Discussions

BETA! BlogCatalog WordPress Sidebar Widget

Posted by thegoodknife • 8/02/07 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: announcement, blogcatalog, feedback, plugin, widget, wordpress

Hey guys, we've just written a plugin for wordpress to allow you to easily insert and manage your blogcatalog recent readers widget. We're looking for any feedback as to how the plugin performs and how we can make it better.

To add the plugin to your site:

Download the BlogCatalog widget file: www.blogcatalog.com/download/blogcatalog_widget.zip and Unzip its contents into your WordPress 'wp-content/plugins/widgets/' directory.

Select the "Plugins" tab and find the plugin named "BlogCatalog Sidebar Widget". Click on "Activate" to activate the plugin.

Select the "Presentation" tab, then the "Sidebar Widgets" subtab. Drag and drop the BlogCatalog widget into the template sidebar. Click on the widget setting and follow the instructions to complete the setup.

Note: If youre not running WordPress 2.2 or higher you maye first need to download and install the Sidebar Widgets Plugin at automattic.com/code/widgets/

User Comments

8/02/07

thegoodknife

no takers?

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8/02/07

clioandme

Sorry, I use Blogger.

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8/02/07

identikit

i dont use WordPress. But thanks for the good job !

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8/02/07

ladynada

note you said:
If youre not running WordPress 2.2 or higher you maye first need to download and install the Sidebar Widgets Plugin at automattic.com/code/widgets/

I think you meant wordpress 2.1.3 or lower... not certain.. I use 2.1.3
um okay lemme try it.

nada

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8/02/07

ladynada

okay,
I tested it on my local test wp 2.1.3. blog and it works fine. I am keeping the manual one I made because I already configured my little header title above it and whatnot.

but yes, it works fine and I think, please you should leave both the manual option and this widget one.

nada

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1. 8/02/07
  
  thegoodknife
  
  Thanks for the feedback!
8/02/07

Phattitudes

if you give me a few, i'll try it

and woohoo for beta.

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8/02/07

scorpy01

I've got the regular one in a text widget on one blog now. Give me a minute or two and I'll use the widget on my other blog.

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8/02/07

badm00n

Trying it now..

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8/02/07

scorpy01

Works fine.

Just a thought. I had no problem with it but those who don't know hexadecimal values for colors might find it too complicated. It looks like you're trying to do something to make it easier but I'm not sure how easy it will be for those who are unfamiliar with RGB.

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1. 8/03/07
  
  thegoodknife
  
  good point, it may be wise to include a color picker in the next version.
8/03/07

badm00n

Yup seems to work fine.

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8/03/07

AldianP

I don't use widget. Simply insert the snippet into my sidebar.php

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8/03/07

pointlessbanter

I have wordpress mu... I get afraid to try anything new with it... But I will give it a go

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8/03/07

rvnx11

Seems like any time I try to use blogcatalog in my wordpress sidebar it turns out too wide no matter what I set the width. This plugin has the same effect so I have to display blogcatalog at the bottom of the page. Would love to be able to figure that one out...

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1. 8/14/07
  
  ladynada
  
  um how about a overflow:hidden in css?
  
  say demonicume:
  how did you do that? I know an MU site owner who would be interested.
  
  nada
8/06/07

m38967

Is anyone using this? I would like to see it, before i fuss with it. Leave your URL below, if you have it on your blog. Thx!

Missy.

[reply]
1. 8/06/07
  
  thegoodknife
  
  blog.blogcatalog.com
8/10/07

demonicume

i'm using it on my site. i do appreciate it very much. i run a blogging site, similar to wordpress.com. allowing bloggers to stick javacript in a text widget would open my lil site up to pwnge - just like Blogger. this widget allows my user the chance to continue to use their normal wordpress widgets. i eventually figured a way to allow the java script without opening up a thousand vulnerabilities.

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8/16/07

LimitZer0

Too bad there is no way to make the widget disappear when there are no recent viewers. I hate it when its empty. =[

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8/16/07

cooper

Is it siilar to the one for wordpress?

I prefer the widgets as they do not cause as many validation problems as the code. I wish everyone would design them with a transparent option though.

It's not hard to look up hex values - you actually get a better color match that way.

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1/10/08

Cendres

Sorry to bump, I was looking everywhere for a wordpress compatible blogcatalog widget and what do you know, there's one right here!
Thanks a lot it works beautifully on my site and I like the hexadecimal options as it gives the user far more freedom to match the plugin to their template's colors.

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1/11/08

F4bloggers

Why would we need a plugin for this? Any extra added features?

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1. 1/11/08
  
  thegoodknife
  
  Just makes it easier to apply changes to your widget
1/11/08

PetLvr

Sorry .. don't believe in Wordpress widgets.

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1/11/08

kdawg68

does this work for regular wordpress dot com users, or do you have to have access to the css code? I'd love to try but I'm a bit technology challenged.

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1/11/08

godsofchaos

Works smooooooooth!

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5/21/08

hakimtea

awsome, nice job mann, I use it, thanks!

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5/21/08

RecycleCindy

Looks good but can you make it bigger. For my old eyes, the icons are a bit small.

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