Flickraw

Flickraw is a library to access flickr api in a simple way. It maps exactly the methods described in the official api documentation. It also tries to present the data returned in a simple and intuitive way. The methods are fetched from flickr when loading the library by using introspection capabilities. So it is always up-to-date with regards to new methods added by flickr.

The github repository: github.com/hanklords/flickraw

Installation

Type this in a console (you might need to be superuser)

gem install flickraw

This will recreate the documentation by fetching the methods descriptions from flickr and then virtually plugging them in standard rdoc documentation.

$ cd flickraw
$ rake rdoc

Features

Small single file: flickraw.rb is less than 400 lines
Minimal dependencies
Complete support of flickr API. This doesn’t require an update of the library
Ruby syntax similar to the flickr api
Flickr authentication
Photo upload
Proxy support
Flickr URLs helpers

Usage

Simple

require 'flickraw'

FlickRaw.api_key="... Your API key ..."
FlickRaw.shared_secret="... Your shared secret ..."

list   = flickr.photos.getRecent

id     = list[0].id
secret = list[0].secret
info = flickr.photos.getInfo :photo_id => id, :secret => secret

puts info.title           # => "PICT986"
puts info.dates.taken     # => "2006-07-06 15:16:18"

sizes = flickr.photos.getSizes :photo_id => id

original = sizes.find {|s| s.label == 'Original' }
puts original.width       # => "800" -- may fail if they have no original marked image

Authentication

require 'flickraw'

FlickRaw.api_key="... Your API key ..."
FlickRaw.shared_secret="... Your shared secret ..."

token = flickr.get_request_token(:perms => 'delete')
auth_url = token['oauth_authorize_url']

puts "Open this url in your process to complete the authication process : #{auth_url}"
puts "Copy here the number given when you complete the process."
verify = gets.strip

begin
  flickr.get_access_token(token['oauth_token'], token['oauth_token_secret'], verify)
  login = flickr.test.login
  puts "You are now authenticated as #{login.username}"
rescue FlickRaw::FailedResponse => e
  puts "Authentication failed : #{e.msg}"
end

If the user has already been authenticated, you can reuse the access token and access secret:

require 'flickraw'

FlickRaw.api_key="... Your API key ..."
FlickRaw.shared_secret="... Your shared secret ..."

flickr.access_token = "... Your access token ..."
flickr.access_secret = "... Your access secret ..."

# From here you are logged:
login = flickr.test.login
puts "You are now authenticated as #{login.username}"

Upload

require 'flickraw'

FlickRaw.api_key="... Your API key ..."
FlickRaw.shared_secret="... Your shared secret ..."

PHOTO_PATH='photo.jpg'

# You need to be authentified to do that, see the previous examples.
flickr.upload_photo PHOTO_PATH, :title => "Title", :description => "This is the description"

Proxy

require 'flickraw'
FlickRaw.proxy = "http://user:[email protected]:3129/"

Flickr URL Helpers

There are some helpers to build flickr urls :

url, url_m, url_s, url_t, url_b, url_z, url_o

info = flickr.photos.getInfo(:photo_id => "3839885270")
FlickRaw.url_b(info) # => "http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2485/3839885270_6fb8b54e06_b.jpg"

url_profile

info = flickr.photos.getInfo(:photo_id => "3839885270")
FlickRaw.url_profile(info) # => "http://www.flickr.com/people/41650587@N02/"

url_photopage

info = flickr.photos.getInfo(:photo_id => "3839885270")
FlickRaw.url_photopage(info) # => "http://www.flickr.com/photos/41650587@N02/3839885270"

url_photoset, url_photosets

info = flickr.photos.getInfo(:photo_id => "3839885270")
FlickRaw.url_photosets(info) # => "http://www.flickr.com/photos/41650587@N02/sets/"

url_short, url_short_m, url_short_s, url_short_t

info = flickr.photos.getInfo(:photo_id => "3839885270")
FlickRaw.url_short(info) # => "http://flic.kr/p/6Rjq7s"

url_photostream

info = flickr.photos.getInfo(:photo_id => "3839885270")
FlickRaw.url_photostream(info) # => "http://www.flickr.com/photos/41650587@N02/"

See the examples directory to find more examples.

Cached version

You can use

require 'flickraw-cached'

instead of

require 'flickraw'

This way it it doesn’t fetch available flickr methods each time it is loaded. The flickraw-cached gem is on rubygems.org and should be up-to-date with regard to flickr api most of the time.

Notes

If you want to use the api authenticated with several user at the same time, you must pass the authentication token explicitely each time. This is because it is keeping the authentication token internally. As an alternative, you can create new Flickr objects besides Kernel.flickr which is created for you. Use Flickr.new to this effect.