I just set up a Flickr slideshow and the client asked if the descriptions (captions) could show by default. This was not so easy to find out. A lot of people seemed to be asking the question on message boards but I didn’t find the answer anywhere.
The best clue I found was in Paul Stamatiou’s blog post:
http://paulstamatiou.com/how-to-quickie-embedded-flickr-slideshows
Paul lists extra parameters he discovered with a some research into the Flickr API
And I may as well list them here:
* contacts=
* text=
* tag_mode=
* favorites=
* group_id=
* frifam=
* nsid=
* single=
* firstIndex=
* set_id=
* firstId=
I looked around some more on discussion boards and many seemed to be looking for what the lists of values might be for these parameters. Good question.
But since I’ve got a bunch of other things to do today, I won’t be answering that question. The question I can now answer is how to get the descriptions to show by default on an embedded Flickr slideshow. I followed one posting board discusser’s advice to just “try stuff.” So I looked at the embed code I already had and it looks a little something like this (I’ve deleted specific values for my slideshow, but those were filled in by Flickr and they will be for you too):
<object width="950" height="800"> <param name="flashvars" value=" "></param> <param name="movie" value=" "></param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param> <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src=" " allowFullScreen="true" flashvars=" " width="950" height="800"> </embed> </object>
I tried adding the text parameter with a value of true, and what do you know, it worked. Note that there is an object tag and an embed tag and you should probably add it to both. Also note that you can specify width and height (also be sure to do that for both tags).
<object width="950" height="800"> <param name="flashvars" value=" "></param> <param name="movie" value=" "></param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param> <param name="text" value="true" /></param> <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src=" " allowFullScreen="true" flashvars=" " text="true" width="950" height="800"></embed> </object>
To get started on embedding a slideshow see http://blog.flickr.net/en/2008/08/20/new-slideshow/
Filip
January 11th, 2010
Hi, I have tried this but it did not work for me. Do you have a link to an example where it does? I wonder whether there were changes in the API that stop it from working.
This is such a pain, I wonder why flickr can’t offer this option as a default, it seems like a pretty basic thing.
Thanks for the info!
admin
January 11th, 2010
Filip thanks for the comment – I looked into this, and actually the text display is dependent on the slideshow size (dimensions). If the slideshow is smaller than the Flickr Preset Large size, which is 700 pixels wide by 525 pixels high, the text does not display (at least not by this method). I hope that helps.
See sample page at http://silente.com/flickrdescriptions.html .
One other note on this topic: If changes are made to the Flickr account, the embedded slideshow may break. If that happens, just get the new embed code from Flickr post account changes.
Filip
January 11th, 2010
Thanks a lot, that was very instructive. It means we can’t use flickr at the moment for slideshows that require captions/descriptions because our content column is 488 pixels wide. Anyway, this is really the only authoritative post on that subject all over the web. Cheers, filip
Hassan Voyeau
February 1st, 2010
This doesn’t actually work. I only thought it worked because I forgot I had the ‘Always Show Title/Description’ option set. This is a user controlled option it seems.
admin
February 1st, 2010
Ah, you are absolutely right, it no longer works at the standard large size (700px wide). Thanks for pointing that out. Something must have changed in the API? But oddly it does work at the much bigger size of 900px by 850px, see revised: http://silente.com/flickrdescriptions.html
For whatever that’s worth…
Filip
February 18th, 2010
Even in the gigantic size and in fullscreen it doesn’t seem to work any more.
Flickr apparently fails to understand that captions are often important and many people want the ability to turn them on by default.
admin
February 28th, 2010
From what I can tell the gigantic size still works for me – I’m viewing it on Mac OS 10.5.8 and Firefox 3.5.8
Maybe it’s different with different platforms/browsers?
Drew Geraets
March 19th, 2010
Voice your support for this feature in this thread on the Flickr Ideas forum.
David Peers
May 15th, 2010
Thanks, this blog aided me somewhat in solving some issues with the latest release candidate, Why do they always leave out vital documentation when they upgrade? It may be minor to them but not for us! I’m sure i’m not alone.
admin
May 16th, 2010
Thank you David,
Hopefully they’ll beef up this feature for future and we won’t have to troubleshoot at all
Kris