!! This tutorial has not been updated since movable type version 2. It is most likely obsolete !!
I had been toying with the idea of putting my currently list on my main index page, but I wanted it to be super easy to update and linkable. So I did it with MT. The first version was pretty good -- it listed all my different categories (reading, watching, listening to etc.) and then the date and the newest thing I'd been reading, watching, listening to, etc. It linked to a website for that particular listing. So if I was reading Harry Potter, it linked to the Warner Bros Harry Potter Site. If I was listening to Collective Soul, it linked to their official site. It's basically almost exactly what I've got up right now on my blog ... except then it didn't gather and show the Amazon info.
If that's what you want to do ... use the Sideblog Without Amazon tutorial. My sideblog had only been up a few days when I noticed the winamp playlist over on kadyellebee.com. When you were hovering over one of the album titles, it would show the album cover, title, the latest amazon price and give you a link for buying it. I thought that was wicked cool! I don't use winamp, but I thought it would be cool to use it for everything on my currently list. Books, movies, tv shows, etc. Amazon has a listing for everything basically -- and thus the fun began. It took several days and lots of frustrating posting on the MT Support Forums, and lots of great help from the posters there, but eventually I got the code to work and I'm estatic with the results. This version of my sideblog is currently live on my site -- When you hover over anything on my currently list, it's going to pop up with info from Amazon about that topic. If that's what you want to do ... use the Sideblog With Amazon tutorial. You want to pull your playlist from Winamp and have Amazon info pop up? Well you're in the wrong place for that! While kadyellebee's tutorial on how to set this up was the inspiration for how I set up the Amazon links, I don't use winamp, don't want to, and there's no point writing another tutorial on something that's already been done expertly by Kristine herself!! Check out her tutorial here!
Sideblog Without Amazon
The following MUST be installed in order for this to work
(The plugins and javascript come with installation instructions):
Movable Type, version 2.5 or higher
Javascript: OverLIB
Download this zip file (Template Configurations).
1. Create a new weblog in MT. Call it Sideblog (or whatever you like!)
2. Decide if you want to have an image above each category or not. This will determine which template file you will use! If you want an image, open sideblog1.html. If you don't want an image, open sideblog2.html.
3. When you have the appropriate template open, change the paths for the overlib.js script and, if you're using the images template, for your images. Use the full path (i.e. http://www.yourdomain.com/blah blah). For now, don't change anything else. We want to make sure everything works before you start customizing it specifically for your site!
4. Replace the Main Index Template with the file you just altered (I prefer linking to templates, but do as you like!)!
5. Create your categories (i.e. Reading, Listening To, Watching, Buying)
6. If you aren't using images, skip to step 8. If you ARE using the template with images, create an image for each category, and save it as the same exact name as the category in the directory that you specified in step 4. (For Reading, save the image as reading.jpg; For Listening To, save the image as ListeningTo.jpg, etc.)
7. Rebuild!
8. Now you'll want to blog a few new entries -- to test and make sure everything is working properly.
How to blog a new entry:
Entry Title: You put the title of whatever you're watching or listening to here. (i.e. No Doubt, Friends, The Sound and the Fury, etc!)
Entry Body: What you want to display as alt text when you hover over the text. (i.e. - if I was listening to No Doubt, I would put -- "Gwen Stefani Rocks!!!" in the entry body!)
Entry Excerpt: The URL you want the text to link to. (i.e. for No Doubt, I'd put http://www.nodoubt.com in excerpt section!)
9. See your new sideblog at http://www.yourdomain.com/whatever you called your sideblog/.
10. Now if you want to include this blog onto one of your other pages, just use an include statement wherever it is that you want it to display: [code]
Warning: main(Full URL to your Sideblog) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/blog/public_html/archives/03/08/03/mt-sideblog-tut.php on line 103
Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening 'Full URL to your Sideblog' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/blog/public_html/archives/03/08/03/mt-sideblog-tut.php on line 103
[/code]
[OR you can use the MTOtherBlog plugin! ]
Sideblog WITH Amazon
The following MUST be installed in order for this to work
(The plugins and javascript come with installation instructions):
Movable Type, version 2.5 or highe
Javascript: OverLIB
MT Plugin: MTAmazon (you'll also need to sign up for an Developers Token/Associates ID; it's free though!)
MT Plugin: MTProcess Tags
MT Plugin: MTTag Invoke (this plugin is still in beta, but its the only way to get the MTAmazon to work in this way! It worked first-try for me and totally solved the problem of placing a MT tag inside another MT tag inside a Javascript! Woohoo!)
PHP enabled server (to include the sideblog on your main page)
Download this zip file (Template Configurations).
1. Create a new weblog in MT. Call it Sideblog (or whatever you like!)
2. Decide if you want to have an image above each category or not. This will determine which template file you will use! If you want an image, open sideblogamazon1.html. If you don't want an image, open sideblogamazon2.html.
3. When you have the appropriate template open, change the paths for the overlib.js script and, if you're using the images template, for your images. Use the full path (i.e. http://www.yourdomain.com/blah blah). For now, don't change anything else. We want to make sure everything works before you start customizing it specifically for your site!!
4. Now take the associate id you got from Amazon, and in the template replace associateid="silverberry20" with YOUR id. (Or if you don't want to bother getting a id, you can leave mine there!).
5. Replace the Main Index Template with the file you just altered (I prefer linking to templates, but do as you like!)!
6. Create your categories (i.e. Reading, Listening To, Watching, Buying)
7. If you aren't using images, skip to step 8. If you ARE using the template with images, create an image for each category, and save it as the same exact name as the category in the directory that you specified in step 4. (For Reading, save the image as reading.jpg; For Listening To, save the image as ListeningTo.jpg, etc.)
8. Rebuild!
9. Now you'll want to blog a few new entries -- to test and make sure everything is working properly.
How to blog a new entry:
Entry Title: You put the title of whatever you're watching or listening to here. (i.e. No Doubt, Friends, The Sound and the Fury, etc!)
Entry Body: The ASIN of the album, book, etc. If I'm linking a non ITEM, I'll usually link to something relating to it. If I'm watching the Letterman show, I'll put the ASIN of a book that he has written on his Top Ten Lists. There's always something you can link to! Just put the number here! Be sure there are absolutely NO spaces here - if you copy and paste from Amazon, it puts a space after the ASIN -- backspace to get rid of that. If there are spaces before or after the ASIN, it will NOT pull the amazon info!!
Entry Excerpt: The URL you want the physical text to link to. (i.e. for No Doubt, I'd put http://www.nodoubt.com). They'll be able to click on the link from the popup Amazon window, but if its Letterman, or someone you're plugging, or a TV show, you might want to link to an official site or something.
10. See your new sideblog at http://www.yourdomain.com/whatever you called your sideblog/.
11. Now if you want to include this blog onto one of your other pages, just use an include statement wherever it is that you want it to display: [code]
Warning: main(Full URL to your Sideblog) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/blog/public_html/archives/03/08/03/mt-sideblog-tut.php on line 125
Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening 'Full URL to your Sideblog' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/blog/public_html/archives/03/08/03/mt-sideblog-tut.php on line 125
[/code]
[OR you can use the MTOtherBlog plugin! ]
ok, i swear to god that this blog was more current than the cupid one...? i read that one a couple days ago, and this is new! very strange. anyway. one question - your links to MT Tag Invoke and Process Tags don't go anywhere... I found PT but not Tag Invoke - anywhere. I searched the plugin site, the forums... blah. Help?
Fixed -- my autolink took over the MT and didn't link the Tag Invoke! There you go :) If you have any questions, email or im me !!
oh, just one... how much for you to install it? :biggrin: kidding. i went through one attempt on bradfan and got halfway through... i just need to figure out how to set it up there. it might not work as well as i initially hoped, but i definitely want to set it up on my blog, too. very exciting, thanks so much for writing this out. :dance:
OK so with bradfan you're wanting to have the hover-window in your blog -- so taht if you mention a movie he's in, it will show that DVD and the price and the buy it link? right? I'll email you about that -- that would be really cool for that site!!!
how do i install mttaginvoke with plugin manager or without?
A very nice turorial indeed. I am trying to put up my site and will definitely use this (credits will be mentioned ofcourse!)
Thanks again
Pushkar
Sideblog1 and 2.html should be edited to have overlib(' in them for the onmouseover tag.
You are so right Steve ... and the templates have been adjusted accordingly :) Thanks for pointing it out !!!!
Hi -- this is a very cool tool. i'm trying to get it up and running on my blog-- the new "sideblog" blog runs fine, but the include doesn't pull the sideblog into my main blog. any suggestions?
the tag reads:
Hi there,
Thanks for the tutorial on implementing this version of a sideblog. Nicely done. I've got it up and running with some mods of my own @ http://www.synaptic.bc.ca/MyMessyWorkbench .
FYI, the amazon sideblog templates incorrectly call MTTagInvoke incorrectly. For example, there should be an MTTagContent container and no /MTAmazon close tag. The code as you've written it works for your setup, but anyone attempting to modify the code will likely run into problems as the invoked MTAmazon tag is not properly closed.
You can see a couple examples of more properly formatted code at http://www.synaptic.bc.ca/MediaThings/ sideblogamazon2.tpl
Otherwise, great tutorial.
Cheers,
p.
do you have a tutorial for "mt table blog template"? gimme a feedback! hehe ;D anyways, cool tutorials!
Hey, this is a wonderful tutorial. I'm so sorry to bother you, but while it worked fine on my sideblog index page, the pop-up hover refuses to work when I use the include to bring it to my main blog. The info otherwise shows, it's just when I hover over it, I don't get the pop-up. :) Again, I'm sorry to bother you and I appreciate any help you'd be willing to give me.
Nevermind, it is displaying, it's just coming up in a new div all the way over on the other side of the page. I can't get the boxes to pop up on top of everything for some reason. Just the same, it's still a really cool tutorial. I hadn't even known about the ability to do the sideblogs. :D
Hi,
I tried to use the version without MTAmazon (and without images). I'm pretty sure I did everything right, but when I try to rebuild the sideblog I just created, this message appears:
Error in Main Index Template: tag
used out of context
Can you help me, please? Thanks a lot!
I am currently having the same problem as Alexandro, though I am using the template with images.
The error I get is this:
"Build error in template 'Main Index': Error in tag: This tag may only be used with a SQL-capable datastore."
And yes, i did installMTSQL as well as all the other plugins. Any ideas?
I've edited out the SQL plugin and MySQL backend requirements -- now this should work on your MT installation no matter what database backend you are using.
Woot. It works, Lacy! Thanks so much, I appreciate it. I still haven't included it on my main blog, yet. But you can see it here:
http://valley-grrl.net/movabletype/side/
*Big grin* Again, thanks so much.
Noooo.... My site is just blank, lol. Well, it's not really funny as well, though. Could anyone tell me why? I used the no image one and everything's just plain messed up.:soapbox:
:wow: This looks cool!
Thanks!