Flickrip is a HTTP 'client' for Flickr. It supports parsing of Flickr Url's to Flickr 'tokens;
url = "http://www.flickr.com/photos/marshallmickelson/5092430638/in/set-72157624713794623/"
Flickrip::UrlParser.parse( url )
> {:user=>"marshallmickelson",:imageid=>5092430638,:set=>72157624713794623}
Flickrip also comes stock with an easy way to 'browse' to the actual image hidden behind Flickr's un-userfriendly website
url = "http://www.flickr.com/photos/marshallmickelson/5092430638/in/set-72157624713794623/"
flickr = Flickrip::FlickrImage.new url
flickr.original_size
# nil, since this photo does not allow viewing of an original size
flickr.largest_image
# opens the largest image size flickr supports for this image
This gem does not use Flickr's official API, but scrapes portions of the actual DOM.