* Desperately Seeking FeedFlare Plugin

Adding FeedBurner’s FeedFlare to your WordPress blog ain’t as simple as it should be.

The FeedBurner FeedFlare Un-Plugin

I just upgraded WordPress. What did I forget? To re-re-add FeedFlare to my blog. I have to add FeedFlare each time I change themes, because adding FeedFlare to your site requires manually editing the underlying PHP files. And these files differ depending on which theme you’re using. Which is why I’ve previous referred to FeedFlare as the un-plugin.

Seriously, can we get one plugin for WordPress that redirects the feed to FeedBurner and installs FeedFlare?

How To Add FeedFlare To WordPress With The Cordoba Green Park Theme

For the record, to add the FeedFlare functionality to the Cordoba Green Park theme, you have to edit two files.

In the www.example.com/wp-content/themes/cordobo-green-park/single.php file, insert the FeedFlare JavaScript code as follows:

<div class="main">
	<?php the_content(''); ?>
	<?php wp_link_pages(); ?>
</div>

<small><script src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/example?i=<?php the_permalink() ?>"
type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script></small>

In the www.example.com/wp-content/themes/cordobo-green-park/index.php file, insert the FeedFlare JavaScript code as follows:

<div class="main">
	<?php the_content(''); ?>
		<?php wp_link_pages(); ?>
			<ul class="readmore">
				<li><?php if (strpos(get_the_content('^&^&'), '^&^&') > 0) : ><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>#more-<?php the_ID(); ?>">Continue reading</a><?php endif; if ('open' == $post->comment_status) : ?><?php if (strpos(get_the_content('^&^&'), '^&^&') > 0) { echo(" or "); } ><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>#comments"><?php _e("Leave a comment..."); ?></a><?php elseif (get_comments_number() > 0) : ?><?php if (strpos(get_the_content('^&^&'), '^&^&') > 0) { _e(" or "); } ><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>#reply"><?php _e("Read comments..."); ?></a><?php endif; ?> <?php comments_popup_link(__('(0)'), __('(1)'), __('(%)')); ?></li>
			</ul>
</div>

<small><script src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/example?i=<?php the_permalink() ?>"
type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script></small>

The “<small>” tags are not strictly necessary (and violate good CSS rules by inserting style info where predefined styles should be). It’s a hack, but it works. Adding FeedFlare itself is a hack, and this is a hack on top of that hack. So I’m cutting myself some slack, mmm-kay?

If an all-in-one FeedBurner/FeedFlare plugin exists, then I am unaware of it.

The Need For (Better) Feeds

In my day, we used Usenet to distribute official news about new product releases. But that was in the pre-web pre-blog era. Today we use feeds. In an ideal world, there would be multiple official WordPress feeds:

1. WordPress development feed for announcement of new WordPress versions. Got it.
2. WordPress themes feed for announcements about new/improved WordPress themes. Does not exist, to my knowledge.
3. WordPress plugins feed for announcements about new/improved WordPress plugins. Does not exist, to my knowledge.
4. WordPress widgets feed for announcements about new/improved WordPress widgets. Does not exist, to my knowledge.

See also WordPress Planet, which aggregates news from other WordPress blogs.

Until there are official/better feeds, we all must blog to fill in the knowledge gaps. If I didn’t care about this stuff, then I wouldn’t blog about it.