This release contains a fix to how the image path is determined.

The bug only affected WP installations where the WordPress URL is different than the Blog URL.  Bookmarkify was making use of the Blog URL to create the path to the image files.  Under some situations the images are not accessible via this path.  This causes the bookmark site names to appear instead of the site icons.

I’ve modified the plugin to use the WordPress URL instead.  The images should always be available via that path.

Click here to visit the Bookmarkify page and download the plugin.

If you were having this issue, please share your experiences with this version.

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This release contains the following changes:

LinkedIn Added to Site List

I’m not exactly sure how I overlooked LinkedIn for all of this time but apparently I did.  It has been added to the list of bookmark and sharing sites.  Because of its popularity among the business community I’ve also made it one of the default options.

Bookmarkify Button

I’ve added a new feature that lets you display a “Bookmarkify It” button instead of the entire widget.  Clicking the button triggers the More Box to appear.  You can see an example of this on my blog’s header to the right of the search box.

Currently there is no way to implement this via the plugin’s options/settings page.  That feature will be forthcoming.  Until then it must be added by inserting a PHP call with in your template or other PHP pages.  See the readme.txt file for details.

Bug Fix

In my previous post I mentioned a couple of issues some users were having with the plugin.  My initial approach to the solve the problem was to rewrite the way in which the More Box is loaded.  I am still looking at the approach because it improves the plugin in many other ways.  However, in the process I discovered the bug that caused the issue for most of these users.

For those interested in such things here is some background.  The styles for the More Box are contained in the more.css file.  Bookmarkify links this style sheet in to a blog’s template by hooking into the wp_head function.  Templates should always call this function somewhere within their head tags.  I learned, however, that some don’t.  The result was a raw looking More Box with no styling applied.  To remedy that I created a modification that caused the more.css file to get linked in at the time when the widget was being written - that is only if it hadn’t already been linked in to the header.  This worked to correct the styling issue, but I had introduced a small bug that caused issues for some installations with outputting the post’s content.

That bug has been corrected.  So rather than make everyone wait for the additional work to be complete, I am making this fix - and the other improvements mentioned above - available to you now.

Please post any questions or comments that you have.

Click here to visit the Bookmarkify page and download the plugin.

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The first issue causes a warning message to appear in the post editor whenever the work is saved.  Those that have this issue have reported that there is no negative impact on their blogs.  The posts are saved properly and visitors have no issues when viewing the blog.

The second issue causes the content of posts and pages to disappear once the plugin is activated.  It was also reported that this issue goes away if you change the Widget Location option to “Top of Content.”

I have been unable to reproduce these issues within my installations.  I do believe that the issues could be caused by how a link to the more.css file is loaded.  In some cases it may be loaded within the body tags and apparently some server installations don’t like this much.  It is possible that this is connected to the second issue as well.  One thing to verify is that the wp_head() is being called in your template’s head tags.  This will ensure that the link is inserted there instead of the body.

I am currently working on modifying how the more box is loaded.  The change eliminates the need to load the link within the body tag.  I suspect this will correct, at the very least, the first issue.  The change will also have positive impact on page load time.

Again, this only seems to affect a small number of installations so most of you should be able use Bookmarkify with no problems.

If you have experienced these issues, please post any details in a comment to this post.  Please provide information on your installation (e.g. WordPress version, Template, PHP version, web server, etc.).  With this information I may be able to create an environment that manifests the error.

Thank you to those that have reported issues.

Please stay tuned to this blog for updates as they become available.  You can click here to subscribe to Bookmarkify updates.

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This release contains the following changes:

New Hiding Option
A global PHP settings has been created that will allow you to supress the widget within specific template pages.  For example you can exclude the widget from the page.php if you don’t want it to appear in places like your about page.  To exclude the widget from a template simply add the following PHP code near the top of the template file:

<?php $bookmarkifyHide=true; ?>

New Placement Option
A new Location option has been created to allow more custom placement of the widget within your WordPress template files.   Previously, the only placement options were Top of Content and Bottom of Content.  To place the widget elsewhere do the following:

First, go to the Bookmarkify Options page and select “Other” for Widget Location.

Next, insert the following PHP code into the template at the desired location inside the Loop:

<?php bookmarkifyIt(the_title('','',false), get_permalink(), true); ?>

If the widget is for the blog in general (outside the Loop) use the following code instead:

<?php bookmarkifyIt('GARA Systems', 'http://www.gara.com/', true); ?>

Remember to replace the first and second parameters with your blog name and URL respectively.

Click here to visit the Bookmarkify page and download the plugin.

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This release includes the addition of Worlds Movies to the list of bookmarking sites.  Worlds Movies specializes in the bookmarking of … well … as the name implies … movies.  Click here to learn more about Worlds Movies.

This release also includes some minor changes to the styles for the more box.

To download or learn more visit the Bookmarkify page.

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This release adds two new sites to the list:  Twitter and Jamespot

Twitter isn’t really a bookmarking site, which is one of the reasons it hadn’t been included before.  Twitter’s primary function is to let their users keep their friends informed of what they are doing on line.  In this regard it is a social networking tool.  I’ve received numerous requests to include Twitter.  Learn more about Twitter.

Jamespot is a new and upcoming bookmarking site that supports several languages.  Jamespot lets users create and use “Spots”.  A Spot is a thematic Web page that where you can gather information, photos, and videos found on the Net.  Users that gather, i.e. bookmark, these items are called Spotters.  Learn more about Jamespot.

Now that Yahoo! Buzz is available, I am working to include it in Bookmarkify.  Unfortunately, Yahoo! decided to prevent inclusions via a straight URL.  Therefore, we have to use one of their scripts.  This has created a bit of a complication, however, I expect to have it up and running soon.

Click here to learn more about and download Bookmarkify

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Download Bookmarkify Here

The latest adjustments include the addition of oneview and OnlyWire to the list of sites and an update to the Google icon.  Popcurrent has been removed from the list as it seems it is no longer online.

Now that Bookmarkify is production ready I encourage you to help promote it to other bloggers and webmasters.  You can do so in any of the following ways:

• Rate the plugin at the WordPress Plugin Directory.
• Submit the Bookmarkify Page to your favorite bookmarking sites.
• Write about it in your blog.

Of course, this doesn’t mean Bookmarkify’s development will not continue.  I have a number of ideas for new features and improvements so stay tuned.  Many thanks to those that contributed suggestions, feedback, bug reports and financial support to the development of this plugin.  Please continue to do so.

As most you know I also have two other plugins under development - Amazonify and Googmonify.  Both are available now as working betas and I have been collecting your suggestions for these also.  Once I return from my vacation near the end of July I will focus my efforts on getting these tools to full release as well.

Thanks and Happy Freedom Day!!

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All of the site icons and other images that appear in the More Window have been converted into a CSS Sprite.  Essentially that means that all of the images have been combined into a single image file (imagecol.png).  I use the CSS background-image and background-position properties to display the appropriate icon in the appropriate place.

The change results in far fewer HTTP requests. Under the old model 60+ individual images needed to be downloaded.  Now only one image file needs be downloaded.  The change also results in less bandwidth usage.  The combined size of the separate images file is 36.4K.  The new sprite image is only 20.2 K, a potential savings of more than 16K.

This change only addresses the images found in the More Window.  Images in the Widget will continue to use separate files.  Therefore, browsers will continue to download the images for the sites you select for the Widget.  Because most sites only use a small number of them, however, they should still see a nice performance benefit.  For example, if you select 10 sites to display in your Widget you should still see a reduction in HTTP requests of about 50 and a reduced download size of at least 10K.

This version also addresses a few small issues with the new more.css style sheet that occurred on a few servers.

Visit the Bookmarkify Page here to download the latest version

If you have any questions, issues or comments please post them here or contact me directly.

Have a great day!!

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In previous versions of Bookmarkify the styles for the More Window were coded inline causing it to be much larger than it needed to be.  Now the styles for the More Window are included in a new file, “more.css”.  This change reduces the size of the first widget on a page by about 20K and additional widgets by 25K each.  For example, any page that shows the widget 5 times - as is common for many blog index pages - will now be about 120K smaller, resulting in faster page loads.  And because the styles have been moved to their own file, most browsers will cache it resulting in even faster loads for subsequent page views.

This change will also have additional benefits moving forward such as the ability to create new themes for the More Window.

Visit the Bookmarkify Page here to download the latest version.

This is a significant improvement over previous versions and I highly recommend upgrading.  This version has been tested well and remains a release candidate.  If you have problems with this version, please let me know either by commenting on this post or by contacting me directly.

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Bookmarkify now supports 58 social bookmarking and related sites, a Save to Browser Favorites button, an RSS Subscribe button and Email This button and an HTML link copy option.

Given the layout of the Bookmarkify window there are two positions available for additional social bookmark and network sites.  If you have any suggestions for which sites should fill them, please post your suggestions.

If you have other suggestions for how to improve Bookmarkify prior to the official 1.0 release, please post those as well.

The official release of Bookmarkify 1.0 is currently scheduled for July 4.

Please download the latest version here.

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