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crazybirdman
Reel Rookie

Re: Picasa web albums

Dude, that is awesome, thank you so much! Let us know if there's somewhere we can donate!
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colincliff
Visitor

Re: Picasa web albums

Hi belltown, I've been looking for a way to restore Picasa access to my NowTV box (based on a roku unit). Your updated channel looks perfect for this.

Unfortunately the only way to add any channels other than the few approved ones is via developer mode (as demonstrated here for plex)

I tried to use the zip file from your github to side load to the unit but get the error 'Install Failure: No manifest. Invalid package'

I have no experience coding for a Roku, so wondered if there is anything obvious I am doing wrong, or are the files on Github not set up to sideload?

Apologies if none of this makes sense!
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belltown
Roku Guru

Re: Picasa web albums

"colincliff" wrote:
Hi belltown, I've been looking for a way to restore Picasa access to my NowTV box (based on a roku unit). Your updated channel looks perfect for this.

Unfortunately the only way to add any channels other than the few approved ones is via developer mode (as demonstrated here for plex)

I tried to use the zip file from your github to side load to the unit but get the error 'Install Failure: No manifest. Invalid package'

I have no experience coding for a Roku, so wondered if there is anything obvious I am doing wrong, or are the files on Github not set up to sideload?

Apologies if none of this makes sense!

You can't side-load Picasa2 from the zipped GitHub repo because the project uploaded to GitHub does not contain the OAuth2 key, which is developer-specific. You'll need to get your own key.

Click the 'Download ZIP' button on the GitHub page. This will download the file, Roku-Picasa2-master.zip. Extract the contents of that file then you'll have a folder called Roku-Picasa2-master. You might see another Roku-Picasa2-master folder inside that one. Whichever folder contains images, source, manifest, etc. will be the folder you'll use for your own Picasa project. That will be the folder you'll need to zip up yourself and side-load [Make sure before side-loading that the .zip file you are about to side-load contains source, image, manifest, etc]. However, the channel won't work until you set up your own OAuth2 key. See the file source\private-git.brs for instructions on how to do that. Once you've updated the private-git.brs file with your own OAuth2 key, go ahead and create your zip file and side-load it.
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a2597
Visitor

Re: Picasa web albums

Wow, thank you so much for this update! I've really been wanting a way to display a proper slideshow screensaver on the TV screen.

Is there a way to make the images full screen? I looked at the code on github and I think it has something to do with this line:
canvasItem=[
{url: canvasItems[counter],
TargetRect:{x:Rnd(ds.w-420), y:Rnd(ds.h-300)}},
{url: canvasItems[nextimg],
TargetRect:{x:-1000, y:-1000}} 'Off the screen to preload
]

but my coding experience is really limited to HTML, CSS, and a little javascript. I noticed in the main slideshow it works full screen, but there are no canvas items, but in the slideshow screensaver it makes all the images really small. Hoping there's a way to make it all display full screen.

Again, thank you for updating this!
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belltown
Roku Guru

Re: Picasa web albums

"a2597" wrote:
Wow, thank you so much for this update! I've really been wanting a way to display a proper slideshow screensaver on the TV screen.

Is there a way to make the images full screen? I looked at the code on github and I think it has something to do with this line:
canvasItem=[
{url: canvasItems[counter],
TargetRect:{x:Rnd(ds.w-420), y:Rnd(ds.h-300)}},
{url: canvasItems[nextimg],
TargetRect:{x:-1000, y:-1000}} 'Off the screen to preload
]

but my coding experience is really limited to HTML, CSS, and a little javascript. I noticed in the main slideshow it works full screen, but there are no canvas items, but in the slideshow screensaver it makes all the images really small. Hoping there's a way to make it all display full screen.

Again, thank you for updating this!


That screensaver code is mainly the code from the original Picasa author written a long time ago. My guess is the images were made small to look a decent size on an SD TV, and the code was never changed to make them larger on HD screens. Plus, it's a screensaver, so I can see why it wouldn't be written to take up the whole screen. The code you listed for the image canvas gives the (x, y) coordinate of the image origin. The image size is determined when the server request is made, e.g:

rsp=m.picasa.ExecServerAPI("?kind=photo&max-results=300&v=2.0&fields=entry(media:group(media:content))&imgmax=400")

It could be changed to display larger images on larger screens, or even display full-screen images. However, I don't have time to work on it in the immediate future, but I'll add it to my list of future possibilities.
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a2597
Visitor

Re: Picasa web albums

Ah! I totally missed that when looking through the code. I'll see about modifying that when I get home this evening.

Thank you!
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a2597
Visitor

Re: Picasa web albums

So, hot on the heels of this, and getting this working. And finally, after years, getting a full screen slideshow screensaver...
Google announces that it is killing Picasa in favor of Google Photos.

Good news: the API should continue working. But some factors in it may change.
https://developers.google.com/picasa-web/
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RokuJoel
Binge Watcher

Re: Picasa web albums

The Picasa screensaver in the Channel store should keep working - if I upload a picture to my Google Photos account it shows in the app...

- Joel
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steveintheukok
Roku Guru

Re: Picasa web albums

Picasa is being closed by Google, this may be of interest:

http://googlephotos.blogspot.co.uk/2016 ... icasa.html
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belltown
Roku Guru

Re: Picasa web albums

"steveintheukok" wrote:
Picasa is being closed by Google, this may be of interest:

http://googlephotos.blogspot.co.uk/2016 ... icasa.html

The Picasa Web Albums Data API, which is what the Roku Picasa and Picasa2 channels use, will continue:
The API will still support other functions, including reading photos, reading albums, reading photos in albums, and uploading new photos.

Some of the API functions being discontinued include: flash support; community search; mutation operations other than uploads; and all support for tags, comments, and contacts. I don't believe those functions are used by the Roku Picasa channels.
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