News: September, 2018: Hi everyone, I hear that the Bulk Uploader isn't working anymore. Folks have asked why I didn't make it open source. That was at the wishes of the moderators some years ago, and I understood that. The development environment I used to make the tool succumbed to bit-rot. I haven't had a Windows machine for a long time. I'm happy the tool was useful for a goodly while. Best, --Michael.
ANNOUNCING a Windows-based Summitpost Bulk Uploader for your images. This article contains all the information you need to use it. Download the zip file from (NO LONGER AVAILABLE).
Please don't make use of it to store your entire collection of pictures of butterflies up here of course! I just want to save you time for uploading the usual collection of high-quality mountain-themed images! :-)
I love Summitpost. But individually uploading 10-15 images for a trip report was getting old. Sites like Flickr offer several nice ways to quickly upload your images, and even extract title and description from embedded metadata! So I started to use that. At the same time I felt bad because then my images aren't on Summitpost for mix-n-match inclusion in Mountain, Area or Route pages by other authors.
So I hunkered down and came up with this tool. My hope is that it will encourage people who, like me, started yawning and sneaking away to watch TV when they contemplated the manual work involved in uploading each picture. That is the drudge-work of content creation! Of course you want to do some actual climbing sometimes too!
I'm not affiliated with Summitpost other than being a member. So it's not an official tool. In fact the folks who run the site are a little worried about this thing. They are afraid that if people have this tool they'll get lazy and upload crap "willy-nilly" rather than carefully chosing what pictures are worth sharing with the rest of the world.
So please, continue to exercise care in the number and quality of images you upload. With that good citizenship on display, we will prove the naysayers (who expect that us ordinary users aren't mature enough to handle this tool) wrong!
UPDATE: March, 2010
This article has been around a while, you could say the Bulk Uploader was in "beta test." I want to thank the Elves for their vote of confidence in publishing this article on the front page, especially Bob and Gangolf. No "enemies of progress" they! I really appreciate it.
Lately there were a lot of requests for a Mac version. This recent move from the Elves inspires me to pick up the trowel again and see what I can do.
How to get it
Download the zip file from here. Current Release: 1.0.0.12 - see bugs/features below for new work!
This version should run on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista. I haven't tried it on Windows 98 or Windows ME, please let me know if you try running it there but have trouble. It should work on the new Windows 7 Beta too (again, haven't tried it).
Here are the application files, extracted from SPBulkW.ZIP into a directory on my local hard drive.
Extract the files in the zip file to a directory on your disk. The directory should look like the image above.
Double click on vcredist_x86.exe. This installs a Microsoft-provided library file needed for the application. You only need to do this once on your system.
Double click on SPBulkW.EXE to start the application.
Programs such as Adobe Lightroom can populate these fields in the file as part of your post-processing workflow.
Once you have the files you want to upload, and if you don't have IPTC metadata in your file, you'll need to assign a Title and Description to each one. Select a file, then click on the Title edit box to type in a title. When you navigate to another file, the title will be saved.Control-N and Control-P are handy shortcuts to quickly assign title and description to many files. Note that Summitpost requires you to fill these fields in, so if you have a lot of files these keyboard shortcuts become very handy. After pressing Control-N or Control-P the Title edit box is highlighted, so you can just go ahead and type the title. You can then hit the key to advance to the Description edit box. This one is a multiline edit control, so you can hit the key for a newline.
Filling in Title and Description fields.
Latitude and Longitude
The program currently supports only setting the same latitude and longitude for the complete set of pictures being submitted. Ideally, you would take all the pictures from the same mountain and upload those, then if you want to change the latitude and longitude for some other pictures you will upload those in a different set.
You can click on the underlined text latitude or longitude to cause your browser to open up a summitpost page which allows you to discover the appropriate values for these fields. On this page you can navigate using the usual Google Maps interface to the location you are interested in. Note down the latitude and longitude values, and type them into the fields in the Summitpost Bulk Uploader.
Username and password
If the username and password fields aren't filled out properly with your own Summitpost username and password, then the upload will fail with a message "Unable to login". For example, see the image below where I tried to log in as user "I AM NOT A VALID USER":
The error message when login fails.
Where are images attached?
If you don't enter an object id in the "Attach to..." edit control, then the images will be attached to your user account. If you'd like to attach them elsewhere, then type in the object id of the Mountain page (or any other kind of page) at Summitpost. If you click on the "Attach to..." text, a web browser will open directed to the Summitpost web page. You could then use the "Search" function at the top of that page to discover the object you want to attach your images too. You can find the object ID in the URL of the object, or (easier) it is listed in the header section of the object page.
Note that you have to attach all the images in one upload to the same object. If you have several objects you want to upload and attach images to, do those in separate batches.
What about the image IDs?
By popular request, after an upload, you now get a notepad window with the object IDs of the images you uploaded, along with the titles of the images. They are written in a format suitable for insertion in a Mountain, Area, Route or Trip Report page.
Be patient for a few seconds after the upload completes, and the notepad window will appear. The image below shows an example:
Here are your image ids!
Automatic local saves
The Summitpost Bulk Uploader remembers settings between runs, such as:
the last directory you retrieved files from
the username and password
the latitude and longitude for the picture set
the files currently in your list
the title and description you set for each of those files
This is convenient in case you need to close the application before you have filled in all of your title and description fields. It will be remembered for when you come back.
Have fun, now you are uploading!
MBPost
Now, in the File menu there is a checkbox that can be toggled to allow you to upload to MBPost.com. All of the same features are available.
Bulk Detaching
On the Delete/Detach panel, enter the search query you want to use to find images you'd like to detach. Multi-select those images and click the "Detach" button. Don't worry, you'll only be able to detach images if you have the appropriate permissions.
Special authorization topics
In order to prevent the tool from being mis-used, I've added a few authorization features. When you log in, a page on the Summitpost server is checked to verify that your name is not on a "baddie" list. If it is, your login will be denied. Note, that it may be that you can still log on to Summitpost manually, it's just that you are being denied the bulk upload tool. This list can be edited by me personally and the Elves. A letter to the Elves is the right recourse if you find yourself on the list unwittingly. Just upload pictures for your Mountains, Trip Reports, etc., and you'll stay on the right side of the "law!"
Another feature is to protect against bugs in the tool itself: a mandatory upgrade checker. A page on the Summitpost server is checked to verify that your version of the software is at least the minimum supported version. If it is not, then login/upload will fail with a message asking you to come to this page and download the latest version of the tool.
Finally, the tool makes sure to log in again every 5 minutes and check those features above. This prevents a situation where your tool lives as a process on your machine for weeks, and you keep using that old version at harm to yourself or others.
Bulk Delete Feature
By popular demand of our site protectors, The Elves, I have added a "Bulk Delete" feature. At this time, it is exclusively for their use. To view the Bulk Delete screen you need to know a secret password. So for now, unless you are an Elf, skip over this section as this aspect of the tool isn't useful for you.
To use the Bulk Deleter, click on the Bulk Deleter tab just below the menu in the tool. The screen below shows how you'll be prompted for a special password to view the Bulk Deleter:
Trying to access the Bulk Deleter
By default the Search edit box is populated with the URL for the most recent new images. Press the Search button, and the list control will populate with information on the most recent photos on the site in a tabular format.
As an elf, you can select the pictures in this list that you want to delete, then press the Delete button and it will be done right away. As a normal user, the only deletes that will succeed will be those on images that you yourself own.
The Status column in the list box will be updated to indicate if the object was deleted or not. Just to repeat, the tool doesn't give you any special capabilities at all: you can only delete what you own unless you are an Elf. The password protection for entering this screen is merely an extra precaution. I think that password should be removed eventually, but for now the feature is in testing phase for the Elves in particular.
Below is a more interesting example. I've searched for the least popular images with the text "Mont Blanc" on the web site. I then take the URL from the first results page, and paste it into the Search text box, like so:
Using the Bulk Deleter
I select some of these images with the mouse (control and shift-clicking are used to make multiple selections). I pressed Delete, and got the following results:
Delete results
Obviously, because I am not an Elf I was unable to delete these images. I hope the Elves will not get carried away with this feature! ;-)Important note: At this time (version 1.0.0.4), you can only paste in URLs from image searches on the site. The list format for searches is not parse-able yet by the tool. For now that is okay, because what the Elves usually need to delete in bulk are images.
Pledge of Authenticity and Security
I give my word.
I, user mvs on Summitpost.org, pledge that I am not collecting any data from your use of this tool. Everything that the tool does is 100% public and documented here on this page. My own private web server is used to host the binary distribution of the tool, but that is all.
Known issues
Issue Number
Description
Status
Issue #1:
If you downloaded before 5:00 PM PST on February 11, 2009, then you should download the zip file again. I needed to include the file vcredist_x86.exe because most machines don't have the necessary libraries to run the application. Install steps were altered accordingly on this page at 5:03 PM PST on the same day.
Fixed in version 1.0.0.0
Issue #2:
Any kind of file can be added to the file list, but only JPEG files should be available.
Fixed in version 1.0.0.1
Issue #3:
Vertically oriented images display incorrectly in the preview window.
Issue #4:
The title and description fields should be grayed out when nothing is selected, otherwise you might think you set a title for an image but you didn't.
Fixed in version 1.0.0.1
Issue #5:
Duplicate pictures can be inserted in the file list.
Fixed in version 1.0.0.1
Issue #6:
The static text "images to upload" should be left-justified.
Fixed in version 1.0.0.1
Issue #7:
To make the "remove selected files" button more useful, you ought to be able to select multiple images.
Issue #8:
You shouldn't be able to press the Submit button without at least one image in the list. It should be grayed out.
Fixed in version 1.0.0.1
Issue #9:
If a field is not valid, please tell me which field is invalid, like username, or title. Don't just say "a field is invalid." And don't use the word "aborting," sounds too serious.
Issue #10:
The hotkeys don't work properly. There are duplicate hotkeys for the two remove items buttons. Also -A doesn't work for the add files button unless it's a capital letter A.
Issue #11:
The latitude and longitude hyperlinks are confusing if you are not logged in to a browser session on summitpost. You will be taken to a summitpost login page. Maybe link to a public web site with a map and latitude and longitude? That doesn't require a login?
Issue #12:
If you are uploading one image, then cancel button obviously doesn't work. The image will be uploaded. (The cancel button is only checked between image uploads)
Issue #13:
If you change the username or password it will be ignored on future submits. In fact the system is trying to be efficient and not log in again. But what if you now need to log in as a different user.
Fixed in version 1.0.0.1
Issue #14:
In communication with the server, SPBulkW should identify itself as a particular kind of UserAgent (rather than mimicking an agent like IE or Firefox), that gives the site owner flexibility in authorizing user A to bulk upload but not user B based on as-yet-to-be determined criteria should the desire or need arise. It also makes it easy to determine from logs exactly what percentage of photo uploads are done with the tool.
Fixed in version 1.0.0.2
Issue #15:
Enlarging the application should allow enlarging the description zone only and not all text fields on 1 line
Issue #16:
From Bob Sihler: I can't type the character "2"! That is weird!
Fixed in version 1.0.0.5
Issue #17:
From Selinunte01: Special characters like ü, ö, etc. can't be processed.
Fixed in version 1.0.0.8
Issue #18:
The uploader reports that "some files could not be uploaded" even though they were. This is annoying, can you fix it?
Fixed in version 1.0.0.10
Issue #19:
Gangolf reports unexpected crashes.
Issue #20:
Josh Lewis reports that files could not be uploaded. Actually this was a general problem that should probably prevent everyone from uploading.
Fixed in version 1.0.0.12
Version history
This records the bugs fixed in each release. In the future I'll provide links to old versions when it's appropriate. If you go to the "Help" menu and choose the "About" menu item you can see the version number of your installed copy.
To upgrade to a newer version just copy the new files over the old ones. There is no need to re-run the vcredist_x86.exe setup program.
Version Number
Date
Description
Version 1.0.0.0
Wednesday, Feb 11, 2009
First release!
Version 1.0.0.1
Thursday, Feb 12, 2009. (at 12:07 AM German time)
6 bug fixes, 1 feature
Version 1.0.0.2
Friday, Feb 13, 2009. (at 2:20 AM German time)
1 bug fix
Version 1.0.0.3
Saturday, Feb 14, 2009.
2 new features
Version 1.0.0.4
Wednesday, Feb 18, 2009.
4 new features
Version 1.0.0.5
Friday, Feb 20, 2009.
1 bug fix
Version 1.0.0.6
Sunday, Nov 15, 2009.
1 feature added, development restarted
Version 1.0.0.7
Sunday, Nov 15, 2009.
1 feature added
Version 1.0.0.8
Tuesday, Nov 17, 2009.
UNICODE support added (characters like ü, ö now work)
Version 1.0.0.9
Thursday, Nov 19, 2009.
IPTC metadata is read from the JPEG file to auto fill title and description
Version 1.0.0.10
Wednesday, Dec 3, 2009.
Bug fix for the annoying Issue #18
Version 1.0.0.11
Monday, October 4, 2010..
Bug fix for a server format change that broke upload ability.
Version 1.0.0.12
Saturday, January 15, 2011..
Bug fix for a server format change that broke upload ability. (Thanks to Josh Lewis for pointing it out!)
Feature suggestions
Here I'll keep track of feature ideas. They might come from my febrile (I mean fertile!) brain, from PMs or email to me, from the comments in this page, or from a forum post. The list is not in a prioritized order.
Feature Number
Description
Status
Feature 1
How about extracting title/description metadata from the JPEG file? Applications like Picasa, LightRoom and others allow you to embed this data. Summitpost Bulk Uploader could just read that.
Added in version 1.0.0.9
Feature 2
How about getting the files from a Flickr Set instead of your local hard drive?
Not Implemented
Feature 3
How about allowing the user to choose what page they want to attach the pictures to?
Added in version 1.0.0.1
Feature 4
From sjarelkwint: How about automatic image resizing before upload to make the images smaller? It takes longer than I'd like to upload the originals.
Not Implemented.
Feature 5
From sjarelkwint: How about being able to re-order the images in the list?
Not Implemented.
Feature 6
From MoapaPk: After the upload return a list of the picture IDs to make it easier to add them to a Mountain page.
From nartreb: Don't automatically store the user's password between sessions.
Not Implemented.
Feature 9
From my wife: Remove images that were successfully uploaded from the file list.
Added in version 1.0.0.4
Feature 10
Be able to upload to MBPost (mountain bike post) as well...it is essentially the same site.
Added in version 1.0.0.6
Feature 11
To aid in avoiding uploads of duplicate photos, keep track of the last N photos that were uploaded (say N=1000?). If the user adds those photos again to upload, warn them that it looks like they are uploading a duplicate.
Not Implemented.
Feature 12
From FortMental: You should get the rest of the fields on the upload page, like "Image type."
Not Implemented.
Feature 13
From The Elves: In case this is misused, give us a bulk deleter!
Added in version 1.0.0.4
Feature 14
Can "bad users" be denied?
Added in version 1.0.0.4
Feature 15
What if a version of the software has problems, can we force an upgrade?
Added in version 1.0.0.4.
Feature 16
From Gabriele: give me a bulk detacher to quickly remove off-topic photos from my pages!
Added in version 1.0.0.7.
Feature 17
From Gangolf: In case of a crash I lose my caption information. Can you save captions regularly, for example every time I click on a different picture?
Technical details
Language and compiler: The application is written in C++, compiled using Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition.
Libraries used: The GUI is programmed using the wxWidgets cross-platform UI framework. LibCURL provides HTTP functionality. The C++ STL provides strings, collection classes, etc. The C++ CRT library is installed via the vcredist_x86.exe setup program provided by Microsoft. I would prefer to use a static CRT library to avoid this pesky step. Since version 1.0.0.8, the build is Unicode. The Exiv2 library is used to read IPTC/EXIF metadata from the JPEG file.
Porting: Thanks to wxWidgets, there is a minimum of Windows-specific code, and a Mac port is very feasible. Please contact me if you want to help with this. Otherwise it may have to wait a few months.
Other remarks: The application started out as a Python script running on OSX. It worked for me, but I had a very hard time packaging the application for others to use without all the requisite Python libraries (like wxWidgets for Python). I tried using PY2EXE and made a seemingly-decent Windows version with a setup program. But it was very flaky, and I had little control over how I could fix it (Gangolf tried it and it was a real waste of his time!). So I bit the bullet and coded in C++. Despite the many extra lines of code to write, the application feels much more robust.
Open source? I think it would be great to make this an open source project. Let's see if anyone comes out of the woodwork expressing interest in adding features. We could host it on SourceForge.
Feature polls
To discover what people think about things I'm adding a few polls here:
Now I have NO EXCUSES anymore for posting single pictures rather than web pages.... "It takes too much to upload all the stuff" was my favorite ;-) :-D
seriously: thank you so much for your work with this page. I'm gonna try the tool soon. :)
barbara
to the real gruesome work of uploading pics to SP, thank you !! That was the only bit I didn´t like about SP. I always loged in twice to speed up and get more pictures in but it always took hours ...
Great work and thanks again for developing and sharing this tool!!
but I'm not sure this is a good idea. A lot of great picture won't get the attention they deserve because they will get kicked off the "What's New" page to soon.
Good point. I guess it depends on your point of view. For someone thinking about the tedium of uploading 15 pictures for a trip report (that folks will enjoy), it's nice to think that it can be done in a more automated way.
But for someone who regularly trolls the What's New page looking for interesting pictures, maybe, indeed, pictures from a particular mountain or trip will be grouped more closely together. I picture something like:
So I agree with you, within a span of "N" photos on What's New, you are likely to see somewhat reduced diversity of photos.
On the other hand, you may see a "flowering" of new mountains, trip reports, albums, etc. And that alternate type of diversity may be rewarding too.
Obviously, I value the convenience of such a tool over the perceived experience of a fellow looking at the What's New photos section (but that is just me!).
Thanks again for the feedback. Note that at this time, there are only about 20 people who've even tried the tool. It may be that it is more of a hassle for most folks. I'd say that unless more than 30% of active submitters start using this, you won't notice any difference in your existing experience...
I wished they had it for SP years ago. If I overcome my natural caution about downloading new apps, I may even end up using it :) But now it is up to the SP programmers to make good on a bulk detacher / reattacher, so maintainers of popular pages (like Whitney) could finally clean them up / move undesired attached pictures to separate albums.
In terms of missing features, I think it doesn't presently allow one to select a category (such as "Flora" vs. "Skiing") ?
Thank you, I guess! Hopefully with my years of trip reports and contributions I've made myself trustworthy enough that you can believe my tool isn't going to sign you up for spam or install viruses. But I understand your caution.
Anyway, I think I have learned from the experience that there is no stable of "SP programmers" we can count on acting on our feature ideas. We have to do it ourselves if possible. At the same time the Elves are doing their best to protect the integrity of the site, and we should proceed with a certain amount of caution, heeding their advice which is based on rich experience.
You are right, you cannot select category at this time, you just get the default. It's already in the feature request list.
I don't know if it would be too much of a task, but a bulk delete program that we could use for our own galleries would be outstanding. Of course, few would use it, making it perhaps not worth the effort.
I once spent a few hours deleting probably 100+ pictures of mine I came to consider bad or off-topic. There are more pictures I'd like to delete, but the current process is too tedious.
Good feedback, Bob. As you see I have a bulk deleter, but it's only for the elves right now. I'm awaiting feedback from them on this feature. They don't like the bulk uploader, and highly recommend against it, but I'm pushing forward with that anyway. The bulk deleter is a potential tool for them should the worst fears be realized (ie, a sort of terrorist uploading many pictures with the bulk uploader).
If the elves don't want me to release the bulk deleter for public use, I will respect that. Because all you need is the elf username/password, and then you'd be able to delete anything. That is probably too dangerous...that's way that whole software "feature" is protected by yet another password.
So I think you probably won't get a bulk deleter. But I could help you out. If you could put all those pictures into an Album called "UNWANTED" or something like that, I could do it. You'd however, have to give me your password, let me perform the op, then change your password. The only danger is that I might upload kittens in your name :D.
Sorry to wax cautious on exposing that feature, but I do agree that the Elves have a point and I want to be accommodating to their efforts to protect the site.
Howdy! No, 'fraid not. Continued development just isn't a priority, the tool is kind of a "black sheep" unfortunately (if Josh knew about it he'd be upset is one of the arguments I've heard against it). So I'm not working on it anymore.
I didn't use it for a long time, but lately I did and noticed that the tool would report false negatives, complaining that 1-2 pictures in a multi-picture upload weren't uploaded correctly. I don't know the source of the problem yet. But I just want to mention that bug in case you are seeing it. Otherwise, I hope you get good use out of it, despite being on a PC!
Sounds great, but my problem is as the title of my comment. Is there a version of this or something similar that can be used on a Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)?
It seems that the bulk uploader does not like thing as Ä, Ö, Ü in the words; after the upload the text simply stops there (e.g.: a text with "Schönfeldspitze" stops after the "Sch").
It also does not like the french language, the text stops likewise in front of é or è or simply in front of an apostrophe.
Is there any solution (besides writing e.g. "Schoenfeldspitze :-)) ??
Hi, thx for the note. It's not under development right now, so at this point I'd say you just have to work around this (clear) bug by avoiding such characters.
I am thinking about picking it up again though, and have added your note to the bug list on this page...
Hi, I have fixed this problem. Now you can display and type characters like ü, ö, ß, etc. Download version 1.0.0.8 and it should work. Let me know if there is any issue. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Children refers to the set of objects that logically fall under a given object. For example, the
Aconcagua mountain page is a child of the 'Aconcagua Group' and the 'Seven Summits.' The
Aconcagua mountain itself has many routes, photos, and trip reports as children.
Page Type:
1 Custom Objects
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