Thanks!
I am on ubuntu, and will be doing some uploading in the second week of April.
I will test out the application during that time!
Thanks!

Originally Posted by tsk1979 Thanks! I am on ubuntu, and will be doing some uploading in the second week of April. I will test out the application during that time! Thanks!

Thanks! Happy uploading!

Have you wondered why SmugLoader doesn't have anonymous access to SmugLoader? Well, wonder no more!

The next, and last alpha, the 14th, will bring anonymous access to SmugLoader, with the following features:

• Full per NickName history of downloads;
• Every site password, and every album password is saved, and the user doesn't have to re-enter them on subsequent sessions;
• The user enters the application just by selecting the anonymous access. If needed, the application asks for site password, and album password;
• Once logged in, the user changes the NickName in a text box, and the browser refreshes on Enter, or upon clicking the Refresh button.
• There is a limitation, that I chose to impose though. The user can't download from multiple sites at once. The ongoing download will stop, if the user changes the site.

I hope you will enjoy the experience.

The build will be available in maximum 2 days, and, as already stated, it will be the last before the beta.

Great continuing work!

I used the uploader today with 30 threads, and for the first time ever the images were uploaded faster than SM could process them. I had to actually wait for the gallery to be ready before working on it.

Yeah, really great job in dishing out those updates!
Can't wait for the beta!

Thanks guys! Your words mean a lot!

Hello everybody!

This is the announcement of the latest, and last, alpha build. The improvements were already announced.

There is one limitation though. I didn't include site password support yet. It's an uncommon scenario, and I worked on more important stuff.

You are welcome to test, and give me feedback. It is very probable that some things are broken due to some changes I made in the underlying download infrastructure.

Samir, I tried to reduce the CPU utilization in the case of downloads, and there could be some gains. Maybe you could give me some feedback on this (perhaps comparing it with the 13th alpha). There will be further gains (important as it looks right now) for beta.

Enjoy!

Tired from weekend shooting...must get sleep...using alpha 13 right now with 30 threads to upload 3gb+. Will do additional testing once weekend event coverage published...eta tuesday late evening.

I'm taking BeachBill's advice and asking about something in this thread that I'd first put in the Apps thread. Here's a direct copy of my question, but now I'm wondering if SmugLoader would help me with what I'm trying to do:
I'm not even sure if this is possible. I would like to be able to download a gallery or even just a small batch (5, 10, 30 whatever) of my watermarked images from SmugMug to my home computer a couple times a week. Typically I'd be wanting to download small to large sizes (not tiny or huge). I looked through the list of Apps but by the descriptions could not tell which, if any, could do this for me. I have a PC with Adobe Photoshop (CS 2), and am able to use FF or IE for now. I don't have LightRoom or anything quite like it.

My reason for doing this is that I often need smaller, watermarked, web-friendly versions of a bunch of photos for display on other sites: Etsy, Facebook, Panoramio, NaturePhotographers, etc. I don't yet know how to do a bulk process on them in PS or anything (if anyone has a link to instructions for this, I'd be thrilled) so I'm spending more time than I'd like to do this. I usually go to my Smug gallery, "get a link", then go to the link & copy the photo, then paste it into a folder on my PC... one by one. I'm sure there's a better way to quickly get a watermarked copy. (This is still lots faster than opening PS & watermarking an image one at a time, but it's not optimal, obviously!) Thanks for any instructions. [P.S. I do not have almost zilch experience with Apps, so I would need details that are pretty easy to follow. Also, since I asked the question, I've now gotten the beta version of Lightroom 3, but I don't have the faintest idea how to use it yet.... just in case that helps me with any of this!]

Originally Posted by WinsomeWorks I'm taking BeachBill's advice and asking about something in this thread that I'd first put in the Apps thread. Here's a direct copy of my question, but now I'm wondering if SmugLoader would help me with what I'm trying to do: I'm not even sure if this is possible. I would like to be able to download a gallery or even just a small batch (5, 10, 30 whatever) of my watermarked images from SmugMug to my home computer a couple times a week. Typically I'd be wanting to download small to large sizes (not tiny or huge). I looked through the list of Apps but by the descriptions could not tell which, if any, could do this for me. I have a PC with Adobe Photoshop (CS 2), and am able to use FF or IE for now. I don't have LightRoom or anything quite like it. My reason for doing this is that I often need smaller, watermarked, web-friendly versions of a bunch of photos for display on other sites: Etsy, Facebook, Panoramio, NaturePhotographers, etc. I don't yet know how to do a bulk process on them in PS or anything (if anyone has a link to instructions for this, I'd be thrilled) so I'm spending more time than I'd like to do this. I usually go to my Smug gallery, "get a link", then go to the link & copy the photo, then paste it into a folder on my PC... one by one. I'm sure there's a better way to quickly get a watermarked copy. (This is still lots faster than opening PS & watermarking an image one at a time, but it's not optimal, obviously!) Thanks for any instructions. [P.S. I do not have almost zilch experience with Apps, so I would need details that are pretty easy to follow. Also, since I asked the question, I've now gotten the beta version of Lightroom 3, but I don't have the faintest idea how to use it yet.... just in case that helps me with any of this!]

Hi Anna,

I'm the author of SmugLoader. Until you figure out how to bulk watermark you photos (I know for sure there are tools), please take a look to the screenshot below, and see if it could help you. It's SmugLoader's downloads screen.



I think that the best way is to spend some time finding out a tool for watermarking, and resizing in bulk on your computer. Take a look to Picasa 3, which can apply a watermark to AND resize a group of selected photos, upon exporting them. See here: http://picasa.google.com/support/bin...&answer=106193 But it will allow you to add only text watermarks. So if you created a watermark as image, you can't use it with Picasa. But it's basic, and doesn't really protect an original sized image. It could be useful for small sizes though. There is another way in Picasa: http://rexdelsar.com/blog/2008/09/ho...s-in-picasa-3/ (it could be useful to you to also read the comments; I've seen some interesting questions there)

Until you do that, try out SmugLoader.

Here's the link to the downloads page: http://kenai.com/projects/smug-loader/downloads The newest is alpha-14

Thanks

WinsomeWorks -- If you have the album set to watermark the images, anything but the original (and maybes the thumbnails) will contain the watermark when downloaded via SmugLoader. So if you see a watermark when viewing the image via SmugMug, then that same size image will contain the watermark when downloaded. Hope this helps clarify it.

A bug with removing multiple entries at once in the upload list will prevent finishing the operation. Please use entry per entry removal. The bug is fixed, but I'll release it with the beta.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by WinsomeWorks I'm taking BeachBill's advice and asking about something in this thread that I'd first put in the Apps thread. Here's a direct copy of my question, but now I'm wondering if SmugLoader would help me with what I'm trying to do: I'm not even sure if this is possible. I would like to be able to download a gallery or even just a small batch (5, 10, 30 whatever) of my watermarked images from SmugMug to my home computer a couple times a week. Typically I'd be wanting to download small to large sizes (not tiny or huge). I looked through the list of Apps but by the descriptions could not tell which, if any, could do this for me. I have a PC with Adobe Photoshop (CS 2), and am able to use FF or IE for now. I don't have LightRoom or anything quite like it.

AlbumFetcher also works great for this. You can't download multiple files at the same time like SL, but it is very reliable. I'm using a mixture of AF and SL to download my original images for comparison with the originals.

Originally Posted by udy Hi Anna, I'm the author of SmugLoader. Until you figure out how to bulk watermark you photos (I know for sure there are tools), please take a look to the screenshot below, and see if it could help ....Thanks.....

Hey, thank you all so much! This is an immensely helpful thread. Thanks to BeachBill, I successfully downloaded FastStone PhotoResizer & that may help me with some of my operations. But I'm also going to try SmugLoader, because yes... udy, it looks to me like it might just do the trick. I'm amazed at what you guys can create to solve these intricate little problems. So... I think I'm too tired tonight but when I've tried it out I'll post back. Thanks for the heads-up about Picasa & etc. too. Something here will work I think! Later... --Anna Lisa

The first BETA is here!

This build has gone through a lot of testing. A lot of scenarios have been covered, other scenarios have been postponed for a future build. But as always, there could be hidden bugs, uncovered scenarios, which hopefully will be discovered by you.

New features, and enhancements:

• Visual feedback has been enhanced for almost every action. As an example, when selecting an album for deleting, the dialog window will show you which album has been selected for deletion. Others include
  • the deletion/hiding/unhiding of multiple media files on the server;
  • showing the hint for an album password
  • the text field for entering the nick name (anonymous account) has been improved;
  • status of uploads;
• Multiple roots can be added with Add Collection to SmugMug in one operation, if the roots are in the same folder (multiple selection is ON);
• The download code has been enhanced, and there is still the possibility of bugs arising. The enhancement has something in common with the upload code.
• The underlying paged table support has changed, by introducing a proper standalone component, which will also be used with the downloads, sometime in a future beta. It means that there could be unforeseen consequences, I haven't met just yet. I'm convinced you will discover them
• The download screen's layout has been changed a bit. There is a little more space for the important stuff;
• The files are downloaded to SmugMug/<nick-name> folder. Previously, they were downloaded to SmugMug. The place where SmugMug lands is of course the user's choice;
• A lot of work has been done at the database level, for proper anonymous support, and more detailed upload trace;
• LOTS of bug fixes. The possibility of deadlock while downloading/uploading has been greatly reduced. If you encounter one, please re-run the application from the command line with

  java -jar SmugLoader-0.5.jar

  and if the deadlock occurs, please follow the instructions on this page: http://wiki.netbeans.org/GenerateThreadDump . Although that page is about generating a thread dump for NetBeans, it is the same for any java application. Please read it carefully, if needed.

Known issues:

• When using Anonymous to download, and don't know the available sizes, just check 'All' in the downloads screen;
• There is no support for site password yet;
• Empty the SmugMug account is a pre-alpha piece of functionality, since I haven't tested it so far, but I included it if there will be anybody willing to test it. For that, the tester will have to create a new SmugMug account;
• Changing the number of concurrent threads for downloads will only take effect after a restart. I will enable hot change in the next beta;
• The album quick settings don't work yet, because I'm still waiting for a reply from David;
• There are cases when the keywords list isn't parsed properly.

These being said, it's the first beta, and it needs further testing. I planed max 3 betas, before a final release of SmugLoader 0.5. It's your turn now, for improving it.

Thanks, and enjoy!

Great to see SL enter into beta.

I've tried the download scenarios that we talked about between minimizing and maximizing and it does make a speed difference. Anywhere between 10-40% faster. I now minimize after I start a batch.

One thing I wish SL would handle better are errors and duplicates. I've spent quite a bit of time deleting duplicates when I didn't realize I had already uploaded a hundred files or so to an album and then uploaded them again accidentally.

I've run into scenarios where a file downloading will get 'stuck'. I found the solution to be pausing the file being downloaded and then resuming it.

More things as I use SL more. I still juggle SE, SL, and SM uploaders for now as I try to find a new workflow that is optimal.

Originally Posted by SamirD Great to see SL enter into beta. I've tried the download scenarios that we talked about between minimizing and maximizing and it does make a speed difference. Anywhere between 10-40% faster. I now minimize after I start a batch.

Thanks . And I'm glad it worked faster.

Originally Posted by SamirD One thing I wish SL would handle better are errors and duplicates. I've spent quite a bit of time deleting duplicates when I didn't realize I had already uploaded a hundred files or so to an album and then uploaded them again accidentally.

There's no duplicate detection yet. There is some experimental code, but it isn't active for now.

Originally Posted by SamirD I've run into scenarios where a file downloading will get 'stuck'. I found the solution to be pausing the file being downloaded and then resuming it.

If the application didn't freeze, then there was a temporary issue with SmugMug, or with the connection. Resuming is a good thing, as it uses the already downloaded data, so there is no need to restart the download. The future will bring better support for such situations (like automatically retrying).

Anyway, I thank you for your feedback. It's always welcome.

Thank you very much for the replies. This weekend will be my most challenging event ever--an Indycar race. SL will be one of the tools in my bag for this weekend.

Originally Posted by SamirD Thank you very much for the replies. This weekend will be my most challenging event ever--an Indycar race. SL will be one of the tools in my bag for this weekend.

Anytime I'm awake

Can you elaborate on "I wish SL would handle better are errors". Maybe you have some useful ideas, I could use

Thanks

The 2nd beta of SmugLoader-0.5 is here, and it's pretty soon too.

I thought it would be nice to bring the new, fast browser. It's multithreaded, and by default the number of concurrent thumbnail images downloads is twice the number of CPU cores. So if you have a quad, there will be 8 concurrent thumbnail downloads going on behind the scenes. The list of media files will have entries without thumbnails, the first time they are displayed, but the browser will update the list as soon as an thumbnail is available.

There are a few important bug fixes which prevent threads creation, and instead the application will be using the existing ones.

As usually, I'll need feedback. And with the new browser, the feedback is needed badly .

The next beta won't be out so soon. The only reason would be if you find a serious bug (freezes, etc).

Enjoy!