The Blog Doctor.

PROBLEM : How can you list all the posts in your blog in alphabetical order?

SOLUTION :................

We will use Yahoo Pipes to solve this problem as we did in How to Display Combined Labels in Blogger?

GET BLOG FEED

First we get the blog feed URL. In this case we will use :

http://betabloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Then to include all posts we add this parameter to the above feed url :

?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=999

This will fetch 1000 posts from the blog. Now the complete feed url is :

http://betabloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=999

To get your feed url simply replace 'betabloggerfordummies' in the above url with your blog name.

YAHOO PIPES

Next get a Yahoo account and go to Yahoo Pipes. Click Create a Pipe to open the interface. In the sidebar click Source and from drop down list drag and drop a Fetch Feed module onto the Interface. In the Fetch Feed module paste the URL for the blog feed shown in above step. See Picture below

Next click on arrow next to 'Operators' in the sidebar. From the drop down list choose 'Sort' module and drag and drop that onto the interface. See Picture below

In the Sort Module choose Sort by "item title" in "ascending" order. Drag the blue circle on the bottom border of the Fetch Feed module and connect it to the Sort Module. Then connect the Sort Module to the Pipe Output Module.

Wait for the results to appear in the bottom grey Debugger pane. Click Save Pipe at the top right of the interface. Give it a name and OK it. Next click Run Pipe link at the top center of the interface. You can see the pipe I made here.

Open the pipe by clicking the link above. Click Clone link at top and a copy of this pipe will be added to your Yahoo Pipes. Click Edit Source link and it will open in your interface just as shown in above diagrams. Then in the Fetch Feed Module paste in your Blog Feed url as shown in first step and you have your own pipe. Save it with your own title/name. Click Run Pipe and you will see the output of all posts sorted alphabetically from your blog.

At the top click the 'Get as Badge' link and in popup window click Blogger and the Add Page Element window will open and you can add this list to any of your blogs.

SORT LABEL POSTS ALPHABETICALLY

To sort Label Posts alphabetically paste the Label Feed url in the Fetch Feed module. See the Sort Label Posts Alphabetically Yahoo Pipe I made for the label Template in this blog. Clone it as shown above. In the Fetch Feed module text box replace 'betabloggerfordummies' and 'Template' with your blog name and label name to make your own label pipe.

Enjoy!

How to Display Combined Labels in Blogger?

Style a Feed from Another Blog.

Read Multiple Blogs in One Go with OPML.

Count Your Blog Feed Subscribers.

Tips on Using Google Reader with Site Feeds.

Email Subscription Box and Buttons.

Many bloggers want to know how to have the 'Subscribe to Blog Updates' by Email box and the big orange 'Subscribe to Blog Feed' buttons in their blog. Putting out blog feeds and having a prominent Email subscribe box/buttons are two effective ways to increase traffic to your blog.

Blogger already has a Subscribe to Posts link at the bottom of each post...........

However for best results you should place your feed links in the header, at the top of the sidebars or in the post footer. To put it at the top of the sidebars login to Dashboard of Blogger and click on Layout. In the Page Elements tab which opens click on Add Page Element link in the sidebar. Choose the Html/Javascript option and paste the following code in it :

<a href="FEED LINK"><img src="LINK OF ORANGE FEED ICON"/></a>

Replace FEED LINK with :

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

OR

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Substitute actual blog name in place of yourblogname. If you want to channel feeds through Feedburner put in your Feedburner feed link instead. It will look something like this :

http://feeds.feedburner.com/yourblogname.

Get the actual link from Feedburner. Instead of LINK OF ORANGE FEED ICON put the link of where you have uploaded the orange icon. Feel free to steal the icon at the top of the left column. Right click the icon and select 'Save Image' and save it to a location on your hard drive. Then upload it to a freehost like Googlepages or Photobucket. Use the link of the icon hosted at these sites to copy and paste instead of 'LINK OF ORANGE FEED ICON'. Do not try to use Blogger as an image host as the links are difficult to extract and sometimes do not work.

If after adding the above buttons you want to remove the original Subscribe to Posts link see the third blockquote from the top in What is Subscribe to Posts Atom.

If you have a sufficient subscriber base you can add a chicklet to show the subscriber count .

EMAIL SUBSCRIBE BOX

To put in a Email subscribe box create an account at Feedburner or Feedblitz. You will have to burn your blog feed at Feedburner first. Then click on your feed title. Click on the Publicize tab at the top and then on Email Subscriptions in the sidebar. You can then choose to enter it as a link or as a box and also the language. If you have the new layouts template click the down arrow in the text box 'Use as a widget in' and choose 'Blogger'. In the next screen click Add page element and it is added to your template without any coding. If you have the classic template copy and paste the given code in sidebar section of your template.

In Feedblitz add your blog after logging in. Then on Dashboard click on Solutions and then on Widgets. Under Feedblitz Widgets------>Email Subscription widgets----->Click on New Blogger widgets. In the next page type in your email and the verification code and then click the button 'Install your Email Subscription Widget on Blogger Beta'. In the next page select Add Page element and the box will be installed to your blog without any coding. For the classic template get the code from the syndication management page and copy and paste it in sidebar section of your template.

The email subscription box enables readers to get your blog updates directly in their email. If you want to post updates to only a few members you can do so through a Google Groups Mailing List.

It is useful to subscribe yourself to both your feed and email updates so that you can monitor what the feed looks like and if it is regular. It helps also if you want to modify the feed and add advertisements in it. You can also modify the feed footer in your settings.

List Count Your Bloglines Feed Subscribers.

Feedburner Feed Subscribe Icon Below Each Post.

It is not enough just to have a blog feed and set the settings to short or full. You have to publicize it so that your readers can easily subscribe to it......

There are several methods of publicizing your blog feeds which I have outlined in Feedburner and Blog Feeds.. Here is another method which adds a Feed link directly below each of your blog posts. Any viewer of your blog after reading your blog post comes imediately upon this link and is prompted to subscribe. If sufficiently impressed by your post he/she can immediately subscribe. This obviates the need to search for the feed link elsewhere and is a handy tool to increase your subscribers. You can also easily customize the colors of this box to match the decor of your blog.

First you will have to burn your feed at Feedburner. The method to do so is outlined in Feedburner and Blog Feeds.. After burning your blog feed at feedburner.com you will have the new link for your feed which will usually take the form of :

http://feeds.feedburner.com/NAME OF BLOG

Let us call this link "YOUR BLOG FEEDBURNER LINK".

Also download one of the Feed Icons or use the one I have provided here. Just right click the icon and save it to your PC and then upload it to a freehost like Googlepages and copy down the link to the icon. Let us call this link "LINK TO FEEDBURNER ICON".

Login to Dashboard of Blogger and click on layouts of the blog you want to add the feedbox to. Then click on Edit Html tab at the top and first backup template to PC by clicking on the Download Full Template link. Then scroll down in Edit Template box till you come to Variable Definitions section. Add this code within this section :

<Variable name="footerfeedboxcolor" description="Post Footer Feedbox Color"
type="color" default="#fff" value="#ffff66">

This code will allow you to change the color of the feedbox so as to fit in the decor for your blog via the Template----->Fonts and Colors tab.

Then scroll down and add this code just above the ]]></b:skin> tag :

.footerfeedbox {
background-color: $footerfeedboxcolor;
width: 85%;
margin: 10px 14px 20px 14px;
padding: 4px;
border: 1px solid #dddddd;
text-align: center;
}

Save Template. This so far has just defined the physical characteristics of the feed link box. To actually implement that box on the blog check the Expand Widgets Template button on top of the Edit Template text box. Then scroll down in Edit Template text box till you come to this line in the Blog Posts widget :

<div class='post-footer'>

Add this code for the box immediately after the above line :

<div align='center'><div class='footerfeedbox'>
<a href="YOUR BLOG FEEDBURNER LINK" title="Subscribe to my feed" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">
<img src='LINK TO FEEDBURNER ICON' alt="" style="border:0" />Like this article? Subscribe to the RSS feed!</a></div></div>

Replace the CAPS in the above code with the appropriate links obtained at the top of this post. Save Template. Click on Fonts and Colors tab at the top under Template tab and change the background color of the feedbox at the foot of your posts by choosing the appropriate color. See it below and at the foot of every post in this blog.

Technorati Tags:feedburner, feed, subscribe to,

Feedburner and Blog Feeds.

Add a Table of Contents to Main Blog Posts Column.

Technorati in Blogger Beta.

Search Engines Compared
GOOGLE	TECHNORATI
Generalized Search	Specialized Search
Searches static, inactive Web	Searches Dynamic Web
No Focus	Focuses on Blogs
Infrequent visits to site	Immediate indexing of content
More sites to cover	Less sites to cover increasing efficiency
Covers World Wide Web	Covers World Live Web

Add a Recent Posts List after Every Post.

How To List Previous Posts by Title.

To list All Previous Posts by Title...............

you will use your blog's RSS feed to put content into your sidebar. How to do this has already been described in the post : Add Content with RSS Feeds in a general way. This is a special case in which you can use this method to display the title of all your previous posts in the sidebar.

STEP 1. The feed for your beta blog is of the format :

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full

where instead of 'yourblogname' type in the name of your blog. The feed for your old Blogger blog is :

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/rss.xml or
http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Step 2. You will have to convert this feed into Javascript code which you can then insert into your webpage so that it displays on your site. There are many RSS-to-Javascript convertors online which you can search out usinf Google. One of these convertors is located at :

http://itde.vccs.edu/rss2js/build.php

Copy and Paste the above link into your browser and press Enter. Copy and paste the link for your blog feed obtained in Step 1 into the "Enter the web address of the RSS Feed" under 'Build your feed'. In Select the options set 'Number of Items to display' as 0 - This will display all posts. In 'Show item descriptions? How much?' set it as 0 to show no descriptions. Set 'Show item posting date?' as No and click Preview to see whether your titles are coming through. If it displays correctly then click 'Generate Javascript'. The program generates Javascript code along with a noscript code for those browsers without Javascript. Copy the entire code.

Step 3. Go to Layout in your blog after logging in to Dashboard. The Page Elements page opens. Click on 'Add Page Element' in the sidebar section. A new popup window opens where choose HTML/Javascript option and paste the code obtained in Step 2 above in the Content box. Click Save Changes.

Refresh cache. View Blog.

You can see an example of this in my right sidebar at the top.

To do this in Classic Blogger just paste the Javascript code in your template in the sidebar section.

Technorati Tags:feed, javascript, previous posts, rss

What is "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)".

"Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" is a link provided at.................

the end of all your blog posts. This link is for viewers of your site/blog to view your blog without having to come to your blog. In the real world when we want to read a newspaper or magazine we go to the news-stand and buy it.

If you wish to change the words "Subscribe to Posts Atom" go to Template------>Edit Html----->Backup Template first------->Put a Check in
Expand Widgets Template box------------>Scroll down in Edit Template
text box and locate this code in Blog Posts widget :

<b:includable id='feedLinksBody' var='links'>
<div class='feed-links'>
<data:feedLinksMsg/>
<b:loop values='data:links' var='f'>
<a class='feed-link' expr:href='data:f.url'
expr:type='data:f.mimeType' target='_blank'><data:f.name/> FEED ME</a>
</b:loop>
</div>
</b:includable>

Substitute the CAPS instead of (<data:f.feedType/>). Change the CAPS to whatever suits you. Preview and save.

After having read it we like it so much that we decide to read it regularly. However, we cannot spare the time to go to the news-stand daily or monthly to buy the paper or magazine. It is then that we decide to subscribe to it. Then the news/magazine is delivered to our doorstep without us having to visit the news-stand.

In the virtual world regular users subscribe to groups whose members hold the same interst as they do. Some examples of these are Google groups and Yahoo groups. In these groups members post messages which are delivered automatically to all members of the group. They do not have to send emails to each member seperately. After the World Wide Web exploded into millions of websites viewers were confounded and confused and a wasted a lot of time visiting each site separately.

Thus RSS and Atom was born. These are the delivery guys of the Internet. RSS is an acronym that is short for Really Simple Syndication. It's a type of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) that is used for syndicating content. XML is used to describe data and is basically a markup language like HTML. To read the feed easily, download a feed reader like Feedreader.com or use an online reader like Google Reader.

TO MAKE IT WORK right click the link : Subscribe to posts - Atom and left click on 'Copy link location'. This will copy the URL of the link to your clipboard. Then go to your feed reader and paste the link into it.

DO NOT LEFT CLICK THE LINK because it will ask you to download the XML file full of code.

You can paste multiple such links from multiple sites on the Internet and then you will have updated content from all sites ready to read instead of having to visit all those sites one by one.

You can also use it to deliver updated content from other sites/blogs to your site/blog. How to do this is descirbed in Add Content with RSS feeds.

Similarly others can use this to deliver content from your site to their site. To prevent access to your feed you can hide this by pasting following code in your CSS part of template :

.feed-links {
display:none;

}

To see what is CSS part of template see Parts of Template.

The feed url for you beta blog is :

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full
http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

type name of your blog in place of 'yourblogname' in link above.

To add these links to your sidebar go to Settings----->Page Elements---->Add Page Element in Sidebar------>Choose Link List------>Enter the above feed URLs and for Titles add Subscribe to Posts :Atom and Subscribe to Posts :RSS.

In Classic Blogger the feed URL is :

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/rss.xml

TO SET THE SETTINGS for your feed in Beta Blogger go to Settings----->Site Feed.

Here you can set the Settings for :

1) Whether you want your full posts to be sent in the feed or none or short.
2) Whether you want the Blog Comments also to be sent in full or short form.
3) Whether you want the per posts comments to be full, none or short.
4) Lastly if you want something else to appear in your feed like Adsense Ads.
5) Always try to set it to short so readers get a sneak preview of your posts and then visit your blog to read more on the topic.

For more info see :

Technorati Tags:atom, feed, rss, subscribe to

TO ADD A GOOGLE READER BUTTON to your blog go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/add.html . Type in your Feed URLin the first Text box and click on Create Html. Copy the snippet of code and paste it into a Html/Javascript Page Element in the sidebar. For Example a Google Reader button for my blog is :

Clicking on the above button will enable you to add the feed from my blog to your Google Reader or to your Google Personalized Search Page.

TO ADD A Add-to-My Yahoo! Button GO TO :
http://publisher.yahoo.com/promote.php. Choose a button style. Enter your bew blogger feed urls which are described above. Then click on Generate Html. Copy and Paste the code generated in a Html/Javascript Page Element in the sidebar. I have added a button here below :

Clicking on the above button will enable you to add a feed from my site to your MY-Yahoo Page.

RSS Auto-Discovery

Auto-discovery is a way to let applications (such as Mozilla's Firefox browser, Yahoo! Toolbar, etc.) know there's an RSS feed on your web page or site. Then, the application lets users know they can subscribe to your feeds.

To see if your web site currently supports RSS auto-discovery, use the new Yahoo! Toolbar or Firefox browser. If Firefox has an orange box highlighted in the lower right corner , or the Yahoo! Toolbar has a blue "plus" button next to the My Yahoo! button on the toolbar, then you don't need to do anything.

Otherwise, please add the code below to your template after the metatags :

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="[YOUR RSS FEED TITLE]" href="%5BURL%20TO%20RSS%20FILE%5D">

Auto-discovery tips for publishers:

Please make your titles something meaningful and descriptive (e.g., "NYTimes Top Stories") – otherwise users will see "Add RSS" when they use this feature.

If you have multiple feeds, please add this code to all feeds if possible, so users have more choices.

Make sure the LINK tags go in the HEAD and not in the BODY of the HTML document.