Need help? Check out our Support site, then


WordPress.com Forums » Widgets

Embed links widget in static page instead of sidebar?

  1. picholine
    Member

    My blogroll is rather lengthy, so instead of having the Links widget in my sidebar, I'm wondering if there is any way to embed the code into a page, which would update whenever I use the bookmarklet to add a link, just as it would if it were in the sidebar.

    I tried copying and pasting the widget code from the page source data and that worked to get it into its own page, but when I add a link, it doesn't update. Here's the page I created:

    http://rhetoricalchristian.wordpress.com/blogroll/

    Is what I'm trying to do possible?

    The blog I need help with is rhetoricalchristian.wordpress.com.

  2. 1tess
    Moderator

    No. The widgets work only in the sidebar(s).

    You will have to update manually it whenever you add a link.

  3. thesacredpath
    Member

    There are a handful of themes that have a links page template. About halfway down in this blog post is a list of themes that have a "links" page template: http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/archives-and-links-templates/ .

  4. picholine
    Member

    Thanks for the link -- too bad it's not available in the template I'm using. It's going to be a tough decision...

  5. raincoaster
    Member

    You should be able to copy all the contents of the widget and just paste it into a page. You'll have to do some formatting, for sure, but it should theoretically work just fine. Copy it right from the front of your blog.

  6. thesacredpath
    Member

    What you can do, is to view the source code on your blog, find the links stuff and copy the code out and then paste it into the HTML tab in a page. You will have to manually update it, but at least you won't have to type and link each one manually.

  7. picholine
    Member

    Okay, so I changed to the Mistylook template which has the blogroll page, but it still doesn't update when I add a link via the bookmarklet or if I manually add a new link the control panel! If I put the links widget in the sidebar, though, that displays the newly added link.

    ...So it's functioning exactly the same way it did in my prior template, which I only changed to have support for updating links! Argh...

  8. picholine
    Member

    Yes, that's what I had done (see that I originally wrote that in my first comment here), but I thought that by using a template with the built-in page, it would work the same way the sidebar widget does (automatically updating) or else I wouldn't have changed it.

    So what I'm understanding is that there is no way to have the links update automatically on a page. It only works with the widget in the sidebar. Is that so, and if so, why?

  9. thesacredpath
    Member

    I've never had any issues with the links pages updating and I used MistyLook for well over a year, but I don't use the bookmarklet. I've added all my links manually at dashboard > links > add new. Try adding a link there and see if it updates.

    Also clear your browser cache and force refresh the page. Some browsers (IE) tenaciously hang onto cached pages and will virtually never update unless you force them to.

  10. raincoaster
    Member

    That is correct, because pages and post content are not dynamic. Widgets are, but they don't go in pages and posts; they are coded to work in sidebars.

    I suppose if you were a web developer you could try to write a bunch of code that would make a page that does that dynamically, and then submit it to WordPress.com for approval with existing templates.

  11. thesacredpath
    Member

    In my experience, the links page updated when you added new links.

  12. picholine
    Member

    I did refresh and and I did try adding it manually. I even switched to other templates and tried some more links, but it still didn't add the most recent links on the blogroll page; only the sidebar. Which would make sense if what raincoaster says is correct, but you're saying that your links have automatically updated your blogroll page, so I'm not sure what to think.

    I will clear my browser cache and try again..

  13. raincoaster
    Member

    It's entirely possible that it's theme-specific, because the process I outlined above would have to be added one by one to each theme, and it's possible they're not all standardized yet.

  14. picholine
    Member

    I'm not having any luck with Mistylook. Perhaps you just thought they updated, but they didn't...? Which template are you using now?

  15. thesacredpath
    Member

    I just set one of my test blogs to Mistylook, made a "links" page, selected the "links" template, published the page and then separately added 4 links via dashboard > links > add new (checking after I added each link), and the links page updated on each just as I said.

    Again, I wasn't using a bookmarklet, which might be the issue, I don't know.

  16. picholine
    Member

    What do you mean by "made a links page"? The Mistylook template comes with a built-in Blogroll page, so that's the one I've been referencing:

    http://rhetoricalchristian.wordpress.com/blogroll/

  17. picholine
    Member

    Oh wow! It was simply a matter of switching it from "default" to "link" in the template area of the "blogroll" page (I had just assumed it would already be programmed that way). Thank so much for the aha moment...

  18. picholine
    Member

    I mean "links".

  19. thesacredpath
    Member

    You're welcome. I was having trouble figuring out what the problem could be.

  20. consulservepinoy
    Member

    thaks for your eforts i like to try it soon

Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies.

About this Topic

Tags