ofoto express

Hack No More

A few weeks ago I posted that many of you were having problems loging in with Ofoto Express and unable to upload to Kodak Gallery. So I included a hack workaround to get it working. We've just fixed the problem on our side and you need hack no more. Our apologies for the inconvenience. Happy uploading!

Sean Malone

Upcoming features

We're working on a small set of enhancements to Ofoto Express. A lot of people have offered up great suggestions on what we should add to our next version. Some of which are captured here in comments, but mostly in email to our customer service folks.

One of the new features we're going to add is a down-res capability. These cameras with big MegaPixels... lots of pixels are great when you need to crop in tight or are printing out really large posters, but all those pixels make for large image files, and thus long upload times.

Many Gallery members often want to upload images just large enough to share and print up to 5x7 or 8x10 or whatever. So, with this new feature, Ofoto Express will be able to, on-the-fly, resize the images you've decided to upload to a size you've specified. You'll be able to change to a larger or smaller size, or back to original size images at any time. But for those times when you get back from a particularly scenic vacation or a big family event and have CF or SD cards loaded with images ready for Gallery upload, you'll be able to reduce that upload time significantly.

There are a few more features coming which I'll talk about later. Let us know about that one feature you'd just love to have - in case we've got time to fit it in.

Hacking Ofoto Express

Hey OE users...

I'm afraid we broke something in a recent site release that is preventing some users from signing in and uploading with Ofoto Express. The symptom is typically a spinning beach ball of death.

There is a hack-fix if you're so inclined.

1. Control-click the application icon (not the icon in the doc, the actual application icon in the finder)

2. Select "Show Package Contents"

3. Open the contents folder > Resources

4. Find and open (with a text editor like BBEdit) the file named: ofotoDefaults.plist

5. Find the section that looks like this:
        <key>ofoto_commercialSite</key>
        <dict>
            <key>ofoto_ConfigServer</key>
            <string>http://www.ofoto.com</string>
            <key>ofoto_LoginServer</key>
            <string>http://www.ofoto.com</string>
            <key>ofoto_QueryServer</key>
            <string>http://www.ofoto.com</string>
            <key>ofoto_UploadServer</key>
            <string>http://macuploads.ofoto.com</string>
        </dict>

6. Change both the LoginServer and QueryServer to this:
            <string>http://xmi.kodakgallery.com</string>

7. Save

8. Launch Ofoto Express and bingo... should work.

Sorry for the inconvenience. We're hoping to have it fixed soon for those of you who don't want to make these changes.

Let us know if this doesn't work for you.

Sean
- Product Management guy from Kodak Gallery.

Updated v1.0

A new v1.0 build was released today that fixes a memory leak. Once you launch Ofoto Express it will automatically prompt you to download the new application if you're connected to the internet.

Ofoto Express Goes Final!

Please visit Ofoto's downloads page to get the final version of Ofoto Express for Mac.

Thanks to everyone who provided feedback!

New version available. Download now!

Download Brownie Beta 2
(download the newer final version from the link on the right side of your screen)
Now called Ofoto Express.

This version of Brownie fixes known issues # 1, 3, 5 and 6 below and others found by testers like you! Thank you for all your help. We'll be posting a final version on the Ofoto.com website soon.

Ofoto Product Management Team

Known issues so far - May 17

Here are the issues that we are working on fixing right now:

1. Rotate function: after the user clicks "rotate", there is no UI feedback letting them know that the application is executing that command. That can lead to the user clicking "rotate" again, thus interfering with their original "rotate" command. FIX: don't accept new "rotate" commands until current command is completed.

2. Brownie doesn't recognize new albums: When user has both Brownie and iPhoto open, a new album created with iPhoto won't be recognized by Brownie until you close and then restart the Brownie application.

3. Unable to access Brownie after closing by clicking the "X": When the user closes the Brownie window by clicking on the X, there is no way to pull it up again without restarting.

4. Unable to add photo titles inside the Brownie application: It would be nice if the user could add names to their photos once the photos are inside Brownie's "Drop Zone."

5. If Brownie started offline, the "Specials" drawer doesn't load assets when the app connects later: If the user begins using Brownie and is not connected to the Internet, then later does connect to the Internet, the "Specials" drawer will remain empty. FIX: hardcode the coupon in the drawer, and send an http request upon Internet connection.

6. Optimize thumbnails: Currently Brownie renders its own thumbnails: would probably be faster to re-use iPhoto's thumbnails.

Welcome, Beta Testers!

Welcome to the Ofoto Brownie blog! Brownie is the codename for the Ofoto photo uploading application for the Macintosh platform. Here, the Brownie team will post messages on a variety of topics related to this beta test, and you may comment on the posts. You may also email us at mac_beta@ofoto.com. We appreciate your help!

Special Characters Issue Fixed

Hi all...quick update.

I have fixed the issue with using special characters in the album title and description.

These fixes will be incorporated into a future Brownie release.

--jeff