Provide Picassa integration for image hosting (plugin?)

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What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Static images are loading slower than text over native GAE
2. Loading an image from Picasa or Flickr provides nomimal image load tgimes

I haven't reviewed it closely, but Picasa does have an API designed for
integration with desktop clients and web services. 

Being able to upload images directly to a web album would also reduce what
the system needs to backup and restore from GAE. 

Original issue reported on code.google.com by ted.husted on 21 Jan 2010 at 2:01

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API Link - http://code.google.com/apis/picasaweb/overview.html

Original comment by ted.husted on 21 Jan 2010 at 2:06

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Original comment by ted.husted on 21 Jan 2010 at 6:31

• Added labels: Type-Task
• Removed labels: Type-Defect

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Off loading images from GAE is definately a plus for 3 reasons:
1) speed, I have started using Flickr and the difference in speed is noticable. 
 The 
downside is that Flickr requires that the image be linked back to Flickr, so 
under the 
terms of agreement, UI image elements are not acceptable.

2) errors.  GAE has a fairly high probability of returning errors, even on 
statically 
served images.

3) quota.  While the first quota limits likely to be reached are CPU, anything 
that can 
delay maxing out free quotas is welcome.

Original comment by fishys...@gmail.com on 22 Jan 2010 at 1:28

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I think those are good comments. I'm still reviewing the API documentation, but 
I
believe that we can offload the images to Picasa and stay within the terms of 
use. 

If we can support managing the web album images directly from Vosao, through the
Picasa API, then we are still providing complete resource management. We are 
simply
offloading from one Google service to another! 

Of course, free Picasa has a one GB limit, but people can buy more, or use 
native GAE
for less important images. 

In the meantime, I moved the home page on staging to a Picasa slideshow. The 
interior
images are being loaded from 

Alex, do we have any kind of Vosao administrative account that can be used for a
Google Account and Picasa account (like webmaster@vosao.org for example) which 
we
could share. That way, we won't burn up our personal space for the web site. 

Original comment by ted.husted on 22 Jan 2010 at 1:40

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Using additional services for serving resources as an option is very 
interesting 
idea. 

Also we can consider GAE blobstore 
http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/java/blobstore/

May be after release it will be free.

The source of the GAE poor performance with fies is in droping all unused app 
instances with corresponding memcache and instance start up penalty. 

Starting from 0.2 version Vosao caches all datastore queries in memecache as 
well as 
downloaded resources so if only one instance stay online with cache all would 
be ok.

I beleave that Google will find a way to keep one instance hot or significanlty 
remove startup time.

Anyway we can try to make optimizations when serving resources:
 * try to use native api
 * generating home page static versions and storing all html peaces as one entity
 * find other ways

Picasa slideshow on the home page is looking good. 

Also I would like to move GAE logo image to the old place. 

I will create webmaster@vosao.org account and send you in private.

Original comment by kinyelo@gmail.com on 23 Jan 2010 at 11:22

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Alex, 

I setup the webmaster Picasa account, and setup our images as  albums.

I also rolled the home page layout back, except for the references to the 
Picasa web
galleries. 

* http://staging.vosao.org/

I was wondering: At what resolution do you have your monitor set? The most 
common
resolution now is still 1024x768. (Though higher resolutions are gaining.)

At 1024x768, after the visuals, the rest of the page is "below the fold", so 
all one
sees, before scrolling, is the slideshow and the GAE hosting image. At this
resolution, the Google App Engine image also seems too large, and it distracts 
from
the rest of the page. (Even when using Picasa, with a clear cache, it takes a
noticieable time to load.) When all of the text is below the fold, I don't know 
if
the two visuals alone are "putting our best foot forward". 

Another problem with his particular image is that the character is pointing off 
to
our right, sending the eye away from the page. If the "hosting" circle were on 
the
left, and the character were pointing back to the left, it would help draw the 
eye
back in again. It looks like I could do that with some creative cropping, and 
pull
the eye back down into the rest of the page.

My own first choice would be to put the current GAE image in the left column, 
so that
it is pointing to the news and feature list on the right. But, I'm fine with 
whatever
you decide. 

Original comment by webmaste...@gtempaccount.com on 24 Jan 2010 at 3:39

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> Starting from 0.2 version Vosao caches all datastore queries in memecache as 
well >
as downloaded resources so if only one instance stay online with cache all 
would 
> be ok.

I wondered about that. Essentially, if the site was getting more traffic, then 
the
speed would actually increase, because the Google infrastructure would devote 
more
resources to it. (The opposite of on-premises hosting.) 

For images, the best route might be an optional Picasa plugin that used its API 
to
manage images from inside our application. (I can look into that.) 

There's still latency around other resources, like the stylesheets. With a clear
cache, the page will render, and then incrementally enhance as the stylesheet 
loads.
Would being able to store a stable CSS as a static resource help?

Once someone has these resources cached locally, of course, the CMS performs 
well,
but first impressions are important!

Original comment by webmaste...@gtempaccount.com on 24 Jan 2010 at 4:25

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(Switched back to my own account. Of course, the webmaster@ comments were mine.)

Original comment by ted.husted on 24 Jan 2010 at 4:27

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My site is pretty low traffic, and so first access is slow and often fails to 
return GAE 
hosted images.  After 1 or 2 reloads, it gets considerable faster so as usage 
goes up 
things speed up.  Unfortunately Vosao is relatively unknown as of yet, so 
expecting high 
access rates to just make the problem go away isn't really an option...

While offloading images makes long term content management and portability 
problematic, for the time being it's probably the best solution.

Original comment by fishys...@gmail.com on 27 Jan 2010 at 12:54

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Original comment by kinyelo@gmail.com on 11 Apr 2010 at 11:25

• Changed state: Started
• Added labels: Milestone-Release-0.4

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Implemented.

Original comment by kinyelo@gmail.com on 16 Apr 2010 at 5:54

• Changed state: Fixed

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Cool feature, can some one point me to how to use it?

I allready have picas web album created and availible from resources page, but 
how do I get these pictures into content page?

Is there a function in vosao service?

Thanks

Original comment by thehurda on 18 Mar 2011 at 10:18

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1. Provide your user credentials in site administration.
2. On Resources page there is a Picasa tab.
3. When adding image in rich text editor there is also picasa tab for image 
selection.

Original comment by kinyelo@gmail.com on 18 Mar 2011 at 12:55