Iris and I must ride the Ferris wheel

SeeMore's been updated.

User-visible Interesting Changes, in rough order by interestingness:

• new configuration item $more_on_article, on by default; if set, then single-article pages will show the whole article, not just the first part. This is good for people wanting summaries in index pages, not so good for people wanting spiler protection.
• requires Blosxom 2.0rc1 2.0rc2 or newer
• uses the built-in templating system, including any template plugin that's installed
• variables in templates can be interpolated with ${name} as well as $name

Things I'd like to be able to do, but can't reasonably without Blosxom changes:

• use the built-in interpolation system, including any interpolate plugin that's installed

To install:

1. download and unzip the plugin.
2. Copy it to your plugins directory. Make sure it's world-readable.
3. Create a story with a formfeed (control-l) or "<;-- more -->" in it, and view it to see the "See more..." link
4. Once you're satisfied it's working, edit the $debug_level configuration variable to 0. There are a couple other configuration variables you may wish to change, too.
5. Drop me a note to let me know you're using it; if you're having problems, let me know and I might be able to help. If everything's working okay, please let me know that, too.

Update: There are newer versions available; please use the newest version unless you have a particular reason not to.

Update: Small patch from Tatsuhiko Miyagawa incorporated, and download link fixed -- thanks!

SeeMore has been updates. Changes:

1. The text to split on is now configurable, and defaults to a pattern matching either a form-feed character (for me) and the string <!-- more --> (for most other people) (Thanks Scott Richart)


2. The "See more ..." link supplied in the 'rss' flavour links to the default flavour rather than the 'rss' flavour again (Thanks Scott Richart)


3. POD documentation is included

This is a very minor upgrade; if you have it working, and don't have trouble inserting form-feed characters, there's no reason to change.

Installation:

1. download and unzip the plugin.


2. Copy the plugin to your plugins directory


3. Create a test post to try it out. Simply put the text <!-- more --> where you want the "See More..." break to be.


4. Try it out -- load your blog in your browser. Hopefully you'll have a "See More..." link; try clicking on it. Hopefully you'll get the same story, but now with more.


5. Look at your error log. Verify you have a line. If it's missing, the plugin isn't getting enabled for some reason -- it may not be in the right directory, may not be readable, may have an illegal character in its filename, or may be something else we haven't discovered yet.

   seemore debug 1: start() called, enabled
   



6. Once you're satisfied it's working, edit the plugin's only configuration variable — change $debug_level from 1 to 0. Important: if you don't do this, it will continue to fill up your error log with debug information.


7. Verify once more it's working satisfactorily. If not, your text editor may not be getting along well with perl -- did it change permissions on the file? Did it change line endings?


8. Drop me a note letting me you're using it and how things are working for you.


9. Enjoy!

Update: There are newer versions available; please use the newest version unless you have a particular reason not to.

There are times when you don't want a whole post to show up on your main screen. Maybe it's very long; maybe it contains spoilers for a book, tv show, or movie; maybe it contains a very large graphic that would both potentially take a while and mess up your page layout. And sometimes it's all of those.

As that post shows, I used a hack in Blosxom 1.x to deal with that. That was less than ideal for a number of reasons: it was a modification to the main code that had to be ported forward whenever an upgrade was done; it required creating the spoiler link in the story file itself; the spoiler view was a whole flavour, so it interacted poorly with viewing with other flavours.

So, for 2.0, I'm going to be trying out a plugin approach. It works without switching flavours; it adds the ilnk itself; it requires no core code changes. The installation procedure is hopefully dirt simple.

1. download and unzip the plugin.


2. Copy the plugin to your plugins directory


3. Create a test post to try it out. Simply put a form-feed character (control-L) where you want the "See More..." break to be — this will be second nature to old Usenet hands.


4. Try it out -- load your blog in your browser. Hopefully you'll have a "See More..." link; try clicking on it. Hopefully you'll get the same story, but now with more.


5. Look at your error log. Verify you have lines like the following. If you're missing the first one, the plugin isn't getting enabled for some reason -- it may not be in the right directory, may not be readable, may have an illegal character in its filename, or may be something else we haven't discovered yet. If you don't have (probably several copies) of the second one, then the plugin isn't being given stories to look at for some reason. And finally, if you don't have the last one, the plugin didn't see the formfeed for some reason.

   seemore debug 1: start() called, enabled
   seemore debug 2: story() called
   seemore debug 2: story() found more
   



6. Once you're satisfied it's working, edit the plugin's only configuration variable — change $debug_level from 2 to 0. Important: if you don't do this, it will continue to fill up your error log with debug information.


7. Verify once more it's working satisfactorily. If not, your text editor may not be getting along well with perl -- did it change permissions on the file? Did it change line endings?


8. Drop me a note letting me you're using it and how things are working for you.


9. Enjoy!

You can try it out in my test bed, if that happens to be working at the moment.