I'll be back August 15th. So no posts until then.
2005-07-31
2005-07-28
Technorati language filter
The same day I complained about Technorati's lack of language recognition it launched it's language filter. It currently is in beta (it only works on searches, not on tags and it supports the top 10 languages used in the ‘blogosphere’). At first I thought they might have an accessibility problem using Javascript to change the language, but it works fine when Javascript is turned off.
The interface might be accessible but it needs to be improvement. You can't select multiple languages. I would like to have results in English, Dutch and German.
Update 23:06: I've gotten a reply from Technorati on some feature requests.
Hi Jasper,
Thank you for your feedback. We currently envision giving our users the ability to store their language preferences along with their account data. We hope to expand the spectrum of international tools available to you while searching the blogosphere.Technorati is currently re-architecting its authority measurements. We will have some new and improved ways for you to sort your search results on things like number of inbound links.
Thank you for contacting Technorati.
Niall Kennedy
Community Manager
Technorati
Internet Explorer 7 beta 1
Get your copy of Internet Explorer 7 beta 1 now! Too bad I don't have time to test it for the next two weeks.
Update 18:25: Anne van Kesteren and Hayo Bethlehem took a look at it.
2005-07-27
Things Technorati should do better
I like the idea behind Technorati, but I've noticed that I don't really use it because of some weak points.
- It doesn't recognize languages 2. I only want to search for content in specific languages, or I want good translations of content in languages I don't speak.
- Low performance from time to time. I don't like waiting for more than one or two seconds.
- Not 100% reliable 1. Yesterday I've posted something that still isn't indexed at this moment.
- No ‘quality’ filter. Sites with more links are likely to have better content. I would like to be able filter on that. Then some tag RSS feeds are interesting to me.
I hope Technorati is able to improve on those points.
1 Update 2005-07-28: The post I mentioned was indexed 7 hours ago. So Technorati might be reliable but indexing takes way too long.
2 Update 2005-07-28: How about that: Technorati added language support yesterday!
I also have gotten a reply from Technorati on some feature requests.
2005-07-26
Blogger edit comments user script
After reading a post explaining how to edit comments in Blogger I got an idea. I would like to integrate comments editing into the Blogger posts list. So, here is the Blogger edit comments (0.2.2) user script for Greasemonkey.
It adds a link to the comments in the posts list and it adds an edit link to edit each comment in the comments list:
0.2.2
Fixed it to work with Greasemonkey 0.6.4.
0.2.1
Fixed it to work with Greasemonkey 0.5.1. Thanks to Johan Sundström for pointing the problem out.
0.2
- Removed Blogger's
onclickwhich caused an extra window to be opened. - Corrected the title for the edit link.
- Added a link to quickly and permanently delete comments.
0.1
Initial version.
2005-07-21
Internet Explorer's anchor name attribute problem
This week I was working on our content management system. I needed to insert named anchors before specific DOM nodes. Doing so I found out that you are unable to set the name attribute of an anchor in IE. Take a look at the following code:
var div = document.createElement('div');
var a = document.createElement('a');
a.setAttribute('name', 'whatever');
div.appendChild(a);
alert(div.innerHTML);
You would expect an alert saying <a name="whatever"></a>. Execute the above code and see for yourself. I also tried using a.name = 'whatever' which also didn't work.
To meet the deadline I used the onload attribute instead and replaced <a onload by <a name afterwards. Not very pretty. Anyone any better ideas?
2005-07-20
Technorati search this site
I have replaced Google with Technorati for searching this site. Technorati has a personal touch and has more options to navigate. If you want to add the search form to your blog, here's the HTML:
<div id="search">
<h2>Technorati search this site</h2>
<form action="http://www.technorati.com/search.php">
<dl>
<dt><label for="q">Query</label><dt>
<dd>
<input type="text" id="q" name="s">
<input type="hidden" name="from" value="http://your.site.com">
</dd>
</dl>
</form>
</div>
Blogger tag adder user script
Yes, another tag adder for Blogger. So, no credit for the idea. In my opinion there were small things missing in existing scripts. That's why I created my own script. Editing and styling tags where the most important to me.
Features of my Blogger tag adder (0.3.1) user script for Greasemonkey:
- Tags can easily be modified on existing or draft posts as they are read back into the tag input field!
- Tags are placed in a unordered list, which make them easy to style!
- You can easily add sites to tag.
- Separate tags using a comma.
Example of the generated HTML (in case of Technorati tags):
<div class="tags"> Tags: <ul> <li><a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Greasemonkey" rel="tag">Greasemonkey</a> <li><a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Security" rel="tag">Security</a> </ul> </div>
Example of CSS to use to get the tags next to each other:
.tags * {
display: inline;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
0.3.1
Update it to work on the restyled BlogThis!.
0.3
You can use this on BlogThis! as well now.
0.2.5
Added support for compose mode editing.
0.2.4
Fixed it to work with Greasemonkey 0.6.4.
0.2.3
Updated to work with my form data rescue script.
0.2.2
Fixed it to work with Greasemonkey 0.5.1. The fix in version 0.2.1 was no good.
0.2
Added tabindex.
0.1
Initial version.
2005-07-19
Custom Blogger comments form howto
A lot of blogspot users have asked how to embed the custom comments form. I've put an example online of how to embed it in Douglas Bowman's Minima template. I hope this helps.
Update Greasemonkey because of security hole
You may have read this on every blog already. Just to be sure I'm also telling you to update Greasemonkey because of a problem in the GM APIs.
2005-07-18
Blogger large post editor user script
Just like the Blogger template editor, the Blogger post editor really is too small. I wrote a Blogger large post editor user script for Greasemonkey. It makes the title field wider, but most important: it sets the editor's width to 100% and makes it higher. It works for both plain and rich editing.
You might also be interested in the Blogger large template editor.
0.1.3
Fixed it to work with Greasemonkey 0.6.4.
0.1.1
Fixed it to work with Greasemonkey 0.5.1.
0.1
Initial version.
2005-07-17
What is Blogger telling Technorati?
I recently replaced the HaloScan trackback links by Technorati links (tags will be added later). You can configure Blogger to ping Technorati automatically when your blog is updated. I'm wondering what Blogger is telling Technorati. Somehow Technorati is linking my blog using kedarde.blogspot.com. Weird thing is: you will get Browservulsel when you go there.
Update 2005-07-18: This is no Blogger ping problem. Someone just tried to copy my template, which didn't work obviously.
2005-07-15
Favicon
Blogger has added a favicon to all blogspot blogs some time ago. I never took the time to create one my self, until today. All the orange B's in my browser tabs where just too annoying.
Update 2005-07-16: a2xm requested a howto. So, here it is. Just create a 16×16px PNG image, put it online and add the following to your head section:
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="URL to your PNG">
2005-07-14
Custom Blogger comments form submit listener fixed
I have fixed the custom Blogger comments form. I changed the submit listener because of a bug in it. In the old situation I used addEventListener to set the submit listener:
if (cFrm.addEventListener) {
cFrm.addEventListener('submit', function(){return cFrmPost()}, false);
} else {
cFrm.onsubmit = function(){return cFrmPost()};
}
addEventListener doesn't return the cFrmPost() return value. When you left the name field blank, you would be asked to fill in a name. At the same time the comment was posted as 'Anonymous'. Now I just use:
cFrm.onsubmit = function(){return cFrmPost()};
Thanks to Hinderik for pointing this out.
2005-07-13
CSS: clear floats on parent only
Yet again, I had a problem with CSS. For a project I'm working on I've build page with a sidebar that floats right of the main content (the sidebar and the main content are siblings). The main content contains several floating images. I want those images to clear existing floats because I don't want images next to each other.
Problem is that the images appear under the floating sidebar. There is a way to solve it. Just use overflow: auto on the main content. Yes, overflow: auto saved the day again!
2005-07-12
CSS menu and overflow auto workaround
Some time ago I wrote about a problem in Firefox 1.0.x when you combine a pure CSS menu followed by overflow: auto content.
Last week I found a simple solution: position the menu absolutely and make sure that it overlaps the content a few pixels. Problem fixed!
2005-07-08
Google Toolbar spell checker
The spell checker in the Google Toolbar (beta available for Firefox) is cool! I always check my posts with the Blogger spell checker. The Google Toolbar version easier and faster. Brilliant!
2005-07-03
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 draft
W3C published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 working draft on 30 June 2005. A few points I'm very pleased with:
Table layouts
1.0 doesn't encourage you to use tables for layout. You can if you like as long if the table makes sense when linearized (1.0: checkpoint 5.3).
2.0 states that structures within the content should be programmatically determinable and that, when content is arranged in a sequence that affects its meaning, that sequence should be programmatically determinable (2.0: 1.3 L1 SC1 / L3 SC1). Something you can't do if you use a table for layout. However, to do this properly there are more semantic elements needed, like the ones described in Web Applications 1.0 working draft.
Non-text elements
1.0 states you have to provide a text equivalent for every non-text element (1.0: checkpoint 1.1).
2.0 is more nuanced. For example: non-text content that is not functional, is not used to convey information, and does not create a specific sensory experience should be implemented such that it can be ignored by assistive technology (2.0: checkpoint 1.1 L1 SC4).
Updated custom Blogger comments form
I have updated custom Blogger comments form: unescaped the data read from cookie, stripped http:// from the URL (Blogger simply adds http:// to the URL regardless if there already was a protocol) and removed mailto: (because it did't work).
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