The latest version of this popular WordPress Flickr plugin, Slickr Flickr Version 1.21, was released on January 21st 2011. I brought forward the date of the release as I have included a new feature that helps deal with the current issues with the Flickr API. The intermittent Flickr API problem occurs as a result of both hardware and software issues at Flickr and its symptom is that Flickr indicates that it has “No photos available” when in reality there has been a timeout in the Flickr network.
Slickr Flickr Pro Edition addresses this problem by trying to fetch the photos again automatically but this time using a Flickr RSS connection rather than an API connection. This will normally succeed and return up to 20 photos.
In summary, if the Flickr API is working well then up to 50 photos are returned; if the Flickr API is temporarily not working then up to 20 photos are returned (which is better than none at all)
The full list of changes in the release comprise:
- Added automatic failover from Flickr API to Flickr RSS if no photos are returned (Pro Edition only)
- Added option to disable captions in the lightbox (captions=”off”)
- Changed method to enable thumbnail captions (thumbnail_captions=”on”)
- Added support for machine tags (e.g geo tags)
- Unbundled ShadowBox – now if you need ShadowBox please install the ShadowBox JS plugin
- Improved support for larger slideshows (Medium 640 and Large sizes)
- Improved CSS to allow IE6 and IE7 to display gallery of large thumbnails
- Fixed bug with slideshow transitions
New Feature – Automatic Failover On Flickr API failure
This feature is only in the Slickr Flickr Pro Edition which is available for a very low monthly cost. No special configuration is required to use this feature. All that is needed is to install the latest version of Slickr Flickr.
New Feature – Disable Captions in the LightBox
Prior to this release it was not possible to disable captions (titles) in the LightBox, now you can.
The syntax is type="gallery" captions="off"
Here is an example
[code]slickr-flickr tag="snow" items="6" type="gallery" captions="off"[/code]
The most typical of the new “align” parameter will be to center a slideshow. Check out the How To Center a Slickr Flickr Slideshow
The align parameter can be used for both slideshows and galleries but not type=galleria
Modified Feature – Thumbnail Captions
In the previous releases of Slickr Flickr, the way to enable thumbnail captions was to specify captions="on".
In the current release use the new parameter thumbnail_captions="on"
Here is an example with thumbnail captions on and lightbox captions off.
[code]slickr-flickr tag="bahamas" captions="off" thumbnail_captions="on" thumbnail_size="small" type="gallery"[/code]
New Feature: Machine Tags
These are a bit more sophisticated that normal tags as they have an optional namespace, a predicate and a value: for example, a photos might have geotags indicating the latitude and longitude of the location where a photos was taken as follows: geo:lat=55.701 and geo:lon=5.234. Find out more about Flickr machine tags. Slickr Flickr 1.21 now handles these tags correctly. Thanks to DC for introducing me to machine tags.
Changed Feature: ShadowBox LightBox
ShadowBox has been unbundled from Slickr Flickr so if you want to use ShadowBox you need to install it separately. I recommend you use the Shadowbox JS plugin. The reason I unbundled ShadowBox was two-fold:
- The Shadow JS plugin allows you much more control over the configuration of the lightbox
- Some users reported their themes came bundled with ShadowBox and running Slickr Flickr resulted in two ShadowBox lightboxes trying to run at the same time. By removing shadowbox from Slickr Flickr this conflict can no longer happen
Improved Support for Large Slideshow
The plugin CSS files was missing elements that deal with Medium 640 and Large slideshows – these have now been added.
Fixed Problems With Large Thumbnails in Internet Explorer 6 and 7
The large thumbnail gallery now displays correctly when viewed in Internet Explorer 6 and 7. Thanks to Pat for alerting me to this bug.
Fixed Problems With Slideshow Transitions
In last version I added a bug which meant the slideshow’s slide transition was instant rather than taking 0.5 seconds. Thanks to Dave for identifying this bug earlier today.
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