Link Back Plugin

[echo@]

Automatically generates linkback code for all your listings, and displays a preview. Good for SEO and provides more links back to your site.

Plugin: Yes
Block: No
AddOn: No need code change in indexu files
Modification: No modification required
Title: Link Back plugin
Description: Automatically generates linkback code for all your listings
Version: 000.1
Compatibility: Will work on any version
Price: Free

DB Changes: No
Template changes: No
Code changes: No
Additional files: Yes
Installer included: No

Live Demo URL: http://www.articleconveyer.com
Support Site: http://www.nicecoder.com/community

Installation Guide: below
Screenshot: Yes

Before uploading to you plugins folder edit the linkback.php file and change the lines with "yoursite" and "my article site is great" to your needs.

The plugin uses the "hook_html_link_detail_after_link_detail" hook.

upload the folder "linkback" to the plugins directory.

make sure you have "hook_html_link_detail_after_link_detail" in your detail_link.html.

Enable the plugin in your admin back end

[Bruceper]

Very nice, I'll test this out tonight.

So how was your first experience making a plugin?

[echo@]

So how was your first experience making a plugin?

It was quite hard trying to understand the instructions in the guide as its baised on the feed back plugin and in pigeon english. This might seem like a easy example but most of the code in this plugin wasnt needed.
Im not a php programer but the example expects you to know what a "custom function" is. So i did some looking through the ifeedback plugin and worked it out.

It took about 3 hours to make the plugin and it worked first time,

I also needed to make <%$site_url%>,<%$detail_page_url%> and <%$title%> work from the plugin so i had to put some of browse.php in the file, in fact all the varibles from browse.php are in there.

If you could use an aditional example plugin that simply pulled up html would of made things easier. but then i guess people would use the indexu vars in this html <%$site_url%> <%$detail_page_url%>.

On the whole i expected it not to work and was supprised how easy it was

[FSGDAG]

You did GREAT echo@!!! Thanks for the hard work and dedication!

[echo@]

You did GREAT echo@!!! Thanks for the hard work and dedication!

I makes it all worth it with these comments

Thanks

[echo@]

Did anyone use this plugin in the end?

[Bruceper]

I'm using it on webcomicguide.com

I haven't implimented this elsewhere yet, but I plan to. It's going on my recipe site for sure.

[xmith]

echo@

How difficult is to make it work for categories (rather than detail level)?

The plugin make senses for an article directory but for URLs (my case) a link back to category would be better.

[Bruceper]

All you would need to do is change the hooks from the detail page to the browse page.

[echo@]

Yes that will make it display on the browse pages but it wont actually give you a link back to the current category.

So untill indexu is able to return a url for the current category I guess the answer is no

[ilcoici]

Can i use your plugin on indexu 5.4.1 ?

it's possible?

Thanks

[echo@]

Yes but instead of a plugin you will have to create a block as 5.4.1 doesnt have plugin support

Then include the block within the detail_link.html.

So create a custom page , and clear out the contents then paste

<h3>Quote this article on your site</h3>
<div><br /><strong>To create link towards this article on your website,<br />copy and paste the text below in your page.</strong><br /><br />

<textarea name="source" rows="7" cols="80" onclick="this.focus();this.select()">

<style type="text/css"><!--.quote {width:350px; padding: 6px; border: solid 1px #456B8F; font: 10px helvetica, verdana, sans-serif; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff}.quote a {font: 13px arial, serif; color: #003399; text-decoration: underline}.quote a:hover {color: #FF9900; }//--></style><div class="quote">
<a href="<%$site_url%>/<%$detail_page_url%>" target="_blank"><%$title%></a><br /><%$date|date_format%>
<div align="right" style="width:350px"><p style="text-align:right;">© 2008 - <a href="http://www.Yoursite/" target="_blank">my article site is great</a></p></div></div>


</textarea>

<br /><br />Preview :<br /><br />
<style type="text/css"><!--.quote {width:350px; padding: 6px; border: solid 1px #456B8F; font: 10px helvetica, verdana, sans-serif; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff}.quote a {font: 13px arial, serif; color: #003399; text-decoration: underline}.quote a:hover {color: #FF9900; }//--></style><div class="quote">
<a href="<%$site_url%>/<%$detail_page_url%>" target="_blank"><%$title%></a><br />Article Published : <%$date|date_format%>
<div align="right" style="width:350px"><p style="text-align:right;">© 2008 - <a href="http://www.yoursite/" target="_blank">my article site is great</a></p></div></div>

</div>

( edit the Bold areas to your desires)

into the page and save , in this example ill call it linkback.html

Now find your detail_link.html file and include to your desired location the linkback file like so.

 <%include file="linkback.html"%> 
  

Browse your detail link

[echo@]

Did this quallify as POTM?

[Dr. Jekyll]

Did this quallify as POTM?

[webwitch]

Looks to me like it should at least have qualified as a candidate for POTM. Hell it had to be one of the first successful user-generated plugins. I find it disappointing that no one but Dr Jekyll responded at all to your POTM question, Echo and all he did was laugh. I find it curious that the support and development team seems not to respond much at all (or at best to respond slowly and tepidly) when users are clearly trying to improve the product.

Frankly I think IndexU needs every bit of user community support it can possibly get and it seems clear to me that Frank and Bruce and the rest of the support team feel that way too -- at least most of the time. Heck rather than (or in addition to) building an indexutemplates.com site and trying to expand their own revenue base by selling more templates, it seems to me NiceCoder would be smart to open an IndexU marketplace site designed to help users create and earn income from anything they can add to the product. Everyone benefits from that kind of support.

I've seen fine hacks that were priced too high and there's too much energy being wasted by each developer to create a shopping carts, forums and and support systems to support $15 - $30 add-on products. If these guys were to provide the shopping cart, pricing advice and the use of their support ticket system for say, 30-40% of the sales price but require each developer to support the product he sells directly, it seems to me everyone would be better off over the long term.

Under the present circumstances, it's no wonder dedicated longtime supporters of the product like ESM, InspireMe, MPDaddy and others grow discouraged and disappear. IMO, everyone who is making a contribution here DESERVES to be appreciated and applauded -- especially when they're going out of their way to try to help -- rather than being insulted, attacked, challenged or ignored which seems to happen rather often here.

Thanks, Echo. I for one appreciate this hack and can see a direct use for it on one of my sites real soon. But to make this hack work and get direct benefit from it, it clearly needs to be installed on a site that includes plenty of original content and NOT just a bunch of links to other places.

Hmmmm... I think I'm gonna give this plugin a try real soon, Echo. Thanks... and congrats!