[RELEASE] The Big Pictures

Hi all,

The Big Pictures is a script to show Albums and Photos from photojournalism websites like Boston.com's "The Big Picture".

Most Recent Version is 4.0.0 (09.03.2013)

Here are some Screenshots:

Photo View


Photo View (the Description appears after 2 secs)


Album View


Loading Screen


Photo or Album Download


Usage:
You can switch the Source (=Website which provides Albums and Photos) with the up- and down-keys.
Switch the Albums of current Source with the left- and right-keys.
To enter an album you have to press the select-key (enter).
To go back to the albums press the back-key.
To hide and show the Info Overlays you have to press the media-info-key (i).
You can download a Photo or Album with the context-key.
You can switch the aspect-ratio of the image-view with the 0 (zero) key.
Also you can start a slideshow of the current selected photoset with the play key (p).

Currently implemented Sources:
- Boston.com: The Big Pictures (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/)
- The Atlantic: In Focus (http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/)
- Sacramento Bee: The Frame (http://blogs.sacbee.com/photos/)
- Wallstreetjournal: The Photo Journal (http://blogs.wsj.com/photojournal/)
- TotallyCoolPix.com: (http://TotallyCoolPix.com)
- Time.com: LightBox - Closeup (http://lightbox.time.com/category/closeup/?iid=lb-close)


This Script was ported in Sep 2009 by rwparris2 from the original BOXEE App to XBMC Camelot (with just one source).
Since Sep 2010 it is ported to dharma and further developed by me.

Feedback or feature suggestions are always welcome!

This Addon is available through the official Addon Repository!

Changelog:

regards,
sphere

Very nice Sphere - any progress on other sources as mentioned in the original thread? Guardian Eyewitness for example...

Hi,

I updated the Addon to Version 1.4.2 (1.4.1 was a buggy release and was replaced one day later with 1.4.2 - sorry for that).

Changelog

1.4.2

• Fixed: Error with external Python and os.makedirs(cachedir) with cachedir = "special://..."
• Fixed TheSacramentoBee wasn't able to get Photos
• Fixed WallStreetJournal wasn't able to get Photos
  

1.4.1

• Fixed: boston.com now needs a referer for the photosets
• Improved: Better class Inheritance
• Cosmetic: pep8 (except line length)
• Improved: The german, english and french usage instructions (and shorten them)
• Fixed: The Help now appears only on the first album or photoset
  

What is in Work
I am currently working on making it possible to use the pictures as a slideshow - for example as screensaver source.

Before I add new scrapers I have to make the (builtin-)scraper mechanism more dynamic - which is also be in work.

I also switched from googlecode (svn) to github. The official source is now available at https://github.com/dersphere/script.image.bigpictures

If anyone of you is interested in beeing a beta tester (with giving feedback!) please reply here.

regards,
sphere

How do I install this on the apple tv 2g?

Hi,

just go within xbmc to the addon-browser and install from there:
System->Addons->Get Addons->XBMC.org Addons->Picture Add-ons->The Big Pictures

regards,
sphere

Loving your ideas for future development sphere, especially regarding screensaver plugin.

I'd be happy to beta test for you.

In response to your dev' thread options. I think a 'backend' function plugin that provides data for a photo plugin/screensaver etc. is much preferable to multiple identical plugin entries in the photo section.

Hi,

I updated The Big Pictures in the Dharma repo and also added it as version 2.0.0 to the eden(-pre) Addon repo.


1.5.0 - Dharma
2.0.0 - Eden

• Added: New Scraper: 'The Atlantic: In Focus'
• Removed: Scraper 'Boston.com: The Big Shot' - outdated
• Added: Function and Setting for changing the aspect-ratio of the Pictures (press 0 for instant change)
• Improved: Caching of HTML-Pages (much faster now)
• Improved: Rewrote the multi-scraper-logic
• Fixed: The Big Pictures Facebook-comment-change Announcement broke scraper
• Fixed: The Big Pictures remove Hash at the end of the Description
• Changed: The usage help is now replaced by a settings "help"-section which is automatically shown at the first start.
• Cosmetic: more pep8 conformity
  

regards
sphere

Hi again,
I updated The Big Pictures in the official repo for dharma and eden-pre.

Changelog:
1.5.1 - Dharma
2.0.1 - Eden

• Eden-fix: back-button
• Eden-fix: Conditional visibility
• New plugin-way for scrapers
• Fixed: Wallstreetjournal Scraper
• Fixed: Sacramento Bee Scraper
• Fixed: Visible-conditions in Eden
• Fixed: Back-key in Eden
• Code Improvements
  

regards
sphere

HI.
Very nice plugin.
Can You release a tutorial how to make our own scrapers ?
I presume every one have their favorite sites with pictures it would be nice to make scrapers our self and if they work send them to You so You can add it to git.

Hi,

no, there isn't any tutorial - but if you have any sites in mind: tell them - I always look for matching websites

If you want to make a scraper have a look at https://github.com/dersphere/script.imag...s/2_aif.py

You only have to add a file like 5_whatyoulike.py which has a 'register' function which instances a scraper class. This class should have the methods "getAlbums" and "getPhotos".

btw. the new versions are requested for a pull to the official repo - can take a day to be in there.

regards,
sphere