reduce likelihood of html being modified by a plugin
Swap urlencode for rawurlencode
Switch to yoda conditions

1.5.1

add two new class properties. One for the container, one for the image
lots of code tidying, and refactoring. Simpler, faster, and more secure
new tinymce icon that fits the style of the editor much better 🙂

1.5

update localisation strings so that things can be translated more easily

1.4

Update the website screen capture path. This ensures the code will work properly on secure domains
Add some additional value escaping for extra security

1.3.2

Fix a couple of small javascript bugs (thanks again to Ciprian Dracea)

1.3.1

Fix a couple of small bugs with the visual editor and add support for all shortcode parameters

1.3

Make the visual editor work again (thanks to Ciprian Dracea for the report and the code help!)
add a new pop up box for the shortcode properties in visual editor mode

1.2

Add ‘link’ attribute. Allows you to change the url that the screenshot links to
Sanitize the height attribute and fix a small height related PHP error
Add support for captions
Add target attribute for opening links in new windows

1.1

Add ‘height’ attribute to the TinyMCE prompts
Allow users to override ‘height’ attribute in [browser-shot] shortcode

1.0

Initial public release to the WordPress plugin repository

WordPress.org