[Kde-imaging] facebook code sharing

[Luka Renko]

Cc to kde-imaging mailing list to get wider interest.

On Saturday 12 September 2009 23:16:33 Aleix Pol wrote:
> Hi fellow developers,

Hello and sorry for late response.

> We (alex, who is CC'd, and me) have been developing some webcam software
> called kamoso [1] that in its features we can find automatic facebook
> upload. To support it we've been using code from the facebook kipiplugin,
> which works quite well I have to say.

I am glad to hear that it works for you.

> I'm sending this mail because kubuntu developers (harald, who's CC'd too)
> don't think we should share code by copy so I was pondering possible
> solutions.

I have looked into kamoso code and I also do not see a better way than 
copying, but we can definitely work on something better for future.

> The best solution would be to use the kipi plugin interface but we can't,
> since we don't want to get a dialog to configure stuff, our user don't need
> so much configurability, but simplicity, so I can come up with 3 solutions:
> - Separe the shared facebook code into a library and both link against it:
> the kipi plugin and kamoso. Pro's are that we can keep both working. Con's:
> ABI freezing needed, a dependency added just because.

That would be nice and could be extended to other Facebook API functionality 
(beside photo/video import/export), but it would require more work and as you 
said, ABI freezing issues.

> - Improve the kipiplugin interface so that the plugin offers more
>  semantics, not just a QWidget* but something like
>  KIPI:Plugin::sendFiles(information needed) and it works too. Pro's better
>  code reusability plus we could take advantage of all kipi plugins at once,
>  Con's: only we will use that improvements and I wonder if it's worth it.

Actually, this is good point and is useful also for example ksnapshot or other 
software that may be interested in simple upload of photos/videos to web 
services. This could actually be a common API on top of various XXXXtalker.cpp 
implementations.

> - Create some other code that sends photos to facebook to make ubuntu
>  people happy: Pro's: we don't touch kipi, Con's: it's something silly to
>  do, because the feature's already there.

I do not see this is an option - kamoso as-is (with copied facebook code from 
kipi-plugin) should (already is) be accepted for the time being.

There is a plan to move all web services import/export KIPI plugins on common 
ground in order to share more and when this will be done, we should take into 
considerations requirements from applications like kamoso, that need only 
simple upload interface. There is a plan to have summit of 
KIPI/Digikam/Graphics developers sometimes in November and I think that would 
be the right time to agree on new design. If we want to change KIPI interface 
for KDE 4.4, then we probably need something in place before FeatureFreeze.

> I may have missed some option, I'm don't really know kipi that good. If I
> missed anything please tell me.
> I didn't know who should I send this mail from kipi, if I was wrong, just
> tell me please and point me out to correct guy :).

Maybe other people on kde-imaging can see something else, but I think you have 
covered major directions that could be taken.

> Thanks,
> Aleix

Regards,
Luka

> 
> 1. http://kamoso.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/kamoso-project-presentation/
>