Download a complete history of georeferenced flickr posts

This is a Python script that can download a complete history of georeferenced flickr photo metadata. It uses the official flickr API, and saves the data into a PostgreSQL/PostGIS database.

The script will download all photos until its starting time, and keep track of already downloaded time periods in a cache file (default location ~/.cache/flickrhistory.yml). Upon restart it will catch up until the new starting time.

Flickrhistory makes use of multiple threads and can use multiple API keys (something that most likely disagrees with flickr’s T&C, use feature at your own risk).

If you use flickrhistory for scientific research, please cite it in your publication:

Fink, C. (2020): flickrhistory: a Python tool to download a complete flickr timeline. doi:10.5281/zenodo.6566196.

Dependencies

The script is written in Python 3 and depends on the Python modules blessed, GeoAlchemy2, psycopg2, PyYaml, Requests and SQLAlchemy.

Installation

pip install flickrhistory

Configuration

Copy the example configuration file flickrhistory.yml.example to a suitable location, depending on your operating system:

• on Linux systems:
  • system-wide configuration: /etc/flickrhistory.yml
  • per-user configuration:
    • ~/.config/flickrhistory.yml OR
    • ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/flickrhistory.yml
• on MacOS systems:
  • per-user configuration:
    • ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/flickrhistory.yml
• on Microsoft Windows systems:
  • per-user configuration: %APPDATA%\flickrhistory.yml

Adapt the configuration:

• Configure a PostgreSQL connection string (connection_string), pointing to an existing database (with the PostGIS extension enabled).
• Configure one or more API access keys to the flickr API flickr_api_keys). Using more than one API key in all likelihood violates the Terms and Conditions of the Flickr API (don’t do it!).

If you have a cache file from a previous installation in which already downloaded time periods are saved, copy it to ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/flickrhistory.yml or %LOCALAPPDATA%/flickrhistory.yml on Linux or MacOS, and Microsoft Windows, respectively.

Usage

Command line executable

python -m flickrhistory

Python

Import the flickrhistory module. Instantiate a FlickrHistoryDownloader, and call its download() method.

import flickrhistory

downloader = flickrhistory.FlickrHistoryDownloader()
downloader.download()