The Flickr plugin integrates media data from your Flickr images into the Joomla core media manager. It allows the admin to select images in articles and any other extension which uses the core media manager. Beside that it is possible to create albums, upload images, rename and delete the data directly from within Joomla on your Flickr account. It's possible to add unlimited different Flickr accounts in the plugin.
The plugin also offers the possibility to show your albums in the root folder, beside the photos which do not belong to the any album. If the option is disabled, then all photos are shown regardless if they are in an album or not.
The ONLY way to make your Flickr media data accessible in the media manager is to import them, because the Flickr API requires an OAuth token which is obtained during the import process. To whole import process is described below.
Please read the Concept of image service provider integration article to get more information how to get started with the image service provider plugins from DPMedia.
To be able to import your Flickr data you need a client ID and client secret from the Flickr app garden. This credentials are used to make authenticated requests against the Flickr API endpoint. It is OAuth authentication and allows you to revoke the credentials at any time without exposing your private username and password.
Log in on the Flickr app garden. Click on "Get Another Key" and on the next page on "Apply for a non-commercial key". Then tell Flickr how you are using the app and give it a name. Check the confirmation checkboxes and hit the "Submit" button.
After the app is created the stats screen is displayed with the app key and secret. These values can be used later to import your Flickr account in the plugin.
After you have setup the credentials in the Flickr app garden it's time to import it into Joomla.
Open the filesystem Flickr plugin in the plugin manager in the back end of your Joomla site. Click on the green "+" button in the plugin edit form. A modal dialog will open with instructions.
Copy paste the app key and secret from the Flickr app garden to the dialog. Make sure you are logged in with the Flickr account you want to import.
Click the "Import" button. You will then get redirected to Flickr. Flickr tells you what the app can do on your account. If all is ok, click the "Ok, Ill authorize it" button.
You should see now the imported account with your API ID and secret. Additionally should the OAuth token field be filled. This key is needed to authenticate against Flickr when doing the API requests. If this isn't the case, then something went wrong along the line and you should start the process again.
Per imported account the admin can define that media files should be served locally. This helps to ensure that the site is compliant with the sites privacy policy and that the visitors are only fetching media data from the web site.
If activated, then the files are copied from Flickr to the local filesystem on a path the site admin can define. This happens when a media file is selected in an article or everywhere else from a media field. During the media list fetch, the files and thumbs are not stored locally. Each file will be saved with the last modification timestamp to ensure that the updates are immediately reflected locally.
If the file is an image it is also possible to define a custom width and height, so the drive of the Joomla site will not fill up quickly.
The plugin supports automatic resize when images are uploaded. The images are only scaled down, but not up. The admin can choose between the following four options when resizing should be applied:
When only a width or height is set, then a resize is performed and the aspect ratio is kept. Like that will all images have the same width or height. When both dimensions are set, then an option is shown which lets you define if the aspect ratio should be kept or not. If it is not kept, then each image has the same dimensions but the smaller side gets cropped. Here are some examples listed for a better understanding:
Image dimensions | Force width | Force Height | Keep aspect ratio | Resized image dimensions | Crop |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 x 3000 | 0 | 400 | 267 x 400 | No | |
2000 x 3000 | 400 | 0 | 400 x 750 | No | |
2000 x 3000 | 400 | 100 | No | 400 x 100 | Height is cropped from 750 to 100 |
2000 x 3000 | 400 | 100 | Yes | 67 x 100 | No |
2000 x 3000 | 100 | 400 | No | 100 x 400 | Width is cropped from 267 to 100 |
2000 x 3000 | 100 | 400 | Yes | 267 x 400 | No |
Per imported account the site administrator can define caching so images will be loaded much faster in the media manager. DPMedia uses the core Joomla cache, so it can be revoked at any time in the core Maintenance Manager. Additionally the admin can define a cache time so images will downloaded after a certain time automatically again from Flickr.
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