Element-web: [Feature Request] Screenshot functionality

[BloodyIron]

Hi Folks,

I think it would be awesome if we could get RIOT.im to have the ability to capture screenshots and attach them to the channel. I would prefer if we could have options such as:

1. Capture all displays (in the case you have lots of monitors)
2. Capture specific display
3. Capture region

I'm posting in the riot-web because I suspect it's going to be a bit challenging to do on mobile devices, and perhaps easier on laptop/desktop displays.

[lampholder]

Thanks for your feature request, but I'm fairly certain this wouldn't be possible for riot web (outside of the browser at least) without some sort of downloaded additional plugin/app (please educate me if this is not the case).

With the recent addition of pasting images straight into the text input box (https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/issues/1297 - live on https://riot.im/develop) I don't think this would add much utility on top of the existing system screen capture tools.

[lampholder]

On second thoughts, this might be possible, though it would probably still be very tricky to implement compared to the return on investment above just using the system screenshot tools and pasting the result in.

[BloodyIron]

The benefit of having this built into the web client is you could take screenshots without having various apps installed. For example, if you're in an environment where installing apps is not an option for you, but you still need to take a screenshot. I think this would also add value in various environments that are trying to cut down on the number of applications, so if this were available I think this would be used. I know that you can already paste images to chat, but it would be _extremely_ convenient if you could say, hit a button, select the region of your screen and BAM it automatically captures, presents something along the lines of "submit this?", you hit yes and it goes into chat. The convenience I think would be very much appreciated, even if currently the visibility of usage is uncertain.

I for one would use it very regularly, as the alternatives for screen capture is comparatively clunky and takes more time to do. It may seem trivial, but things like this can add up.

Please? Sugar on top? ;)

[lampholder]

Heh :D I agree it does sound useful, not least since I'll be damned if I can ever remember the arcane keyboard shortcuts to activate screen cap on OSX.

Whether or not it's feasible (without plugins) I think depends on chrome/ff support for WebRTC screen sharing beyond the browser - I don't know for certain, but I think this might be possible in ff and not in chrome (without flipping a deeply-buried setting).

For now I'm leaving this as a P4 feature request, which I'm afraid means nobody will be looking at it any time soon :(. You're welcome to submit a pull request - https://www.webrtc-experiment.com/Pluginfree-Screen-Sharing/#2817676853016595 might offer some inspiration on how this could work :)

[geromueller]

The reason against other tools is that you have to save and find the corresponsing files again. Sure it is not much of a problem, but still very inconventient.

[turt2live]

Most screenshot tools (including the built-in OS tools, such as Snipping Tool or good old keyboard shortcuts) copy the image to your clipboard as well, and recent builds of Riot allow you to paste images :)

Having the function built into Riot would be neat, however. Particularly for the collaboration aspect.

[BloodyIron]

Or for customer support ;)