The API wraps up a lot of the Gallery2 remote services into some easy to use C# functions.

Code block

Actions a = new SADev.Gallery2.Protocol.Actions("http://www.blakepics.com");
string authToken = a.Login("*************", "*************").AuthToken;
a.FetchAlbums(authToken).Albums.ForEach(
    album =>
    {
        Console.WriteLine(album.Title);
        a.FetchImages(authToken, album.Name).Images.ForEach(image =>
            Console.WriteLine("\t" + image.Url)
        );
    }
    );
Console.ReadKey();

Hopefully I’ll find an excuse to use this one day.

I’m releasing the updated module for Gallery2 under the name of GalleryTweet. It was prompted by a few people mentioning they couldn’t get my earlier hack to work – so I thought I’d build something that was (slightly) more robust, and might stand to work on installations other than my own.

You might want to skip my ramblings and jump straight to the download, so here’s a link for you folks:

• Download GalleryTweet module
  

1. Install by unzipping to the root of your Gallery2 installation, and activate through the plugins panel.
   
2. Once logged in, edit your Twitter settings through the left navigation
   
3. You should enter your twitter username / password, and the format you’d like to send your Tweets out with.
   
4. Now while you’re browsing the Gallery, Tweet about any images using the link below the thumbnail

Please drop me a message on Twitter @kevinblake if you’ve found the plugin useful, can’t get it work, or have any other feedback.  That download link again, in case you missed it the first time:

• Download GalleryTweet module

Happy Tweeting!

This post is no longer being maintained due to budget constraints - please check the project page for the latest information: http://codex.gallery2.org/Gallery2:Modules:gallerytweet

Rumours of my career change have been greatly exaggerated

Whilst rumours of my career change might have been greatly exagerrated, it’s been another good April Fool’s Day worldwide as individuals and businesses have thrown off any seriousness of the rest of the year by turning to Newsbiscuit-esque stories and ideas everywhere.  April 1st is of particular interest to me as a web developer, as an opportunity to proudly display the more playful side of a company, attract new audiences, and to make people smile.

So here are some of my favourites (apologies if a lot of these links don’t work.  Chances are, it’s not April 1st any more).  If you’ve been following me on Twitter today, you’ll have probably seen a lot of these already.

• Google’s gBall
  Google Australia joined the Google party early with the new pay-per-kick GPS enabled gBall.
• Slashdot – IE 8.1 supports Firefox Plugins, Rendering Engine
  Not a particularly brilliant or engaging story, but the first one I found of the year.
• Google’s CADIE
  The world’s first AI, took over Google sites everywhere; YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail and Google Image Search and my personal favourite – a 3D-glasses enabled Chrome.
• Opera Face Gestures
  The natural progression from mouse gestures, with a priceless video.
• Gamespot’s Umbrella Corporation requests bailout
  One for the gamers fitting in nicely with today’s G20 protests, Resident Evil’s Umbrella Corporation have requested government bailout for its failing company.
• XBOX’s Alpine Legend
  Another one for the gamers, and worth it for the video alone, yodel with Franz the Manz Long on Xbox Live.
• Lastminute Spar days
  Expedia may have been offering flights to Mars, but Lastminute had a far more relaxing Spar Days on offer today.

And lastly, in the papers…

• The Daily Express invisible car
• BMW’s magnetic tow technology
• Waitrose Pinana’s

Do you have any favourites I’ve missed?  Don’t forget, it’s never too early to start planning next years pranks

The Hudson River picture wouldn’t have been possible without the non-affiliated TwitPic – which never truly got the recognition it deserved.  Without it, the infamous picture would have only been a 140 character description, and nobody will have noticed or cared.  Still, that’s the nature of buzzwords I guess.  If they don’t cause a buzz, they’re just words.

Anyway, TwitPic is yet another disparate service like Flickr, Panoramio or Facebook that’s had me tempted away from uploading some of my photos to Gallery2 / Blakepics.  With Facebook, I’ve integrated my own application there; Panoramio and Flickr, stolen the best parts of each.

And now with a hack to the tagging module in Gallery 2 I can emulate all I want from TwitPic as well, and tuck another service onto the shelf at the back at the cupboard.  So as usual, I thought I’d share.

What it is…

• Tweet any photos on Gallery just by adding the tag ‘twitter’ to your photo.
• Automatically takes the photos title as your Tweet text.
• Processes all URLs through TinyURL, giving you a warm and fuzzy Tiny URL

What it isn’t…

• A seamless Gallery2 module.  There’s some hacking to do.
• Multi-user.  If you share your Gallery, there’s some more work to do.

If you make improvements in these areas or any others – please let me know

Requirements

• Gallery 2
• Tagging module
• Twitter account

Things you need to do

1. Download my Twitter Tags class
2. Unzip to the root of your Gallery installation
3. Edit /modules/tags/classes/TwitterTag.class with your twitter username/pass, and Gallery URL.
4. Edit /modules/tags/classes/TagsHelper.class
   1. Add this just above the line ‘class TagsHelper’
      GalleryCoreApi::requireOnce('modules/tags/classes/TwitterTag.class');
   2. Then just above
      return TagsHelper::assignTagById($itemId, $tagId);
      Add
      TwitterTag::Tweet($itemId, $tagId);
5. Tag any photos you want to appear on Twitter with ‘twitter’.

Snake wine.  It has a dead snake dead scorpion in it.  And looks a lot like olive oil.  The rumours are that if you drink the whole bottle, the poison makes you blind.  I say put it in smaller bottles.

Even though the hotel I booked in Hue was full, I can still use their free wifi if I go over by the balcony.  Well, it’s only across the street.

The same hotel should change their router password… I can login with admin / admin.  You get this a lot in places that offer free wifi, why don’t all routers force you through changing the password when you first install it?  Plug and play that creates a rubbish system is still a rubbish system.

Vietnamese cities don’t have many massive landmarks that I can use to orientate myself.  The tall narrow streets are not helping.

So, my BGT-31 GPS has been a lifesaver.  Once I find a place like a hotel or a train station – I can mark it, and use it to create way points later on.    It tells me which direction I’m heading in; North, East, South or West, which I should be heading in, and how far it is.  It also makes me feel a bit like a ghostbuster if I hold it out in front of me while I’m walking.

I can’t sleep on trains if I’m lying down.  I had the same restless nights when I was in Croatia.  Remarkably falling asleep sitting up and talking to myself on the way home from work has never been a problem.

I often pass by Facebook requests from old school friends that I can’t remember from 5 years of school.  But I’ll happily add someone I’ve spoken to for only 15 minutes in a hostel.  And I still have to ask their name again, because “hey man” never returns any successful matches.

There are a lot of good rock bars in London that I don’t know about.  And it’s embarrassing finding that out from a Swedish bloke who lived there for only a year.

Seeing a live pig tied upside down on the back of a motorcycle was well worth seeing, no matter what the animal rights activists say.

I’m beginning to understand the phrase “more people die every year crossing the street, than do flying”… Londoners should still be afraid of flying.

The book sellers on the streets have offered me huge stacks of Lonely Planet Guides, but never Rough Guides.  I wonder how accurate their counterfeiting is, or wether the books contain helpful gems such as “you should stay at my place, very cheap”, and: “Always buy lonely planet guides from the local street book people.  They are cheaper and more accurate.”  All said and done, as Mike (I won’t take the credit) – at least they’re selling something tourists will find useful, and not some useless cheap tat.

Remember, if you get it back – someone loves you too.

'i twitter from my fridge' ... Still waiting...

Two months ago, I had no use for Twitter.  Now it seems it’s everywhere, on everything and no device can survive without that talkative little bird.  So I thought I’d gather together all the different applications I’ve managed to dig out and install so far.

1. TwitterFeed – Update Twitter automatically from this blog – both the posts and currently reading RSS feeds.
2. Twit4Live (MSN Live Messenger Plus!) – Update your status from within any messenger chat window with /twitter <tweet>.
3. rss2psm Nutz (MSN Live Messenger Plus!) – A slightly modified version of this script updates my MSN Personal Message whenever I post to Twitter.
4. Twitula (Windows Mobile enabled iPAQ 4150)
5. Shozu (Symbian Nokia N95)
6. Twitux (GNOME Linux / Ebuntu Eee PC 701)
7. TwitterFox (Firefox) – Update and view status from within the browser.
8. RSS2IMAP – My RSS feed reader of choice, read the Twitter RSS and convert into emails, for viewing in Thunderbird.
9. Facebook Twitter – Updates my Facebook status whenever I post to twitter (from anywhere).
10. BeTwittered (iGoogle)

And because of all of this, I never need to visit twitter.com any more.  That’s progress

RSS recursion is not a toy

… that was syndication for the sake of it.

That’s what I said, word for word. Then a colleague pointed out that I could have twitter automatically update from my blog or Blakepics. And all hell broke loose.

I didn’t like Twitter as another way of updating my blog, or having it throw up all over my Facebook status every time I opened up my Twitter-enabled fridge. But reaching out to new audiences, and the potential to bombard mobile phone networks every time I bounce from one country to the next… Well suddenly it’s become quite cool.

And yes, I admit – I was tempted to install the application to syndicate my Xbox 360 status as well. But I’m not sure I’m ready to spam everyone that much. Yet.

“Kevin has just been killed by a bunny rabbit on Halo 3. Again”

No it’s not.

It’s a micro-blogging tool which performs about the same function as your Facebook status, with a bit more history and more conversation potential than real speaking. It also falls into the category of “shiny web things” that the magpie’s of the Internet world run bounding towards with wings flapping, declaring their undying allegiance and overwhelming excitement about the grand new era of technology, society and communication.

I am said magpie. I just haven’t had much use for it, so whilst most people are bounding towards Pownce with their wings wide open, I’m still trying to find an excuse.

My Twitter feed is decidedly empty, having originally opened it as a way only of updating my Facebook status before I realised that was syndication for the sake of it (See integrations with BrightKite, Loopt, and Flickr integration for reference). But I do get a kick out of things like the Tower Bridge Tweets. The wonderful thing about this Web 2.0 stuff is that you don’t have to use any of it for what it was intended for (which is usually so vague and fluffy, it only really starts to take shape after the rules have been broken).

So I grabbed a copy of the Net::Twitter module for Perl and before you know it, my script that monitors if the Wifi connection on the Blakepics server had gone down was happily tweeting away with only three more lines of (my) code.

use Net::Twitter;
my $twit = Net::Twitter->new(username=>"username", password=>"password", source => "DowntimeMonitor" );
$twit->update("Internet connection ".($state ? "is now up" : "has been restarted"));