Flickr Uploadr 3.0 lives 2007/12/20

Time to take a deep breath. Flickr Uploadr 3.0 is out for all and two minor revisions later is looking pretty good. There are still issues to be resolved but I won't spend any time here whining about desktop software or how hard it is.

Instead, a couple of lessons I definitely learned the hard way from this release.

Desktop software, despite my best efforts, just can't be deployed as rapidly as a website can. I'm still trying to find the sweet spot between pushing fixes as soon as they're fixes and not bothering users with a constant stream of incremental updates.
Some bugs are not as bad as they seem. And specifically not as bad as the one you might introduce hurrying out a fix. The transparency the Flickr Forum gives us in diagnosing bugs and communicating workarounds is invaluable here. Keeping members in the loop is just about as important as fixing the bugs.
Other people's computers are more different than your's than you can possibly imagine (or replicate with 6 computers). Statically link like your life depends on it! (But that's only half the battle. Diagnosing problems when you can't just fire up cmd.exe or Terminal is a daunting task.

The next challenge will be turning the GPL'ed Uploadr into something moldable and bendable for other developers to play with. In the meantime, check out the new Flickr Uploadr and its source code at http://flickr.com/tools/uploadr/.

Photo from Cal.

Comments (4)

You've definitely hit a home run with the new uploader. without steroids too!. I think. I overheard some people talk about it on the bus the other day with nothing but good comments.

Congrats on a good release :)

— Dimitry — 2007/12/20 2:16 pm
I am really impressed with your work on Flickr Uploadr 3.0.

I think I have found some ways to break it, but overall, it's a gem. I look forward to testing future revisions with you.

— Andrew Mager — 2007/12/25 1:57 pm
Dittos on the Kudos for the Uploadr. Considering the scale of the rewrite, after using it for a week or two and cursing it only mildly, it's pretty sweet. :D And getting better at a rockin' pace.

And as someone who QAs another product for a living I like that the UI is, with a couple of exceptions, pretty darn stable.

— Ben — 2008/01/22 4:34 pm
Thanks for Uploadr 3. Have you seen any shots of Flickr Importr in action at all?

Unfortunately it's not available anymore. But the great thing about Flickr Import would let you assign pictures to sets and groups before uploading (pick any different combination of). This was insanely useful as it lets people decide pretty much where they want things to go before uploading.

thanks!

— joe — 2008/04/18 2:46 am