We investigate whether you can embed Instagram posts and feeds in WordPress.
Instagram feed
Without an additional plugin, I cannot find a way to embed an Instagram feed on my site. There are third-party services that will generate RSS feeds and/or embed code that you can use on your site, but we cannot confirm the security of using such services.
To be continued…
Instagram content (using the Instagram block)
There is an instagram block that is useful for embedding content. It cannot be used to embed your entire feed (like https://www.instagram.com/blepharisma/). You need to copy the link from a specific piece of content and paste into the widget (like https://www.instagram.com/p/B4syhvDHdDC/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link)
As of November 2020, the “Latest posts” block includes the following features:
Two display settings (list & grid – see below for examples)
Select the number of items to display, and the number of columns (in grid view)
Include content
Include post featured image
Include author
Include post date
Filter list (by category, author, …)
… and other features for sorting, displaying, etc.
Would like to see some layout options that match some of the themes out there (so we can limit the number of themes on the network!), but this is a good start. Someone with CSS-experience may be able to customize the look further.
Note that I have the featured image displaying here – where a post has no featured image, the grid looks a bit off. I would recommend only displaying the featured image for blogs that add a featured image for every post (not just an image in the post – featured images can be set in the right-hand sidebar of your post).
Example 3: An excerpt-style list (custom settings)
For this example, I used the list type of display, and then modified the settings to include an excerpt, the author and date, the thumbnail (with the alignment set to the left). I have also limited the list to posts in the category “Block tests”.
This is a demonstration of the “video” block in WordPress. It serves a number of purposes, including displaying video uploaded to the blog itself (which we don’t recommend for blog.ryerson.ca) and … Continue reading “Video block”
Let’s see how we can display a blog’s latest posts, using blocks. On this page: The “Latest posts” block Example 1: List (default settings) Example 2: Grid (custom settings) Example 3: … Continue reading “Latest posts block”
Audio block Soundcloud block Google Audio Important settings on the Google audio file Open sharing up (either public, or shared with the class specifically and let them know to check their … Continue reading “Audio embed using blocks”
RSS feed block
This is much more limited than the “Latest Posts” block, if you are looking to display posts from the local blog. The RSS feed block is intended to display a list of posts from *another* source, using its RSS feed (i.e. another blog).
As of November 2020, this block includes the following features:
Set number of items to display
Display author
Display date
Display excerpt (specify number of words)
RSS Error: WP HTTP Error: A valid URL was not provided.
This plugin is used to add new gallery and image display functionality. Note that it does not work with the WordPress Media library – it is its own separate library.
Open sharing up (either public, or shared with the class specifically and let them know to check their Google session before accessing the blog)
Ensure downloding is enabled – if it is disabled, the playback will not work.
Audio block – using a Google URL?
Shared to anyone with the link. Does this even work?
This only worked with a special version of the URL from Google AND only when I’m logged into my Ryerson Google account. Not sure how to get this to work widely.
https://drive.google.com/u/1/uc?export=download&id=0B9LKEddT6B_1V3RNcnh0SXZkUDg
Where the id= includes the ID code from the file uploaded.
Below, I’m trying the version of the URL without the /u/1 (which references our domain somehow). It doesn’t work when I preview it – but does it work publicly? (no)
The Contact Form plugin creates a contact form that can be embedded into a page or post on the blog. Each form has a unique ID — check the plugin settings page to find the custom shortcode.
This page demonstrates some features of the ‘Quote’ and ‘Pullquote’ blocks.
Quote block
Regular quote style. This is supposed to be a quote, but I don’t have one that I can readily refer to here. I should find a good one to test with, because people do say and write some fun things.
Me, 2019.
Large quote style. This is supposed to be a quote, but I don’t have one that I can readily refer to here. I should find a good one to test with, because people do say and write some fun things.
Me, 2019.
Pullquote block
I’m writing a paragraph to see how the pullquote dealy works. I’m writing a paragraph to see how the pullquote dealy works. I’m writing a paragraph to see how the pullquote dealy works. I’m writing a paragraph to see how the pullquote dealy works. I’m writing a paragraph to see how the pullquote dealy works. I’m writing a paragraph to see how the pullquote dealy works.
When you first add a pullquote, it centres it and puts it in the middle. I can’t seem to get it to go back to that, after trying the left or right align.
Me
I don’t quite understand how this is supposed to work, unless it’s only useful in a table or column structure.
This is the pullquote block.
Not all of the styling seems to work.
Me
Weird. OK, I just added a new Paragraph block and it defaulted to add it to the right of my pullquote. That’s probably how it’s supposed to work, but it wasn’t obvious.
Let’s demonstrate some of the weird styling that I don’t think works properly.
This is my pullquote. It looks wrong in the editor. The text should be white.
