Open Source Software Experience - blueMarine

OVERVIEW

My goal was to find, install, and evaluate a current Java-based open source software application. After searching sourceforge for sometime looking for something good, I found an application that looked very practical and useful. blueMarine is a Java based digital photo editing application that can load, show, edit, organize photos, and is able to generate web galleries. The version on sourceforge was v 0.8.6. However, after visiting the official blueMarine site, I saw they had a new v 0.9 beta. I decided to try out both.

Sourceforge URL: http://sourceforge.net/projects/bluemarine/

Offical Project Page: http://bluemarine.tidalwave.it/

Prime Directive #1: Does this application successfully accomplish a useful task?

The blueMarine application seems to me a very, very useful program, similar to programs like iphoto or Apple Aperture, both of which cost lots of money. Almost everyone has a digital camera these days and people store thousands of photos on their computer. Organizing these photos can be very time consuming and complicated, depending on what sort of program you are using. I found the ideas behind the blueMarine system to be very intuitive and top-notch for organization (although not fully operational yet). 

• TAGS - like many photo broswers, batches of photos can be tagged based on content with blueMarine. You can then view photos based on tags. Its quite simple. A cool feature of blueMarine is the use of location tags. If you travel, this is an amazing feature. In v0.9 you can actually set up 'trip' galleries, and then even view where your photos were taken on a map. I thought this was really cool.
  

tags based on location (click for larger view)

• Photo Editing - Although this feature isn't fully implemented you can view stats on your photos quite easily, as well as look at the exif data. 
  
  

• RATING: blueMarine employs a photo rating system which you can then use to view photos by.
• SLIDESHOW: Both versions have a working slideshow function. However, the real trick is exiting this slideshow. I couldn't figure it out.
• v0.9 BETA - This newer version not only employs a new gui, but gives the user more options for organization. The coolest thing for me with this version was the map view of your photos depending on your location tags.
  

Overall, I found this program definitely accomplishes a useful task. Although many said functions do not work yet (photo editing, web gallery generation, etc) the program functions quite well. If you travel or just have a lot of photos, it is very useful. 

Prime Directive #2: Can an external user successfully install and use the system?

This was actually the simplest part of the entire process. It literally took me under 2 mintues to download and instal the application (the mac version has drag & drop installation, very simple). There is a readme file that outlines installation but I did not need that. Both versions are available for OS X, Windows, and Linux. I would imagine installation on a windows machine might take a little longer than on a mac. Even so, this part of the software is made very simple and easy to understand.

Prime Directive #3: Can an external developer successfully understand and enhance the system?

The source package I got from sourceforge was laid out fairly simple in different categories. I went and explored the 'core' source files and I found build files as well as a javadoc directory. Everything is right there. I also went to the official website and found a great deal of easy to understand documentation on the developers page. If I were to actually start developing for this project I would probably return to the website often. There are coding guidelines and structure diagrams.

Overall, I think it would be challenging for me to modify and improve the system because it is such a large scale program. The good thing is that there are a lot of things that could be added to improve the overall application usability. One thing I would like to see would be the added functionality of a web gallery generation program. This would enable users to not only use the program on their computer, but back up all their photos on their personal server in an organized fashion. I plan on following the development of this program because it can only become a better system as people add to it.