Twit Roll

Twit Roll? What is?

It's a twitter-badge you can put in your blog-sidebar, near to your normal blogroll.

It shows the last 20 persons who mentioned you in a tweet, and link their Twitter profiles or their own websites - we have 3 kinds of Twit Roll actually.

You can use it to say 'Thank you' to the people are tweeting you, involving your name in the most wide mainstream of global twittersphera.

Otherwise, you can use it to encourage people to mention you in their own Twitter Stream, improving your own visibility and giving you back some more Twitter-generated readers for your blog.

To say the truth, you can consider this Twit Roll like 'another Twitter badge for addicted people', and nothing more.

Setup

First of all i want to link my blog post about Twitt Roll, where you find the developement story of this badge and the credits i've to tribute to other (and better) developers before me.
If you like, to have more features for this badge, please use comments there.

Now let's see togheter how to setup the Twitt Roll on your blog.

This first release should be working on php sites, and i'm going to show you how to install this badge like a Wordpress Plugin too.

We have some easy steps.

• 1.

At the end of this tutorial you can choose your preferred layout for Cool Twit Roll. You can customize the badge by yourself, of course.
Remember: at this time Cool Twit Roll has a transparent background, so you can place it where you prefer without hurting your actual blog layout. You can customize Twitt Roll background belong to your personal taste*.
* (For serious browser is transparent, not for IE, where is white. Change your Twit Roll background editing the Css file as you prefer.)

We have 3 kind of Cool Twit Roll layouts at the moment. We have a Box (400x215) and 2 sidebar templates (160x400 and 160x370).

The Box type and the higher Sidebar collect your last 20 twitter interlocutors showing their avatar linking to their actual Twitter profiles.

The smaller Sidebar badge collects your last 20 Twitter @repliers too, but showing their own screen name linked to their real website.

In all case you have a smart tooltip showing the followers count for each people in your Twit Roll. Show out yours putting the mouse pointer on the little Twitter bird..
Select your preferred layout and dowload the .zip package of the badge.

• 2.

You have to unzip the files in your dekstop to change the Twitter access data with your own Username and Password.
In the pack you'll find 6* files:

- readme.txt --> where you can find setup tutorial like this one;
- bird.png --> the Twitter bird that links to your profile and counts your followers;
* - twit-buddy.png --> it's a placeholder - only for Avatars Twit Roll layouts!!;
- twit-roll.css --> where you can customize Cool Twitt Roll css belong to your own taste;
- twitter.lib.php --> you should leave the original file, it makes possible the Twitter API queries.
- twitter-roll.php --> it's the main file.

IF YOU ARE NOT A NOOB in Php and Css you can customize it with easy. You can also put its code directly in your website, bypassing the iframe embeddation method.
If you are not a developer you should use original files in the pack and you should follow this tutorial without customizing the Twit Roll badge.

• 3.

Before uploading the badge you have to put your Twitter credentials in twitter-roll.php file.
Open it with your preferred text editor (blocknote or others).
At lines 16 and 17 you'll find this code:

$username = "YourTwitterUserName";
$password = "YourTwitterPassword";

Replace the default values with your own username and password for Twitter login or the badge won't work.

Save the file and close it. It's almost done.

Note: the file will be parsed so you'll never have security problems for Twitter login infos typed in this file. Stay safe, nobody is going to stole your own Twitter account.

• 4.

Now you can upload files in your own server.

Normal: upload the directory with Cool Twit Roll wherever you want.

Wordpress: you should upload the twit-roll folder (with the files listed above) in your plugin directory.
So you have to browse your Wordpress installation with your FTP software [following this path --> wp-content --> plugins] and to put the Twit Roll directory with others plugins folders.

• 5.

Now you can choose where to put your own Cool Twit Roll in your sidebar.

For custom php websites: you can put the following code wherever you want in your sidebar.

For Wordpress blogs: you could put raw code in your sidebar.php template, if you want.

For easier setup i can suggest you to follow this steps:

- From your WP Dasboard go to 'Themes' --> 'Widgets' editor panel.
- Add a custom Text Widget to your sidebar, wherever you want.
- Put the following code into the widget and then save the edits. You have your Cool Twit Roll now!!!

Copy and Paste

Here you have the embedding codes for the 3 Twit Roll layouts,
choose the one corresponding to the badge you downloaded.

 

Download Twit Roll

Here you find the online demos for Cool Twit Roll
with corresponding dowload packs and snippet codes.
Choose your preferred and have fun.

 

If you like the badge consider mentioning me or the badge on Twitter, or in a blog post, you are really welcome!
Please leave the 'grab this' link in the badge to allow other people to discover this funny and new Twit Roll gadget.

Follow me (i'll follow you back) on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Seo__Guru
And @mention me if you'd like to be in my Twit Roll !!

Seo Guru