WP Inject Plugin Updated And Renamed To ImageInject

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Find and insert free creative commons photos into WordPress
Photo by Rodrigo Baptista

I have just released version 1.1 of my WP Inject plugin, which over the course of the last months has become one of the most popular plugins to insert free images into WordPress posts with over 15,000 downloads and a 5 star rating. If you want to learn more about the plugin start with this tutorial where I explain how I use it to find featured images for my new posts with only 2 clicks.

As part of the update I have renamed the plugin from WP Inject to ImageInject. The name “WP Inject” was criticized by some when I first released the plugin, for example by Sarah Gooding in her review for WP Tavern. And probably rightfully so: I admit I did not give the name too much thought before launching. The new name is only a small change but I hope “ImageInject” will make it clearer to new users what the plugin does without confusing existing users too much.

Why did I not name the plugin ImageInject to begin with? In part because when I first released it I had a different scope in mind: I was planning to make WP Inject a platform for inserting lots of things besides just images, including videos and affiliate products. Those plans did not die with the name change but I decided that once they become reality they will better be moved into their own plugin.

With ImageInject I will focus solely on making it the best plugin to find and insert free creative commons photos into WordPress.

New Features In Version 1.1

photo wall photo
Photo by martinak15

An update that only includes a name change would be lame! That’s why the new version does also add one of the most requested features to the plugin:

Support for WordPress captions!

That means author attribution for the creative commons images you insert with ImageInject can now be placed in a WordPress “caption” shortcode. The advantage is that the attribution will be displayed right next to the image and can easily move with it if you change the image’s position.

You can see examples of images inserted with ImageInject and using the new captions feature sprinkled in throughout this post. Check them out and note how awesome WordPress captions look in Justin Tadlock’s Stargazer theme that this site uses. Since captions depend on the styling of your theme they might look different on your blog.

Caption support is not all. This and other recent updates have also added:

  • Proper WordPress multisite support. You can now network activate ImageInject and use it immediately on all your subblogs to find free photos.
  • Support for Pixabay was already added some time before but I feel it is worth mentioning it again here because it makes ImageInject the only plugin that supports two major providers of creative commons images: Flickr + Pixabay, which combined put millions of high quality creative commons photos at your disposal.

A PhotoDropper Alternative

A Photodropper alternative for your WordPress blog
Photo by Ben K Adams
Before I built my own solution I was using another plugin called PhotoDropper to find and insert free images into my blog posts. PhotoDropper was not a bad choice but I was not satisfied with the interface and the fact that it displayed lots of advertising for premium photos along the results, so one day I set out to build something better. The result of which is ImageInject.

Now I recently learned that PhotoDropper has stopped working completely. The plugin has not been updated since almost a year and in the WordPress support forum many are complaining about Photodropper not working at all anymore in new WordPress versions (which I can confirm after testing the plugin again myself).

So to any PhotoDropper users looking for an alternative: Feel free to give ImageInject a try. After supporting and updating it for several months I am now confident to say that it has become one of the best plugins to find free images for your blog.

ImageInject does not only look good when compared to PhotoDropper but also when looking at the other free alternatives like Flickr Pick a Picture or Compfight. All of these plugins do only support a single source of photos and have fewer settings to customize the output.

Give ImageInject a try and I am sure you will soon not want to miss it anymore!

About Thomas Höfter

I am a WordPress plugin developer from Germany. Some might know me from my WP Robot plugin or one of my free plugins but most don't know me at all. To change that you can write me a message or find me on Google+.

21 Comments


  1. Hi Thomas,

    thanks for your great plugin – it saves so much time!

    It would be great if there was an option to change the filename for each individual picture when you upload the pictures to your blog.

    Sometimes “filename template” in options isn’t ideal as you maybe want to use another keyword than the one you used for searching flicker or you want to have a filename like “keyword1-keyword2” etc. for SEO purposes.

    Therefore an option to change the filename of the actual picture that you’re using would be nice.

    Thanks again!

    David


  2. Your plugin saves so much time and hassle! I love the fact that the attribution is now in the caption, great idea but what if the image is used as a featured image more than once. Will there be a way of adding the attribution to the bottom of the page when using an image for the second time as the featured image?


  3. Hi:

    I was wondering on how to use the attribution on a caption. Where is the shortcode I can use or where do I find it?

    Because when I insert a photo, if I move the mouse over a published image I see this template as alt info: {filename}_{keyword}

    Thanks!


    1. Hi, all you need to do is select caption in the ImageInject settings page. There is no further setup required and new images you insert will have the attribution as caption.


      1. Hi:

        Do you mean selecting “WordPress caption next to image ” option in “Attribution location” drop down list? That’s what I have selected.

        Here’s a link of what the image look like when hovering with the cursor:
        the alt text shows the content of the filename template defined as {filename}_{keyword}
        http://i.imgur.com/jux5zvw.png

        or what am I missing?

        Thank you!


        1. Yes that is what I mean. The attribution as caption is displayed alongside the image inside your posts. What your screenshot shows is the image title attribute which is unrelated to the caption. Do you have a problem with the title attribute?


  4. Hi,
    I installed ImageInject but when I search for an image, the images are not shown, it’s loading forever.
    In “settings” page I have this error:

    Notice: Undefined index: test in ……./wp-content/plugins/wp-inject/wpinject.php on line 124 Notice: Undefined index: save_options in ……/wp-content/plugins/wp-inject/wpinject.php on line 131

    Can you help me please?
    Thank you!


    1. Can you please try temporarily deactivating all your other plugins and see if it is working then?


  5. Hi Thomas,
    I just setup this plugin on my personal blog and i works like charm. I’m really amazed how simple it is to locate relevant images to use in ones blog post.

    I’ll have to write about it and let my readers know it 😉

    I hope you are having a wonderful week bro


  6. Hi Thomas,

    Looks great! Two questions/suggestions:

    – It’d be great if the image sizes that WpInject uses would be the same that WordPress uses. If I add an image the normal way “medium” is ~300 px and not 240. It’d be great if WpInject could inherit that property from WordPress.

    – Did you know that https://500px.com/ also has creative commons licensed photos? Considering the quality of images you can find on 500px it’d be awesome if your plugin supported it.

    Thanks,

    Timo


    1. Hi Timo,

      WP Inject uses the image sizes as returned by the sources (e.g. Flickr). Currently it does no resizing of its own and leaves that to WordPress – I will check if it would be possible to add a setting to automatically honor the WordPress media settings.

      I know of 500px and will look into that as a potential future image source.


  7. Congrats on the new name, and I have to say it’s exactly what I have been looking for! Searching Pixabay and Flickr is the perfect combination. The only thing missing to make it a perfect plugin is having it store the attribution to the image caption field when it saves the image to the media library. I see from other posts that you’re working on it, so I’m looking forward to the update! Once that’s in, this plugin will be pure perfection! 😀


  8. Another issue. The plugin only attaches the caption to the image in the post and not to the image in the media library.

    In case the image is used in different posts one has to copy and past the caption from the post where the image has been attached initially.


    1. Yes thanks, someone else has also reported that and I will look into it for the next update!


  9. Great news!

    Can you reveal the CSS code used to put the image credits on the image?
    Would be great!

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