Get Instagram realtime count likes Here is how the application is structured:


A cronjob runs every 3 hours making the Instagram Recent Media call -https://api.instagram.com/v1/tags/myhashtag/media/recent?access_token=ACCESS-TOKEN
If any new images have been posted on #myhashtag, then it creates a new article on the instagram content type
Finally a view(gallery) is built based on the images in this new content type. It displays the image's 'like' counter.


It was built this way to add moderation of images, so that when an image is unpublished, it wont show up in the gallery. The publish and unpublish aspect works through a tool page where there is an additional flag to remove from the queue as well.

Question is: Since the gallery view is based on the values stored on an instagram node in contenttype. 
Is there a way to update the value for the likes count field without having to make a call to the API everytime any user goes to the gallery page? 
 Otherwise the 'like' counts stored on the article become outdated.

Let me know if I can provide more info.
I don't know anything about the Instagram API, but if you want to keep the like counters up to date you will need to make API calls at some point.

If you expect many viewers then as you say, you probably don't want to make that call every time a user goes to the gallery, I would suggest adding another function to cron that iterates through your currently active Instagram content and refreshes the like counter.