BlogRush Widget Replacement
Mon, 24 September, 2007 – 12:30 am
After my lack of success with BlogRush last week, I took Gary's thoughts, which were a simpler idea to one I'd had pre-BlogRush, and have created my own script to display the last 5 posts on the blogs I read. It's down near the bottom of the sidebar and is set to update at least every 3 hours, or whenever a visitor arrives after the 3 hour update break - this is so not to annoy the owners of the blogs I read and have their feed hit too often, despite all the feeds being supplied by Feedburner! 
Still, it slows the page loading down if it has to check everytime.nnMy script is fairly simple, using the RSS field under my Blogroll, which strangely I can't seem to find anything about whether WordPress makes use of this field or not! It also uses Magpie RSS to retrieve the feed content, and a database table to control what is output as I only want the 5 most recent posts. It only displays one post per blog so that there's still a little diversity there.nnIf I knew how I guess I could release it as a plugin, so if anyone fancies wrapping it up as one let me know. I guess I could release the code too as it only needs an extra db table adding and then simply include the file where you want it going. Perhaps if I have time I'll do this, depends if anyone else wants it ;)nnI'm still working out which blogs to add to the group as there are only a few at present. I'm obviously wanting Entrepreneur type blogs, those that focus more on making money, marketing and business info. But then again I've only added those that I read as those are the ones I like :)nnAnyway, let me know what you think and if you want the code :)nn
Update
nThis is now available as a WordPress plugin from my plugins page.
18 Responses to “BlogRush Widget Replacement”
Cool addition Sarah. I removed the BlogRush widget from my site as well after only a couple days. I probably didn't give it enough time, but I was just tired of it to be honest. Seemed like a lot of spam titles coming through and it just didn't fit in well with my design.
By Deron Sizemore on Sep 24, 2007
Very cool. I was thinking about doing something like this as well.nnI see you have my blog on the list… thanks!
By DerekBeau on Sep 24, 2007
Deron, whilst it was a good idea I don't think it was well thought out to be honest. I figured it would add a little extra diversity linking to posts I wouldn't mention or read otherwise. But then again you need to be able to have trust in it and I don't after my experience. At least the people on my blogroll I trust not to be writing about stuff I don't want appearing here!nnDerek, you're welcome to the code unless you want to tackle it yourself. Yep you're on the blog list, nice blog
However I've just had to remove your entry as your most recent post has been removed I think. Check your FeedBurner feed to see the one called Temporary Post Used For Style Detection!
By Sarah on Sep 24, 2007
Yep, I like this idea much more than BlogRush and their 10-level deep Amway scheme. A major flaw with BR is the very broad categories they use so blogs of all descriptions show up. Where are all thsoe plug-in gurus out there? Simpler the better .. just let me pick the RSS feed from 5 (or a vaiable number) of blogs "I" choose … bo stats, no bells, no whistles and especially no dopwnlines ;-). It would be greatly appreciated, I know that.
By Dave Starr --- ROI Guy on Sep 24, 2007
Sarah - would love your code please! Will get it on osWorld pronto, as I am sick and tired of the stupid "links" page. You have my email addy..nnIdea for you; Spruce up the code, then get it viral, by sending to all the blogs that you read - and then get them to send it to all the blogs they read and they get them to …nnThanks, Garynnps, cool editing feature on comments…
By Gary on Sep 24, 2007
Dave - I chose Computers and Internet for my category, I still got something out of an X rated movie ;)nnGary, code is sent. Let me know your thoughts.nnI'll try and work on getting this packaged up as a plugin when I have time during the week and can then feel a bit more confident it sending it out to people knowing they don't have to do a number of things before it works! Just need to investigate whether WordPress comes with MagpieRSS and if so, if I can tap into that instead.
By Sarah on Sep 24, 2007
Wohoo, one issue out the way. I've found out how to access MagpieRSS within WordPress. So that's one major step out of the way now. For anyone else who's interested, this page gave me the info I needed - Fetching RSS feeds with WordPress
By Sarah on Sep 24, 2007
Good job, Sarah!nnIf you're wanting to spread this around then I'd certainly take a look at installing it on my blog.
By Will on Sep 24, 2007
I'd love to have a copy of the code, we can start a little 90's webring of RSS goodness
By Chance on Sep 24, 2007
Yep, I definitely agree Sarah. Much better when you know what's going to appear on your site especially from other blogs you read.nnBTW: You're in my blogroll now
By Deron Sizemore on Sep 24, 2007
Great idea, Sarah. I would love to have the code, if I can specify which blogs I want to appear. I think it would be really cool.
By Pat B. Doyle on Sep 24, 2007
Wow I didn't quite expect this much interest! Anyhow, ignoring my piles of work that I have to do (sorry to any clients reading this), I've set this up as a WordPress plugin now.nnThere's no admin panel, I don't know how to do that bit yet! But I've tried it on a couple of blogs and it seems to work fine. There are a few glitches with some obscure feeds, especially Atom based ones. However this is version 1.0 only!nnAnyway, instructions and the file can be found on my new WordPress Plugins page.nnFor those who don't use WordPress then the code can be modified to simply work off a database of RSS links which I'll set up as a standalone version when I have the time.nnWill - sure if you want to use the code and spread the word go for it. Much appreciated.nnChance - I used to partake in webrings! All we need is a tacky logo for it ;)nnDeron - Cheers for the add. It's definitely better when you know what to expect. You're on my other blog, after I spent an age working on your RSS output!nnPat - Please go ahead and try out the plugin. Let me know what you think.nnCheers for all the comments everyone
By Sarah on Sep 24, 2007
Cool, didn't know you had another blog? What's the URL?nnWas there something wrong with my RSS feed?
By Deron Sizemore on Sep 25, 2007
Deron, I have 3 blogs that I try to update constantly.nnhttp://www.stuffbysarah.net/blog/ is my more technical, business, photography and personal ramblings.nnhttp://www.stuffbysarah.net/ais/ is this one, designed to be about trying to make money online off various sites I run or set up and ignore
Along with a little on marketing.nnhttp://www.eatndrink.net is on Food, Drink and Gardening :)nnhttp://www.stuffbysarah.net then combines all 3 on the front page, as does the RSS feed for that page. But all 3 are separate. However both my AIS and Tech blogs are on the same domain with the same design, but it just keeps certain ramblings apart from others!nnAs for your feed, well it's not the same as a standard RSS feed. I think it may be Atom based as opposed to RSS. However I got there in the end 
By Sarah on Sep 25, 2007
Ah I see. I didn't realize they were different blogs but the same design. :)nnI'm not super familiar with feeds, so I'm going to shoot you an email of the code I'm using for my feed (basically just a template from ExpressionEngine) and see if you can see anything that might be wrong.
By Deron Sizemore on Sep 25, 2007
Got your email, replied to that. I won't go into detail here ;)nnThere's now a WordPress widget version of this plugin available from Lee.
By Sarah on Sep 25, 2007
Hi Sarah,nnThat's some nice work, have you thought about the possibility of using this as the basis for an ad network, rather than giving the code out for free?nnI actually toyed around with an idea something like this a while ago, as a sort of replacement for TLA:nnYou
By Stu ex PMPR on Oct 1, 2007
Hey Stu, had to dig out your post from Akismet so sorry for the delay! Not sure if your post got cut off as it seems like it stops midway.nnAnyway, to me this code is a pretty simple bit of code and as my first plugin it's something to play around with, get good feedback (which tends to come with freebie code!) and learn from it. I've already had an offer of a potential business plugin that would be sold (hopefully!).nnHowever I'm happy for anyone to use the plugin to offer a system similar to your idea (I'm sure I read that post when you first wrote it!). All you'd need to do is create a new category for your 'advertisers' under the Blogroll, then set them to not display under the links section/page, but add their RSS feed so that they show up under my plugin. Of course there's no date/time control on it, so feel free to work that one in yourself if you fancy it ;)nnPS. Good to see you online.
By Sarah on Oct 4, 2007