Tag Archive for widget

Displaying the local weather forecast on your WordPress.com website

January 11, 2011 2 comments

I’ve just been asked by Lee, who has started a new community website for the Great Barr, Kingstanding and Oscott areas of Birmingham The B44 Blog, ‘do you know how to set up a weather widget on the side of wordpress.com?’

The answer is yes, this is quite an easy thing to do using the RSS widget and the RSS feed from an online local weather forecast from somewhere like BBC Weather.

Full instructions on how to place an RSS feed into the sidebar of a free WordPress site are on:

So now we know how to add the RSS widget to the sidebar, all we need is the RSS feed of the local weather forecast.

BBC Weather

I got this by going to the BCC weather page and searching for the B44 Birmingham area in the ‘find a forecast’ box.

BBC Weather | B44

In the bottom right-hand corner of the box in which the 5 day forecast for B44 Birmingham appears is an RSS button.

Click on this to get the URL of the RSS feed for this weather forecast, which can be copied from the browser bar and pasted into the WordPress RSS widget.

Widgets ‹ Getgood Test — WordPress

Simply copying and pasting this into the RSS widget on the WordPress dashboard means a local weather report appears in the sidebar of the site:

Quick Tips, Wordpress Guides and Tips, Writing and Content Ideas , , , , , ,

Add GroupsNearYou.com to your WordPress blog

December 11, 2009 2 comments

There’s a great site for finding social groups in your area called GroupsNearYou.com. Just type in your location or postcode and it shows you what’s close by.

Now you can provide that very same ease of use to your own local blog. I’ve just finished the first phase of a new GroupsNearYou plugin for WordPress. It provides blog owners with a new widget which, once configured, will show the groups in your area.

Below is a video showing how to set the widget up and there are also written instructions. The plugin itself can be downloaded from my website where you can also subscribe to updates. Once you’ve downloaded the plugin, follow these instructions on how to manually install a plugin. If you have any suggestions, questions or comments please use the comments section.

Instructions

  1. Go to Plugins
  2. Activate the GroupsNearYou plugin
  3. Go to Appearance > Widgets
  4. Drag the GroupsNearYou widget to your sidebar
  5. Configure the settings according to your own location and your preferred display
  6. Check your blog and you should see the new widget added to your sidebar
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How to add Twitter to your WordPress blog

December 10, 2009 No comments

If you run a local blog there’s a good chance you might be on Twitter, as my some of your neighbours. This creates a ‘back-channel’ that can often go unseen. So in the interests of enhancing local blogs with this back-channel, below is a video which shows you how to add both your own tweets and the results of a Twitter search to your WordPress blog.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please leave them in the comments section below.

Instructions – adding someone’s tweets

  1. In the WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance > Widgets
  2. Drag the Twitter widget onto the sidebar
  3. Add the twitter account name you want to show
  4. Configure the remaining options to change the display
  5. Click Save
  6. Refresh your blog and you should see the new widget on your sidebar

Instructions – adding a Twitter search

  1. Go to search.twitter.com and perform a search.
  2. On the right hand side, right click on the link that reads “Feed for this query” and select Copy link location
  3. Go to your WordPress dashboard
  4. Go to Appearance > Widgets
  5. Drag the RSS widget to your sidebar
  6. In the first box, paste the link you just copied from Twitter
  7. Configure the other options according to your preferences
  8. Click Save
  9. Refresh your blog and you should see the new widget on your sidebar
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Add WriteToThem.com to your WordPress blog

December 10, 2009 No comments

If you’ve not heard of WriteToThem.com before, it’s a great site by mySociety which makes contact politicians really easy, whether that’s your local councillors or your MP, regional assembly member or MEP.

To make it even easier for readers of your own blog, I’ve just finished the first phase of a new plugin for WordPress. It provides you with a new widget based on WriteToThem.com which will provide an easy way for your readers to get in touch with their politicians.

Below is a video showing how to set the widget up and there are also written instructions. The plugin itself can be downloaded from my website where you can also subscribe to updates. Once you’ve downloaded the plugin, follow these instructions on how to manually install a plugin. If you have any suggestions, questions or comments please use the comments section.

Instructions

  1. Go to Plugins
  2. Activate the WriteToThem plugin
  3. Go to Appearance > Widgets
  4. Drag the WriteToThem widget to your sidebar
  5. Configure the settings according to your preferred display
  6. Check your blog and you should see the new widget added to your sidebar
hyperlocal, hyperlocal labs, Wordpress Guides and Tips , , , , , ,

Add TheyWorkForYou.com to your WordPress blog

December 9, 2009 One comment

TheyWorkForYou.com is a great site built by e-democracy charity, mySociety. It provides an easy way for citizens to keep an eye on their MP. You can sign up for e-mail updates whenever your MP speaks in the House of Commons, for example.

So wouldn’t it be cool if you could also put this stuff on your local blog for all your readers to see and keep up to date with? Well, know you can!

I’ve just finished the first phase of a new plugin for WordPress. This first version provides you with a new widget. Once configured, the widget will show the latest activity from your MP and is available both as an addition to your blog for the benefit of your readers but also as a dashboard widget so that you can see the latest updates everytime you log in.

Below is a video and written instructions on how to set the widget up. The plugin itself can be downloaded from my website where you can also subscribe to updates. Once you’ve downloaded the plugin, follow these instructions on how to manually install a plugin. If you have any suggestions, questions or comments please use the comments section.

Instructions

  1. Go to Plugins
  2. Activate the TheyWorkForYou plugin
  3. Go to Settings > TheyWorkForYou
  4. Configure the settings according to your own MP and your preferred display
  5. Click Save options
  6. Go to Appearance > Widgets
  7. Drag the TheyWorkForYou widget to your sidebar
  8. Check your blog and you should see the new widget added to your sidebar
hyperlocal, hyperlocal labs, Wordpress Guides and Tips , , , , , , ,
 

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