defeatedSoftware

MoblogImport v0.1

So, basically, Textamerica sucks. Their app is buggy (images just stop showing up), they take a very heavy handed approach to dealing with users, and then there was the whole SNAFU with their EULA asserting ownership over your images. Needless to say, I've been searching for a better alternative for awhile now. Recently that alternative presented itself in the form of MoblogUK. Run by a nice guy, there's no worry of someone else profitting from your images. I immediately created a blog there and started sending my new images in that direction. This led to the obvious problem, what to do with my images that were already resident at Textamerica? Which of course led to the obvious solution: write an app to import them! Thus, I give you: MoblogImport.

Details
C# Windows Form Application

Features

• Imports Moblog entries from Textamerica RSS feed


• Imports Moblog entries from Textamerica via screen scrape


• Exports Moblog entries via email


• Saves Moblog entries to disk and generates XML/XSL to view them locally

Requirements

• Any version of Windows that supports the .NET Framework (caveat: the app was only tested on Windows 2000)


• .NET Framework 1.1

Known Issues



• Many (most?) outgoing SMTP servers will throttle your connection attempts. If you try and send too many images in too short a time it will generate an error. There is logic in place to handle this, but it's not thoroughly tested. Basically I'd recommend using a mail throttle delay of around 10 seconds to be safe


• When opening a URL, not all Textamerica templates will import succesfully. I've tested it thoroughly on the template I used (Robot Army). I've also tested it to some extent on Simple Series: Green. Basically the closer the template to Robot Army, the more likely it will import correctly. I'd recommend simply switching your template to Robot Army or one of the Simple Series before running the screen scrape.


• There still seems to be a minor problem in the regex that parses the TextAmerica page, their output format has changed over time, so some older entries are not recognized.


• The interface locks up while parsing pages or sending mail. I'm working on threading these processes so this doesn't happen. It's not called version 0.1 for nothing! Fixed in v0.2!



*Update* An ever helpful tester, discovered a bug that caused an exception when you clicked cancel when browsing for a Working Folder. This has been fixed. For the two people who may have already downloaded it, either don't click cancel or download the newest version ;).

*Second Update* How embarassing, just moments after seeing this posted to BoingBoing, Matt discovered another bug involving processing of additional pages when doing a screen scrape. It'd keep adding on to the current URL instead of the base URL, resulting in the app endlessly processing the second page. This has been fixed now.

*Third Update* Version 0.2 is here, fixed a few minor bugs, but most importantly, threaded most actions, so now the app doesn't lock up when you're importing or exporting. Further updates to the application will not be detailed in this post. Check the main software page for continuing details.

Download MoblogImport v0.2

Instructions for use:

• Configure options by going to Tools->Options. In order to send messages to a new moblog you must configure a working directory under General Options, and the Outgoing Mail Settings on the Mail tab.
• Import your moblog by either reading the Textamerica RSS feed File->Open->Remote XML File. Keep in mind that the RSS feed will only return the 20 or 25 most recent images). The other option is to do File->Open->Remote URL and enter the URL of your moblog at Textamerica.
• The application will now attempt to read the entries from the moblog. Depending on the number of entries and the URL Throttle Delay that was configured on the Option screen, this may take some time
• When the application finishes processing, the list on the left will populate with all of the entries it was able to find. Select an entry to view the image and edit the title and description
• Select all of the entries you want to send by checking their individual checkboxes. You may also check entries in bulk by using the Toggle Checked checkbox
• Select File->Send Email to start the process of sending the selected entries. Depending on the number of entries and the Mail Throttle Delay that was configured in the Options screen, this may take some time.
• You may also save all of the images locally by choosing File->Save. This will prompt you for a file to save to, called, by default, moblog.xml. A folder will be created in the same directory as moblog.xml called images. The images for each entry will be saved here. The moblog.xml file will contain an entry for each image imported. In addition, an XSL stylesheet will be generated that describes a simple translation so the XML file can be viewed in a web-browser. This works for sure in Mozilla, Firefox, and IE6.0+.

The source code is available upon request. Leave a comment here and I'll get back to you.

Posted by defeated at April 28, 2004 11:21 AM