[Kde-imaging] Common framework for Web Export/Sync plugins

[Colin Guthrie]

Gilles Caulier wrote:
> I'm totally agree with you. Using common implementation is the better way to 
> reduce duplicate works. This one can be placed to the kipi-plugins common 
> area...

Yes.

> But in witch conditions a comon framework can be done ? The protocols are the 
> same ? The users identification ? The files upload/download methods ?

I'm not 100% sure TBH. The protocols/methods will definately all be very
different.

The main sharing I see is shared concepts and dialogs.

The things that sprung to mind for me:
 * The concept of "Accounts": Dialogs for account selection, editing etc.
 * Progress dialogs for transfers (perhaps showing thumbnails etc.)


My future plans for gallery are to create Album and Image "Sync
Preferences" dialogs for host applications to allow settings such as
 * Sync this Album to "Personal Gallery"
 *   Include Sub Albums
 * Exclude this Image from Sync.

This would permit the running of a "Sync to remote Galleries" action
happening on startup of e.g. Digikam (if the user so desires), or when
the user specifically requests it.

While the above example uses "Albums", I would want to use some of the
other suggestions mentioned recently on the ML to create the ability to
sync Tags or Saved Searches to the web too (e.g. upload new images that
now match and delete from the web images that no longer match - e.g.
keeping things properly in sync)


At the moment, I am kind of thinking along the lines of creating one
single "websync" plugin and have various different services (Gallery,
Gallery v2, Picasa, Flickr, etc.) implemented via some sort of simple
class that is effectively a "protocol definition".

I do not currently know how technically difficult this would be (the
main limitation would be the similarity of concepts on each plugin).

However this would be almost like a plugin to a plugin and I'm not sure
if I'm over designing things a little :)

> Jain, can you give us your viewpoint about this subject ?

Feedback welcome. As I said, I've not really given this a lot of thought
from a technical view point.

I'd just think it would be nice to Right Click on an Album in Digikam,
select "WebSync" and tick the box that says "Sync with the web", then
select one (or more) of my defined Web Galleries from a list (with the
option to choose a Sub Gallery therein).

While I'm sure 90% of people who do web syncing will probably only ever
use one type of service, I think that options they pick and the
interface they use shjould be consistent.

Col.