Scripts

some scripts we find useful

• To create web photo albums: CreateWebAlbum.tgz
  • Description: These are the perl scripts we use to make the album pages for this site.  The archive contains what we use: a perl module, perl script, and template files.

    The best and fastest way to see what these scripts produce is to look at some of our album pages. Since about March 2004, we've been using versions of this script and the accompanying templates to create those pages.

    There is more information in the README file, but to make a short story long . . . The script uses the module to create an index page containing thumbnails. Each thumbnail is linked to a page containing a larger version of the image.  All the image pages are linked in sequence to each other.  All the index pages are similarly linked.  When you create a new album, the script should automatically link the new pages to the previous pages.  The script will also ftp the new and changed pages to your server.  (Instructions on how to add your server info or remove this function are in the README file.)

    You can easily change the appearance of your pages by changing the template files. If you don't change the templates your pages will be a mess and say "denverhughes.net" on them.

  • Requirements: The script uses mogrify to resize the images.  It also uses these perl modules: Template, Tie::File, Tk, Tk::LabEntry, and Net::FTP.  At least some of these are commonly part of perl distributions, and if they are not, perl modules are typically easy to install.

    We have only used this on a gentoo linux system. Perl, the required modules, and mogrify (part of ImageMagick) are available for windows, so it should be possible to use these scripts under windows.

• To scrape django's sale list for "wanted" albums: Djangos.tgz
  • Description: Djangos.com is our favorite source for used CDs. Although django's has a utility to let one create a notify list on its site, there are often albums that we don't want unless they are on sale.  Unfortunately, its sale list is so big that it is nearly impossible to check manually. This is a little, basic script that we use to check whether one of the albums we want is on sale.

    This script compares your "want list" of albums to what is available in django's sale list. If there is a cd for sale by one of the artists on your want list, the script displays the artist's name followed by the album titles you are looking for. It then displays the albums by that artist that are currently available on the sale list. The script also writes the list to a file: music_avail.txt.

    The script does not try to match album names. The reason for this is simply that it is too difficult to match names reliably - at least for me to write a script that does it reliably.

  • Requirements: The script uses a perl module LWP::UserAgent and, of course, perl.

    We have only used this on a gentoo linux system.