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Friday, 12 April 2013

How To Use The New Blogger HTML Editor

The Blogger template editor now includes a number of changes that seem interesting and make it much more friendly than it was.

To begin with, what we see now is all the template's code starting with numbered and colored lines showing us different code snippets: tags, variables, properties, etc.. depending on the HTML, CSS, JavaScript and even the language of Blogger - include, b:if and other occurrences.

blogger template, blogger tricks, blogger widgets

This is what any decent external editor does, but certainly, from now on it will be much easier to find that little bug that drives us crazy when we omit quotation marks or add one more semicolon. This also applies to CSS, which appears mostly in dark blue without distinguishing selectors and rules, but the rest is a major improvement.
Another great help are the numbers that appear in front of each fragment of code, so that we can easily pinpoint and correct errors of this type: "Error parsing XML, line 103, column 9: The element ... "

Using the New Blogger Template HTML Editor

When you want to search for a code in the HTML editor, click inside the editor and press CTRL + F on your keyboard, then enter what you want to find in the search box that appears inside the editor.

Finally, hit the "ENTER" button on your keyboard and it should take you to the requested code.

If you want to be taken to the section of code that belongs to a particular widget, just click on the Jump To Widget button at the top of the editor, choose the widget's name from the list and it will take you directly to that portion of code.

The CSS rules can be found folded at the top of the template, between <b:skin>...</b:skin> and <b:template-skin>...</b:template-skin> tags. To expand them, you have to click on the sideways arrow next to the line number.

Another great functionality is that now we can Preview Template in the same window without needing to leave the page and we can easily go back to customize our template by clicking on the Edit Template button.

Finally, Format template re-orders the code, adding indentation automatically.

As always, we must use the Save button for the changes to take effect or we can Revert the changes.

And that's it. With a bit of effort, we can easily familiarize with this new HTML editor. Surely as usual and even reasonable to be something inherent in the human condition, this change does not appeal to many. Same with the Lightbox for images, the new template designer, the new desktop and other new things that have been added in the past. But who now remembers that they once were new?
----------
For more info, check out this post on the Blogger Buzz blog, where Google software engineers +Samantha Schaffer and +Renee Kwang explained the steps for moving the date of a blog post from above the post title to underneath it, as an example in using the new Blogspot HTML editor.

Monday, 1 April 2013

Show Recent Posts With Thumbnails For Particular Label or Category in Blogger

Sometimes we want to have everything organized, so that our readers can find topics of interest more easily. To accomplish this, instead of putting a widget with the latest posts, we can put together the latest entries sorted by category, so that we'll be able to show the latest posts for each label we want and also display a thumbnail for our category.

To add this recent posts widget for labels or categories in a Blogger blog, follow the next steps:

Tuesday, 19 March 2013

CSS Basics. How to Apply Rounded Corners On Images #2

blogger tricks, css tricks, border radius

In the previous post I have mentioned that we will learn about how to create rounded images using CSS, without needing to edit them one by one using a program. Now that we have seen the basics of CSS, let's try to apply it on some pictures.

What we will do in this tutorial is to upload an image (HTML) and then add some rules in the stylesheet that will transform the outer shape to look like a circle... or, at least, to appear round. This will depend on the proportions of that picture we will use.

In fact, we can apply this effect to any picture, to a specific part of our blog or to all the pictures found in our blog. This depends on your tastes.

Marking up HTML

Obviously, the first thing we need to do in order to set a rounded border around an image is to get a picture and upload it to get the html structure. The code could be a little bit more complicated, but an image is built within the img tag, which basically, looks like this:

<img src="image_URL"/>

Screenshot:

Adding this code inside the HTML of the post with the url of our image - instead of the text in blue - we will be able to display it like this image on the left.

Usually, it might also contain an alt text, and sometimes, may have some predetermined dimensions (with a specific width and/or height). When we upload an image using the Blogger post editor, the code will also have a link pointing to the original image.

But if we want to modify this image using CSS, we need to add a class selector. We can add it in two ways: within the img tag or in a parent box. The name that I have chosen for the image selector is roundedcorners, however, you can add any name you want:

<img class="roundedcorners" src="image_URL"/>

<div class="roundedcorners">
<img src="image_URL"/>
</div>

Applying style to all homogeneous elements

But that selector alone won't do anything special. It needs to be linked to a style rule telling what to do with it. The same if when we add just classes, if these are not defined within the CSS, the appearance of a picture (or a certain element) will not change.

To change the shape of the all the pictures on our blog, this is what we should add to our CSS:

img {
border: 2px solid #BADA55;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
border-radius: 1000px;
-moz-border-radius: 1000px;
}

And how this translates to your browser?

Search for images by name tag (img) and apply the following style:

a solid green border of 2 pixels
set the margins (space outside the border) and padding (space inside the border) to zero
apply the rounded corner look to all the four corners

Now that we have this rule in our style sheet itself, we'll be able to see the picture as we want - take a look at the image on the right.

To declare a property correctly, we need to know what it does and how to write it - details which could be found all over the internet, although W3C is the authority in this.

For instance, the border-radius property initially requires four (4) values reading from left to right, which represent the roundness of the upper-left, upper-right, lower-right and lower-left corner. If you add a single value, it will make all the four corners to be equal with that value.

It is important to mention that when the value of the border exceeds the dimensions of the container, this border will create a circle.

How to apply the same style on the elements of the same container

Sometimes, we don't want all the images on our blog to be round, but only the ones that we choose, otherwise adding the style above within the head tag will make all the pictures taking this shape. Before, we used an HTML tag (img) and not a selector and, for this reason, the style will affect all our images.
To avoid this, we can do one of the things we saw at the beginning of this post and that was to place the image inside a div with the roundedcorners class. This way, only the images within the container with that class will be affected by the rule that will make them round.

<div class="roundedcorners"><img src="image_URL"/></div>

But the rule then should not affect the img tag directly, but the roundedcorners selector. In this case, you should write it like this:

.roundedcorners img {
border: 2px solid #BADA55;
....
}

This implies that this style applies only to images that are within the container with the roundedcorners class.

Final words

To end this tutorial on creating pictures with rounded borders, keep in mind that if these are not square, instead of becoming circular, they will look oval:

To fix this we should add the width and height with the same measure (value in pixels) to force the image cropping and to make it appear perfectly circular. That was all!

If you enjoy reading this blog, please share and subscribe. For any questions, drop a comment below ;)

Monday, 18 March 2013

CSS Basics. How to Apply Rounded Corners On Images #1

This tutorial will explain how to change the outside border of any image by using some simple CSS rules to make it round, but this is so easy doing this, that I'm finally going to make this post for other purposes.

rounded corners, css tricks, blogger tricks, blogger design

The trick today that I'm going to publish in two parts is to help you to understand, at least, a little of what CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is.

For those who would like to learn more, please take a look at this link and for those who really want to learn thoroughly, I recommend to visit this site.

Introduction and terminology

Style sheets aim to help sort out what is the structure of a website and which is its format or appearance. So, the CSS box model is, basically, a box that wraps around HTML elements, and determines how those boxes are presented in terms of colors, fonts, width, backgrounds etc.

The advantage is that, anytime we decide to change something, we don't have to change all the pages one by one, but simply, change the properties from the style sheet and these modifications will automatically apply in all the pages.

The style sheet is a set of rules made of selectors and declarations. The selector is to be used as a nickname or name of what you want to configure from the style sheet and apply to the HTML, and declarations are properties to which we add the desired values ??(more information on CSS syntax)

Adding the CSS selector

If we add, for example, the code above in our style sheet, we might not see anything particular happening in our website. As I have mentioned above, the selector relates to the HTML and CSS so, if we want a box to take these values ??for width, background color, border and font size, we need to include the selector within the HTML of a page element, like this:

<div class="SelectorName">Text here</div>

Here we added a rule telling the browser to interpret that this box has to be of a certain type or class. This class or selector could have some specific properties and values ??defined in the style sheet, as you can see in the image above.

Now let's see how this will change the look of the box, while all others that don't have the SelectorName name will follow the standard appearance.

Basically, when we add a rule in a style sheet, or modify an existing one, what happens is that all boxes marked with that selector will change their appearance according to the properties and values that we have defined in the style sheet.

Where to add the CSS style

This style can be added in external CSS files - create the CSS file with all the rules, upload it on a hosting site and get the URL of the file. To make use of it, include the following line in the header of your template. For Blogger, you can add it between <head> and <b:skin><![CDATA[/*:

<link href="syle.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>

Note: replace the text in blue with the url of the CSS file.

You can also add the style directly in the HTML of the template by adding the CSS between the style tags:

<style>
.SelectorName {
background-color: #EAEAEA;
border: 1px solid #444444;
width: 200px;
font-size: 12px;
}
</style>

This can be added in the HTML of a page element as well. In this case, you don't need to add any selector to indicate where the CSS style is:

<div style="background-color: #EAEAEA; border: 1px solid #444444; width: 200px; font-size: 12px;">Text here</div>

In Blogger, the rules are between the <b:skin><![CDATA[/* and ]]></b:skin> skin tags. If we access the HTML of our template, we will find a bunch of codes in between these tags, which is actually the CSS styling that defines the appearance of our blog.

For those who don't want to touch the template code, we can add the CSS directly by going to the Blogger Template designer > Advanced > Add CSS.

That's enough for today. In the next tutorial we'll get to know how to add rounded corners to our images using CSS -> how to set a rounded borders around an image using CSS.

Sunday, 17 March 2013

10 Places to put Adsense ads in Blogger

In this article we'll talk about the most common 10 places in our blog where we can add AdSense ads and about how we can implement these and we'll get to know as well which are the most suitable formats based on those available in our AdSense account.

Adsense Advertisements

In the Sidebar

How to implement

This is one of the easiest areas to put AdSense. Just go to the Page Elements (Layout), click on the "Add a Gadget" link, then add an HTML/Javascript widget with your ad code inside it or add directly an AdSense widget.

Recommended formats: 125 � 125, 120 � 600 and 160 � 600, 300 x 600

Between posts

blogger posts, blogger tricks, adsense ads

Implementation. You can add AdSense ads between your posts by going to Layout, click on the "Edit" link below the Blog Posts section, then check the "Show Ads Between Posts" option.

Recommended formats: 468 � 60, 300 � 250 and 336 � 280

Under the header

Implementation:

Before anything, you need to convert your AdSense ad code - you can use this converter here:

AdSense Ad Converter

Next thing to do is to go to your Blogger Template (log in to your Blogger Dashboard, click on Template and press the Edit HTML button) and click anywhere inside the code area to search for the following code using the CTRL + F keys:

<div id='header-wrapper'>

Paste the converted code right after it.

Recommended formats: 728 � 90 and 728 � 15

Above the blog posts

Implementation:

Convert your ad code and search for <div id='main-wrapper'> in your template.

Paste the converted code right after it.

Recommended formats: 460 � 68, 468 � 15 and 336 � 280

Under the post title (this will be visible on all the pages)

money online, blogger tricks, how to blogger

Implementation:

Convert your AdSense ad code and go to your Template > Edit HTML > click anywhere inside the code area and search for the following line (CTRL + F):

<div class='post-header-line-1'/>

Note: if you can't find it, search it without the ending slash /

Paste the converted code right after it.

Recommended formats: 468 � 68 and 468 � 15

Under the post title (visible only on the posts pages)

Implementation:

Convert your ad code and then go to your Template, click anywhere inside the code area and look for:

<div class='post-header-line-1'/>

Note: if you can't find it, search it without the trailing slash /

Paste the converted code, following this example:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>



</b:if>

Recommended formats: 468x68 and 468x15

In the posts' footer

Implementation:

Convert your ad code and then go to your Template > click anywhere inside the code area and look for:

<p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'/>

Note: if you can't find it, search it without the trailing slash /

Paste the converted code right after this line.

Recommended formats: 468x68 and 468x15

In the post's body (it will be visible on all pages)

Implementation:

Convert your ad code and then go to your Template > click anywhere inside the code area and look for:

<div class='post-body entry-content'>

Note: in case you don't fint this code, search only for <div class='post-body'>

And paste the converted code by following the example below:

<div style='float:right'>



</div>

Recommended formats: 125x125, 180x150, 120x240 and 200x200

In the post's body (visible only in post pages)

Convert your ad code and then go to your Template, click anywhere inside the cod area and look for:

<div class='post-body entry-content'>

Note: in case you don't fint this code, search only for <div class='post-body'>

And paste the converted code by following this example:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<div style='float:right'>



</div>
</b:if>

Recommended formats: 125x125, 180x150, 120x240 and 200x200

Between post and comments (visible only on posts pages)

Implementation:

Convert your ad code and then go to your Template, click anywhere inside the code area and look for:

</b:includable>
<b:includable id='postQuickEdit' var='post'>

Paste the converted code just above it, following this example:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>



</b:if>

Recommended formats: 468x60, 300x250 and 336x280

In the blog's footer

blogger footer, adsense ads, make money online

Implementation:

Convert your ad code and then go to your Template, click anywhere inside the code area and look for:

<div id='footer-wrapper'>

Paste the converted code right after it.

Recommended formats: 728x90 and 728x15

FAQ

Some questions that are likely to arise:

I can't find the codes, what should I do?
When searching for a specific code, make sure that you have no spaces before/after it. These are the default codes of Blogger and should be found in all the templates unless they have been modified by the template designer.

Why should I convert my AdSense code?
The Blogger's Template reads it as text and not as code so it is better to avoid any errors when trying to save it.

The ads are not displaying properly, why is that?
The ads could be affected by the styles (CSS) selectors (divs) containing them and some templates could be wrong designed, then you should consider modifying these styles, look for another relevant place or in extreme cases, change the template.

Can I put the all 10 codes on my blog?
No, you should choose just one of the locations where you want to put the ads considering that AdSense have some limits on the number of ads that could be displayed. Try to make a balance with your content.

Why there should be only 3 ads displayed on the main page?
This is due to the limit set by AdSense. Combine the type of ads (text, rich media ads and link units) if you want to show more ads.
Hopefully, this guide will be useful to those of you who need to display AdSense ads on your blog.

Friday, 15 March 2013

Recent Comments Widget with Hide Author Function

Step 1. From your Blogger Dashboard, go to Layout and click on Add a Gadget link

Step 2. In the pop-up window, choose the HTML/JavaScript widget

Step 3. Copy-paste the following code:

Recent Comments Widget with Round Avatars:

Click to see the code

<style type="text/css">
.rc{padding-left:24px; padding-top: 6px;}
.rc a:hover {color: #F3903E;text-decoration: none;}
.rc-ico{margin-left:-20px;margin-top:4px;float:left; margin-right:3px}
.rc-ico img {margin-top: -2px;margin-right:5px; border: 2px solid #fff;~~-webkit-border-radius: 100px;-moz-border-radius: 100px;border-radius: 100px;~~-webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, .4);-moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, .4);box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, .4);
-webkit-transition: all 1s ease-in-out;
-moz-transition: all 1s ease-in-out;
-o-transition: all 1s ease-in-out;
-ms-transition: all 1s ease-in-out; }
.rc-ico img:hover {-webkit-transform: rotate(360deg);
-moz-transform: rotate(360deg);
-o-transform: rotate(360deg);
-ms-transform: rotate(360deg);}
.rc-header{font-size: 13px;}
.rc-header a{}
.rc-body{font-style: italic; font-size:11px;padding: 0px 4px 1px 10px;border: 1px solid transparent;}
.rc-footer{font-size:11px; float: right;}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
var numRecentComments = 5;
var maxCommentChars = 67;
var trueAvatars = true;
var urlMyAvatar = '';
var urlMyProfile = '';
var cropAvatar = true;
var sizeAvatar = 50;
var urlNoAvatar = "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkrzvu4y4PkqTRpat7ntdbuDlZZzXxnVDTEMy52kjVjG7RGS0SZpKTcy0yAskNkXG9dPFoEsjaO3eWmomRg1upbPC0AiuFHdA3K1KC_f9RAG1gHgEDCN3F2xZgdGmL9WWevzgWtwIiMrEe//"+sizeAvatar+"/anonymous-Icon.jpg";
var urlAnoAvatar = 'http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/00000000000000000000000000000000?d=mm&s=' + sizeAvatar;
var txtMore = '';
var txtWrote = 'commented:';
var txtAnonymous = '';
var maxResultsComments = "";
var numPerPost = 2;
var maxPostTitleChars = 40;
var getTitles = true;
var maxResultsPosts = "";
var txtTooltip = '[user] on "[title]" - [date MM-dd-yyyy hh:mm]';
var urlToTitle = {};
function replaceVars(text, user, title, date) {
text = text.replace('[user]', user);
text = text.replace('[date]', date.toLocaleDateString());
text = text.replace('[datetime]', date.toLocaleString());
text = text.replace('[time]', date.toLocaleTimeString());
text = text.replace('[title]', title.replace(/\"/g,'"'));
var i = text.indexOf("[date ");
if(i > -1) {
var format = /\[date\s+(.+?)\]/.exec(text)[1];
if(format != '') {
var txtDate = format.replace(/yyyy/i, date.getFullYear());
txtDate = txtDate.replace(/yy/i, date.getFullYear().toString().slice(-2));
txtDate = txtDate.replace("MM", String("0"+(date.getMonth()+1)).slice(-2));
txtDate = txtDate.replace("mm", String("0"+date.getMinutes()).slice(-2));
txtDate = txtDate.replace("ss", String("0"+date.getSeconds()).slice(-2));
txtDate = txtDate.replace("dd", String("0"+date.getDate()).slice(-2));
//or: txtDate = txtDate.replace("dd", date.getDate());
txtDate = txtDate.replace("hh", String("0"+date.getHours()).slice(-2));
//or: txtDate = txtDate.replace("hh", date.getHours());
text = text.replace(/\[date\s+(.+?)\]/, txtDate)
}
}
return text;
}
if(urlMyProfile == "") {
var elements = document.getElementsByTagName("*");
var expr = /(^| )profile-link( |$)/;
for(var i=0 ; i<elements.length ; i++)
if(expr.test(elements[i].className)) {
urlMyProfile = elements[i].href;
break;
}
}
function getPostUrlsForComments(json) {
for(var i = 0 ; i < json.feed.entry.length ; i++ ) {
var entry = json.feed.entry[i];
for (var k = 0; k < entry.link.length; k++ ) {
if (entry.link[k].rel == 'alternate') {
href = entry.link[k].href;
break;
}
}
urlToTitle[href] = entry.title.$t;
}
}
function showRecentComments(json) {
var postHandled = {};
var j = 0;
if(numPerPost) {
while(numPerPost < numRecentComments) {
for(var i = 0 ; i < json.feed.entry.length ; i++ ) {
var entry = json.feed.entry[i]; if(entry.author[0].name.$t=="Blogger User") continue;
if(entry["thr$in-reply-to"]) {
if(!postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href])
postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href] = 1;
else
postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href]++;
if(postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href] <= numPerPost)
j++;
}
}
if(j >= numRecentComments)
break;
numPerPost++;
j = 0;
postHandled = {};
}
if(numRecentComments == numPerPost)
numPerPost = 0;
}
postHandled = {};
j = 0;
for(var i = 0 ; j < numRecentComments && i < json.feed.entry.length ; i++ ) {
var entry = json.feed.entry[i]; if(entry.author[0].name.$t=="Blogger User") continue;
if(numPerPost && postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href] && postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href] >= numPerPost)
continue;
if(entry["thr$in-reply-to"]) {
if(!postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href])
postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href] = 1;
else
postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href]++;
j++;
var href='';
for (var k = 0; k < entry.link.length; k++ ) {
if (entry.link[k].rel == 'alternate') {
href = entry.link[k].href;
break;
}
}
if(href=='') {j--; continue; }
var hrefPost = href.split("?")[0];
var comment = "";
if("content" in entry) comment = entry.content.$t;
else comment = entry.summary.$t;
comment = comment.replace(/<br[^>]*>/ig, " ");
comment = comment.replace(/<\S[^>]*>/g, "");
var postTitle="-";
if(urlToTitle[hrefPost]) postTitle=urlToTitle[hrefPost];
else {
if(hrefPost.match(/\/([^/]*)\.html/)) postTitle = hrefPost.match(/\/([^/]*)\.html/)[1].replace(/_\d{2}$/, "");
postTitle = postTitle.replace(/-/g," ");
postTitle = postTitle[0].toUpperCase() + postTitle.slice(1);
}
if(maxPostTitleChars && postTitle.length > maxPostTitleChars) {
postTitle = postTitle.substring(0, maxPostTitleChars);
var indexBreak = postTitle.lastIndexOf(" ");
postTitle = postTitle.substring(0, indexBreak) + "...";
}

var authorName = entry.author[0].name.$t;
var authorUri = "";
if(entry.author[0].uri && entry.author[0].uri.$t != "")
authorUri = entry.author[0].uri.$t;
var avaimg = urlAnoAvatar;
var bloggerprofile = "http://www.blogger.com/profile/";
if(trueAvatars && entry.author[0].gd$image && entry.author[0].gd$image.src && authorUri.substr(0,bloggerprofile.length) == bloggerprofile)
avaimg = entry.author[0].gd$image.src;
else {
var parseurl = document.createElement('a');
if(authorUri != "") {
parseurl.href = authorUri;
avaimg = 'http://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=' + parseurl.hostname;
}
}
if(urlMyProfile != "" && authorUri == urlMyProfile && urlMyAvatar != "")
avaimg = urlMyAvatar;
if(avaimg == "http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" && urlNoAvatar != "")
avaimg = urlNoAvatar;
var newsize="s"+sizeAvatar;
avaimg = avaimg.replace(/\/s\d\d+-c\//, "/"+newsize+"-c/");
if(cropAvatar) newsize+="-c";
avaimg = avaimg.replace(/\/s\d\d+(-c){0,1}\//, "/"+newsize+"/");
if(authorName == 'Anonymous' && txtAnonymous != '' && avaimg == urlAnoAvatar)
authorName = txtAnonymous;
var imgcode = '<img height="'+sizeAvatar+'" width="'+sizeAvatar+'" title="'+authorName+'" src="'+avaimg+'" />';
if (authorUri!="") imgcode = '<a href="'+authorUri+'">'+imgcode+'</a>';
var clsAdmin = "";
if(urlMyProfile != "" && authorUri == urlMyProfile)
clsAdmin = " rc-admin";
var datePart = entry.published.$t.match(/\d+/g); // assume ISO 8601
var cmtDate = new Date(datePart[0],datePart[1]-1,datePart[2],datePart[3],datePart[4],datePart[5]);

var txtHeader = txtWrote;
if(txtWrote.indexOf('[')==-1)
txtHeader = authorName + ' ' + txtWrote;
else
txtHeader = replaceVars(txtHeader, authorName, postTitle, cmtDate);

var tooltip = replaceVars(txtTooltip, authorName, postTitle, cmtDate);
if(!/#/.test(href)) href += "#comments";
document.write('<div title="'+tooltip+'" class="rc'+clsAdmin+'">');
document.write('<div title="'+tooltip+'" class="rc-header'+clsAdmin+'"><div title="'+tooltip+'" class="rc-ico'+clsAdmin+'">'+imgcode+'</div><a title="'+tooltip+'" href="' + href + '">' + txtHeader + ' </a></div>');
if(comment.length < maxCommentChars)
document.write('<div title="'+tooltip+'" class="rc-body'+clsAdmin+'">' + comment + '</div>');
else {
comment = comment.substring(0, maxCommentChars);
var indexBreak = comment.lastIndexOf(" ");
comment = comment.substring(0, indexBreak);
document.write('<div title="'+tooltip+'" class="rc-body'+clsAdmin+'">' + comment + '...</div>');
if(txtMore != "") {
var moretext = replaceVars(txtMore, authorName, postTitle, cmtDate);
document.write('<div title="'+tooltip+'" class="rc-footer'+clsAdmin+'"><a title="'+tooltip+'" href="' + href + '">' + moretext + '</a></div>');
}
}
document.write('<div style="clear:both;"></div></div>');
}
}
}
if(getTitles)
document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://'+window.location.hostname+'/feeds/posts/summary?redirect=false'+maxResultsPosts+'&alt=json-in-script&callback=getPostUrlsForComments"></'+'script>');
document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://'+window.location.hostname+'/feeds/comments/default?redirect=false'+maxResultsComments+'&alt=json-in-script&callback=showRecentComments"></'+'script>');
</script>

Recent Comments Widget With Post Titles (no avatars):

Click to see the code

<style type="text/css">
.rc{margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 7px; border-bottom: 1px dotted;}
.rc-ico{float:left; margin-right:3px}
.rc-ico img {display:none; }
.rc-header{}
.rc-header a{color: #045FB4;}
.rc-body{font-style: italic; font-size: 12px; color: #444444; border: 0px dotted #000000;}
.rc-footer{font-size:11px; }
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
var numRecentComments = 5;
var maxCommentChars = 95;
var trueAvatars = true;
var urlMyAvatar = '';
var urlMyProfile = '';
var cropAvatar = true;
var sizeAvatar = 50;
var urlNoAvatar = "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkrzvu4y4PkqTRpat7ntdbuDlZZzXxnVDTEMy52kjVjG7RGS0SZpKTcy0yAskNkXG9dPFoEsjaO3eWmomRg1upbPC0AiuFHdA3K1KC_f9RAG1gHgEDCN3F2xZgdGmL9WWevzgWtwIiMrEe//"+sizeAvatar+"/anonymous-Icon.jpg";
var urlAnoAvatar = 'http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/00000000000000000000000000000000?d=mm&s=' + sizeAvatar;
var txtMore = '';
var txtWrote = '[user] commented on [title]';
var txtAnonymous = '';
var maxResultsComments = "";
var numPerPost = 2;
var maxPostTitleChars = 50;
var getTitles = true;
var maxResultsPosts = "";
var txtTooltip = 'Date: [date MM-dd-yyyy hh:mm]';
var urlToTitle = {};
function replaceVars(text, user, title, date) {
text = text.replace('[user]', user);
text = text.replace('[date]', date.toLocaleDateString());
text = text.replace('[datetime]', date.toLocaleString());
text = text.replace('[time]', date.toLocaleTimeString());
text = text.replace('[title]', title.replace(/\"/g,'"'));
var i = text.indexOf("[date ");
if(i > -1) {
var format = /\[date\s+(.+?)\]/.exec(text)[1];
if(format != '') {
var txtDate = format.replace(/yyyy/i, date.getFullYear());
txtDate = txtDate.replace(/yy/i, date.getFullYear().toString().slice(-2));
txtDate = txtDate.replace("MM", String("0"+(date.getMonth()+1)).slice(-2));
txtDate = txtDate.replace("mm", String("0"+date.getMinutes()).slice(-2));
txtDate = txtDate.replace("ss", String("0"+date.getSeconds()).slice(-2));
txtDate = txtDate.replace("dd", String("0"+date.getDate()).slice(-2));
//or: txtDate = txtDate.replace("dd", date.getDate());
txtDate = txtDate.replace("hh", String("0"+date.getHours()).slice(-2));
//or: txtDate = txtDate.replace("hh", date.getHours());
text = text.replace(/\[date\s+(.+?)\]/, txtDate)
}
}
return text;
}
if(urlMyProfile == "") {
var elements = document.getElementsByTagName("*");
var expr = /(^| )profile-link( |$)/;
for(var i=0 ; i<elements.length ; i++)
if(expr.test(elements[i].className)) {
urlMyProfile = elements[i].href;
break;
}
}
function getPostUrlsForComments(json) {
for(var i = 0 ; i < json.feed.entry.length ; i++ ) {
var entry = json.feed.entry[i];
for (var k = 0; k < entry.link.length; k++ ) {
if (entry.link[k].rel == 'alternate') {
href = entry.link[k].href;
break;
}
}
urlToTitle[href] = entry.title.$t;
}
}
function showRecentComments(json) {
var postHandled = {};
var j = 0;
if(numPerPost) {
while(numPerPost < numRecentComments) {
for(var i = 0 ; i < json.feed.entry.length ; i++ ) {
var entry = json.feed.entry[i]; if(entry.author[0].name.$t=="Blogger User") continue;
if(entry["thr$in-reply-to"]) {
if(!postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href])
postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href] = 1;
else
postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href]++;
if(postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href] <= numPerPost)
j++;
}
}
if(j >= numRecentComments)
break;
numPerPost++;
j = 0;
postHandled = {};
}
if(numRecentComments == numPerPost)
numPerPost = 0;
}
postHandled = {};
j = 0;
for(var i = 0 ; j < numRecentComments && i < json.feed.entry.length ; i++ ) {
var entry = json.feed.entry[i]; if(entry.author[0].name.$t=="Blogger User") continue;
if(numPerPost && postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href] && postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href] >= numPerPost)
continue;
if(entry["thr$in-reply-to"]) {
if(!postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href])
postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href] = 1;
else
postHandled[entry["thr$in-reply-to"].href]++;
j++;
var href='';
for (var k = 0; k < entry.link.length; k++ ) {
if (entry.link[k].rel == 'alternate') {
href = entry.link[k].href;
break;
}
}
if(href=='') {j--; continue; }
var hrefPost = href.split("?")[0];
var comment = "";
if("content" in entry) comment = entry.content.$t;
else comment = entry.summary.$t;
comment = comment.replace(/<br[^>]*>/ig, " ");
comment = comment.replace(/<\S[^>]*>/g, "");
var postTitle="-";
if(urlToTitle[hrefPost]) postTitle=urlToTitle[hrefPost];
else {
if(hrefPost.match(/\/([^/]*)\.html/)) postTitle = hrefPost.match(/\/([^/]*)\.html/)[1].replace(/_\d{2}$/, "");
postTitle = postTitle.replace(/-/g," ");
postTitle = postTitle[0].toUpperCase() + postTitle.slice(1);
}
if(maxPostTitleChars && postTitle.length > maxPostTitleChars) {
postTitle = postTitle.substring(0, maxPostTitleChars);
var indexBreak = postTitle.lastIndexOf(" ");
postTitle = postTitle.substring(0, indexBreak) + "...";
}

var authorName = entry.author[0].name.$t;
var authorUri = "";
if(entry.author[0].uri && entry.author[0].uri.$t != "")
authorUri = entry.author[0].uri.$t;
var avaimg = urlAnoAvatar;
var bloggerprofile = "http://www.blogger.com/profile/";
if(trueAvatars && entry.author[0].gd$image && entry.author[0].gd$image.src && authorUri.substr(0,bloggerprofile.length) == bloggerprofile)
avaimg = entry.author[0].gd$image.src;
else {
var parseurl = document.createElement('a');
if(authorUri != "") {
parseurl.href = authorUri;
avaimg = 'http://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=' + parseurl.hostname;
}
}
if(urlMyProfile != "" && authorUri == urlMyProfile && urlMyAvatar != "")
avaimg = urlMyAvatar;
if(avaimg == "http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" && urlNoAvatar != "")
avaimg = urlNoAvatar;
var newsize="s"+sizeAvatar;
avaimg = avaimg.replace(/\/s\d\d+-c\//, "/"+newsize+"-c/");
if(cropAvatar) newsize+="-c";
avaimg = avaimg.replace(/\/s\d\d+(-c){0,1}\//, "/"+newsize+"/");
if(authorName == 'Anonymous' && txtAnonymous != '' && avaimg == urlAnoAvatar)
authorName = txtAnonymous;
var imgcode = '<img height="'+sizeAvatar+'" width="'+sizeAvatar+'" title="'+authorName+'" src="'+avaimg+'" />';
if (authorUri!="") imgcode = '<a href="'+authorUri+'">'+imgcode+'</a>';
var clsAdmin = "";
if(urlMyProfile != "" && authorUri == urlMyProfile)
clsAdmin = " rc-admin";
var datePart = entry.published.$t.match(/\d+/g); // assume ISO 8601
var cmtDate = new Date(datePart[0],datePart[1]-1,datePart[2],datePart[3],datePart[4],datePart[5]);

var txtHeader = txtWrote;
if(txtWrote.indexOf('[')==-1)
txtHeader = authorName + ' ' + txtWrote;
else
txtHeader = replaceVars(txtHeader, authorName, postTitle, cmtDate);

var tooltip = replaceVars(txtTooltip, authorName, postTitle, cmtDate);
if(!/#/.test(href)) href += "#comments";
document.write('<div title="'+tooltip+'" class="rc'+clsAdmin+'">');
document.write('<div title="'+tooltip+'" class="rc-header'+clsAdmin+'"><div title="'+tooltip+'" class="rc-ico'+clsAdmin+'">'+imgcode+'</div><a title="'+tooltip+'" href="' + href + '">' + txtHeader + ' </a></div>');
if(comment.length < maxCommentChars)
document.write('<div title="'+tooltip+'" class="rc-body'+clsAdmin+'">' + comment + '</div>');
else {
comment = comment.substring(0, maxCommentChars);
var indexBreak = comment.lastIndexOf(" ");
comment = comment.substring(0, indexBreak);
document.write('<div title="'+tooltip+'" class="rc-body'+clsAdmin+'">' + comment + '...</div>');
if(txtMore != "") {
var moretext = replaceVars(txtMore, authorName, postTitle, cmtDate);
document.write('<div title="'+tooltip+'" class="rc-footer'+clsAdmin+'"><a title="'+tooltip+'" href="' + href + '">' + moretext + '</a></div>');
}
}
document.write('<div style="clear:both;"></div></div>');
}
}
}
if(getTitles)
document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://'+window.location.hostname+'/feeds/posts/summary?redirect=false'+maxResultsPosts+'&alt=json-in-script&callback=getPostUrlsForComments"></'+'script>');
document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://'+window.location.hostname+'/feeds/comments/default?redirect=false'+maxResultsComments+'&alt=json-in-script&callback=showRecentComments"></'+'script>');
</script>

Some changes before saving it.

- to set the number of comments to be shown, change the "5" value from the orange line
- for the number of characters, change the "67" (for the 2nd widget, it is 95) value from the green line
- to hide your comments, replace the Blogger User text TWICE with your username
- to change the size of avatar, change "50" from the blue line.
- if you don't want rounded avatars, delete this line:

~~-webkit-border-radius: 100px;-moz-border-radius: 100px;border-radius: 100px;~~

Step 4. Save your widget and you're done!

Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Add a Different Background For Author Comments in Blogger's Threaded Comments

In this tutorial we will learn how to highlight the author comments so that they will have a different background color, border, or anything that makes them stand out from the others. To achieve this, we need to add a code in the Blogger's template and to modify the style according to our preferences.

How to highlight author comments in Blogger:

Step 1. Go to Template, click on Edit HTML

blogger threaded comments, customize blogger comments

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and try to find - using CTRL + F keys - this tag:

</body>

Screenshot:

Step 3. Just above it, paste the following code:

<script src='http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js'/>
<script>
$(function() {
function highlight(){
$('.user.blog-author').closest('.comment-block')
.css('border', '1px solid #FFA500')
.css('background','#F1F1F2 url("http://www.blogblog.com/1kt/transparent/white80.png")')
.css('color', '#444444')
.css('font-size', '12px')
.css('padding', '10px');
}
$(document).bind('ready scroll click', highlight);
});
</script>

Customizing the Author Comments:

Border:
The line marked in orange represents the border's style.
What it can be done:

1px - you can increase the value to change the border's thickness
solid - change the border's style to dotted, dashed, inset, outset etc.
#FFA500 - this is the border's color value, change it with your own color

Background:
The line marked in blue represents the background's style. You can use a plain color or an image. By default there's a combination of both (a white transparent image with a gray plain color).
To change/add:

a different color: replace the #F1F1F2 value with your own (use this tool to find the hex code of your desired color)
an image: replace the defaul url http://www.blogblog.com/1kt/transparent/white80.png with that of your image

Font Color:
To change the font's color, replace the #444444 color value in green with your own. (you can use this tool to find the hex code of your desired color)

Font Size:
Modify the value in red by increasing/decreasing the "12" value in order to change the size of text.

Step 4. Now Save your Template.

To customize the entire style of threaded comments, please check my previous tutorial on How to Customize Comment's Background, Font Color and Border in Blogger.