Archive for March, 2008

This update includes some improvements to how Bookmarkify is integrated into your RSS feed.

The first is a correction to an issue having to do with the More Box. Depending on the reader being used, the More Box may show up in all its glory. Of course, this isn’t really appropriate. I thought this was corrected before, however, it turns out that WordPress gives you two different ways to test whether or not we’re looking at a feed or the actual page. I’ll spare you the details in this post but you can find the explanation here if you are interested.

The second is a new option to exclude with Widget from your RSS feed all together. Because the issue with the More Box is fixed, I think it’s a good idea to deliver the Widget with your feed, however, you can turn it off if you want. You can find the new option on the Bookmarkify Options Page. This came as a code submission and recommendation from Bookmarkify’s up-and-coming “co-author”, ThaNerd. The code submission actually made me aware of the More Box issue mentioned above and thus led to its resolution as well. Thanks, ThaNerd.

For those that examine the code closely you will also see that I am in the process of building an option to add the Widget to the Sidebar. This is not yet completely implemented for WordPress, however, I have a basic working version on a few of my other pages. You can see it in action here.

There is another issue who’s resolution has eluded me and that is the site icon display in Internet Explorer. IE does not display favicons from some sites unless or until the favicon has already been saved to your cache. I am not really sure why this is nor how to resolve it. Please post any ideas you have as comments this post.

I continue to work on the Sidebar enhancements and expect to have something that works fairly well up by early next week.

Have a great day!!

The Widget Viewer

There is a new feature here at GARA Systems: The Bookmarkify Widget Viewer. The Widget Viewer is an online tool that lets you see the widget using different configuration options and style themes. Select options using a screen similar to the Bookmarkify Plugin Options page used in WordPress to select the widget title, displayed site list and more.

You can select a style for your widget from a list of predefined themes. Once you select and apply a theme you can download or view the CSS for use on your site. The “None” theme is the full set of Bookmarkify style classes with no attribute settings. Use it as a stub for creating new themes. Use the other themes as they are or modify them for better integration in to you site’s design. All themes listed here at GARA Systems are licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Visit the Widget Viewer here.

Submit your Theme

If you develop themes and would like to submit your designs for inclusion in the Widget Viewer please contact me. If your theme is included, you will receive full attribution and a link to your site. The only requirement is that the theme be released under a Creative Common license.

Release 0.8.9 Updates

In addition to the Viewer I’ve also released another update to the plugin. This revision includes the following changes:

• Changed More Box to use 5 columns instead of 4. This allows the More Box to be contained more easily in an 800×600 screen resolution.
• Moved the “Email This to a Friend” link to its own line in the More Box. This sharing method is a bit different than submitting a link to a social networking site so I thought it should stand out.
• Updated the favicon location for Blinklist. Apparently they moved it in the past week.
• Added CiteULike and folkd.com to the social bookmark site list.
• Added style definitions to the More Box

This release is a significant improvement and corrects a number of style issues that occur on some sites. Download the update here.

Roadmap to 1.0

This a brief outline of the features I hope to include in the 1.0 release.

1. Sidebar Widget - Provide an option that allows the Bookmark, Share and Subscribe links to appear in the sidebar.
2. Consistent More Box Styling - I continue to add style definitions to the More Box. My goal is to ensure that it appears consistent regardless of the theme or other style definitions your blog or site may be using.
3. Bug Free - I know it’s not always possible, but it’s always my goal.

One issue that seems to occur with a few WordPress themes is the “clipping” of the More Box. When certain elements in a theme use the “overflow:hidden” attribute it causes those elements to cover up the More Box at a time when the user would expect it to be completely on top. I would like to come up with a solution that does not require theme designers to modify these attributes, however, I have been unable to find one yet. If you know of something I can do to correct the issue please let me know.

Have a great day!!

The latest version of Bookmarkify, 0.8.8, is now available.

This revision includes two major feature updates.

First is valid markup for the Widget and the More Box. There is a new option that lets you choose from Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict (the default) or HTML 4.01 Strict. I’ve managed to achieve the ‘Strict’ designation, but of course Bookmarkify will fit nicely into the ‘Transitional’ versions of the standards as well. You should choose the option used in your current theme. For those interested in such things, the main difference between the XHTML and HTML versions of Bookmarkify is the use of the end tag slash ( … / > ) in the image and input tags.

The second improvement is an optional way for users to view the More Box. The default - as in previous versions - is for the More Box to drop down below the Widget Title and over the short list of selected submit link buttons. The new option is for the More Box to act like a popover that centers itself over the subdued page. That is the option I am now using here on this blog.

I also added more styling to the More Box. In previous versions the More Box appeared scattered on some sites. This was the result of the blog theme’s styling cascading down to Bookmarkify. By adding more style attributes to the More Box it will not be so affected and should appear more consistent across sites. If you are having this issue with Bookmarkify on your site you should download this update.

You can get the update here.

Another adjustment I made was to exclude the More Box from the full RSS feed. Each reader seemed to handle it quite differently. Google’s for example displayed the More Box as part of the post, seemingly ignoring the “display:none” style rule. So rather than over complicate things in an attempt to display the More Box properly in every reader, I modified the “More>>” link to navigate to the widget in your post instead.

I am happy to see that quite a few blogs are using Bookmarkify now. It hit 800 downloads as I was writing this post. Seeing it in action - and inaction as is sometimes the case - has helped greatly in my effort to improve the tool. If you are having issues with Bookmarkify on your site please let me know. I’ll do my best to help.

Have a great weekend.

It has come to my understanding that many of you who downloaded the latest Bookmarkify (0.8.3 - 0.8.5) are experience a crash or errors. This appeared to be happening on everyone’s site except mine. The problem appears to be the result of some test code I left behind. My apologies.

In any case, the problem has been corrected in version 0.8.6. Please download that update now and Bookmarkify will work just fine.