Flickr Hacks

Flickr Hacks

by Paul Bausch, Jim Bumgardner
Released February 2006
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9780596102456

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Buy on Amazon
Start your free trial

Book description

Over two million registered Flickr users and counting have discovered the ease and fun of organizing their photo libraries, showing off their favorite pictures to the world, and securely sharing their private pictures with friends, family, or ad hoc groups. But Flickr's own plethora of intuitive menus, options, and features just scratches the surface.

Flickr Hacks goes beyond the basics of storing, sorting, and sharing your photos to the much bigger playground of what's possible. Whether you're a beginner looking to manage your metadata and play with tags, or a programmer in need of a detailed reference of Flickr API methods, you'll find what you're looking for here. In addition to getting under the hood of some of the most popular third-party Flickr toys already in the wild, you'll learn how to:

  • Post photos to your blog directly from your cameraphone
  • Mash up your own photos or others' public pictures into custom mosaics, collages, sliding puzzles, slideshows, or ransom notes
  • Back up your Flickr library to your desktop, and save the comments too
  • Set random desktop backgrounds and build your own Flickr screensaver
  • Geotag your photos and map your contacts
  • Download a list of photos and make a contact sheet
  • Make your own Flickr-style tag cloud to visualize the frequency of common tags
  • Build a color picker with a dynamic color wheel of Flickr photos
  • Feed photos to your web site and subscribe to custom Flickr feeds using RSS
  • Talk to the Flickr API using your web browser, Perl, or PHP; authenticate yourself and other users; and build custom API applications

Publisher resources

View/Submit Errata

Table of contents

  1. A Note Regarding Supplemental Files
  2. Preface
    1. Why Flickr Hacks?
    2. How to Use This Book
    3. How to Run the Hacks
      1. Command-Line Scripts
      2. CGI Scripts
      3. PHP Scripts
      4. Learning to Code
    4. How This Book Is Organized
    5. Conventions Used in This Book
    6. Using Code Examples
    7. How to Contact Us
    8. Got a Hack?
    9. Safari Enabled
  3. 1. Sharing Photos
    1. Hacks 1-9
    2. 1. Store, Sort, and Share Your Photos
      1. Store
        1. From your browser
        2. From your desktop
        3. From an email address
      2. Sort
        1. Tagging
        2. Organizing
      3. Share
        1. Free to the public
        2. Flickr community
    3. 2. Control Who Sees Your Photos
      1. Flickr Contacts
      2. Setting Privacy
    4. 3. Manage Image Metadata
      1. Viewing Metadata
        1. Photoshop CS
        2. Exifer
        3. jhead
      2. Hiding Metadata
    5. 4. Resize Photos for Flickr
      1. Why Size Matters
      2. Programs to Resize Photos
        1. Photoshop CS
        2. Paint Shop Pro X
        3. IrfanView 3.97
        4. Windows XP Image Resizer PowerToy
        5. iPhoto
      3. Thinking Small
    6. 5. Add Photos Quickly
      1. Granting Your Permission
      2. Batch Uploading Tools
        1. Uploadr for Mac
        2. FlickrExport for iPhoto
        3. Uploadr for Windows
        4. Windows XP Import Wizard
      3. Desktop Uploading Widgets
        1. Flidget
        2. Konfabulator
      4. Beyond the Tools
    7. 6. Post Pictures from Your Cell Phone
      1. Uploading by Email
      2. Sending a Photo
    8. 7. Feed Your Latest Photos to Your Web Site
      1. Flickr Badges
      2. Flickr Feeds
        1. The code
        2. Running the hack
      3. Hacking the Hack
    9. 8. Make a Photo Gallery in 30 Seconds or Less
      1. Making an Album
      2. Making a Slideshow
      3. Rolling Your Own
      4. See Also
    10. 9. Post Photos to Your Blog
      1. Blog This
        1. Configuring a weblog
        2. Posting to your weblog
      2. Roll Your Own Post
  4. 2. Tagging Photos
    1. Hacks 10-14
    2. 10. Describe Your Photos
      1. Titles and Descriptions
      2. Tags
        1. Tag selfishly, think globally
        2. Describe what you see in the photo (mostly)
        3. Describe how you took the photo
        4. Get suggestions
        5. Browse tags regularly
        6. Don’t spam
      3. Notes
        1. Describe everyone in a photo
        2. Make personal maps
        3. Link photos together
        4. Collaborate
      4. Summary
    3. 11. Play with Tags
      1. Memry
      2. flickrTagFight
      3. Related Tag Browser
    4. 12. Geotag Your Photos
      1. Without a GPS Unit
      2. With a GPS Unit
      3. Mapping Your Photos
    5. 13. Exploit Compound Tags
      1. What You’ll Need
      2. The Code
      3. Running the Hack
      4. See Also
    6. 14. Make a Flickr-Style Tag Cloud
      1. What You’ll Need
      2. The Code
      3. Running the Hack
      4. See Also
  5. 3. Viewing Photos
    1. Hacks 15-23
    2. 15. Add Flickr Search to Firefox
      1. Flickr Search
      2. The Code
      3. Running the Hack
    3. 16. Find Pictures You Can Reuse Legally
      1. Understanding CC Licenses
      2. Licensing Your Photos
      3. Finding CC-Licensed Content
    4. 17. Subscribe to Flickr
      1. Flickr Feeds
        1. Members
        2. Groups
        3. Tags
        4. Flickr news
      2. Reading Feeds
        1. My Yahoo!
        2. Bloglines
        3. NetNewsWire
        4. Email and browser solutions
      3. Beyond the Basics
      4. See Also
    5. 18. Rate Photos
      1. Rating Photos
      2. Browsing Ratings
    6. 19. Travel with Flickr
      1. Visual Dictionary
      2. The Code
      3. Running the Hack
    7. 20. Build a Custom Flickr Feed
      1. Custom Feeds
      2. The Code
      3. Running the Hack
      4. See Also
    8. 21. Set Random Desktop Backgrounds
      1. Backgrounds for Windows
        1. The code
        2. Running the hack
      2. Backgrounds for Macs
        1. The code
        2. Running the hack
    9. 22. Build a Flickr Screensaver
      1. The Code
      2. Running the Hack
        1. On Mac OS X
        2. On Windows XP
    10. 23. View Flickr Photos on TiVo
      1. What You Need
      2. Starting Flickr Central
      3. Navigating Flickr Central
  6. 4. Community
    1. Hacks 24-29
    2. 24. Add and Track Contacts
      1. Adding Contacts
      2. Watching Contacts’ Photos
      3. Watching Contacts’ Activity
      4. See Also
    3. 25. Track Your Friends’ Favorites
      1. What You Need
      2. The Code
      3. Running the Hack
      4. Hacking the Hack
    4. 26. Find Your Friends’ Favorite Tags
      1. The Code
      2. Running the Hack
      3. Hacking the Hack
    5. 27. Map Your Contacts
      1. Geocoding a Location
      2. What You Need
      3. The Code
      4. Running the Hack
    6. 28. Find Flickrites in Your Mac Address Book
      1. The Code
      2. Running the Hack
    7. 29. Surf Your Contacts
      1. The Code
      2. Running the Hack
  7. 5. Maintenance
    1. Hacks 30-36
    2. 30. Back Up Your Photos
    3. 31. Back Up Photo Comments
      1. The Code
      2. Running the Hack
      3. Hacking the Hack
    4. 32. Make a Contact Sheet
      1. What You Need
      2. Running the Hack
      3. Hacking the Hack
      4. See Also
    5. 33. Download a List of Photos
      1. Useful API Methods
      2. What You Need
      3. The Code
      4. Running the Hack
      5. See Also
    6. 34. Cache Photos Locally
      1. Constructing Flickr URLs
      2. What You Need
      3. The Code
      4. Running the Hack
      5. Hacking the Hack
      6. See Also
    7. 35. Edit Photos as a Batch
      1. Batch Editing in Flickr
      2. Extending Batch Editing
    8. 36. Clean the (Group) Pool
      1. What You Need
      2. The Code
      3. Running the Hack
      4. See Also
  8. 6. API Basics
    1. Hacks 37-42
    2. The API Page
    3. API Methods
      1. Authorization
      2. Blogs
      3. Contacts
      4. Favorites
      5. Groups
      6. People
      7. Photos
      8. Licenses
      9. Notes
      10. Photo Sets
      11. Reflection: API Information
      12. Tags
      13. Test
      14. URLs
    4. API Keys and Secrets
    5. Identifying Users
    6. Identifying Groups
    7. Identifying Photos
    8. Deconstructing Flickr URLs
    9. Talking to the API
    10. 37. Talk to the API with Your Web Browser
      1. Using REST URLs
      2. Using the API Explorer
      3. See Also
    11. 38. Talk to the API with Perl
      1. What You Need
      2. Getting a User’s ID
      3. Viewing a User’s Latest Photo
      4. Viewing a User’s Latest Photo Using Flickr::API
      5. See Also
    12. 39. Talk to the API with PHP
      1. What You Need
      2. Getting a User’s ID
      3. Getting a User’s ID Using PEAR::Flickr_API
      4. Viewing a User’s Latest Photo with PEAR::Flickr_API
      5. Viewing a User’s Latest Photo Using phpFlickr
      6. See Also
    13. 40. Authenticate Yourself
      1. Authentication Modes
        1. Web Applications
        2. Desktop Applications
        3. Mobile Applications
      2. Frobs and Mini-Tokens
      3. Getting Started
      4. The Code
      5. Running the Hack
      6. See Also
    14. 41. Authenticate Users
      1. What You Need
      2. Getting Started
      3. The Code
      4. Running the Hack
      5. See Also
    15. 42. Build a Custom Upload Script
      1. Authorizing Your Script
      2. The Code
      3. Running the Hack
  9. 7. Custom Applications
    1. Hacks 43-50
    2. 43. Mash Up Your Photos
      1. What You Need
      2. ImageMagick
      3. The Code
      4. Running the Hack
      5. See Also
    3. 44. Find the Dominant Color of an Image
      1. What You Need
      2. The Code
      3. Running the Hack
      4. Hacking the Hack
      5. See Also
    4. 45. Make a Color Picker
      1. What You Need
      2. The Code
      3. Running the Hack
      4. Hacking the Hack
      5. See Also
    5. 46. Make a Motivational Poster and Other Swag
      1. Flickr Toys
      2. Creating an Unmotivational Poster
      3. Rolling Your Own
        1. The code
      4. Running the Hack
      5. See Also
    6. 47. Make a Ransom Note
      1. What You’ll Need
      2. The Code
      3. Running the Hack
      4. See Also
    7. 48. Make a Slider Puzzle
      1. What You Need
      2. The Flash Movie
      3. The Code
      4. Running the Hack
      5. Hacking the Hack
      6. See Also
    8. 49. Make a Photo Mosaic
      1. Making Great Mosaics
        1. The choice of target image
        2. The choice of candidate tiles
        3. The overall number of candidate tiles to choose from
        4. The number of candidate tiles used to overlay the target image
      2. What You Need
      3. The Code
      4. Running the Hack
      5. How It Works
      6. Hacking the Hack
      7. See Also
    9. 50. Make a Slideshow
      1. What You Need
      2. The Flash Movie
      3. The Code
      4. Running the Hack
      5. Hacking the Hack
      6. See Also
  10. Index
  11. About the Authors
  12. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: Flickr Hacks
  • Author(s): Paul Bausch, Jim Bumgardner
  • Release date: February 2006
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596102456