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Flickr upload Automator action 1.0

by David Chartier May 16th 2007 at 9:00AM



It's been a while since we've hit the Automator beat; too long, in my opinion. And what better way to bring everyone's favorite little automate-able robot back into the TUAW spotlight than with the Flickr upload Automator action from James Pitts? After some simple instructions for installing, this action is prime for all sorts of image-related workflows, such as a Folder Action that allows you to drop pictures onto a folder to simultaneously add them to iPhoto, Aperture and Flickr (with tags) - all without lifting a finger (well, that is, if you don't count the original finger you had to lift to drop the photos on the folder in the first place).

I ran into a catch getting this installed, however: following James' instructions to the letter, I couldn't get Automator to see the action when I installed it for all users - it would only work when installed in my own user's Home directory. That isn't too big of a deal, personally, since I'm the only user on my machine, but I figured this was worth noting for those who work on multi-user Macs.

James Pitts provides his Flickr upload Automator action with instructions for free at his blog.

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It's been a while since we've hit the Automator beat; too long, in my opinion. And what better way to bring everyone's favorite little...
 

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Automator COULD be a very powerful thing, but it's so frustratingly limited that every time I have an idea for a process I want to automate, I end up yelling at my powerbook - why aren't the simplest concepts implemented in this thing? The most common one is, why can't Automator pick the "current" folder, instead of always having to make a new one? Almost every one of my possible Actions have been stymied by this missing concept. It would be very powerful if it wasn't so limited.

May 16 2007 at 11:22 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ondra Soukup

Every MacOS X monkey should know that moving stuff from /Users/name/Library to /System/Library will make it available for every user :)

May 16 2007 at 10:20 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David Chartier

#1: For example, you could place this action in a workflow by itself in Automator. Go up to File > Save as Plug-In and chose 'Folder Action,' then attach it to a folder you keep on your desktop called Flickr Pics. Any pictures you drop into that folder will then automatically be uploaded to Flickr, without any further effort on your part.

If you take this one step further: you could create separate workflows and attach them to different folders, each with their own set of Flickr tags that automatically get applied. Create a folder with this Folder Action that automatically tags everything as 'Family,' with another folder that tags everything with 'Outdoor, Photography.' Drop your images on those folders and they all get sent up to Flickr without any more effort on your part.

But that's just the beginning. You can include this Flickr action in a workflow that does many other things. For example: you could create an Automator workflow that automatically re-sizes an image, adds a watermark or copyright information, adds the image into iPhoto, uploads a copy to Flickr and then attaches it to an email so you can send it to a friend or client. If you drop 200 images onto that workflow (in which case all 200 will be attached to one email), you can save yourself a *ton* of time.

Automator is a very, very powerful thing.

May 16 2007 at 10:01 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Zeno Davatz

So what does this do after all? What is the point of this Automation task?

May 16 2007 at 9:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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