Blog Fixer's Diary

How to get a List of All Blog Posts on Blogger

2010-04-03T23:43:00.000-07:00

Blogger offers several feeds for blog posts by default:

1. http://blogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml - the old address for Blogger's ATOM feed
2. http://blogname.blogspot.com/rss.xml - the address for Blogger's RSS feed
3. http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default - the full feed
4. http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/summary - the summary feed

My requirement was to publish a complete list of all my blog posts on a "Site Table of Contents" (or a site directory) page. The problem is that the default full feed (http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default) does not really return a feed of all the posts. It usually returns only a handful of recent posts.

The trick that I found to get the complete list of posts was to append "?max-results=1000" (you can change the number '1000' to any number of your choice) at the end of the feed address. Your complete feed address would look like this:

http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?max-results=1000

With the above feed address, you should be able to get a feed of all the blog posts. It worked very well for me. Let me know whether it worked for you.

URL Redirection with eNom

2010-02-20T21:25:00.000-08:00

If you have registered a domain name with eNom, and want to redirect a domain http://www.myotherdomain.com to http://www.mydomain.com , then follow these instructions:

Log into eNom's DNS Console for http://www.myotherdomain.com
Under the "Host Records" section click the "Edit" button.
In the edit mode, click "Add New" to add a new row.
Add the following in the new row:
- Host Name: @
- Address: http://www.mydomain.com
- Record Type: URL Redirect
Add another new row with the following entries:

Host Name: www
Address: http://www.mydomain.com
Record Type: URL Redirect

Click "Save".

That's all there is to it. After a few minutes, http://www.myotherdomain.com should automatically get redirected to http://www.mydomain.com .

How Do I Get Started Making Money With Google Adsense?

2009-12-07T08:34:00.000-08:00

Are you interested in making some money with your website? Are you familiar with Google Adsense? No? Then there's a nice tutorial on Google Adsense, by Dave Taylor:

How Do I Get Started Making Money With Google Adsense?

Missing Comments Wrong Count Blogger

2009-11-27T21:30:00.000-08:00

This week many bloggers are reporting issues with the comments on their Blogger blogs. I faced this problem too on some of my blogs. The issues are:

Missing comments: Some or all of the comments on blogs are missing. For example, on one of my posts, I had 15 odd comments of which 5 were my own comments, made in response to visitor comments. I could only see my own comments. All the visitor comments were missing. It made quite a funny read :)
Comment count is incorrect

If you are facing similar problems on your blog, there's an official thread for this issue on Blogger Help forum that you can post your issue on. Here's the link:

Missing Comments and/or Comment Count Wrong

It's a Blogger issue and there's nothing you have done to cause it, or can do to fix it. You've just got to wait. In my case, the issue seems to have resolved automatically. But, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Blogger Error: Page Not Found ps/rpc_relay.html

2009-11-25T05:36:00.000-08:00

Problem Statement

Google Webmasters Tools was reporting a crawl error on multiple pages of some of my blogs. The error message was:

Page not found http://page_url/ps/rpc_relay.html

Some other folks who encountered this error on their blogs saw a drop in their blog traffic too. However, in my case, there was no noticeable drop in traffic.

Root Cause

In order to identify the root cause, I looked for any reference to ps/rpc_relay.html on my blog. I looked into the template source code, but it was clean. Then I looked at the page source and did find the reference there. Looking at the source, it was clear that the problem was associated to the Follower widget.

To confirm my suspicion, I removed the Follower widget and as expected, the reference to ps/rpc_relay.html disappeared from the page source.

Solution

In order to fix the issue and also retain the Follower widget, I replaced the Follower widget with Google Friend Connect. Basically, both are same. The only difference being that the former comes as a standard widget from Blogger and the latter as html code that needs to be added to a HTML widget on the blog. Here are the detailed steps:

Remove the Follower widget.
Go to Google Friend Connect (GFC) and login with your Google account (the same account used for Blogger).
Click on your blog name (in the list of blogs) in the left hand navigation panel -> Overview -> Add the members gadget.
If you want, configure the member's gadget to match the color scheme of your blog.
Grab the widget code.
Come back to your blog and add an HTML widget. It can be in the same section where the Follower gadget used to reside.
Paste the HTML code from GFC into the HTML widget and save it.

After replacing the Follower widget with GFC, the reference to ps/rpc_relay.html was gone from the page source (except for one reference which was a comment).

Two or three days after making the change, the error was gone from Google Webmasters Tool. The blog was clean again.

The solution worked for me and I hope it works for you as well. Good luck !

Blogger Javascript Error "Permission Denied" in IE6

2009-11-24T07:07:00.000-08:00

Problem Statement

I get a Javascript error (Line: 619 Char: 122 Error: Permission Denied) when my blog is loaded in Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) and the Google Friend Connect or the Follower widget doesn't load. Refer to the screenshot of the error below. The blog loads fine in Firefox 3.5 and Google Chrome 4.x.

Root Cause

The root cause is the conflict between the Poll widget and Google Friend Connect (GFC) or the Follower widget. If the page layout is such that the Poll widget loads first, I get the error. If GFC loads first, then there's no error.

Solution

I don't have a fix that addresses the root cause, but here are a few options that you could try:

Change the page layout such that GFC (or the Follower widget) loads before the Poll widget.
Remove the Poll Widget as a "widget" and embed it inside a blog post. This is the option that I've chosen. On the top menu, I've added a link to the Poll page. Obviously, this defeats the purpose of running a poll, but if your page layout cannot be changed due to some reason, then this is the next best option.
The obvious option is to get rid of either GFC or the Poll widget.

I posted this issue on the official GFC forum, but unfortunately, there's hardly any help available there.

If I find a better fix, I'll post an update here, and if you know of a proper fix to address the root cause, do let me know.

Blogger Javascript Error Char 21131 IE6

2009-11-24T06:47:00.000-08:00

Problem Statement

Recently I had been getting a Javascript error ( Line 3 Char 21131 Expected ')' ) on my blog, when viewed in Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). There was no problem with the blog when viewed using Firefox 3.5 or Google Chrome 4.x. Refer to the screenshot of the error message.

Despite the error, everything on the blog including the AddThis widget, works fine.

Root Cause

After spending a lot of time investigating into the issue, I figured out that the problem was due to the AddThis (Bookmark and Share) widget.

Solution

So far, the only solution I know is to get rid of the widget. You can use a similar widget from some other provider.

If you know of a proper fix, do let me know.

Blogger error bX-q957zg while updating Blog Posts Section

2009-11-21T05:13:00.000-08:00

Problem Statement

When I try to edit the Blog Posts section on the blog layout page (Layout->Blog Posts Section->Edit), I get the following error:

===========================================

We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.
When reporting this error to Blogger Support or on the Blogger Help Group, please:

Describe what you were doing when you got this error.Provide the following error code and additional information.
bX-q957zg
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
blogID: 9179404155XXXXXXXX
host: www.blogger.com
uri: /rearrange
This information will help us to track down your specific problem and fix it! We apologize for the inconvenience.

===========================================

It prevents me from making configuration changes such as number of blog posts to display on the main page, date format, Adsense settings etc.

Root Cause

In my case, I found that the root cause was the way I had defined the font and color settings in the header of my custom template. Refer to the text in red below:


<Variable name="t2HeaderBgColor" description="Theme 2 Header Background Color" type="color" default="#885" value="#4b3c37">

<Variable name="t2HeaderColor" description="Theme 2 Header Color" type="color" default="#885" value="#FFFFFF">



<Variable name="t2SecHeaderBgColor" description="Theme 2 Sec Header Background Color" type="color" default="#885" value="#cde196">

<Variable name="t2SecHeaderColor" description="Theme 2 Secondary Header Color" type="color" default="#885" value="$t2HeaderBgColor">

I was referring to a previously defined font using $variableName syntax. Though I get the correct results with this notation, blogger apparently doesn't like it. This is the root cause of the problem.

Solution

Simply replace $variableName with the actual color code and the problem disappears !


<Variable name="t2SecHeaderColor" description="Theme 2 Secondary Header Color" type="color" default="#885" value="#4b3c37">

Note that the root cause and the solution was applicable in my case, but may not necessarily be applicable to yours. If this solution doesn't fix your problem, I suggest you look around for other similar problems in the font definition section of your template.

Good luck !

Display Adsense Ad on the Latest Post Only

2009-11-18T06:07:00.000-08:00

I have browsed tens of websites that provide hacks to display Google Adsense ads in the post body. There are several drawbacks with these hacks. Just to name a couple:

As you might already know, you can display a maximum of 3 Adsense ad units on a page. The ads are displayed in the first 3 posts on the main page. That means that you cannot have ads in the side bars (unless sidebars are rendered first in your template).

If you do put ad units in the side bars, then on the main blog page, the sections of the side bar containing the ad units display as empty blocks, which looks awkward.

Then there are hacks which take this to the next level. They will make an ad unit display only on the item page. This way, you still have 2 more ad units at your disposal that can be added to the side bars, or any other section of your blog. However, the problem is that the ad units are not shown inside the posts on the main page. This way, you waste one ad unit on the main page, which is probably your no. 1 landing page.

I really wanted a better solution. The ideal solution I had in mind was:

On the main page, only the latest (top most) post should contain the ad unit. Same goes for the archive page.

On the item page, the ad unit should be displayed inside the post.

With this arrangement, I'll always have the top most post on any page (main, item or archive) contain an ad unit. And I'll always have 2 other ad units at my disposal.

Now coming to the point - how do I get such an arrangement? I spent a lot of time searching on the web trying to accomplish this. I left comments on popular blog posts on this subject, sent emails to blog authors, but all in vain. So, I decided to figure out a solution on my own, and that's exactly what I did.

The challenge was really to identify the latest post. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a property like blog:post.index, which could serve the purpose. So, I resorted to using a dirty trick that solves the problem.

Every post has a unique 'Post ID'. For example, if you go to the edit page of a post, the URL would be like (the text in bold is the post ID):

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=9179404155691939198&postID=91589727429XXXXXXXX

We need to use this post ID to identify the top most post. Here's the hack that I used:

Go to your blog Layout -> Edit HTML page.

Click on "Download Full Template" to backup your template.

Select the checkbox "Expand Widget Templates".

Search for string "data:post.body/".

You'll see the above string in a section like this:

<div class='post-body entry-content'> <p><data:post.body/></p> <div style='clear: both;'/>  </div>

Insert the following code before or after the above section:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'> // Your adsense code here <b:else/> <b:if cond='data:post.id == "91589727429XXXXXXXX"'> // Your adsense code here </b:if> </b:if>

If you want the ad above the content of your post, your final code might look like this:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'> // Your adsense code here <b:else/> <b:if cond='data:post.id == "91589727429XXXXXXXX"'> // Your adsense code here </b:if> </b:if> <div class='post-body entry-content'> <p><data:post.body/></p> <div style='clear: both;'/>  </div>

Replace the text in red with your adsense code. Make sure you convert the adsense code before inserting it into the template. You can use the converter here.

Replace the text in blue with the post ID of your latest post. The painful part is that you need to update the post ID everytime you publish a new post. I know it's extra work, but it works. If I find a better solution, I'll post an update here.

Click on "Preview". You may not be able to see the ad in the preview, but if you do not receive any errors, it means that you can safely click on "Save Template".

That's all there is to this hack. Let me know if you face any problem with this hack. Though I'm still learning and don't claim to know everything, I'll do my best to help. If you are familiar with a better solution, I'll be glad to hear from you.

How to Add a Sub-domain to a Custom Domain

2009-11-16T06:41:00.000-08:00

If you own a custom domain such as www.mydomain.com, and you want to host a separate blog or website under a sub-domain (for example, blog2.mydomain.com), you need to create a new CNAME record with your domain host such as Godaddy or enom.

Follow the steps mentioned below to create a new CNAME record to a custom domain registered with enom.

Login into your enom account and go to the domain setting page. If you have registered your custom domain through Google, you can follow these steps.

You should see a screen similar to the following:

Click on the 'Edit' button under the 'Host Records' section.

Click 'Add New'.

Add the sub-domain name, for example, 'blog2' under the 'Host Name' field.

Add ghs.google.com. under 'Address' field.

Select CNAME (Alias) under 'Record Type' field.

Click 'Save'.

That's all. Your new CNAME record has been created and so is your new sub-domain.

How to access ENOM Domain Settings with Google Apps

2009-11-16T06:10:00.000-08:00

If you have signed up for a custom domain through Google, and wondering how to access the Enom domain management services, here's a quick step by step guide to help you.

Go to the URL https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/yourdomain.com/DomainSettingsAdvancedDns

(replace yourdomain.com with the name of your custom domain). The domain may not necessarily be .com in your case. It could be .org, .net etc. It will ask you to login into your Google Apps account, if you are not already logged in.

This page will give you the following information: To change Advanced DNS settings, sign in to your DNS console with the following information : Domain : <yourdomain.com> Password : <enom_account_password> enom customer service email : GoogleClients@enom.com It will have a link "Sign in to DNS console", which will take you to your domain management page on enom. You'll need this Domain name and password to login to your enom account.

On the enom domain management page, use the domain name and password (mentioned on the Google Apps page to login to your enom account).

If you have followed all the steps, you should be able to login to your domain settings page on enom.

Blog Fixer's Personal Diary

2009-11-12T07:38:00.000-08:00

This blog is my personal diary for blogger related hacks, issues, fixes, notes and everything blogger.