Solving Recent Posts and Recent Comments Widget

Annoying blank feeds

At last I finally took the time to solve the little annoying problem with the Recent Posts and Recent Comments widget on Dilectio Blogger template.

For those Bloggers who using Dilectio template will get a blank “Configure Feed” window with no option either to remove nor edit the Recent Posts and Recent Comments widget.

I've even sent an email to David (the founder of eBlog Templates) asking him to solve the above problem, but I've yet to receive a reply from him.

Furthermore I was getting quite a few of his (David) readers sending me emails asking me to solve the problem. Therefore, I dedicate this post to Lucia, Wendy, Alex, ccgoal and the rest (most of them can be found on Dilectio's comment section). Thank you for the patience and the trust you've given me. Really appreciate it very much.

Without further ado, this is how I did it;

Part One:

1. As usual, back-up your template before you do any tweaking. I cannot stress it enough on how important to back-up your template. Any wrong footing could result in an explosion on your template and you've a back-up template to save the day. Did I say an explosion? Nah! Just kidding my friends.

2. Seriously, after signing in with your username and password to your Blogger account, you will be taken to your Dashboard. From there you click on Layout and you will be taken to your Page Elements.

3. Choose suitable location for your widget and click on 'Add a Gadget' and from the pop-up table choose 'Feed' coz you gonna add content from an RSS or Atom feed to your blog.

4. *Now this is important - For your 'Recent Posts' your feed URL gonna be http://YourBlogUrl.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default and click 'Continue' for Blogger to retrieve your Recent Posts feed. After retrieving your blog's feed, it's advisable to change the title to 'Recent Posts' or whatever suit your fancy.

5. Repeat Step 3 and 4. Only this time it gonna be for your 'Recent Comments' widget. For your 'Recent Comments' your feed URL gonna be http://YourBlogUrl.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default

Part Two:

1. After setting up both widgets, from 'Page Elements' click on 'Edit HTML' and click on the box 'Expand Widget Templates'. On this page (Edit HTML), there's gonna be four set of codes, two set of codes for the new Recent Posts and Recent Comments and the other two are for the nonfunctional widgets. Remember? At this stage after adding the two new widget, it's advisable to back-up your template again coz we are going to do some serious hacking on your template! Who knows your template might decide to dance around and you got your back-up to turn to?

2. K, first of all you gonna have to find the new widgets string of codes and that gonna be like so;

<b:widget id='Feed2' locked='false' title='Recent Comments' type='Feed'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<h2><data:title/></h2>
<div class='widget-content' expr:id='data:widget.instanceId &quot;_feedItemListDisplay&quot;'>
<span style='filter: alpha(25); opacity: 0.25;'>
<a expr:href='data:feedUrl'><data:loadingMsg/></a>
</span>
</div>
<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>
<b:widget id='Feed1' locked='false' title='Recent Posts' type='Feed'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<h2><data:title/></h2>
<div class='widget-content' expr:id='data:widget.instanceId &quot;_feedItemListDisplay&quot;'>
<span style='filter: alpha(25); opacity: 0.25;'>
<a expr:href='data:feedUrl'><data:loadingMsg/></a>
</span>
</div>
<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>

3. Copy it all on your favourite Notepad and DELETE it from your template. By now I hope you'll notice the feed for Recent Posts will be Feed1 and Feed2 for Recent Comments. Remember that coz we gonna use it a little while later.

4. For some strange reasons, the feeds for the inoperable Recent Posts and Recent Comments widgets will be like Feed22 and Feed23. The complete string of codes will be like so;

<b:widget id='Feed22' locked='false' title='Recent Posts' type='Feed'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<b:if cond='data:title'/>
<div class='widget-content'>
<ul class='TabMenu'>
<li class='TabLink'><a href='#top' id='tab0' onclick='ShowTab(0)'><span>Recent Articles</span></a></li>
<li class='TabLink'><a href='#top' id='tab1' onclick='ShowTab(1)'><span>Recent Comments</span></a></li>
<li class='NavLinks' id='paging0'><div style='display:none'/></li>
<li class='NavLinks' id='paging1'><div style='display:none'/></li>
</ul>
<div class='TabContent' id='div0' style='display:none'>
<ul expr:id='data:widget.instanceId &quot;_feedItemListDisplay&quot;'>
<b:loop values='data:feedData.items' var='i'>
<li>
<span class='item-title'>
<a expr:href='data:i.alternate.href'>
<data:i.title/>
</a>
</span>
<b:if cond='data:showItemDate'>
<b:if cond='data:i.str_published != &quot;&quot;'>
<span class='item-date'>
&#160;-&#160;<data:i.str_published/>
</span>
</b:if>
</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:showItemAuthor'>
<b:if cond='data:i.author != &quot;&quot;'>
<span class='item-author'>
&#160;-&#160;<data:i.author/>
</span>
</b:if>
</b:if>
</li>
</b:loop>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>
<b:widget id='Feed23' locked='false' title='Recent Comments' type='Feed'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<b:if cond='data:title'/>
<div class='widget-content'>
<div class='TabContent' id='div1' style='display:none'>
<ul expr:id='data:widget.instanceId &quot;_feedItemListDisplay&quot;'>
<b:loop values='data:feedData.items' var='i'>
<li>
<span class='item-title'>
<a expr:href='data:i.alternate.href'>
<data:i.title/>
</a>
</span>
<b:if cond='data:showItemDate'>
<b:if cond='data:i.str_published != &quot;&quot;'>
<span class='item-date'>
&#160;-&#160;<data:i.str_published/>
</span>
</b:if>
</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:showItemAuthor'>
<b:if cond='data:i.author != &quot;&quot;'>
<span class='item-author'>
&#160;-&#160;<data:i.author/>
</span>
</b:if>
</b:if>
</li>
</b:loop>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>

5. Find the above string of codes and change Feed22 and Feed23 to Feed1 and Feed2.

6. Voila! Recent Posts and Recent Comments on Dilectio template is now operable beautifully as you can see on this blog.

That's it for now. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy typing it.

Oh yeah, please leave a comment or two if you find this post helpful or in need of further help. I thank you in advance.

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