The Flickr.NET library made it pretty easy to add Flickr Support.

The first is that if you are trying to work with Metadata in a thread instead of the main application you have to set the apartment state to STA Thread. Since the image class uses graphics code, it likes to be in this type of thread. Not sure way, but when you add this line: Thread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);your life will be easier. There is more information available here.

The other gotcha pops up when you are trying to add new metadata to a file. The metadata for a photo is stored right in the file, usually in the front. Often times there isn’t any extra space between the metadata and the start of the file, so you need to create some white space for the new data you want to add. There is a good method for doing that here.

The two stupid little things took me way to long to figure out. Problem solving is half the fun of programming though!

v1.0.1.0

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- Fixed ISO, All Photos, Photo Set, Rating in selection list
- Removing a directory does not remove subdirectories
- Folder List in the import folder does not update after folder are added or removed
- Fixed sorting by rating
- Fixed SmartSet Filters

In order to map LINQ to you SQL based DB, you can use either Linq to SQL (L2SQL) or Entity Framework (EF). Linq to SQL gives you more of a direct mapping, where the different SQL column names are used directly in your queries. With EF you get to abstract your DB in a data layer. This, in theory, should make it easier to change the db without having to redo your program.

Both of these solutions are good solutions. The only problem is that not all of their features work with SQL Server Compact Edition (SQLCE). I am using SQLCE because I need a light weight DB technology to store and sort all the information about the photos in TagFlo. My decsion to use EF instead of L2SQL was based upon how much better it worked with SQLCE.

Here is a run down of the trouble each has working with SQLCE:

Entity Framework

• Auto-generated keys for Identity columns are not support. That means that you are on the hook to provide unique indentifers. You can extend your Entities to handle this.

Linq to SQL

• Does not automatically support Many-to-many relationships; which I have a few of in TagFlo.

The source code is all available at tagflo.codeplex.com. Give it a look and leave me a message if you want. If you find any bugs, leave them in the issue tracker.