prodissues

Here's a cool little workflow that I use to automate the usage of images in my posts¹

The flow

Move the image I would like to use to my black-hole folder
When a new file is added to the folder, or existing file is modified, a Hazel is triggered
This Hazel rule fires up a python script
The python script:
- Pushes updates to my Amazon S3
- Returns a link to the uploaded file
- Place the link in the clipboard
- Add a log entry that includes the timestemp and the link to that file

The Porcelain

Here's how the flow in action:

The Plumbing

And here are the ingredients in more detail:

The Hazel rule

Figure 1: Note that I rename the filename, such that spaces replaced by _. Otherwise the upload to S3 doesn't work

The python script

#+BLOG: yanivgilad
#+POSTID: 57
#+DATE: [2016-01-19 Tue 20:42]
# Source: https://github.com/yanivdll/python-scripts/blob/master/s3_upload.py
# This script upload files (at the moment images and slideshows) to S3. 
#
# Credits:
# This script is inspired by macdrifter script, which can be found at:
# http://www.macdrifter.com/2012/05/upload-to-amazon-s3-from-dropbox-using-hazel.html

import boto
from boto.s3.connection import S3Connection
import pyperclip
import os
import sys
from datetime import date, datetime

# This is how Hazel passes in the file path
hazelFilePath = sys.argv[1]
contentType = sys.argv[2]

# This is where I store my log file for these links. It's a Dropbox file in my NVAlt notes folder
logFilePath = "~/Dropbox/Notes/Linkin_Logs.txt"
nowTime = str(datetime.now())


# This is the method that does all of the uploading and writing to the log file.
# The method is generic enough to work with any S3 bucket that is passed.
def uploadToS3(localFilePath, localFileType, S3Bucket):
    fileName = os.path.basename(localFilePath)

    # Determine the current month and year to create the upload path
    today = date.today()
    datePath = today.strftime("/%Y/%m/")

    # Connect to S3
    s3 = boto.connect_s3()
    bucket = s3.get_bucket(S3Bucket)

    # Set the folder name based on the content type image\slideshow
    if localFileType == 'slideshow':
        key = bucket.new_key('slideshows/' + fileName)
    else:
        key = bucket.new_key('images' + datePath + fileName)

    # Upload file to S3
    key.set_contents_from_filename(localFilePath)
    key.set_acl('public-read')

    # Log the url of the hosted file
    logfile = open(logFilePath, "a")

    # Create the URL for the image
    imageLink = 'http://' + S3Bucket + '/' + key.name

    try:
        # encode the file name and append the URL to the log file
        logfile.write(nowTime+'  '+imageLink+'\n')
        pyperclip.copy(imageLink)
    finally:
        logfile.close()

# The body of the script.
uploadToS3(hazelFilePath, contentType,'media.prodissues.com')

Few remarks about boto

If you're new to boto, a python interface to Amazon AWS, read through this tutorial.
Boto's credentials file lives in ~/.boto file. However, I found that when not running the s3_upload.py from a python environment such as IDLE, but from a terminal, the credential file that is being used is the ~/.aws/credentials file. So I just made sure that my AWS credentials exist in both files.
Since my bucket has dots in it (media.prodissues.com) I had to define the S3 bucket format² explicitly:

[default]
aws_access_key_id = [my_aws_access_key]
aws_secret_access_key = [my_aws_secret_access_key]

[s3]
calling_format = boto.s3.connection.OrdinaryCallingFormat

The log file

Screen_Shot_2016-01-19_at_15.18.16.png

Summary

Setting this workflow might look more intimidating than it really is. But even if it is, the gratifing feeling of throwing a file into a folder and getting a live link in exchange is totally worth it.

Heavily inspiered by Macdrifter's "Upload to Amazon S3 from Dropbox using Hazel" ↩
See this thread for more details: https://github.com/boto/boto/issues/2836 ↩

Uploading Images To Amazon S3

Tue 19 January 2016 by yaniv