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Milestone widget isn't useful. Need a countdown timer.

  1. chetfarmer
    Member

    What alternatives exist to provide a countdown to a future date on a standard wordpress.com site?

    The Milestone widget is not useful, since it shows only whole months remaining. (I can't imagine who might think this is a useful tool, honestly.)

    I have used a custom javascript for this in the past, but apparently I can't do that here, either. I just want to see "XXX days until the wedding!" on the site I've set up for my brother (hadleighandfrank.wordpress.com).

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

  2. 1tess
    Moderator

    there are some here using flash:
    http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/widgets-for-wpcom-8-countdown-timers/
    http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/widgets-for-wp-com-8b-more-countdown-tickers/

  3. chetfarmer
    Member

    Wow, those are all awful. Anyone know of a way to include the output of an externally generated script in a text widget?

  4. 1tess
    Moderator

    No. We can only use flash via gigya code. Otherwise it is forbidden and will be stripped out on WordPress.com. Just as you discovered with scripts: also forbidden and stripped out. If the issue is crucial for your site, then your only option is to move to a self-hosted blog where you can use the free software from WordPress.ORG. (or of course pay for hosting and use some one else's software to run it)

    Note the differences between wp.COM and wp.ORG:
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/

    Here is the support article about the code we can and cannot use on wp.com:

    WordPress.com is a type of shared environment, where all users are running off of the same software. Because of this we need to limit some of the things you post on your blog. If you wrote some code or pasted it in from another web site and then it disappeared after publishing the post, the code is likely being stripped out. This support doc covers what type of code isn't allowed on WordPress.com.

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/code/

  5. chetfarmer
    Member

    I don't care about using flash. In fact, I'd rather not. I just want a countdown that's useful, and Milestone isn't.

    It seems to me that, since milestone isn't useful, the easiest approach isn't to impose automation on the neutered wp.com environment. I'm more than happy to spit out the right value somewhere else. What I want is a way to pull that value (a static value, or string even) into a region of this site, like a widget. Is there a gigya countdown that just spits out text?

    Of course, none of this would be needed if milestone weren't so brain dead. Any "countdown" that considers 2 months and 30 days the same as 2 months is failing basic math. I searched the archives here; I'm certainly not the first person to comment on or complain about this problem, and yet it's unresolved.

    Obviously, it's a free service. Obviously too WP has a singularly awful security rep, which justifies this lockdown (and is also the reason I haven't just installed my own copy on hardware I own and control). But it seems like there ought to be a workaround here that isn't based on including godawful myspace-grade flash.

  6. 1tess
    Moderator

    You know, I'm only a volunteer and fellow blogger so making those points about what you'd wish for, I'd say it would be more productive to make a thread in the "ideas forum" with positive details about why such a thing would be useful for wp.com.

    I have never used the milestone widget, but I have seen some folks complaining about its shortcomings in these forums.

    As for the gigya code flash widget work-a-round, there was one I used which was basic, simple text in a box, and showed the number of days to THE day. Sorry but it was on a blog I used about 2 years ago so I cannot tell you exactly which one it was on the links I showed you.

  7. chetfarmer
    Member

    Given the broad dissatisfaction with the existing milestone widget, I'd say it's more likely WordPress.com doesn't care. Complaining about it in a feedback forum strikes me as a waste of my time.

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