How I did my own PhotoBlog - Treo Forums

Stillrockin · 01-14-2006, 07:26 PM

OK, let me say up front, that if you would like to do a photoblog with your Treo, it would be much easier to do it with something like splashblog or an MSN account. Even though splashblog isn't free, I have checked it out, and its much easier. You can use if for free up to 500 photos, and then they charge you $30.00 a year. Its so much simplier than how I am doing it, that you might find $30.00 a year a bargin! But this is how I did it:

For Palm software I am using three main apps to make it happen.
FileZ to change the name of my photos to something that makes sense, because I am using a script tag in my blog, and photo_01230006_0006.jpg was too hard to remember.
an FTP program to send my photos to a server
Blogging software. In my case, I am using U*Blog, (Free) but am considering a purchase of MoBlog.

For net software, I am using Wordpress. This is a free application and one of the most popular blogging programs available. Its very customizable. I had quite a bit of web space available from a modest web design biz I run and activated it. Once Activated, I picked out a Theme overlay that I liked and installed that. I had several options to upload photos using a get cron job, but found it not instant and also too much email in the box. Especially if I wasn't posting . . . I would still get the mail. So this is the process that seems to be working for me.
From the Palm Treo 650:
1. Take several pictures with the Treo, sending them to a folder prenamed. For this example, I have called this pretend photo folder "Studio"
2. I then open up FileZ and navigate to the folder called Studio. I change the name of each photo to something like studio1.jpg, studio2.jpg, etc
3. Next I open up an FTP program. Currently I am using a Trial version of VFSFTP+ but I really like it and will purchase this soon! I send these photos to a folder in my blogging program. I always send them to the same folder. (wp-content) This helps me in my Palm Blog software.
4. Finally I open up the Blog application on my palm. I give it a title of what ever it represents (studio) and then I use a script tag that I have already built. It looks like this:
<img src="http://dukecarico.com/photoduke/wp-content/.jpg"> I then insert the name of a picture in the script above. (studio1) So the complete script now looks like this: <img src="http://dukecarico.com/photoduke/wp-content/studio1.jpg">
I continue using the script above adding photos as I go. (studio2.jpg, studio3.jpg, etc) When I am done, I hit "post blog on the software and it usually takes less than 10 seconds to let me know that my blog has been posted.

Recently I have started adding one more script at the bottom of my posts. Its a signature script to let the reader know that the blog they are looking at was posted using a Treo 650

There are some variations of the above that I have tried, but haven't liked much. One is posting via email. To work, I had to rely on the Cron "wget" and had it set to every 4 hours. So every 4 hours I got an email informing me that it went out and got. Trouble is, I am not posting that often. And if I do post, I don't want to wait a day or a week for it to appear on the blog. Besides that, I read on WP's forum about some issues with security, and using this email feature. These were issues I didn't really understand. Also, there are other options I haven't explored yet, but plan on. . . . One is setting up a php based photogallery such as copermine or gallery, and then setting up an add-on in my wordpress blog. I will then FTP my pictures to that gallery and they should appear in the blog. It should not change anything in my current process, but should give me several options on how they appear within the blog itself. Right now, its pretty cut and dry that its going to line up left and there is no way to line thumbs horizonally across the screen. I am almost certain that inserting a copermine add-on should allow me to display thumbs of my Treo photos in this fashion.

As you can see, its not as simple as snapping a photo and sending it somewhere. The splashblog software really seems to streamline this process and makes it really easy to get them there. I believe that MSN gives you an email path. So you just attach the photo to an email and send it there, and it appears on your blog. But if you have access to your own PHP based web site, it might take longer to set it up on the front end (web site blog), but the whole proces to get them there now takes less than 5 minutes. Still not as quick as MSN, or Splashblog but not bad . . .

Anyway, for anyone looking to do your own photoblog, I hope this helps . ..

Ooopppsss . . . almost forgot.
My photoblog located here:
http://dukecarico.com/photoduke

lulugirl896 · 01-15-2006, 08:18 AM

Your page looks very nice, but wow, that seems like a lot of work!

1. Splashblog allows you to have a blog with 500 pics...that seems like a lot. I'd be hard pressed to post more than 500 pics anytime soon.

2. Blogger allows you to email a photo and text entry directly from your Treo. Each email sent to the address creates a new entry.

3. MSN Spaces also allows you to email a photo and text from your Treo.

The advantage (apart from being as simple as sending an email) is that you don't need any other programs.

Stillrockin · 01-15-2006, 08:26 AM

I agree! Its the way I am doing it, but it isn't the easiest way! Splashblog is and offers a lot of flexability as far as Categories that you can set up, thumbnails within those Categories, etc. For pure photoblogging, I believe it would be really hard to beat Splashblog and what they offer. And yes, 500 photos is a lot. I was just looking long term. Nothing like wanting to do something 1500 photos from now, and the hassles of moving/losing them . . . .

Edit: Let me add, that I am using my own server for this, so this gives me additional pros not related to the Treo. One is the fact that I can FTP them anywhere else I want to, and just overall better control. Since the server is something I was already paying for, I wanted a way to keep it "in house".

chris · 01-16-2006, 08:52 AM

Very cool. I like any post that mentions "cron" jobs. Who do you use to process your cron jobs?

Makes you appreciate a program like SplashBlog. It's still more fun to do it yourself and WordPress offers you more flexibility when you manage from the desktop. That's my favorite among blogging software.

Good stuff!

-Chris

p.s. - and thanks for the link!

lulugirl896 · 01-16-2006, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stillrockin

Edit: Let me add, that I am using my own server for this, so this gives me additional pros not related to the Treo. One is the fact that I can FTP them anywhere else I want to, and just overall better control. Since the server is something I was already paying for, I wanted a way to keep it "in house".

Too true... there's nothing like making something you pay for work for you!