Implementing Instagram Integration in Your Plugin
Posted on 16th June 2023
As a WordPress plugin developer, you may be asked to add Instagram integration to a plugin. There are a few ways to do this, but we’ll focus on the two most popular: the Instagram API and the Instagram Feed plugin.
Instagram API
The Instagram API is the most popular way to add Instagram integration to a WordPress plugin. To use the API, you’ll need to register your plugin with Instagram. Once you’ve done that, you can use the API to get data about users, photos, and more.
Registering Your Plugin
To register your plugin, you’ll need to create a new Instagram application. To do this, go to the Instagram Developer Portal and log in with your Instagram account. Once you’re logged in, click on the “Create new application” button.
You’ll need to fill out some information about your application, including the name, description, website, and redirect URI. The redirect URI is the URL that users will be redirected to after they login to your plugin.
Once you’ve created your application, you’ll be given an “Application ID” and an “Application Secret.” These are the two pieces of information that you’ll need to use the Instagram API.
Using the API
Once you have your Application ID and Application Secret, you can start using the Instagram API. The API is a set of methods that you can use to get data from Instagram.
To use the API, you’ll need to send a request to the Instagram API server. The server will then respond with the data that you’ve requested.
The Instagram API is a RESTful API, which means that you can use any HTTP method (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.) to send requests and receive responses.
Example Request
Let’s say that you want to get data about a photo with the ID “123456.” To do this, you would send a GET request to the following URL:
https://api.instagram.com/v1/photos/123456?client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID&client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET
In this example, we’re using the “client_id” and “client_secret” parameters to authenticate our request. These parameters are required for all requests to the Instagram API.
Example Response
The Instagram API will respond to our request with a JSON-encoded object. This object will contain data about the photo with the ID “123456.”
Here’s an example of what the response might look like:
{
“data”: {
“id”: “123456”,
“user”: {
“id”: “67890”,
“username”: “johndoe”,
“full_name”: “John Doe”,
“profile_picture”: “http://example.com/john-doe.jpg”
},
“images”: {
“thumbnail”: {
“url”: “http://example.com/photo.jpg”,
“width”: 150,
“height”: 150
},
“standard_resolution”: {
“url”: “http://example.com/photo.jpg”,
“width”: 640,
“height”: 640
}
},
“caption”: {
“text”: “This is a caption.”
},
“likes”: {
“count”: 100
},
“comments”: {
“count”: 10
},
“created_time”: “1234567890”
}
}
Instagram Feed Plugin
If you’re looking for a simpler way to add Instagram integration to your plugin, you can use the Instagram Feed plugin. This plugin will allow you to display photos from an Instagram account in your WordPress plugin.
To use the plugin, you’ll first need to install and activate it. Then, you’ll need to connect your Instagram account to the plugin. To do this, go to the “Instagram Feed” settings page and click on the “Connect an Instagram Account” button.
Once you’ve connected your Instagram account, you can use the plugin to display photos in your plugin. To do this, you’ll need to use the [instagram-feed] shortcode.
Here’s an example of how you would use the shortcode to display the 10 most recent photos from your Instagram account:
[instagram-feed num=10]
You can also use the shortcode to display photos from a specific hashtag. To do this, you’ll need to use the “hashtag” parameter.
Here’s an example of how you would use the shortcode to display the 10 most recent photos with the hashtag “#wordpress”:
[instagram-feed num=10 hashtag=”#wordpress”]
Implementing Instagram Integration in Your Plugin
Instagram is a popular image sharing service with over 300 million active users. If you’re a plugin developer, you may want to consider integrating Instagram into your plugin.
There are a few different ways to integrate Instagram into your plugin. The most common way is to use the Instagram API. With the API, you can retrieve images from a user’s feed, search for specific hashtags, and even post images on behalf of a user.
Another way to integrate Instagram is to use the Instagram Embed API. With this API, you can embed Instagram photos and videos into your plugin. This is a great way to display Instagram content in your plugin without having to deal with the API.
Finally, you can also use the Instagram Login API. This API allows users to login to your plugin with their Instagram account. This is a great way to get users to sign up for your plugin, or to simply allow them to login with their existing Instagram account.
No matter which method you choose, integrating Instagram into your plugin is a great way to get more exposure for your plugin and to tap into a huge user base.
Implementing Instagram Integration in Your Plugin
Adding Instagram integration to your WordPress plugin is a great way to connect with your users and followers on a social platform that they are already using. In this article, we will show you how to add Instagram integration to your WordPress plugin.
First, you will need to get an Instagram Access Token. You can do this by registering a new Instagram application on the Instagram Developer website. Once you have registered your application, you will be given an Client ID and Client Secret.
Next, you will need to create a new WordPress plugin and add the following code to the top of your main plugin file:
$client_id,
‘client_secret’ => $client_secret,
‘grant_type’ => ‘authorization_code’,
‘redirect_uri’ => $redirect_uri,
‘code’ => $code
);
$curl = curl_init($token_url);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $access_token_parameters);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
$result = curl_exec($curl);
$result = json_decode( $result, true );
curl_close($curl);
$instagram_access_token = $result[‘access_token’];
}
}
Now that you have your Instagram Access Token, you can use the Instagram API to get data from your Instagram account. For example, the following code will get the most recent media from your Instagram account:
$url = ‘https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/self/media/recent/?access_token=’.$instagram_access_token;
$curl = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
$result = curl_exec($curl);
curl_close($curl);
$result = json_decode( $result, true );
$recent_media = $result[‘data’];
Now that you have the data from your most recent Instagram media, you can display it in your WordPress plugin. For example, the following code will display the most recent media from your Instagram account in a WordPress widget:
class Instagram_Widget extends WP_Widget {
function __construct() {
parent::__construct(
‘instagram_widget’,
__(‘Instagram Widget’, ‘instagram_widget_domain’),
array( ‘description’ => __( ‘Display your most recent Instagram media’, ‘instagram_widget_domain’ ), )
);
}
public function widget( $args, $instance ) {
$title = apply_filters( ‘widget_title’, $instance[‘title’] );
echo $args[‘before_widget’];
if ( ! empty( $title ) )
echo $args[‘before_title’] . $title . $args[‘after_title’];
echo ‘
- ‘;
foreach ( $recent_media as $media ) {
echo ‘
‘;
}
echo ‘
‘;
echo $args[‘after_widget’];
}
public function form( $instance ) {
if ( isset( $instance[ ‘title’ ] ) ) {
$title = $instance[ ‘title’ ];
}
else {
$title = __( ‘New title’, ‘instagram_widget_domain’ );
}
?>
<label for="get_field_name( ‘title’ ); ?>”>
<input class="widefat" id="get_field_id( ‘title’ ); ?>” name=”get_field_name( ‘title’ ); ?>” type=”text” value=”” />
<?php
}
public function update( $new_instance, $old_instance ) {
$instance = array();
$instance['title'] = ( !empty( $new_instance['title'] ) ) ? strip_tags( $new_instance['title'] ) : '';
return $instance;
}
}
function register_instagram_widget() {
register_widget( 'Instagram_Widget' );
}
add_action( 'widgets_init', 'register_instagram_widget' );
This code will output a WordPress widget that displays your most recent Instagram media. You can style this widget using CSS to match the look and feel of your WordPress plugin.
Adding Instagram integration to your WordPress plugin is a great way to connect with your users and followers on a social platform that they are already using. In this article, we have shown you how to add Instagram integration to your WordPress plugin.
