Re: GSOC 2011

["W. Michael Petullo" <mike flyn org>]

>>> My name is Simon Lindgren and I am a CS student from Sweden interested
>>> in doing a GSOC project for F-Spot. I have previously asked a question
>>> about support for server-side metadata and photo storage, and this is
>>> basically my idea for a project: Implement server-side storage of
>>> metadata and photos and also support for synchronization between
>>> different computers. This is a solution to a (for me) very real problem,
>>> as I have both a laptop and a desktop and want to use my desktop when
>>> possible and my laptop otherwise.
>>> 
>>> Can somebody comment on the feasibility of such a project? Is it a
>>> suitable project?
 
>> You problem statement is a bit general, and there are several ways you
>> can accomplish what you describe. One of them (an Apple-centric solution)
>> is to implement DPAP (i.e., iPhoto sharing) support in F-Spot. I am the
>> maintainer of libdmapsharing, a library that implements DPAP, DAAP and
>> DACP. Currently, Rhythmbox uses libdmapsharing to implement DAAP (i.e.,
>> iTunes sharing). One of my project suggestions [1,2] is to add
>> libdmapsharing-based DPAP support to F-Spot; I would be happy to mentor
>> a student working on this project within the GNOME Google Summer of Code
>> effort. Last year a student did work within GSoC to add DACP support
>> to libdmapsharing.
>> 
>> I would envision that this project would:
>> 
>> 	(likely) write Mono bindings for libdmapsharing
>> 
>> 	add cient-side support for DPAP to F-Spot
>> 
>> 	(possibly) add server-side support for DPAP to F-Spot
>> 
>> The third bullet could be replaced by the use of dmapd [3]. Dmapd is a
>> dedicated DAAP and DPAP server.
>> 
>> [1] http://live.gnome.org/SummerOfCode2011/Ideas
>> [2] http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=338186
>> [3] http://www.flyn.org/projects/dmapd/
 
> I am not familiar with the D?AP protocols and how they work, though I
> have heard of them. My impressions so far is that they are designed to
> access media sources on a LAN. Is this true?
> 
> I was a bit vague on purpose, because as you say, there are many ways to
> accomplish this. My requirements on the design of this feature would be:
>  * Support the full range of f-spot metadata (including plugin data).
>  * Support the full range of operations available inside f-spot (ie.
> create new version, add images, add tags, ...)
>  * Store at least metadata and thumbnails locally to enable browsing
> with reasonable performance.
> 
> Basically, I want to synchronize all the data handled by f-spot.
> 
> My personal use case for this is this:
> I grew up ~1000km from where I am now studying, so it is hard to move
> lots of stuff back and forth. This means that I will only bring my
> laptop with me, when going home during summers for example. This is also
> the time when I take the most pictures, so I need to import images to
> f-spot now and then, but my f-spot database is located on my desktop,
> which is more powerful and has a better screen. I want to be able to
> have my f-spot data on both computers, kept in sync automatically.
> 
> Can this be accomplished using DPAP?

As you say, DPAP is typically used on a LAN, primarily because of it's
integration with mDNS. From you additional description, it seems you would
need either a solution that is more F-Spot specific (than DPAP) or a
general-purpose home directory synchronization technique.

-- 
Mike

:wq