A Chat on the Wonders of iTools
Pages: 1, 2, 3
OReillyMac:iTools is integrated very tightly with Mac OS X
OReillyMac: Apple is serious about this
OReillyMac: and they are walking their talk here
raelitybytes: nice
raelitybytes: so your homepage docs are where?
OReillyMac: In the Sites directory
OReillyMac: and the images are stored in the Pictures directory
OReillyMac: movies in Movies
raelitybytes: I see nothing there... prolly because I've no site set up
OReillyMac: and downloads in the Public directory
OReillyMac: that's it
raelitybytes: v. nice
OReillyMac: Now, let's say you create a Web page from iPhoto
OReillyMac: You're in iPhoto while connected to the net
raelitybytes: And its support of WebDAV allows you to mount the same iDisk on your PC or anywhere that supports DAV, but I'm getting ahead of you here, I think
OReillyMac: You choose a batch of photos and hit the HomePage button
OReillyMac: yeah, we'll get to that too
raelitybytes: I've fiddled with that... although I must admit I just did the export to html and tweaked there, skipping iTools
raelitybytes: go on
OReillyMac: iPhoto will gather all your pictures and create the Web pages and place them in the proper directories
OReillyMac: it will even create the navigation links on the other homepage pages
OReillyMac: it you want to edit
OReillyMac: just go to your Sites folder and open the new page in a text editor, although I recommend that you copy the page to your hard disk, edit it, then upload back to iTools.
OReillyMac:once you have it on your drive, you can just edit away
raelitybytes: nifty!
OReillyMac: full integration
OReillyMac: yes, it's like nothing I've seen before
OReillyMac: between OS, application, and online
raelitybytes: any way to restrict access a la .htaccess?
raelitybytes: that's always been my concern with putting such things online rather than on a Web server I control
OReillyMac: as far as I know, you can restrict acess
OReillyMac: to the site
OReillyMac: but not individual pages
OReillyMac: you can password protect the site tho
OReillyMac: I'd like to protect only the downloads page
raelitybytes: indeed.
OReillyMac: but haven't figured out how yet
raelitybytes: I'd like to have a public and private photo album, the latter for family and friends.
raelitybytes: hmmm... I see a little hacking in my future (the good kind, that is)
OReillyMac: yes!
OReillyMac: I know some folks have more than one site
OReillyMac: one public and one private
OReillyMac: not sure about how Apple feels about that tho
raelitybytes: very nice how it actually puts the pix into Pictures and only the HTML pages into Sites
OReillyMac: yes, it's using the same logic as Mac OS X
raelitybytes: very nice.. I just gave it a whirl
OReillyMac: see, that fast
raelitybytes: indeed.
OReillyMac: I have stuff posted galleries for clients before they leave my studio
OReillyMac: iPhoto --> homepage ...
OReillyMac: Boom!
OReillyMac: The QuickTime is nice too
raelitybytes: I love the fact that browsing the page brings up a mac-specific control if you're on a mac to view the pictures
OReillyMac: yeah
raelitybytes: heh... actually it's just HTML, but damn good looking
raelitybytes: I was fooled for just a moment there
OReillyMac: the code isn't bad at all
raelitybytes: so what of the other tools? @mac.com email, ...
OReillyMac: better than I expected
OReillyMac: email of course
OReillyMac: which is good
OReillyMac: I want to mention iCards real fast
OReillyMac: you can make your own iCards from the images you have in your Pictures directory
OReillyMac: It's fast and easy
OReillyMac: and can really make someone's day
raelitybytes: fab! I have used iCards, but didn't delve from the make-your-own aspect
OReillyMac: yeah
OReillyMac: it's good
raelitybytes: see that's the interesting bit...
OReillyMac: so you can send grandma
OReillyMac: a picture of granddaughter
OReillyMac: boom, just like that
OReillyMac: but with a nice presentation
raelitybytes: I'm a HUGE Mac user and dig into every corner I can, yet iTools just didn't strike me as more than a throw-away...
raelitybytes: a real pity
OReillyMac: well, it's gotten better
OReillyMac: and what we see today is an evolution
OReillyMac: resulting from a big effort by Apple
raelitybytes: no, I mean that even today, while very very good, I didn't delve in until you mentioned it
OReillyMac: Ahhhh
raelitybytes: what's your impression of the uptake by new/old Mac users?
OReillyMac: I think it's overlooked by many, yet ...
OReillyMac: lot of guys posting scripts, plug-ins, and little Cocoa apps
OReillyMac: are posting them on their mac.com sites
OReillyMac: so in the Dev community I think the tools are being used
raelitybytes: indeed, I keep ending up there
OReillyMac: yeah, more and more when I go grab a cool new tool
raelitybytes: but interestingly enough (and this may just be me) I didn't think of putting blosxom, both download and homepage, there
OReillyMac: I'm at someone's download page
OReillyMac: you should!
OReillyMac: you've got 20 megs
raelitybytes: I guess I'm "blessed" with enough Web servers to not need anywhere else to maintain
OReillyMac: blosxom is only 51 lines!
OReillyMac: got me there
raelitybytes: but this is great for those who perhaps don't want to maintain a whole website and server and domain just to put a nifty hack
OReillyMac: I just mooch off other's servers
