NAME

flickr_upload - Upload photos to flickr.com

SYNOPSIS

flickr_upload [--auth] --auth_token <auth_token> [--title <title>] [--description description] [--public <0|1>] [--friend <0|1>] [--family <0|1>] [--tag <tag>] [--option key=value] <photos...>

DESCRIPTION

Batch image uploader for the Flickr.com service.

flickr_upload may also be useful for generating authentication tokens against other API keys/secrets (i.e. for embedding in scripts).

OPTIONS

--auth

The --auth flag will cause flickr_upload to generate an authentication token against it's API key and secret (or, if you want, your own specific key and secret). This process requires the caller to have a browser handy so they can cut and paste a url. The resulting token should be kept somewhere like ~/.flickrrc since it's necessary for actually uploading images.

--auth_token <auth_token>

Authentication token. You must get an authentication token using --auth before you can upload images. See the EXAMPLES section.

--title <title>

Title to use on all the images. Optional.

--description <description>

Description to use on all the images. Optional.

--public <0|1>

Override the default is_public access control. Optional.

--friend <0|1>

Override the default is_friend access control. Optional.

--family <0|1>

Override the default is_family access control. Optional.

--tag <tag>

Images are tagged with tag. Multiple --tag options can be given, or you can just put them all into a single space-separated list. If you want to define a tag with spaces, the quotes have to be part of the tag itself. The following works in bash:

flickr_upload --tag='"tag one"' --tag='"tag two"' image.jpg

--option key=value

Flickr periodically adds new features to the uploading API, and these are almost always implemented as new key/value pairs. Rather than waiting for a new Flickr::Upload release, you can specify any of the upload API's optional arguments using --option.

flick_upload --option content_type=1 --tag='cats' two_cats.jpg

You may also use --option rather than flickr_upload's command-line options:

flickr_upload --option is_public=1 --option title='cats' two_cats.jpg

While Flickr may add new options at any time (see http://flickr.com/services/api/upload.api.html for the most up-to-date list), currently known options include:

--option safety_level=<1|2|3>

Override the default safety_level notation. Set to 1 for Safe, 2 for Moderate, or 3 for Restricted. Refer to http://www.flickr.com/help/filters/.

--option content_type=<1|2|3>

Override the default content_type notation. Set to 1 for Photo, 2 for Screenshot, or 3 for Art/Illustration. Refer to http://www.flickr.com/help/filters/.

--option hidden=<1|2>

Override the default hidden notation. Set to 1 to keep the photo in global search results, 2 to hide from public earches.

Note that options unknown to Flickr will result in undefined behaviour.

--key <api_key>

--secret <secret>

Your own API key and secret. This is useful if you want to use flickr_upload in auth mode as a token generator. You need both key and secret. Both key and secret can be placed in ~/.flickrrc, allowing to mix flickr_upload with your own scripts using the same API key and authentication token. Getting your own API key and secret is encouraged if you're tying flickr_upload to some automated process.

<photos...>

List of photos to upload. Uploading stops as soon as a failure is detected during the upload. The script exit code will indicate the number of images on the command line that were not uploaded. For each uploaded image, a Flickr URL will be generated. flickr_upload uses asynchronous uploading so while the image is usually transferred fairly quickly, it might take a while before it's actually available to users. flickr_upload will wait around for that to complete, but be aware that delays of upwards of thirty minutes have (rarely) be know to occur.

EXAMPLES

First, you need to get an authentication token. This is a requirement driven by how Flickr manages third-party applications:

   cpb@earth:~$ flickr_upload --auth
	1. Enter the following URL into your browser

	http://flickr.com/services/auth?api_sig=<...>&frob=<...>&perms=write&api_key=<...>

	2. Follow the instructions on the web page
	3. Hit <Enter> when finished.
	Your authentication token for this application is
	<token>

Unless you like typing long numbers on the command-line, you should keep the <token> somewhere handy, like a configuration file:

echo auth_token=<token> >~/.flickrrc

Uploading a bunch of images is then as easy as:

flickr_upload --tag 'dog' 'kernel in a window.jpg' 'sad in sunbeam.jpg'

CONFIGURATION

To avoid having to remember authentication tokens and such (or have them show up in the process table listings), default values will be read from $HOME/.flickrrc if it exists. Any field defined there can, of course, be overridden on the command line. For example:

# my config at $HOME/.flickrrc
auth_token=334455
is_public=0
is_friend=1
is_family=1

Note, however, that these defaults override the defaults you've assigned in your Flickr profile. You may want to do all that stuff in one place.

BUGS

Error handling could be better.

AUTHOR

Christophe Beauregard, cpb@cpan.org.

SEE ALSO

flickr.com

Flickr::Upload

http://flickr.com/services/api/

http://www.flickr.com/help/filters/