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LOGO_myFLickr_xs

Contents:
  1. How to install
  2. How to get your API key
  3. How to get User ID
  4. How to get Photoset/Gallery ID
  5. How to use myFLickr in articles
  6. How to remove 'Powered by'
  7. How does myFlickr work

 

How to install myFlickr Plugin?

 

1) Download myFlickr version corresponding to your joomla version (1.5 or 1.6).

2) Install the zip file via Joomla Extension Installer/Manager.

3) Go to the Plugin Manager.

4) Find myFlickr extension and open it ( you can filter by content )

5) Set up : Insert your Flickr API key and ENABLE the plugin (this part in crucial, more about Flickr API key? see below )

6) Optional: Insert your Flickr User ID (not a must , but usefull - what is your Flickr user ID? see below)

 

 

How to get your Flickr API key and what is it?

 

Flickr has an open Application Programming Interface (API for short). This means that anyone can write their own program to present public Flickr data (like photos, video, tags, profiles or groups) in new and different ways.

source: http://www.flickr.com/services/apps/about/

 

myFlickr uses it to display your photos :) Actually its all that you need to know.

 

To use Flickr images as source on your website you have to register it as an application and get your own key. In order to that:

 

1) Login to your Flickr account (it doesn't have to be PRO account!)

2) Visit : http://www.flickr.com/services/apps/create/

3) Click Request and API key

4) Apply for non-commercial key

5) Name your application e.g. 'my Web-Site'

6) Obtain your API key

 

You can get your API key always going to You/Your Apps tab on flickr.

 

 

 

How to get Flickr User ID?

 

If you want to get your user ID , just open your Photostream and check url in your browser. I should look something like (this is mine photostream):

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42901945@N06/

 

42901945@N06 - this is my user id.

 

BUT if you decided to use so called screen name, to use urls like http://www.flickr.com/photos/pi_wo/ to retrieve your user id:

1) Check properties of your buddyicon (you should find it there )

2) or even BETTER go to http://idgettr.com/ and retrieve your user id 

 

 

 

How do I get Flickr Photoset or Flickr Gallery Id?

 

You can extract it directly from url that leads to the photoset/gallery. For example:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pi_wo/sets/72157626787587910/

 

Thi url leads to one of my photoset. The ID of this photoset is 72157626787587910

 

 

How to use myFlickr in Joomla articles?

 

You need to put following syntax inside your article

 

{myFlickr}enter_your_parameters_here{/myFLickr}

 

(make sure that it doesn't have any HTML tags inside, e.g. [ br /] or [ b /])

 

Parameters are parsed for each gallery/list individually, so you can have 2 or more completely different galleries / lists in one article.


>Check examples here<

 

 

How to remove "Powered by (my)" footnote from myFlicrk?

 

Just set parameter "Remove Powered by footnote" to 'yes' in plugin settings. While doing this please consider donating some money to support this project ( or just to 'buy' me a beer - that depends on what >support< mean :) )

 

 

 

How does myFlickr Plugin work in general ?

 

It is vital to understand that in order to get exactly what you need.

 

1) It uses so called Flickr public API as the source of information about photos

So its behavior is limited to what flickr API offers and restricts. Also when it comes to performance ( flickr API is not the fastest way to obtain photos - response times vary, but its always more than 98% of total execution time of myFlickr script).

2) There are 2 major parameters that decide what will myFlickr plugin produce as the result:

 

feed : In general you can call it a pool that myFlickr should get images from.

 

for now myFlickr works with 4 different, predefined feeds:

  • recent : pool of all recently added images on flickr
  • user:  all photos of a given user
  • photoset : photos of a given photoset
  • gallery : photos of a gallery

 

Where 'recent' needs no further parameters, all other 3 feed need to be supplemented with correspoding data, that are :

  • user_id
  • photoset_id
  • gallery_id

 

feed and couple of parameters (like e.g. amount of images) will result in collection of photos that will be displayed on your page.

 

NOTE : I'm currently working on implementing something I call a 'custom feed' which will allow to build your own feeds based on series of parameters (including sorting options, tag related search etc. )  - already done :]

 

displaymode : This paramter determines the way chosen collection (feed) of images will be displayed on your page.

 

In general there are 2 modes in which pictures can be displayed via myFlickr.

 

  • list
  • and gallery

 

List , as the name says itself is simply a list of photos with a given size displayed on your website. Gallery on the other hand displays a set of usually small pictures aka 'thumbnails' which are links to the original-sized versions of those pictures. You could say that displaymode handles the way pictured are presented on the web-page.