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WP-SmugMug

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Adam Tow

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I’m putting the finishing touches on WP-SmugMug, a plugin for WordPress that integrates — you guessed it — SmugMug RSS feeds into your WordPress Posts and Pages. Activate the plugin, specify the RSS feed url for your SmugMug album, and your images appear as thumbnails at the bottom of your post!

By default the images will be sorted according to their EXIF capture dates — thankfully this information is embedded in the album RSS feed. If you don’t want your images sorted, you can specify a custom field to prevent this on a post-by-post basis. Finally, the CSS and HTML is fairly customizable from within WordPress’s Administrative Panel, meaning you don’t have to dicker in the plugin code if you don’t want to.

WP-SmugMug Admin Panel

The Backstory

The genesis of this plugin goes way back to 2000 when I remade tow.com from a site feature made mobile computing software into a personal website. The word blog hadn’t become mainstream, and I was calling the site a digital journal. Up until now, I had a variety of PHP scripts to display images that I had manually processed using iView and Photoshop. It wasn’t the most efficient way of getting things done, but it was something I was familiar and comfortable with. Nearly two years ago, I migrated much of the site content to WordPress. One of the holdovers from the old site was the photo gallery code.

With this plugin, things are much easier. Numerous applications exist to get my photos uploaded easily to SmugMug, including PictureSync, SmugExport (Aperture Plugin), and SmugMug’s new web-based uploader. WordPress, of course, makes it a snap to blog. Now, with WP-SmugMug, I have the best of both worlds!

You can find some more information about WP-SmugMug in my new WordPress Projects page.

48 responses to “WP-SmugMug”

  1. David Holmes Avatar
    David Holmes

    Sweet, I’ll be trying it out shortly. I wrote an Aperture plugin for SM also, davidholmes.org/aperture-to-smugmug.

    David

    Reply
  2. Erik Curtis Avatar
    Erik Curtis

    Sweet!! Had it up and running in 5 minutes. Great job. Haha Filckr is toast. Question: any way to limit the number of images it shows?

    Reply
  3. Don MacAskill Avatar
    Don MacAskill

    FYI, you should be able to specify the # of images in the feed URL using the parameter ImageCount.

    Reply
  4. James D Kirk Avatar
    James D Kirk

    Hey, is there anyone else that’s not getting the plugin’s CSS information to apply to the photos fed in by the RSS feed?

    Also, was wondering if anyone has the image’s caption (input at the gallery page on smugmug) feeding into the pages the plugin is feeding?

    Thanks.

    Reply
  5. Adam Tow Avatar
    Adam Tow

    James – I am working on another release of the plugin, which will display captions and have editable css in the plugin file itself (instead of via the database as it is now). I’ll send you a version via email to test.

    Reply
  6. Lellabell Avatar
    Lellabell

    The plugin was very easy to install but my images appear in a vertical line down the left of the post. Can you give me some tips on styling the thumbnails and images to appear like you have them in the screenshot above (Eric’s Birthday Party).
    thanks!
    Leslie

    Reply
  7. Adam Tow Avatar
    Adam Tow

    Can you send me a screenshot of what you’re experiencing? Does this appear in all browsers or just one in particular?

    Reply
  8. James D Kirk Avatar
    James D Kirk

    Hey, Adam, Was wondering if there was a new release for WP 2.1 (or if that was necessary?)

    Thanks.

    Reply
  9. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Hi, great plug-in, I really want to use it instead of G2WP, but I have some issues… First, all the thumbnails are ultra-tiny. Like FARRR FAARRR too small… And they go down the blog length a ways, then break into my right hand bar… I am using K2… I don’t know… I am keeping the page as it is, as I doubt anyone will think to look into an aside… http://www.nosteamshovel.com/2007/02/13/portraits-2/

    Reply
  10. David Paul Robinson Avatar
    David Paul Robinson

    Does this work with WordPress 2.1?

    I am not seeing the pictures (just placeholders).

    thanks

    Reply
  11. steve Avatar
    steve

    Having trouble getting this working in WP 2.1

    Any news if compatible

    thx and regards

    Reply
  12. David Taylor Avatar
    David Taylor

    Hi! I have tried this on my site but nothing new shows up. Here’s what I did.

    * I downloaded and then uploaded the plugin.
    * Activated the plugin with no trrouble.
    * Went to my latest post and added a custom field called “wp-smugmug” (without the quotes.)
    * Set the value of the field to the URL: http://detayls.smugmug.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data= 2702270&format=atom03
    * Saved the post with no alteration to the text in the post.

    Nothing appears. My WP is version 2.0.2 and I am using the K2 theme.

    Do I have to refer to wp-smugmug in the text of the post in some fashion?

    Did I miss a step?

    Thanks.

    David

    Reply
  13. Adam Tow Avatar
    Adam Tow

    David:

    Can you try using the rss format instead of the atom03 format?

    -adam

    Reply
  14. David Taylor Avatar
    David Taylor

    Adam,

    I changed the reference to:

    feed://detayls.smugmug.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=2702270&format=rss200

    It doesn’t seem to help. Do I have to refer to wp-smugmug in the text of the post in some fashion?

    Thanks,

    David

    Reply
  15. Adam Tow Avatar
    Adam Tow

    Let me send you a pre-release version of the plugin. It’s working on my end.

    Reply
  16. Peter Murphy Avatar
    Peter Murphy

    Hi Adam,

    I’m not seeing images either. I’m on wordpress 2.2.
    Do I need a newer version?

    Thanks,

    -Peter

    Reply
  17. Fritz Avatar
    Fritz

    Hi, love your wp-smugmug plugin.
    Is there a way to combine this plugin with a “light-box” effect, such as offered using this plugin: http://www.laptoptips.ca/projects/wp-shutter-reloaded/

    I’d rather have the pictures pulled into the post by wp-smugmug open up “light-box”-like instead of redirecting the viewer directly to the album.

    Is that workable?
    thanks!

    Reply
  18. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    Very good idea. I’ll have to check this out when I’m back from China.

    Reply
  19. msim Avatar
    msim

    This is very interesting! Can I request you to share a sample code that can be inserted into a post on wordpress (i.e. the exact way in which to put the wp-smugmug in the post)? Thanks!

    Reply
  20. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    It’s happens automatically if you have the wp-smugmug and wp-smugmug-options custom fields set. The next version of WP-SmugMug will offer more customizability. Timeframe is probably in the next two months.

    Reply
  21. msim Avatar
    msim

    hey adam, sorry for being slow here. i installed it in the right directory (copied it there that is). Now what should I insert into a post for the images to show in the post?

    More specifically, I could translate this first step into the exact action. What will be the code to insert a custom field… thanks!

    1. Add a custom field with the name ‘wp-smugmug’ in any post or page
    2. Enter the RSS feed URL as the value for the custom field

    Reply
  22. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    Custom Fields are entered at the bottom of the Write > New Post screen, right about the Delete Post button.

    Reply
  23. msim Avatar
    msim

    it worked this time. i guess i did not know what a custom field is.

    however, i seem to be able to get the images only on the page where the entire post is displayed. is it possible to get, like say, four images, in the main blog page?

    btw this rocks!

    Reply
  24. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    Right now, this is how wp-smugmug works. The next version will offer more customization.

    Reply
  25. msim Avatar
    msim

    is it possible to increase the size of the thumbnails? i tried changing what was 170px in the options but that only seems to change the frame size (fewer columns effectively, but delivered the same size image).

    Reply
  26. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    The thumbnail URLs are sent from SmugMug. All SmugMug images share the same filename, with the only difference being the last few characters. For instance:




    etc. The next size up from Th is S, which is pretty big.

    Reply
  27. msim Avatar
    msim

    quite true.

    however, i checked out their flash (shizam) slideshow and i could specify the max height and width of the images and they seem to scaling the images. even their random.mg function appears to scale the images well.

    you think they might scale here as well? i basically was wondering if one could create a clean album look in a WP post that looks kind of like this. (http://picasaweb.google.com/FlorianUSA/Texas)

    Reply
  28. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    We’ll see. Again, you’re free to modify the code yourself. I’ll be working on a new version of wp-smugmug with additional features in the coming months. Right now, I’ve got to get ready to leave the country for the next three weeks!

    Reply
  29. msim Avatar
    msim

    Nice. Well have a great time. I wish I could adapt the code (very rudimentary understanding) — but then it looks quite good as it is. So thanks!

    Reply
  30. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Someone mentioned Lightbox support.

    SmugWP (see my link) supports Lightbox, browsing of protected and non-public galleries (to insert from), and CSS styling. It also supports a Gallery ID Confirm/Redirect, something similar to what DigiProofs does.

    Check it out.

    Reply
  31. explorish Avatar
    explorish

    Hi,
    I use WordPress MU for building up my site right now; I activated the plugin on my photo blog, but it didn’t work (see link). on my other “normal” wordpress blog it worked fine. Is it a problem with the MU template? (I use the standard one). should I add some sort of “call” line in the code?
    thanks a bunch in advance!!
    cheers

    Reply
  32. explorish Avatar
    explorish

    oops – as ironic as life, after I posted this i somehow got it to work :). thanks for the… inspiration :). cheers,

    Reply
  33. Susan Avatar
    Susan

    Will this plugin work in a wordpress.com site?

    Reply
  34. claudius Avatar
    claudius

    Cool, nice post, this blog is great.keep the god job!
    Free Image Share !

    Reply
  35. Doug Avatar
    Doug

    Hi Adam,
    Did you ever come out with a new version of your wp-smugmug plugin? I’m still having an issue with the thumbnail links and Lightbox plugin support. Your plugin generates the thumbnails perfectly on my site, but when I look at the code each thumb is linked to the smugmug gallery and not the individual image.
    I noticed that in your post “piclens-now-on-towcom” you seem to have found a fix!! I would really be interested in a newer version of your plugin… or at least the fix you made to your code!
    Thanks!!

    Reply
  36. staima novo Avatar
    staima novo

    plug in is not working! it is missing function “fetch_rss” — $rss = @fetch_rss($feedURL); code line 84?

    Reply
  37. staima novo Avatar
    staima novo

    sorry, my bad — it was bad feed address;-(

    Reply
  38. Terry Apodaca Avatar
    Terry Apodaca

    I too would like to know how to get this plugin to NOT go directly to the gallery on the smugmug site. either a lightbox or something similar effect would be ideal in most situations just to view the full size image. I’d like to keep the viewers of the site ON the site and not direct them from the site.

    Any news on something like this coming out?

    Reply
  39. Terry Apodaca Avatar
    Terry Apodaca

    Actually, anyone that is wanting to know how to get lightbox fully integrated, I can help you. I have modified Tow’s code to now accept lightbox.

    Reply
  40. Will Avatar
    Will

    How would you use the wp-smugmug plugin in the footer of each page? There is no ‘custom field’ to put the feed name into.

    Reply
  41. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    The plugin doesn’t work for putting stuff in the footer of each page. As Terry pointed out, to add lightbox support, all you would need to do is add the rel=”lightbox” attribute to your anchor tag links.

    Reply
  42. Doug Avatar
    Doug

    Where should you add the attribute for lightbox support… in the post or in your code? I’m not using an anchor tag, and even when I do try using one in my post nothing changes. Help… I must be missing something!

    Reply
  43. Steve Avatar
    Steve

    I’m having no trouble with the plugin, except the same issue that Lellabell experienced. All of my thumbnails go down the left column of a post in a single file. Is there an easy fix to this?

    It occurs using Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer. Safari shows 2 columns of thumbnails.

    The links work fine and everything else, just this formatting question.

    Thank you very much.

    Steve

    Reply
  44. Adam Tow Avatar
    Adam Tow

    I’m in the closing stages of a new WordPress SmugMug plugin. WP-SmugMug 2 fixes all known issues and has many new features. If you want to try a pre-release version of the plugin, email me. I hope to get it out within the next week.

    Reply
  45. Adam Tow Avatar
    Adam Tow

    The new version of WP-SmugMug is available here: http://www.tow.com/projects/wordpress/wp-smugmug/

    Reply
  46. Cor Bosman Avatar
    Cor Bosman

    Hey Adam, thanks for this update. In earlier versions I had to make some changes to make it play nice with lightbox and cooliris, but now it works out of the box (after removing the old custom field). Very cool.

    Reply
  47. janet Avatar
    janet

    I am having difficulty with this plugin. I put in the rss feed for the gallery, but the thumbnails don’t appear. The link to smugmug appears. Could this be something to do with gallery settings. My external link is set to yes.

    Please help

    Janet

    Reply
  48. Andrew Avatar
    Andrew

    If you are only getting the link to show instead of the photos here is what I did to fix it:

    Instead of copying and pasting the RSS feed URL , for example: feed://photos.tow.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=1083544_4Dwa9&format=rss200

    Instead put this: http://photos.tow.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=1083544_4Dwa9&format=rss200

    Notice the only thing that is different is changing the “feed://” to “http://”.

    FIXED!

    Reply

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Adam, here

Welcome to tow.com, my home on the internet since 1995. I’m an indie software artist and creator of apps such as MixEffect, MsgFiler, AlbumFiler, Wipe My Screen, and more. I’m also the producer and co-director of Autumn Gem. Enjoy your visit here!

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