With the release of Textpattern 4.07, we now have several new and powerful tags to play with. Here, we learn how to display a Flickr set based on a variable from the URL.

1. First, download and install the excellent adi_gps plugin

The problem

The original problem was figuring out how to display Flickr sets based on an incoming URL request. What I needed:

• If the URL is simply /gallery, display two pre-defined Flickr sets, using the vdh_flickr plugin
• If the URL is something like /gallery/?set=12345678, then display only that Flickr set

Source the sets according to the URL

<txp:if_section name="gallery">
<txp:adi_gps name="set" quiet="1" />
<txp:if_variable name="set" value="">
<txp:vdh_flickr_thumbnails nsid="your_id" thumbnails_form="flickr_gallery" open="lightbox" set="your_set_id" />
<txp:vdh_flickr_thumbnails nsid="your_id" thumbnails_form="flickr_gallery" open="lightbox" set="your_set_id" />
<txp:else />
<txp:vdh_flickr nsid="your_id" thumbnails_form="flickr_gallery" open="lightbox" set='<txp:variable name="set" />' />
</txp:if_variable>
</txp:if_section>

In your page, place the above code, replacing the id’s where necessary. Here’s a rundown:

1. The <txp:adi_gps name="set" quiet="1" /> tag extracts a variable called set from the URL, then creates a TXP variable of the same name and display its value
2. The attribute quiet=“1” in the <txp:adi_gps name="set" quiet="1" /> tag restrains any output of the variable on screen
3. The if_variable conditional checks if the variable with name set exists, and has a value
4. If it does exist and the value is empty (coming from a URL /gallery), display two pre-defined Flickr sets
5. If it does exist and the value is defined (coming from a URL /gallery/?set=12345678), display the Flickr set with the #id given in the variable

Create the form flickr_gallery

<h3><txp:vdh_flickr_thumbnails_title /></h3>
<p class="flickr_slideshow">
<txp:vdh_flickr_thumbnails_slideshow>&raquo; See the slideshow in another window</txp:vdh_flickr_thumbnails_slideshow>
</p>
<txp:vdh_flickr_thumbnails_if_description>
<p class="flickr_thumbnails_description"><txp:vdh_flickr_thumbnails_description /></p>
</txp:vdh_flickr_thumbnails_if_description>
<div class="flickrset">
<txp:vdh_flickr_thumbnails_list />
</div>

To see the result in action, you may visit this page, and try another link.

Thanks to Els on the forum for her help in figuring this out.