Managing Access Tokens

The Instagram Basic Display API, which powers version 2.0 of TZ Plus Gallery, uses access tokens that are only valid 60 days.

This means that you will need a server-side component to keep your access token valid in order for TZ Plus Gallery to work correctly.

There are currently 2 available options for keeping access tokens valid:

• Instagram Token Agent
• Instant-tokens.com

Instant-tokens.com

Instant-tokens.com is a website that generates & refreshes Instagram access tokens. It is provided for free by Coding Badger, and is easy to integrate with Instafeed.js.

Pros:

• Free to use
• No setup required, just sign in with your Instagram account.

Cons:

• Closed-source
• Owned & operated by 3rd party (Coding Badger)

Instagram Token Agent

Instagram Token Agent is an open-source Ruby-on-Rails application written by Ben Hull, and available on GitHub. It can be quickly deployed to Heroku, or any other Rails-compatible hosting mechanism.

Pros:

• Open-source
• Fully controllable by you

Cons:

• Requires some setup (e.g. creating Facebook API keys, deploying application)
• Relies on a Sandbox developer account (unless you can get approval from Facebook), which has some limitations.