Title: FlickrEyeCandy
Author: dpchiesa
Published: <strong>May 20, 2012</strong>
Last modified: January 29, 2016

---

Search plugins

![](https://ps.w.org/flickr-eyecandy/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=561456)

This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**.
It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when
used with more recent versions of WordPress.

![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/flickr-eyecandy_9388d2.svg)

# FlickrEyeCandy

 By [dpchiesa](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dpchiesa/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/flickr-eyecandy.2016.01.30.zip)

 * [Details](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/flickr-eyecandy/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/flickr-eyecandy/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/flickr-eyecandy/#installation)
 * [Development](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/flickr-eyecandy/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/flickr-eyecandy/)

## Description

flickr_eyecandy is a very simple WordPress Plugin.

It provides a WordPress Widget that selects and displays one random photo from Flickr

in the sidebar, each time the page loads. The plugin uses the Flickr API, and authenticates
via an API key that YOU (the installer) acquire via the Yahoo API Console.

It does not present a gallery. It’s just one photo. The photo changes when you reload
the page, but it does not change while the page is being displayed.

You specify a tag or set of tags to filter the photos.
 For example, if you specify“
usa,flag”, you will get only photos tagged with “usa” and “flag”.

### Dependencies

 * This plugin depends on and uses the published Flickr REST API.
 * It also relies on and uses the Curl library within PHP.
 * It makes outbound http connections from the WordPress/PHP server. Most hosters
   allow this, so it won’t be a problem.

### Thanks

Thanks for your interest!

You can make a donation at http://dinochiesa.github.io/FlickrWidgetDonate.html

Check out all my plugins:
 https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=dpchiesa

-Dino Chiesa

## Screenshots

 * [[
 * This shows the rendering of the Widget in the sidebar of a WP blog.
 * [[
 * This shows how to Activate the plugin in the Plugins menu in the WP Admin backend
 * [[
 * Configuring the settings for the flickr_eyecandy widget in the WP Admin backend.

## Installation

 1. Download flickr-eyecandy-wp-plugin.zip and unzip into the
     /wp-content/plugins/
    directory
 2. From the WordPress admin backend, Activate the plugin through the
     ‘Plugins’ menu
 3. From the WordPress admin backend, in the Widgets menu, drag-and-drop
     the widget
    to your sidebar. You can place it in any position you like.
 4. Specify the settings for the widget:
     Title, API Key, and the tag(s). For the tags,
    you can specify :
 5.  * a single word, like “fish”. This will retrieve a random
        image tagged with the
       word “fish”.
     * a comma-separated list. This retrieves a photo tagged
        with all of the terms
       in the list.
     * a pipe-separated list of the above. For example, if you specify
        “fish|leaf|
       blue,water”, then you will get a photo that is tagged with either “fish” or “
       leaf” or “blue and water”. The plugin randomly selects which term to use for
       a Flickr search, and then randomly selects one of the returned photos for display.

That’s it !

## FAQ

  Will this plugin cycle through photos, like a slideshow?

No. It grabs a list of photos from Flickr, based on search terms you provide, and
then selects one of those photos on the rendered page. It does not cycle through
photos.

If you refresh the page, it will randomly select a photo again. It will probably
be a different photo, but not always.

  Where do I get an API Key?

To get an API Key, you need to visit
 http://www.flickr.com/services/apps/create/
apply/

Walk through the steps.
 Copy and paste the API Key to the appropriate place in 
the Widget configuration menu. You don’t need the secret.

  Why do I need an API Key?

You need an API key from Yahoo so that the requests that your wordpress
 page sends
to Yahoo, will be tracked and allowed. Every time the page loads, it sends out a
request to Yahoo, and gets a list of photos. Yahoo wants to know who’s asking for
this information, and the API key lets them track that.

  Will I be charged by Yahoo for the requests?

No. The API key is free to get; I don’t speak for Yahoo, but it seems
 to me they
use the key only for tracking purposes.

Yahoo may throttle the level of requests if you use this plugin on a
 heavily loaded
site. In that case you may need to use OAuth2.0, which I have not yet built into
the plugin. But I could be convinced, for the right price. 😉

  Can I set the visual style of the widget from the admin backend?

No, I haven’t built that capability into this simple plugin, just yet.
 Let me know
if you have strong requirements in this area.

  Does the plugin use caching?

Yes, the plugin will cache results for each search term. The responses from Flickr
can be 15-20k. The response won’t change from one page view to the next, so caching
makes sense.

The search response cache is keyed on the search term. If your picture term is “
pizza|beer”, there will be two distinct cache files maintained.

You can configure the lifetime of items in the cache, via the configuration panels
in the wordpress backend.

## Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

## Contributors & Developers

“FlickrEyeCandy” is open source software. The following people have contributed 
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ dpchiesa ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dpchiesa/)

[Translate “FlickrEyeCandy” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/flickr-eyecandy)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/flickr-eyecandy/), 
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/flickr-eyecandy/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/flickr-eyecandy/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/flickr-eyecandy/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 2016.01.30

 * displayed the image from flickr with https if is_ssl() returns true.
 * updated “tested up to” to 4.4.1

#### 2014.07.04

 * no code changes from 2014.07.03
 * updated “tested with” to 3.9.1
 * updated brief description.

#### 2014.07.03

 * update to use https with flickr’s API – this is apparently now required.
 * tested and works with WordPress v3.9.1

#### 2012.07.18

 * catch exceptions on unexpected missing attributes on a photo.

#### 2012.06.04

 * clean up some small things in the admin form

#### 2012.06.03

 * implement caching of the search results
 * a fix for the readme.

#### 2012.5.18

 * initial release

## Meta

 *  Version **2016.01.29**
 *  Last updated **10 years ago**
 *  Active installations **10+**
 *  WordPress version ** 3.2 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **4.4.34**
 *  Language
 * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/flickr-eyecandy/)
 * Tags
 * [flickr](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/flickr/)[photo](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/photo/)
   [widget](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/widget/)[yahoo](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/yahoo/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/flickr-eyecandy/advanced/)

## Ratings

 5 out of 5 stars.

 *  [  1 5-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/flickr-eyecandy/reviews/?filter=5)
 *  [  0 4-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/flickr-eyecandy/reviews/?filter=4)
 *  [  0 3-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/flickr-eyecandy/reviews/?filter=3)
 *  [  0 2-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/flickr-eyecandy/reviews/?filter=2)
 *  [  0 1-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/flickr-eyecandy/reviews/?filter=1)

[Add my review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/flickr-eyecandy/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/flickr-eyecandy/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ dpchiesa ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dpchiesa/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/flickr-eyecandy/)

## Donate

Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin?

 [ Donate to this plugin ](http://dinochiesa.github.io/FlickrWidgetDonate.html)