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Nodezilla PeerSnap User Guide

This is preliminary documentation and software. Please report any problems or questions directly to the Contact address.

Table Of Contents

Introduction to PeerSnap

PeerSnap is a small application built on top of the Nodezilla Secure Grid protocol allowing you to share digital photo albums with your friends.
Photos are available as thumbnails to preview, and the full size image can be downloaded very simply if you see something you want to keep or print.

Your albums are only available to people you choose, and are stored encrypted on the NZ Grid. Using the NZ grid provides the ability to retrieve photos even if the album-maker is not online all the time.

PeerSnap handles 2 kinds of Photo Albums: local and remote:

To share one of your local albums with friends, you will just need to give them a Magnet Link by email or IM, and then they will be able to access and decrypt your album through the grid.

How do I use it ?

First of all, you will need the following components: NB: A current limitation of PeerSnap requires that the Nodezilla Network Agent and PeerSnap Client run on the same machine. Remote operation like the standard Java Client is not possible.

I want to create an album for my friends

Once PeerSnap is started, click the "Create Local Album" button:

Screenshot

You'll be asked to enter a name for your album. And you will see the local album panel commands:

Screenshot

The following buttons are available to construct your album:

  • Screenshot: To add photos from a directory on your hard disk.
  • Screenshot: To add a new virtual folder to your album.
  • Screenshot: To remove a folder from your album.
  • Screenshot: To copy to your clipboard the Magnet Link allowing your friend to access your album.
  • Screenshot: To publish your album on the Nodezilla Grid, this must be done after each change to your album.
By using the above functions along with drag and drop and folder renaming, you eventually come to an album you are happy with:

Screenshot

Just click on the Screenshot button to save it to the network. You can then click on the Screenshot button to copy the Magnet Link corresponding to this album to your system clipboard. For instance, you can then paste it to your favorite email application, and send it to your friends !
A typical magnet looks like this: 

	magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:7e0c7b97a9d35548ec2d8fe30bcbd9790ce6087f&dn=Crete+Island
Once your friend has used this link to access one of your albums, they will receive the updates which you'll do to this album automagically.

Now what do your friends do with this Magnet Link ?

I want to see my friend's album !

Click on the "Subscribe to album" icon:

Screenshot

You will be asked to enter a Magnet Link your friend provided you with.

If everything goes smoothly, you should see the requested album appear as thumbnails. If you're interested in a particular photo, just double-click on it to download it full size (the download directory is provided in the configuration dialog box).

Advanced topics

How about privacy ?

Thumbnails are encrypted, and links from album to full-size images are encrypted. The key, is the magnet link. Even if the Grid system of Nodeilla makes data spreaded all over active nodes, if someone doesn't have the corresponding magnet, they won't be able to see anything. Your dog's photos are safe. Clear enough ?

How long does it take for my newly created/updated album to be available for my friends ?

15 minutes should be ok.

How do I copy/move/backups my album from one machine to another ?

Just copy the content of the evl_data/photoalbum directory to another Nodezilla Agent installation and you'll be done.