Flickr_download (.rb): Flickr batch downloader

A while ago I decided to give Ruby a try. And of course the best way to do that on a programming language you don't know is write something in it.

The result is flickr download.rb: a batch downloader of Flickr! photo sets.

It handles all the stuff of Flickr! authentication/authorization via the shared secret, API key and so on (see the Flickr! API). Then, specifying the username of a photoset owner and the photoset (either by title or id) it downloads in a batch fashion the best available size of contained photos. Command line interface of course.

Despite its simplicity and how useful it looks to me, I was unable to find a similar tool already available somewhere. Maybe because the usefulness of such an utility is diminished by the requirement imposed by the Flickr! API that the owner of a photoset must first authorize the tool before it can be used, but I still found it very useful to download my photos batchly ...

Requirements

Flickr.rb (not in Debian), which in turn requires ...
... mime/types (not in Debian too),
rdoc1.8.

Sample usage

$   # let's try on my Debconf6 photo set
$ flickr_download -u zacchiro -i 72157594247689892
will download 53 photos(s)
starting download of http://static.flickr.com/73/222421262_38df10594a_o.jpg ...
starting download of http://static.flickr.com/91/222420881_3b49a57f11_o.jpg ...
starting download of http://static.flickr.com/61/222420518_b2ad6ddf1a_o.jpg ...

<snip>

starting download of http://static.flickr.com/72/222392122_80b8041c47_o.jpg ...
waiting for all downloads to complete ...
all done.
$

Download

flickr download.rb