Powncing your Flickr photos automagically
The moment I saw how Pownce handled links to Flickr photos (here is my first Flickr photo that I Pownced) I knew I had to modify a script that I found and had modified for Twitter. The script would automatically “tweet” when I posted a photo to Flickr using my iPhone.
The script isn’t anything special mind you, all it does it “watch” any Flickr feed for new entries. To be more precise, my server runs this script every 15 minutes and checks for new photos, when there is one, it creates a TinyURL and posts it to Twitter (like this).
But I wanted this to work for Pownce.
I immediately dove head first into Pownce’s API only to find out that the API didn’t allow posting anything. I thought my Powncing days were over until, out of some crazy stroke of coincidence, I read an article on TechCrunch that said Pownce was due to release a new version of their API the very next day. Turns out, I didn’t even have to wait that long and the Pownce wiki was updated to include documentation for version 2 of their API.
Without blinking an eye I finished my script, grabbed myself an app_key, and Pownced the script (you’ll need to be logged in, and be my Pownce friend to see this Pownce message). Once I figured out that I couldn’t Pownce a file to the general public, I knew I had to find some time to write this post.
Since then I read that Dave Winer also enjoys the way Pownce shows links to Flickr photos and that he is running a similar script. So I thought I’d put this out for everyone to use.
Powncer!
Enough beating around the bush, you can download the script here which includes an XML parser for ripping through Flickr’s RSS feed. You’ll need to edit the first few lines of powncer.php for it to work, so this isn’t your run-of-the-mill plug-and-play type script, unfortunately, but for the PHP savvy of you, you should be able to get it up and running pretty easily. If you need help getting it setup, just ask in the comments.
I run this script here on cdevroe.com every 15 minutes using cron. You may run it however you’d like.
March 5th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Dude, thanks for sharing this, seriously. I’m hoping to get time in the morning to get it setup on my server. I’ll let you know how it goes!
March 6th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Just a quick mention, in terms of auto-tweeting photos - Utterz.com is a really easy way to do that for those of us who don’t understand scripts or how to use API, etc. It will also simulatenously post to Flickr, blog, whatever. I use Utterz religiously for all my iPhone photo needs, since I’m not up for the code magic.
Also:
“Without blinking an eye I finished my script, grabbed myself an app_key, and Pownced the script (you’ll need to be logged in, and be my Pownce friend to see this Pownce message). Once I figured out that I couldn’t Pownce a file to the general public, I knew I had to find some time to write this post.”
I’m just curious - why didn’t you just host it elsewhere, and dare I say you may have found a teeny flaw in Pownce?
March 6th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Upon a second glance, I see you DID host it elsewhere, so I guess you just wanted to do a write-up about it as well as link to the script. My bad, although I’m still curious about the no-public file posting on Pownce. Probably just to keep people from using it for mass file-sharing or something.
March 6th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Brandice: Good thoughts. I don’t know why I thought Utterz was for audio, but I’m definitely going to look into it.
I admit it, at first I was a little put-off by the limit of sharing files with only friends, but then your second point became very clear - that it would make it made easy to mass-share files. After poking around on Pownce, you can’t even share files with the public if you have a Pro account, so I’m guessing we’re right about the file sharing.
Even though I wish I could send public files, I totally get why I can’t.