Vacuous Virtuoso » Wordpress

Google Subscribed Links

Ankur — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 06:11:59 +0000

Google Subscribed Links allows users to subscribe to XML documents provided by websites. If a subscriber then searches Google for a keyword that matches an item from the XML document, the item is displayed at the top of the results page, and highlighted.

I wrote a plugin for WordPress that allows you submit your RSS feed to Google Coop.

Speed Cache

Ankur — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:17:19 +0000

Another WordPress plugin. I’ve been using this on my own site for a long time and, after people encountered 404s searching for it, have decided to publish it.

Speed Cache basically takes external files such as javascript and CSS and mirrors them on your own server. I’m not going to go into detail about why you’d want to do this - you either do or you don’t. If you do, then feel free to use the plugin.

Here it is.

Support questions in the comments for now, but I’m not providing any guarantees. This post may be replaced by a proper info page about the plugin sometime in the future, but at the moment that’s unlikely.

New Digg API

Ankur — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 05:27:55 +0000

Digg have finally officially released their Digg button API. I’ll be working to get the new features into Gregarious as well as finally adding support for videos. Stay tuned!

Gregarious 2.0 Beta 1

Ankur — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 03:28:40 +0000

It’s finally here… The first Beta of the next generation Wordpress social bookmarking plugin - with more features, options and functionality than ever before. The whole system has been (almost) re-written from scratch. That’s a spinning head, tired brain, and over 1500 lines of code.

New features include:

Drastically improved UI, organized structure to the admin page
PostBadge: unlimited control over the Digg button / Share This link placement, without touching the template
Extremely cool “check for updates” feature
Addition of template tags digg_button() and share_this()
Dynamic overview (pictured above) lets you know the critical details
Completely automated alerts and messaging system. The plugin will tell you when something’s wrong. It’s alive!
Sweetened up interface using javascript effects, and fam-fam-fam’s silk icons.

Who says Wordpress can’t handle Digg?

A big thank you to all the other Digg plugins out there. The half-implementations, buggy, or just plain annoying plugins were the inspiration behind Gregarious. Alex King deserves a round of applause for his Share This plugin, which comes bundled with (more like merged with) Gregarious. Some of the javascript and CSS from the interface was borrowed from RapidWeaver’s placeholder, and the insertAtCursor function is courtesy of phpMyAdmin.

Plans for the final release include adding a page to view a list of Dugg posts, enabling / disabling the Digg button for certain posts, documentation, built-in help system (for the whole mass of options) and a few more surprises.

This is a Beta test, so it is a condition of usage that you provide feedback, whether it be bug reports, feature suggestions or opinions and desires.

Get Gregarious

Gregarious update

Ankur — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 07:32:44 +0000

A prelude to v2, this version includes numerous fixes and updates including:

Completely revised update-checking system.
Upgrade to Share This 1.3.1
Enhanced integration between Share This and Gregarious.
and a few spelling mistakes have been corrected.

p>Click “check for updates” under your options page, or download it from here.

Version 2.0 of Gregarious is currently in development and is shaping up to be the biggest, best looking and easiest to use social bookmarking plugin going around. Seriously, it’s good. The biggest change will be the interface - I’m reusing bits of the Rapidweaver “Placeholder”, so expect some real goodness as far as the UI is concerned. Extra options, as well as many requested features will make their debut and Gregarious will go from being a plugin to a critical extension of Wordpress. I’m even thinking of adapting it (later) to work on other CMS systems and even standalone PHP pages. I’m very excited about the latest developments, and eagerly looking forward to hearing your suggestions for the next big thing in social bookmarking. Let me know if there’s any features you’d like to see added to the plugin, and I’ll be sure to work them in if they’re doable. If you’d like to stay updated with pre-release versions of Gregarious, just let me know and I’ll regularly send you updates to try out before the big one!

Thanks to all of you for making Gregarious such a big success!

Testing Gregarious

Ankur — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 22:16:54 +0000

A lot of people seem to be having trouble running the Gregarious plugin, though it’s working fine on my site - or is it? This is just a test to see if the plugin picks up the referrer as Digg. If it doesn’t, that means that the change at Digg was big enough to warrant another overhaul of the plugin. Since Gregarious is one of the more advanced plugins, it checks back to Digg to ensure that the referral was really from the Digg page and not from a comment. Could this be the cause of the complaints, as Digg just went through another update? If the Digg badge shows at the bottom of this post, it’s proof that the plugin still works. Otherwise, I need to bury my head in code again to make a few more changes to this social bookmarking plugin.

So, is it working?

WP Plugin: Gregarious

Ankur — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 05:18:53 +0000

Due to time constraints, I cannot guarantee support for this plugin.
Not compatible with WP 2.5.

Dynamic Buttons

I’m Diggin’ it

Gregarious uses the brand new Digg APIs to generate a dynamic ‘Digg It’ button on your post that shows the number of Diggs and allows the user to Digg post. No manual work is needed - the plugin knows when a post has been ‘dugg’ and sticks the button onto your post with no effort, leaving you free to write quality content. That’s right. Just activate it, and watch your traffic shoot through the roof.

Have you reddit?

Another great social bookmarking site that features dynamic buttons is Reddit. Again, integration is no hassle. Just turn on the Reddit button from the Gregarious options page, and you’re laughing. No manual labor, no long and complicated PHP scripts, and no coding. One click and you’re away!

More Features

Wow, could Gregarious possibly have more features? You betcha! As well as merely adding Digg and Reddit buttons, Gregarious has the following nifty additions:

General Features

Complete admin interface with options regarding all configurable aspects of plugin including styles, display options (show on post, page, home, etc.) Digg link style (button, image or text link), and more.
Check for updates automatically so you’re never out of date.
No template customizations or coding knowledge necessary as the plugin handles everything for you, and then some.
Choose the position of the buttons. Do you want them before or after your post content?

Digg related features

Uses the brand new Digg API to generate dynamic buttons.
Gregarious automatically knows if your post has been “Dugg” using DiggDetect™.
You decide what to show for posts which have been Dugg or those which are yet to be Dugg. You can customize the links, show a dynamic or compact badge, an image - or choose not show anything.
Configurable “What’s this?” link, so your users know exactly what they’re up against.
Ease up on the bandwidth by using a text link instead of an image or Digg button if you need to.

Reddit integration

Choose between three styles of buttons, from the eye-candy laden to the minimalistic.
Customize the position of the button easily from the options page.
Easy to use with no work required.

Other social bookmarking sites

Submit your post to heaps of bookmarking sites with Alex Kings’s Share This plugin built right into Gregarious (it comes integrated - no further installation needed).
Take advantage of further customization with options for Share This in the Gregarious admin panel.
Add, remove, edit or rearrange social sites for the Share This plugin - an indispensable feature.

Download

Version 1.9.xx

Gregarious can be downloaded from the WordPress.org Gregarious page. (The link below points to the download from that page)

Direct Download

Installation and Usage

How do you install Gregarious, the ultimate social bookmarking plugin for Wordpress? It couldn’t be easier. After downloading the package, Unzip. Upload. Activate.

The options menu should show up in your administration under Options -> Gregarious. Here’s a screenshot:

If you wish to add social sites for Share This, you’ll need to CHMOD the akst.js and akst.css files to 777. Don’t worry if you don’t know what this means or can’t do this - Gregarious has alternative methods to cope.

Configuration

The plugin will work fine immediately after activation, but you may want to change some options to customize it. Gregarious can be configured from the Options tab of the administration panel in Wordpress. Just click on the Gregarious Options link. As mentioned earlier, there are a plethora of options and choices available, so feel free to tweak it to your needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

I installed and activated Gregarious, but the Digg button / Share link isn’t showing on my posts.

Gregarious uses different modules to provide all the features for your site. The PostBadge module is the one that appends content to your posts. If there isn’t anything showing on your posts, make sure that the PostBadge module is turned on, as well as the modules for whatever features you want. (For example, the Share This module shows the Share link, and the Digg button module shows the Digg button or link). Activating a module will also add options to the Gregarious options page so you can configure it.

The Share This link takes me to a separate page. How do I get the popup dialog to show?

To show the Share This popup on your site rather than linking to a Share This page, you need to ensure:

That there is a call somewhere in the footer.php file of your template.
That there are no javascript errors on your site (due to your template or theme).
That there is a call somewhere in the header.php file of your template.
~~And that you’re either running WordPress 2.1 or above or have prototype.js referenced in the section of the page.~~Gregarious no longer requires prototype.js

Generally, it’s the lack or misplacement of the call that causes the popup not to show. If you still can’t get it working, ask me.

Template Integration

Currently, Gregarious’ feature-set includes various template tags that have been set up to be easy to use and integrate into any theme. Whether you’re a WordPress theme developer, or interested in more precise integration of social bookmarking to your blog, ask me about it.