1. Content in Footer for Single-Author Blogger Blogs

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    Awhile ago I received this message from an unidentified user:

    Title: photo for authors
    Can you use javascript to show an author's photo in the footer of a post? I've looked everywhere and only find it in the old blogger Any help would be awesome!

    While a script based on my new comment author photos could be built to inject the image for the post author (multi-author blogs), I thought it might first be useful to provide basic information about hard-coding this.

    1. Go to the Template tab on your blog's dashboard
    2. Select Edit HTML
    3. Check the Expand Widget Templates box
    4. Find the code block starting with <div class='post-footer'> or after <data:post.body/>
    5. Insert the content you want there
    6. Save!
    Tags:
    Creative Commons Licence © 2006-2008 Stephen Paul Weber. Some Rights Reserved.
    Stephen Weber at 2007-09-12 10:53 | No Comments / Trackbacks

  2. FreshTags' Static Widgets

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    This enhancement to FreshTags in response to Amit, who has been persistently requesting the feature in comments and a ticket. FreshTags now has the ability to generate widgets (from any source) which are locked on to a particular tag(s). For example:

    <!-- FreshTags0.5-Singpolyma2 -->
    <script type="text/javascript">
    if(typeof(WidgetData) != 'object') WidgetData = {};
    if(typeof(WidgetData['freshtags']) != 'object') WidgetData['freshtags'] = {};
    WidgetData['freshtags']['freshtags_static'] = {
    "type":"posts",
    "source":"source",
    "format":"drop",
    "defs":"tags",
    "force_defs":true,
    "username":"del.icio.us username",
    "url":"blog url",
    "join_char":"/",
    "tag_url":"/search/label/%tags%",
    "sort":"alpha",
    "rows":100
    };
    </script>
    <script src="http://jscripts.ning.com/get.php?xn_auth=no&id=818185" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <div id="freshtags_static"></div>
    <a href="http://ghill.customer.netspace.net.au/freshtags/" title="Categories by FreshTags"><img alt="FreshTags" src=" http://ghill.customer.netspace.net.au/freshtags/freshtags-btn.png"/></a>
    <!– /FreshTags0.5-Singpolyma2 –>

    The above code must (for new Blogger users) be inserted into a new HTML/JavaScript sidebar widget. Source (in red) must be either del.icio.us, blogger, or mediawiki (use blogger for labels on posts in the new Blogger). Defs (in red) should be a +-separated list of tags to load into the widget (or just one tag). Username (in blue) must be replaced with your del.icio.us username (if source is del.icio.us) or the whole line must be removed. URL (in blue) must be replaced with the full URL to your Blogger blog (ie, http://you.blogspot.com/) if source is blogger or the whole line must be removed. Join_char (in blue) must be / if source is blogger and + otherwise.

    The ID (in purple) is fine to leave if you are only going to insert this widget once. For the second, third, etc widgets you must change it to something like freshtags_static2. The higher reference (also in purple) to freshtags_static must also be changed. Second, third, etc widgets do not need the <script> tag that is in purple near the end.

    If you have any questions, just ask!

    Tags:
    Creative Commons Licence © 2006-2008 Stephen Paul Weber. Some Rights Reserved.
    Stephen Weber at 2007-05-14 14:17 | 19 Comments / Trackbacks

  3. New Comment Photo Hack (Blogger)

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    By demand, I have added a maxheight option to this hack as well, it works the same way as maxwidth :)

    Some people have really liked my comment photos and highlighting hack. Many have hated it. Especially since the move to the new Blogger, the hack is just unstable and difficult to implement or understand. Even my own implementation (before the move) was doing odd things.

    So I decided that a complete rewrite was in order. The old scripts are still intact, but this new hack uses none of the old code. This hack does only comment author photos (highlighting is better handled other ways in the new Blogger).

    This hack is 100% compatible with the newest version of my asynchronous peek-a-boo comments.

    Without further ado, the instructions:

    1. Go to 'Edit HTML' under Template and check the 'Expand Widget Templates' box.
    2. Find the following code:

      <dl id='comments-block'>
      <b:loop values='data:post.comments' var='comment'>

      and insert the following code directly after it:

      <div style="clear:both">
      <dt style="float:left;margin-right:5px;clear:both;" expr:id='"commentphoto" + data:comment.id'></dt>
      <script type="text/javascript">if(typeof(commentPhotoIds) == 'undefined') var commentPhotoIds = []; commentPhotoIds.push({'id':'commentphoto<data:comment.id/>', 'url':'<data:comment.authorUrl/>'});</script>
    3. If you go down a very small ways from where you were in the previous step you will see a </dl>. Directly before it insert the code: </div>
    4. Directly before the </body> code in your template add this code:

      <script type='text/javascript'>
      //<![CDATA[
      function commentPhotoDo() {
      var tag;
      for(var i in commentPhotoIds) {
      tag = document.createElement('script');
      tag.type = 'text/javascript';
      tag.src = 'http://scrape.singpolyma.net/avatar.php?maxwidth=70&url='+encodeURIComponent(commentPhotoIds[i].url)+'&id='+encodeURIComponent(commentPhotoIds[i].id)+'&defaultimage='+encodeURIComponent('http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/1011/defaultavatarad7.png');
      document.body.appendChild(tag);
      }//end for var i in commentPhotoIds
      }//end function commentPhotoDo
      commentPhotoDo();
      //]]>
      </script>
    5. Save your template

    My fellow hackers will not like the way I did the second-to-last step. I should be using window.onload. I am not simply because in the tests I did on a certain much-hacked template, this worked and the other didn't. I am not prepared to say why the other didn't, only that it didn't and that disturbed me. So for this hack I'm doing it like this. It works.

    This hack causes direct hits to my singpolyma.net hosting server every time a page loads. If your blog gets a significant amount of viewers (>300 subscribers or thereabouts) I would ask that you contact me before installing this hack so that we can work out whether it will be a bandwidth issue or not. Thank you for understanding.

    Tags:
    Creative Commons Licence © 2006-2008 Stephen Paul Weber. Some Rights Reserved.
    Stephen Weber at 2007-05-02 16:21 | 23 Comments / Trackbacks

  4. BloggerHacks Toolbar

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    Yet another experiment in following the community.  I have used the toolbar-creation tools from Conduit to create a social toolbar for the Blogger hacks community.

    The toolbar has links to all the major Blogger hackers (if I forgot you, I'm sorry, tell me and I'll add your link!), a drop-down to the main sections of the hacks wiki, a built-in search of the wiki (the co-op one isn't allowed… but I linked to it), a feed-reader that alerts your when a hacker posts something new, and an announce section for community-wide alerts.  There is also a chatroom, email notification, weather, and pop-up blocking option.  All components are optional.

    One of the really cool things is that there is a version for both Firefox and Internet Explorer.  If I update the toolbar components on their site, everyone's toolbar gets updated, without a reinstall.

    So, check it out at the toolbar homepage.

    Tags:
    Creative Commons Licence © 2006-2008 Stephen Paul Weber. Some Rights Reserved.
    Stephen Weber at 2007-04-21 10:08 | 1 Comment / Trackback

  5. Facebook Nofitications in GMail

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    This script now integrates properly with both GMail and Google Reader. Reinstall and enjoy :)

    "What?" you say, "You don't use Facebook, Stephen, you're so cool and geeky!" Ah, but unfortunately not all of my friends are, and I have been drawn in to the service. Mind you, I don't spend hours reading the profiles of people I don't know ;) I do use it, however.

    There's one thing I've always hated about Facebook — the notifications system. Many too many emails flooding my inbox about what is happening, either that or I have to check the site regularly. No RSS on the things you actually want notifications of. Worst of all messages, the one thing you REALLY need notification of, won't even send you an email.

    The 'official' solution is to install the Facebook toolbar. I tried it, it's nice, but I don't use the service enough to warrant that screen real-estate OR that memory usage.

    My solution is a Greasemonkey script. It integrates notifications of messages, group invites, event invites, and friend requests into the side of your GMail view. Install the script, go to GMail, click the Facebook logo and log in. For best results, check the 'remember me' checkbox (funny, you can't have it remember you for logging in to the site, but for a third-party script you can…). Go back to your GMail and click the link that appeared where the Facebook logo used to be. Voila. If you checked the box, next time you go to GMail it should just display the notifications without intervention from yourself.

    Die email notifications!

    Userscripts.org entry

    Tags:
    Creative Commons Licence © 2006-2008 Stephen Paul Weber. Some Rights Reserved.
    Stephen Weber at 2007-04-20 11:21 | 14 Comments / Trackbacks