I always wanted to include a 'Related Posts' widget at the end of each post item. Thanks to a short reprieve, I was able to finally implement this in my blogs in Blogger.
So let's start:
1. Backup the existing template. (In Blogger/Blogspot, it should be in Layout > Edit Html.
2. Within the page header (i.e., section enclosed in the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags, insert the code below. I suggest inserting it right before the </HEAD> tag.
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
var relatedTitles = new Array();
var relatedTitlesNum = 0;
var relatedUrls = new Array();
function related_results_labels(json) {
for (var i = 0; i < json.feed.entry.length; i++) {
var entry = json.feed.entry[i];
relatedTitles[relatedTitlesNum] = entry.title.$t;
for (var k = 0; k < entry.link.length; k++) {
if (entry.link[k].rel == 'alternate') { relatedUrls[relatedTitlesNum] = entry.link[k].href;
relatedTitlesNum++;
break; }}}
}
function removeRelatedDuplicates() {
var tmp = new Array(0);
var tmp2 = new Array(0);
for(var i = 0; i < relatedUrls.length; i++) { if(!contains(tmp, relatedUrls[i])) {
tmp.length += 1;
tmp[tmp.length - 1] = relatedUrls[i];
tmp2.length += 1;
tmp2[tmp2.length - 1] = relatedTitles[i];
}
}
relatedTitles = tmp2;
relatedUrls = tmp;
}
function contains(a, e) {
for(var j = 0; j < a.length; j++) if (a[j]==e) return true;
return false;
}
function printRelatedLabels() {
var r = Math.floor((relatedTitles.length - 1) * Math.random());
var i = 0;
document.write('<ul>');
while (i < relatedTitles.length && i < 20) {
document.write('<li><a href="' + relatedUrls[r] + '">' + relatedTitles[r] + '</a></li>');
if (r < relatedTitles.length - 1) {
r++;
} else {
r = 0;
}
i++;
}
document.write('</ul>');
}
//]]>
</script>
3. With the "Expand Widgets" checked, under the 'Blog1' widget, look for the lines:
<b:if cond='data:post.labels'>
<data:postLabelsLabel/>
<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
<a expr:href='data:label.url' rel='tag'><data:label.name/></a><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'>,</b:if>
</b:loop>
</b:if>
and replace them with the following:
<b:if cond='data:post.labels'>
<data:postLabelsLabel/>
<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
<a expr:href='data:label.url' rel='tag'><data:label.name/></a><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'>,</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<script expr:src='"/feeds/posts/default/-/" + data:label.name + "?alt=json-in-script&callback=related_results_labels&max-results=10"' type='text/javascript'/>
</b:if>
</b:loop>
</b:if>
4. Save the Template.
5. Navigate to Layout --> Add Page Elements, and add an HTML/Script element, name it as "Related Posts" (or whatever) which includes the following lines of code:
<script type="text/javascript">
removeRelatedDuplicates();
printRelatedLabels();
</script>
6. Return to Layout --> Edit HTML, check Expand Widgets, and look for the 'Related Posts' element you just added. It should be similar to the following:
<b:widget id='HTML13' locked='false' title='Related Posts' type='HTML'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<!-- only display title if it's non-empty -->
<b:if cond='data:title != ""'>
<h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
</b:if>
<div class='widget-content'>
<data:content/>
</div>
<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>
7. Insert the lines in bold below. This additional two lines ensure that the "Related Posts" widget will only load when the user is currently viewing one post only.
<b:widget id='HTML13' locked='false' title='Related Posts' type='HTML'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<!-- only display title if it's non-empty -->
<b:if cond='data:title != ""'>
<h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
</b:if>
<div class='widget-content'>
<data:content/>
</div>
<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</b:if>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>
And there you have it. Whenever you view your individual posts, you should be able to see the "Related Posts" widget somewhere in the page (depends on where you put it).
Thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment