Blogger template for Social Bookmarking

Ok, you’ve been asking for it, so here it is!

I’ve just finished creating, and testing the Social Bookmarking template for Blogger.

You can see it in action on dhigu.blogspot.com. Getting an available name on Blogger is really hard these days!

So you want it on your own blogger based blog? Read on…
The Social Bookmarking template snippet seems to be catching the fancy of quite a few people.

I guess that my initial assumption that the WordPress users out there would be the geekier of the lot and want it more was completely wrong. Blogger allows for template customization right there in your template settings and that’s where you’ve got to go to install my Blogger template section. It’s easier and it’s possible to do it without actually having to go all the way to host (and manage) your own blog somewhere.

The Blogger Template snippet
Here’s the Blogger template snippet: dhirajgupta_socialbookmark_Blogger.zip

I’ve set up a working demo at dhigu.blogspot.com.

Edit: The basic template is available for download as well.

Requirements

You don’t really need much to have the Social Bookmarking section. A blogger blog, preferably with hosting outside of blogspot (choose the advanced option when you sign up).

Hosting of blogger files outside of blogger lets you have whatever other files you want along with your posts hosted as well. This does have some cost associated with it, but is cheap and well worth the money. Here’s some good hosts to try out. If you already host your blog, go straight to the How to Install section on this page.

You could however be one of the rest of the millions who have their blogs on Blogpot, the free Blogger.com hosting service. How do you get the template to work? Simple. Use one of the “free” hotlink file hosting services on the net. There are several, I tested out with FilesUpload and the functionality should work fine. You’re going to have to upload *all* the images in the images folder in the zip file. And the Overlib javascript library as well. After you’ve uploaded you’re going to have to change the template code to have fully qualified URLs for the images. Similarly the template parts where you add the Overlib library code according to the simple Overlib installation instructions, remember to change the src attribute to your selection of free files host. And if you don’t get any of this, you could ask for help here, maybe I (or someone else) could help you out.

How to Install?
Just like the WordPress template section, You’ll need to be able to add the images for the template and also the Overlib javascript library.

The template snippet expects the images for the Social bookmarking block to be present in a folder called Images in your host root (/). Copy the images from the zip file to your Images folder.

Next you need to install the Overlib Javascript Library. This is what allows the template to have those neat tooltips on the hover of each Social Bookmarking site. This is usually quite painless and should not pose a problem. Get the Library and install it on to your blog template according to their instructions.

Next, it’s time to actually insert the template section into your template code. For this, first take a deep breath. Relax. We’re going to be editing some template code manually and while it is simple, it pays to be attentive.

Ok, first make a backup of your existing template. This is to make sure that if things go wrong you can revert back to where you were. First open up your blogger account and click on the big Template tab on top. Copy all the content in the big text box on the bottom. Create a new file and save the contents of that textbox in it. Give it a good name and save it safely so that you can get back to it if you need it.

Right. On with the editing. Most blogger templates have a section called or something similar. In this section you’ll find the Blogger template tag for the title of your post inside a section called . Just after the tag ends (), paste the entire contents of the blogger.html file, which you’ll find in the zip file download, above.

Save the template. Republish your blog. Your blog posts should now come up showing the Social Bookmarking section right under the title section of each post. Expand the section and check that the tooltips are working fine.

Place, lay the template out as per your wishes. Tweak as required.

If you have any problems, post a comment here.

Licensing?
I really don’t want to get into any
kind of licensing or that kind of stuff. So please consider it free of all restrictions, modify, use, do *whatever* you want to, with it.

If you’re feeling thankful, you could leave a shoutout on your site. Do tell me if you find it useful, here or by feedback.

Shoutouts
A big shoutout to Socializer, for inspiration on this.
A bigger shoutout to NEO Binaries for helping me find Socializer in the first place! I just clicked Bookmarks on the comprehensive category list.

A big shout out to the guys at Overlib too, you guys rock!

Respect to all the people who commented. Yes, that’s you, 3spots, Steven Wong, Pierre Far (Socializer), Matt Fausey (tagtooga), Kenji, techbee, TonNet, and Scott Rafer.

The biggest shoutout goes out to you, Dear Constant Reader, for egging me on to make this. Hope this fulfills your wishes.