Systems and methods for non-destructive editing of digital images

1. A method comprising:

by one or more computing servers of a social-networking system, receiving, from a publishing client device of a first user, at least one transformation identifier associated with a first image maintained by the social-networking system, wherein each of the transformation identifiers uniquely identifies a transformation selected by the first user at the publishing client device for application to the first image;

by one or more computing servers of the social-networking system, receiving, from the publishing client device, a client identifier, wherein the client identifier uniquely identifies the publishing client device;

by one or more computing servers of the social-networking system, storing the at least one transformation identifier and the client identifier with the first image in a data store of the social-networking system; and

by one or more computing servers of the social-networking system, determining a transformation version for each selected transformation for application to the first image based on the at least one transformation identifier and the client identifier.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a request for an altered image from a consuming client;

determining capabilities of the consuming client; and

creating a first image copy based on the first image and the capabilities, the first image copy being optimized to the capabilities of the consuming client.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the consuming client is at least one of a smart consuming client and a simple consuming client.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

applying the at least one transformation to the first image copy to create an altered image copy; and

providing the altered image copy to the consuming client.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising providing the first image copy and an indication of the at least one selected transformation to the consuming client.

6. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

determining at least one transformation version for the consuming client based on the at least one selected transformation and the capabilities;

creating an altered image copy by applying the at least one transformation version of the at least one selected transformation to the first image copy; and

providing the altered image copy to the consuming client.

7. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

determining at least one transformation version for the consuming client based on the at least one selected transformation and the capabilities; and

providing the first image copy and the at least one transformation version for the consuming client to the consuming client.

8. The method of claim 2 , further comprising receiving a consuming client identifier, and wherein the determining capabilities of the consuming client is based on the consuming client identifier.

9. The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining a transformation version for each selected transformation is further based on the capabilities.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising mapping the at least one transformation identifier to a hash based on a hash function.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one transformation identifier is expressed in a human readable language.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one transformation identifier comprises a character string.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising parsing the character string.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one transformation identifier comprises a random number seed to be used in the at least one transformation.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one transformation identifier may be used to apply the at least one selected transformation to a second image.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the first image is associated with the first user of the social-networking system and the second image is associated with a second user of the social-networking system.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one transformation identifier may be provided by the first user of the social-networking system to a second user of the social-networking system.

18. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory storing instructions configured to instruct the at least one processor to perform:

receiving, from a publishing client device of a first user, at least one transformation identifier associated with a first image maintained by a social-networking system, wherein each of the transformation identifiers uniquely identifies a transformation selected by the first user at the publishing client device for application to the first image;

receiving, from the publishing client device, a client identifier, wherein the client identifier uniquely identifies the publishing client device;

storing the at least one transformation identifier and the client identifier with the first image in a data store of the social-networking system; and

determining a transformation version for each selected transformation for application to the first image based on the at least one transformation identifier and the client identifier.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computer system to perform a computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, from a publishing client device of a first user, at least one transformation identifier associated with a first image maintained by a social-networking system, wherein each of the transformation identifiers uniquely identifies a transformation selected by the first user at the publishing client device for application to the first image;

receiving, from the publishing client device, a client identifier, wherein the client identifier uniquely identifies the publishing client device;

storing the at least one transformation identifier and the client identifier with the first image in a data store of the social-networking system; and

determining a transformation version for each selected transformation for application to the first image based on the at least one transformation identifier and the client identifier.