Miscellaneous Hacks - UKBL ~ Google friends Connect

UKBL ~ Google friends Connect

A simple and effective way to let your members sign up to their google friends from your forum

Lets start...

This will add a small Google friends connect box next to your username in the navbar, This is just one of many possabilities for using this new Google friends Connect



Ok so first we need to set up a Google friends connect account at google so go to this link here and sign up

http://www.google.com/friendconnect/...start?hl=en_US

1. Click on "Friends Connect for websites"

2. Add your site name and Url

3. Download and save to your server the two files which are then shown, these are
rpc_relay.html and canvas.html

You need to save them onto your root directory, if you see the instructions it will show you where

Don't worry if you've made a mistake, google will soon tell you :up:

4. Once you've done that you need to click on the members gadgets on the left hand side menu, Click on "Sign in Gadget"

5. Then "Create HTML Code"

and thats the first part done.

Now to add it to the Navbar

In Notepad or a text editor of your choice add the following code

<!--<UKBL Google Friends Start>----------------------------------------------------------------------->

<td class="alt2">

<DIV ALIGN=RIGHT>
<if condition="!is_member_of($bbuserinfo, X, Y, Z)">



******** Add your Downloaded google friends Script here - Don't forget to change the X,Y,Z of the condition above to allow whatever usergroup you want this visable too, Just add the usergroup id number and space with a comma  ********


</DIV>
</td>
</if>
<!--<UKBL Google friends End>----------------------------------------------------------------------->

you should have something along the lines of this

<!--<UKBL Google Friends Start>----------------------------------------------------------------------->

<td class="alt2">

<DIV ALIGN=RIGHT>
<if condition="!is_member_of($bbuserinfo, 1, 2, 3)">
<td class="alt2">
<!-- Include the Google Friend Connect javascript library. -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/friendconnect/script/friendconnect.js"></script>
<!-- Define the div tag where the gadget will be inserted. -->
<div id="div-6496169506965828886" style="width:250px;border:0px solid #ffffff;"></div>
<!-- Render the gadget into a div. -->
<script type="text/javascript">
var skin = {};
skin['BORDER_COLOR'] = '#ffffff';
skin['ENDCAP_BG_COLOR'] = '#e0ecff';
skin['ENDCAP_TEXT_COLOR'] = '#333333';
skin['ENDCAP_LINK_COLOR'] = '#0000cc';
skin['ALTERNATE_BG_COLOR'] = '#ffffff';
skin['CONTENT_BG_COLOR'] = '#ffffff';
skin['CONTENT_LINK_COLOR'] = '#0000cc';
skin['CONTENT_TEXT_COLOR'] = '#333333';
skin['CONTENT_SECONDARY_LINK_COLOR'] = '#7777cc';
skin['CONTENT_SECONDARY_TEXT_COLOR'] = '#666666';
skin['CONTENT_HEADLINE_COLOR'] = '#333333';
skin['ALIGNMENT'] = 'right';
google.friendconnect.container.setParentUrl('/' /* location of rpc_relay.html and canvas.html */);
google.friendconnect.container.renderSignInGadget(
 { id: 'div-6496169506965828886',
   site: '02417642747277593193' },
  skin);
</script>
</DIV>
</td>
</if>
<!--<UKBL Google friends End>----------------------------------------------------------------------->

Now save this in Notepad, because we now need to upload this onto our Navbar template

Go to edit the following template in your admin CP

AdminCP > Styles & Templates> Style Manager> Your Chosen Style> All style options> Edit templates> Navigation / Breadcrumb Templates> navbar

In template NAVBAR find

<div class="navbar" style="font-size:10pt"><a href="$vboptions[forumhome].php$session[sessionurl_q]" accesskey="1"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/navbits_start.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a> <strong>$vboptions[bbtitle]</strong></div>
		</if>
	</td>

and directly below it add your saved code.

Then save, and thats it

Members will be able to sign up, Using their Google, Aim and Yahoo id's



and then the login box will turn like this...



where members can then sort out their friends and send invites etc..



Enjoy

UPDATE:

For those of you That would prefer the Social Bar that goes accross the top of your screen, then here are the instructions



LIVE DEMO : http://www.ossamples.com/freestyle/

1. Sign up to Google friends as described above and the from the menu on the left choose "Social Bar"

Add a social bar to your site

Put a social bar at the top of your site's pages to give your visitors easy access to Friend Connect's social features.

Enable your visitors to easily join and discover each other
Let visitors read and post comments together
Activities taking place in social gadgets throughout your site bubble to the top
No need to redesign your pages

2. Fill in the Options 1 on that page, thats easy enough.

3. Option 2 creates the HTML code that we'll need to ad to our site it looks something like this...

<!-- Include the Google Friend Connect javascript library. -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/friendconnect/script/friendconnect.js"></script>
<!-- Define the div tag where the gadget will be inserted. -->
<div id="div-6077485798636155185"></div>
<!-- Render the gadget into a div. -->
<script type="text/javascript">
var skin = {};
skin['BORDER_COLOR'] = '#cccccc';
skin['ENDCAP_BG_COLOR'] = '#e0ecff';
skin['ENDCAP_TEXT_COLOR'] = '#333333';
skin['ENDCAP_LINK_COLOR'] = '#0000cc';
skin['ALTERNATE_BG_COLOR'] = '#ffffff';
skin['CONTENT_BG_COLOR'] = '#ffffff';
skin['CONTENT_LINK_COLOR'] = '#0000cc';
skin['CONTENT_TEXT_COLOR'] = '#333333';
skin['CONTENT_SECONDARY_LINK_COLOR'] = '#7777cc';
skin['CONTENT_SECONDARY_TEXT_COLOR'] = '#666666';
skin['CONTENT_HEADLINE_COLOR'] = '#333333';
skin['POSITION'] = 'top';
skin['DEFAULT_COMMENT_TEXT'] = '- add your comment here -';
skin['HEADER_TEXT'] = 'Comments';
google.friendconnect.container.setParentUrl('/' /* location of rpc_relay.html and canvas.html */);
google.friendconnect.container.renderSocialBar(
 { id: 'div-6077485798636155185',
   site: '02417642747277593193',
   'view-params':{"scope":"SITE","features":"video,comment","showWall":"true"}
 },
  skin);
</script>

So now we need to ad the code to our site, and its so easy, First we go to our adminCP and Styles & Templates > Style Manager > Your Style >

and at the top of your header template add the code, then save.

Thats it, You should see your sites new google social bar at the top of your forum




As always Please Click installed if you use

[UKBusinessLive]

Reserved

[Brandon Sheley]

great mod!
i just wish I had friends through google
now a twitter one and I would be rockin!

[UKBusinessLive]

Originally Posted by Loco.M

great mod!
i just wish I had friends through google
now a twitter one and I would be rockin!

Thanks Loco, I think i'll save that for a rainy day

[Mum]

So does this actually allow someone to log in to the site, and be validated using this sign in box, or does it simply add another log in box for them to also sign into.

IE once they log in using this box, can they post etc, or do they still need to log into the forum?

If they log in, what can they then do? Are they able to use the chatting box that google friends connect supply?

[UKBusinessLive]

Originally Posted by Mum

So does this actually allow someone to log in to the site, and be validated using this sign in box, or does it simply add another log in box for them to also sign into.

IE once they log in using this box, can they post etc, or do they still need to log into the forum?

If they log in, what can they then do? Are they able to use the chatting box that google friends connect supply?

have a read here http://www.google.com/friendconnect/...dgets?hl=en_US

Ideally its best if they do login to your forum to access this as this is a service to members as opposed to non members. You can change the usergroups which have permission to see this by changing the conditional in the code. if they log onto the forum, they will need to log into this as well to be able to use it, but a cookie will ensure that they are logged in until they chose to exit it.

best thing to do is to try it and see, This is a new experiance for me too!!!



You will be able to connect to Orkut, Plaxo, Twitter, Netlog to name a few

For a full Help page see here http://www.google.com/support/friendconnect/

I've also added it to my forum http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum and taken the conditional out so that everyone will be able to view, just so that you'll be able to see it working

[Mum]

Thanks, will check it out now!

[Mum]

See here http://www.google.com/friendconnect/...dgets?hl=en_US the one i wanted was the social bar - is there any way to make this show like this?

[mamashid]

okay! i did something wrong I dont see it on my navbar.....where is it that i upload on ftp??? I'm kinda new to all of this...

[UKBusinessLive]

Originally Posted by Mum

See here http://www.google.com/friendconnect/...dgets?hl=en_US the one i wanted was the social bar - is there any way to make this show like this?

Ok i'll add it to the above explanation

All done now Mum, The instructions for the social bar is now added as an update to the mod :up:

Enjoy

Gerry