Sideblog
Update: Sideblog v3.0 is the current stable version
Sideblog is the plugin that I’ve been using here for quite a while. It is responsible for that snippets of information in the sidebar. I created Sideblog about two months ago but dropped development because I didn’t find any need for it. Then, just recently I get to use K2 which included an Aside by default. So got hooked on posting on Asides. Problem with K2’s Aside is that if you try to post more on your Aside category than your other categories, the number of posts displayed on your main content area lessen. And so I repaired my Sideblog plugin.
For those who are interested in using it you can download it from the download page. Installation instruction can be found in the readme.txt included in the zip file.
But for those who insist, here it is.
1. Download and extract sideblog.zip
2. Open sideblog.php in a text editor.
3. Change $cat_to_hide to the Category ID of your Aside category.
Example:
change this
/****** EDIT THIS FIRST *********/
$cat_to_hide = 1;
/********************************/
to this
/****** EDIT THIS FIRST *********/
$cat_to_hide = 10;
/********************************/
* where 10 is the Category Id of my Aside category. To view your aside category Id, go to Admin->Manage->Categories.
3. Upload sideblog.php to your wordpress’ plugin directory. Usually found in /wp-content/plugins.
4. Activate the plugin in Admin->Plugins
5. Open you sidebar.php file. Add the following line on where you want the content of your aside to appear.
<ul>
<?php sideblog(‘title=true&permalinks=true&limit=5′); ?>
</ul>
OR
<ul>
<?php sideblog(‘permalinks=true&limit=5′); ?>
</ul>
to display permalinks without the post title
OR simply
<ul>
<?php sideblog(); ?>
</ul>
* where 5 is the number of post you want to appear. Defaults to 3 if omitted.
To post to your Sideblog, post it under your asides category only. Do not post it under multiple categories as it will surely appear in our main content.
Suggestions are welcome.
hi
i’m trying to learn this blogging software got any more help in helping me install the sideblog in WP 2.0?
Like for the complete idiot?
thank you in advance
Hi. Just installed it. Combined with the Press it bookmarklet, it will allow me to write quick notes in my sidebar very easily.
Thank you for your plug-in!
This is a great plugin. One thing I’m trying to do is have the sideblog show the image associated with the post. Any way to do this?
Thanks.
Hi Paul,
I didn’t quite understand what you’re asking. Do you mean the image/s inside the post?
Yes – if you click through to my site, I have that “today’s feature” up top which uses the sideblog plugin. I’d like to include the image that goes with the post. So that it looks like the stories below the header. Is that possible?
BTW – I use sideblog for the stories in the middle column too. It’s really a great plugin.
Forgot one thing with thr last question. I can’t use %content% because the stories are too long for the space available. So I need a way to include the post’s image with %excerpt_#%. I’ve tried setting the_excerpt the way I wanted but that didn’t seem to work. Thanks. Look forward to seeing if you know of a solution.
in which line is this code?
“$cat_to_hide = 1″
on sideblog.php??
@Nestor:
Sideblog v3 and up do not use that anymore. Instead, go to Admin->Options->Sideblog and select the category you want to be your aside and it will automatically hide it.
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Not work download link!
Kates, thanks for your wonderfull plugin. But, for the future, please, think that is so relevant to many users, to be able to classify an aside post in more than one category.
Success.
Hey, Kates, just tested your Sideblog plugin in WordPress 2.1 and discovered an issue – for some reason, when Sideblog is activated, it causes multiple copies of an entry to appear on the blog and feed – one for each category selected – while only one copy of the entry is in the database. You’re probably going to want to test this yourself and upgrade the plugin for 2.1 compatibility.
Hi Jim,
Thanks for bringing that up. I’ll see what I can do. I’m super busy at the moment but I’ll do some testing.
Hey, no problem. I totally understand. I just wanted to bring it to your attention because I really love this plugin and I don’t want to have to leave it behind.
Hi Kates,
A while ago, Andy brought up a good topic (comment #71) around the core code flaws handling get_next_post() & get_previous_post() etc. On wordpress.org there is a fix (RonR’s hack) that works beautifully, but going forward with WP2.1 is this still required? Would you know per chance?
Thanks
since version 3.6 I am having a new issue. With the plugin activated every page I create (or have created) shows 404. Everything works fine with it de-activated.
Hi Kate,
Since upgrading to WP 2.1 this morning, my sideblog is appearing both in the sideblog as well as my posts. Was just wondering if you might be able to help.
Sounds like you have a different issue, Faustina. I’ve got the Sideblog 3.6 running on my site with no problems at all.
Just to let you know the duplicate posts are caused by this line:
$query .= " LEFT JOIN $wpdb->post2cat ON ($wpdb->posts.ID = $wpdb->post2cat.post_id) ";
As I said here:
http://trac.wordpress.org/ticket/3681
To fix it you can use:
function force_groupby( $groupby ) {
if ( $groupby == '' ) {
return ' `ID`';
}
}
add_filter('posts_groupby', force_groupby);
@Aaron,
Thanks. I’ll try that.
kates,
could please take a look at this?
http://www.transycan.net/blogtest/2007/01/23/how-pages-are-different-in-wp-21/
cheers
Faustina, I’ve got the same problem as you (I did comment on this before but the comment never got published following moderation). Any chance for a fix/workaround on the Sideblog plugin causing every post to show up 404 with a MySQL error?
it’s either 404 or sql error, but cannot be both, correct me if I am mistaken.
though I get 404s on pages when sideblog is active.
once it is deactivated, the pages show again.
Hello, quick question is there a hook or filter name for the sideblog posts content?, like comment_text for the comments and the_content for the main content. sibeblog_content ??? I want to apply WP-Chunk to work on sideblogs, I’ve modified WP-Chunk to also filter and shrink long URLs in post to a single word like [link..] instead of just shrinking URLs in comments, but I can’t figure out how to filter the sibeblog posts content. Is it possible without modifying the sideblog plugin.
Thanks
Any reason why the “module title” won’t display when you activate a sideblog under K2’s sidebar modules?
Julian, it is precisely a MySQL error and 404 page which I’m getting. When the Sideblog plugin is turned on and configured, I can’t get to any of my posts (pages seem OK). When trying to access a post (in the ‘single’ view), I get the MySQL error “WordPress database error: [Not unique table/alias: 'wp_post2cat']†[followed by the SQL query]. Meanwhile, the rest of the page loads as the 404 error template. So the content of my posts is completely inaccessible.
Kates, sorry for double-posting, but it looks like your comments feed isn’t working, at least for this post’s comments.
With upgrade to 2.1, my sideblog (I call it Brain Bits) will not ONLY post to my area I designated. It also posts to the area I did not designate for it.
It was not doing this with WP 2.0.6
Ooops! User error on my part! sorry! I didnt check the category at left.
Just want to confirm others’ reports–Sideblog 3.6 causes a 404 on all pages in Wordpress 2.1.
Okay fixed the problem with getting a 404 on all pages (not posts). The solution (for anyone who is experiencing the same problem) is this:
Open
sideblog.phpin your favorite text editor.On line 28, change
if(!is_category() && !is_single()){toif(!is_category() && !is_single() && !is_page()){Save, upload/overwrite, enjoy!
Hope this is helpful to someone.
Hi,
thanks for this great plugin.
My problem:
each entry ends with
- #
where can i change this?
Thanks in advance Jochen
Jochen
Hi, i have looked into the displa options and there is
%url%%title%%url%%content% – %permalink%
written
is This ok?
jochen
I have set up my category filter but my Asides category posts still show up in my main posts section.
Anyone know how to fix this? I’m using wordpress 2.0.3
In addition to my previous modification (comment #262 on this post), to restore the appearance of asides in the search results on your blog, add the condition
!is_search()to line 28.Just wondering…could I use this in a non-widget situation? If not, could you make it so that this plugin will work in a non-widget situation?
OK, completely lost. Have tried to add the code into the sidebar, but, never seems to work.
My category is “asides” What code goes in there, por favor?
Hi Kates,
Great plugin, worked for me beautifully.
Is there any chance of implementing it inline as well? miniposts does, but not very well.
Thanks much, and keep up the great work!
Cheers,
e
Kate, thanks for great plugin and widget.
Could you please comment (or correct) issue with category visibility plugin
My sideblog is actually a top blog – my “brain bits” and I love it. LOVE IT.
I wanted to use it for another purpose in my right sidebar. Can you run two sideblogs at the same time? And if so, how?
BTW: I’m not a widgeter – or fidgeter … or whatever.
Okay, not sure if you respond to these, but I figured out how to have multiple sideblogs on one blog (der – read the notes, right?), but I’m trying to use it to display JUST the image at the height of the post and the image will click thru to the full post.
Do you have a means to do that?
I find out that your sideblog widget conflicts with wordpress pages!
When i add a page, it shows like an entry on the sidebog category i choose!
I run Wordpress and it doesn’t conflict with my pages or design. You need to UNSELECT the categories you DO NOT want included in your sideblog or it will automatically sideblog all entries.
I hope that makes sense. I know this b/c I made the same mistake at first.
But i only had the category i defined as an asides selected. Everytime i create a page, it displays it’s title in the sideblog, and then gives a 404 error.
I was using the widget on the sidebar.
Hmmm … I don’t use widgets. Can you install it without widgets and see if you get the same thing?
I am using another plugin now, but i can´t format it’s output, so i’ll try to put the code in the sidebar to see if gives the same error.
The plugin conflicts with WP2.1.2
Well, that’s not good now that Wordpress is asking/begging everyone to upgrade immediately.
Will this be fixed soon?
I hope you have time to upgrade the plugin – it’s one of the reasons I switched to wordpress in the first place.
I think the issues are because of the permalinks, my configuration is:
/%category%/%year%-%monthnum%/%postname%
- will u update your plugin kate?
regards from germany!