Probably the most long awaited feature is at last here. The subscribe/unsubscribe feature is now available to all blogs on BensFriends.com. Information about adding it to your own blog is below. If your not interested in digging under the hood, please let me know
.
Lord willing, this feature will help others get involved in growing as a Church.
Here is the technical info behind how all this works and how to add it to your blog:
The dirty under the hood stuff is already done. The only thing left to do in each blog is provide the interface for your users.
First, you'll need to add this code to your side bar (look for 'div id="links"').
<div class="sidetitle">
Subscribe/Unsubscribe
</div>
<div class="side">
<form name="sub" id="sub" method="post" action="<$MTCGIPath$>mt-add-notify.cgi" onsubmit="return checksub()">
<input type="hidden" name="blog_id" value="<$MTBlogID$>" />
<input type="hidden" name="_redirect" value="<$MTBlogURL$>" />
<input type="radio" name="sub_action" value = "subscribe" checked="checked" /> Subscribe
<input type="radio" name="sub_action" value = "unsubscribe" /> Unsubscribe<br/>
<input type="hidden" name="blog_name" value="<$MTBlogName$>" />
<input name="email" size="20" />
<input type="submit" value="Go" />
</form>
</div>
You may customize that as you please.
Next you'll want to add this little piece of JavaScript inside your <script/> tags at the top of the "Main Index" template.
function checksub()
{
var str = sub.email.value;
var re = /^[A-Za-z0-9_\-]+([.][A-Za-z0-9_\-]+)*[@][A-Za-z0-9_\-]+([.][A-Za-z0-9_\-]+)+$/;
if (!re.test(str))
{
window.alert('Invalid email address');
sub.email.focus();
return false;
}
return true;
}
That should do the trick.
Let me know if you need or want anything else.
P.S.: Special thanks to everyone that worked on this hack over at the MT Forums.
The front page of Ben's Friends will now be updated every hour thanks to a cron job using the mt-rebuild script by Timothy Appnel.
We're getting closer to the ideal community front end.
BTW, if there are any other features that you'd like, please comment on this post.
Lest you fear me homeless, I am taking up blogging residence in the relocated HatShop. We're just beginning to embark on a reawakening that may very well start with blogs. Write, Live, Dream, Love.
Remember the "Big Dreams Afoot" post? Those dreams are beginning to find their way out of my head and onto paper or screen.
If Ben's Friends looks the way it always has, reload the page. Hopefully these changes will help the community grow. Now everyone's hat is over the fence. 8o)
Enjoy!
"It is time for us to realize that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams." - Reagan
BuyMagazine (by buy.com) recently did aninterview with Jim Carrey. God (or at least Jim's concept of God) comes up more than once.
For those of you who enjoyed Sarah Merkle's recital on Friday night, Jim Carrey seems to be a quintessential Gen-Xer.