About images in server chats

TeamSpeak 6 Client
1

Currently images sent to a chat on a TeamSpeak server are send not through the server but uploaded to myTeamSpeak and a link to the image is automatically send through the chat. It roughly works like this.

                      ┌───────────┐
           Voice/Text │ TeamSpeak │ Voice/Text
┌──────────┐ ───────> │ Server    │ ───────> ┌──────────┐
│ Person A │          │           │          │ Person B │
└─────────┮┙──────────│┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄│──────────┕┭─────────┘
        | |           └───────────┘           │ ∧
        | |   URL                      URL    │ │
        │ └────────── ┌───────────┐ <─────────┘ │
        └───────────> │centralized│ ────────────┘
        Image Upload  │   myTS    │  Image Download
                      └───────────┘

This is limited to 5 MB per file and requires myTeamSpeak features to be enabled when connecting to a server.

TeamSpeak has a system where users can upload and share files via the file transfer protocol. This is not inherently limited but can be configured with permissions. Users can create a direct link to any uploaded file and share that. (This all existed back for TeamSpeak 3 already.)

My question now is shouldn’t files be uploaded to the server you are connected to instead of some other centralized server?

From my point of view these are to pros/cons of each system:

File Transfer Approach myTeamSpeak Approach 
+ Does not require myTS account
    
+ Works in offline LAN settings
    
+ Easily configurable fize size limits
    
+ Files can already be downloaded
+    while still being uploaded.
    
+ File retention could be configured
    
- Requires permissions to up/download
    
- Bandwidth usage for server hoster
    
- May lead to confusion¹

- Requires myTS account
    
- Needs to be always online
    
- Fixed limit at 5MB (currently)
    
- Files need to finish uploading
-   before they can be downloaded.
    
- Files are gone after 30 days.
    
+ Can be used reguardless of permissions.

+ Bandwidth usage for TeamSpeak
    
+ Just works

1: E.g. if some users have reached their file download quota or no permission to download files at all from the server they will not be able to view images send through the chat. Though one might argue that setting up servers with proper permissions is up the the administrator and treat this as expected behaviour.

With all that:

  • Keep every as is - files through myTS.
  • Switch to server file transfer fully.
  • Make it configurable.
0 voters

In case it was made configurable, where would you expect this configuration to take place?

  • On a server basis. Administrators should be able to set how files are send on their server.
  • On the sender side. Each user should be able to select whether they trust the server hoster or TeamSpeak.
  • Some other way.
0 voters
13 Likes
2

Good work

3 Likes
3

yeah, you’re right. doesnt make sense with the current system. I think someone could achieve a plugin that does this.

but this should be a feature by default. I hope it changes that way for the better. I saw a post from a staff member saying it would be a step back without mentioning why.

2 Likes
4

I’ve been thinking more about this, and honestly I think it should be chosen by the client. If the client prefers to upload to the server (only if permissions permit them to do so), then they need to deal with the additional quota usage of the server, the admins set file limit, and permissions. otherwise, let us upload to teamspeak for simplicity by default.

on the poll, I am the “Some other way” voter for the sending configuration, since I believe there should be a mix of both sender and server configurables.

5

TID: 1088

We will have a look at this again. Uploading to myTS was the simplest and most straightforward approach at the time of implementation.

5 Likes