Why flickr is such a great photo host

[d70_n00b]

Besides all of the usual reasons (unlimited space, easy sharing, etc), the REAL reason I'm loving flickr right now is the Flickr API they've set up for the users. I've been experimenting with phpFlickr (from the site: "phpFlickr is a class written by Dan Coulter in PHP4 to act as a wrapper for Flickr's API. Methods process the response XML and return a friendly array of data to make development simple and intuitive."). I believe to implement phpFlickr the only requirement is that your webhost needs to support PHP4.

Anyways, here's a sample script I've started putting together... it's very plain and simple at the moment, but I'm just making sure everything works before getting too fancy. Take a look, enter a flickr user id (mine is d70_n00b if you don't know of one), and check out the script... Enter a flickr ID and it will bring up all the user's sets.. click on a set, and it brings up all the pictures from that set, with EXIF data and links to the original on flickr... this script is just the tip of the iceberg on what flickr API can do. If you'd like to see some code samples, let me know (I'm not a serious programmer, but somewhat familiar with php and, though I'm sure my code isn't the most efficient, it's working at the moment ).

Just thought I'd pass the info along as this could be invaluable to making some great photo gallery pages... it would be nice to see more photo hosts implement great features like this. Let me know what you think.

[sheepie]

I'm no programmer, and this is all a bit above my skills (although I reckon I could probably teach myself if I was inclined), but this appears to be a great feature.
There is also an API available for smugmug which I am waiting for someone to work on - especially if they can get it to work in conjunction with something like, hrmm let's see, Imatch

oi! Peter! What ya up to?

[kipper]

There is a smugmug API, where?

[leek]

There is a smugmug API, where?

Have a look here Darryl: http://www.smugmug.com/hack/

[kipper]

Cheers John.

[kipper]

So it's a HTTP request/response API either in what looks like a RAW HTTP request/response or in XML?

Have their been any PHP/Java/ColdFusion etc wrappers made that encapsulate this API?

[stubbsy]

I'm no programmer, and this is all a bit above my skills (although I reckon I could probably teach myself if I was inclined), but this appears to be a great feature.
There is also an API available for smugmug which I am waiting for someone to work on - especially if they can get it to work in conjunction with something like, hrmm let's see, Imatch

oi! Peter! What ya up to?

WHat isn't it enough I'm working on iMatch stuff!

[kipper]

Hmmmmmm....

[leek]

So it's a HTTP request/response API either in what looks like a RAW HTTP request/response or in XML?

Have their been any PHP/Java/ColdFusion etc wrappers made that encapsulate this API?

Sorry Darryl,
In order to answer that I'd need to understand the question - which I don't - so I'll leave it to someone else

On another note - just to bring the thread back on track... I've just had a quick look at Flickr for the first time and it looks very reasonable for a free site... The only pain is the limit on the size of the photos and that you seemingly can't access the original that you posted... but for web use it looks great... Smugmug has some serious competition...

[Killakoala]

In my experience, i have found FLICKR to be quite slow compared to other photo hosting sites. I guess you get what you pay for.

[kipper]

On another note you can pay $150AU a year and have 400mb of webspace, 10gb of traffic a month, 5 mysql dbs, and 3 domains associated with the hosting. With that you get mambo or another cms, plus gallery or coppermine. I worked out if you used 300mb of space and used 150kb sized images you're looking at 2000 images. Enough for most I'd think.

[pippin88]

Or go with Dreamhost and get your first year for ~25USD thanks to MHD (see bargain section).

5gb space, 140gb bandwidth, and every feature you need.

[Escapism]

I worked out if you used 300mb of space and used 150kb sized images you're looking at 2000 images. Enough for most I'd think.

Not me...hehehehe...thanks Smugmug