GS Blog v1.4

[michaellindahl]

I totally would love to see a "read more..." option too. I have been working on something like that using the Custom Blog Layout option. Here is the code that I am using (last updated 08/21/12):

Code:

<?php if (substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 0, 11) == "/blog/post/") { echo "<div style=\"display:none;\">"; } ?>
<div class="blog_post_container">
    <h3 class="blog_post_title" style="display: inline"><a href="<?php echo $Blog->get_blog_url('post').$post->slug; ?>" class="blog_post_link"><?php echo $post->title; ?></a></h3><p class="blog_post_date" style="display: inline-block"> - <?php echo formatPostDate($post->date); ?></p><br>
    <?php echo $Blog->create_excerpt(html_entity_decode($post->content), 0, 250); ?><span style="display: inline;">…
    <h5 style="margin:0px;"><a href="<?php echo $Blog->get_blog_url('post').$post->slug; ?>" class="blog_post_link">Read more…</a></h5>
    <div style="border-bottom: solid 1px gray; border-top: solid 1px black; width: 100%; margin:10px; margin-left:0px; opacity:0.5;"></div>
</div>
<?php
if (substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 0, 11) == "/blog/post/") { echo "</div>"; }    
if (substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 0, 11) != "/blog/post/") { echo "<div style=\"display:none;\">"; }
if (isset($_COOKIE['GS_ADMIN_USERNAME'])) {
echo '<div style="float: right; display: block;" ><a href="/admin/load.php?id=blog&edit_post='.$post->slug.'">Edit Blog Post</a></div>';
} ?>    
<div class="blog_post_container">
    <a href="http://getsimplecmsproject00.dreamhosters.com/blog/post/My Room Is Now Complete/#disqus_thread" data-disqus-identifier="<?php echo $post->slug; ?>" style="float:right"></a><p style="margin: 0px; float:right; color: gray;"><?php echo return_hitcount_hits(return_page_slug()); ?> Views - </p>
    <h3 class="blog_post_title"><a href="<?php echo $Blog->get_blog_url('post').$post->slug; ?>" class="blog_post_link"><?php echo $post->title; ?></a></h3>
    <p class="blog_post_date"><?php echo formatPostDate($post->date); ?></p>
    <p class="blog_post_content"><?php echo $post->content; ?></p>
    <p class="blog_go_back"><a href="javascript:history.back()"> << Go back to the previous page</a></p>
    <?php disqusTool(); ?>
</div>
<?php if (substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 0, 11) != "/blog/post/") { echo "</div>"; } ?>

The one issue that I am getting is related to a "read more..." option. If post is under the 250 characters then read more doesn't show any more content (but does add the ability to comment). Also if the post contains media – in my case, a posterous gallery of images – nothing will show up and the read more should be more like "view media". I have tried look for or thinking of a php solution to this and haven't thought of anything thus far. If I do I will update this post.

I do really think that the developer need to improve the Blog Page Layout and also separate it so that the end user can easily choose a blog page layout for the individual post and the list of posts.

Also I have added code to add an "edit page" text. This was added to the theme template. When on a non blog page it will bring the user to the normal edit page, when the user is on the blog page it will bring the user to the blog management page. Here it is:

Code:

<?php if (isset($_COOKIE['GS_ADMIN_USERNAME'])) {
    if (return_page_slug() != blog) {
        echo '<div style="float: right; display: block;" ><a href="/admin/edit.php?id='.return_page_slug().'">Edit Page</a></div>';
        echo '<p style="margin: 0px; float:right; color: gray;">'.return_hitcount_hits(return_page_slug()).' Views - </p>';
    } else if (substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 0, 11) != "/blog/post/") {
        echo '<div style="float: right; display: block;" ><a href="/admin/load.php?id=blog">Edit Blog</a></div>';
        echo '<p style="margin: 0px; float:right; color: gray;">'.return_hitcount_hits(return_page_slug()).' Views - </p>';
    }

} ?>

I was unable to use the $post->slug code in the theme template so I had to include the "Edit Blog Post" link inside the custom blog template. The following was added to the custom blog template (seen above in context) to bring the user to edit the specific blog post:

Code:

<?php if (substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 0, 11) != "/blog/post/") { echo '<div style="float: right; display: block;" ><a href="/admin/load.php?id=blog&edit_post='.$post->slug.'">Edit Blog Post</a></div>';
?>

Also, it is worth noting that GS Blog does not work with HitCount http://get-simple.info/extend/plugin/hitcount/91/. Currently HitCount treats the main blog page and the individual posts as one page - not what I or anyone else would want. I have posted this issue in their forum as well here: http://get-simple.info/forum/post/29500/#p29500 The developer has responded with the following:

The second – currently HitCount shows all hits on the blog page and hits on the individual blog posts as a single page. Can HitCount be upgraded so that it supports the posts using the GS Blog plugin?

I could probably add some functionality to Hitcount to allow other plugins to change the slug, but it probably would not be used by the plugin authors - so far even the hooks in I18N Search are not used by any plugin, as far as I know :-(

But I think, you could add a call to hitcount_init($slug) to your page template for the blog, where the parameter is e.g. the blog page slug concatenated with the blog entries slug/name, like (I didn't test it):

Code:

<?php
  $entryslug = ...; // I don't use the blog plugin, so you need to find out how to get the entries name/slug
  @hitcount_init(return_page_slug().'-'.$entryslug);
?>

Of course this would mean that hits to your blog page are counted twice, the normal page hit and the additional hit, so the total site hits in the admin part would be wrong.

Here are the edits needed for HitCounter to work with GS Blog. With these edits hits will not be counted twice for the blog page when users view blog posts.

hitcount.php, function hitcount_init_page (not tested):

Code:

function hitcount_init_page() {
  global $url;
  $post = @$_GET['post'];
  if ($url == 'blog' && $post) {
    hitcount_init($url.'-'.$post);
  } else {
    hitcount_init($url);
  }
}

Code:

function return_hitcount_hits($slugOrFile) {
  $post = @$_GET['post'];
    if ($slugOrFile == 'blog' && $post) {
        $hits = @file(GSDATAOTHERPATH . HITCOUNT_DIR . 'hits_' . preg_replace('/[^A-Za-z0-9\.-]+/','_',$slugOrFile).'-'.preg_replace('/[^A-Za-z0-9\.-]+/','_',$post)  . '.txt');
    } else {
        $hits = @file(GSDATAOTHERPATH . HITCOUNT_DIR . 'hits_' . preg_replace('/[^A-Za-z0-9\.-]+/','_',$slugOrFile) . '.txt');  
    }
    return $hits ? $hits[0] : 0;
}