FreshTags’ core has been without update for quite some time (and, I believe, does not even render properly on the New Blogger. My version has not fared much better (although I did upgrade it to work with the new blogger 
). Now it is time for some improvements!
For Blogger
Full integration with the New Blogger labels system! You have to paste a small code into your sidebar, and then FreshTags will pull its data directly from your local labels! Great for new users or people who have fully migrated. Best of all, to install this takes only a few steps on the wizard. Select ‘Blogger’ as the data source, enter your blog URL, change any other settings you might want, and click ‘Generate Code’. Copy the code presented into your sidebar and then click the generated button to instantly install the widget with your settings! (Does not work on FTP blogs.)
For Everywhere
There are now three wizards for my version of FreshTags. There is one to generate the JSON for individual widgets (hackers). There is one to generate the full code for anywhere (some knowledge necessary). Finally there is one that generates a one-click button (or instructions and a button) for the New Blogger.
For MediaWiki
That’s right. Go over to BloggerHacks to see it in action. FreshTags for MediaWiki! The wizards (above) can generate the code, but it’s a bit hackier to integrate with the sidebar. Check out the BloggerHacks Sidebar and Header Section to see how I did it (click the view source wiki tab for wikicode).
For WordPress
I have updated FreshTags for WordPress (with the help of my friend, Trevor Creech) to work as a WordPress Widget. If you don’t have widgets on your WordPress blog, don’t worry! It still works the old way.
14 Responses
Hello Stephen,
I chatted with you for a bit earlier today. I was wondering if you could help me as I’m new to blogging.
I used your wizard here (FreshTaggy) to generate the code, but I must have done something wrong (most probably when entering information in the wizard). The code worked fine, and created the drop-down menu showing the labels/tags on my blog, and when I selected a label, it displayed the blog entries for that label.
But, what I’m trying to accomplish is show all the blog titles for a particular label/tag (eg. “movie review”), so that a user can see all the blog entries (movies) for that ONE label in that drop-down menu.
I don’t have a delicious account, and I’d prefer not to use that. Also, using the new Blogger.
I’ve gone through the FAQ at http://singpolyma.net/2006/09/widgetdata/ that lists the controls on wizard and what they mean, but I must’ve missed something as I’m unable to figure out what I’m doing wrong when generating code.
Basically, I want to show all titles for tag/label “movie review” using a drop-down menu.
I appreciate your help with this.
Thanks.
-Amit
@Amit – First off, there is no tie between this system and del.icio.us unless you want there to be — all features work with or without it.
Second, if I understand correctly you want selecting a tag (tags in drop-down box) to asynchronously load the posts matching that into a drop-down box beneath the first? Or in a list of links underneath? If so, I’ll look at how to get it to do that (shouldn’t be hard 🙂 ).
Stephen,
Thanks for your response.
> Second, if I understand correctly you want selecting a tag (tags in
> drop-down box) to asynchronously load the posts matching that into
> a drop-down box beneath the first?
Not quite. What I’m looking for is to show all the Titles of the blog that have been tagged with a particular tag/label (hard-coded) show up in the drop-down box (alphabetical order would be nice). I won’t be selecting the tags in the drop-down box, only the blog title. And, selecting the blog title will load the corresponding URL/blog entry in the blog.
For example, on recipe blogs, a drop-down box that shows all the entries that have been tagged as “Appetizers”, or “Desserts” etc. So, the drop-down box would show the blog titles for “Appetizers”, another would show blog titles for “Desserts” and so on.
I have a feeling I probably misunderstood the purpose of the wizard/fresh tags. Not that I won’t use it 🙂 as it is quite useful if the number of labels/tags is huge.
I hope this is not confusing, and I appreciate any help. Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks.
-Amit
Oops, just to use your terms to be consistent:
“What I’m looking for is to show all the POST titles that have been tagged…”
“I won’t be selecting the tags in the drop-down box, only the POST title.”
“So, the drop-down box would show the POST titles for “Appetizers”,…”
@Amit – So you’re looking to have a drop-down list of posts from a particular tag/label (which you have pre-decided) in your sidebar? I can probably do that too… 🙂
Yes!! That will be a great help to me. Would it be possible to sort/show the posts in alphabetical order? 🙂
Thanks!!
-Amit
Stephen,
Quick questions regarding the fresh tags/wizard. Is there an option to view the labels/tags in the drop-down list in alphabetical order instead of by frequency of posts?
Thanks.
-Amit
Hi Stephen.
Could you please help me with this?
URL: http://hacksandbox.blogspot.com/
I have added the drop-down list of labels using the wizard.
I’m not able to figure out how to limit the options shown in the drop-down list to a few that I specify/hard-code, instead of showing them all. You’d mentioned something about using a local variable, but I’m not sure where and how to change the code for that.
Also, -after- I select an option from the drop-down list (e.g. Movie Review), is there a way to display the results in alphabetical order? Right now, I believe they are being shown in the order they were posted (by date).
Thanks.
-Amit
Sorry, it’s the one that says “Labels from Stephen” (second one) and not the one above it.
-a
hi .. its really a great plugin. One doubt, Whenever i click on the link in my related post , the related posts doesnt change and remains static . can you please check
http://www.tecfre.com is my site..
To limit the tags shown, use the wizard to generate with source as ‘Blogger’… then edit the code you’re told to cut-n-paste after the = to be:
[‘tag1′,’tag2’,…]
To change the sort order, change the settings on freshtags_posts to sort:alpha
🙂
@kanak — where do you have the posts from FreshTags showing? The category list looks like it might be generated by FT, but the related posts doesn’t seem to be…
yeah !! when i didn’t get any response from your for a day or so :-(, I changed it to some other related post plugin. But i am still using the Fresh tags for categories.
@kanak — the problem may have been that you don’t seem to be calling wp_head() anywhere in your template…