TextLinkAds Typo Sidebar Plugin
Posted on Sat Jun 10 16:47:00 UTC 2006
Based on “Displaying ads from TextLinkAds in a rails application”, here’s the first release of my typo sidebar plugin to display ads from TextLinkAds. The plugin uses typo built-in caching as I explained before.
Download
Download either textlinkadssidebar.zip or textlinkadssidebar.tgz.
Installation
Unzip (unzip textlinkadssidebar.zip) or untar (tar xzvf textlinkadssidebar.tgz) directly into the components/sidebars/ directory of your typo installation.
Configuration
Using the sidebar tab of the admin section of typo, you’ll find an Item named “Text-Link-Ads” on the left hand side.
Simply drag it to the right side where at the desired location (the higher the better!).
Enter a title for that section (here I use nanoRAILS Sponsors).
Fill in your XML KEY from the “Get ad code” section on TextLinkAds.
Enter your affiliate ID (so you can get paid for referrals).
Enter the text for the referral link (I have “Advertise on nanoRails”).
Click on the Publish Changes button.
Once you refresh your blog, you will have a TextLinkAds section.
6/15/06 update: to use in the trunk of typo (1055 currently), you will need textlinkadssidebar-1055.zip or textlinkadssidebar-1055.tgz.
The short of it is that sidebar plugins have changed quite a bit! You may be better off recreating from scratch using one of the available ones.
The longer story is that you no longer need a configure.rhtml. Instead, you use the setting helper to describe each setting. You need to subclass Sidebars::ComponentPlugin instead of Sidebars::Plugin. You also need to remove the configure method and the way you specify the display name and and the description is also done with a helper.
Oh yeah, the file content.rhtml is unchanged :D
Hello, doesn't seem to work with typo trunk. Too bad.
Sorry to hear that, Frederic. What kind of error are you getting? I'll install a trunk version and try it late tonight.
I drag it, but it doesn't drop, staying in outer space, and when I try to save the sidebar, your plugin fields are set to null, and the whold sidebar crashes. I had to remove the plugin manually from the database. I'll have a deeper look when I have time.
Hmm, ok. Anything in the log?
Yes, sorry for the flood Processing SidebarController#set_active (for 82.225.38.5 at 2006-06-15 10:01:26) [POST] Session ID: 7e840102ffc01477ae41d68e1d830aa8 Parameters: {"action"=>"set_active", "controller"=>"admin/sidebar", "active"=>["static-4", "static-11", "static-8", "textlinkads", "xml-13", "static-7", "static-10", "category-1", "archives-6", "tag-9"]} Rendering admin/sidebar/set_active Start rendering component ({:layout=>false, :controller=>Plugins::Sidebars::TextlinkadsController, :action=>"configure_wrapper"}): Processing TextlinkadsController#configure_wrapper (for 82.225.38.5 at 2006-06-15 10:01:26) ActionController::MissingTemplate (Missing template /home/www/fredericdevillamil.com/public/../config/../app/views/plugins/sidebars/textlinkads/configure.rhtml): /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:1003:in `assert_existence_of_template_file' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:697:in `render_file' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:621:in `render_with_no_layout' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:742:in `render_without_layout' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:691:in `render_action' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:643:in `render_with_no_layout' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/layout.rb:251:in `render_without_benchmark' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:53:in `render' /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/benchmark.rb:293:in `measure' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:53:in `render' /lib/sidebars/plugin.rb:212:in `configure_wrapper' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:910:in `perform_action_without_filters' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:368:in `perform_action_without_benchmark' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:69:in `perform_action_without_rescue' /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/benchmark.rb:293:in `measure' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:69:in `perform_action_without_rescue' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/rescue.rb:82:in `perform_action' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:381:in `process_without_filters' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:377:in `process_without_session_management_support' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/session_management.rb:117:in `process' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/components.rb:71:in `process_with_components' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/components.rb:137:in `component_response' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/components.rb:108:in `render_component_as_string' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/components.rb:169:in `component_logging_with_unfiltered_options' /lib/rails_patch/components.rb:10:in `component_logging' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/components.rb:107:in `render_component_as_string' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/components.rb:44:in `render_component' /app/views/admin/sidebar/_active.rhtml:7:in `_run_rhtml_admin_sidebar__active' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/base.rb:314:in `compile_and_render_template' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/base.rb:290:in `render_template' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/base.rb:249:in `render_file' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/base.rb:264:in `render' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/partials.rb:59:in `render_partial' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:33:in `benchmark' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/partials.rb:58:in `render_partial' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/base.rb:276:in `render' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/prototype_helper.rb:647:in `render' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/prototype_helper.rb:547:in `replace' /app/views/admin/sidebar/set_active.rjs:5:in `__bind_1150358486_803370' /vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/../../activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/extending.rb:44:in `instance_exec' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/prototype_helper.rb:377:in `initialize' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/prototype_helper.rb:669:in `update_page' /app/views/admin/sidebar/set_active.rjs:0:in `_run_rjs_admin_sidebar_set_active' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/base.rb:314:in `compile_and_render_template' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/base.rb:290:in `render_template' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/base.rb:249:in `render_file' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:699:in `render_file' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:621:in `render_with_no_layout' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/layout.rb:251:in `render_without_benchmark' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:53:in `render' /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/benchmark.rb:293:in `measure' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:53:in `render' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:911:in `perform_action_without_filters' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:368:in `perform_action_without_benchmark' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:69:in `perform_action_without_rescue' /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/benchmark.rb:293:in `measure' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:69:in `perform_action_without_rescue' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/rescue.rb:82:in `perform_action' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:381:in `process_without_filters' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:377:in `process_without_session_management_support' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/session_management.rb:117:in `process' /vendor/rails/railties/lib/dispatcher.rb:38:in `dispatch' /vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi_handler.rb:150:in `process_request' /vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi_handler.rb:54:in `process!' /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fcgi.rb:600:in `each_cgi' /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fcgi.rb:597:in `each_cgi' /vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi_handler.rb:53:in `process!' /vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi_handler.rb:23:in `process!' /home/www/fredericdevillamil.com/public/dispatch.fcgi:24 End of component rendering RuntimeError (Controller stack got out of kilter!): /app/models/blog.rb:110:in `after' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:227:in `around_filter' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:401:in `call_filters' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:394:in `call_filters' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:389:in `after_action' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:369:in `perform_action_without_benchmark' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:69:in `perform_action_without_rescue' /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/benchmark.rb:293:in `measure' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:69:in `perform_action_without_rescue' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/rescue.rb:82:in `perform_action' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:381:in `process_without_filters' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:377:in `process_without_session_management_support' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/session_management.rb:117:in `process' /vendor/rails/railties/lib/dispatcher.rb:38:in `dispatch' /vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi_handler.rb:150:in `process_request' /vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi_handler.rb:54:in `process!' /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fcgi.rb:600:in `each_cgi' /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fcgi.rb:597:in `each_cgi' /vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi_handler.rb:53:in `process!' /vendor/rails/railties/lib/fcgi_handler.rb:23:in `process!' /home/www/fredericdevillamil.com/public/dispatch.fcgi:24
Alright, after struggling to get the database to initialize correctly with the latest and greatest of typo, I got the plugin to work. Almost a rewrite. Let me know if that one works for you.
huh, spooky. You posted the stack trace, which is not going to be pretty in IE, I'm afraid. and I posted a working solution within the next minute. I call this almost perfect timing.
Ok, and as a bonus, I fixed the "flood" comment so that it doesn't take over the whole page and used the "code" style.
404... *sob*
Big OOPS :( Sorry about that. I fixed the name of the files (and I verified the links worked this time.
great ! Thank you very much
have you made a new version of your plugin that is compatible with typo new plugin architecture ? (plugins in /vendor/plugins/)
Not yet, and I won't be able to look at it till next weekend because my DSL at home is being upgraded, and this seems to be a very painful and slow process :(
Damn, it seems I'm not the only one who have DLS migration issues. My company has been using a RTC line since 2 days because of this. I'll come back a little bit later.
Frederic, I have a newer version of my plugin available from [A new Rails plugin for TextLinkAds (including support for Feedvertising)](http://blog.nanorails.com/articles/2006/10/01/a-new-rails-plugin-for-textlinkads-including-support-for-feedvertising) This is no longer a typo plugin, so this should no longer break as typo plugin support gets improved. BTW, it took 5 days to get the new DSL from the time the first one was cut, but now the new 6Mbps is really kickass!
A way to fix your flickr plugin on typo is here: http://www.dotrb.com/articles/2006/12/23/problem-with-the-flickr-sidebar-plugin-on-the-typo-blog
Thanks for the tip, Jason. This problem does not affect the TextLinkAds plugin, though.
I have Typo 4.0.3 (I believe that's the latest stable). Text Link Ads don't show up in the list of sidebar modules with the above instructions. Any suggestions?
Jesse, for typo 4.0.3, you should have better luck with the [new approach](http://blog.nanorails.com/articles/2006/10/01/a-new-rails-plugin-for-textlinkads-including-support-for-feedvertising) I took. It is a pure rails plugin, no longer specific to typo and will work in other apps such as Mephisto for example.
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you Idetrorce