The Ramblings of Rob Cooper: Social Networking

Adding Social Bookmarks to Posts Using "Dynamic Template" Plugin

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:19:15 GMT

Following on from my previous post on trying to get myself organised and utilising social networking/bookmarking more, I figured I should try and help myself a little and be adding social bookmark links on my blog posts.

Sounds easy huh? Well, it's not really the case. I use Windows Live Writer to write my blog posts, its a great tool and I'm well happy the Live Writer Team have created it for us (thanks guys!). Developers are able to create plugins for it, which open up many, many possibilities! So I thought I would check out what plugins could help me out in the Live Writer Gallery. I found two possible candidates:

1. Digg This Plugin for Live Writer by Leo Vildosola (http://tinyurl.com/3x92b6)
This looks like it would be nice as you get the nice "digg this" button.

2. Social Bookmarking Tags by Rahul Soni (http://tinyurl.com/3cf6xr)
This looked great as it added lots and lots of social bookmark providers!

The Outcome

So what did I go with? Neither. Why? I'll explain...

Digg This Plugin
Looked great, didn't work. I don't think this is due to the plugin itself though, since the "digg this" button is based on JavaScript, Live Spaces was blocking it from be posted for security reasons. I believe WordPress does the same, although not sure about Google Blogger. Also, even if it did work, I wanted more than just digg on each post.

Social Bookmarking Tags
This did look promising, however, the developer seems to have put some JavaScript in the OnMouseOver and OnMouseOut events. This works fine on his own blog, since the code is hosted there. However, when you add your tags in Writer, it gives you lots of scripting errors that are a real pain in the ass. I have notified the developer of this, and hopefully they will be able to resolve it. Note: since Live Spaces blocks JavaScript, it will work fine once posted. Other than that, it seems like a great plugin!

The Result

So I engaged my grey matter to think about what I could do. I know all of these sites just take the URL and pass it to a script for processing, which then adds it to their cloud. So, all I need is some HTML right with my post address and some images to sexy it up right? That's not hard in itself, the hard bit is entering it quickly onto each blog post.

Enter "Dynamic Template" Plugin from Joe Cheng (http://tinyurl.com/24bzp3)

I've had this plug in for a while now, it's freaking awesome. It allows you to put ASP-esque C# code to create a template for output. The really cool thing is that you can also make it prompt for input. Sounds like just the tool! So here's what I did (or you would need to do):

Installed the plugin.
Enter the HTML code to render the links and images, replacing the URL's the HTML encoded user input for "URL" and "Title" (most bookmark sites need these).
Created the variables.
Tested it a bit.
Looks good - happy face :)

You can see the result for yourself at the bottom of this post! Be aware, that the address of your post is not available until after you have posted, so you need to do the following :

Write your post.
Click "Publish", your post is then sent to Live Spaces (or wherever).
DO NOT CLOSE LIVE WRITER!
Right-click the post title in your browser, this ensure the POST address is captured, not your BLOG address. Click "Copy".
Go back to Live Writer.
Click the bottom of your post to move the cursor there if it is not already.
Click the "Insert Template" button in the "Insert" menu.
Select "Social Bookmarks" and click "Continue".
A little dialog will then pop up asking for the URL and Title. Paste in the URL copied and enter your post title.
Click "OK". You will then see your bookmarks appear!
Click "Publish" again to update your post online with the new bookmarks.

These instructions are based on using the template I have created, if you would like to download this template file, it's available on my Live SkyDrive here (http://tinyurl.com/37fpdw).

NOTE: I have used the images that Rahul Soni's plugin links to, based on the assumption that if he is happy for users to anonymously download his plugin and use them, you are able to do the same. If he is not happy with this, I will remove them from my template and politely request that you do the same.

Now Digging, Feeding my Friends and a Facebook App Worth Installing!

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:16:24 GMT

OK, just a quick update that serves two purposes:

I've signed up to a couple of new services. And I installed a Facebook application! I can't remember the last time I did that!
I am testing a new Live Writer plug in :)

OK, in an effort to try and organise myself a bit better online, I have finally signed up to the two following services/sites:

digg (http://www.digg.com)
I think digg is a great idea, and since I spend so much time checking out blog posts, I kind of owe it to digg them more, and hopefully one day get some digg's myself :)

Digg also serves as a great hub for finding new content.

FriendFeed (http://friendfeed.com)
Another fantastic site designed to aggregate data from several social networking sources as well as website's. I think key ones here are blogs, twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Reader. Updates to all of these are then centralised on your personal FriendFeed page. Excellent stuff. Good news is that anyone who is a friend of mine on Facebook doesn't need to check it as you can also add a neat little application to Facebook that broadcasts updates to your news feed and profile. Very, very nicely done!

Special thanks to Loic Le Meur for inspiring me to do it via his blog post!

Technorati Tags: digg,friendfeeder,social networking

Tweet! Tweet! This Geek Finally Gets on Twitter

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:56:46 GMT

Well, I finally done it, I have been watching twitter (http://www.twitter.com) for a while now, and been undecided as to wether or not I should sign up. I have now signed up and have it up and running.

Why did I do this?

Well, first off, I read this blog post from Scott Hanselman and it got me thinking. One of my main goals professionally it to try and network with more developers. Its amazing how much good it is doing me working with, and talking to more geek's. I am learning shed-loads, and it's nice to talk with others who are as passionate about their work as I am.

So what does this have to do with twitter? Well this is an ideal platform for exactly that, as Scott points out, this is great for opening up conversations and a great way to "stay in touch" in a much less intrusive fashion (like IM or spamming your inbox).

So, if you want to see me on twitter, you can catch me at my twitter page at http://www.twitter.com/robzyc.

Tweet!