picaxe

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A python package and command-line tools for work with the Flickr API to upload images, sort images, generate MD image reference links etc.

Here’s a summary of what’s included in the python package:

Classes

picaxe.picaxe work with the Flickr API to upload images, sort images, generate MD image reference links etc

Functions

Installation

The easiest way to install picaxe is to use pip:

pip install picaxe

Or you can clone the github repo and install from a local version of the code:

git clone git@github.com:thespacedoctor/picaxe.git
cd picaxe
python setup.py install

To upgrade to the latest version of picaxe use the command:

pip install picaxe --upgrade

Development

If you want to tinker with the code, then install in development mode. This means you can modify the code from your cloned repo:

git clone git@github.com:thespacedoctor/picaxe.git
cd picaxe
python setup.py develop

Pull requests are welcomed!

Sublime Snippets

If you use Sublime Text as your code editor, and you’re planning to develop your own python code with picaxe, you might find my Sublime Snippets useful.

Issues

Please report any issues here.

Command-Line Usage

Documentation for picaxe can be found here: http://picaxe.readthedocs.org/en/stable

Usage:
    picaxe init
    picaxe auth [-s <pathToSettingsFile>]
    picaxe md <urlOrPhotoid> [<width>] [-s <pathToSettingsFile>]
    picaxe albums [-s <pathToSettingsFile>]
    picaxe [-giop] upload <imagePath> [--title=<title> --tags=<tags> --desc=<desc> --album=<album>]
    picaxe [-op] grab [--title=<title> --tags=<tags> --desc=<desc> --album=<album> --delay=<sec>]

Options:
    init                  setup the polygot settings file for the first time
    auth                  authenticate picaxe against your flickr account
    md                    generate the MD reference link for the image in the given flickr URL
    albums                list all the albums in the flickr account
    upload                upload a local image to flickr

    <pathToSettingsFile>  path to the picaxe settings file
    <urlOrPhotoid>        the flickr URL or photoid
    <width>               pixel width resolution of the linked image. Default *original*. [75|100|150|240|320|500|640|800|1024|1600|2048]
    <imagePath>           path to the local image to upload to flickr

    --title=<title>       the image title
    --tags=<tags>         quoted, comma-sepatated tags
    --desc=<desc>         image description
    --delay=<sec>         the delay time before screen-grab selection tool appears

    -p, --public          make the image public (private by default)
    -o, --open            open the image in the flickr web-app once uploaded
    -i, --image           "photo" is an image
    -g, --screenGrab      "photo" is a screengrab
    -h, --help            show this help message
    -v, --version         show version
    -s, --settings        the settings file

Documentation

Documentation for picaxe is hosted by Read the Docs (last stable version and latest version).

Command-Line Tutorial

Before you begin using picaxe you’ll need to populate some custom settings within the picaxe settings file.

To setup the default settings file at ~/.config/picaxe/picaxe.yaml run the command:

picaxe init

This should create and open the settings file; follow the instructions in the file to populate the missing settings values (usually given an XXX place-holder).

Authenticating Picaxe Against Your Flickr Account

In order to use picaxe for the first time you’ll need to first authenticate it against your Flickr account. This is to give picaxe permission to read your private photo metadata to generate markdown image links etc and also the ability to upload images and screengrabs to your various albums.

The picaxe init command should initiate the authentication process if you’re running picaxe for the first time, but if you need to run the authentication process again for any reason use:

picaxe auth

You should see something like this, and then your default browser should open at the URL presented (if not just copy and paste the URL into your browser):

Now to authorize picaxe against your personal flickr account
Navigate to https://www.flickr.com/services/oauth/authorize?perms=write&oauth_token=72157678178240312-c1e614c89bbfa330 and click on 'OK, I'LL AUTHOURIZE IT'
What is the oauth_verifier value in URL you where redirected to?
  >

You’ll be presented with an authentication request like the one below. Click ‘OK, I’LL AUTHOURIZE IT’.

picaxe authorisation request from flickr

You’ll then be redirected to thespacedoctor website and in the URL you’ll notice there are oauth_token and oauth_verifier parameters.

oauth_verifier in URL

Copy the oauth_verifier value, paste it into the terminal and hit return. That’s it. Simples. Your credentials are now written into the picaxe settings file which can be found at ~/.config/picaxe/picaxe.yaml.

Listing Albums in Flickr Account

To list all of the albums in your Flickr account run the command:

picaxe albums

This prints the titles of all the albums you have created in your Flickr account to stdout:

Auto Upload
home movies
projects: thespacedoctor
notes: images and screengrabs
blog: workflow tags
family photos

Uploading Local Images to Flickr

It’s possible to upload images to Flickr via the command-line with options to set tags, album, titles, descriptions and privacy levels with picaxe. To do so use the command:

picaxe [-giop] upload <imagePath> [--title=<title> --tags=<tags> --desc=<desc> --album=<album>]

So in its simplest form you could upload an image with picaxe like:

picaxe upload "/path/to/image.png"

as title, description, album and tags are optional arguments. The -g flag indicates that the uploaded image is a screengrab, -i that it is an image (as opposed to a photo), -p requests that the image be made public and -o that the image be opened in the Flickr web-app in your default browser once upload has completed.

Taking Screenshots with picaxe

The command for taking a screenshot with picaxe is similar to the command for uploading local images:

picaxe [-op] grab [--title=<title> --tags=<tags> --desc=<desc> --album=<album> --delay=<sec>]

By default picaxe will upload screenshots to a ‘screengrabs’ album unless a specific album is specified. All I need to do to trigger a screenshot selection cursor is run the following:

picaxe grab

I can now select the section of the screen I want to clip, or press space-bar to change to a window-selection cursor, and picaxe will upload the resulting image to flickr and dump the multi-markdown image link to stdout.

As this command is run from the terminal you will probably want a little time to navigate to the correct desktop/application you wish to take a screenshot of before the screen-capture cursor is activated. To do this pass in a delay in seconds via the --delay flag; so for a 3 sec delay run:

picaxe grab --delay=3