My first formal phpBB 2.0.11 MOD

Goal is to put a software limit on avatar size without doing any of the negative things that these do:

• Remote Avatar Resize - increases runtime of viewtopic.php significantly (getimagesize many times) - not lower image load time
  
• Limit Image Width - only works on width - increases DB size - increases runtime of viewtopic.php somewhat (more SQL to check cached sizes) - not lower image load time
  
• Fast Avatar Resize Mod - JavaScript eww - increases page load time (JavaScript without making image filesize lower)
  

It will be extremely simple. All it will require modifying is the user_avatar_url function in the includes/usercp_avatar.php file. I will use PHP's getimagesize function which is widely availble, works with the PHP HTTP(S) wrapper, and works with many different image formats. The info that getimagesize returns about the candidate avatar is checked against the maximum height and width as specified in the ACP. If it's OK, nothing is done. If it's too big, then the user recieves an error.

Just to make it clear, this MOD will NOT:

• Resize any avatars. It will just reject those that are too big. MODing this MOD to use PHP's Image Funtions (GD) in order to resize the big ones and save them on the server would not be hard; however, this will take up more disk space and bandwidth.
• Enforce filesize. The filesize function is only useful if the avatar is on an FTP server and you have PHP 5. Maybe we can download image, check size (with regular filesystem wrapper), then delete it; but this won't be done in first public release.
• Remove existing oversize avatars. Try SELECT user_avatar, username FROM phpbb_users WHERE user_avatar != ''

Ups:

• profile.php when using new offsite avatar ONLY will have a small runtime increase. No other files will be affected.
• quick to install.
• won't increase your disk, DB, or bandwidth usage.
• total size of pages will be kept low
• no JavaScript required
• works on both width and height

It will be coded according to the phpBB MOD standards. I will release the first barely-working version in the Beta Development forum. Then I will test it on a vanilla phpBB 2.0.11 install on a CTE Development test server, as well as with EasyMOD. Once I have everything I want done, then I will submit it to the MODs Database. I will probably add it to the PDG forums and include it in the pdgBB distrobution (which still hasn't been publically released) fairly soon after.