Blogger Trick

Sometimes we want to have everything organized so that our readers can find topics of interest more easily, and that's when instead of putting a widget with the latest posts, we can put together the latest entries sorted by category, so that we'll be able to show the latest posts for each label we want and also display a thumbnail for our category.

Screenshot

To add this cool gadget/widget for the latest categories, just follow the next steps:

Steps

Step 1. From your Blogger Dashboard, go to Template/Edit HTML



...then tick the Expand Widget Templates checkbox:

Step 2. Search for this piece of code:

]]></b:skin>

and just above it, paste this one:

/* Recent posts by labels
--------------------------------- */
img.label_thumb{
float:left;
margin-right:10px !important;
height:65px; /* Thumbnail height */
width:65px; /* Thumbnail width */
border: 1px solid #fff;
-webkit-border-radius: 10px;
-moz-border-radius: 10px;
border-radius: 10px;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, .4);
-moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, .4);
box-shadow: 0 1px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, .4);
}

.label_with_thumbs {
float: left;
width: 100%;
min-height: 70px;
margin: 0px 10px 2px 0px;
padding: 0;
}
ul.label_with_thumbs li {
padding:8px 0;
min-height:65px;
margin-bottom:0px;
border-bottom: 1px dotted #999999;
}

.label_with_thumbs li{
list-style: none ;
padding-left:0px !important;
}

.label_with_thumbs a { text-transform: uppercase;}
.label_with_thumbs strong {padding-left:0px; }

Step 3. Now search for this tag (CTRL + F)

</head>

...and add the following script above it:

<script type='text/javascript'>
//<![CDATA[
function labelthumbs(json){document.write('<ul class="label_with_thumbs">');for(var i=0;i<numposts;i++){var entry=json.feed.entry[i];var posttitle=entry.title.$t;var posturl;if(i==json.feed.entry.length)break;for(var k=0;k<entry.link.length;k++){if(entry.link[k].rel=='replies'&&entry.link[k].type=='text/html'){var commenttext=entry.link[k].title;var commenturl=entry.link[k].href;}
if(entry.link[k].rel=='alternate'){posturl=entry.link[k].href;break;}}var thumburl;try{thumburl=entry.media$thumbnail.url;}catch(error)
{s=entry.content.$t;a=s.indexOf("<img");b=s.indexOf("src=\"",a);c=s.indexOf("\"",b+5);d=s.substr(b+5,c-b-5);if((a!=-1)&&(b!=-1)&&(c!=-1)&&(d!="")){thumburl=d;}else thumburl='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnJCXDqiB1SWoWmM_Li4i9HhqIwrZNYrlFh7KeeIDHNFG5a7jAEGofw5rl07ZW5WWsvQjJvlyoEMWFgbtDeUAImKcXgRi93_A2mVfqW5FbXCZiyYtq2fynjetjVMbvXV2t8oCNpWOsr34/s1600/picture_not_available.png';}
var postdate=entry.published.$t;var cdyear=postdate.substring(0,4);var cdmonth=postdate.substring(5,7);var cdday=postdate.substring(8,10);var monthnames=new Array();monthnames[1]="Jan";monthnames[2]="Feb";monthnames[3]="Mar";monthnames[4]="Apr";monthnames[5]="May";monthnames[6]="June";monthnames[7]="July";monthnames[8]="Aug";monthnames[9]="Sept";monthnames[10]="Oct";monthnames[11]="Nov";monthnames[12]="Dec";document.write('<li class="clearfix">');if(showpostthumbnails==true)
document.write('<a href="'+posturl+'" target ="_top"><img class="label_thumb" src="'+thumburl+'"/></a>');document.write('<strong><a href="'+posturl+'" target ="_top">'+posttitle+'</a></strong><br>');if("content"in entry){var postcontent=entry.content.$t;}
else
if("summary"in entry){var postcontent=entry.summary.$t;}
else var postcontent="";var re=/<\S[^>]*>/g;postcontent=postcontent.replace(re,"");if(showpostsummary==true){if(postcontent.length<numchars){document.write('');document.write(postcontent);document.write('');}
else{document.write('');postcontent=postcontent.substring(0,numchars);var quoteEnd=postcontent.lastIndexOf(" ");postcontent=postcontent.substring(0,quoteEnd);document.write(postcontent+'...');document.write('');}}
var towrite='';var flag=0;document.write('<br>');if(showpostdate==true){towrite=towrite+monthnames[parseInt(cdmonth,10)]+'-'+cdday+' - '+cdyear;flag=1;}
if(showcommentnum==true)
{if(flag==1){towrite=towrite+' | ';}
if(commenttext=='1 Comments')commenttext='1 Comment';if(commenttext=='0 Comments')commenttext='No Comments';commenttext='<a href="'+commenturl+'" target ="_top">'+commenttext+'</a>';towrite=towrite+commenttext;flag=1;;}
if(displaymore==true)
{if(flag==1)towrite=towrite+' | ';towrite=towrite+'<a href="'+posturl+'" class="url" target ="_top">More »</a>';flag=1;;}
document.write(towrite);document.write('</li>');if(displayseparator==true)
if(i!=(numposts-1))
document.write('');}document.write('</ul>');}
//]]>
</script>

Note: to add your own pic for the posts with no thumbnail, replace the image url in blue with your own

So we have added the Css to style the widget and the script to make it work. Now all we have to do is to add the widget's code to the blog sidebar in a Html/Javascript gadget:

Step 4. Go to Layout - click on Add a Gadget


Step 5. Choose the HTML/Javascript widget and paste this code inside the empty box:

<script type='text/javascript'>var numposts = 3;var showpostthumbnails = true;var displaymore = false;var displayseparator = true;var showcommentnum = false;var showpostdate = false;var showpostsummary = true;var numchars = 100;</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/feeds/posts/default/-/Name-of-the-label?published&alt=json-in-script&callback=labelthumbs"></script>

Note: Where it says Name-of-the-label is the name of the label you want to display, and if your label is case sensitive, like in my example, then you should type it that way.

Also within the last code, there are parts that we can customize, just change true with false or vice versa:

var numposts ← Number of posts to display
var showpostthumbnails ← Show/hide thumbnails
var displaymore ← Show or hide the read more link
var displayseparator ← Show/hide separator
var showcommentnum ← Show/hide the number of comments
var showpostdate ← Show/hide the posts dates
var showpostsummary ← Show or not the posts summaries
var numchars ← Number of posts characters (here you have to change the 100 value)

Remember that the gadget displays the latest posts from a particular label, therefore, if you want to display the latest posts from other labels then just repeat step 5 for each additional category you want to add.

That's it :) Enjoy!