October 2007 API contest - Win an iPhone!

[onethumb]

With the release of the 1.2.1 version of the API (dgrin docs & discussion thread), we have a contest to see who can build the coolest stuff. :)

Details:

• Your app must use the v1.2.1 API for all of its calls, unless there's a bug in the API that requires you to use 1.2.0 for something. We expect to rapidly flag this version as released, with your help, so we anticipate fixing any bugs well before the contest ends.
• The one exception is if you use feeds only, that's perfectly acceptable. But should you make any API calls, they must be to the 1.2.1 endpoints.
• You must post a link and description of your app on this thread no later than 11:59pm Pacific Time on October 31st, 2007. If you don't make it in time (I realize this is short), no worries - I'm sure we'll have another contest soon afterwards that you can submit for. Do let us know, though, that you're close so we know we should do another contest (or extend the deadline, if necessary?).
• You may submit more than one entry.
• Yes, frameworks/wrappers/kits/etc count. In fact, since they enable others to more easily build stuff, they count a lot.
• The app must either be brand-new (we haven't seen it before) or be a major update/revision to an existing app. No point releases.
• Judging is still up in the air, but I think I'd like to offer at least two prizes for this round: community favorite and SmugMug favorite. If we think of more, or we get too many cool submissions, we'll just have to award more prizes.
• Should you win, you'll receive an iPhone or something of similar value should you live in a non-iPhone territory (or just don't want one).

If you're looking for hints on what might win you judge's points, I'd think about what's hot online right now. iPhone stuff? Facebook stuff? Use your imagination, but something that's useful and cutting-edge is likely to be your best bet. And, of course, this is SmugMug, so we care about design. And by 'design' we mean the master's definition:

Design is not just what it looks like or feels like. Design is how it works. - Steve Jobs

Finally, don't forget that API developers get lifetime free Pro accounts, so there's no cost to play. :)

Best of luck to all the contestants!

[onethumb]

On a personal note (and I'm obviously one of the judges), I've always wanted to see a great two-way sync application. Lots of people have threatened to make one, but I haven't seen one yet for either the Mac or Windows.

We provide the filename, filesize, updated time, date taken time, and MD5 of each photo at SmugMug via the API, so this shouldn't really be that difficult. Seems pretty useful, too.

Upload to a SmugMug gallery while you're on the road travelling, and it automatically syncs it back down to your PC at home. Copy something to your PC's photos directory and it automatically copies it up to SmugMug. Sounds pretty great.

Anyone wanna take a stab? :)

[GarethLewin]

Do apps have to use 1.2.1 new features?

I have two apps I'm working on, but neither use 1.2.1 features (but I will port them over to 1.2.1 tonight)

Also, I could be convinced to write that syncing app.

I was thinking of writing one of those for Lightroom, but Adobe seem to be pretty bad at releasing an API

[onethumb]

Originally Posted by GarethLewin

Do apps have to use 1.2.1 new features?

I have two apps I'm working on, but neither use 1.2.1 features (but I will port them over to 1.2.1 tonight)

Also, I could be convinced to write that syncing app.

I was thinking of writing one of those for Lightroom, but Adobe seem to be pretty bad at releasing an API

No, your app does not have to use any of the new methods for 1.2.1, just the 1.2.1 endpoints. Good question. :)

[cabbey]

Originally Posted by onethumb

No, your app does not have to use any of the new methods for 1.2.1, just the 1.2.1 endpoints. Good question. :)

I was about to ask if we could request a new API entry to enable an app we've wanted to build for a while. But then I looked at what was in 1.2.1 and saw you had just added *exactly* what I was going to ask for!!!

Now if only I had the time to WRITE the app I want to do.

[GarethLewin]

Originally Posted by onethumb

On a personal note (and I'm obviously one of the judges), I've always wanted to see a great two-way sync application. Lots of people have threatened to make one, but I haven't seen one yet for either the Mac or Windows.

We provide the filename, filesize, updated time, date taken time, and MD5 of each photo at SmugMug via the API, so this shouldn't really be that difficult. Seems pretty useful, too.

Upload to a SmugMug gallery while you're on the road travelling, and it automatically syncs it back down to your PC at home. Copy something to your PC's photos directory and it automatically copies it up to SmugMug. Sounds pretty great.

Anyone wanna take a stab? :)

What is Modified time as far as you guys are concerned?

[kylemulka]

Originally Posted by onethumb

No, your app does not have to use any of the new methods for 1.2.1, just the 1.2.1 endpoints. Good question. :)

On a similar note, so that means that none of our app can use the feeds? It looks to be easier for my app to just use the feeds.

[-Alex-]

Are there any other ideas lingering around for new apps to go with SmugMug?

I'd love to get involved in some way, but looking at the list of apps it seems that anything interesting has already been done.

[onethumb]

Originally Posted by kylemulka

On a similar note, so that means that none of our app can use the feeds? It looks to be easier for my app to just use the feeds.

Sorry, I'll amend the rules. Feed-only use is certainly allowed, and actually for read-only apps, is probably easier and thus preferred.

Thanks!

[onethumb]

Originally Posted by -Alex-

Are there any other ideas lingering around for new apps to go with SmugMug?

I'd love to get involved in some way, but looking at the list of apps it seems that anything interesting has already been done.

I think the best ideas probably include linking two or more services or pieces of software. If you have a favorite online service (MySpace, Facebook, Wordpress, LiveJournal, etc) that doesn't yet interface with SmugMug, that'd be a good place to start. Likewise, if there's some desktop app you love that doesn't interact with us, that'd be a great place to start, too.

I know there are lots of people who keep a Flickr account and a SmugMug account. I've long thought it be cool to have a unified uploader that can upload to either or both simultaneously, so that's a possible idea.

"Mashups" where you take two (or more) great products and fuse them tend to be real winners. :)

[mjohnsonperl]

I'm going to see what I can come up with for this contest.

I know ActiveState now has ActivePerl distributable for the Max OS X, but I've never tried to use it on a Mac yet. I'm hoping to build a cross platform compatible program in Perl, but I'm probably going to have to start it out on Windows first as I don't have a Mac (yet) to develop with.

[onethumb]

Originally Posted by -Alex-

Are there any other ideas lingering around for new apps to go with SmugMug?

I'd love to get involved in some way, but looking at the list of apps it seems that anything interesting has already been done.

Building something like a framework that lots of other projects can use may get you big points, too. :)

Both a Java and PHP implementation have been announced in the last few days, but that leaves lots of other languages: Perl, Ruby, Python, .NET... The list goes on.

I've seen plenty of requests for screensavers before, and Mac OS X Dashboard widgets....

I'll keep posting as I think of other ideas. :)

[devbobo]

Originally Posted by onethumb

Building something like a framework that lots of other projects can use may get you big points, too. :)

Both a Java and PHP implementation have been announced in the last few days, but that leaves lots of other languages: Perl, Ruby, Python, .NET... The list goes on.

I've seen plenty of requests for screensavers before, and Mac OS X Dashboard widgets....

I'll keep posting as I think of other ideas. :)

Don,

There is already a ruby framework

dev

[cabbey]

And a mac framework in objective c has also been started... though I can't claim it's gotten very far. :(

[onethumb]

Originally Posted by onethumb

Building something like a framework that lots of other projects can use may get you big points, too. :)

Both a Java and PHP implementation have been announced in the last few days, but that leaves lots of other languages: Perl, Ruby, Python, .NET... The list goes on.

I've seen plenty of requests for screensavers before, and Mac OS X Dashboard widgets....

I'll keep posting as I think of other ideas. :)

Oooh, I bet a Flex framework would be well loved...

[jmrodri]

Originally Posted by onethumb

Building something like a framework that lots of other projects can use may get you big points, too. :)

Both a Java and PHP implementation have been announced in the last few days, but that leaves lots of other languages: Perl, Ruby, Python, .NET... The list goes on.

I've seen plenty of requests for screensavers before, and Mac OS X Dashboard widgets....

I'll keep posting as I think of other ideas. :)

The work I'm doing on zmugfs uses a python API implementation in python. It uses the JSON version of the API and while I've kept it simple and only implemented what I needed for zmugfs, it wouldn't be too hard to make it a standalone API framework.

You can see zmugjson.py here:
http://sm-photo-tool.svn.sourceforge...py?view=markup

I modeled the interaction similar to the xmlrpclib module in python. There's a Smugmug class that is a wrapper for convenience, but if you us e the ZmugJSON class directly you can call ANY smugmug api very easily. For instance, if the api is smugmug.login.withPassword you simple do this:

sm = ZmugJSON()
rsp = sm.smugmug.login.withPassword(EmailAddress=username, Password=password, APIKey=self.key)
returnvalue = simplejson.loads(rsp)

Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can get it in a ready enough state for the contest (unless that's not a requirement)

/jesus rodriguez

[lildude]

phpSmug 1.1.1, which now supports rev 1.2.1 of the API, is now available.

At the moment, it only officially implements those methods detailed at http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=71887.

The code is in place for ALL of the functions listed on the wiki, however some of the methods haven't been implemented in the API itself, so I've not tested these, so can't be sure they'll return the correct data. At the moment, these methods are commented out and will return "Not implemented in API yet".

I'll update phpSmug 1.1.x as these methods become available.

[darryl]

Hey guys, wouldn't it be awesome if this awesome Desktop Switcher could hook into SmugMug?

http://www.johnsadventures.com/softw...groundswitcher

Well, I've asked the author, and he thinks he can get it into the next rev, although I'm not sure if it'll be in time for the contest. But if it is, I think it should definitely be a contender for the winner.

Right now I have it rotating through my images on Phanfare, and it is *soooo* great. However I just tried the thumbnail mosaic view, and while very cool, it may be a little too busy. Still, an amazingly cool app, and I can't wait to hook it into my SmugMug galleries as well.

Next rev after that, he's going to support random images from multiple sources (Phanfare, Flickr, SmugMug, local folders, etc.) Sweet!

[flyingdutchie]

Originally Posted by onethumb

Building something like a framework that lots of other projects can use may get you big points, too. :)

Both a Java and PHP implementation have been announced in the last few days, but that leaves lots of other languages: Perl, Ruby, Python, .NET... The list goes on.

I've seen plenty of requests for screensavers before, and Mac OS X Dashboard widgets....

I'll keep posting as I think of other ideas. :)

Currently, i'm keeping my self busy with developing an extra layer on top of Kallasoft's Smugmug Java API.

Kallasoft's Java API is very function oriented. Each class represents a Smugmug API method/function.

The layer i'm building on top of his API is more object oriented. E.g. Albums, Sessions, Images. Code example:

Session session = Session.loginWithPassword("email@bla.com", "sdk49za");
// Creating a new Category:
Category newCat = new Category(sess, "Title");
newCat.create();
 
// Creating new sub-category in existing category:
SubCategory subCat = new SubCategory(newCat, "Title");
subCat.create();
 
// Renaming an existing subcategory's title.
subCat.setTitle("New Title");
subCat.update();
 
// Deleting an album
Album album; 
...
album.delete();

I'm planning to add some 'intelligent' caching and change-management to minimize network-traffic.

I hope to be able to integrate it with Kalla's work .

[rkalla]

Originally Posted by flyingdutchie

Currently, i'm keeping my self busy with developing an extra layer on top of Kallasoft's Smugmug Java API.

Kallasoft's Java API is very function oriented. Each class represents a Smugmug API method/function.

The layer i'm building on top of his API is more object oriented. E.g. Albums, Sessions, Images. Code example:

Session session = Session.loginWithPassword("email@bla.com", "sdk49za");
// Creating a new Category:
Category newCat = new Category(sess, "Title");
newCat.create();
 
// Creating new sub-category in existing category:
SubCategory subCat = new SubCategory(newCat, "Title");
subCat.create();
 
// Renaming an existing subcategory's title.
subCat.setTitle("New Title");
subCat.update();
 
// Deleting an album
Album album; 
...
album.delete();

I'm planning to add some 'intelligent' caching and change-management to minimize network-traffic.

I hope to be able to integrate it with Kalla's work .

This is awesome, I'm really looking forward to seeing your API Anton. I have a feeling any apps I plan on writing I'll likely use *your* API to do so.

Just a heads up on the Changelog for Beta 2:
http://kallasoft.com/smugmug-java-api/changelog/

A lot of optimization and full documentation in addition to the beginning of 1.2.1 support.

The API should be the same though, I doubt you'll have any compilation errors from it, but if you do they should be really easy to fix, and if not, I'd be happy to look into it.