Picasa LightBox
Picasa Plugin for WordPress
Download it | See it in action
Latest version: 0.2.2b, released on 2008/03/02
Picasa LightBox is a WordPress plugin that lets you easily add Picasa images to your WordPress posts and pages.
You can add Picasa images to your posts and pages without using any custom tags. Just click the Picasa Photos tab, browse your albums and select the picture you want to insert. Picasa LightBox does not download Picasa images to your server. Instead it displays them directly from Picasa. Picasa LightBox currently supports only public Picasa albums. Picasa LightBox inserts pure HTML code into your posts or pages so you can easily customize it to fit your needs.
Picasa LightBox doesn’t work with Wordpress 2.5! If you are using Wordpress 2.5 this plugin is not what you are looking for. Picasa LightBox has been tested with Wordpress up to version 2.3.3.
Update: Since a lot of people requested it, I decided to upgrade the plugin to work with Wordpress 2.5. Check out the progress here:
http://bogde.ro/computers/picasa-ligthbox-2-preview.htm
If you like this plugin, don’t forget to vote on the official WP Plugins page!
If you wish to support this plugin, consider making a donation!
Important
- Make sure you have a LightBox plugin enabled. Picasa LightBox doesn’t work without a LightBox plugin.
- To install, place the ‘picasa-lightbox’ folder into your wp-content/plugins/ folder. Log in as admin to activate it (under the Plugins tab), and change Picasa LightBox settings under Options -> Picasa LightBox.
Version History
- 2007-10-26: v.0.1.1b – Beta version. First public release.
- 2007-11-05: v.0.2.0b – Beta version.
The pathname for “class-snoopy.php” is no longer hardwired (thanks to Andy C). “class-snoopy.php” is included with the plugin. - 2007-11-11: v.0.2.1b – Beta version.
Minor tweaks and some cleanup. “class-snoopy.php” is no longer included with the plugin to avoid conflicts when other plugins use the same class. - 2008-03-02: v.0.2.2b – Beta version.
Minor tweaks and cleanup.
October 30th, 2007 at 4:41 am
[...] bogdan.Weblog » Blog Archive » Picasa LightBox (tags: wordpress plugins) [...]
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Excellent plugin. I upload all my photos to PicasWeb and don’t want/need to upload into Wordpress.
One minor tweak – the absolute pathname for ‘class-snoopy.php’ is hardwired at line 900.
I love the lightbox effect too.
November 5th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Hi there… I would like to say “Excellent plugin” as Andy… but can’t… cuz I can’t get it to work… it just says “Sorry, no albums found! If you are sure your settings are correct, click the Picasa Photos tab again.” I have tryed evrything… plz help me
November 6th, 2007 at 3:33 am
Hello,
This seems to work great, except for one problem.
When you’re on the main page of the site, and click the thumbnail, it pops up the lightbox like it is supposed to.
When you are looking at the individual post, and click the thumbnail, it tries to download the picture.
Any ideas?
November 6th, 2007 at 7:34 am
[...] bogdan.Weblog » Blog Archive » Picasa LightBox (tags: picasa wordpressplugin photos) [...]
November 6th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Christopher, the problem seems to be related to your “ajax-comment” plugin. If I open any of your posts in IE I get this message on the status bar “Done, but with errors on page”. You should check your “ajax-comment” plugin (you may try to disable it and see how it goes).
November 6th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
You are so correct. The offending plugin was “Simple coComments”. I have disabled that and now it works.
November 6th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Is there a way to make a page with a gallery of your Picasa photos? Is that beyond the scope of this plugin? I’m pretty new to this Picasa thing.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:03 am
Some of the captions are wrong. I’m not sure what I did wrong.
http://www.chrisandkatewheeler.com/photo-gallery/?picasa_album=5129910312281897969
Several of them seem to use the caption of the first pic in the album.
November 7th, 2007 at 7:54 am
I’m glad to see you solved the problem. Captions look good to me. Did you edit them after inserting the pictures? Because you can do that. Actually, is good to check.
My plugin allows you to insert single pictures only. If by gallery you mean entire Picasa albums, Google offers a way to insert slide shows into your blog.
November 19th, 2007 at 7:48 am
The plugin is great!! The way you access the images is exactly how it should be! but…..
I’d like a few more sizes for the “thumbnail” such as 320, 400, 512, 576, & 640 – I know at that point they wouldn’t be thumbnails, but for an eye catching photoblog, the larger size is essential! I’ve tried hacking the options.php & wp-picasalb.php to extend the size, but I’m missing something.
Thanks.
KLM
OH! Any recommendations for a sidebar widget that works well with your plugin????
November 19th, 2007 at 8:26 am
Thanks, I really appreciate your feedback. Problem is Picasa offers only three sizes for the thumbnails. However, once you insert a picture into your post you could manually edit the HTML code and replace the thumbnail link with a picture link, in any size you want. I’ll try to automate this in the next version but for now manually editing the code is the only option.
November 19th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
[...] Visit [...]
November 26th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Excellent plugin that works “out of the box”. I love it. But is it possible to include a complete Picasa album to one posting without putting each image to it?
November 26th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Picasa LightBox is intended to allow the user to quickly insert a few pictures into WordPress pages or posts. Right now inserting complete Picasa albums is not possible. I may add this option in a future version. However, there are other plugins you can use to add complete albums to your posts. One of them is Shashin, available here: http://www.toppa.com/shashin-wordpress-plugin.
December 11th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
[...] übersichtlicher zeigen. Die Fotos befinden sich in Fotoalben bei Picasa und werden mit dem Plugin Picasa-Lightbox in die Website integriert. Das spart Zeit und Speicherplatz. Hier ein [...]
December 16th, 2007 at 12:38 am
Excellent pease of work. This is great!!! We design website’s for our clients, but teaching them how to crop, resize en upload pictures to Wordpress is a pain……. With this plugin we don’t need to bother, all is stored at Google!
I do have a feature request: it would be great if there was a tool or css-file to edit the look of the gallery the plugin creates. Now it’s just plain picture-after-picture. It would be even nicer to let it fit the design (borders, spacing, etc).
Please keep up the good work!
Greetz
January 20th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Sall as vrea si eu sa stiu cum tiai facut acest Blog fara sa scrie .weblog la sfarsit. Imi place foarte mult un joc… si vreau sa imi fac un blog dar nu vreau ca numele sa fie prea lung si sa nu scrie .weblog la sfarsit . Ma poti ajuta te rog ??? Te rog sa imi trimiti raspunsul prin e-mail la th3o_ssj@yahoo.com
Multumesc
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:06 am
When I try to save my options in the options page, I get “Cannot load plugins/wp-picasalb.php”
??
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 am
The files must be extracted in their own folder “wp-picasalb” under “plugins”.
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:21 am
nm….can’t read instructions
January 25th, 2008 at 12:27 am
[...] Picasa Plugin for WordPress [...]
January 27th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Could this also be made to work together with thickbox instead of lightbox? I think the way the images display now is rather slow and not direct enough. I’m using Plogger right now: http://www.spoenk.nl/fotografie/insecten/spinnen
January 27th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
This is a Picasa LightBox plugin. I have no plans to add ThickBox support. Maybe I will create a whole new plugin sometime, but that is unlikely. However, most users appreciate the LightBox effects and the “previous” – “next” functions.
January 28th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
[...] using a new plugin for all this Picasa goodness.. Well, actually 2. Lightbox 2 and Picasa Lightbox. I dont care much for the lightbox part, But the picasa functionality is just what I was looking [...]
January 30th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Somehow no pictures are shown, if I open a picasa gallery that contains many pictures. Can you figure if this is a plugin issue or maybe something else? Any hints are welcome. I’d love to use this plugin!
February 3rd, 2008 at 4:46 am
what’s error ?
Sorry, no albums found! If you are sure your settings are correct, cURL may have been disabled by your hosting provider.
and
…
February 3rd, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I love it. Just a minor tweaking of CSS to fit my site layout and all done. Great piece of work Congrats and thanks for releasing this excellent plug in to the world.
Cheers from Colombia!!
February 5th, 2008 at 4:20 am
Hey, what about videos in PicasaWeb albums? Do those work with this plugin?
February 5th, 2008 at 7:02 am
@robinsoft: most likely your hosting provider disabled cUrl and you can’t access the Google feeds. Somebody else had the same problem before with a free webhosting service.
@Ryan: to be honest I created the plugin for pictures only, and never tested with videos, but I’ll see what I can do.
February 19th, 2008 at 1:19 am
i tried to place the text `KPICASA_GALLERY` in my post but all i get is `KPICASA_GALLERY` in the post, but no picasa photos… any suggestions?
i really want to use it because i like what it can do.. thanks
February 19th, 2008 at 7:00 am
guru, I don’t know what you mean; Picasa LightBox doesn’t use any tags. Maybe you are talking about a different plugin. To insert pictures into your posts using Picasa LightBox follow these directions: on the post editing page click the Picasa Photos tab (just under the editing box, near the Upload tab) -> click your album thumbnail -> click on the photo you want to insert -> click on the desired size.
February 21st, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Dear admin installed you plugin in my blogk,but i suffer the same problem of one of your reader, when you click on the thumbnails, it tries to download the picture.The problem for Christopher A. Wheeler was solved disabling Ajax comment, anyway i disabled all the plugins installed but the problem remains.
I seen the plugin working in your site and i like it very much, could you give me some idea for resoleve the matter ?
regards
Luca- Italy
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:26 am
Can you make sure you have the LightBox plugin installed:
http://zeo.unic.net.my/notes/lightbox2-for-wordpress/
Also, if you can create a test page on your blog and add a couple pictures I can take a look at it to see what’s wrong.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Dear Admin,
i suppose the 2 plugins ( lightbox2 and your ) are installed as from your instructions,
here is a post were you can verify the problem.
http://la600multipla.com/viaggio-verso-norinberga/
Thank you for your time in advance ,
Luca
February 27th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Luca, it seems that you have another plugin that includes its own version of lightbox: kpicasa-gallery. Can you try to disable or remove kpicasa-gallery and see if that makes any difference?
February 28th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Ok, sorry
just done, deactivated the other plugin and fresh reinstalled yours , but same problem .
Can you still take a look on ?
thanj you again.
address is :
http://la600multipla.com/test-2/
also LightBox plugin is enabled
Luca
February 28th, 2008 at 1:32 am
I found the error,
it was by my side, i was drag and drop the images from the Picasa Photos tab instead of click on the photo i want to insert and click on the desired size.
Is an uman characteristic embroil the simple things.
http://la600multipla.com/test-3/
Now it works fine, and sure you deserve a contribute for your work .
Finaly in june the 1:18 scale models in the site will be ready i would like to send you one as gif, your address is needed if you agree.
thanks a lot
Luca
February 28th, 2008 at 10:48 am
That would be very nice, thanks. I’m glad you solved the problem. I’ll send you my address by e-mail.
February 28th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Just tried your plugin and I like it very much. I have one problem though – it conflicts with the Flexible Upload plugin. When I have both activated and I click a thumbnail in my edit screen it tries to download the image. When I deactivate Flexible Upload your plugin works well.
Is there any way this problem can be resolved to have both working together.
Thanks,
John
March 1st, 2008 at 11:53 pm
John, I’ll try the Flexible Upload plugin as soon as possible and get back to you.
March 2nd, 2008 at 10:54 am
Works fine. Thanks. Example on http://www.guyvan.com/galleries-photos/
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:56 am
John, I found a solution for your Flexible Plugin + Picasa LightBox problem. You need to edit the flexible-upload-js.php.
Locate this line:
i.onclick = function(e) { theFileList[ 'inline' == theFileList.style ? 'imageView' : 'editView' ](id, e); }
and before it add:
if (i.onclick == null)
If you want, I can send you the edited file. Also, you should contact the coder of the Flexible Upload plugin and tell him about the issue.
March 2nd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Many, many thanks for that. I now have it all fully working.
Excellent plugin.
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Can you bild in Support four Private Galerys too ?
If I must add all Galery feed from Hand I make it.
March 4th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Picasa LightBox was meant for public albums due to the way it extracts pictures from Picasa.
I will look into adding support for private albums, but there are only two solutions I can think of, and I don’t like any of them:
1. the plugin downloads pictures from Picasa to your server, or
2. the plugin authenticates itself to Google everytime a visitor opens your website
March 6th, 2008 at 6:07 am
Brilliant plugin! Your implementation is so intuitive. Anyone setting up a Wordpress site for non-techies should consider this plugin.
If I could make a feature request for a future version, it would be the ability to choose the thumbnail size in addition to the lightbox size.
March 6th, 2008 at 7:12 am
Thanks, I’m glad you like the plugin. You can set the thumbnail size under Options. You can do that as many times as you want and the previously inserted pictures will keep their sizes. Google thumbnails come in three sizes only. Do you need a custom size, different than the one provided by Google? Or do you simply need a way to easily select the thumbnail size when inserting pictures, without going to the Options page?
March 7th, 2008 at 11:04 am
I was looking for an easy way to select the thumbnail size without going to the options panel. Currently, I’m working on a site for a charity so I’m attempting to make it as easy as possible to use.
I believe the valid sizes for Picasa images are 32, 48, 64, 72, 144, 160, 200, 288, 320, 400, 512, 576, 640, 720, 800 . My understanding of the API however is very rough.
Feel free to contact me if you wish to futher discuss.
Kind regards,
Scrawl
March 9th, 2008 at 12:10 am
great plugin!
But my thumbnails don’t link to the picture, it tries to download the pictures every time. Saw a comment above about the same problem, but i did not help
any ideas?
March 9th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Andreas, most likely your LightBox plugin is not installed correctly or some other plugin prevents it from running correctly. You should try to disable your other plugins and see what happens. Also, if you can create a test post with some Picasa pictures and give me the link I’ll take a look at it to see what’s wrong.
March 9th, 2008 at 9:59 am
I just checked your main page and you don’t seem to have the Lightbox plugin installed. Please go here and get it:
http://zeo.unic.net.my/notes/lightbox2-for-wordpress/
March 16th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
You kann only authenticates the Album with the pictures in, they have a own authkey. Youn don’t must auth with the google auth.
But to use private albums you must insert every feed bey hand to have the authkey.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
It seem to don’t work with WP 2.5 RC1
March 18th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
BTW: It’s the Plugin, I’ve been looking for 27 years
Thank you very much!
March 23rd, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Same deal here. I have lightbox installed but it won’t load the larger image.
http://www.iwasntlistening.com/personal/we-have-a-house/
I’d REALLY appreciate your help. It sounds exactly what I wan looking for.
Brad.
March 29th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Link http://zeo.unic.net.my/notes/lightbox2-for-wordpress/ dont work
March 30th, 2008 at 3:58 am
Fine plugin!
But doesnt work with qtranslate
(http://www.qianqin.de/qtranslate/) plugin
March 30th, 2008 at 10:02 am
@Brad: it looks like the plugin is working on your blog now, can you let us know how did you solve the issue?
@Vladislav: the link seems to be working fine now; I’m looking into the qtranslate issue.
@Mario: looking into WP2.5 right now.
@Daniel: thanks, you’re right.
March 31st, 2008 at 2:21 pm
@Luca
“I found the error,
it was by my side, i was drag and drop the images from the Picasa Photos tab instead of click on the photo i want to insert and click on the desired size.
Is an uman characteristic embroil the simple things.”
doh I was doing the same thing! Thanks for the solution
AND THANKS FOR THE PLUGIN!
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:52 am
Please let me know as soon as your WP 2.5 version is ready.
Great plug in!
thanks!
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I installed lightbox and this plugin today. I’m using the newest version of WordPress (2.5). I don’t think the plugin is working. I can actviate it and set the options, but I don’t see anywhere to actually use the plugin when writing or editing a post.
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Picasa LightBox doesn’t work with Wordpress 2.5 and it probably never will. I don’t like the new version and I have no plans to update the plugin at this time.
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Why not?
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Simply because Wordpress changed too much since the last version and the changes are not documented. Updating the plugin at this time requires a lot of research, a lot of testing and it’s a waste of time for me.
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Well I won’t lie to you, I’m very disappointed. This plugin is exactly what I need, but I’m not going to rollback my wordpress installation. If you change your mind, please let us know.
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Okay, I’ll understand you. So I have to say Good Bye to WP 2.5
This Plugin is more importent for me, than all the new features in WP2.5..
If you find the time for a new release, I’d be very happy…
Upto this time I can only repeat: Thanks for this wunderful plugin!
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Thanks. Updating the plugin it’s a challenge for me and I’d like to do it but my time is very limited. I will personally let you know as soon as I get it to work with 2.5. Hopefully some documentation will be out soon and will make my task easier and less time consuming.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:18 pm
I guess we can all make a small donation if that would help?
April 4th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
@Mark: You are right.
So, I gave $10,00. Not only for the future! I call it “A Thank you” Donate for this fine plugin!
April 4th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
@Mario Great, I made a donation as well (and downgraded to 2.3.3
)
April 8th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Thanks a lot for your support guys! I just wanted to let you know I’m making progress and the new version should be out very soon (in a couple days or so).
April 9th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Great work. To bad it is broken in WP 2.5, I really like the plugin. I hope you find the time needed to get it working in WP 2.5. Can you put me on the list to be notified when it is out?
April 9th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Actually I got it working last night, except for the fact that the pictures are not properly aligned and the Picasa Photos window looks messy. I will try to fix this part later today and I will post some screenshots. Also, if anyone is interested in trying this version as it is, let me know and I’ll send it to you.
April 9th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
I’d be glad to give it a try
April 9th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Oh, yes! I’d like to be a beta-tester! Please send me the plugin!
April 11th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Hello, I’d like to test the 2.5 version. Please send it to me.
Thanks and best regards
Filip
April 12th, 2008 at 6:40 am
I would love to test this. It is exactly what I am looking for. Please let me know.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:13 am
@Filip, @Ben: I just sent you the file.
April 13th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I’m also interested in testing the new version for WP2.5. Of course I’ll provide debugging feedback. Already very happy with the previous versions. Keep up the good work!
April 15th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Hi,
This plugin looks great. However when I install it, the configuration screen under options shows up but the tab for the picasa albums doesn’t. What could be the problem? I’m using Wordpress 2.0 and the lightbox plugin is also installed.
April 19th, 2008 at 11:56 am
[...] http://bogde.ro/computers/picasa-lightbox.htm [...]
April 28th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Hi,
I’m having a problem I’m hoping someone can help. I’ve got the picasa lightbox plugin installed along with the correct lightbox plugin (http://zeo.unic.net.my/notes/lightbox2-for-wordpress/) but something isn’t working correctly. The lightbox plugin works alone with a picture I manually upload (see my homepage at http://www.wayneandlaura.com).
When I use the Picasa plugin (any browser) I’m able to see my public gallery and I’m able to navigate to individual pictures. However, when I select a picture I never see the “layer” or overlay to select the various sizes and insert the image. In firefox, the mouse pointer turns into a magnifying glass icon and if I click the image it simply gets larger or click it again and it gets smaller. Nothing else happens.
Am I doing something wrong? Has anyone else seen this before? I’m using Wordpress 2.3.3 and have all other plugins except these two disabled. This is a fresh install as well. PHP version 5.2.0 (http://www.wayneandlaura.com/info.php) and MySQL 5.0.51a.
I would greatly appreciate any assistance. Thank you!
Regards,
Wayne
April 28th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Well, I’m not sure what I did, but somehow it’s now working after I checked it again…
Looks fantastic now!
Thank you -
Wayne
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:09 am
Salut Bogdan!
Iti multumesc mult pentru plugin. Lucreaza excelent din prima! L-am instalat pe MU.Wordpress, chiar negasind mentionare despre compatibilitate (altele nu merg, spre exemplu goldengate).
Lipseste doar ceva – scrolling de tip next/previous…
Bafta si succes in continuare!
May 5th, 2008 at 4:13 am
[...] queréis mostrar esas fotos en vuestro blog de Worddress podéis utilizar el plugin Picasa Lightbox. Eso sí, sólo para versiones de WordPress anteriores a la 2.5, ya que el autor, a mayo de 2008, [...]
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:45 am
[...] Bogdan Necula of Bogdan.Weblog has released Picasa LightBox. Picasa LightBox lets you to add Picasa images to your blog posts and pages. This plug-in ads extra [...]
June 19th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Hi, I am running a familuy weblog with multiple users, each with their own Picasa account.
May be you can consider extending the plugin with a user specific Picasa account, stored in their profile or whatever.
July 11th, 2008 at 3:35 am
[...] 16. Picasa Lightbox [...]
July 13th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
[...] WP Picasa LightBox: Associé à WP lightbox 2 il permet d’afficher des images hébergées sur Picasaweb dans un pop-up: cf mon article sur Picasaweb et Lighbox [...]
July 14th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
[...] ci sono molti plugin per picasa eventualmente fai una ricerca per picasaweb tra i tanti ti segnalo picasa lightbox che fino a wp2.3 era molto interessante, l’autore dovrebbe (speriamo) rilasciare una versione [...]
July 18th, 2008 at 4:03 am
I’ve installed everything nessicary…but it says my picasa url is invalid…I’m not quite sure what that means, since I’ve copied and pasted it directly almost four times. Any advice, anyone?
July 18th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Angela, plugin works only on picasaweb.google.com URL, not on .co.uk or .nl. I experienced that myself.
July 19th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
But I don’t have a co.uk nor a .nl.
my picasa gallery url is picasaweb.google.com/angelacyd/ and I type that in but the same is said
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:07 am
Oh, I think I see my problem. He hasn’t made it possible for 2.5, yet.
I thought he had. Guess I’ll just have to wait, then!
August 14th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Great! This is just what i want.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:20 am
Hi,
Just wanted to say I’ve been using your plugin for awhile – you made it very easy to use.
Since it isn’t comptible with 2.5+, I decided to try and make my own.
Have a look at http://psytoy.net/picasa-image-express/ for more details.
March 6th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Hi,
i have used your plugin for a long time with WP2.3 and it was perfect for me and my Page. Yesterday i decided to update my wordpress version to the actual version (2.7.1) and i was verry unhappy to see, that Picasa LightBox does not support the new version
Is there a chance, that there will be an update of “picasa lightbox” in the near future or should i look for an alternative?
Best regards from Austria
Bernhard
January 16th, 2010 at 4:52 am
Will this plugin be updated to function with versions higher than 2.3? I am on 2.9.1 and I cannot get this plugin to work correctly. Very disappointing because I think it would be awesome.