Tag: Flickr

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FlickrNet library 3.7.0, and TeamCity

Great news, after just over a year there is a new version of the FlickrNet library. Unfortunately this release only contains a few bug fixes, and isn’t the new Windows 8 version I had hoped for, that is still in the works.

So the newest version if 3.7.0 (was going to be 3.6.0 but I got the next little feature released as well). We now have the two Camera* methods for listing camera models, and the two new image sizes, Large 1600 and Large 2480.

The best bit of this is that I installed TeamCity on my PC last week after getting it working at work. So I now have continuous integration working the the FlickrNet project, and can deploy to NuGet with one button click.

I’ve also set up a GitHub repository for my experimentations with the Flickr library. No code there yet but I hope to get something in there in the near future. This is both an experiment on using T4 templates to generate the Flickr.* methods based off an XML file, so that different platforms can be supported easily, and also an experiment in the use of Git :)

https://github.com/samjudson/FlickrNet-Experimental

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FlickrNet 3.5 Release

Just a quick post to say I’ve release version 3.5 of the FlickrNet API library.

A couple of things regarding this version and the FlickrNet library roadmap:

  • This will be the last version to support the old Authentication model. Going forward only oauth will be supported.
  • This will also be the last version to support .Net Compact Framework.

Going forward I also hope the next version will support Windows Runtime as well, at least for .Net applications (not sure about JavaScript/C++ support yet).

Download it from http://flickrnet.codeplex.com/ or get it via NuGet.

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Silverlight and the Authorization Header – OAuth

I discovered the other day that there are issues when using Silverlight and setting the Authorization header, the preferred method for sending the oauth parameters to a service.

http://oauth.net/core/1.0a/#consumer_req_param

Silverlight 3.0 does not however let you set the Authorization header.

Silverlight 4 and 5 will let you set the header, but will produce a rather generic exception “System.Security.SecurityException: Security error” if the endpoint does not have a clientaccesspolicy.xml – the cross domain policy defined by Microsoft for use with Silverlight. This file allows for more specific control over the access, and must explicitly allow the use of the Authorization header. Currently services such as Flickr and Twitter do not support the clientaccesspolicy file, only the Adobe crossdomain.xml file.

Silverlight will fall back on to using the crossdomain.xml file, so calls can be made. However it appears the same issue exists with this file too:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/403/kb403184.html

Tim Heuer has an article covering how Silverlight and the Client Access Policy file works.

http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2010/04/23/silverlight-authorization-header-access.aspx

It isn’t clear whether Silverlight would work with a modified crossdomain.xml file that allowed the Authorization header, as Silverlight only supports a subset of the crossdomain.xml file specification (but I can’t find details on which subset).

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Flickr announces end date for old authentication

Don't go!Flickr have announced the end date for the old authentication method.

After the 31st July you will no longer be able to use the old authentication methods, and will have to use the new OAuth 1.0a authentication flow in your applications.

http://code.flickr.com/blog/2012/01/13/farewell-flickrauth/

I’m glad to say that Flickr.Net library already fully supports OAuth, and the old methods are deprecated. I will be deleting these methods from the library nearer the time in an effort to get everyone to move forward with the new OAuth flow.

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Silverlight and Monotouch with Flickr.Net

The Flickr.Net library has been getting a bit of love recently.

Monotouch

Firstly, it got mentioned on the dotnetrocks podcast a week or so ago, a talk with Chris Hardy about Monotouch.

Postcast: http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=568 – Flickr.Net is mentioned about 31minutes in. You can also view Chris’s talk at the NDC conference here: http://streaming.ndc2010.no/tcs/?id=815EADB7-066D-4516-A70F-31EEFDFB1DE2 – he does a demo using the Flickr.Net library in Monotouch at about the 40minutes mark.

Follow chris on twitter here: http://twitter.com/chrisntr

Silverlight

Recently I’ve been trying to work out how best to convert the Flickr.Net library over to Silverlight. Unfortunately it’s not as easy as it sounds, because most of the methods the library uses to talk to Flickr are only available in their asynchronous versions in Silverlight, which means the entire stack has to be converted to an asynchronous pattern.

Anyway, I’m almost there in terms of deciding on a method to use (maybe that is worth another post later) but in the mean time there is a post on the Silverlight Show web site about using Silverlight and Flickr which I’m using as my inspiration – the sooner the article is out of date the better :)

http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Uploading-and-geo-tagging-photos-on-Flickr-using-Silverlight-4-s-HttpWebRequest.aspx

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Big Bug in Flickr Screensaver

Hi

I’ve just been informed of a fairly large bug in the uninstaller for the latest Flickr Screensaver.

Basically if you uninstall it it will try and delete your WindowsSystem32 directory.

Obviously that is VERY BAD. I apologise. I’ve deleted the installer from the web site, but anyone who has the latest version of the screensaver should not uninstall it.

Sam