Just placing the Picasa 3 Portable beta where it belongs. I inadvertently ended-up starting an unrelated thread under Lazarus Portable. (sorry Mods, I won't make it a habit.)
So here we go... Picasa 3 Portable Beta can be downloaded from...
http://www.eightminds.com/archives/24
Picasa is a closed-sourse application by Google then manages, organizes and allows you to edit images on your PC in digital albums.
To use Picasa with/within PortableApps, you must download Picasa 3 separately, install it, then execute the Portable Application Launcher linked-to above. This second step is needed because of licensing restrictions on the distribution of Googles' program.
Although the application launches and runs, the following issue exists: Photo folder paths and settings arent kept when moving from machine to machine. I know the cause and am actively working to release a fixed version. If you'd like to test it anyway and see if other bugs exist, feel free to download.
[Launcher added to topic title by mod Tim]
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So, what's happening? A reliably portable Picasa would be a wonderful thing. But it does need to be able to sense the different drive assignments to really be useful. Though I guess I could cobble together a batch file to handle it. Hmmmm.
Apologies for the delay. I will resume work on this project within another day to two. My other project (Lazarus Portable) has taken alot of my time but I'll be free to put 100% of my efforts on Picasa shortly.
Juan A Melendez
Hey Jammiii
Thanks for the update. Also with regards to Lazarus I can see how its a bigger priority and will greatly contribute to future PortableApps.com development. So thanks for taking on Picasa as a side project while you finished Lazarus. Look forward to your next release
PortableApps.com Advocate
Horusofoz,
Just want to say thanks for the moral support. It goes a long way.
Juan A Melendez
I don't even grasp what Lazarus is but I accede to its greater importance. I just wanted to make sure that someone was expressing interest in Picasa. Pant, pant, drool, drool.
Question for when you have time. Given a regular picasa installation, will the portable version be able to automatically pick up and incorporate the existing captions, albums, etc. Or will everything have to be reindexed? Not a total disaster since that happens everytime Picasa corrupts anyhow.
Thanks for your work.
Yes, the goal is always to get the application operating consistently as though it were operating under a "standard" installation.
Juan A Melendez
Me too
Mmm yes please!!
Having not looked at the beta forum in a while and not searched for Picasa, I did not know anyone was already working on this. I came today and planned on searching for Picasa after catching up on the forums. So happy to see I didn't have to search. Hope all goes well with the work on it. I'll download and test it when I get home.
It won't be much longer before I can resume work on Picasa Portable. (a few more days)
I'm excited too.
Juan A Melendez
Just dropping a note to let you know there's still plenty of interest in Picasa Portable
Take care and love your work
PortableApps.com Advocate
Hi horusofoz!
Yes, I haven't forgotten. My other project is calm right now while testing resumes. I'll see how far I can get on this in the meantime.
Thanks!
Juan A Melendez
Hey Jammiii
Just noticed that after accessing the collage feature in Picasa It left a folder in the My Pictures folder. Can't wait to try the next version
PortableApps.com Advocate
Thanks for that information horusofoz. I will look into it.
Juan A Melendez
I am interested in this portable app. Will there be an update soon?
I have been away on short vacation. I'm back now and hope to update this application very soon.
Juan A Melendez
Any News on this jammiii?
PortableApps.com Advocate
Hey there horusofoz!!!
My laptop ended-up with some water-damage...
I'm shopping for a new one and hope to have myself square-away my this weekend. Fortunately, I am a habitual backup addict and have not lost any of my work. Apologies for responding late.
Juan A Melendez
Well not your laptop being messed up but that your still active and planning no developing this
Good luck in finding a replacement and I look forward to trying out Picasa Portable
PortableApps.com Advocate
I'm looking forward to this getting updated as well, Juan. It's working great for me.
If it has died or being postponed significantly, I'd just like to know.
Apologies. Got a new computer a few days ago. (finally) I will post updates very-soon. I have to re-install ALOT of software. Long story.
Juan A Melendez
Once your up and running can I suggest you have a look at the latest 0.91 installer/launcher and Chris's PortableApps.com Launcher Test. Both introduce some significant innovations since you were last here and should make the task of creating a portable Picasa and Lazarus less intensive.
Once again good to have you back.
PortableApps.com Advocate
Thanks for the heads up.
Juan A Melendez
Welcome back
PortableApps.com Advocate
I'm having difficulty locating the version of Chris' application. Could you guide me here? Thanks.
Juan A Melendez
Here you go
Also worth noting the current official PAF Live Installer function works pretty good.
PortableApps.com Advocate
Just though I should post the bugs I recall from memory. The app has some function whereby on its first run it asks to scan folders. If this could be avoided would be great but guessing that won't work. However would be good if the launcher was coded to redirect the scan to the portable device and make whatever drive letter changes are required when needed. Probably reg keys associated with this which tells Picasa if the app has been run before and if so where stuff is stored. Not sure but that'd be my guess.
PortableApps.com Advocate
hHey how can I get a really protable Picasa 3,what I mean is portable picasa with library function on HDD or pendrive and anything like portable picture library some sort of like that feature(Ireallly hope some1 could make this)
Hello,
I was having some problems when I lanuched the Picasa from the Menu, but I found out why. In the App/AppInfo/appinfo.ini, the Executable file is Picasa3Portable.exe, but in the main folder, the program creates Picasa3.exe, so if you want to fix it, just rename the exe to Picasa3Portable.exe and you'll get it working
Seems safe to say jammiii isn't able to develop Picasa Portable any more so I wanted to re-up this. Hopefully with the new launcher this shouldn't be too hard to develop.
Thanks to whoever picks it up
PortableApps.com Advocate
Do you still have the original installer? I would like to see it's layout before I would be willing to re-invent the wheel so to speak.
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
No go sorry
PortableApps.com Advocate
NP I working on it it looks doable (maybe
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
Well I got it half right, I can get the installer to download the file just can not sem to ge tit to execute. This would be so much easier if it was a zip file..lol. I have also written to Google sort of and YES I Know I won't get an answer to see if I can get permission to actually repackage it inst3ead of just making an installer....
Anyone know how I can get a code written to execute an exe file from an installer.ini?
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
Worst case, for the installer, you could state that the app had to be installed on the local PC, temporarily, and copy it from there.
I'm more interested to know how you're going to approach the actual portablizing in this one.
One thing that was never addressed in the first version of this was handling the user data stored in APPDATA. As far as I recall, there was no easy way found to divert the data store to be on the flash drive itself, and given the sheer size of the data store (the Picasa metadata for my photo archive is almost 1GB in size) it won't be generally feasible to move it back and forth on each run. (I don't fancy waiting 20 minutes for the app to close each time).
First I am trying to get it to install directly to the disk then I can worry about the AppData issue as I have said before this is truly my first instance of NSIS code writing, I have been getting some help from people and trying to muddle through it, I promise this though it won't happen over night. BUt no one else was trying so I figured what the heck I give it my best shot.
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
Anyone looking for an opportunity to test the new PortableApps.com Launcher or their own developing abilities, this is the challenge.
I have tested several attempts of Picasa Portable from several different websites and sp far not one has been successful. Either they are outright fails that simply don't start or they have portability issues such as no drive letter changing or personal data left behind.
The closest success so far comes from the Portable[Ware]Z site which cannot be linked to from this site for legal reasons. However even that attempt fails with personal data last time I tried.
If you can do it, well I tip my hat to you
PortableApps.com Advocate
I tried for 2 weeks
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
I look forward to testing
PortableApps.com Advocate
Picasa does an amazing job as a image manager, and I store my art collection on a Portable Hard Drive. Having the portable software to go with it would be amazing. Thank you, good sir!
-Whistle
I've tried - unsuccessfully - to find ways to safely redirect where Picasa stores its data, but the only way I could see to handle it would have been to copy it in and out of
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Picasa2
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Picasa2Albums
The Picasa2Albums one is tiny, only a few kb in size, but the main one gets.... unfeasibly large to copy around. The fodler on this PC, which just has the index of the photos on my flash drive is currently 770MB, and three quarters of a gigabyte of copying adds an, in my opinion, unacceptable delay to the startup and the shutdown of the app, when a flash drive is the target.
I had a look at this and Jimbo is right. I can keep the system clean and update the drive letter as Horusofoz requested but there's no way to redirect the database. Unless you are happy to move that amount of data but I assume not. Apologies if I got anyone's hopes up
I did some googling and came across this. It's titled, Solution to using one picasa database for several PC's in a network . It does go beyond me at a certain point but from what I did understand it sounds like it can be made to fit our purposes.
PortableApps.com Advocate
Yeah, I saw that. It uses junctions (NTFS only + Don't Do That) and requires .NET anyway.
It's a real pity. As you would have seen there is a lot demand on the Google 'forums'(?) for Picasa Portable but no one from Google has responded to any request.
Oh well. I guess the challenge remains open to other PA.com Aces in the future
PortableApps.com Advocate
tstites may be on to something with his suggestion there.
I know that the PApps launchers don't play well with NTFS junction points that they aren't expecting, such as when people get creative on their drives, but.. what about...
if the launcher backed up any local folders called Picasa2 or Picasa2Albums, then created junction points in the LocalAppData/Google folder pointing to the physical locations on :/PortableApps/PicasaPortable/Data/
That way, while it was running, picasa would think that it was working in LocalAppData, but the datastore would actually stay on the drive.
Then, once it was finished, the launcher would simply have to delete the junction points, and put the backed up folders (if any) back in place.
Of course, it means that it would only work on systems where the user profile drive (usually C:\) was NTFS, but that's pretty much anything from Win2000 upwards, by default, so it shouldn't be too big a disaster - launcher might have to check and give a meaningful message though.
Which leaves the big question : Can NSIS create a junction point?
Junction points are messy and have a pretty buggy implementation in 2000/XP/2003. They got a bit better in Vista/7, but I wouldn't trust them for anything important.
The only time we'd run into an issue is if someone creates a junction point somewhere inside their APPDATA directory, which is VERY unlikely (not to mention an exceedingly bad idea).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Way outta my league here, but is it possible to let it create the location on C:, if not already there, but have the appdata as a virtual or mapped drive back to the USB drive? When you close the Picasa program it would then undo that virtual link/map as part of cleanup? In my crazy idea here, if Picasa was already installed on that computer, this would avoid messing up the appdata that is already there. Sorry, I have no idea how to do this, just a crazy thought.
The domain´s link is for sale. No files
this would be great. there is the need for a simple photo viewer and editor in one for ages here in portable apps, gimp is great but way to complex for the average user to be bothered with.
please let us all know when google has officially given permission for this app.
An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
MickeyJ4J
Does it work at all in Windows 7 64bit? Also the download link somehow seems to be defunct... if anyone has a mirror I'd be grateful!
I really miss Picasa's face recognition when I go portable.
Yes, I was playing with it today and it's really cool.
is broken. That domain us just a placeholder now.
Chris Crowley