Lightweight PHP Picasa API v3.0 Documentation Copyright 2008 Cameron Hinkle
Thank you for choosing to use this API. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3). I hope that it will be useful to you.
I encourage anyone who uses this software to modify and improve it. Please contact me if you make improvements to it or if you need help using it. You can email me at goldplateddiapers@gmail.com or visit http://www.cameronhinkle.com/blog for tutorials and help. You can also see this API in use at http://www.cameronhinkle.com/pictures.
In version 3.0, the following changes have been made since version 1.0:
- Automatic query building with the Picasa class
- Improved error handling through the Picasa_Exception package
- Support for authentication
- Support for posting and deleting images, albums, comments, and tags
Version 3.0 has been carefully constructed to be completely compatible with previous version. In other words, if you install version 3.0 after previously using version 2.0 or 1.0, your previous implementation should still work and you will have greater flexibility to add new features to your software in the future.
This is essentially a PHP wrapper for Google's Picasa Data API, which is implemented using Atom feeds in XML. The package is meant to make it easy for PHP developers to integrate their own applications with Picasa.
This software requires PHP version 5 to be installed. Version 5.2 is recommended because of the use of __toString() methods, although if you do not wish to print objects using __toString(), then PHP 5.0 will work fine.
To install this software, simply place it within your include path. You can set your include path by calling ini_set('include_path', '/PATH/'). Once properly installed within your include path, you should be able to include the objects within the API in your own php files.
The helper functions located in the Cam directory should not be used and are officially not part of the API. They are included for backwards compatibility. However, to use them, open Cam_Util_PictureUtil and replace the text YOUR_USERNAME_HERE with the username that you will be using as the default Picasa account. The text should be replaced in two places, the $USER and $BASE_QUERY_URL fields. Several of the functions within the helper files rely on a default account.
To properly use the classes in this API, you may need knowledge of Picasa's API, which is documented at http://code.google.com/apis/picasaweb/gdata.html. A lot of work has been put into making the documentation and code as complete as possible so that you need to know as little as possible about the Data API, but it will still be helpful if you are familiar with it.
For help and questions, visit http://www.cameronhinkle.com/ or email Cameron Hinkle directly at goldplateddiapers@gmail.com.