Singpolyma

Archive for June, 2006

Archive for June, 2006

Plagger and XOXO

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It seems that another feedreading project is recognising XOXO! According to this post Plagger has, if I understand correctly, added the ability to import subscriptions from an XOXO reading list and also to export that as OPML. Not recognising XOXO enough to provide an export mechanism for it yet, but a step forward nevertheless!

Singpolyma Templates

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For templates for the new Blogger see the updated post.

Due to some of the feedback I’ve been getting from hack implementors recently I have decided to roll out my own set of templates for Blogger, implementing various and sundry features that different persons have expressed interest in. These templates are all loosely based on the Blogger Minima concept, with some inspiration from my blog also. They have been written from scratch, however, and all have the following features:

So, if you’re looking for a new template, or just want some of these features or some of those that follow, this is for you.

If anyone wants another version of this template created (ie, some combination of the hacks, or for another hack) feel free to contact me. If anyone has any ideas or feedback at all concerning the usefulness of / look of these templates, again, I have an open ear. I would ask that you keep your comments positive. ‘This Sucks!’ is not all that helpful to me, even if that’s how you feel ๐Ÿ˜‰

Notes to advanced users: Hopefully these templates will also be useful to you in examining my code, etc. To remove peek-a-boo from comments or backlinks in any of the above templates, simply remove the onclick handler from the appropriate link. It should also be mentioned that these templates all support both versions of blogger comment permalinks. If you have any questions about the features on these templates I’m just an email/comment away!

Standardised RSS

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Standard RSS is a tool which takes any RSS, ATOM, hAtom, or XOXO Blog Format feed and turns it into a standard RSS 2.0 core. More information is available on the tool’s home page. There is also a YubNub command to go with it.

Asynchronous Comment Form

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See this page for a similar hack for the new version of Blogger.

This hack does not work with Blogger BETA.

This is a new, partly experimental, upgrade to my inline comments form. Credit goes to Aditya of The Last Word for inspiring this hack. Comments are posted without ever leaving the post page and then the page is reloaded. You never see the Blogger comment page unless there is an error. The form is still coComment compatible and supports posting using your Blogger account ๐Ÿ™‚

  1. Word verification for comments must be turned off (to do this go to the ‘comments’ tab in your blog settings, scroll to ‘Show word verification for comments?’ and select ‘No’)
  2. Turn comment posting by anonymous users on (to do this go to the ‘comments’ tab in your blog settings, scroll to ‘Who Can Comment?’ and select ‘Anyone’)
  3. Insert the following code into the <head> section of your blog template :
    <script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://jscripts.ning.com/get.php?xn_auth=no&amp;id=1338954;
    <script type=”text/javascript”>
    //<![CDATA[
    var comment_form_template = ‘<div class=”comment-poster”>[[AUTHOR]]</div>\n’
    + ‘<div class=”comment-body”><div class=”innerCmntBody”>[[BODY]]</div></div>\n’
    + ‘<div class=”comment-timestamp”><a href=”[[PERMALINK]]” title=”comment permalink”>[[DATE]]</a></div>\n’;
    //]]>
    </script>

  4. Insert the following code directly after your <body> tag:
    <iframe id=”comment_form_target” name=”comment_form_target” style=”display:none;” onload=”if(comment_form) {check_comment_posted();}”></iframe>
  5. Replace the <$BlogItemCreate$> tag with the following code:
    <div id=”comment_form_preview<$BlogItemNumber$>”></div>

    <ItemPage>
    <script type=”text/javascript”>

    var blogTool = “Blogger”;
    var blogURL = “<$BlogURL$>/”;
    var blogTitle = “<$BlogTitle$>”;
    var postURL = “<$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$>”;
    var postTitle = “<BlogItemTitle><$BlogItemTitle$></BlogItemTitle>”;
    var commentAuthorFieldName = “anonName”;
    var commentAuthorLoggedIn = “false”;
    var commentFormID = “cformtag<$BlogItemNumber$>”;
    var commentTextFieldName = “postBody”;
    var commentButtonName = “post”;
    var cocomment_force = false;

    </script>
    <script id=”cocomment-fetchlet” type=”text/javascript” src=”http://www.cocomment.com/js/cocomment.js </script>
    </ItemPage>

    <ItemPage><a href=”javascript:toggleitem(‘cform’);”>Post a Comment</a>
    <div style=”display:block;” id=”cform”></ItemPage>
    <MainOrArchivePage><a href=”javascript:toggleitem(‘cform<$BlogItemNumber$>’);”>Post a Comment</a>
    <div style=”display:none;” id=”cform<$BlogItemNumber$>”></MainOrArchivePage>
    <form target=”comment_form_target” id=”cformtag<$BlogItemNumber$>” action=”http://www.blogger.com/login-comment.do onsubmit=”comment_form_submit(this);isSubmit=true;” method=”post”><div>
    <input type=”hidden” name=”blogID” value=”<$BlogID$>” />
    <input type=”hidden” name=”postID” value=”<$BlogItemNumber$>” />
    <div>
    <h2 class=”sidebar-title form-title”><label class=”cbody”>Leave your comment </label></h2>
    <h2 class=”sidebar-title”> You can use some HTML tags, such as <b> &lt;b&gt;, &lt;i&gt;, &lt;a&gt; </b> </h2>
    <textarea name=”postBody” class=”comment” rows=”8″ cols=”40″ onkeyup=”comment_form_preview(this.form);”></textarea>
    <h2 class=”sidebar-title identity”> Choose an identity </h2>
    <div>
    <div>
    <input id=”idenBlogger<$BlogItemNumber$>” type=”radio” name=”iden” value=”Blogger” checked=”checked” onchange=”toggleitem(‘cfo<$BlogItemNumber$>’);comment_form_preview(this.form);” />
    <label> Your Blogger display name </label>
    </div>
    <div>
    <input type=”radio” name=”iden” value=”Other” onchange=”toggleitem(‘cfo<$BlogItemNumber$>’);comment_form_preview(this.form);” />
    <label>Other</label>
    <div style=”display:none;” id=”cfo<$BlogItemNumber$>”>
    <table style=”margin-left: 4em;” cellpadding=”0″ cellspacing=”0″>
    <tr> <td colspan=”2″ style=”padding-top:.4em;position:relative;left:-4em;” align=”left”> These fields are optional, but I would appreciate it if you filled them out. </td></tr>
    <tr> <td> <label> Name </label> </td>
    <td> <div class=”errorbox-good”> <input type=”text” name=”anonName” value=”” maxlength=”100″ class=”text” /> </div> </td> </tr>
    <tr> <td> <label> Your web page </label> </td>
    <td> <div class=”errorbox-good”> <input type=”text” name=”anonURL” value=”” maxlength=”100″ class=”text” /> </div> </td> </tr>
    </table>
    </div>
    </div>
    <div class=”diff-user”> Or you can sign in <a href=”http://www.blogger.com/login.g?r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fcomment.g%3FblogID%3D;$BlogID$>%26postID%3D<$BlogItemNumber$>”> as a different user</a>.</div>
    </div>
    </div>
    <div class=”errorbox-good”> </div>
    <p class=”buttons”>
    <input style=”margin-right:.3em” name=”post” value=”Publish Your Comment” class=”publish” type=”submit” tabindex=”2″ />
    <input value=”Preview” type=”submit” name=”preview” tabindex=”3″ />
    </p>
    </div></form>
    </div>

  6. Save your template and republish your blog

Note to advanced users : The variable set in step 3 is the template used by the script to generate previews. You can modify it to be closer to the code generated for comments on your blog so that users get a better preview ๐Ÿ™‚ Some may also wish to browse the JavaScript source.

My Title Here

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On? Going? Going on? Is something going on? I realy ought to post whether something is or not… ๐Ÿ˜‰ I don’t post nearly often enough here. My techblog got two posts in ten minutes the other day, and I leave my personal blog weeks without a thing happening? Hardly fair. But I do a lot more techie stuff than not! ๐Ÿ˜‰ In fact, just to be unfair, I’m gonna have a techie thingy later in this post. Why? You’ll see. But anyway.

School is over. Finito. Complet. All gone, bye bye, whoo see ya! I didn’t get the stunning stellar grade point that I have in the past, but I didn’t flunk anything by a long shot! (Except physics which was kinda close…) My diploma is in the mail and I have probably less than a month of access to NSA’s servers. Scary thought, that. We had a little grad party which I was dragged to against my will. Dan posted more about that. My book is coming along well, and while it’s a far cry from the ‘done’ I thought I might be able to pull off by the end of June, it is probably about half done. I think I may have actually hit something close to resembling publishible quality if I polish this. Not that that means anything, except that I am very satisfied with my own work ๐Ÿ™‚

Techy part. For any of you who blog in any capacity, using any service. Yes, even (and perhaps especially) you Xangans! I’m running a survey on my tech blog about the perfect blogging service. I know you Xangans think yours is the perfect blogging service, but bear with me ๐Ÿ˜‰ I would greatly appreciate your answering the servey and saying what features (that Xanga has, or doesn’t have) you would like most in your blog service. It will be great to get feedback from the more teenage-personal-blogger / Xanga side of the line as well as from the give-me-code-or-give-me-death side ๐Ÿ˜‰