[plugin] [ORPHAN] vdh_flickr

Niconemo · 2006-05-17 23:04:50

larf wrote:

You are right about this, only “old” flickr users are able to use the email method for authentication. I will pick up development very soon in order to rewrite major parts of the plugin, which will include the authentication.

Any evolution planned about that ? ;-)

It would be the perfect solution for a private friends community site I’m working on… :-)

ralph · 2006-05-18 06:36:55

As there seem to be problems with the current version, here is some quick update about the rewritten plugin:

First of all, you can see what I got here: vdh_phlickr_alpha_01.zip

I changed the name because this version uses the phlickr api by Andrew Morton. This makes the plugin php5-only, but I don’t think this is a huge problem nowadays, at least I can’t think of any large hosting company that does not offer php5 these days. On the other hand, the api seems very robust and stable, and allows me to do lots of things very quickly and has additional features that I would most probably never implemented myself, like caching. So there is a lot to expect in the future.

The featureset is very limited at the moment, this plugin can currently only view your photostream. So this is for interested developers and people who want to play around a bit.

The installation instructions are a little bit strange for Textpatterners, because you have to use the plugin cache dir. The plugin cache dir was introduced to do two things: Speed up development for plugin-developers and cache larger plugins from the database, so that they would not have to be loaded from the database on every pageview. The second function will hopefully be introduced in the next version of TextPattern, so until now you will have to install this plugin by hand:

Go to admin, preferences, advanced preferences
Under “Admin” you find an entry plugin_cache_dir
Enter some directory. It is wise to just copy the file upload path and replace the last part of the path with “plugins”
Create the directory you entered one step before.
unzip the contents of the downloaded zip file into this directory. This should be one file and one directory.

Now we have to authenticate the plugin for use with TextPattern:

Create a new section, e.g. “flickr”.
Put a <txp:vdh_phlickr /> anywhere it can be parsed (e.g. an article in the flickr-section, a page template,…).
Point your Browser to the new section. You should see a message with instructions how to authenticate.
After the authentication is complete, reload the flickr section.
You should see images from your photostream.

At this point, you should already see one of the advantages of the new version: Clean urls work without any additional configuration.

Well, I know the last release is of vdh_flickr is very old already. I’ve just been busy in the last months, and I still am now. So the progress is much slower than I wish it was. I think I would just need one weekend to get the main features running, but on some weekends I have to learn, on some I have to work, and on some it’s just summer and I’m sitting in the park with a beer. So I don’t know when to expect a new version that works in production environments.

pegasus4747 · 2006-05-30 17:55:44

Hi, I was wondering if anybody can tell me how to enable pagination in the current version of vdh_flickr. I’ve read the documentation many times over and search the forums. I must be missing something obvious!

Thanks!

Destry · 2006-06-06 10:47:43

Ralph, thanks for your work on this plugin. I sure hope you don’t have too many beers in the park and forget about this wonderful new rebuild. Oh, and don’t forget the baguette and cheese.

Tip to all: Original instructions for finding the Flickr NSID was to login and look at the URL. That no worky anymore. Instead, you can use this nice little service, idGettr, to easily find your digits. Would be nice to see Ralph’s new-and-improved plugin added to the idGettr list. Everywhere I look there’s WordPress plugins for everything, and never any mention for Textpattern. Might be one reason why we see this kind of thing (thanks marios).

By the way, I tried the new <code><txp:vdh_phlickr /></code> as described above, and also as <code><txp:vdh_phlickr nsid=“numberhere” /></code>, but in each case I get the following error…

Fatal error: Call to undefined function curl_init() in C:\_txp\dev\plugins\Phlickr\Request.php on line 139

The old vdh seems to be pulling Flickr sets fine though, but I haven’t really explored options/features yet. I’m using latest stable (4.0.3)

Last edited by Destry (2006-06-06 11:01:34)

Destry · 2006-06-23 08:48:53

Hey anyone,

Using version 0.8.7. Things seem to have broke when moving the site from a PHP 4.4.2 server to a PHP 5.0.4 server. No doubt the PHP is the root of the problems here, but let me confirm a couple things, because the behavior is a bit odd and makes me think of other things to look out for.

When the site was moved to a new location, I could login just fine. However, after I tried to change the plugin directory path in the Advanced Preferences, I got blocked out of the admin panels and faced with a php error indicated something to the affect that a file in the plugin directory was missing a function or value? (sorry, I didnt’ record the message).

So, I reloaded the database and this time I did NOT change the plugin directory path and was able to continue logging into the Txp admin side after the site. However, the plugin path is still set to my local directory which obviously isn’t right nor should be working. Nevertheless, I can pull Flickr sets and thumbnails just fine, but now when I click a thumbnail to get the individual article image, I get a whole mess of errors, all pretty much saying the same thing, for example…

<code>tag_error <txp:vdh_flickr nsid=“changed” mode=“none” except=“changed” set_form=“mFlickrPreview” set_preview_size=‘s’ thumbnails_form=“mFlickrThumbs” thumbnail_size=‘m’ img_form=“mFlickrImage” img_size=‘n’ /> -> Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() on line 971</code>

I guess the thing to do is get my client’s host to upgrade to PHP 5? Do people have 0.8.7 working with PHP 5 (so I don’t waste my time in vain)?

Last edited by Destry (2006-06-23 08:51:41)

ralph · 2006-06-27 08:03:25

I’m using 0.8.7 with PHP 5 on TextDrive, no problems so far.

And if you are using version 0.8.7, you don’t need to set a plugin cache directory. So it is better to delete the preference entry of the plugin cache dir or to check out which files are inside it that could corrupt your system.

Destry · 2006-06-27 19:16:59

ralph wrote:

And if you are using version 0.8.7, you don’t need to set a plugin cache directory. So it is better to delete the preference entry of the plugin cache dir or to check out which files are inside it that could corrupt your system.

Ah, that’s good to know. I must have missed that point somewhere along the line.

I had my client get his PHP updated and the problems I described earlier disappeared. No other plugins are using the “plugins” directory so I should be able to delete that, I guess. Thanks Ralph.

Hans · 2006-06-27 20:19:01

Just in case anyone cares, here’s an excerpt from Flickr’s Terms of Use:

The Flickr service makes it possible to post images hosted on Flickr to outside websites. This use is accepted (and even encouraged!). However, pages on other websites which display images hosted on flickr.com must provide a link back to Flickr from each photo to its photo page on Flickr.

Basically, they want to continue Google-bombing the phrase “Flickr – Photo Sharing.”

Niconemo · 2006-07-03 09:42:23

A question/request :

By default, (when NOT using a set, but the vdh_flickr_thumbnails tag with tags, for example) in the thumbnail view, images are sorted by date posted descending)

Is there a way to sort it ascending instead of descending, and date taken insteaf of date posted ? Or by Photo name ? So “Picture 01”, “Picture 02”… would display the expecting order.

It would be very useful in a site integration, because de way one posts photos on flickr is not always the way on wants it to be displayed in the end…

Wether it is possible or not, thank you for that wonderful plugin. I’m using it every day. It’s just fantastic.

Last edited by Niconemo (2006-07-03 10:14:32)

Niconemo · 2006-07-03 10:00:45

A common illustration of my problem :

During a party (a meeting, a wedding…) 3 or 4 persons are taking pictures.
They probably won’t send it to Flickr the same day… So the images wont be sorted from the fist one to the last one at all but by upload series.
We can solve this problem by editing the posted date (and hour) in flickr in each picture. It’s long to do but possible.
A sortby=“taken” option would solve the problem.
But then the images are not shown from the first to the last but to from the last to the first.
Which is not the most logical in our case.
A sortdir=“asc” option would solve the problem.

Thanks again.

Nico

Last edited by Niconemo (2006-07-03 10:07:08)

Destry · 2006-07-03 10:24:26

Destry wrote: No other plugins are using the “plugins” directory so I should be able to delete that, I guess.

Just to confirm, upgrade to PHP 5 worked out fine, and so did the deletion of the plugins folder (and path).

Hans: Thanks for the heads up. This plugin does provide a link back in the picture view; reading “Show and post comments,” which takes you to the Flickr evnironment where you can comment on the picture, etc. Or did you mean the link needs to say exactly “Flickr – Photo Sharing”?

Niconemo: That would indeed be a nice touch.

Ralph: Couple of other things with regard to development considerations:

Flickr provides pretty good measures for preventing image downloads (except for someone actually taking screenshots of the browser view). However, when images are pulled into an owners Web site with the plugin, all those image protection features are lost and anyone can download the image no problem with a right-click and save. Is it possible to retain that extra step of protection in the plugin (blank image layer, for example)?
With regard to user comments: As it is now with the plugin, a site owner is faced with the choice of either using Txp’s commenting features, Flickr’s commenting feature, or both. Both seems a bit much and not very intuitive for the user (bad usability), and I think since a lot of the world might get to photos via Flickr, it would be better to stick with Flickr’s commenting abilities and not overlap in Txp. However, it would be nice to pull the Flickr comments into Txp along with the full images themselves. That way Txp comments could be off for photo set articles, but still get the user comments from Flickr. Users would still be directed back to Flickr’s page if they wanted to make a comment on the image, which would then appear in their site as well. Make sense?

ralph · 2006-07-03 19:37:19

@Niconemo:
You can change the order of the pictures in the Flickr Organizr (button “arrange”).

@Destry:
I don’t know about 1. yet, but I wanted to do 2. all along. But when I first wrote the plugin, the flickr api did not allow this possibility, which has changed until now. So this feature will definately be in the next version.

I will probably release a new version in the middle of August, which uses the new authentication api and some other stuff. Currently I’m busy with exams.

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#313 2006-05-17 23:04:50

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] vdh_flickr

#314 2006-05-18 06:36:55

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] vdh_flickr

#315 2006-05-30 17:55:44

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] vdh_flickr

#316 2006-06-06 10:47:43

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] vdh_flickr

#317 2006-06-23 08:48:53

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] vdh_flickr

#318 2006-06-27 08:03:25

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] vdh_flickr

#319 2006-06-27 19:16:59

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] vdh_flickr

#320 2006-06-27 20:19:01

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] vdh_flickr

#321 2006-07-03 09:42:23

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] vdh_flickr

#322 2006-07-03 10:00:45

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] vdh_flickr

#323 2006-07-03 10:24:26

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] vdh_flickr

#324 2006-07-03 19:37:19

Re: [plugin] [ORPHAN] vdh_flickr

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