From Broox to Flickr - and back posted
So last week at work I had to learn the Flickr API for this rails site we're doing. It's been a lot of fun and really got me more excited about Flickr.
I've always loved Flickr and its community. However, I've never used it for my personal photos because I really like having full control of my images. I like to have them stored them locally, I like to run queries on my photos, and I like how I have no limitation on integrating them into my personal site.
With Flickr you lose some of that control. That is, until the Flickr API came along, which is a really nice API. A lot of my friends have used it to display their flickr pics on their blogs. But damn it's slowwwwww (at least slower than running all your stuff locally on your web server). So instead of browsing my friends' photos on their personal sites, it's just easier to browse them on Flickr, which was always a turnoff for me.
But after playing with the Flickr API at work, I decided to play with it at home using the Phlickr kit. Then I decided, it'd be fun to sync all of my pics up with Flickr. For one, it'd be a cheap backup of all my photos, but it'd also hook me up with the Flickr community, which is really the main reason I want my pics there. I mean, let's face it. Flickr.com gets more hits than broox.com.
So I wrote a php script (which is currently running) that will send all (11,000) of the photos on derek.broox.com over to flickr.com. It seems to be working quite nicely. It's even uploading them in order and keeping my titles, tags, and datetime. Once it's done uploading my "stream" (in 10-15 hours) I've got a script that will add the flickr photos into sets that'll match the albums on derek.broox.com. Yessssssss.
And - Every time it uploads a pic/creates a set, I'm updating my local record with the flickrId, which will let me integrate everything in the future. I plan on using this to pull tags/comments from the flickr community and display them on my personal site. woo woooooo! Bringing the community of Flickr to broox.com without them even knowing.
Also during this whole process I wrote a bunch of fancy classes and improved code for a good portion of my site.
I am rocking it - in the dorkiest way possible.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/broox/ - my stream.
I've always loved Flickr and its community. However, I've never used it for my personal photos because I really like having full control of my images. I like to have them stored them locally, I like to run queries on my photos, and I like how I have no limitation on integrating them into my personal site.
With Flickr you lose some of that control. That is, until the Flickr API came along, which is a really nice API. A lot of my friends have used it to display their flickr pics on their blogs. But damn it's slowwwwww (at least slower than running all your stuff locally on your web server). So instead of browsing my friends' photos on their personal sites, it's just easier to browse them on Flickr, which was always a turnoff for me.
But after playing with the Flickr API at work, I decided to play with it at home using the Phlickr kit. Then I decided, it'd be fun to sync all of my pics up with Flickr. For one, it'd be a cheap backup of all my photos, but it'd also hook me up with the Flickr community, which is really the main reason I want my pics there. I mean, let's face it. Flickr.com gets more hits than broox.com.
So I wrote a php script (which is currently running) that will send all (11,000) of the photos on derek.broox.com over to flickr.com. It seems to be working quite nicely. It's even uploading them in order and keeping my titles, tags, and datetime. Once it's done uploading my "stream" (in 10-15 hours) I've got a script that will add the flickr photos into sets that'll match the albums on derek.broox.com. Yessssssss.
And - Every time it uploads a pic/creates a set, I'm updating my local record with the flickrId, which will let me integrate everything in the future. I plan on using this to pull tags/comments from the flickr community and display them on my personal site. woo woooooo! Bringing the community of Flickr to broox.com without them even knowing.
Also during this whole process I wrote a bunch of fancy classes and improved code for a good portion of my site.
I am rocking it - in the dorkiest way possible.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/broox/ - my stream.
comments
alright, so all my pics and sets are now on flickr...
so far it's pretty insane - i went from like 100 photos / 2,500 views to 11,000 photos / 8,500 views literally overnight.
also in the last (less than) 24 hours my pics:
-have been marked as favorites 24 times
-have been commented on 22 times
-and have had 8 group invitations
flickr is exciting.
derek posted