Unlocking the hidden value of your content with Macula.Link: Part 2
In the previous part of this series, we’ve taken a look at the “Macula Workflow”, dealing with idle content and how it can be put into motion again. If you haven’t read it, I strongly recommend doing so, as this guide assumes you are familiar with Macula and can find your way around it.
On-the-fly transformations are a powerful concept that can completely change your approach to content sharing. Yet it’s not how most of us are used to doing things, so it may take time to sink in. But don’t fret! This is why we have this guide.
The two approaches to image transformations
The way we prepared transformations the last time is often called “destructive edits”. This is pretty much the same as opening the file in an image manipulation program, making changes, and hitting “Save”. But! You don’t have to worry about overwriting the original image, Macula.Link always saves a separate copy for each transformation.
On-the-fly transformations, which we will use today, are radically different. When enabled, they don’t change the image directly but instead create a temporary copy only when someone requests an image, which is deleted afterward. But how does Macula know what changes to apply? This is where the query parameters come into play.
We’re not going to dive into the technicalities here. After all, that’s why documentation exists. In simple words, query parameters are special variables you add to the URL (the address in the browser bar). Each query parameter is a combination of a key and a value, separated by the = sign. A key specifies what transformation you want to apply (resize, compress, etc.), and the value sets how you want to apply it (width in pixels, compression strength, etc.).
For example, to set the width of the image to 600 px, all you need to do is add w=600 to its URL. To set the quality to 80%, add q=80 and so on. You get the gist.
Read more about available on-the-fly transformations and their parameters in our official documentation.
Okay, this sounds cool and all, but what’s the point? If you haven’t had a lightbulb moment yet, read on to the next section.
From content shed to content factory
As a solo creative, you have to do the majority of things yourself, which greatly limits your ability to scale, especially when dealing with a lot of content. Generally, automation is your friend, but not everything can just be left running on its own. Some things still need thought and foresight.
Making a piece of content dynamic and infinitely reusable is a big paradigm shift. With on-the-fly transformations, you become your own “content provider”, enabling others to consume your content in different ways without worrying about how processing and serving will work under the hood.
Each piece of content becomes an on-demand factory that serves a tailor-made package for every “customer”. Both humans and machines can request and interact with the content in their own ways. This unlocks limitless delivery channels and amplifies your reach.
Once you get used to this paradigm, you’ll start seeing more and more possible ways to reuse your content and unlock even more value.
Here’s a real UniLink with all possible parameters (as of today) applied:
Try to play with parameters and see the power of on-the-fly transformations for yourself 👀
Enabling on-the-fly transformations
By now, you likely have a Macula account and a few images ready to go. Don’t have one yet? Sign up in a minute — it’s completely free, with no credit cards or trials required — Sign up for a free Macula account.
Now let’s dive in!
Pick any image transformation you have created and click “Publish” to go to the publishing screen. Don’t forget to select your preferred license and, most importantly tick the “Enable on-the-fly transformations” checkbox. It may seem like there’s no immediate change, but don’t panic! Go on and select the “Direct link to file” from the drop-down button and open the image in your browser tab.
Now try adding some parameters to the URL. If you’re still a bit confused about how these parameters are supposed to work, consult our official documentation for a clear, illustrated guide that will get you up to speed in no time!
On-the-fly transformations in practice
Playing around with different parameters is fun, but it gets boring pretty quickly. Now it’s time to build something that leverages the full power of on-the-fly transformations. Here are just a few ideas to get you started:
- Create a self-hosted photo gallery (yep, we have a guide for this too)
- Offer custom image versions: Provide your website visitors with ready-to-use links to different versions of the images (from the smallest, thumbnail-sized one to the full-resolution original)
- Boost social media engagement: Post your images on social media and invite others to (re)use them with custom parameters (and proper credit to you, of course)
- Re-cycle your images: Reuse the same image across blog posts, personal sites, and more, without creating and saving individual versions for each platform.
What will you make next?
Great job! You’ve passed this tutorial with flying colors. Hopefully, this part of the series was eye-opening for you (yes, a Macula pun intended). Do you already have an awesome idea of how to use on-the-fly transformations in your project? Let us know! We’re always happy to chat and lend a hand if you’re struggling or don’t know what to do next.
If you want to become a tester, or just share some thoughts, please reach out to us: join our Discord, reach out on X/Twitter, or simply email us to hey <at> macula.link.
To see what’s already in the works, you can always check Macula feature roadmap. That’s also where the functionality requests and suggestions we get from you will appear.
