Pliggs » Hacks

Facebook Like button and Pligg

Geoserv — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 01:50:08 +0000

POST UPDATED! – We now not only have Google Buzz with their own button, but, now Facebook has launched their own finally. In this post I will show you how to add the Facebook “Like” button your Pligg install.

Open link_summary.tpl:

Determine where you want the button to appear, make sure you allow enough space, at least 300px, as the button will show not only a “Like” button but who has liked it as well.

Once you have determined the right location add the following code:

Special thanks to Ruhani Rabin for the original code.

UPDATE:

One of our readers, Giuseppe Dispensa asked if it was possible to the “Like” when posted to Facebook, link to the story page as opposed to the URL of the submission. At first we didn’t think of this, but, if you would like to send the traffic to you first and then the submissio URL change the following part of the code:

{$url}&layout=standard;&show_faces=false&width=650&action=like&font=arial&colorscheme=light" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; margin: 5px 0 0 5px; overflow:hidden; width:650px; height: 25px;">

to:

make sure you enter your domain name where we have YOURDOMAINNAME.

Have fun, what method will you be using?

Tagging links with Googles UTM

Geoserv — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:01:25 +0000

I am currently testing a new way to get your traffic to links posted on your Pligg install noticed better.

Most bloggers use Google Analytics, as it is by far the best FREE analytics service today.

Google Analytics uses a UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) tag so users can add information to the end of their links so they know better where their traffic is coming from. This is typically used for tracking banner ads or text links, but it can be used for cases.

Why not add it the links added to your Pligg install?

To add it, simply open link_summary.tpl:

{$title_short}

and change it to,

{$title_short}

This will change the normal outbound link:

http://www.shoutmeloud.com/10-best-way-to-check-your-internet-speed.html

http://www.shoutmeloud.com/10-best-way-to-check-your-internet-speed.html?utm_source=YOURDOMAIN.com

In the Analytic panel for that site, if they use Google, they will see your Pligg install listed as a traffic referral much easier.

I have only been using this method for a week, so I am not sure if it will help with getting more traffic or not, but I will do a followup post in a week or two.

What do you think of the idea?

Adding a Digg style screenshot to Wistie

Geoserv — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:46:55 +0000

In this tutorial I will show you how easy it is to add a screenshot to each submission just like Digg.

There are only 2 files to edit for this hack, link_summary.tpl and style.css.

Open link_summary.tpl and find:

{checkActionsTpl location="tpl_link_summary_pre_story_content"}
{if $pagename eq "story"}{checkActionsTpl location="tpl_pligg_story_body_start_full"}{else}{checkActionsTpl location="tpl_pligg_story_body_start"}{/if}

{if $viewtype neq "short"}

change it to:

{if $viewtype neq "short"}

Save.

Open style.css and add anywhere:

.storythumb { float:right; border: 1px solid #b7cce0; padding: 3px; }

That’s it, I have websnapr as default screenshot supplier, though I always recommend using Shrink the Web.

You can see a demo over at Web Link Depot.

As always, post your thoughts and questions below.

You can also follow me on Twitter, where I will always help one on one.

Auto-publish to Twitter

Geoserv — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:44:42 +0000

In this tutorial I will show you how to have your stories sent to the published page automatically Tweeted to Twitter using whatever Twitter account you want.

I have already shown you how to use Twitterfeed and Bit.ly to auto publish your published submissions, now lets cut out the middleman, Twitterfeed.

The following code was sent to us by Jorge from the good folks at Bierzeame.

Open your libs/link.php file and find:
function publish() { if(!$this->read) $this->read_basic(); $this->published_date = time();


		totals_adjust_count($this->status, -1);

		totals_adjust_count('published', 1);

$this->status = 'published'; $this->store_basic(); }
change it to:
function publish() { if(!$this->read) $this->read_basic(); $this->published_date = time();


		totals_adjust_count($this->status, -1);

		totals_adjust_count('published', 1);

$this->status = 'published'; $this->twitter(); $this->store_basic(); }
find:
function username() {
just before it add:
function twitter(){ global $db;


    $id = $this->id;

    if(!is_numeric($id)){return false;}

    if(($link = $db->get_row("SELECT link_title FROM " . table_links . " WHERE link_id = $id"))) {
      $message = $link->link_title;

      $toshort = getmyFullurl("storyURL", $this->category_name(), urlencode($link->link_title_url), $id);
      $bitly = "http://api.bit.ly/shorten?version=2.0.1&longUrl=".urlencode($toshort)."&login=BITLYUSERNAME&apiKey=YOURBITLYAPICODE&history=1";
      $bitlyresponse = file_get_contents($bitly);
      $jsonresponse = @json_decode($bitlyresponse,true);
      $urlshort = $jsonresponse['results'][$toshort]['shortUrl'];
      $messagelen = strlen($message);

      $urllen = strlen($urlshort);

      $totallen = $messagelen+$urllen+1;
      if ($totallen>140){

        $urllen = $urllen+4;

        $message = substr($message,0,139-$urllen);

        $message = $message."...";

      }
      $message = $message." ".$urlshort;
      $args= 'status='.urlencode($message);
      $twit = curl_init();

      curl_setopt($twit, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml');

      curl_setopt($twit, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 0);

      curl_setopt($twit, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

      curl_setopt($twit, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 0); // no imprimir nada

      curl_setopt($twit, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "TWITTERUSERNAME:TWITTERPASSWORD");

      curl_setopt($twit, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $args);

      curl_setopt($twit, CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION, CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1);

      curl_setopt($twit, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
      $result = curl_exec($twit);

      $http_status = curl_getinfo($twit, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
      curl_close($twit);
      if( $http_status != "200" ) {

          return false;

      }

return true; } }
Save.

That’s it. Now every story that is sent to the published page will auto Tweet, giving your members another reason to submit.

Make sure you edit your Twitter login details and your Bit.ly details.

It will shorten the submission URL using Bit.ly and send the user when clicked on Twitter to your story page. This will also track how many clicks each one gets which you can check when you login to Bit.ly.

Adding SexyBookmarks to Pligg

Geoserv — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:32:49 +0000

In this tutorial I will show you how to add the popular Wordpress plugin SexyBookmarks to your Pligg install, adding that extra something to your story pages.

Sexy Bookmarks which I first saw used on a Wordpress blog is one of the best methods to ask your users to share something on social networking sites. It uses the power of jQuery for that added flair.

My good friend Brian over at Blog Engage managed to get his site added to Sexy Bookmarks and I will soon be attempting to have one of my own sites added, so I thought I would try to use it on a test Pligg.

Luckily, I came across a post by Naeem Noor over at CSS Reflex where he had successfully added it to Blogger using 3 chunks of code.

For this tutorial I simply took what Naeem used and adapted it to work in Pligg.

Open pligg.tpl:

add the following just before the closing head tag:

{literal}

{/literal}

Save.

Open link_summary.tpl

add the following anywhere you want the buttons to appear:

{if $pagename eq "story"}

Share this on del.icio.us

Digg this!

Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon

Share this on Reddit

Add this to Google Bookmarks

Tweet This!

Share this on Facebook

Share this on Mixx

Buzz up!

Share this on Linkedin

Submit this to DesignFloat

Share this on Technorati

Submit this to Script & Style

Share this on Blinklist

Share this on FriendFeed

Seed this on Newsvine

Widget by Css Reflex | TutZone| Pliggs

{/if}

Save.

I added them just before:

in the wistie template for the latest build of Pligg.

There are 2 images for this work as well, download them and upload to your images directory.

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

In the chunk of code you added to link_summary.tpl, the images are called, you will need to edit those 2 lines for the location of the images for your site.

I have them working on test Pligg site at Weblink Depot

Again, a big thanks to Josh at Sexy Bookmarks for creating it in the first place, and to Naeem Noor for giving me a starting place.

And finally, big congrats to Brian at Blog Engage on this milestone, make sure you check out his site.

jQuery Pligg Tooltip

Geoserv — Sun, 10 May 2009 19:06:56 +0000

jQuery has really progressed the web development world to the next level. I am going to show you how to add a simple jQuery feature to your Pligg install that will add a nifty feature that your users will definitely find useful.

One of the problems with most social media websites, like Digg, is you don’t always know if the link you are visiting will take you to something good or not.

That’s what jQuery and Tooltip come in.

I came across this little script when I was trying to find the fastest loading jquery tooltip to add to FAQPAL.

Here’s how to implement on your site, no matter what version of Pligg you are using.

First, download the following zip:

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Extract the contents and upload:

jquery.js and main.js to the js folder in your root directory

Open, pligg.tpl:

After,

{checkActionsTpl location="tpl_pligg_pre_title_thickbox"}
{checkForCss}
{checkForJs}
{checkActionsTpl location="tpl_pligg_pre_title_lightbox"}
{if $pagename neq "published" && $pagename neq "upcoming"}
{if $Spell_Checker eq 1}

{/if}
{/if}

add,

Save.

Open, link_summary.tpl,

Find,

{if $use_title_as_link eq true}
{if $url_short neq "http://" && $url_short neq "://"}
{$title_short}
{else}
{$title_short}
{/if}
{else}
{if $pagename eq "story"}
{$title_short}
{else}
{$title_short}
{/if}
{/if}

change,

{$title_short}

to,

{$title_short}

Save.

Open, main.css

Add,

/* */

#screenshot{
position:absolute;
border:1px solid #ccc;
background:#333;
padding:5px;
display:none;
color:#fff;
}

/* */

to the end of the file. Save.

That’s it, now when you hover over the story title, it will show a tooltip with a thumbshot.

Test drive it at FAQPAL.

SEO for Pligg

Geoserv — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:55:48 +0000

This post is aimed at owners of Pligg powered websites, though many of the tips are universal, and how to implement them into the Pligg script.

These tips are definitely not new but new owners may not know how to implement them properly, hopefully this will help.

Stories per page:

Opinions will differ on this one, but I would recommend keeping the number of stories per page between 10 and 15, too many outbound links could get your site labeled a link farm. It also will keep your website looking cleaner and easier to read.

Implement – go to your Admin panel > Configure > Misc > Page size

Open story title in new window:

While this may go against principles for proper user accessibility, this is a critical step. If you do not have your website set to open the stories in new windows, it takes your user away from your website. If they want to come back they need to hit the back button or re-enter your url in the address bar.

This maybe fine for most sites, but since a Pligg powered website’s primary function is for voting on submissions and most users vote on multiple submissions per session, having the outbound links open in new windows is more convenient.

I would also recommend using the story title as the outbound link and having the URL as the link instead of linking to Pligg’s out.php file. This offers a cleaner look, and helps the user determine what site he will be forwarded to.

Implement – go to your Admin panel > Configure > Story > Use story title as link > true

Implement – go to your Admin panel > Configure > Story > Open story title in new window > true

Images:

All images should contain an alt tag and specify the height and width. The alt tag should be informative, I generally like to use the story title as the alt tag.

Implement – open link_summary.tpl

find:

change to:

Note I have added an alt tag and specified the height and width for the thumbnail for each post. The height and width can be whatever works for your website.

Hidden text:

Apparently the developers at Pligg are the only ones that don’t know that hidden text is a big no-no when it comes to SEO. They still insist on adding hidden text in their footer.tpl file a long with their live visible link, thus resulting in you passing on double the link juice and risking getting banned or “sandboxed” by Google.
This is the code I am referring to:

{* Please do not edit the code below. *}
{checkActionsTpl location="tpl_footer"}

They try to make it seem as if this section is crucial to running the script, when in actuality all you need is:

{checkActionsTpl location="tpl_footer"}

Do yourself a favor and remove the hidden link to Pligg and leave the visible live link to them instead.

Sitemaps:

Sitemaps are a crucial piece of SEO as it tells search engines where everything is located. Sitemaps can be submitted to Google through the webmaster tools section, which every site should be part of.

Patchlog has created a module that will create a sitemap and automatically ping Google and other services everytime someone submits a story.

Spam:

Having your website riddled with spam will not only turn off search engines, but your users as well. Unless you have the time and patience to continuously monitor your website for spam posts, especially if you have the XML Sitemap Creator module installed, you need help.

Check out our module that forces submittors to get by reCaptcha before a story can be submitted.

Removing the word “category”:

While it isn’t really a must, it will clean up your URLs. I would remove the word “category” from your URL using URL method 2.

My good friend Lincoln has done a fantastic tutorial on how to achieve this.

Duplicate content:

Another no-no with Google is duplicate content, unless your Digg. Heres how to avoid it on your Pligg install.

Open your robots.txt file and add:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /templates/
Disallow: /3rdparty/
Disallow: /libs/
Disallow: /modules/
Disallow: /plugins/
Disallow: /internal/
Disallow: /backup/
Disallow: /thickbox/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /evb/
Disallow: /avatars/
Disallow: /admin_index.php
Disallow: /admin
Disallow: /story.php
Disallow: /login.php
Disallow: /user.php
Disallow: /js/
Disallow: /img/
Disallow: /story/
Disallow: /story/title/

This was another tip from Social CMS Buzz.

Rel=”nofollow”:

Though I have mixed feelings about using this tag, once you start building up members, stories and a steady traffic base, you may want to implement the nofollow tag.

By default Pligg comes with already included, however, for a new Pligg website I advise removing it.

It will be extremely difficult to get bloggers, your main source of stories, to register and submit posts to your Pligg powered website if there isn’t any link juice added.

Like many blogs, make yourself a dofollow blog to entice users to submit content. Once established, you can revert back to being a nofollow blog or remain a dofollow blog.

This is controlled by the link_summary.tpl file:

This is a decision you will have to make.

I would no matter what, make your about and contact pages nofollow as they are pages that are not as important thus do not need any link juice being passed on to them.

Avatar/Gravatar/Favicon:

I strongly recommend creating a favicon for your website, then register at Gravatar, at Gravatar make sure it matches your favicon, also keep a copy of the avatar you are using for Gravatar on your local machine.

The purpose of this is so that whenever you make a comment on a blog, your avatar will match your favicon, thus branding your website and spreading it’s brand while commenting on blogs, your source of traffic. Which leads us to giving back to the source of many of your stories, bloggers.

It is imperative that you visit and comment on any story that interests you or a story that you have a valuable comment to add to. This not only provides a backlink to you, but also provides traffic. Another bonus to commenting on blogs is building up relationships with the blogger, thus making them more susceptible to submitting more stories to your website.

This list is not the end all to be all, but a simple look at a few things you can do to help make your website more SEO ready.

I welcome more tips and comments. Please drop me a line below.

Do you have more tips?

Topusers function

Geoserv — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:32:41 +0000

The top users function built in to Pligg has been something I have neglected since installing Pligg. For the most part because it seemed to just display a list of all members alphabetically.

Today I took a look at the file topusers.php to see what it was using as a query, I wanted to change the output so it showed “top users” as the title suggests.

Sometimes it pays to browse the files of Pligg, the topusers.php files has 6 options for the output:

sort users alphabetically
sort users by number of submitted links
sort users by number of published links
sort users by number of comments
sort users by number of votes
sort users by number of published votes

By default, it is set to the first option, most Pligg installs you visit will have this set for the output. The first option really isn’t something that should be in the topusers.php file, as it only list all of your members.

I would set the option to either #1 or #5, this will show a more accurate picture of your top members.

In your root folder open topusers.php, find this section:

// determine how to sort users
if(isset($_GET['sortby'])){
$sortby = $_GET['sortby'];}
else{
$sortby = "0";}

// make sure sorting option is between 0 and 5
if(intval($sortby) < 0 || intval($sortby) > 5)
$sortby = 0;
else $sortby = intval($sortby);

switch ($sortby) {
case 0: // sort users alphabetically
$select = "SELECT user_id";
$from_where = " FROM " . table_users . " where user_level<>’god’";
$order_by = " ORDER BY user_login ";
break;
case 1: // sort users by number of submitted linkd
$select = "SELECT user_id, count(*) as count ";
$from_where = " FROM " . table_links . ", " . table_users . " WHERE link_status != ‘discard’ AND link_author=user_id AND user_level<>’god’ GROUP BY link_author";
$order_by = " ORDER BY count DESC ";
break;
case 2: // sort users by number of published links
$select = "SELECT user_id, count(*) as count ";
$from_where = " FROM " . table_links . ", " . table_users . " WHERE link_status = ‘published’ AND link_author=user_id AND user_level<>’god’ GROUP BY link_author";
$order_by = " ORDER BY count DESC ";
break;
case 3: //sort users by number of comments
$select = "SELECT user_id, count(*) as count ";
$from_where = " FROM " . table_comments . ", " . table_users . " WHERE comment_user_id=user_id AND user_level<>’god’ GROUP BY comment_user_id";
$order_by = " ORDER BY count DESC ";
break;
case 4: //sort users by number of votes
$select = "SELECT user_id, count(*) as count ";
$from_where = " FROM " . table_votes . ", " . table_users . " WHERE vote_user_id=user_id AND user_level<>’god’ GROUP BY vote_user_id";
$order_by = " ORDER BY count DESC ";
break;
case 5: // sort users by number of published votes
$select = "SELECT user_id, count(*) as count ";
$from_where = " FROM " . table_votes . ", " . table_users . ", " . table_links . " WHERE vote_user_id=user_id AND link_id=vote_link_id AND link_status=’published’ AND vote_date < link_published_date AND user_level<>’god’ GROUP BY user_id";
$order_by = " ORDER BY count DESC ";
break;
}

I have changed my to #5, so mine now looks like:

// determine how to sort users
if(isset($_GET['5'])){
$sortby = $_GET['5'];}
else{
$sortby = "5";}

// make sure sorting option is between 0 and 5
if(intval($sortby) < 0 || intval($sortby) > 5)
$sortby = 5;
else $sortby = intval($sortby);

link_author=user_id AND user_level<>’god’ GROUP BY link_author";
$order_by = " ORDER BY count DESC ";
break;
case 2: // sort users by number of published links
$select = "SELECT user_id, count(*) as count ";
$from_where = " FROM " . table_links . ", " . table_users . " WHERE link_status = ‘published’ AND

link_author=user_id AND user_level<>’god’ GROUP BY link_author";
$order_by = " ORDER BY count DESC ";
break;
case 3: //sort users by number of comments
$select = "SELECT user_id, count(*) as count ";
$from_where = " FROM " . table_comments . ", " . table_users . " WHERE comment_user_id=user_id AND

user_level<>’god’ GROUP BY comment_user_id";
$order_by = " ORDER BY count DESC ";
break;
case 4: //sort users by number of votes
$select = "SELECT user_id, count(*) as count ";
$from_where = " FROM " . table_votes . ", " . table_users . " WHERE vote_user_id=user_id AND user_level<>’god’

GROUP BY vote_user_id";
$order_by = " ORDER BY count DESC ";
break;
case 5: // sort users by number of published votes
$select = "SELECT user_id, count(*) as count ";
$from_where = " FROM " . table_votes . ", " . table_users . ", " . table_links . " WHERE vote_user_id=user_id AND

link_id=vote_link_id AND link_status=’published’ AND vote_date < link_published_date AND user_level<>’god’ GROUP BY user_id";
$order_by = " ORDER BY count DESC ";
break;
}

Example: News Dots Topusers

Something to play around with until you find the right one for you.

Which one are you using?

How to Remove the word category from Pligg’s category URL’s

Geoserv — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:26:33 +0000

I will start off by explaining what this hack will achieve by showing an example of before and after :.

Original Published Category URL

http://yoursite.com/category/WorldNews

Optimized Published Categroy URL

http://yoursite.com/WorldNews

Original Upcoming Category URL

http://yoursite.com/upcoming/category/WorldNews

Optimized Upcoming Categroy URL

http://yoursite.com/upcoming/WorldNews

Sorts Bar url’s “Sort by:” are also affected

Original Sorts Published Category URL

http://yoursite.com/published/recent/category/WorldNews

Optimized Sorts Published Categroy URL

http://yoursite.com/published/recent/WorldNews

Original Upcoming Category URL

http://yoursite.com/upcoming/newest/category/WorldNews

Optimized Upcoming Categroy URL

http://yoursite.com/upcoming/newest/WorldNews

Step-by-step tutorial…