Sunday, June 26, 2011

MDL: Backing Up to Flickr Part I

For better or worse I’ve decided that I would use flickr as my photo backup solution.  For one, it’s not terribly expensive – around $30 for unlimited storage – and it makes picture sharing pretty easy.  There are privacy concerns for some, but I’m simply not sure that I care.
The downside is that there aren’t really any tools out there that automate sending the pictures to flickr.  Foldr Monitr comes close, but its buggy, isn’t updated anymore and I just don’t like the choices that it has made. 
After about two years of complaining I guess I’ll just have to handle the problem myself.  Odds are that you won’t like the choices that I’ve made, but hopefully I’ve given you enough pieces that you can make the necessary modifications without having to start from scratch the way that I did.
You are going to need a database of some kind to keep track of everything – I have a copy of MySQL running already for XBMC so that’s what I’ll use.  I’m also going to use PowerShell since that is what I know which means that I’ll have to install the ODBC driver for MySQL.
Finally, I suck as a programmer.  Don’t use any of this code with the expectations that you’ll learn how to get better at scripting.  Also, don’t point out how if I changed some bit of code around it would be SOOO MUCH BETTER!   I don’t care – if my code functions for me, inefficient or not, I am quite content.
So be warned – this thing works for me and my needs 95% of the time.  And if I run across an anomaly where it doesn’t do what is expected if x & y are true – I stop doing  both x & y at the same time.  The chances that I’ll update the script to accommodate your special circumstances are pretty damn rare.  And adding any functionality at all is all but unthinkable.
All that being said, feel free to borrow the code and adapt it to your own purposes – you just can’t take this and put it into something that you are going to sell.  And if you update the scripts for public consumption – please give me my due by linking back here.  Obviously while noting how crappy the code is and how much work you had to put into it to make it semi-functional for a normal human being.
Part II will get into the script and perhaps the database – assuming that I actually finishing writing the god damned thing.

Update: I have completely abandoned this project.  Flickr is just too much of a pain in the ass.  I am almost completely migrated to CrashPlan for offsite backups of my pictures with the plus of being able to backup non-pictures as well.

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