Instagram widgets
From SpinetiX Support Wiki
This page is about Instagram data-driven widgets included into Elementi 2017 and Elementi 2018.
Contents
Introduction
These widgets – all included in our Elementi software right from the start – securely connect to Instagram and are purposely built for digital signage, bringing out the best of your social media content to any number and combination of screens. The result: connecting social media content that auto-updates and helps engage with your Instagram fans. Here are few applications of the Instagram widgets:
- Promote your products on-site by using your Instagram page.
- Showcase daily specials by posting on Instagram .
- Source engaging media content directly from Instagram .
Getting started
Getting started is easy; download Elementi software, launch it and create away! Just follow the 4 quick steps below:
- Get Elementi.
- Open Elementi and on the main window, click on the "Widgets" tab.
- Scroll down and open the "Instagram" folder. Pick a widget.
- Include that widget into your content and configure it.
Instagram widgets
Elementi software comes with several Instagram widgets accessible from "Widgets" tab within the Browse panel of the Elementi GUI.
- Single Post
- Displays a single Instagram post using pre-formatted design. The images are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a slideshow.
- Multi Post
- Displays a one or more images on the same page using pre-formatted design. The images are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist.
- Media Crawler
- Displays the images from Instagram using a continuous scrolling effect.
- Media Playlist
- Displays a playlist of images from Instagram.
- Media Crawler
- Displays the images from Instagram using a continuous scrolling effect.
- Slideshow
- Displays slides composed of text & media layers, which are automatically filled out with the data from Instagram. The slides are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist.
- Horizontal Table, Vertical Table, and Table
- Displays slides composed of multiple cells of text & media layers, which are automatically filled out with the data retrieved from Instagram. The slides are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist.
Notes:- Each of the widgets above can be customized using the options provided under "Properties" tab - for more details go to the dedicated page of each widget type, linked above.
- These widgets can only be used on a single screen when creating a multiscreen project; for multiple screens, a data feed widget must be used instead.
Single Post
This widget displays a single post using pre-formatted design. The posts are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist. Note that only post with images are displayed with this widget.
The following properties, found under "Properties" tab, can be used to customize the widget:
- Data
- Click the
button to open the Data Properties dialog and set up the data source.
- Click the
- Locale
- Select the locale used for displaying dates and numbers.
- Slide duration
- Enter the number of seconds each slide is displayed on the screen.
- Transition
- Click the
button to open the "Transition Properties" dialog and select the transition effect and its properties.
- Click the
- Looping
- Select whether the widget ends after the last slide or loops to the first one.
- Likes
- Show Likes
- Select whether the number of likes should be shown.
- Text
- Enter the text to be displayed next to the likes.
- Show Likes
Multi Post
This widget displays one or more posts on the same page using pre-formatted design. The posts are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist. Note that all post with some text are displayed by this widget.
The following properties, found under "Properties" tab, can be used to customize the widget:
- Data
- Click on the button to open the Data Properties dialog and set up the data source
- Click on the
- Slide duration
- Enter the number of seconds each slide of tweets is displayed on the screen.
- Transition
- Click the button to open the "Transition Properties" dialog and select the transition effect and its properties.
- Click the
- Looping
- Select whether the widget ends after the last tweet or loops to the first one.
- Number of rows
- Enter the number of rows to be displayed on a single slide.
- Number of columns
- Enter the number of rows to be displayed on a single slide.
- Delay per cell
- Enter the number of seconds to wait before displaying the next cell of the table.
- Headers
- Show header
- Select whether the Instagram logo and the header text should be displayed.
- Text
- Enter the text to be displayed next to the Instagram logo.
- Show header
Configuration
Each of the widgets above can be customized using the options provided under "Properties" tab - for more details go to the dedicated page of each widget type, linked above.
Data source setup
To edit the properties related to the data source, click on the button. This opens the "Data Properties" dialog, which allows changing the following:
- Account
- Select one of the connected Instagram accounts or click "Connect account..." if none was previously connected.
- Selection
- Select the source of the data to be displayed - currently, only "My Posts" works, as the other options (
"My Likes", "Follow", "Search by Tag" and "Search by Location") were deprecated by Instagram.
- Select the source of the data to be displayed - currently, only "My Posts" works, as the other options (
- Size
- Select at which resolution the images are to be retrieved.
- Max count
- Enter the maximum number of images to be retrieved.
- Refresh
- Enter a number, optionally followed by
s(implicit),morh, to specify the period after which the widget should refresh the feed data (this is useful especially when the widget is running in a loop); the minimum accepted value is 60 seconds. Using "When document opens" will refresh the data only when the document is re-opened.
- Enter a number, optionally followed by
Notes:- At any point, the data source configuration can be tested by clicking on the "Test..." button.
- Starting with April 4th 2018, Instagram Platform Team decided to immediately disable some capabilities (previously set for July 31, 2018 or December 11, 2018 deprecation), which resulted in the lost of the capability to display your user likes and the content of users you follow.
Secure data access
- Create a Cockpit account, if you don't have one.
- Register your Elementi license into your Cockpit account.
- Add your players into your Cockpit account.
- Connect your Instagram account to your Cockpit account.
Instagram channel connection
Using the Instagram widgets requires having your Instagram account connected with the Cockpit account where your Elementi license is registered. For that, follow these steps:
- Select the "Account" option as "Connect account...".
- Click the URL displayed within the "Connect Account..." dialog.
- If you are not signed into your Cockpit account, you are asked to do that.
- If the your Elementi license is not registered into Cockpit, you are asked to do that.
- The Instagram sign-in page is opened;
- follow the steps on that page to sign into your Instagram account.
- Allow the SpinetiX app to access the specified information of your Instagram account.
- Return to Elementi and click the "OK" button within the "Connect Account..." dialog.
- At this point, your Instagram account appears in the "Account" drop-down box.
Note:Troubleshooting
- Problem detected with target device. Widgets using channels will not work properly. Are you sure you want to continue?" message.
- This happens when trying to publish a project containing Instagram widgets and one or more of the target HMPs have not been added to Cockpit. To solve the issue, open the HMP Control Center and add the player to Cockpit using the same account as the one used to registered the Elementi license into Cockpit
- Multiscreen usage.
- These widgets can only be used on a single screen when creating a multiscreen project; for multiple screens, a data feed widget must be used instead.
- Not all images of a post are shown.
- That is a limitation of the Instagram API endpoint, which returns only the first image.
- My likes or content of users I follow are not displayed (any more).
- On April 4, 2018, Instagram Platform Team decided to immediately disable some API features which resulted in the lost of the capability to display your user likes and the content of users you follow. More details below.
Instagram API deprecation
The Instagram API Platform is being deprecated in different phases, with complete deprecation occurring in early 2020, to make room to the new Instagram Graph API designed mainly for business accounts. This was announced on Facebook developer News blog on January 30, 2018.
- April 4, 2018 - some features were deprecated (ahead of the schedule) resulting in the lost of the capability to display your user likes and the content of users you follow.
- December 11, 2018 - reading any public profile info and media on a user’s behalf (this includes Hashtag Search and Location information) is deprecated - the Instagram widgets can only be used to get the most recent media published by the account owner.
- Announced initially for March 31, 2020, and later extended to June 29, 2020, the final Instagram Legacy API permission ("Basic") will be disabled by Facebook. As a consequence, the Instagram widgets from Elementi will stop working at that date.
For more info, see Instagram Platform Changelog and Instagram blog articles for developers.