October 17, 2006

Widget auto-updation and Backlinks issue

Phydeaux3 discovered that Blogger Beta auto-updates the widget templates. When you click on "Expand widget templates", the code that you see for a particular widget might vary slightly from time to time. Pete from Blogger clarified that they use this to fix the bugs. I think that's a great idea. But the downside is that this auto-update doesn't happen for the widgets that you have hacked.

Phydeaux3 found that his Backlinks stopped working after one such update because he had hacked the Blog widget. I checked my blog and it was the same case too. It's a good idea to check your blog also (specifically if you applied peekaboo posts hack). If you have the problem, here's the fix that worked for me.

Search for 'backlinks-container' in your template to find this portion of code and add the lines in red. This is the update from Blogger that didn't make it to my template.
<div id='backlinks-container'>

<div expr:id='data:widget.instanceId + "_backlinks-container"'>

<b:if cond='data:post.showBacklinks'>
<b:include data='post' name='backlinks'/>
</b:if>

</div>

</div>
In future, I will keep an eye on such updates and inform you if you need to make any change.

UPDATE: If you downloaded one of my hacked templates, this change is already incorporated in it.

16 comments:

Steve said...

dude hi......i hav converted my page to a beta blog i want to make my articles like yours meaning i want to add the READ MORE option as my writeup are lengthy at times....
plz help me out as i really want to put read more options...give me an example too.....thank aton!

c said...

I think that's more of an upside than a downside: Imagine having your fully-hacked-for-two-hours widget played with by google's auto-update so it suddenly stops working.

Gary said...

Ramani,
If they tweak a widget shouldn't the change they made be noted somewhere? Maybe some of you senior beta hackers could e-mail them and ask for changes notices?

Just an idea :)
Gary

Unknown said...

Steve, it's all explained here.

http://hackosphere.blogspot.com/2006/09/expandable-posts-with-peekaboo-view.html

Coops, yes you are right. That will be even more painful.

Gary, they announce the bugs that they fix in their known issues blog but I don't think they will talk about the code changes.

Agar said...

Still don't have this "Links to this post". Strange... I think I ll compare my code with the original one in case of I made something wrong.

Richard said...

Thank you for the tip. At first I got an error message stating that it couldn't be save due to not being terminated properly. So i assumed that i needed another close div. It then worked ok.

Anonymous said...

hi guy, my beta blog loading quite slow lately...after reading this great post, i just thought to remove these few options (posted by, posting time, links, show quick edit) from the post widget, and it load extremely fast now.

Unknown said...

Azuara, any luck? I have updated the Hacked minima's older posts/newer posts links also as per Blogger's latest version of code.

Waleria said...

Hi !
I'm just a newbie as far as blogger beta's concerned (only switched 2 days ago); but I have been reading your blog with the greatest interest.
Anyway, I wanted to ask you whether you would possibly know why the 'Backlinks' link does not appear next to the 'Comment' link in the footer of each blog post. I've enabled the Backlinks function, ticked the backlink box in the Page Elements, and made sure the html code is the one you provide, but the 'Backlink' link just won't appear...
Any suggestion ?

Waleria said...

Btw, here's the link to my blog : http://waleriaspen.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Waleria, If you have modified the code as I suggested, there's no reason why it wouldn't work. Try reporting to Blogger support.

Unknown said...

i dont understand this code and i read follow Phydeaux3 article links issue update. Im` read ur reply ,its is fun Ramani.Now i im to confuse Phydeaux3 conflict after make article this code .

Hope ur blinks to this links article . Finally i want to tell ur. Ur re genius -Beta Blogger. We can only follow ur hacks gadget . Same to Hans any relevan making any ideaa too.

Skanky Jane said...

Dear Ramani,

I downloaded your superbly hacked 3 col (Blogger clone) "Minima" just a few days ago. Returning for more hacks today (*grin*) I noticed this post and also read Phydeaux great post on this same issue.

So I hopped into my Beta Blogger temlate code to add your "fix". However, it seems that you must have revisited your template since writing this post because I discovered that the aforementioned template I downloaded from you already contains the code you have posted here. (the expr:id='data:widget.instanceId + "_backlinks-container"' code with the extra closed div tag)

As a suggestion (offered with all humility from a "know-nothing newbie") would it help to make a note on this post advising people that your templates (since such and such a date) now come with this "fix" already added?

(Just trying to be helpful)

Thanks for everything (I am having SUCH fun!)

Cheers,

SJ xx

Unknown said...

Skanky jane, I added an update informing about this in this post. And thanks for this hint.

Unknown said...

This issue everyday im waiting looks updated . Any helped something to do? Do you know Ramani, i still templates scribe live.

1 First, follow this code phydeaux. It very clear
2.then i tried this code
<div expr:id='data:widget.instanceId + "_backlinks-container"'>
</div>
<b:if cond='data:post.showBacklinks'>

(very clear)

i tried start 2 last month ago and after reading this topic. Made to be happy right now. :)

devilishsouthernbelle.net said...

Ramani,

I moved this comment over here since you referred me to this post. All that code is in my backlinks container, but I seem to have a third < /div > tag at the bottom....because my template wouldn't preview without it. I am still not sure why the displayed links won't hyperlink to the referencing posts, though. I just assumed it was something in the second part of the backlinks code that deals with data: . I don't know, though. Thanks for trying to help :)