48 Recent Comments and Recent Posts Gadgets for Blogger
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 /

Since Blogger updated the API for gadgets, I've been hard at work creating new and useful gadgets for Blogger users.



My first two successful gadgets made use of the google.blog function in order to retrieve and parse post and comment feeds for the blog in which they are installed. These gadgets are now available for installation through the Blogger gadget directory and have even been featured on Blogger's official Featured Gadgets blog!







These Recent Posts and Recent Comments are very easy to install: simply follow the links for the gadget you would like to add, and choose how many posts/comments you would like to display:





When you press "Update" you will be presented with an example of how the gadget will appear in your blog, and can then proceed to save your gadget.





Recent posts with thumbnails

Aneesh from Blogger Plugins has created a wonderful "Recent posts with thumbnails" widget which displays the media:thumbnail for each post.



This is a wonderful and very user-friendly gadget which even includes details of comments! Install the Recent Posts with Thumbnails gadget by following this link.





Known Bugs

As the API is still rather new, there are a few minor bugs with my gadgets. These are the issues I'm currently aware of, which will be updated with new information once it's available:



Need to press "Update" to ensure preferences are configured

This is an issue with all gadgets which should be resolved quite soon.



Some gadgets don't display in Chrome


Several people have emailed me about this, and to be honest I don't know why this is happening. I'm pretty certain the Blogger team are aware of this issue and hope for a fix soon.



Gadgets may "spill over" in customized templates

The width of gadgets is determined by the width of the sidebar, and sometimes ignores any padding/margins applied to the "widget content" section. I've tried many ways to fix this, but so far my only solution would be to apply margins within the gadget, making it narrower (and unsightly) for those who use regular templates.





Any bugs/other issues?

Please let me know if you have any other problems with my gadgets by leaving your comments below.

48 comments:

July 21, 2009 at 8:50 AM Denny said...

@aneesh great widget

@manda.. how to edit the css?

July 21, 2009 at 9:18 AM Aneesh said...

@Denny thanks for the feedback.. :)

July 21, 2009 at 9:34 AM 9uy said...

Great widgets Amanda. Thanks!

July 21, 2009 at 10:29 AM Aneesh said...

@Amanda, thanks a lot for posting about my gadget and thanks for mentioning my name.. :)

Hope to see more gadgets from you soon..

July 21, 2009 at 1:55 PM Sylvia said...

D'oh! I tried it and for some reason it ended above my header (topads-wrapper), though the layout screen showed it at the end of my link footer link area (lowerbar). Relocating it in the layout screen had no effect. When I tried to edit the gadget the popup was entirely blank. I have a custom template so maybe that's an issue. I'm currently using Feedburner javascript to generate a recent posts list so it's not a biggie.

July 21, 2009 at 2:39 PM
Anonymous said...

Hi amanda,

is it possible at all to change the font color? If my background is grey, the fonts cannot be seen

July 21, 2009 at 11:09 PM chanclas said...

Dear Amanda,
thanks for your gadgets.
I´have install Recent Comments in two different blogs.
If the background is black color, I cant see the fonts.
Is it possible to make any modifications?

July 22, 2009 at 12:26 AM xSEOn said...

Bravo Amanda,

We all appreceate your contribution to our blogging comfort. I'd like to ask if it is possible for you to add in your Recent comment widget a setting "Show after ?(number) post" as some of us have pre-dated posts and now I suppose they are always on top, so this way they could be excluded from showing.

Thanks again!

PS. I'll reffer to your post in my "Create a website yourself" blog.

July 22, 2009 at 6:08 AM
Daniella said...

Recent Posts with thumnails is an excellent gadget which needs to be worked on to be bug free:

It works fine with Firefox and Opera but DO NOT work in IE 6 sp3,

why I still have IE 6 : I have it just to test an occasional website on IE.

I always wonder why so many people bother to use buggy and bulky IE browsers anyway.

I hope more and more people move to other browsers.)

For the comments gadget, it doesn't offer anything extra then feedburner.

July 22, 2009 at 6:28 AM
Leta said...

I'm having trouble with the Top Commentators widget (which I *really* want to use!). I put it in and it works. Then after I navigate away from my blog, when I come back it's gone - only the title remains, no names. Any help would be appreciated.

July 22, 2009 at 7:50 AM The Italian Dish said...

I have tried installing Recent Posts gadget, and I can't get anything to show up. I use Safari. I was so excited about this gadget! I've tried installing several times and tweaking it and clicking update, but I can't get anything to show up. :-(

July 22, 2009 at 8:28 AM Aneesh said...

@Leta probably because the yahoo pipe used for the widget has run out due to heavy usage..

Create another clone of that pipe and use that in your widget..

July 22, 2009 at 12:59 PM Eva Gonçalves said...

I have been using this gadget and it has been fine until today. It simply does not show anything. If I update it, it just is a blank space.I'm using IE8. Any sugestions?

July 22, 2009 at 7:40 PM KAPUSO ONLINE BLOGSPOT ADMIN said...

very great widget but yes it is not working in IE

July 22, 2009 at 11:18 PM Yodz said...

Nice widget, but I can't change the color.
Need help. Thanks!

July 23, 2009 at 2:28 AM I'm From Viet Nam said...

It's great. Thanks Amanda

July 23, 2009 at 10:52 AM Karl Foxley said...

It's nice to see people working to improve the Blogger platform with useful widgets.

Great work!

July 23, 2009 at 12:06 PM Rchrd said...

Amanda, I appreciate the recent posts widget so much! However, how can we change the font? I'm rather fond of Georgia but the font on the widget is Arial (or so I think). Any updates that you can do about it?

July 23, 2009 at 10:43 PM Megan said...

Hi Amanda,
The new widgets are just amazing. Is it possible to change the font color? It sort of blends in with the surroundings, and isn't very prominent right now.

July 23, 2009 at 11:12 PM David Bergeron said...

@Amanda nice post! Too bad the widgets don't work in Chrome yet.

@aneesh Very nice widget! I've been looking for a widget like this for months. I installed it on my website: http://www.poker006.com/. Looks good but I would like to custumize like bligger thunmbnail and change colour to link etc. Please tell me how, you're awesome:D

July 24, 2009 at 8:40 AM Samneang Khmer said...

M using it here: http://www.samneangkhmer.com/ the problem is it's not in line; it seems touching the edge of the widget. How can I make this right?

July 24, 2009 at 7:56 PM Aneesh said...

@David Bergeron you can customize the colors by adding it as an HTML/Javascript gadget.. So you can add additional css there to style the widget properly..html widget

July 27, 2009 at 9:34 AM Dwi said...

OK Amanda, good tips n' i'll try. thx

July 27, 2009 at 1:05 PM teratips said...

very thanks, to guide us for this major issue
http://teratips.com

July 27, 2009 at 8:56 PM Lauren said...

Thanks I needed this, will try it out.

July 27, 2009 at 11:47 PM Rachana Shakyawar said...

Hi Amanda;
Thanks for the info on the blogger gadgets!
But, the gadgets are not working properly and seems there is still a lots of scope for improvement.

This particular gadget, cannot be customized according to the blog template hence my complete two thumbs down for this blogger-gadget.

Regards;
Rachana
MYBlog Link: http://rachanashakyawar.blogspot.com/

July 28, 2009 at 6:55 AM Dienstreise said...

Thanks for the psot an Greetings from GERMANY

July 29, 2009 at 2:35 AM Boffill said...

I hope there is a way for us to modify the fonts and change the color so that it will fit in to our blogs. Looking forward for an update.

http://www.boffillbernardes.com/

July 29, 2009 at 9:52 PM vlee said...

wow...it's work for me...thanks amanda :D

July 30, 2009 at 12:49 AM Anna said...

Great widget Amanda. I have in look of that type of widget and it leads me to this site. Thanks.
Greys Anatomy Episodes

July 30, 2009 at 1:35 AM assurance said...

Very cool Amanda. Thanks a lot. How can I change the colors? That would be more convenient and It could better fit my blog. Thanks!

July 30, 2009 at 4:01 PM Coolbuster said...

Thanks Amanda. I tried to install the widget; the feeds were fine but the thumbnails don't show.

July 30, 2009 at 7:48 PM TOEFL Program said...

waow.. I've added this gadget... thx u so much...
this is new improvisation created by blogger n u...
hehe...

August 1, 2009 at 12:37 AM Alexiel said...

I've tried it but thumbnails don't show up..

August 3, 2009 at 8:31 AM galang_hujan said...

Nice blog and I've added this gadget..thanks

August 5, 2009 at 3:46 AM Free Gsm Unlock said...

How to change color of font thanks.

August 9, 2009 at 1:06 AM auslands KV said...

Thanks for the info on the blogger gadgets. Have a nice day and greetings from Germany

August 20, 2009 at 5:49 AM Schmitzl said...

Hi!

Great gadget. Got a question on the Recent Comment gadget. It comes with english language, e.g. "Dennis wrote...". Is there a way to customize this? My blog is in Dutch so I would love to have the Dutch equivalent of "wrote" in there.

Thanks,

Dennis

August 31, 2009 at 4:02 AM JP Shaw said...

Any answers as to why it's not working in IE, I mean I use firefox but others use IE still, dumbfounds me but whatever... it should show and it's not. Fix? Please reply!!!!

September 4, 2009 at 3:22 PM viti-vino said...

Hello

Seems the single quote is displayed '

Could you check this, at least here

http://always-someone-cooler.blogspot.com/

and here

www.pechin.org

Thanks in advances

September 5, 2009 at 4:32 PM viti-vino said...

Hello

^Some problems with this gadget : quote are diosplayed ' and if we click the comment nothing happend

example here

http://www,pechin.org (blog from blogger)

Thanks to fix this

--

prac

--

September 5, 2009 at 11:00 PM Jifdc said...

Outstanding gadgets Amanda!

September 6, 2009 at 3:55 PM es said...

Doesn't work after the initial install. The posts I just added don't show up in the list. A pity, it's a cool widget.

September 7, 2009 at 11:36 AM pauwer said...

Hi,

nice nice, but it only shows 25 last posts. Gimme more! I would like to have all (in my cas 999) posts.

September 8, 2009 at 1:12 PM Alexandra said...

Hello! That's a very cool widget ;)

I got problem with special character...

See, this : ouai on est jamais sure des personnes que l'on a en face sur msn. et puis montrer son "engin" juste pour voir la réaction de l'autre c'est pas top.

should be: ouai on est jamais sure des personnes que l'on a en face sur msn. et puis montrer son "engin" juste pour voir la réaction de l'autre c'est pas top.

Is there anything I could do?

Thanks!

lesaventuresdalex.blogspot.com

September 15, 2009 at 9:46 AM Jun said...

Hi!

I'm using both feature in my blog but if only there is a way to change the font that would be AWESOME!

CPU Wars Blog

September 19, 2009 at 2:55 PM Lambosessed said...

Hi Amanda,

I'm having problems with the Recent Comments gadget. The link doesn't go to the actual comment, just the page. I notice that the links generated by the gadget are different to the ones generated by the old RSS feed method.

The links generated by the gadget look something like:
http://(link).html?showComment=(____)#comment-c(____)

Whereas the ones that work for me, generated by the old method look like:
http://(link).html?showComment=(____)#c(____)

I think the problem is the extra 'comment-'. Is there anything that can be done to resolve the problem, either from your end or from mine?

Many thanks.

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