Live Blogroll

Live Blogroll will make your blogroll livelier. It will show a number of 'recent posts' for each link in your Blogroll using Ajax.

When the user hovers the mouse above the link, RSS feed from the site is automatically discovered and a number of recent posts is shown dynamically in a box.

Live Blogroll uses internal caching for feed discovery and WordPress caching for RSS feeds to make sure everything is smooth.

The looks of the hover box are fully customizable with CSS, and the position is editable in the options.

live screenshot 1 Live Blogroll

Live Blogroll in action

Download

Download: Live BlogRoll

Installation & Usage

1. Upload the whole plugin folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ folder.
2. Go to the Plugins page and activate the plugin.
3. Use the Options page to change your options

Frequently Asked Questions

You can address all plugin questions in the forum.

How does it work?

Live Blogroll uses Ajax to dynamically retrieve lasts posts sites in your Blogroll. The posts are then displayed in a popup hover box.

Live Blogroll will first try to search for RSS feed link supplied in your blogroll data. If not found it will load the target page and try to autodiscover the feed. If found this feed will be filled in to your blogroll entry for later faster access.

Live Blogroll does not show a preview for some of my sites, why is that?

The site may not have the RSS feed listed in it's HTML. Or simply it is unavailable at the moment.

Change log

v0.5

- Security update

v0.4
- Fixed IE7 compability issue

v0.3
- Added configurable window offsets
- Added length of post exceprt option

v0.2:
- Initial release

You can also visit my other Wordpress Plugins.

If you are looking for WordPress Services, feel free to contact me.

74 comments, newest first

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The Power of WordPress and jQuery: 25+ Useful Plugins & Tutorials | cyooh.com 05.17.09 / 5pm

[...] 16. Live Blogroll [...]
NomikOS 04.30.09 / 11pm

Do you think, Wladimir, the plugin can be improved to be used in blogs that are not in English?

Example: ¡µï¼š
Como ver las últimas entradas de tus enlaces en el blogroll | Juan Alcaide 01.15.09 / 8am

[...] Live Blogroll funciona mostrando las últimas entradas de los blogs que tengamos en nuestro blogroll en una ventana emergente desarrollada en AJAX cuando el usuario pasa el Mouse obviamente por encima de la dirección. Algunas de las opciones que trae este feed son poder personalizar manualmente la dirección del feed de cada blog. [...]
Bob Beerbower 12.30.08 / 1am

Great job on the plugin, its 99.9% of what I was looking for. My only problem is I need a way to add some space between link categories. Presently I have two categories Blogroll and Forums. The last link in the blogroll category is right on top of the Forums title, how can I add some padding. I'm new at WP and not sure if this needs to be added to the theme/style.css or to some widget file.
Bradford 12.26.08 / 10pm

Great plugin, however with 2.7 when my mouse leaves the link, the link disappears until I refresh the page. Also, getting it to work with Advanced Blogroll OR having the option of showing the latest RSS feed item under the link would be ideal, like the blogspot blogroll.
Oliver 12.08.08 / 9pm

Hi

I think this is a great plugin and also easy to adjust in terms of design.

I have one question though :)

Is it possible for the plugin to pull out the feeds all in one place IE take the latest post from whichever blog in your blogroll was updated last and take the rest of posts after it one by one from all the other blogs in blogroll again depending on the date they were published?

Any answer much appreciated.

Best Regards
ibonette 12.01.08 / 6pm

thank you....
ibonette
Windu 11.23.08 / 1pm

Why this plugin don't work at my blog?
Vladimir 11.20.08 / 12am

v0.5 of Live Blogroll is a security related update.
Stefan 11.19.08 / 11pm

What did you change in version 5.0?
baron 11.19.08 / 6pm

Works great, thank you
Vladimir 11.10.08 / 11pm

Hi Rohit

Write about what you love is number 1 blogging tip. I am not a pro blogger, this blog is just a legacy :)
Rohit 11.10.08 / 10pm

Hey Vladimir, i m a gr8 fan of your work.I always try to read your articles as much as possible. actually now i have also started my own blog as iredlof.com , as i m new i dont know much about blogging and things which i should use on my blog to get cross-linked with other blogs and get right readers.
if you have some time, could you please help me in becoming a pro blogger like you.
please try to visit my website once and mail me the points which you think i should use to be as goog as you on my email address in this comment.
please spare some of your free time to help me..
i would really appreciate your efforts in helping me out.
thanx
Ross Calloway 09.04.08 / 4pm

Vladimir,
Because of ranking or rating issues which I don't fully understand, I moved my blogroll out of the sidebar and put it in a wp page instead, called LINKS.

http://rosscalloway.com/lunchcounter/links/

Doing this apparently rendered this great plugin useless. Is there a way to make the plugin work on a page like it does in the sidebar?
5 gode innstikk til WordPress 08.31.08 / 1pm

[...] Les mer her l Last ned [...]
links for 2008-08-22 « Free Open Source Directory 08.23.08 / 3am

[...] Live Blogroll - WordPress Plugins Live Blogroll will make your blogroll livelier. It will show a number of ‘recent posts’ for each link in your Blogroll using Ajax. [...]
RSS immer überall dabei haben + Super Gadjet für den Blog | Datenwachschutz Blog 08.20.08 / 11am

[...] habe mir heute das Live Blogroll Widget eingebunden in den Blog. Das war für mich sehr interessant weil ich auch hin und wieder mal, nicht [...]
gowers 08.19.08 / 6am

Great plugin! I like it!
Vladimir 08.15.08 / 8am

Please address all plugin support questions in the forum
Vladimir 08.15.08 / 8am

Live blogroll already uses all available caching (rss discovery, feed cache..) so dont worry about the performance.
4tfingers 08.12.08 / 7am

Vladimir Thanks for this often thought of plugin. Just a couple of questions about the code
I noticed in the access log file that every hit requires sending the Wordpress version to the ...js.php file and was wondering why this would be necessary after successfully installing the plugin and thus advertising the version of wordpress installed at the site?

Is there any plans to impliment cacheing in your next version?
dupola 08.10.08 / 5pm

I've tried it,very great.
But why don't add a language line that I can make a language file to Chinese users.

anyway,many thanks for you hard work.
dupola
Vladimir 08.10.08 / 5pm

Don't worry it won't
dupola 08.10.08 / 5pm

Great idea.
But I'm afraid that will it make my blog slower?
How Can I Thank You? 08.05.08 / 7pm

[...] not a side wide but a dedicated page which will show the blogs on my blogroll. With the help of the Live Blogroll plugin, I have added a little twist to my blog roll. If you navigate to the blogroll page and hover with [...]
helmeloh 08.05.08 / 11am

It's a very good idea and I would like to use it, but I do not want to correct the code first, so if there a new version will be available that produces no html validation error I will use it.
But for the moment I have to dissable the plugin, because of:
Validation Output: 4 Errors
1. Error Line 576, Column 23: document type does not allow element "span" here; assuming missing "li" start-tag.
<h2 class

Have a nice day, Helmut
Philix 08.01.08 / 11am

This is a great plugin
Steph Angel 07.29.08 / 6pm

Hi... Really nice plugin and one that I've been after for ages. It all works fine apart from when it encounters any image links... Some of my links are just small images and when the mouse hovers over them the plugin will collect the correct feed, but it will then delete the image!!! Eventually all of my image links will disappear and I have to refresh the page to get them back... Any help on this???
Live Blogroll Plugin at å…è´¹è°· 07.24.08 / 5pm

[...] æ’ä»¶ä¸»é¡µï¼šLive Blogroll [...]
Live Blogroll | tips to use 07.15.08 / 6pm

[...] Download Live blogroll. Thanks to Vladimir Prelovac. If need any further clarification regarding Live blogroll plugin. Contact Vladimir Prelovac addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tipstouse.com%2F2008%2F07%2F15%2Flive-blogroll%2F'; addthis_title = 'Live+Blogroll'; addthis_pub = ''; [...]
JayaprithaLoganathan 07.15.08 / 10am

It works fine on firefox 3.But it disappears if I move my mouse...
Gud Job 07.13.08 / 5am

Nice plugin! I'm on download progress, will try soon!
Vladimir 07.12.08 / 5pm

the plugin looks for livelinks class generated by usual blogroll widget. If your theme does not implement widgets correctly or you do not use blogroll widget the links will not be recognized.
Pete 07.12.08 / 5pm

I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same issue I am... namely that the plugin works with only some of the themes I have available (tested both IE and FF just in case). Currently, it only functions on 2 of the 9 themes I have available (gathering and mushblue). What does the plugin require to function properly that I need to examine in my sidebars? I'm also experiencing the occasional grabbing of an adjacent link. Other than these issues, this plugin is very nice!
Plugin-uri.. | summer kid blog 07.12.08 / 10am

[...] Pluginu’ e destul de folositor, şi destul de atrăgător ca design. Îl puteţi downloada de aici unde veţi găsii şi o mică documentaţie despre el, cum să îl instalaţi [...]
Lucky’s Blog » Blog Archive » Live Blogroll 07.11.08 / 10pm

[...] Download Post Views: 1 views [...]
Blogroll with Live Blogroll and Make Money : Infogle.com Blog 07.11.08 / 9am

[...] and Download Want further details about the plugin then visit this. For Downloading the plugin click [...]
Vladimir 07.11.08 / 2am

It is using Ajax, so search bot would not see it.

Gamma, that's a great implementation of the plugin!
TheAnand 07.11.08 / 1am

Is this based on javascript? I am asking in terms of search bot readability.
iGraphiX Blog | Live Blogroll 07.09.08 / 2pm

[...] Prelovac has come up with yet another cool plugin, this time called Live Blogroll. Live Blogroll replaces the default blogroll in that when a user hovers their mouse over a link, the [...]
Live Blogroll Wordpress Plugin - Wordpressbr.com 07.09.08 / 2pm

[...] Prelovac desenvolveu outro excelente Wordpress Plugin, desta vez chamado de Live Blogroll. Live Blogroll substitui o blogroll original por um mais avançado. Quando você passa o mouse por [...]
Gamma 07.09.08 / 4am

I'm using Firefox 3 and IE 6 and it works in both. But it does sometimes return the feed from an adjacent link.

From your faq: "If not found it will load the target page and try to autodiscover the feed. If found this feed will be filled in to your blogroll entry for later faster access."

Where is this feed information stored?
Vote for this article at blogengage.com 07.08.08 / 7pm

Live Blogroll...

Live Blogroll will make your blogroll livelier. It will show a number of 'recent posts' for each link in your Blogroll using Ajax....
Top Stumbles - Best of StumbleUpon 07.08.08 / 7pm

Live Blogroll...

Live Blogroll will make your blogroll livelier. It will show a number of 'recent posts' for each link in your Blogroll using Ajax....
Live Blogroll | Punto Geek 07.08.08 / 4pm

[...] Live Blogroll es un plugin para darle un poco de vida a tu blogroll de cualquier blog gestionado con Wordpress. El funcionamiento es muy sencillo, muestra las últimas entradas de los blogs que tengamos agregados a nuestro blogroll, cuando un usuario pasa el mouse por el enlace se abre un popup en AJAX que muestra las últimas entradas del feed de dicho blog. [...]
New Wordpress Plugin Releases at WordPress Themes, WordPress Plugins, Blog Tips, WordPress Optimizations >> WPthemesplugin.com 07.08.08 / 2pm

[...] Live Blogroll [...]
Jacky Supit 07.08.08 / 12pm

Are you guys looking for a live demo of this plugin?
Daniel Richard | WE 07.08.08 / 11am

I'm having this installed! :)
k|torz 07.08.08 / 11am

It works fine on IE7 now and works on firefox 3 too!

Thank you for your job!
Ross 07.08.08 / 6am

tapirul, you can modify the position of the popup in the admin panel. Fool around with the X and Y coordinates, they put the box on the screen in relation to the mouse pointer. That was a newly added feature from yesterday. :)
tapirul 07.08.08 / 4am

... also, a bit of a delay (maybe customizable?) for the box to disappear when moving the mouse from over the link...It's pretty cool that you can click on the feed inside the box (and opens in a new tab), but sometimes I have to hunt the box a while, because it disappears as soon as I move the mouse...
tapirul 07.08.08 / 4am

great plugin!
could you make it that the box shows, at the top, the title of the blog it links to (or the name of the link in blogroll)? Sometimes if I hover just a bit off mark, I actually open a box for the link below or above the one I intend, and it's confusing.
Ross 07.08.08 / 4am

It works fine on IE7 now, but now I have an issue with Firefox.

With Firefox, the links that appeared in the box, and everywhere inside the box, pointed to the root of whatever blogname was hovered. No matter what link inside the box you choose, it goes to the homepage of that link. I noticed that with earlier versions also but didn't mention it, I thought that's the way it was supposed to be. But in IE7, all the links listed in the popup will take you to that particular post, as it should be.

Is there something in Firefox I need to adjust?
George 07.08.08 / 3am

Excellent plugin Vladimir, just one issue, with the plugin activated my site is not Valid XHTML.

The errors are:

Line 532, Column 30: document type does not allow element "span" here; assuming missing "li" start-tag.
BlogrollBlogroll

Line 544, Column 7: document type does not allow element "li" here; missing one of "ul", "ol", "menu", "dir" start-tag.
Meta

Line 552, Column 9: end tag for "li" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified.

Line 532, Column 7: start tag was here.
Blogroll</

Hope you can fix them soon!

Thanks for the plugin
Ray 07.07.08 / 10pm

Excellent Vladimir - the new version works perfectly in IE7 - well done!
Vladimir 07.07.08 / 9pm

I have release version 0.4 that fixes the IE7 issue. let me know if that works for you and if you have any more suggestions for making the plugin more usable.
qiuzhang 07.07.08 / 5pm

Great Plugin!
I translated this plugin into chinese tonight.
And Published on this website:
http://plugins.wopus.org/wordpress-plugin-live-blogroll.html

can you link chinese vision under your download place?

Best Regards!
WordPress插件基地 | 普及WordPress插件本地化！ 07.07.08 / 4pm

[...] 插件主页：Live Blogroll [...]
Matthew 07.07.08 / 4pm

I've uploaded the plugin and activated it, but I don't see the RSS when I hover over my blogroll. Are there any additional steps to the installation/configuration that I am missing?

Thanks.
LiveCrunch 07.07.08 / 3pm

I must admit this live blogroll is cool idea mate. Talk to you later mate.

Hey stari moram ti reci da je dobra ideja ti sa ovim live blogroll.
Ray 07.07.08 / 2pm

Hi Vladimir

I have just installed this plugin as I think it is a great idea, but it doesn't work on my site in IE7 on XPpro.

Is this just a firefox addin or is there something that can be done to make it work in IE7.

Here's hoping!
k|torz 07.07.08 / 10am

I can just add that it does not work with ie7 (for me) but great with firefox 3
k|torz 07.07.08 / 10am

Excellent job, great plugin, now we can customize X and Y !

Thanks
Ross 07.07.08 / 1am

Yes. Perfect. Thank you very much.

Thanks to your talent and the effortless and automatic upgrade procedure built in to wp2.5+, I couldn't be more happier.

It seems to me like the end user now has full control now over the popup, in its appearance, its size, and its position.
Vladimir 07.06.08 / 8pm

I released a new version today that allows you to customize X and Y coordinates relative to mouse pointer where you want the window to open. So I hope this will help :)
Weekly Theme and Plugin Updates: 7/06/08 | StartBlogging.net 07.06.08 / 7pm

[...] Live Blogroll automatically turns your blogroll into much more than just links. When a reader hovers over a link in your blogroll, the most recent post headlines and excerpts will be shown. [...]
Ross 07.06.08 / 6am

Vladimir. I changed the width in the css file to 250px, down from the default 300px and everything looks good.

But there is one more behavior that I need to adjust and here's why.

The popup box appears a fixed number of characters to the right of the mouse pointer. So when I mouseover the name on the blogroll at the first character, everything is fine. But if I mouseover at or near the end of the blogname, if the name is long enough, then the right portion of the box will be beyond the screenwidth, like it was before I reduced it to 250px.

Can I make that distance shorter, say 1 character, instead of the 8 or so that it looks like?
Ross 07.06.08 / 5am

Ted, I'm using Firefox 3 also. I tried it with IE7 and I get 'error on page' in the status line where, with Firefox, the destination url appears.

Not sure where the IE7 issue comes in but my first inclination is that it's the crappy browser and not the plugin. Might be a configuration issue with the ie7 options or something but I don't use it anymore and don't want to waste any time on it to find out. Not that I'd know how to configure it anyway.
Ted Liptak 07.06.08 / 12am

Thanks for this good plugin. I implemented it on my blog. But I think there is a problem; it shows post right side of browser (firefox 3). How can I fix?
Vladimir 07.05.08 / 9pm

You can edit the box css file to make it narrower.

For now the box can't guess where is your blogroll located but Ill try and get that for future versions.
Ross 07.05.08 / 8pm

I'm trying it now and it works but:

The popup comes up on the right of my right sidebar and the right-hand end of the popup box is off the screen. (and falling all over my desk)
If the box were narrower, OR, if it opened up on the left side of the blogroll w/o having to make the box narrower, that would fix it.

Sometimes the popup box appears to the right of the link name, and when you mouse over to it, it disappears before the mouse can get into the box.

http://rosscalloway.com/lunchcounter/

I haven't tried switching themes yet, but that's the way it's performing with the theme I'm using, rockingsuckerfish. using wp2.5.1
K 07.05.08 / 6pm

Is there in any way to only shows the blogroll links that has updated?
Vladimir 07.05.08 / 2pm

It works on any theme :)
Buddha 07.05.08 / 2pm

It only works on wordpress default theme?