😔

Unfortunately Instagram has deprecated its platform API, which means that the code in this repo no longer works

Coordstagram

Coordstagram is a simple Ruby on Rails application that uses the Instagram API to fetch, store, and view photos and videos that were taken near a user-specified latitude and longitude

For example, here's a demo coordstagram app that collects and displays all public Instagrams taken within 600 meters of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. There are more user-contributed examples in the wiki (please add your own!)

If configured properly, you can host your own coordstagram app on Heroku at little to no monthly cost

Getting started

There are 4 config variables you have to set to make the app work:

1. LATITUDE
2. LONGITUDE
3. MAX_DISTANCE_IN_METERS
4. INSTAGRAM_CLIENT_ID

You can convert an address to latitude and longitude at latlong.net or Google Maps. If you use Google Maps, you'll need to copy/paste the coordinates from the URL bar:

The config variable MAX_DISTANCE_IN_METERS determines the search radius from your coordinates when looking for Instagram media. Instagram lets you search a radius of up to 5,000 meters, but for many coordinates, especially in crowded cities, you'll get better results if you choose a lower value, maybe in the neighborhood of 50 to 100 meters

You'll need to register you app with Instagram in order to get an INSTAGRAM_CLIENT_ID:

• Head to Instagram's developer website and sign in with your normal Instagram credentials
• Click the Register Your Application button
• Click the Register a New Client button
• Fill out the form. Leave the checkboxes in their default states. Enter http://localhost for the OAuth redirect_uri
• The Client ID is all you need, you can ignore the Client Secret

Deploy on Heroku (for free!**)

Click the button below to get started:

Or if you'd rather deploy manually (replace the config vars below with your own values!):

git clone [email protected]:toddwschneider/coordstagram.git
cd coordstagram
heroku apps:create your-app-name-here
heroku addons:add memcachier:dev
heroku addons:add newrelic:wayne
heroku addons:add scheduler:standard
git push heroku master
heroku run rake db:migrate
heroku config:set LATITUDE=48.85837 LONGITUDE=2.294481 MAX_DISTANCE_IN_METERS=100 INSTAGRAM_CLIENT_ID="your instagram client id"
heroku run rake initial_backfill

After you've deployed, either via the button or manually, you might want to use the Heroku scheduler to get new items periodically. Run heroku addons:open scheduler, then create a new rake get_new_items task to run every day, hour, or 10 minutes:

** free-ness not guaranteed! Heroku's current pricing gives you 750 free dyno hours per month. You'll have 1 web dyno running at all times, so in a month with 31 days that leaves 750 - (31 * 24) = 6 hours = 360 minutes of free time to run the rake get_new_items task using Heroku's scheduler. If you run the rake task every hour, then it will run a total of 31 * 24 = 746 times in a month. As long as the rake task averages less than 29 seconds to finish, you won't receive any overage charges.

On the other hand, if you set your coordinates to somewhere very popular and you specify a large search distance, your rake job might average more than 29 seconds, which could result in a Heroku bill at the end of the month. The calculation changes a bit if you want to run the scheduler every 10 minutes, or only once per day, but that is left as an exercise for the reader...

Development environment setup

git clone [email protected]:toddwschneider/coordstagram.git
cd coordstagram
createdb coordstagram_development
bundle install
rake db:migrate

Create a file called .env in your project's root directory, open it with your text editor, and make it look something like this (substituting your own values of course):

Then run:

rake initial_backfill
rails server

Optional config variables

• NAME_OF_SITE default is "Coordstagram"
• GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_TRACKING_ID if you want to track visitors
• MAX_PAGES_TO_FETCH_PER_UPDATE default is 10. One page of Instagram results contains 20 photos/videos
• PAGES_TO_FETCH_FOR_INITIAL_BACKFILL default is 20

Screenshots

Scroll photos:

Click to open larger version in modal, and see photo location on map:

Responsive modal for tablets and phones: