Science Forum

agent_js03 · Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 12:03 pm Post subject:

Hi

I am a computer science student from a university and we were recently given a project, and I have no idea where to start. We are supposed to write a program that organizes photos, and uses scripting/XML to upload them to a Flickr account. I have looked at the Flickr website and they have an API for how to do this, but they aren't very specific about the tools or languages involved in it.

Aside from having virtually no experience in scripting languages (other than basic Haskell) and very limited knowledge about XML and web development, I have no clue of the terminology that describes this sort of setup. I am a C/C++/Java type programmer. Could someone explain these things in a way that I can understand them? What are some good web sites?

There are many things I am having trouble understanding. How exactly do you communicate with the server? Can you do this from within the actual program script? (The teacher recommended Ruby on Rails for this project) When you upload, do you upload the actual XML file? Or is the XML file there just to store the layout before/after uploading or downloading photos? On the Flickr website it gives examples of a "POST" command; I think that this is a Unix command, is it not? Is it just sent from within the script? I am so puzzled.

Thanks in advance for the help!