Flickr RSS Widget

Here’s a Javascript button you can put on your website that displays thumbnails of the latest photos in any Flickr RSS feed - yours, your contacts’, a tagstream, etc. You can see it in action (on my photos tagged “brooklyn”) in the sidebar.
Download (9K)

Installation and use

  • Download and unzip the file.
  • Upload the contents of the unzipped flickr_rss_widget folder to a directory on your server (eg. “/js”). “flickr_rss_widget.js”, “rssLocal.php”, and the directory “images” must all live in the same directory.
  • Get the URL of the RSS 2.0 feed you want to use. Look near the bottom of the relevant Flickr page, and find the “RSS 2.0″ link. On the PC, right click on the link and select “Copy Link Location” or the like.
  • Place the lines of code below in the page where you would like the widget to appear. Change the text in red to the feed URL, and the text in green to the URL of flickr_rss_widget.js.

<script type=”text/javascript”>var feedURL = “URL of a Flickr RSS 2.0 feed“;</script>
<script type=”text/javascript” xsrc=”URL of flickr_rss_widget.js“></script>

Notes

  • Webserver requirements: PHP, and the PHP config value “allow_url_fopen” on, or overrideable.
  • I guess it doesn’t display on Safari 1.x. If I recall it’s due to an issue with HTTP GET requests in Javascript. Switch to Safari 2.x or Firefox.
  • The widget is totally unofficial, not endorsed by Flickr or Yahoo!
  • The widget is free. You are welcome to link back to this post somewhere on your site. [http://www.slower.net/slowerlog/2005/09/flickr-rss-widget.php]
  • I cannot support the widget by email. If you have issues post them in the comments here.
  • The number of entries is a function of how long Flickr has decided to make the feed, and is not configurable. Some feeds have 20 entries (eg. contacts’ latest photos), but most have ten.
  • When activated, the widget needs some space to unfold. Place it in your pages accordingly.
You are currently reading “Flickr RSS Widget,” an entry on slower.net weblog
Published in photography, software at
2pm, 9.8.05
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