Flickr Uploadr for webOS

[lmorchard]

Looks like my BlockChalk and Oblique Strategy apps went over pretty well, so I've just released my Flickr Uploadr app.

Update (v0.0.2): Added menu command to re-authenticate. Checking token validity on home scene load. Messaging added to auth error to suggest Flickr page reload to resolve caching issue.

Update (v0.0.1): Initial public release.

Basically, this is an app for webOS 1.2 and above that uploads photos to your account at Flickr using the new Download Manager service. It might do more someday, but for now that's it.

It uses an undocumented webOS facility for thumbnails, so alas it won't be heading to the App Catalog any time soon. But, it really needs a lot more work before I start worrying about that anyway.

Enjoy! The source is available here, patches welcome:

http://github.com/lmorchard/flickr-uploadr-webos

[wolfsoul]

cool idea I been looking for an app for flickr

[ahitz]

Hooray! Anything that makes fickr uploading faster makes my kid's grandparents happy.

[ahitz]

Ok, some thoughts. I know you're limited by the phone's photo app and API, but for multiple photos it's still pretty tedious. To limit taps and page loads, are any of these possible?:

- Remember the last-added photo in this batch and start there when adding another
- Add a folder selector in the app (All, Photo Roll, Wallpapers, etc.), like Switcharoo, then jump right to that album when you go to add a photo
- Add an "upload range" feature where you select a first photo and then a last and the app automagically queues everything in between.
- Add a mode where you don't go back to the app's main page after you add a photo to the queue, so you could Add, swipe to another, Add, etc. I guess you'd need another button to return to to main page

Thanks for attempting the app and I can't wait to see it progress!

[lmorchard]

Originally Posted by ahitz

Ok, some thoughts. I know you're limited by the phone's photo app and API, but for multiple photos it's still pretty tedious. To limit taps and page loads, are any of these possible?:

- Add a folder selector in the app (All, Photo Roll, Wallpapers, etc.), like Switcharoo, then jump right to that album when you go to add a photo
- Add an "upload range" feature where you select a first photo and then a last and the app automagically queues everything in between.
- Add a mode where you don't go back to the app's main page after you add a photo to the queue, so you could Add, swipe to another, Add, etc. I guess you'd need another button to return to to main page

Thanks for attempting the app and I can't wait to see it progress!

Yeah, currently I just use the file picker API provided by Mojo, which is limited to the flow you see in the app.

There is an undocumented MediaDB service I could use that gives me full access to listing photos & etc, but I'd have to build my own photo browser / selection UI to use it. And it would be another strike against it for App Catalog inclusion.

But... I might just do all of that anyway, since the APIs may be public by the time the app's in any shape to submit to Palm.

Next immediate things, though, are to add a scene to edit title / description / tags for each photo (or in bulk) and maybe a better icon

[ahitz]

Personally I'd rather see visibility toggles (Everyone/Friends/Family, etc) and set/collection assignment first, but I know a lot of people don't care about those and just want to get pretty pictures in their stream.

[apalemick]

Put in Yahoo name and password, but continue to get "Authentication failed" notice.

And it is the correct name and password.

[lmorchard]

Originally Posted by apalemick

Put in Yahoo name and password, but continue to get "Authentication failed" notice.

And it is the correct name and password.

You put in your Yahoo name and password in the browser, *and* you tapped "Ok, I'll Authorize It" at the bottom of the page on the Flickr side to enable the app?

[apalemick]

Originally Posted by lmorchard

You put in your Yahoo name and password in the browser, *and* you tapped "Ok, I'll Allow It" on the Flickr side to enable the app?

Yes. Tried three times.

"Access not approved."

[lmorchard]

Originally Posted by apalemick

Yes. Tried three times.

"Access not approved."

Not sure if this is your problem, but: Try the Authenticate button - but before you hit "Ok, I'll Authorize It", reload the browser page with the button in the lower right and then hit the authorize button. Still need to see why it happens, but that seemed to fix a reproducible auth failure for me.

If that doesn't work, then not sure what it is.

[apalemick]

Originally Posted by lmorchard

Not sure if this is your problem, but: Try the Authenticate button - but before you hit "Ok, I'll Authorize It", reload the browser page with the button in the lower right and then hit the authorize button. Still need to see why it happens, but that seemed to fix a reproducible auth failure for me.

If that doesn't work, then not sure what it is.

That worked.

Thanks!

[nxg125]

Setting permissions, adding to sets, tags, etc. would all be great in due time. But honestly, even version 0.0.1 is light years ahead of uploading by sending a separate email for each photo. I'd be happy even if it stayed just as is with nothing else added.

On a related note, just last night I started working on a Flickr viewer. Maybe I'll hop in and add some patches here instead.

[lmorchard]

Originally Posted by apalemick

That worked.

Thanks!

Cool! Now the cruddy thing is I need to figure out why the browser sometimes needs a reload when you try to authenticate :/

Seems weird if it's caching things, since the auth URL opened in the browser is different every time - at least with respect to query string parameters. I really hope Palm's browser cache doesn't ignore query params.

[lmorchard]

Originally Posted by nxg125

Setting permissions, adding to sets, tags, etc. would all be great in due time. But honestly, even version 0.0.1 is light years ahead of uploading by sending a separate email for each photo. I'd be happy even if it stayed just as is with nothing else added.

On a related note, just last night I started working on a Flickr viewer. Maybe I'll hop in and add some patches here instead.

I figure all the metadata editing will happen in a scene that appears with a tap on a queue item, or in bulk from command menu button. Otherwise, it'll mostly stay simple on the home scene.

I was planning to keep the app focused on being an uploader, since the mobile site is pretty usable otherwise. But, I had thought it could be interesting to expand it into viewing photostreams too. The iPhone Flickr app is pretty keen in that respect.

Patches welcome! Or, fork it and run with it if you want to.

[jakerome]

Thanks lmorchard! This is about the 3rd place I pinged you (shoulda started here, silly me!). I wanted to try it out, but I pretty much never authorize apps that request the ability to delete photos. Probably just a pet peeve of mine, but since this app doesn;t appear to be designed to delete photos anyways, maybe you could remove that authorization? I posted about it in one of the Flickr Pre groups as well, Flickr: Discussing Flickr uploader app in the PreCentral Homebrew Store in Palm Pre & WebOS

Really glad to see this out there regardless.

[nxg125]

Originally Posted by lmorchard

I was planning to keep the app focused on being an uploader, since the mobile site is pretty usable otherwise. But, I had thought it could be interesting to expand it into viewing photostreams too. The iPhone Flickr app is pretty keen in that respect.

Patches welcome! Or, fork it and run with it if you want to.

Yeah, that makes sense. I have no idea if my viewer will ever become something useful. I just decided on it because I'm looking to do some webOS programming, I already use Flickr, and they have a well defined and (pseudo-)supported API. I guess time will tell if it actually goes anywhere.

[lvd]

AWESOME. i've been wanting this

only comment so far is that it looks like you used a low-res icon, could you find a prettier one?

[lmorchard]

Originally Posted by jakerome

Thanks lmorchard! This is about the 3rd place I pinged you (shoulda started here, silly me!). I wanted to try it out, but I pretty much never authorize apps that request the ability to delete photos. Probably just a pet peeve of mine, but since this app doesn;t appear to be designed to delete photos anyways, maybe you could remove that authorization? I posted about it in one of the Flickr Pre groups as well, Flickr: Discussing Flickr uploader app in the PreCentral Homebrew Store in Palm Pre & WebOS

Really glad to see this out there regardless.

I just turned the permissions down from "delete" to "write" on the API key. Looks like all is well after that change.

[lmorchard]

Originally Posted by lvd

AWESOME. i've been wanting this

only comment so far is that it looks like you used a low-res icon, could you find a prettier one?

Yup, that's on my TODO list. I pretty much just slapped the icon from the official open source Flickr Uploader on it and added some transparency. It ended up looking cruddier than I expected, so hopefully I'll have a much better version soon

[jakerome]

Thanks LM, but it's still asking for delete permission on the authorization page. Might be a problem on Flickr's end.