Provider update for Universal Media Picker
MARCH 26 2011Today I have added one updated and one new provider to the Universal Media Picker package on our.umbraco.org.
I have updated the Amazon S3 provider to make uploaded files Public by default, which makes the provider a little more useful. Don't know how I missed it the first time around. In this update I have added folder support similar to what you get using the AWS Console on aws.amazon.com. This is something that I have been wanting to do from the start, because it makes the experience of using the S3 provider way better then simply seeing a long list of filenames with the "path" in it. But since folders doesn't really exist in AWS and through the API (well, implicitly it is) I haven't really gotten around to it before now (with a little encouragement from Anders Burla). So I'm happy to announce that you can now see and create folders within your S3 Bucket through the Universal Media Picker.
The new provider I have added is a Flickr Provider, which lets you connect your Flickr account to Umbraco and pick images you have uploaded to Flickr. One of the cool things about this provider is that its using oAuth for authentication like the Facebook provider, so when you have installed the package you simply go to the Developer section, create a new DataType based on the Universal Media Picker, select the Flickr Provider and then click to authenticate the application for use with Umbraco. Couldn't be easier. Please note that we are using a proxy server, which hosts the authentication process in order to allow for a plug-n-play type of installation, so you don't need to think about setting up an application with Flickr. I will most likely also release a version of the Provider, which allows you to enter you own oAuth information (Consumer Key, Secret and Return Url etc) for authentication on your own server. I'll will also write up a post about how to use the oAuth model with the Universal Media Picker.
Once you have authenticated the provider you have a couple of settings in the DataType, which is worth mentioning:
Max number of Photos and Max number of Photosets. These two options gives you the ability to limit the number of photos and photo sets that is displayed in the tree of the Media Picker. Because you can use Flickr in so many different ways I wanted to give users the ability to pick images from both Photo Sets and photos simply uploaded to Flickr. If you only want to see Photo Sets then set the number of photos to zero and vice versa.
Save Photo ID to XML. Checking this box will save the ID of a photo to xml cache when publishing. By default the URL of the medium sized image will be saved to the xml cache upon publishing from Umbraco. If you choose to use the ID you can use the Xslt Extension supplied with the package to get valuable information about the image (URLs for different sizes, dates, title and much more) - an example xslt is also supplied. Its also possible to get photo information using .NET with the supplied FlickrNet assembly - please refer to codeplex for more info on using the .NET library.
User Id. This optional setting allows you to enter the ID of the user/owner which you want Flickr images listed for. This might be useful for users with multiple accounts.
You can also upload images directly from the Media Picker to Flickr, and whether or not the uploaded photo is added to a photoset is optional. You won't be able to create new Photo Sets, but this might come in a later version if there is a demand for it. When uploading an image you can specify title, description, tags and whether the image is public. If you think additional properties would be valuable I'm open to suggestions.
So go check out the providers and remember to vote for the project on our.umbraco.org. Remember you need to install the DataType (UniversalMediaPicker_1.3.zip) before you start adding providers.
Feedback is welcome.
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