As you might have noticed there have not been any updates lately. The reason for that is not that I’ve stopped working on the project, but that I am pretty busy with my university. I will be busy at least till late February.

In the mean time I have decided to change the application a little… I still have don’t know how much the active search feature is good… In the end I might remove it totally and use that part of the screen for some other, more useful, stuff (like editing photo properties).

Also I’m thinking of changing the user interface totally, so all the suggestions are welcomed and will be considered for implementation. Please use the issue tracker at codeplex (http://www.codeplex.com/MeiRou/WorkItem/List.aspx) to make your requests – the ones with most votes will be amongst the first to be implemented.

If you are interested in working on the project, feel free to contact me at marko.vuksanovic@fer.hr.

One more thing… there will be a small update coming very soon – it will feature a much better way to view your photos….

A new version of meirou – a flickr photo organizer has been published.

In order to use this application you will have to have .Net Framework 3.0 (public release) installed. This can be obtained from Microsoft’s web site.

You can request a feature using the issue tracker (http://www.codeplex.com/WorkItem/List.aspx?ProjectName=MeiRou).

Also there are forums available for discussions (http://www.codeplex.com/Project/ListForums.aspx?ProjectName=MeiRou)

Note: Codeplex has introduced a new voting system in the issue tracked. This way you can easily vote for features that you would like to see implemented in the next release….

meirou flickr group (http://www.flickr.com/groups/meirou/) is also available for discussions…

It is now possible to make donations (PayPal, Credit Card….) to the meirou project. The donations are handled by Plimus (www.plimus.com).

From the users’ view point, this means that the product will be much higher quality, and should be developed faster, as I will be able to hire some professional programmers to do some coding…

To make a donation you can use the following link (which is also available from the projects homepage):

https://www.plimus.com/jsp/dev_store.jsp?developerId=48448

I am also looking for a way to get a web site for meirou project… but more info on that comming some time later

As you might have noticed, one you run meirou 0.2.0 build, instead of photo titles you get some weird numbers…. Well the problem lies in the fact that flickr modified response formats for some methods.. This caused meirou application to show the image farm number instead of its title…. Obviously, a farm number is something that the end user is not interested in….

Today I have published a new special build that resolves the above problem. Also, this version has the delete window implemented but the program logic for that window has not been implemented. This basically means that clicking the delete button will only ask you whether you wish to delete the selected photos, but they still cannot be deleted, and the delete window has to be closed on the red “x” button… So don’t worry that you will delete any of your photos.

The latest build can be downloaded at the project homepage (http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=MeiRou)

You might have noticed that the development of the meirou project has been somewhat slowed down. Well the reason for that lies in the fact that I also do something else in order to make money and the fact that I’m still a student and need to study… The project has not been closed, or anything else but only the development has been slowed down.

A commercial API key has also been approved for the application and at some point in the future I will consider opening an account for making donations to the project. Basically, the idea is to make no1 desktop application for organizing your flickr photos,… and this cannot be free… Something will always have to be paid….

Just to let you know about two things that will be available in the next release…
- Delete Photo
- Save photo to disk
- Left menu replaced with the review control

The next version of meirou project will have WPF treeview control implemented, instead of listoxes and expanders in the current release. The treeview control provides much more control over the left menu functions then the previous “chemistry”….

First meirou project alpha version has been released. Some of the features implemented in this version are:

- Photo Preview window -> If a user double clicks an image, it is opened in a new window (you need to wait a while, a few seconds, for the image to be downloaded from flickr)
- Active search improved -> Active search now shows results based on the first tag attached to the photo (this feature will be further improved in future releases)
-BUG FIXED: No crashes during the authorization

The feature that allows user to open a large photo by double-clicking it in the main window has been implemented.

The feauture will be available to public in the next release.

A few moments ago meirou 0.1.5 build has been published and can be downloaded at codeplex (http://www.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ProjectName=MeiRou). It features basic active search feature. Actually, it is not yet active search feature as it only displays search results for “flickr” query. This build also has a link added (just below the logo). This link will take you to the meirou group at flickr (http://www.flickr.com/groups/meirou/). There you can take part in the discussions, report bugs, leave suggestions or anything you like (or don’t like about the software). This way, you – the end customer will take place in project development.