OPML blogroll widget for WordPress
June 14th, 2006 10:59:01 am pst by 
Sterling Camden
I don’t know about you, but when Share Your OPML went live, my first thought was “Oh great, something else to keep updated!” It’s bad enough trying to keep my blogroll on my blog up to date with my subscriptions in my feed reader(s). Now there’s SYO to keep updated, too. Not to mention other similar sites like OPML Workstation and OPML Manager.
This little widget hopes to bring us some relief. Rather than having to reload your blogroll or manually update it every time your subscriptions change, you can display your blogroll directly from a hosted OPML file. So, you can keep your OPML at OPML Workstation or OPML Manager (would be nice if SYO offered an external link as well), and just keep that up to date. Or, you can host the OPML file on your own site and just hand the URL to SYO. Either way, you only have to keep this file updated in one place.
For me, that means that when I add a subcription to my Favorite Feeds folder in FeedDemon, I’ll export my OPML and upload it to my site. Done.
Installation and configuration instructions are included in the opml-blogroll-readme.txt file enclosed.
UPDATE: Latest version here.
Posted in OPML, PHP, Wildly popular, WordPress | 
33 Comments » RSS 2.0 | Sphere it!
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This is a great idea! Unfortunately I am stuck on the first requirement: “enable allow_url_fopen on your host”.
I am a novice PHP / Unix guy and according to my hosting company’s wiki, tweaking my servers PHP.INI file is for “advanced users” http://wiki.dreamhost.com/index.php/PHP.ini.
Any tips on performing this part of the process?
thanks,
pete
Pete, I think that’s going to be about the only way to achieve this. The instructions look pretty straightforward. WHat part of them makes you uncomfortable?
I think I will just ask one of the webmasters in netops at my work. Those guys live in the shell and configure servers all day long
–pete
Probably better to ask someone familiar with it. I’m lucky, my webhost has it turned on by default.
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very nice plugin – thanks for this. is there a way to include the category included in the opml? i am hosting mine on newsgator and it would be fabulous to organize by my folders. here is the link to opml:
http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/svc/opml.aspx?uid=406723&mid=1
Thanks, paul. Currently, the widget ignores any hierarchy in the OPML. That’s a good suggestion for a future version. How would you envision it working?
good question. i guess just like an unordered list under headings that are categories. And maybe have an option to ignore categories if people choose to. That would make this plugin perfect in my mind. thanks again for a great plugin.
I’m thinking I may need to expand this widget into a full-blown plugin, with the widget interface being just one option. Good ideas, paul. I’ll take them under consideration.
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For a widget that preserves the category hierarchy in an OPML file, with expand/collapse, go here.
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for it to only use some folders. Problem would be solved if Bloglines itself would just go multilevel heirarcharical and allow aliease.
I think something got dropped from your comment, colleen. Come again?
looks like it eat the first line.
I said can you set it up to eliminate or show only some folders.
I have 2 blogs, and the blogrolls would cover different subjects
so like I have private folder, folderx for Blog A, folder y for Blog A, folder z for Blog B and folder omega for Blog B. And if you could copy alias of same RSS feed into different folders in case you want the same blog in both blogrolls. If bloglines goes multi heirarchical you could just set up a folder called Blogroll A and dump in alias of everything for Blog A etc.
First, take a look at the OPML Browser widget. That widget (unlike this one) preserves the hierarchy in the OPML. Right now it has the option to start off with all folders collapsed, but I could may add a feature whereby some attribute on the element could be used to indicate specific folders that should be closed (or omitted). Is that what you’re asking for?
Hi, there. I’m a little confused by the jargon. There’s something I’d like to do, and I’m thinking maybe your widget could help. I’d to maintain a blogroll on a single WP installation but then display that blogroll on multiple additional WP installations at separate sites. If I added this widget to those separate WP sites, would it be able to look at information in the original site and display its blogroll, including images?
Yes, by placing the OPML file in a location that all of the sites can access (like a public web site), and then reference it from the settings in the widget at each location.
I’d recommend that you get the latest version. If you want a widget that retains the folder structure of the OPML, use this one instead.
Thanks for responding.
What, then, is http://potluck.com/wp-links-opml.php ? Isn’t that an OPML file that is in a location that all sites can access? Is there a need to do anything else, to put something in some other public web site?
That’ll work just fine.
Very promising…. But when I install and activate and configure the plugin/widget, I get an error indicating that there is no file-get-contents function and so it couldn’t open up my wp-links-opml.php file. Any thoiughts? I’m running WP 2.3.1. Would upgrading get it to work?
file_get_contents is a PHP function, added in version 4.3. Sounds like you need a PHP upgrade.
BTW, the plugin should work with any WordPress version >= 2.0
My cPanel shows that it’s running PHP 5.2.5. Think I’ll get in touch with my ISP at this point to ask them why that function isn’t working….!
Since it reports the function “missing”, yes I would.
You’ll also want to make sure that allow_url_fopen is enabled, in order to pull the file in from one site to another.
Hey, there. ISP did manage to do some thing or other that got errors to stop, but the widget isn’t yet fully working. Take a look at http://marksmeritt.com — very bottom of the right sidebar. Any thoughts?
Check your settings for the widget. I notice that none of the entries has an xmlUrl, so make sure the “Exclude if no feed link” checkbox is not checked.
Sorry, should have mentioned all my widget settings.
OPML URL: http://marksmeritt.com/wp-links-opml.php
Local path: wp-links-opml.php
Exclue if no HTML link? Checked
Exclude if no feed link? Unchecked
Sort? Checked
Link to OPML? Checked
So that item was already not checked. Any other thoughts? Thanks again for your help with this, really appreciate it.
I tried it out on my test site, and found a bug in the widget! I’ll email you the new code, and I’ll post it here later.
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