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December 01, 2004
How to Create a LinkBlog with del.icio.us
A "LinkBlog" is an area of your blog where links are posted that is separate from the main content area. It's a smaller area usually put off to the side where links are posted. Think of it this way, the main content is the "main course" of your blog, and it probably consists of mostly original content and more indepth insight; the LinkBlog side area is for items you were reading and thought "this is interesting, maybe I'll share it." LinkBlogs are quite common, and there are a number of different ways to create them. One of the most interesting ways is to use the del.icio.us bookmark service. The del.icio.us bookmark system is a new and innovative service that stores your bookmarks online and makes them available anywhere you are in the world. Plus, it lets you categorize them, share them with friends, embed them in web pages, and, actually, through syndication technologies, you can embed your del.icio.us bookmarks anywhere (even the my.case.edu portal!).
Setting up a del.icio.us account and creating bookmarks is simple. Integrating the service with your Blog@Case blog takes a bit of effort; it requires editing the HTML templates that create your blog; but we'll step through it.
- Go to del.icio.us and register for an account (don't worry, it's free).
- After creating a del.icio.us account, it is recommended you create a "bookmarklet" that allows you to quickly post new links to the account. A "bookmarklet" is a fancy word for a simple bookmark you place in your browser, and when you click on it, will pop up a new window that asks you to create the link automagically. The del.icio.us site explains very simply how to create your magic del.icio.us bookmarklet.
- Now that you are all setup with your account, go ahead and use your bookmarklet to post some links. After all, you'll want to have some links ready to go when you integrate it with your blog lest the results end up being lackluster.
- After having posted some preliminary bookmarks, login to your Blog@Case blog, enter your blogs administrative web area, and click on the "Templates" button in the navigational menu on the left.
- In the "Edit Your Templates" area, click on the "Index" template to add your LinkBlog to the front page of your blog.
- You're going to have to wade through some HTML, but find the spot where you want your LinkBlog displayed. Once you have found the spot, include the following markup code (insert your del.icio.us account user in the appropriate spot):
<h3><a title="del.icio.us/YOUR_DELICIOUS_USERNAME" href="http://del.icio.us/YOUR_DELICIOUS_USERNAME">LinkBlog</a> (Powered by <a title="del.icio.us" href="http://del.icio.us/">del.icio.us</a>)</h3> <MTRSSFeed file="http://del.icio.us/rss/YOUR_DELICIOUS_USERNAME"> <ul> <MTRSSFeedItems lastn="7"> <li><a href="<$MTRSSFeedItemLink$>"><$MTRSSFeedItemTitle$></a> <MTRSSFeedItemDescriptionExists> - <$MTRSSFeedItemDescription$></MTRSSFeedItemDescriptionExists> </li> </MTRSSFeedItems> </ul> </MTRSSFeed>
There you go! You are now using the Internet to store your bookmarks, and you are leveraging the power of the del.icio.us service to use your bookmarks ubiquitiously!
For those that noticed above, including the content of your del.icio.us account involved using a markup tag called MTRSSFeed. This is, actually, a very powerful plugin used by the Blog@Case weblog system; and it can be leveraged to include any content available via RSS. So, feel free to play around with it. A more indepth tutorial on the capabilities on MTRSSFeed is available here and here.
In later entries on DemoBlog@Case, we'll cover alternate ways to create LinkBlogs. Stay tuned...
Posted by jms18 at December 1, 2004 01:29 AM
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Comments
Thanks for this - it's both very useful and nice and clearly written. I have one technical question: how often is the feed refreshed?
And here's another little tip that people might find useful:
If you use del.icio.us for anything else, you might want to be able to select only some links to display on the link blog. This is easy, because each category has its own RSS feed, so all you have to do is create a category that you will apply to every bookmark that you want on the blog, and use the category's RSS feed (which will be del.icio.us/rss/YOUR_DELICIOUS_USERNAME/CATEGORY_NAME )instead of the general one.
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