My own Recent Posts Widget

UPDATE: The post has been abrogated by Blogger Recent Posts/Comments 2 in 1 Widget

I have been getting annoyed with the limited Feed widget in blogger. I wanted to have 10 items in my "Recent Post" list. I finally decided to code my own solution. It was quite simple and quick. It will show:

Immediate updates of latest posts
A variable number of posts
With or without the date
With or without the beginning of the post body
You can specify how many characters to show
You can also show the author if you have a group blog
No annoying blank lines
It is straightforward to change these settings (less than a minute till you are seeing your updated site)
The script is on your host, so there are no mysterious calls to other sites
It can also be used for any other feed that supports JSON except comments feeds which has a weird title format (I might add my own shortly for completeness).

The Instructions

1. Go to your blogger Layout and add a widget
2. Select the HTML/JavaScript Widget
3. Title it "Recent Posts"
4. Copy & Paste the script below


<script style="text/javascript">
// update these as needed 1=show, 0= do not show
var showdate=1;
var showcontent=0;
var showauthor=0;
// number of posts and number of content characters
var numposts=10;
var numcontent=100;
// check at bottom to have correct url
function showrecentposts(json) {
for (var i = 0; i < numposts; i++) {
var entry = json.feed.entry[i];
var posttitle = entry.title.$t;
var posturl;
if (i == json.feed.entry.length) break;
for (var k = 0; k < entry.link.length; k++) {
if (entry.link[k].rel == 'alternate') {
 posturl = entry.link[k].href;
 break;
}
}
var postdate = entry.published.$t.substring(0,10);
var postauthor = entry.author[0].name.$t;
if ("content" in entry) {
var postcontent = entry.content.$t;}
else
if ("summary" in entry) {
var postcontent = entry.summary.$t;}
else var postcontent = "";
// strip off all html-tags
var re = /<\S[^>]*>/g;
postcontent = postcontent.replace(re, "");
if (postcontent.length > numcontent) postcontent = postcontent.substring(0,numcontent);
document.write('<li>');
document.write('<a href="' + posturl + '">' + posttitle + '</a>');
if (showdate + showauthor > 0) document.write(' ');
if (showauthor) document.write('by ' + postauthor + ' ');
if (showdate) document.write('- ' + postdate);
if (showcontent) document.write('<br>' + postcontent);
document.write('</li>');

}
document.write('<div style="font-size:75%; text-align:center"> <a href= "http://impartialism.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-own-recent-posts-widget.html">Widget by faithlessgod</a></div>');
}
</script>
<ul>
<script src="http://impartialism.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentposts"></script>
</ul>
<noscript>You need to enable JavaScript to read this.</noscript>

5. Update the URL a couple of lines from the bottom of the code - very important - from mine

http://impartialism.blogspot.com/posts/default

to yours. That is just replace 'impartialism' with your blospot prefix.

http://yourprefix.blogspot.com/posts/default

6. Save, move the widget to where you want and load your page

Optional

At the top of the scrip there are some comments they start with //
Just to help:
7. The default number of posts to display is 10: numposts=10, set numposts = x, where x is your preferred number of posts to display
8. The default is to display the date: showdate=1, set showdate=0 to stop displaying the date
9. The default is to not display the author: showauthor=0, if you have a group blog set showauthor=1
10. The default is to not show the beginning of the post body: showcontent=0, to display set showcontent=1

Other Feeds

It might work with other feeds provided they support JSON. [If in doubt just create another widget and replace the whole feed URL:

http://impartialism.blogspot.com/posts/default

(up to but not including the '?'), save and see. - see Postscript 3]

That is it! Enjoy!

Postscript: Having problems with copy and paste: the code is correct, checking now

Postscript 2: Should be fine now

Postscript 3: The JSON calls of different feeds vries there may not be a simple substitution possible. Will investigate this in a future posts