Extended

The Extended add-on provides a suite of premium features and functionality to enhance the core Instant Images plugin.

In this section:

Search History & Suggestions

The history and suggestions feature of the Extended add-on provides an interface for displaying your most recent searches and autocomplete suggestions for predicting your intended search query. Both of these features can save valuable time when searching for the perfect image while switching between providers.

The predictive search and recent search UI is displayed automatically when interacting with the Instant Images search component.

View recent searches and enable predictive search with Extended for Instant Images
Interacting with the Instant Images search will display the search suggestions and recent searches interface.

Image Filters

The Image Filters feature of the Extended add-on is a block filter that extends the WordPress core image block and provides a curated set of 34 Instagram-inspired filters that can be applied to existing media library items.

How to Use Image Filters

  1. Insert a image block via the block editor.
  2. Click the Instant Images icon in the image block toolbar.
  3. Select an image filter from the curated list.
  4. The existing image will be replaced with the newly filtered image.
Image filters selection process in core image block.
Click the Instant Images icon to open the Image Filter selection menu.
Image filters after image replacement screen.
After filtering has been applied, the original image will be replaced with the new media library attachment.

Note: Applying a filter to an image will create a new image in the media library.

I’m Feeling Lucky

I’m Feeling Lucky is a WordPress block that when inserted into the Block Editor, automatically downloads a random photo from Unsplash and injects the downloaded image into your content as a core Image block.

I'm Feeling Lucky Inserter
The I’m Feeling Lucky block during image processing.
I'm Feeling Lucky Block Editor Screen
After the image is downloaded from Unsplash, the block is converted to a core Image block with the image attached.

How to Use the I’m Feeling Lucky Block

  1. Open the WordPress block inserter.
  2. Select and insert the I'm Feeling Lucky block from the Media category.
  3. Instant Images will immediately fetch a random photo from Unsplash and then add the image to the content editor as a core Image block.

The I'm Feeling Lucky block is useful for when you want to quickly add an image to a post and you don’t want to make any decisions 😏

The Extended add-on’s Instant Featured Images functionality allows you to instantly set a random featured image for a post using only your keyboard.

From within the block editor, use the cmd+shift+f keyboard shortcut to download a random image from Unsplash and set it as the featured image for the post.

Instant Featured Image functionality.
Use the cmd + shift + f shortcut to start the process.
Instant Featured Images screen
After the image has been successfully downloaded and attached as a featured image, feedback is presented as a notification.

Batch Image Imports

Run batch imports from your favorite image providers from right inside your WordPress admin with the Extended add-on.

How to Run a Batch Import

  1. Open the Instant Images Settings screen and scroll to the Import Images section.
    Settings → Instant Images → Import Images
  2. Select from the various query parameters and click the Import Images button.
  3. Track the progress of the import using the feedback display and tools.
Batch image importing screen.
Query parameters selection on the Instant Images Settings screen.
Batch image importing screen during the import process.
Track the import progress and click through to each individual media upload.

During the import process, direct links to each upload will be displayed beneath the Import Images controls.

CLI Imports

The Extended add-on provides WordPress CLI commands to batch import up to 100 images directly to the media library from your terminal.

wp instant-images import
Bash

Parameters

The following parameters are available to modify the CLI image query.

ParameterDescriptionDefault
providerThe image provider. unsplash|pexels|pixabayunsplash
numberThe number of images to import.10
searchOptional search term.null
attributionAutomatically add image attributions.false
wp instant-images import --provider=pexels --search="Coffee Shop" --attribution=true
Bash

Gutenberg Block

The custom Instant Images block for the WordPress Block Editor editor allows you to search, find and insert images into posts and pages within a matter of seconds.

How to Use the Gutenberg Block

  1. Insert the Instant Images block from the WordPress block inserter.
  2. Browse images from Unsplash, Openverse, Pixabay, and Pexels from right inside the Instant Images block.
  3. Click an image to upload and insert the image immediately into the block editor.
The Instant Images Gutenberg Block for the WOrdPress Block Editor
Inserting images with the custom Instant Images Gutenberg Block.

After image selection, the Instant Images block is immediately replaced with a core image block with the selected image attached.