Going through the source code of a software application that was written by someone else is never easy. One could easily get lost and confused tracking through the code.
I can still remember the first time when I looked at the source code of Zoundry Raven. I couldn't make head or tail of what I was looking at then. But I persevered.
Tracking The Flow
Having a map of the process flow of the various components of Raven/RavenPlus would be handy. But unfortunately, there was none. The only option left for me then is to draw one myself.
It took me about a week and the picture above is the process flow diagram for uploading pictures to PicasaWeb and Flickr. Much appreciation to the Raven/RavenPlus log messages, the grep utility and the Python print statements as otherwise, things would be much more time consuming and complicated.
Those log messages are like cookie crumbs in the Hansel and Gretel story that allowed me to follow the flow of the program during a picture upload. The grep utility is used to locate the Python module that generated the log message. And the Python print statement is used to double confirm that I am looking at the right place.
I did not look at Custom FTP, LiveJournal Scrapbook, Ripway FTP or ImageShack but I am sure the process flow should look similar.
I drew this diagram on a piece paper initially, but notes on paper tend to disappear or hard to find when one needs it urgently later on. Hence this blog post. I sure I will be referring to this diagram again in the future. There are still bits and pieces of the image upload process that I do not understand.
I don't think my diagram conforms to any standards. All I needed was just a something to guide me when fixing RavenPlus, and I needed it fast. Also, in my case here, as long as it is intelligible, standards doesn't matter. Purist would have me killed, I think.
0 comments:
Post a Comment