Flickr Api - trouble return Date objects

[red_beardo]

Hi,

I am very new to Java, so I'm fairly sure that my problem is a language and procedural one as opposed to anything to do with the flickrJ API. I am fairly sure that my issue is a casting one, although again I'm not sure of that.

I am able to post code but again I'm not sure what parts of it are relevant so I thought that I might explain my problem with a bit of pseudo code!

so in the FlickrJ package the Photo class has a number of methods to get information about the photo. I have basically been following the tutorial written for processing (the Java based artists/designers coding software), but developing in Eclipse. I have successfully implemented the getSmallUrl() method after completing a search and have displayed those photos using Processings pApplet.

	try{
    			//we are looking for n photots starting at page 0
    			PhotoList list = photos.search(sp,n,0);
    			//Grab all the image paths and store them in a string array
    			String[] smallURLS = new String[list.size()];
    			for(int i=0; i <list.size(); i++){
        			//we can get a lot more info from a photo than just its URL path
    				//we need to create an object to store each photo and ALL of its info in.
    				Photo p = (Photo)list.get(i);
    				smallURLS[i] = p.getSmallUrl();




    			}
    			return smallURLS;
    			
    			}catch (IOException e) {
    				e.printStackTrace();
    			} catch (SAXException e) {
    				e.printStackTrace();
    			} catch (FlickrException e) {
    				e.printStackTrace();
    			}
    			return null;
 
    }

The above code works fine.

so my understanding was that i could call the method getDateAdded(), from my photo object p and receive the date in the form Java.Util.Date.

(from the documentation)
getDateAdded

public java.util.Date getDateAdded()
-------------------

But when i enter

	System.out.println((Date) p.getDatePosted());

after I created the p photo object - a recieve a null reply


I have looked on the flickr API, and as far as I can tell every upload is time stamped so I don't think that null is an appropriate response, or am I missing something.


Any help, or suggestions where I might go to solve my problem are much appreciated. I am teaching myself to code and although I am thoroughly enjoying it, its difficult going by yourself, so I appreciate all the help I can get.

Cheers
Tim

[Tolls]

getDateAdded()...getDatePosted()?
Which is it?

[red_beardo]

Hey,

Thanks for the reply. Its getDateAdded(), I mistyped although both methods should return a Date object, and I am getting a null response for both of them.

(I tried getPostAdded() just now for interests sake)

I seem to be doing something wrong.

[Tolls]

And you're not getting any exceptions?
But you are getting the URLs?

[red_beardo]

Hey,

Yeah no other errors. and I'm getting the URL's to display the photos fine, and they are being displayed.

After much deliberation, I have a feeling that the getDate methods have been created, but not completely filled out with code - is that possible?

The reason why I think this is because I found a guy who had a similar problem on the Flickr forums. No one replied to his questions, but it made me think that it may not just have been me.

Also I tried a number of other properties of the photos. get size, get user, etc. Some worked, but a lot didn't. So I have a feeling the class hasn't been fleshed out completely.

The weird thing is I'm pretty certain that when I use date information as search criteria - ie only photos in the last day. That information is parsed and used correctly.

--
I just thought of this, is there a way to look into the FlickrJ library itself to find out if this hunch is correct?


Thanks for your efforts

[Tolls]

No idea, never used it.
Do they supply source files with it?