WP PicLens Plus
WordPress Plugin Homepage
Overview
WordPress plugin creates Media RSS image feeds compatible with Cooliris PicLens. Enables browsing of blog images using the PicLens advanced 3d Wall and fullscreen slideshow. Supports WordPress gallery plugins such as NexGEN Gallery. Works in both PHP4 and PHP5.1
Current Version
1.0.5.10 — released 2008/04/11
Background
Cooliris PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen slideshow experience. Effortlessly drag, click, and zoom your way around a 3d wall of pictures for an extraordinary, full-screen viewing experience.
PicLens is a free plugin that runs in your browser. Several major browsers are supported, including Firefox. PicLens works out-of-the-box with major websites such as flickr. In fact, any website can publish its images to PicLens by creating a Media RSS feed.
WP PicLens Plus
wp-piclens-plus is a modified version of Cooliris’s official wp-piclens WordPress plugin.
When activated, wp-piclens-plus creates a Media RSS feed for each post and page, including tag and category pages. A page/post is scanned for images after all plugins have had a chance to run, so images from gallery plugins such as NexGEN Gallery are also included.
wp-piclens-plus Media RSS feeds are accessible using the page url plus “/feed/mrss/”. So, the Media RSS feed for the page “http://blog/page/” would be found at “http://blog/page/feed/mrss/”. If pretty permalinks are turned off, the page and feed would be something like: “http://blog/?p=17″ and “http://blog/?p=17&feed=mrss”.
The Media RSS feed url is also published as a meta tag for auto-discovery by PicLens.
Otherwise, wp-piclens-plus functions identically to wp-piclens. In particular, the sidebar slideshow widget works exactly as before. It only shows images that are in posts.
** Download wp-piclens-plus **
Requirements
- WordPress 2.3 (tested to 2.6.1)
- PHP 5.1 PHP4 or PHP 5.1
- PHP xml libraries must be installed (see known issues).
- (optional) if you are using NexGEN Gallery:
- In Gallery>Options>Gallery, turn OFF “Activate JQuery Navigation”.
- wp-piclens-plus doesn’t work well with ngg’s permalinks feature. Recommend that you turn it off in Gallery>Options>General Options.
Usage
Install and activate the plugin. (If using NextGEN Gallery, see requirements above). Then, browse a page or post with a PicLens-enabled browser. If the page has an image in it and everything is working, then you should see the PicLens “play” button on the image when you mouseover it. Click the play button to open the PicLens 3d Wall.
The wp-piclens-plus options menu works exactly the same as with wp-piclens.
Demo
- Eno River Photo Gallery – this is a NextGEN Gallery with wp-piclens-plus enabled. You should see the PicLens “play” button when you mouseover the images. If not, make sure that you have PicLens installed in your browser and check the known issues below.
Known Issues
- If wp-piclens-plus throws a fatal error when you activate it, it is probably because PHP doesn’t have all of the xml libraries installed. PHP4 requires the domxml php extension. PHP5 requires the dom php extension.
- In Firefox, PicLens has a toolbar button. This doesn’t work for blogs. Use the image button instead.
- During the development of wp-piclens-plus, I discovered a problem with the CompleteRSS WordPress plugin. Please deactivate it if you are using it. Leave a comment below, if you need instructions for how to fix it to work with wp-piclens-plus.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Ronald Heft, Jr. since I copied the feed initialization code from his Podcasting WordPress plugin.
Super big thanks to The Cooliris Team. PicLens rocks!
Disclaimer
PicLens and Cooliris are trademarks of Cooliris, Inc. liferain.com and wp-piclens-plus are not affiliated in any way with Cooliris, Inc.
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The php5 dependency still sucks. Is there a plan to make piclens+ php4 compatible?
No plans at present, but thanks for pointing this out. I wasn’t aware that it was an issue. I’ll take a look at it. Would you be willing to beta test if I do make a php4 version?
Well – alot of WP installations still running on php4. So a php4 port of the domxml part would be much appreciated i think (including praising you from my side lol)
And sure – no problem to do some beta rounds for you – just drop me an email…
I will definitely beta the PHP 4 version. My ISP says it will be months before I get PHP5.
So either I try your beta or move to GoDaddy.
Dave.
Hi, I would appreciate your guidance and help, as my knowledge of web design is very limited. How do I manage to open a window on my welcome page for commercials and a few attractive and colorful effects. If there is anything that you could help me with for free, I would make it known to my audience, which is not too small. Thanks a lot. Our possibilities are very limited here in Africa. Any help to make us benefit from your advances would be very much appreciated. Thanks once again. Alain Kanyinda
I ran across an interesting plugin the other day called the Welcome! plugin. I haven’t used it, so I can’t say how well it works, but it might be a place to start.
I like your website, btw.
wow thank you !!!! it works like charm!
As of today (Feb 04 2008), the available PicLens plugins for IE and Safari are version 1.5 – no 3D wall, and less site and RSS support.
The current latest version of PicLens is 1.6.1, and is currently available for Firefox Win and Firefox Mac. We’ll have a 1.6 version of PicLens for IE soon, and for Safari some time after that.
-Danny
My host is upgrading to PHP5, but not till April or so. I would be happy to test a PHP4 version if you make one. But at the same time moving hosts has been in my mind for a while. email me if you do make a PHP4 version.
I really like your theme here to. Is it based on K2? I really like this comment post box.
Michael wrote:
It started out as K2 0.9.6, but a lot of the K2-specific things have either broken or been replaced. I really need to merge it with the K2 1.0 stream, but it’s not going to be easy. If K2 1.0 final ever comes out, I guess I’ll bite the bullet.
Hi,
I completely enabled my site for piclens, using the WP_piclens_plus plugin. It’s doing quite good so far. But I noticed a significant impact to the load times of all pages. Maybe that was due to the piclens server that was down yesterday. The piclens_lite.js is always included in every single page and therefore the piclens server will always be required.
If there was an option to install the piclens_lite on my own server, I would feel better.
…still planning to do a beta for php4 tho?
Just released wp-piclens-plus 1.0.5.5
Major feature: PHP4 support!
I know a couple of people have already upgraded to PHP5 and that’s good. But anyone who is still stuck on PHP4, should give the latest version a try.
I just found a link on my host site that allows me to upgrade to PHP5. I thought I had to wait until April. So plugin is now installed and working GREAT.
Thank you Shack!!!
I don’t give this out much (not all finished yet lots still to add) but here’s my site (photo page).
Well – also updated to php5 here – one bug report here as the forum seem not to be accesable at the moment?!?! piclens+ does not seem to get the images parsed correctly if using ngg albums … e.g. -> (http://brainhack.de/moblog/nggallery/page-375/album-1/gallery-20/)
resulting mrss link ist the link above plus /feed/mrss but this one simply runs into a 404 …
Looks like an issue with permalinks or URL re-writing. The feed is there. You can see it at “http://…/gallery-20/?feed=mrss”, but the feed permalink “http://…/gallery-20/feed/mrss” isn’t working as it should.
Are you using the new permalinks feature of NextGEN 0.8x?
(Gallery > Options > General Options > Activate permalinks)
I have created a thread in the forum for follow up
I tried 1.0.5.5 but get the same Fatal error attempting to activate. I am not running PHP5 only 4.
Fatal error in PHP4 probably means that PHP4 does not have php-domxml installed. I really wish WordPress would show the details of the fatal error, but it only does that if PHP’s display_errors option is turned on.
Anyway, ask your host to install php-domxml. It shouldn’t be a big deal, I would hope, but let us know what they say.
Oh, and try to find out the specific version of PHP4 that you are running.
Diagnosis is a good WordPress plugin that will allow you to see details about your PHP installation. It will tell you the PHP version and at the bottom the “loaded extensions”. In PHP4, piclens+ needs “domxml” to be listed in the loaded extensions section.
Operating System : Linux
Server : Apache/1.3.41 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.8.31 OpenSSL/0.9.7a PHP/4.4.8 mod_perl/1.29 FrontPage/5.0.2.2510
MYSQL Version : 4.1.21-standard
PHP Version : 4.4.8
PHP Safe Mode : Off
PHP XML support : Yes
PHP4.4.8 should be fine; my test box is running 4.3.9. Your server says that PHP XML support is loaded, but I don’t think that’s the same as domxml.
If you have access to your blog’s .htaccess file, you could add a line “php_flag display_errors on”. Hopefully, this would allow WordPress to display exactly what the fatal error is.
But in the absence of more information, I still think the problem is that php-domxml isn’t installed.
Hi !
I think that this would definitely be great with you plugin:
the ability to somehow exclude pages from the plugin action. this way we could choose only to use it within gallery pages.
nice anyway, thx ^^ !
This is a really good idea. I have started a discussion thread to discuss how it should work.
This is a great
I tried to install piclensplus but i dont get te icon over the images. I work with nextgen gallery (most times with albums).
can you help me to get the icon of piclens over the images?
Thanks,
Paul
Paul, I took a look at your website and I think I see what’s happening. I’m guessing that you are using a version of WordPress > 2.3, and it appears that I accidentally used a function that was introduced in 2.3.
I’ll try to fix it in the next week or so.
Okay, Paul,
I think I fixed the problem. You can try again with the new version 1.0.5.6.
Shack Dougall wrote:
excellent work shack – hovericon now works smoothly within the ngg albums also!
Thanks a lot!
The piclens viewer works, but I still don’t have the link to the viewer on the images.
maybe it is a ngg problem I don’t know by now.
By the way, I checked my WP version and WP tell’s me I do have the latest upgrade.
Thank for the great work
Paul
if you can give me a link to a page that doesn’t work, I’ll look at it. I just went to your website and the image hover buttons seemed to be working.
It could be that your browser is caching the old feeds and not refreshing them. For example, to clear the cache in Firefox, Tools>Options>Privacy>Clear Now then uncheck everything but “cache” and press “Clear Private Data Now”.
Hi Shack,
Really strange!! You can see them I don’t. Ik deleted everything of the browsers but still don’t see the imgage hover button whem moving over the image.
I tried on a pc and a laptop both give me the same.
Paul
Big version
The hover button is visible on the bottom, center image. It has to be a caching issue. Somewhere, something is caching the old/broken feed. It should sort itself out in a day or so.
Just to prove I’m not crazy.
I see, oké thanks,
Paul
Paul, I took another look at it. It’s working in Firefox, but not in IE.
The feed looks good in both, but I’m seeing some weirdness in IE when I move the mouse over the image. When I look in the status bar at the bottom of IE, it shows that the link is something like “…/nieuwe%20sprinter/IMG_9480%20(Medium).JPG”. Note the %20 where the spaces are. I don’t see this in Firefox. I think this might be what is confusing PicLens in IE and preventing it from matching the images on the page with the images in the feed.
I’m not sure what to do about it. In general, it’s probably not a good idea to have spaces in URLs… Anyway, let me know if you discover anything else.
More data: The mushroom works on this page (http://ptulp.nl/2007/?p=63) and there are no spaces in its URL. Let me know if it is working for you as well.
Okay, after doing some more research. It looks like spaces in urls need to be encoded. I found this webpage that explains it. Hopefully, it is something that I can fix in the plugin. I need to do some testing and see if I can reproduce the problem and then solve it.
Paul, try the new version 1.0.5.7. I think I might have fixed it.
btw …. with .7 the thumbs are not pushed correctly into the feed causing piclens to load the full images as preview – takes ages with large images. back to .6 here
marco wrote:
Yep, I see it too, marco. Thanks for the heads up. I don’t know how I could have broken that, but I’ll fix it in the next few hours.
Classic programmer mistake. I copied and pasted a line of code and didn’t change all the variable names. And I was in a rush to get the new version out…etc, etc.
Anyway, fixed in 1.0.5.8, just released. Thanks again for catching it, marco!
I use .7 and I’m very happy, works and looks great.
Thanks,
Paul
Whats about a feature to exclude specific filenames from beeing within the generated feed?
Good idea.
Also, I should point out that there is an undocumented feature that does something similar. If the img tag has a css class “no-mrss”, then that image is excluded. i.e., something like <img class=”no-mrss” src=”foo.jpg” /> is automatically excluded.
nice hint! exlcude feature would be nice anyway
btw – wouldnt it be better to load the javascript.php as javascript.js. IMHO it would be better for caching ?
marco wrote:
I haven’t looked at it in detail, but I think it is php because the original authors were accessing some wordpress variables before they generate the js. Also, there isn’t a clean separation between the plugin and the widget. Some things are loaded by the plugin, but only really used by the widget. I need to carefully examine it and re-organize it, but it won’t happen soon.
How about integration with ‘nggDisplayRecentImages’ or ‘nggShowGalleryTags’ functions? This would be very useful..
Just released 1.0.5.10
Two new features:
If you find any bugs in this new version, please post to the support forums.
Thanks! –Shack
[...] sexy Slideshow vom feinsten geht in die naechste Runde … wp-piclens-plus 1.0.5.10 [...]
[...] I want to give a tip of the hat to Shack Dougall for writing the piclens plus plug-in for WordPress and for helping modify it to perform for my purposes. I couldn’t give you this [...]
diashow in 3D…
Ein paar Tage Bastelei waren es ja schon, aber ich finde es hat sich gelohnt! Nicht nur die Bilder der hirngespinste lassen sich nun in einer absolut coolen 3D Diashow ansehen, auch die Reiseberichte sind voll PicLens fähig.
Die Reiseberichte benötig…
Hi,
Nice upgrade of pic-lens plugins. I still have a trouble with 2.5 gallery : I got only the icon picture not the big one.
I got two plugins for gallery installed : Cleaner Gallery and Lightbox 2 Plugin.
But it doesn’t seems to change anything when I remove them.
I insert them with the new 2.5 [gallery] tag.
Here is the code with or without piclens :
<dl class=”gallery-item”>
<dt class=”gallery-icon”>
<a title=”MyTitle” href=”/?attachment_id=2876″>
<img class=”attachment-thumbnail” width=”150″ height=”150″ alt=”" src=”/mypics-icon.jpg”/>
</a>
</dt>
</dl>
Thanks
jandry,
Yes, it doesn’t yet work with WP2.5 galleries. It is a known issue, but I’m busy on other things ATM. I’ll fix it as soon as I can.
thanks for your answer
[...] using WP PicLens Plus and a Photo Mechanic export setting to get all of this to work. Currently, all of the image display [...]
[...] it supports PicLens… but only if you use WP PicLens Plus, because it runs the PicLens plug-in code after other plug-ins [...]
[...] WP PicLens Plus – WordPress Plugin | downloads @ liferain.com WP PicLens Plus for mss (tags: wordpress plugin) [...]
I found a trick to make it work for the WP 2.5 Gallery. I based it on the wp 2.5 automatic generated thumb image name. For me they always finish by -150×150.jpg.
You have to add a line in msrss.php and
after line
$imgSrcFull = str_replace( ” “, “%20″, $imgSrcFull );
add
$imgSrcFull = str_replace( “-150×150.jpg”, “.jpg”, $imgSrcFull );
So it’s linked on the full picture. I’m sure it isn’t the correct way to do it, but it’s working.
[...] heute per ichat einen Link auf das Firefox-Addon Piclens. Flux mein Blog mit dem Wordpress-Plugin PiclensPlus erweitert und jetzt braucht der geneigte Leser nur noch Firefox3 und schon gehts [...]
[...] It’s even simpler if you’re running your website on Wordpress. Piclens released an easy to install plugin, but a third party increased its functionality for Wordpress and made it an easy click’n’go process. Visit: Piclens Plus Plugin for Wordpress [...]
[...] Visit [...]
I have been using PicLens on my wordpress site for a few months with no problems, then today I noticed when trying to go to the site “ERROR: WP Piclens Plus REQUIRES domxml. Please install php-domxml.” I have not made any changes or uploaded any new plugins…any suggestions?
[...] doués de leurs 10 doigts. En effet, liferain.com a réalisé LE plug-in qui manquait à ce site : WP PicLens Plus (merci à [...]
[...] langem Suchen bin ich dann auf das Wordpress Plugin WP PicLens Plus gestoßen. Dieses Plugin basier auf dem Orginal Cooliris Plugin und wurde um die Unterstützung der [...]
[...] pouvoir fonctionner. En fouinant un peu sur le net, j’ai trouvé mon bonheur avec le plugin wp-PicLens Plus qui fonctionne aussi bien avec PHP4 que PHP5. Note: je n’utilise que le widget [...]
[...] habe ich das Plugin WP PicLens Plus auf diesem Blog installiert. Damit kann man das Browser-Plugin CoolIris (zuvor PicLens) zum Ansehen [...]
Hi, i upgraded nextgen and now the tag has changed : [nggalery id=125]
The pplugin doesn’t work with this tag. Is there anything i could do to make it work ?
Thanks
Hi,
I’m having problems with Piclens/PicLens Plus in an installation of WP 2.6X, nextgen .91.
Recently the titles displayed have changed from title to the path to the thumbnail? and the little
icon does show only occasionally at some thumbs. Here’s an example URL:
Any idea?
Thanks in advance.
Cheers, Klaus
Hi,
I got fatal error when I activated this plugin. How do I install those xml libraries so i can get it working?
Thanks in advance
[...] link to each post. I found an excellent Wordpress plugin, which adds the proper Media-RSS: piclens plus. So now if you have Cooliris installed you can view my posts using Cooliris. This is probably most [...]
Shack, you’re a lifesaver
I was getting desperate to solve this. The cooliris site is inscrutable & I went over it a dozen times tryinhg to get a handle and finally homed in on that mystery phrase “rss media file” mentioned in passing as though everyone knows.
AND you solved my big usability problem – now instead of click an image for a larger one (rel=thumbnail) my visitors get a whole 3d wall of the page without even trying.
Not to mention (so I will) the unlikely chance any visitor would find the PicLens link at the very bottom of a page. PS: Can you suggest/add an option to display that link at page top?
Thks again. Phil.
I’m running a photo gallery site by using a WordPress theme, and want to use this plugin on its “category” page and “tag” page ONLY where all the photos from a category/tag are shown.
Those category/tag pages are not a “post” or “page” in WordPress sense as they’re generated by “archive.php”. What I want to know is a line of PHP code to call “WP PicLens Plus” so that I can try to insert it in “archive.php”. Any idea? Thanks.