FlickrSavr v.05
We’ve reached 500 750 1000 1500 2000++ downloads!!
Well after a few weeks of hard work and learning PHP I am ready to release a full working version of the FlickrSavr for Mac OS X. This version includes many improvements over the previous, and finally allows user interaction.
Below is a detailed write-up of the latest release…. let me know what you think!
FlickrSavr is now also on Version Tracker
I created this screen saver as a proof of concept using the Flickr API, Apple’s Quartz Composer, and PHP. FlickrSavr downloads images based on the criteria specified and creates a slideshow of images and titles.
FlickrSavr searches Flickr for one of the following specified criteria:
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By Username (1) Select this option to display photos taken by a specific flickr user.
Example: To use my personal photographs as a screensaver I select: (1) for the “SavrType”and enter ctaloi in userfield - By Tags (2) Select this option to display photos tagged with a specific tag (one or more). Example: To display images tagged with “apple” or “dog” I select: (2) for the “Savr Type”and enter apple,dog In the tags field
- By Contacts (3) Select this option to display a users contacts photos. Example: To display my contacts images I select: (3) for the “Savr Type”and enter ctaloiin the contacts photos field
- Random (4) Select this option to display random photos recently added to Flickr.
NOTE: Flickr Saver will ONLY run on Mac 10.4 (Tiger) or higher. To uninstall the screen saver remove the file located:/System/Library/Screen Savers/. As with any beta software package I can not guarantee this screen saver will work as intended. I’ve done a lot of testing and have had no problems – but please, use at your own risk. If you have any problems please contact me through comments. Enjoy…
Hello Amy, Glad your happy with FlickrSavr… I haven’t had much time to spend on it lately, glad to see it’s still working!
When using Quartz Composer you can pull images in directly via RSS (essentially QC looks like a web browser or client to the server, flickr). I opted to use a url on aloi.org from the client (FlickrSavr) to parse the titles and large images out of the flickr feed. Basically the request comes from FlickrSavr and is run through a script on aloi.org which then talks to flickr (passes an API key) the script parses the result from flickr and gives the client a Quartz Composer friendly feed. I probably could have accomplished all of this directly from client to flickr, but proxying the request through aloi.org gave me more control. The images aren’t ever downloaded or stored on aloi.org, only the url of the images. Hope that helps, if you have any other questions – don’t hesitate to ask!
- Chris