flickr-views-counter
====================
Python script to count the total number of views across all of a user's photos. Flickr's API doesn't give a total photo count anymore, so this script makes use of [this very helpful library](http://stuvel.eu/flickrapi) to add up the counts for each photo and output the total number of views for a user.
##Steps to setup script
1. Get a [**Non-commercial** Flickr API key](https://www.flickr.com/services/apps/create/noncommercial/?).
- Fill out the form
- Keep the page with your new *key* and *secret* open, you'll need them in a moment
1. Install [Python](https://www.python.org/downloads/), if you don't have it
1. Use pip to install the **flickr-views-counter** package
```bash
pip install flickr-views-counter
```
##Running the script
Run the script with your **user id**. For example, my user id is `26119226@N04`, which is the last part of the url for my photostream [https://www.flickr.com/photos/26119226@N04/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/26119226@N04/).
So, I would run (replacing the Xs with my API key and the Ys with my API secret):
```bash
flickr-views-counter 26119226@N04 --key XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX --secret YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
```
###Storing API key and secret
If you don't want to use your key and secret every time you run the script, you can store them in environment variables. Make sure you use **FLICKR_API_KEY** to store the key and **FLICKR_API_SECRET** to store the secret. [This guide](http://www.schrodinger.com/kb/1842) may be helpful for setting environment variables.
###Saving detailed data
If you want to save the data for your photos in csv format, then add an output file name. For example:
```bash
flickr-views-counter 26119226@N04 --output photo-views.csv
```
###Get daily stats
If you're familiar with crontab, you can set the script up to save your daily photo statistics. Here is an example that would run at noon every day, write the csv output to a folder with the date stamp, and log the total counts. The actual implementation would vary slightly based on your paths, and, of course, your user id.
```bash
00 12 * * * flickr-views-counter 26119226@N04 --output ~/Desktop/flickr-counts/count-views-$(date +%F).csv >> ~/Desktop/flickr-counts/flickr-counts-log.txt
```
### Options
#### -h, --help
Prints help message.
#### --output
Name of the output csv file to save photo data. Like, `photo-views.csv`
#### --key
Your [Flickr API](https://www.flickr.com/services/apps/create/noncommercial/?) key
#### --secret
Your [Flickr API](https://www.flickr.com/services/apps/create/noncommercial/?) secret
## FAQ
**Q: why isn't there a website to do this for me?**
*A: The FlickrApi is [rate limited](https://developer.yahoo.com/forum/YQL/What-is-the-maximum-flickr-API/1361494903655-6a1e3a51-cd41-411e-86a9-dc2dee898ab5/) to 3600 queries per house, so a single API key wouldn't be able to handle requests for a large number of users*
CHANGES
=======
0.1.0 (2015-06-02)
------------------
- Initial release.
