Top Commentators Widget For Blogger
Saturday, January 5, 2008
You might have noticed the Top commentators widget in blogs powered by Wordpress. Sometimes, it is referred to as Best commentators widget. This post attempts to provide the same top commentators/ best commentators widget for Blogger/ Blogspot.
When I did search for the top commentators widget for Blogger, I could get very little on the net. I found one useful resource that seemed to implement the top commentators widget for Blogger. But, unfortunately, it is written in a foreign language; I believe it is in Russian language. Here is the blog, in case, you are interested: Best Commentators Widget for Blogger.
For those who do not understand Russian language, here is the step-by-step tutorial. To implement this, you will need a Yahoo account as we are going to use Yahoo! Pipes for implementing the widget. So, if you do not have an account with Yahoo, go to Yahoo and create an account first before reading further.
- Go to Yahoo! Pipes home page by clicking here: Yahoo! Pipes
- Click on the "Sign In" link at the top right corner of the page
- Login with your Yahoo user id and password.
- Go to my Yahoo! Pipe "Top Commentators Widget for Blogger" by clicking here: Top Commentators Pipe
- Once you are on the Top Commentators Pipe page, click on the "Clone" link to make a copy for your blog.
- Once a copy is made, you will see the link "Edit Source". Click this.
- It will open the Pipes flow diagram for editing. At the top of the diagram, you will see a module called "Fetch Feed".
- You will change the feed to point to your blog. In the URL box in the "Fetch Feed" module, delete my blog's feed and type the following: http://yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?max-results=1000. The "yourblog.blogspot.com" has to be replaced by your blog's URL.
- Once you have typed the address as shown above, click on the "Save" button at the top right.
- Click on the "Run Pipe ..." button at the top middle. This will open another window with the results of your pipe. If you have done everything right, it should display the list of your commentators with the number of comments in brackets.
- Click on the "More Options" button. This will open a drop-down list; click on the "Get as RSS" option.
- This will open your feed for the top commentators list. Copy the feed address from the browser's address field. This should look some thing like this: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=1324dbad8c99bdc922ba75fee8dab73c&_render=rss
- Now, login to your Blogger account.
- Create a feed widget with the feed url you have just copied in step 12. If you are not sure how to create a feed widget, read my post on Recent Posts Widget for Blogger. You just have to follow the same steps as noted in that post. For the feed url, just use the one you have copied from the browser in step 12 here.
- Name the widget as "Top Commentators".
That's it. You have created the Top Commentators/ Best Commentators widget for Blogger. Unfortunately, at this stage, this does not provide any search engine gains to your commentator. The name is only linked to the latest comment by him/ her. As of now, use this feature. Soon, we will have a better widget that would give the link to the commentators's home page.
I know that this is a bit technical and you may encounter some problems along the way. Feel free to shoot your questions here. I will respond to them as quickly as possible. Please subscribe to my feed if you like this post.
62 comments:
10x. But I can't do. it says "No pipe results for Top Commentators Widget for Blogger copy."
Will I write my blog url or my feed url?
Hi Recephilmi,
Most probably your feed url is wrong. That might be the reason you are not getting any pipe results. Please follow the feed URL as stated in Step No. 8 before you run your pipe.
If you still have problems, let me know your blog URL. I can create a pipe for you and give you the RSS feed for the top commentators list. Thanks.
Thank you.
Š’etter use feed: www.blogger.com/feeds/blogID/comments/default?max-results=N
Simply change blogID
Hello I just entered before I have to leave to the airport, it's been very nice to meet you, if you want here is the site I told you about where I type some stuff and make good money (I work from home): here it is
Dan Rastor: Thanks for your comments. Yes, as you have used, the feed URL can be obtained using the blog ID too.
Hi Manick: blog ID can use for stand alone blogs
Dan Rastor: Oh, thanks for that useful information.
Hi,
As for yahoo pipes it works for me. But when I try to add that feed url in blogger page element, it says invalid feed.
Just confused how to add in blogger.
It works fine now in my blog. My query is, why it shows the comments of my name in the top list.
priya
Hi Priya,
I am glad to know that it works fine for you. To remove your name from the list, you need to apply a filter.
In fact, in my original pipe, I have a filter that filters my name from the final list. For whatever reasons, when it is cloned, Yahoo Pipes omits the filter module.
I will write another post to explain how to apply the filter to remove the author's name. Thanks for highlighting this.
Thanks man!!!
Hi, I liked the widget. But I got one problem...how do I make the list refresh every week?
Hi Shayon,
Thanks for your comments. You do not need to update the widget. It is dynamic and it will reflect your commentators list as new comments are added.
http://triunfadoresexitosos.blogspot.com/
This Very good okey
I know that much. But, what if I don't wish to show top commentators in my blog right since the time I've started my blog? What if I would want to show the top commentators in a week, every week?
Recephilmi,
Got your solution! I was struggling with this problem too, until I realized that the problem was indeed generating a proper RSS address. Instead of clicking "Get as RSS" under the "More Options" section, choose another option, i.e., sub-Bloglines, etc., which'll give you the full feed address. Then just copy & paste that into your new feed page element. (The problem is that choosing the "RSS" option usually takes most people to their Google Reader, which doesn't show the full feed address. Even if you aren't logged into Google Reader, I've found that clicking on this option will still take you to this page. I also tried going inside of the reader to get the address, but it doesn't show/append the necessary "render=rss" option at the end of the address from this view.)
Try what I've suggested & it should work! Hope that helps!
-Corey the Cyberpenguin
http://seecoreyrun.blogspot.com
Also got one other useful tip with regard to filters: If you do decide to add a filter, & you add it after you've already created your existing pipe (by following the above instructions given by the blog author), I'd recommend cloning the pipe & retitling it & using that version instead. Reason is this: If you modify the existing pipe to include the filter, I've noticed it doesn't automatically include the new changes after you modify the feed URL. It's better to make modifications to your existing pipe & then close it, so it has a new ID. Then, your blog will reflect the changes immediately. You can't just refresh your blog to point to the new pipe. If anyone knows of a way to instantly rediscover the feed, that might also be a work-around. Otherwise, try the above technique. It worked for me.
Whoops, I made a typo that seriously changes the meaning of what I meant to write. Please read THIS version instead:
Also got one other useful tip with regard to filters: If you do decide to add a filter, & you add it after you've already created your existing pipe (by following the above instructions given by the blog author), I'd recommend cloning the pipe & retitling it & using that version instead. Reason is this: If you modify the existing pipe to include the filter, I've noticed it doesn't automatically include the new changes after you modify the feed URL. It's better to make modifications to your existing pipe & then CLONE (NOT close!) it, so it has a new ID. Then, your blog will reflect the changes immediately. You can't just refresh your blog to point to the new pipe. If anyone knows of a way to instantly rediscover the feed, that might also be a work-around. Otherwise, try the above technique. It worked for me.
Hi Cyberpeguin,
Great. Thanks for your constructive participation in the discussion. Hope that helps to solve some of the problems reported by our readers.
Hi Manick,
Glad to help! Hope it helps people too.
One more useful/helpful observation: I also noticed that when you clone the top commentators pipe, it also doesn't transfer the "truncate=5" operator, which people should also be sure to add to their cloned pipe. If you don't add it, I noticed the feed will sometimes display the most recent commenter on top, regardless of whether this person is the top commenter. If you truncate the values to only display 5 commenters, this will solve this problem & ONLY show the top commenters. Just thought you & your readers might also like to know this, in case they run into this problem.
-C
Manick,
Can you help me with below issue I'm having with Yahoo Pipes? I notice that when the same person comments, I see multiple entries for that author.
For example:
samsmith (58)
samsmith (59)
tomjones (23)
paulie (4)
Do you know why this is happening? More importantly, how do I limit the number of times an author's name appears? I'd like there to be separate & unique listings/comment counts for each distinct author name. I notice that when I view/run the pipe inside of Yahoo pipes, it doesn't repeat the entries, but when it's published as a feed on my Blogger blog, I see the duplicate author names & varying comment counts.
Thanks in advance for your help with this!
-Corey the Cyberpenguin
http://seecoreyrun.blogspot.com
It´s posible make this with Blogger with Haloscan comments? I tried but don´t work.
Change something?
Hi Lordvader,
This example is only accessing the Blogger's server for comments. If you can get the RSS feed for your Haloscan comments, then you can just use this feed at step No. 8. Check with Haloscan whether they have the RSS feed for the comments. Thanks.
Is it working at all?
Ok, I got the pipe to work.
But I still don't understand how to filter out MY comments.
And I'd like to know how to show more than 5 people.
Thanks!
Hi Angelika,
Thanks for your comments. Please use the filter module in pipes to filter author's own comments.
Blogger allows only maximum of 5 items per feed. If you need more than 5, try to use other services like "Feed Digest" to get your feed.
Thanks.
Hi Manick,
Just checking back to see if you've come across a fix to the problem I've listed above.
Thanks so much!
-C
this is a sweet widget
Hi Cyberpenguin,
Unfortunately, the problem is not fixed yet. Thanks for checking back again.
Hi WidgetsForFree,
Thanks for your comment.
Hello Manick,
I was really impressed by your write up of this method. It is a rather complicated method, so to simplify the process I created a one click widget installer to add a slightly different version to your Blogger blogs.
Please check this out to let me know what you think! (I did include a link to your blog of course!)
I was looking for a contact link to email you as I'd like to discuss possible improvements. If you'd like to get in touch, please email me from my blog.
Thanks and best wishes,
Amanda
If you like Yahoo Pipes take a look at my MacrosReader and play with more than 25 pipes.
Thank you
Amanda: Great. I just read your post. You have done a wonderful job converting this into a simple one-click widget. I appreciate your link back to me.
Dan: Thanks for your comments.
Hi Manick!
Now Best Commentators Pipe Badges!
http://jobday.narod.ru/2008/03/wow-pipe-badges.html
I'm thinking about blogging about this at widgetsforfree
I have a similiar recent comments widget too.
Dan Rastor: Thanks for providing the link to the Pipe Badges. Looks good. I will read further to understand fully the power of badges.
WidgetsForFree: Thanks for your comments. Appreciate that.
thank you very much for this post!!! i'm spanish and altough my english level is't the best i can have, i have understood perfectly all your steps!! but i have a problem, if i want to restart the numbers of the comments to know who writes me from today...what must i do?
please, i hope your answer. If it is in my blog it will be perfect for me (http://alvear07.blogspot.com) because i enter all the days here!! thank you!!
Yahoo pipes top commentators plugin is good but wordpresses top commentators plugin is better.
Moldova,
Thanks for your comments. I do agree that Wordpress plugin is better. But, the Yahoo pipes solution is for blogs that are using Blogger as the platform.
Hi, I linked your blog.
Thanks!
Hi Aabaca,
Appreciate that. Thanks for the link.
Hi
How do I change the number of Comments it sorts through? 500 or 5000 is a small number fo my blog, I would like to be able for it to count through ALL the comments. If thats not possible how do I change it to any number I wish like 10000?
Thanks
This is a problem with Blogger. If I am not wrong, Blogger allows you to retrieve only the latest 5000 comments.
[Quote]If you have done everything right, it should display the list of your commentators with the number of comments in brackets. [/Quote]
I'm not see the number of comments in brackets.
thanks.
hi, hmm im using haloscan, and i wonder if you could help me add the URL for the pipes so it can shows the list more than 1 comment only ..
like max-results=1000. how to edit that if my url like this :
http://www.haloscan.com/members/rss.php?user=xxx
thankssss
Hi Benazio,
I am not familiar with Haloscan. May be you can try to change the URL in step 8 to your own Haloscan RSS URL and see whether it works. You do not need to include the "max-results" field. This is only for Blogger comments. Thanks.
Regards,
Manick
Wow, what a tutorial! Now I understand Yahoo Pipe better =D Thanks for sharing this!
Hi Techniqueal,
Thanks for your comments. Yahoo Pipes are very powerful, but it takes time to understand and use them effectively.
I've just installed the top Commentators plugin. I've got a new poker blog
http://www.pokerpotjie.com/onlinepokergame
I followed your instructions but it didn't work for me. It said the widget was broken. Is that because I have no comments?
Hi CJ,
I am not sure why this happens. Anyway, I left a comment on your blog. Try again and see whether it works. Thanks.
Good tips. I'm an idiot online but I'm going to try it. Thanks.
Hi Wild Bill,
Go and try it out. You need to get your hands dirty to learn the trade. Nothing wrong in making mistakes. I have been at sea many times before. You are not alone. Thanks for your comments.
hey liked the widget..
Bt still didnt understand hw to filter my comments..
could u pls explain me.. how??
Hi "Used Trucks",
After you have completed all the above the steps described, look for a module called "Filter" in the pipe. It should say something like this: "Block items that contain any of the following". Here you can add "Rules". The rule should be "item.author.name contains Used Trucks". This rule will remove all comments made by the user "Used Trucks". If you want to filter more names, you can add more rules.
Hope this helps. Thanks.
Oh nw got cleared...
Thanx Manick..
very easily & well explained Manick in the above comment. its surely helpful for getting rid of spammers posting comments on totally diff topic and this widget is very user frdly with many options available
Hi "Term Paper",
Thanks for your comments. I am happy to know that you like the widget.
Thanx Manick
You really did help us.
Hi Manick . your really helpful for getting commentators. lots of options available for your topic.
Thank you so much for the widget! i was able to plug it in without any problems and that means a lot! all the best. I think I need to add your site to my Reader!
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