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Internet

Keeping javascript widgets from controlling your blog

by Earl Moore on August 15, 2007

There’s several javascript widgets running on Meandering Passage. so when I read Alex Iskold’s excellent post on Read/WriteWeb titled “How JavaScript is Slowing Down the Web (And What To Do About IT),” it struck home.

With Meandering Passage, I’ve experienced the slower page loads and the sometimes hesitation or halts due to suspected  javascript issues.  I think what most people don’t realize is:

Anytime a piece of JavaScript is being loaded or evaluated, everything else has to wait.

This puts the loading of your blog in the hands of external parties.  If they are down or busy your site may be waiting or hung up depending on how well behaved the javascript widget is.

While the above post offered some good suggestions as to the over-all approach of handling javascript on web sites, I paid special attention to one of the tips a commenter offered:

Use Iframe to display the javascript of the widget. In other words create an HTML page containing just the widget tag, and in the page you want the widget displayed you include an iframe tag pointing to the HTML page with the widget code.

This method solves two problems:

- the javascript code of the widget (3rdparty) does not slow dow the display of your page. The slowness is limited to just the iframe. If their server goes down or is unreachable, is just the iframe that is not loading - and not your blog content.

= the widget publisher does not have access to your page content. JavaScript does not restrict cross domain scripting - so if you place a script src on your tag pointing to a 3rd party, that third party can see the referrer of your page, collect any data the user types, and who knows what.

The iframe solution has been used by advertising companies and more respected publishers since Microsoft first introduced it. It works pretty good.  — widgetry –

After further research, I decided to try moving most of Meandering Passage’s javascript widgets into Independent Frames (iframe), and the results have been positive. The main part of the blog seems to load quicker.  If the javascript takes longer to execute it only holds up the loading of it’s specific frame, not the whole blog.

Here’s how I move the Meandering Passage javascript widgets into their own iframes.

1. I first created a new folder where I would place the new html documents for the javascript code.  In my case I named the folder “html” but you could name it anything.

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2. I then created a new html document for each javascript widget.  These documents contain the javascript code that currently is used in you blog code template.

3. I then added the following “iframe” html code in place of the javascript widget code.  The “src” will be the path of new folder that you created and the appropriate new html document with your javascript code.

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4. I then saved these changes and reloaded the site to confirm the results.  That’s it…very simple.

For the most part the changes went over without incident, but I did have to play some with spacing on one widget. 

There may be some javascript code you want to keep in your blog template.  Investigate and decide on a case-by-case basis.

I’ve confirmed the results on Meandering Passage with the following browsers… FireFox, Safari, Camino, OmniWeb, and MS Explorer 7.0.  They all seem to handle the code well.

At this point I’d have to agree that using iframes is a good method for handling javascript on your blog, without letting it control your blog. 

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WordPress Plug-in List for Meandering Passage, Aug. 2007

by Earl Moore on August 10, 2007

An advantage of using WordPress for blogging is that with the proper plug-ins you can add a huge amount of functionality and features.

When I see a user or administrative function or capability on a WordPress site I’m always curious if it’s being provided by a plug-in and if it’s something I could merge into Meandering Passage.

Since I’ve often borrowed plug-in inspiration from others, I though I would share my own selection of plug-ins.  So listed below are the WordPress Plug-ins that are currently running on this blog.

Current WordPress Plug-ins:

Plug-in:  404 Notifier
Version: 1.0
Author:  Alex King
Desc:  This plugin logs 404 hits on your WordPress powered site and will notify you of them via e-mail or in an RSS Feed.  I personally use the RSS feed method to monitor any 404, not found, messages generated from my site.

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Plug-in:  A Different Monthly Archive Script
Version: 1.4
Author :  Rob Watkins
Desc:  This WordPress plugin displays a “different” monthly archive in the format of a table, instead of the standard unordered-list that many sites use.

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Plug-in: Admin Drop Down Menu
Version: 1.3
Author: Ozh
Desc: Replaces admin menu and submenu with a 2 level horizontal CSS dropdown menu bar.  Saves lots of clicks

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Plug-in: Akismet
Version: 2.0.2
Author: Matt Mulleweq
Desc:  Comment Spam Blocker. Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not.

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Plug-in: Better Feed
Version: 1.01
Author: Ozh
Desc: Allows you to enhance your feeds with several highly customizable features such as copywrite notice, etc.

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Plug-in: Comment Relish
Version: 1.0
Author: Justin Shattuck
Desc: Helps to Increase your readership and RSS subscription rate by simply sending a short ‘thank you’ relishing type message to users when they first comment on your weblog.

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Plug-in: DoFollow
Version: 3.0
Author: Kimmo Suominen
Desc:  Disable the “nofollow” tagging for comments.

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Plug-in: Embedded Video with Link
Version:  3.4
Author: Stefan Heb
Desc: Filter for embedding videos from various portals with the corresponding direct link into a blog entry.

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Plug-in: FAlbum
Version: 0.7.0
Author: Elijah Cornell
Desc:  A plugin for displaying your Flickr photosets and photos in a gallery format on your Wordpress site.

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Plug-in: FeedStats
Version: 2.2
Author:  Andres Nieto Porras, Frank Bueltge
Desc: Simple statistics for WordPress Feeds

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Plug-in:  Google Sitemaps
Version: 2.7.1
Author: Arne Brachhold
Desc: Creates Google compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog.

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Plug-in: Imageless Alt Feed
Version:  1.0
Author: Kaf Oseo, modified by Shelley Powers
Desc: Removes images from full text feed, insereting the alt text as replacement.

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Plug-in: Link Harvest
Version: 1.0
Author:  Alex King
Desc:  This will harvest links from your WordPress database, creating a links list sorted by popularity.

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Plug-in: Now Reading
Version:  4.4
Author:  Rob Miller
Desc:  Allows you to display the books you’re reading, have read recently and plan to read, with cover art fetched automatically from Amazon.

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Plug-in: Optimal Title
Version:  3.0
Author: Aaron Schaefer
Desc:  Mirrors the function of wp_title() exactly, but moves the position of the ’separator’ to after the title rather than before.

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Plug-in: Page Links To
Version: 1.4
Author: Mark Jaquith
Desc:  Allows you to set a “links_to” meta key with a URI value that will be be used when listing WP pages. Good for setting up navigational links to non-WP sections of your site.

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Plug-in: Pixelpost Latest Photo
Version: 1.1
Author: Ramin Mehran
Desc:  Displays the latest image from a Pixelpost photoblog in your WordPress blog.

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Plug-in:  Quick Stats
Version: 1.1
Author: Jim Qode
Desc:  Logs hits with referrer, ip, host, client and url information. RSS tracker feature lets you tracker your visitors in near realtime using an RSS reader software.

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Plug-in: Rate-My-Stuff
Version: 1.1
Author: Dave Cantrell
Desc:  Lets you use a dynamic, star-based rating system in your posts using a simple, tag-like syntax

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Plug-in: Recent Comments
Version:  4.0
Author:  Jared Bangs
Desc:  This plugin will add a list of the most frequent comments posted to your blog. They are gathered in descending order (newest at the top), but then group them together by post title, so that comments from the same post are listed together.

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Plug-in: Related Post
Version: 2.02
Author: Alexander Malov & Mike Lu
Desc:  Returns a list of the related entries based on active/passive keyword matches.

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Plug-in: Smart Comments
Version: 2.0
Author: Ryanne Lai & Patrick O’Leary
Desc:  A plugin which prints “comments off” instead of “no comments” if comments are turned off

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Plug-in: Sphere Related Content
Version: 1.3
Author: Watershed Studio, LLC
Desc:  Automatically show related blog posts and news articles from Sphere.

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Plug-in: Subscribe to Comments
Version: 2.1
Author: Mark Jaquith
Desc:  Allows readers to recieve notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry.

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Plug-in: Text Link Ads
Verion:  3.0.1
Author: Justin Klemm & Matthew Drouin & Alex King
Desc:  Really Simple Web/RSS Advertising For Personal or Commercial Use

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Plug-in: Tiger Style Administration
Version:  3.0
Author: Steve Smith
Desc:  Makes administration area feel more like an application, and less like a traditional website.

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Plug-in: Ultimate Google Analytics
Version: 1.5.3
Author: Wilfred van der Deijl
Desc:  Enable Google Analytics on your blog. Has options to also track external links, mailto links and links to downloads on your own site.

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Plug-in: WordPress.com Stats
Version: 1.1.1
Author: Andy Skelton
Desc: Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Requires a WordPress.com API key.

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Plug-in:  WordPress Automatic Upgrade (Being Tested)
Version: 0.5
Author: Keith Dsouza
Desc:  Wordpress Automatic Upgrade allows a user to automatically upgrade the wordpress installation to the latest one provided by wordpress.org using the 5 steps provided in the wordpress upgrade instructions.

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Plug-in: WP-Cache
Version: 2.1.1
Author: Ricardo Galli Granada
Desc:  Very fast cache module. It’s composed of several modules, this plugin can configure and manage the whole system.

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Plug-in: WP-ContactForm Akismet Edition
Version: 1.1
Author: Blogging EXpertise
Desc:  WP-ContactForm: Akismet Edition is a spam-resistant drop-in contact form. It is derived from Ryan Duff’s WP-ContactForm 1.4.3 with the addition of code from the Akismet plugin.

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Plug-in: WP-Notable
Vesion: 1.14
Author: Cal Evans
Desc:  Add social bookmark links to each blog entry.

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Plug-in: WP-PostViews
Version: 1.11
Author: GaMerZ
Desc:  Enables you to display how many times a post had been viewed. It will not count registered member views, but that can be changed easily.

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Plug-in: WP-Print
Version: 2.11
Author: GaMerZ
Desc:  Displays a printable version of your WordPress blog’s post/page.

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Plug-in: WP-Stats
Version: 2.11
Author: GaMerZ
Desc:  Display your WordPress blog statistics. Ranging from general total statistics, some of my plugins statistics and top 10 statistics.

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While compiling this list I found two plug-ins that were active but not being used, plus four that needed to be upgraded, which I did.  It’s always a good idea to check for new versions of your plug-ins but it’s easy to forget.

Often it’s the old “if it’s not broken don’t fix it way of thinking.”

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Media Temple: iPhone Web Hosting Control Panel

by Earl Moore on August 7, 2007

Meandering Passage is hosted with (mt) Media Temple and I received a product enhancement noticed today about a new web hosting control panel for the iPhone.

(mt) Media Temple is proud to introduce the world’s first iPhone web hosting control panel.

Buy a domain, reboot your server, add emails, pay your bill, get support and more - all from your iPhone, only at (mt)

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From the photo it looks like it’s still in BETA.

Now,  I just need that iPhone. ;-)

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Quick Look: Steve Gillmor’s Bad Sinatra II

by Earl Moore on July 30, 2007

I watched Episode II of Steve Gillmor’s “Bad Sinatra” videocast.  Since I made comments on Episode I, I thought I would follow up with a few comments here:

  • Episode II was shorter, 20 mins vs. 30+ minutes.  This was a welcomed change and made the videocast as a whole more enjoyable.
  • I would still like to see non-intrusive editing with perhaps over-layed captions at the beginning of each segment of who, where and when.
  • The video quality of Episode II was much improved.

Yes…I’m still interested.

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CommonCraft explains RSS

by Earl Moore on July 28, 2007

I thought CommonCraft’s plain English explanation of Social Networking was so cute that I would highlight their video explanation of what a RSS feed is.

If your not into tech, these video’s represent a common sense approach to understanding common Internet terms and terminology.


YouTube Direct

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