Hello,
A plugin for iPhoto to enable upload directly from iPhoto would be fantastic. It would persuade Mac users to use zenphoto...

I am Mac user and I don't even use iPhoto...:-) If you can and want to make one, that is welcome. I simply do not have the knowledge for that.

Hi.
I've just started thinking about lerning Cocoa, and as a first project I was thinking about making a plugin for iPhoto.
I can't say when it will be finished because im still learning the stuff, but it will be here some day

Try to make it not just only for the latest version, not everybody updates those programs all the time...:-)

That sounds like an awesome idea! Good luck.

Here is a simple scheme to upload files from directly within iPhoto. It uses OSX's ability to mount a remote server, as well as ZenPhoto's simple album creation method.

First, connect to your remote server using the "Connect to Server" function from Finder's "Go" menu. Several flavors of connection are supported in OSX, but perhaps FTP will be most common for shared hosting servers. If you want/need a secure SFTP connection, you have to use other means than "Connect to Server". I have found MacFUSE to be very effective. Google "MacFUSE" to learn how to use it. The key point is that you want a server which is navigable by Finder (as opposed to a stand-alone FTP application).

Second, simply use iPhoto's ready-to-go "Export" function to send files to your remote server, using the usual OSX directory navigation dialog when you execute the "Export" command from iPhoto's "File" menu. You can resize photos, etc. at this step.

If you want to create a new album for your uploaded photos, simply create a new folder in step 2 somewhere in your ZenPhoto album structure (e.g., in the "Albums" folder or a sub-folder therein). ZenPhoto will find the new folder and create an album. Then just use ZenPhoto's admin tools to refine the details of the album (title, comments, etc.)

This beats the limits of the php upload. It's so easy it almost obviates the need for a separate iPhoto plugin for ZenPhoto.

Note on post above: for many or most FTP servers, the OSX "Connect to Server" may be read-only, spoiling the method.

But give MacFUSE a try if you have SFTP capability, it works very well.

Or just use any other ftp program..:-) BTW, it should be mentioned that your album names should at best not contain any special characters, since these can cause problems on servers.

There are several "wrappers" or GUI's that make using FUSE very easy and intuitive. Again, this allows mounting remote servers that are navigable by FInder, making them available from within applications, something stand-alone FTP clients cannot do.

The "sshfs" wrapper is available on the same website as the MacFUSE core: http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/

The "macfusion" wrapper is available here: http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/08/mgorbach/MacFusionWeb/

The nicely done but for-sale "expandrive" is here: http://www.magnetk.com/expandrive (30 day free trial permitted)

These all use (or are based on) the MacFUSE core. The "sshfs" and "expandrive" wrappers work with SFTP connections. The "macfusion" wrapper allows either FTP (read/write) or SFTP connections. In the future, expect to see FUSE wrappers for other flavors of connection.

Direct exports from iPhoto are possible to almost any server using one of these tools. And this is definitely much better than the intermediate steps required using a stand alone S/FTP program (which of course works).

The above will work in OSX 10.4 and 10.5, but "macfusion" is undergoing significant changes right now, so the version 2 beta for Leopard (10.5) doesn't seem to fully support FTP yet. In 10.5, the "sshfs" and "macfusion" wrappers do not create desktop icons for the servers, but they are there in Finder.

I did know that you can use FTP directly in OS X, but I didn't know about MacFUSE. Anyway, I am a creature of habit, so I stick with my standalone, I use it for "ages"...:-)

To each his own :-) You might try FUSE (easy install), because you could upload/download directly from within any of your favorite photo management applications. You might like the more "mac like" FTP process generically.

Uploading the image files alone is easy - what would be really nice in a plugin for iPhoto/ZenPhoto is some way to also preserve all of the other data one can associate with the photos within iPhoto - title, annotation, who is pictured, who took the picture, etc. There must be some standardized format for that kind of information, and maybe even some way to embed it within the image file itself so you can't later lose it...

Although being Mac user I never used iPhoto. So does that not support attaching EXIF/ITPC data?

Just wanted to share my 'workflow' if you can call it that.

I use Lightroom for all my images. Exported JPEGs from LR contain all the metadata (EXIF, ICMP etc) as well as keywords (tags).

I export to a directory on my local disk, which is a nested set of folders set up like my website http://gallery.mungler.com

I then have a post-export action which calls an rsync script to mirror the local changes to the server. This relies on ZP's aforementioned 'easy upload' - it will 'notice' any new folders / files and update accordingly.

A handy thing is that if i decide just to make metadata tweaks, like updating tags, only those changes to the JPEG files will need to be uploaded, and ZP can be told to refresh its view of the metadata from the files.

i do the same but not with iphoto, i use acdsee which doesnt look as nice but has a lot of functions iphoto cannot compete with.