Introducing Photo widget, floating thumbnails for your website
Lots of people have contacted me, asking for a version of my Flickr widget that they could use on their website, without having to use Flickr (or Picasa). Doing such a version was easy enough, but I was hesitant to release it. The DIY version of WP-Cumulus has yielded more support requests than the actual WordPress plugin, and answering all the email has been taking a lot of my time.
One thing I could have done was to simply release the sources for the Flickr widget. But there’s a lot of Flickr/Picasa specific stuff in there that you would need to take out before being able to hook the movie up to another data source. So that would have made things harder for everyone.
If my understanding of the GPL license is correct, I (as the sole author) am allowed to release different versions under different licenses. Here’s what I’ve decided to do. The Flickr widget will remain closed source, and will also remain a hosted service. The only thing you should have on your website is the code snippet. I’ll happily take care of the rest. Below, you’ll find a download link for Photo widget, Flickr Widget’s new brother, which is licensed as GPL.
Version comparison
| Flickr widget | Photo widget |
|---|---|
 |  |
| Let’s you display Flickr photostreams or Picasa albums on your website | Let’s you display any images you want |
| Needs a Flickr or Picasa RSS feed as input | Uses a custom XML format, from a configurable URL |
| Images are located on either Flickr or Picasa | Images can be loaded from any website, including your own |
| Clicking an image takes you to that image’s page on Flickr/Picasa | Links and target frames can be set per image in the XML |
| Available as a hosted service, using a short code snippet | Available for download, including code examples |
| Up to 20 images shown simultaniously | Up to 20 images shown simultaniously |
| Closed source, will always be free to use | Open source (GPL) |
| Available here | Download link below |
Please make sure you extract all the files from the zip to one location. They all depend on each other. You won’t need to upload the flash sources folder to your server when deploying the project.
Support
Photo widget is the DIY version of Flickr widget. It offers greater flexibility, but is a lot harder to implement. The XML interface allows knowledgeable developers you to hook it up to all sorts of CMS solutions, and anyone with a basic understanding of HTML should be able implement a simple static version on his or her website. If you’re a beginner working with a WYSIWYG editor, you should probably look elsewhere.
I’ve tried very hard to make the examples as easy as I possibly could. Feel free to contact me if you run into trouble, but I can offer no guarantee I’ll be able to get back to you.
Donations
I looked into making this a commercial product for a long time. The main reason I didn’t was because that would have meant I’d have to protect the movie from being decompiled and I’d have had to deal with things like keeping track of payments. And I had no idea what a reasonable price would be. While one user might use it as a small gimmick on a personal blog, another might make it the main interface on a large commercial website.
If your project falls in the latter category, please consider donating. I’ve spent a lot of time developing this, so you don’t have to.
Related posts:- My Flickr widget now does Picasa too!
- WP-Cumulus for Flickr anyone?
- My Flickr widget will make your photostream fly…
- Get my Flickr Widget!
- Getting my Flickr/Picasa widget working again with Picasa’s new feeds
This is the personal blog of Roy Tanck, designer, geek, entrepreneur and WordPress enthusiast. It's also the home of projects like 
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Hey Nice code, thanx 
I will give a try
I hear ya .. I was just saying 
roytanck (1491):
Great widget! Admittedly I have not read the entire thread of ques and replies, but wondered if it is possible to use your widget to ‘display’ various web/blog site screenshots as images, then have live links behind each to enable the viewer to click on and get to the site displayed?
I have many ideas for how I could use that capability….
Can you pls let me know if possible and how to do it, Roy?
Thanks and keep up your great work!
Comment by Dave Lyons — September 28, 2011 @ 5:25 pm
I’m not sure the Flash security sandbox allows links to other domains, but you could try using a local proxy to get around that. Other than that this should work.
Comment by Roy — October 3, 2011 @ 3:03 pm
Well here at last has put to the sister wordpress a cursor and so it has beautifully turned out Photo widget to insert into a sitemap. http://www.for-friends.biz/poviazunchiki/?page_id=363 Once again thanks huge Roy to you for this cloud!!!
Comment by Evgenija — September 29, 2011 @ 4:21 pm
hiii.,
can u say how to create it,
and where to create it..
Comment by sairam — October 6, 2011 @ 7:15 pm
hi,
can u say hw to create it
and where to create it?
Comment by sairam — October 6, 2011 @ 7:16 pm
I’m sorry, but since every website is different, I can’t offer any support for this.
Comment by Roy — October 10, 2011 @ 9:29 am
Hi Roy,
We are using your flickr widget for our site (keepmydoctornv.com). We obviously want to follow any rules you may have, but we are wondering if we can donate and remove the link to your site. We are just trying to keep our site looking autonomous, but want your permission to allow us to do this.
Please let me know if this is possible.
Thanks!
Comment by Ashley — October 7, 2011 @ 10:31 pm
Please feel free to remove the links. No problem
.
Comment by Roy — October 10, 2011 @ 9:22 am
I’m really trying to put the photo widget in my blog. But It always goes wrong.
Comment by J — November 18, 2011 @ 4:15 pm
how can I use this program on a mac? mac doesn’t support zip files as far as I know
Comment by cowgirl — November 18, 2011 @ 11:59 pm
Afaik Macs handle zip files perfectly these days…
Comment by Roy — November 21, 2011 @ 11:40 am
About the work you’ve done here…..very cool
Math has never looked so sexy!
About you willingness to share such a cool product….very cool
It’s not always about the cash payoff…sometimes it’s about bringing
a vision to life. You’ve done something here Roy….good stuff
Comment by doug941 — November 25, 2011 @ 5:14 am
BTW…..if I knew the emoticons were active I would have used periods! B-8
Comment by doug941 — November 25, 2011 @ 5:50 am
Hi Roy. Is there a way to change the shape of the images? Currently the shape is square. I want to change it to any shape I like. Thanks in advance.
Comment by Vene — November 25, 2011 @ 4:54 pm
Yes, you can. You’ll need to dive into the Thumb.as class, change things to your liking, and recompile the Flash movie using Flash CS3 or better (a trial version will work).
Comment by Roy — November 28, 2011 @ 1:34 pm
Hi Roy. I try to change the images and links. When I’m going try to click the link but it did not work.
Why? What I need to do?
Comment by Vene — November 27, 2011 @ 9:22 am
I many cases links will work once you place your files on a web server. You also need to make sure the links point to places on the same domain.
Comment by Roy — November 28, 2011 @ 1:27 pm
Roy, can point the link to other website? Sample. I have an image of roytanck website and the link is “http://www.roytanck.com” or image of google point to “http://www.google.com”.
Please let me know how to do it. Thanks in advance.
Comment by Vene — November 28, 2011 @ 6:47 pm
That is going to be tricky because of Flash’s security sandbox: http://www.designswan.com/archives/actionscript-30-flashs-security-sandbox.html
Comment by Roy — November 29, 2011 @ 4:07 pm
Hi Roy,
Is it possible to change bgcolor of your photo widget to transparent or use a picture?
Thanking you in advance.
Best regards,
Fred from The Netherlands
Comment by Fred — December 4, 2011 @ 6:53 pm
Solved, add
Comment by Fred — December 5, 2011 @ 7:49 pm
param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”
Comment by Fred — December 5, 2011 @ 7:50 pm
Yes, you can set the background-color to transparent (google for “wmode” to see how to do this in general with Flash).
Comment by Roy — December 7, 2011 @ 9:19 am
hello. i have a problem and i don`t know how to solve it . i have a question: can i make the images open in thickbox ? so far i can open in a new tab. need help. thanks
Comment by lucian — December 17, 2011 @ 8:33 pm
You’ll need to modify the flash so it calls Thickbox directly. Since the links inside the movie are flash, not html, Thickbox will not find them and attach itself to them. You’ll need ExternalInterface (in Flash), and you’ll need to dive into Thickbox to find the right function to call.
Comment by Roy — December 20, 2011 @ 10:27 am
No me funciona el enlace para wordpress!!! que debo hacer?
Comment by mafe — December 22, 2011 @ 7:49 pm
Thanks for Admin Roytanck.com We have used roytanck widtget…..
God bless you all….
Comment by Kaligrafi Arab — December 27, 2011 @ 1:34 pm
How can i put this in my wordpress.com?Must to modified?Please help me. Thanks!
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Comment by dee — December 29, 2011 @ 7:14 pm
Unfortunately, you can’t because wp.com blocks Flash.
Comment by Roy — December 30, 2011 @ 1:51 pm
Latest Flash Player is installed, in the Firefox no display on the photo widget and in Google chrome is working. Why? Any solutions. Thank you in advance.
Comment by Vene — January 2, 2012 @ 10:05 am
how, if this be the case, can you use this programme on face book? or say, Blogg Tv…?
Comment by trevor — January 4, 2012 @ 2:03 am
Hello Roy, I downloaded your photo widget. You put link on every photo in XML. But when I click on any photo, it is not redirect to any website. (testing on local/computer. not on server.)
why is this happening..?
Comment by Lokesh — January 7, 2012 @ 1:36 pm
That has to do with Flash’s security sandbox. You may have better luck from a server. If not, this may help: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/164/tn_16494.html
Comment by Roy — January 9, 2012 @ 4:39 pm