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:
-
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…
Strange - I was able to duplicate this problem using
Chris | November 13, 2005Strange - I was able to duplicate this problem using Firefox, but if I use Safari the zip works fine. I will do some testing to see what could cause this.
Okay - All is well again; not sure what caused
Chris | November 13, 2005Okay - All is well again; not sure what caused the problem we experienced. I changed the archive format from a zip to a dmg and tested with Safari and Firefox. Let me know of you still have problems.
Oh wow - having only just converted to the 'other
fgt | November 24, 2005Oh wow - having only just converted to the ‘other side’, its a real joy to try out some Mac app(le)s!
I love this.
A couple of thoughts .. will you be looking to add controls over font and timing in future editions?
Again … I love this!
gt - Absolutely! My next goal is to make the user
Chris | November 24, 2005gt - Absolutely!
My next goal is to make the user interface a bit easier to understand. As it stands now it’s a bit confusing (having to choose 1,2,3,4). I need to learn how to create a UI using Interface builder with a Quartz Composer backend. I think I should be able to add the timing and font controls pretty easily.. I just didn’t want to overwhelm the user until I am able to make the UI easier to work with.
Glad to hear you like the app… I enjoy working on it! I’ve had about 200 downloads - but very few comments…..
Cheers!
There is a thread going on Flickr regarding this application
Chris | November 25, 2005There is a thread going on Flickr regarding this application as well:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/macintosh/discuss/126577/#comment1062314
We just reached 500 downloads!!
Chris | November 25, 2005We just reached 500 downloads!!
I cannot get it to open. I have a
Jodi | November 26, 2005I cannot get it to open. I have a mac, using safari, and I have Tiger 10.4. It doesn’t have any application, only documents. Any hints to try will be helpful.
Jodi
Jodi - Thats interesting; When you download the file it
Chris | November 26, 2005Jodi - Thats interesting; When you download the file it should appear on your desktop as a *.DMG and look like a disc. You then double click on that disc image and you should have a new disc (similar to you Macintosh HD). Do you get that far?
Wow! Cool! I looked for an app that did just
Max | November 26, 2005Wow! Cool! I looked for an app that did just this! And I run 10.2.8!
Why are you installing into /System/Library/Screen Savers/? Everything underneath /System
Eric Blair | November 27, 2005Why are you installing into /System/Library/Screen Savers/? Everything underneath /System is supposed to be the domain of Apple (with the exception of /System/Library/Extensions/, but that’s another story/Library/Screen Savers/ (installed for )
D'oh, my last comment got clipped. Looks like I screwed
Eric Blair | November 27, 2005D’oh, my last comment got clipped. Looks like I screwed up an html tag.
Basically, your screen saver should be installed in either /Library/Screen Savers/ (for all users) or ~/Library/Screen Savers/ (for the current user).
Eric - Thanks for the feedback; I will correct this
Chris | November 27, 2005Eric - Thanks for the feedback; I will correct this problem ASAP.
Flickr Savr V.5 Flickr Savr est un économiseur d'écran pour
GuiM Weblog | November 27, 2005Flickr Savr V.5
Flickr Savr est un √ɬ©conomiseur d’√ɬ©cran pour mac, qui permet d’afficher vos photos mais aussi, celles de vos contacts, ou une s√ɬ©lection de tags. Via rMen’s weblog, the blog of a french cyberworker: Flickr Savr V.5 Tags: Flackr Savr,
[...] Flickr Savr is a screensaver for the Mac using
chasingdaisy.com » Blog Archive » A competition, a Mac toy and an update | November 27, 2005[...] Flickr Savr is a screensaver for the Mac using Flickr photos. It’s still in beta and being Macless, I can’t test it but it seems that you can set criteria such as user name, tags, contacts, etc. [Via Trois Couleurs.] [...]
The installation issue Eric mentioned above has been resolved.
Chris | November 27, 2005The installation issue Eric mentioned above has been resolved. The screensaver now installs in the correct location for all users (/Library/ScreenSavers). If you have already downloaded the saver and would like to move it to the correct location you can move the file from /System/Library/ScreenSavers to /Library/ScreenSavers. ( / = The root of your hard drive )
Flickr Screensaver Flickr Screensaver for Mac OS X. Bookmarking for later.
Neil's Smaller World | November 28, 2005Flickr Screensaver
Flickr Screensaver for Mac OS X. Bookmarking for later. [Via…
Nice job Chris! I have been searching around for one
Mark | November 28, 2005Nice job Chris! I have been searching around for one of these for awhile.
A few suggestions that you probably have already thought of:
able to show users Favorites
able to show images from certain flickr groups
display images less time
remove titles from images
Will be looking forward to the future releases.
Mark
Any plans to release the source? I'm very curious on
G | November 29, 2005Any plans to release the source? I’m very curious on the mix of php & quartz, would love to see it.
Yes - Absolutely. I just need to clean a few things
Chris | November 29, 2005Yes - Absolutely.
I just need to clean a few things up first. I will have the code online soon.
thanks!
Good show! It would be nice if, while you refactor the
Rahul Sinha | November 29, 2005Good show!
It would be nice if, while you refactor the preferences interface, you added an option to either subset a user’s pictures by tags or to randomly choose pictures from that user.
A way this could work (in terms of the interface) would be:
—-
Select all criteria:
(radio button) User (text field)
(radio button) Tags (text field)
How long should one picture be show before moving on to the next (number entry)
—-
Thus every combination of
random flickr pictures
random tag=foo pictures
random user pictures
random user tag=foo pictures
tag=foo pictures
user tag=foo pictures
user pictures
is supported by your interface
Now implementing the back end of this may be more than you want to do
-RS
in re user's favorites or user's contacts' pictures, you could
Rahul Sinha | November 29, 2005in re user’s favorites or user’s contacts’ pictures, you could have two options alight if user is selected.
Also by radio button I really meant check mark box; having an exclusive selector there makes no sense…
Great Idea! Why didn't I think of this? Anyway, it seems
Jet_Star | November 29, 2005Great Idea! Why didn’t I think of this?
Anyway, it seems that it doesn’t work when the resolution of the monitor is set to higher than 1280×1024. On my Mac set at 1920×1440, all I get is a blank white screen, but works fine when set to 1280×1024.
I have been looking for a replacement for the .Mac
Danny | December 13, 2005I have been looking for a replacement for the .Mac slides for a long time, and the combo of Flickr and your screensaver could just do tha trick.
I have no programming advice (alas, I am simple user) but I would like to add my voice to the encouragement and ideas.
For me, of the features you mention, these are my desires:
being able to disable the text title
having effects (the Ken Burns effect especially)
transitions (I like a nice fade into the next picture)
I’d also like to be able to see only images from a user (me) that are tagged with a particular tag (”recent”). So being able to combine the selection criteria that you have now would be cool. I get around that right now by tagging my pictures with “recent” and a special tag unique to my pictures, so it effectively finds the recent pictures that I own. But it would be better if I could combine the username and the tag search.
I’m alo willing to throw some donation money your way, if it helps.
Jet_Star - Sorry for my delayed response; I'm not sure
Chris | December 17, 2005Jet_Star - Sorry for my delayed response; I’m not sure why you are having that problem. I run two displays, one 1920×1200 and the other 1280×1024; and it seems to work okay. Can you elaborate a bit?
Thanks…
I've grown accustomed to drag-and-drop installation, and as a consequence
Guillermo | December 19, 2005I’ve grown accustomed to drag-and-drop installation, and as a consequence have grown very suspicious of installer packages. I don’t think I’m the only one. Wouldn’t it be better to make this package acailable as a .saver file in a dmg for all those like me. I believe if you double click a .saver file, System Preferences will open and ask you wether you want to make the file available to all users or just for you.
One more suggestion, I think it would be awesome to
zmanphoto | December 23, 2005One more suggestion,
I think it would be awesome to be able to show specific links on flickr like the “Explore interesting photos-http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/2005/12/22/
zman
zman - Great suggestion - I took a quick look
Chris | December 23, 2005zman -
Great suggestion - I took a quick look at the Flickr API; I should be able to add this feature if Flickr offers a RSS feed for intersting photos. I will add this to the list of enhancments for the next release.
Thanks for your support.
Guillermo - I agree with your concern regarding installers.
Chris | December 23, 2005Guillermo -
I agree with your concern regarding installers. I am using Quartz Composer to create the screen efffects; which saves as a *.qtz file. Double clicking the file opens in Quicktime 7 (but does not display images). This is why I choose to package the app.
I’ve been working to lean how to create a .saver for FlickrSavr but have been unable to find documentation on how to use Quartz Composer and XCode to make the app.
Still trying though
the saver doesn't show up in the system settings saver
oli | December 28, 2005the saver doesn’t show up in the system settings saver tab.
i tried to put the FlickrSavr.qtz in $HOME/Library/Screen Savers/ and /Library/Screen Savers/ but had no luck. i’m using a powermac g3, is that the problem?
Is it just me or is it broken again?
Paul Bradley | January 15, 2006Is it just me or is it broken again? I’ve never used it until tonight but I cannot get it to show more that just the first photo. It shows a photo, waits ten seconds or so, the dims the screen slightly, then shows that same photo again…
Hello Paul, I did some testing and all seems to
Chris | January 15, 2006Hello Paul, I did some testing and all seems to be working well on the server side, do you experience the same trouble if you change your query? (example: if you are searching by tags, try changing to using a username, or vice-versa).
I haven’t seen that problem in the past…
Please keep me posted.
Thanks,
Chris
Testing Comments....
ctaloi | January 15, 2006Testing Comments….
Hi, I'm having the same problem as Oli. The screen saver
Diego Barros | January 17, 2006Hi,
I’m having the same problem as Oli. The screen saver does not appear in System Preferences’ Screen Saver list. I have a Pismo PowerBook, is that the problem? I am running 10.4.3.
Thanks.
Help! Where can I DOWNLOAD this app? VersionTracker
WiggyWack | February 5, 2006Help! Where can I DOWNLOAD this app? VersionTracker gives me errors…
The download link is just below the title; or you
ctaloi | February 5, 2006The download link is just below the title; or you can follow the link below:
http://chrisaloi.com/Downloads/FlickrSavr-Beta.dmg
this app has awesome potential! most of my requests have
steve | April 17, 2006this app has awesome potential! most of my requests have been already mentioned in previous posts, but one additional thing that might be cool is if you could somehow emulate the ken burns (zoom/pan) effect. this program has really motivated me to learn quartz composer, although when i opened the qtz file for flickr savr i thought my brain was gunna explode!
installing the software says that forces me to install it
hari | June 21, 2006installing the software says that forces me to install it on the Macintosh HD volume, which is fine.
But i’m not able to figure out how to opne the App from there. I can’t find any trace of FlickrSavr after that.
any help would be great!
hari - Are you running Mac OSX 10.4? Tiger is required as
ctaloi | June 21, 2006hari -
Are you running Mac OSX 10.4?
Tiger is required as the screensaver was created in quartz composer (new on 10.4).
The installation package does the following:
Installs a file called ‘FlickSavr’ in the
/Users/Username/Library/ScreenSavers/FlickrSavr
directory.
You don’t really launch it as an application because it is a screensaver.
If you open the Apple System Prefrences and choose ‘desktop and screen effects’ FlickSavr should now be an option.
Let me know if you still have problems
-Thanks!
so cool it!
moichi | June 24, 2006so cool it!
not sure what I am doing wrong. i am following
Matt | August 9, 2006not sure what I am doing wrong. i am following the directions and seems to work but it only displays 1 photo and thats it. any hints?
hey matt! glad your trying the app. What is your search query
ctaloi | August 9, 2006hey matt!
glad your trying the app.
What is your search query in the flickrsavr prefs?
Any information you have would be useful, i’m happy to help figure out what’s going wrong.
_Chris_
Instead of a pkg, you might just include in your
Steven | August 13, 2006Instead of a pkg, you might just include in your dmg the qtz file and a link to the screensavers directory at /Library/Screen Savers. Then you merely design “drag ‘n drop” instructions in photoshop, and set the JPG as your image’s background in view options - don’t forget that when you make a disk image, it saves all the viewing options and these are re-created when it opens. Blow up the icons super huge and have a big curved arrow in the background. Simple, and no installer necessary.
This is a great application! Thank you so much
blackrazorus | September 17, 2006This is a great application! Thank you so much for sharing it with everyone. Is there a way to use it as is to pull photos from a Flickr Pool? If not, please consider it a feature request…
Neat. I'm also unable to see the screensaver on
mickey | November 21, 2006Neat. I’m also unable to see the screensaver on a G3, but works well on G4. I do have a question: Where does it keep the images it downloads? Does it remove them after display? If not, is there a way to limit how many images it will download?
mickey
Hey there, Came across your site and found this cool piece
Mathieu | October 13, 2007Hey there,
Came across your site and found this cool piece of software. I built a digital photo frame for my parents so they could load shots of their grandchildren (mine and my sister’s kids) and have it rotate. But we have to do it at their house or VNC in which is messier.
So I wanted to use my Flickr account and your screen saver to make it easier. Only trouble is I’m having no luck getting them to appear.
I’m on OSX 10.4.10 - I spin the wheel to 1 and put in my username “myuill”
Nothing comes up … any suggestions?
Does this thing still work? I tried installing it and
Michael Meiser | January 1, 2008Does this thing still work? I tried installing it and I only got it to ever load work with its default setting. It would not grab my contacts photos at all, and I’m pretty sure I entered my proper username.
The link on VersionTracker is broken, can you get it
OrangeJon | February 5, 2008The link on VersionTracker is broken, can you get it fixed?
The interface says:
(1) A Users Photos
(2) Tag
(2) Tag
(3) Contacts Photos
Presumably “Tag” isn’t supposed to be there twice. I want to see my contacts photos, so I set mode 3. If I type my username into the third box, the screensaver is blank. If I type it in third box, it’s the same, except that when I come back, the box’s value has reset to (aloi).
Any suggestions?
I should add that my internet connection is definitely working,
OrangeJon | February 5, 2008I should add that my internet connection is definitely working, and the other modes work fine.
Did you ever get around to publishing the source code?
Nick | March 1, 2008Did you ever get around to publishing the source code? I’d love to see how it works!!
[...] well as wallpapers there is another program that I
Amazing Mac Wallpapers (Collection) | Mac Tricks And Tips | July 25, 2008[...] well as wallpapers there is another program that I should point out. This is FlickrSavr. It is a screen saver that download images from your account or other groups and displays them in a [...]