Star*Explorer (S*E, formerly Smugmug Explorer) is a very small, fast, robust and efficient Windows application designed to facilitate certain smugmug-related activities, such as unlimited persistent image upload, download, customized gallery settings, reports, etc.
It has been created and is fully supported by a person who loves digital photography, smugmug, and, most importantly, has more than 30 years of hardcore programming experience behind his belt.

Star*Explorer is a commercial application with an industry-standard 30 days trial.

More here: http://www.starexplorer.com

Below is original first post:-)
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I'm opening this thread to indicate the status of this project, accept the feedback, etc.

SmugmugExplorer is a win32 app (preferably windows XP) which should facilitate some routine tasks, such as upload the whole bunch of files, without getting into such limitations as 100Mb per upload, etc.

It's still in alpha, but I think it's already usable.

[EDIT: Star*Explorer has been successfully released in April 2005. Please check www.starexplorer.com for the latest version]

(for the non-tech people, here is programmers' lingo 101:

• alpha - it actually can work sometimes?
• beta - "beta" than nothing
• pre-release - me and my beer buddies can operate it just fine, what are you complaining about?
• gold - hm-m, maybe I should let my wife try it
• release - IPO, here I come!

)
I have already used it intensively to create many albums (eve bunch at a time:-) and upload thousands of images.
My colleagues at work (whom I lured into smugmug:-) are also about to start using it.
Anyway, here is the alpha (376 Kb, single exe in a zip):
http://nik.wyw.ru/download/smugmugex...xplorer.a0.zip
Just download it, unzip it and launch it.
Forgot: you'd also need two ssl dlls (371 Kb, zip file with two dlls)
http://nik.wyw.ru/download/smugmugexplorer/ssl_dlls.zip
Put them next to the executable.

You'd need to enter your account info to use it - I SWEAR I'm not sending it anywere. And it also stored in a heavily double encripted way, so unless you''re totally paranoid, your "password" password should be pretty safe with it.

If you want it to automatically connect everytime you open it, modify the launching shortcut and specify "/autoconnect=1" command line parameter.

If not - File - Connect, File - Get Albums, select the album, drag files/folders from your windows explorer and select Upload.

I will keep updating this thread as new versions and comments come.

Thank you very much, I hope you'll enjoy the ride:-)

I already modified an original post, but then I deciede to mention it here, too, so you'd know something's been changed..

Forgot: you'd also need two ssl dlls (371 Kb, zip file with two dlls)
http://nik.wyw.ru/download/smugmugexplorer/ssl_dlls.zip
Put them next to the executable.

Hey...

I think a lot of people here are Mac people...

~Damon

Originally Posted by damonff Hey... I think a lot of people here are Mac people... ~Damon

Then, I guess, they will not be interested in this little app of mine:-)
However, I did a little poll on dpreview STF - absolute majority were using XP, and one person was kind enough to provide me with an interesting stats from his (or his company's) server:

These represent 6 months of data and close to 100 000 people sample: Windows XP 91.60% Other Windows 7.70% Linux 0.50% Macintosh 0.20%

So, I guess, I'll take my chances:-)

Cheers!

Originally Posted by Nikolai Then, I guess, they will not be interested in this little app of mine:-) However, I did a little poll on dpreview STF - absolute majority were using XP, and one person was kind enough to provide me with an interesting stats from his (or his company's) server: So, I guess, I'll take my chances:-) Cheers!

Those stats are overwhelming! I guess I'll lose out on your fab app Nikolai! Drat! If you have extra time, think of the Apple people...good luck with the changes in Smugmug. Your voice is welcome and hopefully you'll have some influence...

When I saw them, I was stunned myself. If anything, it gave me a better sense what my potential audience would be..
In the mean time, please rest assured, Apple version will come. I mean, as soon as Steve manages to persuade Borland to make iDelphi - or Microsoft to make iVisualStudio..
Thank you, stay tuned!

Originally Posted by damonff Hey... I think a lot of people here are Mac people... ~Damon

Alas, I'm afraid our beloved Mac is in the minority.

Generally, they're assumed to have about 5% market share. On photo sharing sites, it's probably a little higher due to the artistic nature of Mac users. On smugmug, it's even higher because our elegant style resonates with Mac users.

But I'd say the highest it could possibly be is 20% of smugmug customers. That leaves the other 80% who would love his application. :)

(For the record, I use all major platforms on a daily basis. My main PC is running Windows XP, my main laptop is running Mac OS X, and my servers and testbeds all run Red Hat Linux. I feel strongly that the best tool for the job should be used, and different OSes are better for different things.)

Don

Originally Posted by Nikolai I already modified an original post, but then I deciede to mention it here, too, so you'd know something's been changed.. Forgot: you'd also need two ssl dlls (371 Kb, zip file with two dlls) http://nik.wyw.ru/download/smugmugexplorer/ssl_dlls.zip Put them next to the executable.

Hey Nikolai, this is great news!

If you have a page which I could link to, rather than direct downloads (which will change as the version changes), I'd love to add a link to the smugmug hacks page.

(We have a few other scripts and apps that need to be linked in, too, so I'd better hunt those authors down as well.)

Thanks,

Don

Originally Posted by onethumb Hey Nikolai, this is great news! If you have a page which I could link to, rather than direct downloads (which will change as the version changes), I'd love to add a link to the smugmug hacks page. (We have a few other scripts and apps that need to be linked in, too, so I'd better hunt those authors down as well.) Thanks, Don

I'll gladly do that! I'll find some HTML tool and create a "standard product" page. I'll notify you as soon as I'm done!
Thank you for the excellent suggestion!

Cheers!

http://nik.wyw.ru/products/smugmug_explorer/
CHANGED to: http://www.sklobovsky.com/community/smugmug

I forged it in Word, it certainly lacks "style", but hey, it works, and I can update it :-)

Thanks again!

It was my long-past due task to upload my originals to my smugmug account. This task became especially "hot" when the site that used to host them before was recently shut down.

I started to upload them manually (via smugmug windows IE uploader), uploaded about 1,500 (old, 1mp and hence small) files from the year 2000 and get really tired.

Then I wrote this app.

And during the the last two days I uploaded *everything else* (originals, I mean, icluding November 2004:-). It only took me watching the progress from time to time and occasionally feed it with a new month worth of pictures - I stored them by year/month, so it was pretty easy action - select an album, drag one folder, hit upload . Each month was WAY beyond online uploader's current restrictions - usually more than 300 images and way more than 100Mb (all this year I was shooting 828:-).
I even created most of the albums "in ohe shot" (although createAlbum bug made me to go to the site and modify their settings manually - arrgh..)

Here are some stats from today and yesterday:

• 2004 12 galleries with 4988 photos. Dec 02, 2004
• 2003 12 galleries with 2229 photos. Dec 02, 2004
• 2002 12 galleries with 1962 photos. Dec 01, 2004
• 2001 12 galleries with 1741 photos. Dec 01, 2004

It's not much, I know, some people shoot 10K pictures a month. But still, total volume was about 12-13Gb. Now, try to upload that manually;-)
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More to follow:-)
Cheers!

Originally Posted by damonff Hey... I think a lot of people here are Mac people... ~Damon

Use my smugmug.py script. Once you install python, it works well on OS X and is great for massive uploads. I backup more than 50GB of stuff to smugmug.

Originally Posted by rutt Use my smugmug.py script. Once you install python, it works well on OS X and is great for massive uploads. I backup more than 50GB of stuff to smugmug.

Cool!

Originally Posted by Nikolai I'm opening this thread to indicate the status of this project, accept the feedback, etc. SmugmugExplorer is a win32 app (preferably windows XP) which should facilitate some routine tasks, such as upload the whole bunch of files, without getting into such limitations as 100Mb per upload, etc. It's still in alpha, but I think it's already usable. (for the non-tech people, here is programmers' lingo 101: alpha - it actually can work sometimes? beta - "beta" than nothing pre-release - me and my beer buddies can operate it just fine, what are you complaining about? gold - hm-m, maybe I should let my wife try it release - IPO, here I come! ) I have already used it intensively to create many albums (eve bunch at a time:-) and upload thousands of images. My colleagues at work (whom I lured into smugmug:-) are also about to start using it. Anyway, here is the alpha (376 Kb, single exe in a zip): http://nik.wyw.ru/download/smugmugex...xplorer.a0.zip Just download it, unzip it and launch it. Forgot: you'd also need two ssl dlls (371 Kb, zip file with two dlls) http://nik.wyw.ru/download/smugmugexplorer/ssl_dlls.zip Put them next to the executable. You'd need to enter your account info to use it - I SWEAR I'm not sending it anywere. And it also stored in a heavily double encripted way, so unless you''re totally paranoid, your "password" password should be pretty safe with it. If you want it to automatically connect everytime you open it, modify the launching shortcut and specify "/autoconnect=1" command line parameter. If not - File - Connect, File - Get Albums, select the album, drag files/folders from your windows explorer and select Upload. I will keep updating this thread as new versions and comments come. Thank you very much, I hope you'll enjoy the ride:-)

Thanks Nikolai,


I'll give it a try!!!

Originally Posted by gubbs Thanks Nikolai, I'll give it a try!!!

Let me know how it went!
And stay tuned - new version is coming.. I'm working on recursive upload now - you drop a folder on a "category/subcategory", it will parse the names of the folders and, if need be, create new albums for you, or will populate existing ones..
That is, of course, if Don manages to fix the createAlbum bug - otherwise new albums end up on a category level, but it would still be easier than creating a whole bunch of them manually:-)

Hey Nikolai,

Nice to see your work. Looking good :)

Originally Posted by Nikolai You'd need to enter your account info to use it - I SWEAR I'm not sending it anywere. And it also stored in a heavily double encripted way, so unless you''re totally paranoid, your "password" password should be pretty safe with it.

I am totally paranoid (!) [A little too much software security work]. Hence I'm interested, how is it stored and why double encrypted? [Some forms of double encryption are a lot easier to break than single encryption]. Generally speaking though I use disposable passwords for the likes of Smugmug, so I'm not that worried...

Is it in the Windows Crypto cache?

Generally I'm impressed this looks good, already I would probably use this in preference to the standard uploaders.

Some suggestions:

I would like to be able to detach the log viewer so that I can have it and the album structure open at the same time.

I think that there is a typo in the log generator:

Started Logging to polymorphix.smugum.com

and

Finished Logging to polymorphix.smugum.com

I would also like a dialog telling me connection had failed.

Otherwise looking very good. Keep up the good work :)

Many thanks,

Luke

Thank you very much for your kind words, comments and suggestions.

Typos is my eternal problem. ez 2 fix, tho..:-)

Double encription:
the configuration file is encripted with a pretty long meaningless password. The executable is then packed, which makes reading the EXE and trying to locate the potential string kinda non-trivial job. All in all, for what it was, I'd feel pretty safe.

UI: while I will try to keep "explorer" paradigm intact, there will be many more changes. Upload patch (where you can actually see and magage what are about to upload). multithreading, scheduling, etc. So log/terminal view will be more readable and usable.

Thanks again!

Originally Posted by Nikolai http://nik.wyw.ru/products/smugmug_explorer/ I forged it in Word, it certainly lacks "style", but hey, it works, and I can update it :-) Thanks again!

http://www.sklobovsky.com/community/smugmug
Also modified the original post. Hope it's not too late:-)
Thank you!

Originally Posted by rutt Use my smugmug.py script. Once you install python, it works well on OS X and is great for massive uploads. I backup more than 50GB of stuff to smugmug.

Rutt, do you have a webpage I can link to that will comment on and track changes to the script? I'd like to link it from smugmug's site...

Don

Originally Posted by Nikolai http://www.sklobovsky.com/community/smugmug Also modified the original post. Hope it's not too late:-) Thank you!

I emailed this to you personally as well, but I thought I would post it here in public.

This is my new favorite thing ever.

Fantastic job. This is really really really awesome. It has just become my default uploader. I know a lot of people are really going to be happy with this.