December 18, 2009

Add A Blogger Archive Calendar Widget To Your Blog

One of the most famous widgets available on WordPress which is rarely seen in a Blogger blog is of course a calendar archive widget, in which dates are linked to posts published on that particular date.
Thanks to Phydeaux3 as we now have this widget for Blogger too. [Live Demo]
Although you can add a simple calendar to your blog, as a HTML/JavaScript widget, but this one is far more advanced than that one.
This tutorial has mainly four steps, three are common to everyone and in the fourth step, styling of the widget will be done [you can select from the pre-made skins or you may modify/design a unique theme for your widget].

Instructions To Follow:

STEP #1:
Log in to Blogger, go to Layout
Now add the regular Blogger Archive widget (if you do not already have one in your blog).

Now go to Layout -> Edit HTML
and "Download Your Template" as a back up, if anything goes wrong.

then find this code:
<b:widget id='BlogArchive1' locked='false' title='Blog Archive' type='BlogArchive'/>
The id can also be BlogArchive2 instead of BlogArchive1.

Replace that line with this code:
<b:widget id='BlogArchive1' locked='false' title='Blog Archive' type='BlogArchive'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<b:if cond='data:title'>
<h2><data:title/></h2>
</b:if>
<div class='widget-content'>
<div id='ArchiveList'>
<div expr:id='data:widget.instanceId + "_ArchiveList"'>
<b:if cond='data:style == "HIERARCHY"'>
<b:include data='data' name='interval'/>
</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:style == "FLAT"'>
<b:include data='data' name='flat'/>
</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:style == "MENU"'>
<b:include data='data' name='menu'/>
</b:if>
</div>
</div>
<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</div>
</b:includable>
<b:includable id='toggle' var='interval'>
<!-- Toggle not needed for Calendar -->
</b:includable>
<b:includable id='flat' var='data'>
<div id='bloggerCalendarList'>
<ul>
<b:loop values='data:data' var='i'>
<li class='archivedate'>
<a expr:href='data:i.url'><data:i.name/></a> (<data:i.post-count/>)
</li>
</b:loop>
</ul>
</div>

<div id='blogger_calendar' style='display:none'>
<table id='bcalendar'><caption id='bcaption'>

</caption>
<!-- Table Header -->
<thead id='bcHead'></thead>
<!-- Table Footer -->

<!-- Table Body -->
<tbody><tr><td id='cell1'> </td><td id='cell2'> </td><td id='cell3'> </td><td id='cell4'> </td><td id='cell5'> </td><td id='cell6'> </td><td id='cell7'> </td></tr>
<tr><td id='cell8'> </td><td id='cell9'> </td><td id='cell10'> </td><td id='cell11'> </td><td id='cell12'> </td><td id='cell13'> </td><td id='cell14'> </td></tr>
<tr><td id='cell15'> </td><td id='cell16'> </td><td id='cell17'> </td><td id='cell18'> </td><td id='cell19'> </td><td id='cell20'> </td><td id='cell21'> </td></tr>
<tr><td id='cell22'> </td><td id='cell23'> </td><td id='cell24'> </td><td id='cell25'> </td><td id='cell26'> </td><td id='cell27'> </td><td id='cell28'> </td></tr>
<tr><td id='cell29'> </td><td id='cell30'> </td><td id='cell31'> </td><td id='cell32'> </td><td id='cell33'> </td><td id='cell34'> </td><td id='cell35'> </td></tr>
<tr id='lastRow'><td id='cell36'> </td><td id='cell37'> </td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table id='bcNavigation'><tr>
<td id='bcFootPrev'></td>
<td id='bcFootAll'></td>
<td id='bcFootNext'></td>
</tr></table>

<div id='calLoadingStatus' style='display:none; text-align:center;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>bcLoadStatus();</script>
</div>
<div id='calendarDisplay'/>
</div>

<script type='text/javascript'> initCal();</script>

</b:includable>
<b:includable id='posts' var='posts'>
<!-- posts not needed for Calendar -->
</b:includable>
<b:includable id='menu' var='data'>
Configure your calendar archive widget - Edit archive widget - Flat List - Newest first - Choose any Month/Year Format
</b:includable>
<b:includable id='interval' var='intervalData'>
Configure your calendar archive widget - Edit archive widget - Flat List - Newest first - Choose any Month/Year Format
</b:includable>
</b:widget>

Now save the template.

STEP #2
Now find this code in the template:
</head>
And immediately ABOVE/BEFORE it, paste this code:
<!-- Start Blogger Archive Calendar -->
//STYLE CODE WILL COME HERE - SEE STEP #4
<script src='http://files.main.bloggerstop.net/uploads/3/0/2/5/3025338/blogger_archive.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='/feeds/posts/summary?max-results=0&amp;alt=json-in-script&amp;callback=timezoneSet'/>
<!-- End Blogger Archive Calendar -->
Again save the template.

STEP #3
Now go to Layout -> Page Elements
and edit the properties of the archive widget according to this image:


STEP #4
Now here's the styling part of the tutorial; select the best theme for your blog from this page:
Archive Calendar Styles [Just remember the name of the style]

Now copy the code of that style (and replace the code in RED in STEP #2 with this one):

Style for Dark Templates
<link href='http://files.main.bloggerstop.net/uploads/3/0/2/5/3025338/dark_theme.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/>

Style - Plain White
<link href='http://files.main.bloggerstop.net/uploads/3/0/2/5/3025338/plain_white.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/>

Style - Blue/Black
<link href='http://files.main.bloggerstop.net/uploads/3/0/2/5/3025338/blue_black.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/>

Style - Dusty Blue
<link href='http://files.main.bloggerstop.net/uploads/3/0/2/5/3025338/dusty_blue.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/>

If you want to change the color/width etc. of this widget yourself, then instead of using any of the 4 style-themes from step #4, modify the Plain Simple Theme according to the instructions/comments written along the code lines and place it in to your template.

Credits for the widget: Phydeaux3
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December 17, 2009

Bring Them Back - Republish Your Lost Posts !

Blogs are dynamic, when you publish new posts, your older posts are lost forever in the archives. While posts on the front page get maximum attention and pageviews but other posts on your blog receive only direct traffic from search engines and social networking sites. With ten or twenty posts in a blog, finding a particular post is not difficult. But when you have 100's of posts published on your blog, then your visitors may easily miss out any post of their interest, while going through your blog archives.
But if you are using Blogger, then you have got an option to bring back your older posts to the hompage whenever you want.
This is especially useful in seasonal events, when a post written in the past must be present on the homepage. But publishing a new post with the same content will cause content-duplication problems, so you can simply edit your previous post to change the publishing date and bring it back to the top.
So to do this, open the post-editor and click on Post Options link present in the bottom of the page. Now Set date and time to present or any future date.


Finally save the post and your work is done (You can of course undo the changes, to send the post back to its original place).

This technique is SEO friendly too, as you are not going to change the permalink of your post. In Blogger, when you publish a new post it gets a unique url in this format (http://YOURBLOG.BogSpot.com/YEAR/MONTH/Title_Of_The_Post.html)
which should and will remain the same, even after doing this hack.
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December 15, 2009

Are You Planning To Make Your Blog "DoFollow" ?

This Sunday morning I was surprised to see over 100 unread comments on my blog with hardly 1 or 2 words per comment. Most of the comments were saying either "thank you for the post" or simply "ty" and of course linked to some blog/web address, now it was clear that all of these comments were SPAM.
It took almost one hour to delete all these comments. I am sure Google would already have detected all these new links leaving my blog, but luckily for me BloggerStop is not a DoFollow blog. Then why all these unecessary comments were here this morning?
Spam Comments

I checked my stats [track your visitors too] and found all these commentators were coming from a famous Turkish forum R10, and they were here due to an incorrect post mentioning BloggerStop as a dofollow blog.
So this is exactly what can happen with you too, if you have a dofollow blog and a single post about your blog is posted on a popular forum. And imagine the spam flood your blog will face when the same post is copied to other forums, blogs and directories. Within a few days Google and other search engines will penalise your blog for converting it in to a link farm.
But if you still want to enjoy the spammy, non-converting traffic and you think that you have ample time to moderate all the spam comments then you can easily convert your blogger blog in to a dofollow blog, by deleting a small code snippet:
rel='nofollow'
from this line:
<a expr:href='data:comment.authorUrl' rel='nofollow'>
in your blogs template (the code will be displayed in the template only when you mark the "Expand Widget Templates" tickbox).

So, any plans to change your blog to a dofollow blog?
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December 14, 2009

PART-2 : Collapsible Multi-Tabbed Widget

Yesterday I published an article on Collapsible Multi-Tabbed Widget and this post is the second part of that tutorial. You just have to copy a single line from this post to completely change the UI of that widget.

Previous Widget used to look like this:



Once you follow the simple steps of this tutorial, you can give a complete new look to that widget by selecting the perfect widget-theme out of 24 available skins. Three of the 24 new skins are displayed below [Live DEMO]:



Now to give a new look to that widget, all you have to do is, add a single code-line in the STEP #1 of the previous tutorial. After modification the EXACT code you should use looks like this:
<!--COLLAPSIBLE-MULTI-TABBED-WIDGET-STARTS-->
PASTE NEW CODE-LINE HERE
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://jqueryui.com/latest/jquery-1.3.2.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://jquery-ui.googlecode.com/svn/tags/latest/ui/ui.core.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://jquery-ui.googlecode.com/svn/tags/latest/ui/ui.tabs.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
$("#tabs").tabs();
});
//getter
var ajaxOptions = $('.selector').tabs('option', 'ajaxOptions');
//setter
$('.selector').tabs('option', 'ajaxOptions', { async: false });
</script>

//IMPORTANT: SOME UNECESSARY CODE FROM THIS PART IN THE PREVIOUS TUTORIAL HAS BEEN DELETED NOW
<!--COLLAPSIBLE-MULTI-TABBED-WIDGET-STOPS-HELP-@-http://bloggerstop.net-->
The line in BLUE is where you have to paste the new code, which is unique for every widget skin. Instead of that blue line, copy and paste the code of your interest from below.

Now go to this page: JQUERYUI - Tabs Demo
and from the drop-down menu (see the top-right region of the page), check out all the 24 available widget skins:

Then remember the name of the skin/theme of your choice and return back to this page. And now copy the appropriate code:

Theme #01: UI Lightness
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/ui-lightness/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #02: UI Darkness
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/ui-darkness/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #03: Smoothness
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #04: Start
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/start/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #05: Redmond
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/redmond/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #06: Sunny
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/sunny/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #07: Overcast
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/overcast/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #08: Le Frog
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/le-frog/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #09: Flick (or Flicker type)
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/flick/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #10: Pepper Grinder
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/pepper-grinder/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #11: EggPlant
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/eggplant/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #12: Dark Hive
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/dark-hive/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #13: Cupertino
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/cupertino/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #14: South Street
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/south-street/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #15: Blitzer
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/blitzer/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #16: Humanity
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/humanity/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #17: Hot Sneaks
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/hot-sneaks/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #18: Excite Bike
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/excite-bike/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #19: Vader
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/vader/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #20: Dot Luv
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/dot-luv/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #21: Mint Choc
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/mint-choc/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #22: Black Tie
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/black-tie/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #23: Trontastic
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/trontastic/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Theme #24: Swanky Purse
Code to copy:
<link type="text/css" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/swanky-purse/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Once you have copied the code, replace the blue line in the above code with this new code and save your template.
From the previous post, leave the code in STEP #2 as it is.
Your widget is now ready in an entirely new look...
Read More

December 13, 2009

Collapsible Multi-Tabbed Widget For Blogger Blogs

*UPDATE: 24 new skins are available for this widget. Check out Collapsible Multi Tabbed Widget - Part2 to select the best theme for your widget.

This tutorial will help you to add a multi-tabbed widget to your blog. You can use this widget to display more content in less space using the tabs.

Blogger_Tabber_Widget
Working Demo | [DEMO - Widget Part 2]

To add it to your blog, your task is as simple as copy and paste. At the same time the widget is highly customizable and you can easily change its appearance to match your blogs theme.

Instrucions to follow:

STEP #1:
Log in to Blogger and go to Layout -> Edit HTML and find this code in your blog:
</head>
Immediately ABOVE/BEFORE it, paste this code:
<!--COLLAPSIBLE-MULTI-TABBED-WIDGET-STARTS-->
<link type="text/css" href="http://jquery-ui.googlecode.com/svn/tags/latest/themes/base/ui.all.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://jqueryui.com/latest/jquery-1.3.2.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://jquery-ui.googlecode.com/svn/tags/latest/ui/ui.core.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://jquery-ui.googlecode.com/svn/tags/latest/ui/ui.tabs.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
$("#tabs").tabs();
});
//getter
var ajaxOptions = $('.selector').tabs('option', 'ajaxOptions');
//setter
$('.selector').tabs('option', 'ajaxOptions', { async: false });
</script>
<style>

.ui-tabs-selected a {
background-color: #fff;
color: #000;
font-weight: bold;
padding: 2px 8px 1px;
border-bottom: 1px solid #fff;
border-left: 1px solid gray;
border-right: 1px solid gray;
margin-bottom: -1px;
overflow: visible;
}
#fragment-1 {
background: #999900; //Background color of content area 1 (tab 1)
color:#FFFFFF; //Text color in content area 1 (tab 1)
margin-top:2px;
-moz-border-radius-topleft:5px;
-moz-border-radius-topright:5px;
}
#fragment-2 {
background: #CC9900; //Background color of content area 2 (tab 2)
color:#FFFFFF; //Text color in content area 2 (tab 2)
margin-top:2px;
-moz-border-radius-topleft:5px;
-moz-border-radius-topright:5px;
}
#fragment-3 {
background: #666666; //Background color of content area 3 (tab 3)
color:#FFFFFF; //Text color in content area 3 (tab 3)
margin-top:2px;
-moz-border-radius-topleft:5px;
-moz-border-radius-topright:5px;
}
#fragment-3 a {
color:#FFFFFF; //color of HYPERLINKS in content area 3 (tab 3)
}
</style>
<!--COLLAPSIBLE-MULTI-TABBED-WIDGET-STOPS-HELP-@-http://bloggerstop.net-->

The code highlighted in RED will control the appearance of the tabs. And the code highlighted in BLUE will control the appearance of the content area. To make your work easy, comments are written in front of the code above (highlighted in GREEN color).
Now save the template.

STEP #2:
Now go to Layout -> Page Elements
Click on Add a Gadget and select it as HTML/JavaScript type
And paste this code into it:
<div id="tabs">
<ul>
<li><a href="#fragment-1"><span>Best Posts</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#fragment-2"><span>My Pictures</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#fragment-3"><span>Recent Posts</span></a></li>
</ul>
<div id="fragment-1">
<span style="text-align:left;">
<p>First tab is active by default:</p>
</span>
</div>
<div id="fragment-2">
<center><a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i29.tinypic.com/29ggyu0.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a></center>
</div>
<div id="fragment-3">
Content of Tab #3
<br/><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bloggerstop.net" target="_blank">Blogger Widgets</a></span>
</div>
</div>
Now before you save the widget, change the text in RED to change the names of tabs and change the text in BLUE to change the content of the tabs.

Save the widget and enjoy more content in less space.

This post has been written to replace the previous tutorial on advanced collapsible multi-tabbed widget.
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December 8, 2009

Blogger Template - For The Artists Out There...

This template is based on Minima, loads quickly and has a customizable background.


CSS styling is done by TemplateMO and has been bloggerized by BloggerStop.Net
Template loading time: 1.7 seconds (without content).



With a width of 775 pixels, the template is optimized for all screen resoultions (from 800x600 to 1024x768 and larger).

To change the top menu-links, find and edit this code in the template:

<ul>
<li><a href='#'>HOME</a></li>
<li><a href='#'>ABOUT</a></li>
<li><a href='#'>SERVICES</a></li>
<li><a href='#'>GALLERY</a></li>
<li><a href='#'>CONTACT</a></li>
</ul>
For search engine optimization, meta tags are already added, but you have to manually edit them to fill your details. Find these tags in the template and edit them according to this tutorial:

<!--META-TAGS-STARTS-->
<meta content="ALL_KEYWORDS_HERE_SEPARATED_BY_COMMAS" name="keywords"></meta>
<meta content="YOUR_OR_AUTHOR'S_NAME_HERE" name="author"></meta>
<link href="mailto:YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS_HERE" rev="made"></link>
<meta content="INDEX,FOLLOW" name="ROBOTS"></meta>
<b:if cond="data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl"> <!--AVOID-CONTENT-DUPLICATION-->
<meta content="GENERAL_DESCRIPTION_HERE" name="description"></meta>
</b:if>
<!--META-TAGS-STOPS-->

Read this tutorial to change templates without losing any of your widgets.

NOTE: This template is free to use, share and modify under CC 3.0

Share your views on this template.
Read More
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