Official - Free How to fix Access Denied errors for some sites (e.g. Shopify) on URL Preview feature in vB 5.7.2

[glennrocksvb]

Starting vB 5.7.2, a new feature called "URL Preview" was implemented. If you place a URL on its own line in a post, it will display a thumbnail, title and description from the linked page after posting. However, some sites (e.g. Shopify) display a broken image and "Access denied" as page title. Some sites may display a different wrong preview output but the root cause may still be the same.

To fix this issue, it requires editing 2 CORE PHP files. This means it can only be done on self-hosted vB5 version and not on vBCloud.

First PHP file:

1. Log in to your server using cPanel or FTP.
2. Open and edit the following file in a code editor.
   

   core/vb/utility/url.php

3. Find the following lines:
   

   //    const USERAGENT = 64; 

   //            case self::USERAGENT: 

4. Uncomment the lines by removing the //.
5. Find the following line:
   

   curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers); 

6. Add the following code right below the code in Step 5:
   

       if (!empty($this->options[self::USERAGENT]))
       {
       curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, $this->options[self::USERAGENT]);
       }​ 

7. Save the file.

Second PHP file:

1. Open and edit the following file in a code editor.
   

   core/vb/api/content/link.php

2. Find the following line:
   

   $vurl->setOption(vB_Utility_Url::HEADER, 1); 

3. Add the following code below the code in Step 2:
   

   $vurl->setOption(vB_Utility_Url::USERAGENT, $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']); 

4. Save the file.
5. After editing both files, log in to AdminCP and clear the system cache in Maintenance > Clear System Cache.

If you are using the default vB5 PHAR (PHP Archive) package, then you won't be able to see the second file. You need to download the non-PHAR version of the package and upload it to your server with the following steps.

1. Log in to vbulletin.com
2. Go to Members Area
3. Go to the vB 5.7.2 download page.
4. Choose "More Download Options" radio button option.
5. Choose No for the "Use compressed PHP Archive:" radio button option.
6. Check the "I agree" checkbox.
7. Click Download button.
8. Extract the compressed package file.
9. Login to your server using FTP or SSH.
10. Upload the contents of the upload/core/vb folder to the core/vb folder on your server. Overwrite files when prompted.
11. You can now find and edit the second PHP file.

Before fix:




After fix:



Enjoy!

Please let me know if this solution works for your or not.

If you find this useful, feel free to share it with others.

[glennrocksvb]

Some sites may still display a blank image if the linked page has no image in the content or if vB failed to extract an image for some other reasons. In that case, you can display a default thumbnail icon of your own instead of showing a blank or broken thumbnail. Follow below link for the solution.

https://vbmods.rocks/forum/vbulletin...-7-2

[glennrocksvb]

I filed the below bug ticket in vB so that they can officially fix this issue on their end.

https://tracker.vbulletin.com/vbulle...sues/VBV-21447

Please vote for it to get their attention.

[glennrocksvb]

For issue on non-square thumbnails showing just part of the image, please see this solution:

https://vbmods.rocks/forum/vbulletin...t-of-the-image

[glennrocksvb]

This looks like fixed in the upcoming vB 5.7.3.