Gramscraper

A simple gem to retrieve your recent photos from your Instagram.

Major update (v1.0.1)

• Instagram no longer supports the public media endpoint (https://instagram.com/username/media) which does not require an API client key or Access token.
• As such, I am forced to use the API (which is the right way to get the photos from your instagram account).
• Please note that to use this gem, you need to have a valid access token from instagram. The instructions can be found here (https://www.instagram.com/developer/authentication/). Look for Client-Side (Implicit) Authentication. It is what you need to get this gem working. However, to assist you in getting the access token, I will put some of my notes below anyway.

If you are looking for Gramscraper for JavaScript

https://github.com/Gurenax/gramscraper-javascript

Registering for an Instagram access token

1. Go to (https://www.instagram.com/developer/)
2. Click Register Your Application
3. Click Register a New Client
4. Specify all the details as much as possible but the most important thing is the "Valid redirect URIs".
5. For development purposes, just specify a http://localhost:3000 (Default rails server).
6. Click Register
7. Notice that your CLIENT STATUS is still in "Sandbox Mode". This is ok. All you need for now is to grab your own photos and you do not need to be in "Production Mode" to do that.
8. Once saved, copy the CLIENT ID token.
9. Open your browser and copy this URL but replace "CLIENT-ID" and "REDIRECT-URI".

• Format:
  https://api.instagram.com/oauth/authorize/?client_id=CLIENT-ID&redirect_uri=REDIRECT-URI&response_type=token
• Example:
  https://api.instagram.com/oauth/authorize/?client_id=55555555555555555555&redirect_uri=http://localhost:3000&response_type=token

10. Whether or not you actually have localhost:3000 server started, once you open the url, the address will change to something like:

• Format:
  http://your-redirect-uri#access_token=ACCESS-TOKEN
• Example:
  https://api.instagram.com/v1/media/username?access_token=1234567890

11. Copy the access_token (i.e. 1234567890) value and you're done!

Installing the Gem

The only dependency of this project is HTTParty.

gem install httparty
gem install gramscraper

or in your Gemfile

gem 'httparty'
gem 'gramscraper'

Basic Usage

Using gramscraper is simple, just follow the instructions below.

require('gramscraper')

# Change this to your access token. Please see instructions above on how to get this access token.
access_token = "1234567890"

# Change this to your instagram username
instagram_username = "goproglenn"

# Retrieve instagram photos as array
# (For ruby, just run the method like so)
# (For rails, this can be placed in your model or controller)
photos = Gramscraper.scrape(access_token, instagram_username)

Retrieving your most recent photo

Photos are sorted from newest to oldest so index 0 is the most recent photo.

image_standard_res = photos.first[:standard_resolution]
image_low_res = photos.first[:low_resolution]
image_thumbnail = photos.first[:thumbnail]
image_caption = photos.first[:caption]

Looping through your recent photos

Instagram will only retrieve the last 20 photos you posted (unless they change it otherwise). This is why I highly recommend that you store the data you get from this gem your database.

photos.each do |photo|
  image_standard_res = photo[:standard_resolution]
  image_low_res = photo[:low_resolution]
  image_thumbnail = photo[:thumbnail]
  image_caption = photo[:caption]
end

Rails (in your erb file)

This is how you display the photos in your View.

<% photos.each do |photo| %>
  <%= image_tag photo[:standard_resolution] %>
  <%= image_tag photo[:low_resolution] %>
  <%= image_tag photo[:thumbnail] %>
  <p><%= photo[:caption] %></p>
<% end %>