Blogger Gadgets Playground

Friday, February 12, 2010

testing captions.,

Jake in Christmas gear (the Suit didn't fit just the socks)

I already had a @$%#in Caption Why do I need to re-enter it

Friday, January 22, 2010

test 1

This is line 1

this is line 2

this is line 3

Exact page text posted to post Bug reported here

Stripped span class bug

Google's new event microformat AFTER Blogger strips all the class statements from spans if using the new editor.

See http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=0db58145137e2d17&hl=en for bug report.

Sample from Here

Spinal Tap

After their highly-publicized search for a
new drummer, Spinal Tap kicks off their latest comeback tour
with a San Francisco show.
When:

Oct 15, 7:00PM
-
9:00PM

Where:

Warfield Theatre,

982 Market St,
San Francisco,
CA

Category: Concert

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

I have created this blog by using a default (Blogger supplied) template.

The gadgets in the sidebar were selected one-by-one from the Blogger most popular gadgets (at the time), using the default settings supplied in the setup (Pretend I'm a beginner .. how would I know what to select for the "advanced parameters"?).

hmm.. that looks strange.. now what? 6 out of 6 have bad widths!!

Can someone please tell me how I should fix this problem (without editing the template file)? Comments Anyone?

When I upgrade to a new template, how do I keep these gadgets (or will they adjust correctly)?

BTW this simple test took less than five minutes.. including typing the content (above this line)!!

Combine these + the top one + the seven I found before.. 14 out of 14 BAD GADGETS.. Sure I can make them work other ways (direct from GFC, iGoogle) or by editing template files to fix them.. but think about the new user or the competition. Here is a "scary" conversation where I defended Blogs! Most of my sailing friends are starting to move to FaceBook for everything.

Bloggers need/want easier solutions

Most novice bloggers have never seen HTML let alone published "their own blog". To them it's a personal reflection on their style and stories. They'll pick the Blogger way because they think it will be the easiest way to accomplish the task. When the basics fail, they feel like they've failed.

Imagine if this blog was the result of your efforts, success or failure? Blogger needs to do more to help the user become successful and do the right thing!! Image scaling is a perfect example, I just noticed I can drag the image to scale it.. but it doesn't adjust the url of the underlying photo for size. If the user blows it up too big, it looks grainy, too small and it can cause performance issues. This could easily be addressed it the code that provided the functionality, instead it gets passed downstream to become a user and a customer support problem. What about photo captions? Try doing that without HTML!!

Your tag line Push Button Publishing.. is really what they want!!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Blogger vs GFC Gadgets

I noticed that GFC gadgets usually require a width parameter but Blogger setup only offers height (which is not needed) and none of the other GFC parameters appear. In fact GFC gadgets appear broken because changing the height has NO effect.

The following relates to a comment from the Blogger team, with respect to setup incompatibility with GFC

"Quick one: Blogger will offer whatever configuration preferences are declared in the gadget's xml file. If there are gadgets that need a parameter, but aren't offering it, we should fix them (or get them fixed)."

(see post)

Ouch.. Maybe this is where I need to explain that the world does not and should not revolve around Blogger's gadget installation model!! I can't believe you really expect people to update their non-Blogger specific xml gadget files to fix a problem which, maybe only to me, is obviously a Blogger installation issue (because they work perfectly fine when installed from GFC via their setup menu). This entire thread started when I found issues with Blogger's install of GFC gadgets back on July 6th (including the socialbar which could not possibly work from an Iframe) . I thought a simple "Add to Blogger" button in GFC would fix the install issues AND alleviate customer support loads from BOTH groups. More details here.

Update 8/11: My entire issue all along has been making sure that the millions of Blogger and GFC users don't fall into the same traps with the broken installs. My extreme frustration is caused by the days of efforts spent discussing issues/enhancements with the Blogger team, yet the issues still remain and the customers have NOT been informed of the issues.

The main concept behind GFC and Open Social is that these gadgets will work everywhere.. not everywhere with the exception of Blogger (.. unless you add the correct parameters to the xml file). GFC gadgets do not use or need width or other parameters specified within the gadget xml file, they use view-params and will correctly configure themselves based on the target container that they are placed in (using JS/DOM). I have had no problems setting the size and parameters of these gadgets, in sidebars, posts, templates etc because they just do the correct thing, both within Blogger or on my other sites!! The only problems I HAVE had are with Bloggers installation of these gadgets. If Blogger (and the gadget developers) used this "adapt to the container" technique, all of the test gadgets in the sidebar would be perfect (at least a minimum required width should be specified for a gadget).

Hmm? When I load Blogger's "Amazing Places to See .." (the top gadget to the right) width is not available (but should be). When the same exact gadget xml file is configured for my own page, width is available!! Blogger seems to strip width out of ALL the gadget xml files it processes..

Isn't that what started this whole fiasco in the first place?.. UGGH!! In most cases the gadget xml file isn't even exposed in the GFC code (container.renderSocialBar, .renderSignInGadget, renderWallGadget etc) and arguments are passed through JS parameters not xml files!!

Absolute Height (as required by Blogger) makes absolutely NO SENSE for a gadget that has variable sized content. GFC gadgets allow the user to configure the quantity of the content (N comments) as I would expect! None of these options are exposed in Blogger, even critical ones like scope. In a Blogger blog a comment gadget added to the side bar should obviously be site scoped AND the Gadget text and title should make THAT obvious. The current solution still causes data integrity issues (which I reported to the Blogger team on July 6).

Blogger is the one setting up the GFC container (if they do the install), so Blogger needs to define the container and parameters correctly in order to match the content (BTW: for GFC width:99% works fine.. but you might want to add a border on the div to make it easier for the user to understand the boundaries)!!

Google's Gadget Gobbledygook

Note: there are other development options that have much larger potential rewards, including Google Gadget Ventures, Iphone Apps etc. The limited scope of a Blogger gadget, the extra development effort, the lack of a proper support model with direct developer access (user-dev-user) and the untested nature of the release process are the key reasons I won't support them.

In addition, Google has more than just Blogger Gadgets, in fact the many types (see below) can be quite confusing with respect to how they inter-relate and where they can be installed to still function correctly (this WILL become a huge problem for Google)!! For Example, I'm sure Blogger gadgets can't be used without the correct wrapper (for feeds, skins etc)!!

Gadgets by Google (currently 191810 iGoogle gadgets)

iGoogle gadgets (requires iGoogle.. nice page with ratings/comments)
Google gadgets for Websites (generates standalone javascript code, which creates an Iframe)
Google Desktop gadgets (requires Google desktop)

Blogger native gadgets (Feed, Author, Archive.. requires Blogger)
Blogger gadgets (simple Iframe..)
New Blogger gadgets (require Blogger for skin, feed and wrapper)

GFC gadgets (requires two setup files and site setup)

Most of the above are defined in xml files..
Does anything make sure they are in the "correct environment" to function correctly? If not does a helpful message appear? (someone else can test it.. I'm done!!)

The confusion all ready begins..

the answer to "I need to embed Blogger's gadget like "Blogs Archive" or "About Author" (into a blog post)" was

-For every gadget, you can enter the URL in your IGoogle page
-When the gadget is inserted, click on About this gadget

hmmm nope.. wrong answer!!

BTW I also completely understand reasons for defined width and height. My BlurbBits can be configured to match the container size (without a width/height parameter) BUT this can cause issues, especially with photos. If someone installs a BlurbBit with a width of 800 and a height of 200 (like a gadget under a post) what photo size to I request from the API? .. imgmax 800 or 200? I have to request 800 because there may be some panoramic photos.. but a standard photo would just be a scaled down version of the 800 to 200 (causing performance issues.. and slow loading).

Monday, July 13, 2009

Blogger Template Confusion

I think users are confused by Blogger's use of the term templates (and vice versa)..

When users say they want new templates, they want this Blogger functionality..

Pick a New Template and Your Page Elements will be retained!!

But the version above is just the old SKIN parameters or CSS portion of the template file, not the entire blog layout.

If you want to update your blog or sidebar width (to fit modern screen sizes larger than 660px) or add an additional sidebar, you'll need to edit the template file or choose from one of the many free template sources. You'll even need to modify the template to make adjustments to the sidebar width, because the default gadget width isn't matched correctly to the default template sizes (as is extremely obvious by looking at the sad state of this blog's sidebar).

Making these changes requires knowledge of the Blogger specific template file (and HTML/xml) OR an externally provided template file.

With this file, you can use of the Template Backup/Restore version..

(or Blog import/export) to update your blog, which will delete the Page Elements (Gadgets). FYI there really is no mention that Gadgets will be deleted in the documentation for either of these functions. If you REALLY know what you are doing, you can edit and manipulate the template file as a last ditch effort to save your previous work.

Users will also assume they can just manually re-add each gadget they had, a pain but manageable. However the cleanup of the Gadget Gallery has removed hundreds of gadget references so they can't get back to the Blog they had, prior to deleting the Page Elements that no longer exist!!

It would be helpful to provide more information than the internal Widget/Gadget/Page Element reference that Blogger assigns (and the typical user has never seen). The gadget xml file and parameters would be helpful and would prevent loss of gadgets that no longer exist in the Gadget Galley.

Gadget preservation is critical

If a new template format is released, without handling Gadget preservation, it would cause even more attempts at editing/modifying template files as users try to modernize their blog. This feature would push the burden to the user and the user supported help forums!!

Today there is no lack of developers cranking out awesome free templates.. why aren't more people using them?

FYI, I think most bloggers would consider their gadgets as much a part of their blog as their posts, and they should be preserved through all blog functions!!

New opportunities

Gadget preservation opens up entirely new business opportunities and support options for the Blogger platform. Think of all the targeted Blog environments that are really just a custom template with a set of pre-installed gadgets (sailblogs.com). Today the creation and setup of each individual blog (within Blogger) makes this unmanageable. Advanced support/consulting would be much easier for both customers and vendors. A user could send their blog off to "get fixed"!

Today it is too difficult for a beginner to get a complete, good looking, clean modern blog without diving into advanced template issues. Imagine if a new blog could be delivered, complete with a basic set of gadgets already installed and targeted specifically at the user. Users and advertisers might even pay for that!!

As new easier to use, update, and maintain Blogging platforms surface, Blogger will start to lose it's users. This loss could impact Ad revenue if users move to a non-Google ads Social network, I have many sailing friends who now only use Facebook as their only "blog".

Blogger's tag line "Push Button Publishing" might be a little outdated, especially when you consider the powerful Google product environment that could be integrated (Picasa, Youtube, Google maps, Google Friend Connect). The sad thing is your competitors are using Google APIs to do just that.