Blogger backlinks the custom way

Blogger now offers backlinks. It's a sort of trackback system, but not quite.

Blogger has put a help article online on how to enable backlinking. Read it if you want to use the non custom Blogger version of backlinking. If you want custom backlinking just paste these bits of code to your template (you don't need to make the settings described in the help article).

On your MainOrArchivePage (after the link to the comments for example):

<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
if (! BL_BacklinkCount) var BL_BacklinkCount = new Array();
BL_BacklinkCount['<$BlogItemNumber$>'] = document.createElement('span');
//]]>
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.blogger.com/dyn-js/backlink_count.js?blogID=<$BlogID$>&postID=<$BlogItemNumber$>"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
document.write(
  ' &middot; <a href="<$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$>#backlinks">Backlinks: '+
  BL_BacklinkCount['<$BlogItemNumber$>'].innerHTML +'</a>'
);
//]]>
</script>

Update 2006-01-07: I did a rewrite to speed this part up.

On your ItemPage (after the comments for example):

<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
var BL_Backlinks = new Array();
//]]>
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.blogger.com/dyn-js/backlink.js?blogID=<$BlogID$>&postID=<$BlogItemNumber$>"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
if (BL_Backlinks && BL_Backlinks.length) {
  document.write('<div id="backlinks"><a name="backlinks"></a><h3>Backlinks</h3><dl>');
  for (var i = 0; i < BL_Backlinks.length; i++) {
    document.write(
      '<dt><a href="'+ BL_Backlinks[i]["BlogBacklinkURL"] +'">'+ BL_Backlinks[i]["BlogBacklinkTitle"] +'</a></dt>'+
      '<dd>'+ BL_Backlinks[i]["BlogBacklinkSnippet"] +'<a name="t'+ i +'"></a><p>'+
      BL_Backlinks[i]["BlogBacklinkAuthor"] + ' &middot; '+ BL_Backlinks[i]["BlogBacklinkDateTime"] +'</p></dd>'
    );
  }
  document.write('</dl></div>');
}
//]]>
</script>

Here is an example page with backlinks.

Tags:

• Blogger
• Custom
• Backlink
• Backlinks
• Javascript