Blogger Buster: Blogumus: a flash animated label cloud for Blogger!

August 28, 2008

Blogumus: a flash animated label cloud for Blogger!

"Blogumus" is an Flash based tag cloud widget which uses scripts converted from Roy Tanck's WP Cumulus plugin for Wordpress. I fell in love with Roy's original Cumulus plugin when I saw it, and simply had to learn how to convert this for use in Blogger powered blogs. The result is the widget you can see in action at the top of this post. Hover your mouse over the Flash object to see the animation begin. In this post, I'll explain how you can add Blogumus to your own Blogger layout with ease!

Update: Improved Widget Code

I have updated the code required to run this widget to activate links in the tag cloud Flash movie. If you have already installed Blogumus, please replace your widget code with the new updated code, or reference the additional lines to modify your existing installation.

How it works

This widget uses a combination of JavaScript and Flash animation to parse and display your blog labels. Once installed in your template, it should work "out of the box" without any additional tweaking required, though of course you may prefer to change the variables for color, background and size if appropriate :) You should also be able to move the Label Cloud widget through the Page Elements page of your dashboard if you prefer display in a different layout location. To see Blogumus in action, both Flash and Javascript must be installed and enabled for your internet browser. However, it does degrade relatively gracefully, and label links will still be clickable (though not animated) for those who do not use JavaScript of Flash (including search engine spiders).

How to install Blogumus in your Blogger layout

Installing Blogumus in your Blogger layout is surprisingly simple! You should only need to copy and paste a section of code to your Blogger template, though any tweaks for the style of display will require some manual editing. Here are the steps required to install Blogumus in your Blogger layout: Go to Layout>Edit HTML in your Blogger dashboard, and search for the following line (or similar):

<b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes'>

Immediatly after this line, paste the following section of code:

<b:widget id='Label99' locked='false' title='Labels' type='Label'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<b:if cond='data:title'>
<h2><data:title/></h2>
</b:if>
<div class='widget-content'>
<script src='http://halotemplates.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-cumulus-example/swfobject.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<div id='flashcontent'>Blogumulus by <a href='http://www.roytanck.com/'>Roy Tanck</a> and <a href='http://www.bloggerbuster.com'>Amanda Fazani</a></div>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var so = new SWFObject("http://halotemplates.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-cumulus-example/tagcloud.swf", "tagcloud", "240", "300", "7", "#ffffff");
// uncomment next line to enable transparency
//so.addParam("wmode", "transparent");
so.addVariable("tcolor", "0x333333");
so.addVariable("mode", "tags");
so.addVariable("distr", "true");
so.addVariable("tspeed", "100");
so.addVariable("tagcloud", "<tags><b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'><a expr:href='data:label.url' style='12'><data:label.name/></a></b:loop></tags>");
so.addParam("allowScriptAccess", "always");
so.write("flashcontent");
</script>
<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>

Then preview your template. If installed correctly, you should see the tag cloud appear in your sidebar. Then you are free to save your template, edit the colors and dimensions as required, or move it to a different location. That's all!

Customizing Blogumus

In this default installation, Blogumus includes the following preset variables:

Width is set to 240px
Height is set to 300px;
Background color is white
Test color is grey
Font size is "12"

If you would prefer to make your widget wider, shorter, change the color scheme, etc, you will need to do this by editing various parts of the code. I'll go through these options in the order they appear in the widget code. Editing width and height The variables for width and height are found in this line of the script:

var so = new SWFObject("http://halotemplates.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-cumulus-example/tagcloud.swf", "tagcloud", "240", "300", "7", "#ffffff");

The width (currently 240) is highlighted in red, while the height (300px default) is highlighted in blue. These numerical values specify the width and height in pixels, so you can alter these of you prefer. Editing background color You can change the background color from white to any other color by altering the hex value in the same line:

var so = new SWFObject("http://halotemplates.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-cumulus-example/tagcloud.swf", "tagcloud", "240", "300", "7", "#ffffff");

For example, if you prefer a bright red background, you may replace #ffffff with #ff0000. Take a look at this page for a list of commonly used hex color codes. Alter the color of text By default, the text is set to display as dark grey ( hex value #333333). You can alter this variable in the following line:

so.addVariable("tcolor", "0x333333");

Be aware that "tcolor" is a Flash variable and doesn't include the usual hash symbol of hex color codes. Be sure to only replace the numbers! Adjust the font size The maximum font size of tags is specified in this line:

so.addVariable("tagcloud", "<tags><b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'><a expr:href='data:label.url' style='12'><data:label.name/></a></b:loop></tags>");

You can alter this to ensure tags are displayed in a bigger or smaller font if you prefer by changing "12" to a larger or smaller number. While making any of these changes, you should be able to preview your widget and be certain that your new choice of color, dimensions and background are suitable for your needs.

Credits, support and requirements

Blogumus is based on the original WP Cumulus plugin by Roy Tanck, and was converted for use with Blogger layouts by myself. Please leave the credit links in the widget code intact. These will not be seen by the majority of your blog readers (as they will only display if JavaScript and Flash is not activated) but leaving these links intact is a great way of passing some link love on to Roy for all his hard work, and to inform other Blogger users that they can find the widget codes on this site.

Support/Issues

If you have any problems installing or using this widget, please leave your comments below or direct these to the Blogger Buster forums as Roy will be unable to provide support for installation in Blogger blogs!

Requirements

For Blogumus to display properly in your template, you will need to have Flash Player 7 or higher. You can download the latest Flash Player plugin for your browser from Adobe. I'm not sure that this installation will support special characters as tags (only Latin characters supported at present). If you do experiecce issues with labels displaying incorrectly, please let me know. I'll try to add more support, but have very little experience using Flash!

Your thoughts?

I hope that you enjoy using Blogumus in your own Blogger blogs! Please feel free to share or syndicate this page with your favorite bookmarking service if you think it is worth a mention, or subscribe to the newsfeed to learn of more great Blogger tutorials as they are posted.

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28 August 2008 21:35 davie said...: Love this, but! The install failed. Here's a screen capture:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3088/2806964348_5b2820e6fa_o.jpg
It's double dutch to me, any suggestions?
Davie
28 August 2008 21:48 Amanda said...: Hello Davie,

I've just edited a line of code in the widget template which (I think) may have caused this problem for you.

However, I'm also wondering about the way your code is aligned in the screenshot, as there are no line breaks after each line of the script.

Please try installing this again and do let me know if you still experience this error as I can upload the code as a text file which would hopefully prevent such problems happening for others too.
28 August 2008 22:15 Mattheosis said...: Amanda, this is great thanks for the hard work.
28 August 2008 22:25 Jenne said...: Interesting! But I'm not sure I'll use it yet as it might drive people crazy! I'll have to ask around and see what the response is. I love the idea of it though!
28 August 2008 22:35 Jos said...: Looks beautiful.
Unfortunately I can't seem to get a result when I click on one of the labels.
What am I doing wrong?
28 August 2008 22:37 Kourosh said...: Thanks Amanda,
I follow your blog and it is great.
About this hack. Everything seems ok in your blog except it is not clickable.
28 August 2008 22:42 Ikmal Ezzani said...: Amanda. thanks a lot for this. I've been waiting for you to post this. I already installed it on my blog. but can the label be clicked? because it doesn't on mine.

anyway thanks! n too Roy Tanck too!
28 August 2008 22:55 Rachel said...: Well it displays quite beautifully and it was easy to add as you said. The only thing is that when I click on any of the tags they don't go anywhere. Where did I go wrong?
28 August 2008 23:15 merwick said...: Amanda! Really looks interesting. Thanks for your great working!
28 August 2008 23:44 Ale said...: Looks stunning... but as everyone else, clicking on the tags doesn't work...
29 August 2008 00:38 Lapa37 said...: I like it it looks so good I may use it once I get my blog looking the way I want it to.
29 August 2008 01:41 রাশেদ said...: Thanks, I'm gonna try it within few days. :)
29 August 2008 01:47 BunkmonKee said...: Good stuff! I was going to try to do this myself. Thank you for saving me the trouble!
29 August 2008 03:10 Annette said...: I love this, but my Firefox doesn't. :(
29 August 2008 03:59 Alain-Christian said...: Flashturbation.
29 August 2008 04:20 Gaurav said...: Thanks Amanda, but what about clickability. It is just a flashy item as of now with no action being performed on clicking labels.
29 August 2008 05:37 Chris said...: I have nothing but empty space??
29 August 2008 05:45 Vikram said...: Thanks for this Amanda. I have one question - How to increase the distance between labels. My blog has too many labels and if i use font size 12 then the labels are cluttered into a sphere and nothing is visible as they are so near to each other, please help.
29 August 2008 06:01 TRESTIN MEACHAM said...: It worked! However, like others my labels do nothing.
29 August 2008 06:08 Serena said...: Hmm...actually the labels here on this blog is not clickable either. I mean the labels are rotating but when I click on the tags, nothing happens either.
29 August 2008 06:54 zariel said...: hi amanda. installed successfully. but I wonder how to make background of the widget to use blog's background.

thanks!
29 August 2008 07:22 Bengt said...: Me too.. The labels don't work when clicked. Sigh..
29 August 2008 07:49 Sameer Khan said...: yes the link doesnt go anywhere bcoz i think this widget is developed from the original wordpress widget....thats the reason for its non working on blogger...
29 August 2008 08:20 Chris said...: I can't even see labels??
Anyone?

Help :(
29 August 2008 09:11 Amanda said...: The problem with the links is incredibly frustrating!! The source code displays the link tags properly, but for some reason the links cannot be clicked now :(

Checked and rechecked the code, experimented with new functions, and so far nothing works when the cloud is displayed in Blogger.

However, I can make the links clickable when viewing offline..?

I will work on this as much as possible today. I have my suspicions about the problem so will update this post as soon as I have more information.

@Chris: Which of your blogs have you installed the tag cloud on? If you leave a comment with the URL I will take a look to see what the display problem could be.
29 August 2008 09:55 Amanda said...: Hmmm, I think I may have found a possible cause for the problem clicking on the links. Take a look here: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/fplayer8_security_09.html

I'm working to change some values which I hope will enable access to actionscript for the links.
29 August 2008 10:30 Amanda said...: Sorry for repeatedly posting in the comments section about this problem. I figured those of you experiencing issues with the tag links would look here (rather than Twitter) for updates on the situation :)

Here's the progress so far:

Most of you will be using Adobe Flash Player 8/9. These recent versions include a security feature which prevents ActionScript affecting the contents of the flash unless it comes from the same domain.

The scripts used for this tag cloud come from my hosting on Amazon AWS (a different domain), so the links produced have been disabled.

Right now, I understand how to enable links in the Flash movie (check out the cloud at the top of this page: the links are now active).

I need to figure out how to make the scripts add this extra line of code to the movies generated when you use this widget for your own blogs too.

Hopefully I will fix this issue today. In the meantime, I can offer a fix which requires editing and tweaking to anyone who would like this urgently.

Shoot me an email if you need this quick fix and I'll do my best to help.
29 August 2008 11:13 DanielPK said...: Amanda the Blog saver...thank you very much for your great effort in making this possible for us Blogger users, but there is this one thing...the links don't seem to be working..but you said..they only work when viewing offline..when i tried it..i was surprised that it actually worked..lol..but no page to display,
here is the code error which i received :

SecurityError: Error #2137: Security sandbox violation: http://halotemplates.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-cumulus-example/tagcloud.swf cannot navigate window _self within http://www.technologypublic.com/ (allowScriptAccess is ). Attempted URL was http://www.technologypublic.com/search/label/blogging tips and tricks.
at global/flash.net::navigateToURL()
at com.roytanck.wpcumulus::Tag/::mouseUpHandler()
29 August 2008 11:20 DanielPK said...: Amanda, like you mentioned above that the latest version of Flash "security feature which prevents ActionScript affecting the contents of the flash unless it comes from the same domain"....so what i did is downgraded to Flash 7 and tried to run the script again..amazingly the links are clicked...but most of the stuff on my page don't load at all...hahaha, i'll try and find a walkround for this.
29 August 2008 11:30 Chris said...: Thanks Amanda :)

http://www.waikiki2yanai.blogspot.com

Thanks Again!!
29 August 2008 12:15 Amanda said...: @Everyone: I've figured out the problem with the links now :D

To fix your widgets, please use the updated code instead. I've added a line which should enable the ActionScript to access my externally hosted file which ensures the links become active.

My sincere apologies for this problem!

@DanielPK: No need to downgrade to Flash 7 now. I figured out a solution which should enable links no matter which version of Flash you are using, and have updated the code. Thank you for your efforts though! And be sure to let me know if you still have problems when using the updated widget code.

@Chris: Thank you for the link. I've just managed to get back online (my router crashed!) so I'll take a look now and let you know how we can resolve this issue for you :)
29 August 2008 12:19 davie said...: Thanks Amanda, the did it. Except, the width, can I adjust this by changing it? This bit "....loud", "240", "300", &......."

http://ctwalkerfamily.blogspot.com/

Cheers!
29 August 2008 15:08 enhal said...: thanks your trik..i succes..
29 August 2008 15:22 Bobby said...: This is what I was asking from your forum..

Thank you so much Amanda. Waiting a long time for this!

Bobby
29 August 2008 16:15 Typhoon said...: Ok Amanda It's Working Perfectly On My Test Blog With The Same Skin Which I Use On My Orginal Blog..I Will Make It Live tommorow when my exams gets over :) nd will Post About it Tommorow on my blog also.

http://templatestreasure.blogspot.com/
29 August 2008 16:35 Amanda said...: @davie: Yes, change the "240" to the width in pixels which you would like the widget to display at. The "300" part specifies the height, which you can also change if you prefer.

@enhal: I'm glad to know this widget is working fine now.

@Bobby: You're most welcome, I was very happy to be able to convert this for Blogger!

@Typhoon: I'm glad this works well for you. Good luck for those exams :)
29 August 2008 16:41 Zaius and Gizmo said...: Hello Amanda,

Thank you so much!
It works for me and that's absolutely perfect.

Isa
29 August 2008 17:59 Rachel said...: Hi Amanda,

Just wanted to say this is amazing! I really want to thank you for this!

Rach
29 August 2008 18:14 DanielPK said...: IT WORKED....IT REALLY WORKED!!

Thank you Amanda...Thank you
29 August 2008 18:53 davie said...: Thanks again Amanda, I should have looked further up the page, DOH! Sorry!

Has anyone said you are such a wonderful person? Well you are, are you married?
29 August 2008 19:11 Azman said...: Hi Amanda

Thank you very much for the amazing widget! Installed it and it is fantastic.

Cheers
29 August 2008 21:18 Mary Dawn said...: Hi,

This is really amazing Amanda... Thank you so much... I really love it.

Cheers
29 August 2008 22:22 Glass Dragonfly said...: Amanda--

The cloud worked fine in my "test" blog, but is just a blank square on my main one...any ideas?

Kelly
30 August 2008 00:57 Laurie said...: Hi Amanda. I've installed it on my blog,I've got the Flash thingy, but it's a blank white box.

Could you check it out for me?

www.livingwmultiplesclerosis.blogspot.com
30 August 2008 01:02 Laurie said...: PS - I tried it in a blogger template that I had NOT customized and it didn't show up at all in that test blog.
30 August 2008 01:46 Chris said...: Hi Amanda,
It is still blank??

www.waikiki2yanai.blogspot.com
30 August 2008 02:46 Jos said...: Thank you Amanda, it works fine now!
I still have to tweak a little with size, color and font, but the links work and it looks very cool!
You're the best!
30 August 2008 02:54 FriedClyde said...: Hey Amanda,

Im getting a blank square as well.

Regards,
Clyde
30 August 2008 03:43 Justine said...: Amanda, help! I think I've got the oddest problem of all! I installed the code, and then went and tried to change the background color to black (#000000), but it refused to change from white to black. So I decided I'd just delete the code and find out from you what I was doing wrong tomorrow. Well, I deleted the code, but the label cloud is still up! That's right, it won't go away! It's clickable and working just fine, but it's white, which I don't want, and I can't get rid of it even if I wanted to! And now all your code is gone from my template. How weird is this????

Justine :o )
30 August 2008 03:44 panduan bisnis online said...: it works! thanx a lot amanda!
30 August 2008 04:25 Revarius said...: oh great amanda. i really waited for this tutorial. i'll try it first thanks before.
30 August 2008 06:23 The_Phenomenon said...: always good for blogger
30 August 2008 06:30 Chris said...: I have never had problems with any widgets except this one.
Any help would be appreciated :)

http://www.waikiki2yanai.blogspot.com
30 August 2008 11:20 Ade Sanusi said...: Ha HA... I Love This, thank for tutorial, Is simple an Succes Instalation on my Blog...
30 August 2008 12:41 Typhoon said...: Hey Amanda it's now properly working on my original blog on all the three main browsers i.e Opera,Firefox 3 n IE

Plz. How is it looking, any thing else can i do in to modify.??
I have posted this hack on my blog giving u Credits..U Don't have any prob. in tht na??

http://templatestreasure.blogspot.com/
30 August 2008 18:21 bc said...: Thank's.... I succeeded in installing him
30 August 2008 18:34 [the Pajama Pundit] said...: Amanda --

The widget looks top-notch! I got it to work in my test blog, but not in my real one. Any help you could offer would be much appreciated!

thepajamapundit.com
30 August 2008 19:08 template-godown said...: great work amanda,

then i imagine this script can also be used to flashing our recent commentators or recent post. is it amanda?

regarding the commentluv,
can you do follow this schema?

our widget receive the url given by commentators (in that case we only can use name/URL mode only).

our widget search and read the feed and show it to public the latest one.

i am not so sure, but actually i just don't know how to do. :)
30 August 2008 21:29 Youngistan said...: one of the beautiful and best widgets in Recent Times

Thanks a lot

$ n $
31 August 2008 03:15 jifdc said...: This is simply amazing Amanda! You are amazing! Thank you so much....I've been wanting to put a label cloud on my blog about 3D architectural animation for quite some time now and may I just say that this type of label cloud is superb and fits in nicely with my blog. You and Roy really raised the bar with this feature! I wont forget you both!
31 August 2008 06:41 zizukabi said...: Thanks Amanda! :)

I tried this widget and worked beautifully but the widget is not supported Korean labels so is displayed only for English lables.

And too many lables is not good to use this widget.

That's all i tried.

Anyway the widget is great great and thanks again for your effort. :D
31 August 2008 10:15 Chris said...: O.K.

I have done the "Lytebox" script and "Pagepeel" scripts which were a pain in the ass but I got them working.

This is a simple "Cut and paste" script. Any ideas as to why it wont work? Conflicts? i ntense debate conflict?

Any ideas from anyone?

Thanks for any help :)
31 August 2008 10:39 Floyd said...: I can't get it to work either Chis, I see it fine on her screen but on my blogs I see a white screen when I install it? Running flash 9.0
31 August 2008 14:22 Anonymous said...: I you like own TagCloud of Labels , Then also visit http://websitewealth.bl
ogspot.com/2008/08/new-blogger-tag-cloud-widget.html
31 August 2008 16:33 Hrn said...: http://harunguven.blogspot.com/2008/08/blogger-iin-flash-etiket-bulutu.html

http://www.bloggerdestek.com/2008/08/blogger-iin-flash-etiket-bulutu.html

thanks amanda :)
31 August 2008 17:26 Ikmal Ezzani said...: thanks amanda. it works now. you guys are awesome.
31 August 2008 18:56 Justine said...: Amanda? Amanda? Are you out there woman? My code is still missing, my labels are still there, but my background is still white! I need you! LOL

Justine :o )
www.justines-cafe.blogspot.com
31 August 2008 23:16 Ale said...: Thank you!! It looks great in my blog! :D
@ Chris, I have intense debate and it works fine in my blog...
01 September 2008 01:31 MICK said...: I just wanna say ... Fantastico ... thanks Amanda !
01 September 2008 01:50 Budzer said...: It's really awesome, Thanks Amanda.
01 September 2008 02:00 JT said...: Hey Amanda,
Looks beautiful, but if you refresh the page then it no longer displays the labels. I think there is a new version of the .swf that may solve this problem but I'm not sure if that is the key to the solution.

Here is the site I'm trying to make it work with: paymentindustryinsights.blogspot.com

Thanks!
01 September 2008 03:39 savagepriest said...: Thanks for the great plugin amanda, I have one small question if you can help me here is my blog where i used your plugin despite the fact that I have increased the height the words are cluttered in a small box how do I increase the width so words are not cluttered in one place and take full area of the box

my blog http://neeshu30.blogspot.com/search/label/indiatimes
01 September 2008 05:23 wolverine said...: great work amanda.. but this will slowdown the loading time...
01 September 2008 06:18 Chris said...: Still not workin :(

Any ideas?? Anyone?
01 September 2008 06:42 Chris said...: I have 2 sidebars...is that a problem??
01 September 2008 07:05 Mas Ridho said...: I want to try it, but I am using wordpress, can it's work in wordpress ?
01 September 2008 10:24 Amanda said...: I've been offline this weekend due to some problems with my broadband connection, so for those of you waiting for my reply, please accept my apologies!

I've quickly looked at a few blogs where the widget displays as a blank box and displays no tags or animation. I can't be certain yet, though as a guess I'd say blogs which use many widgets and scripts are the ones which are experiencing problems.

Normally this shouldn't be an issue. However, the original plugin author explained that the WP version is sensitive and has problems for blogs which do not validate with W3C.

Blogger layouts blogs rarely validate anyway (Blogger Buster has almost 500 errors), so this isn't such a big issue for display. More likely, it would be particular scripts which are causing conflict and preventing the labels from being displayed.

There are a couple of methods we could try to make the widgets display properly.

One is to use the embed code after it has been generated in an active page (this is how the one at the top of this post is displayed).

Another is to hand-code the widget, rather than relying on the labels generated by Blogger.

As I'm sure you will all understand, there are many readers who require support for this issue, so I'll experiment with both methods to see which would work best, and will update with details and instructions as soon as I can.
01 September 2008 10:55 Chris said...: Thank you for all your efforts Amanda!!
01 September 2008 11:52 Amanda said...: One possible issue with this script is when long labels are used. This causes the URLs of label links to be very long, and prevents the cloud from being parsed properly.

Right now, I'm working with Chris to try and make the label cloud display. He uses many long labels and also many widgets, so once we have figured out a method which works for him, I'll post details which should help others in a similar situation.

Thanks for bearing with me while we iron out the issues with using this cloud!
01 September 2008 14:32 Justine said...: Hi Amanda! Sorry you had computer troubles this weekend. I'd imagine for a girl like you that's a fate worse than death!

Anyway, any ideas as to the problems I'm having?

Justine :o )
justines-cafe.blogspot.com
01 September 2008 19:59 Xavier Vespa said...: Yea, only problem is, I have so many tags that you can't read any of them. Needs some tweaking to select only popular tags I guess...
01 September 2008 20:41 Riasmaja said...: Dear Amanda,

Thanks a lot for posting this article.. I've installed in my blog and It works well.

But how do i change the background color into transparent?

Here, I also ask your permission to translate this tutorial into my own language and post it in my blog, please..

Best Regards
Riasmaja
01 September 2008 22:08 Amanda said...: @Justine: I can see the widget in your blog now, did you change something? Let me know if you have issues seeing this in your own browser.

@Riasmaja: to make the backgrounf transparent, find this line in the script:

//so.addParam("wmode", "transparent");

and remove the two forward slashes from the beginning (//) so it looks like this instead:

so.addParam("wmode", "transparent");

This enables a transparent background, no matter which color you have specified as background in the variables. You may need to change the text color though ;)

For anyone still experiencing a blank widget: I've been working with Chris' template and hope we have discovered the problem (and a solution).

Chris' problem seemed to have been long URLs being used to link to label pages. To solve this, we have created a hand-coded script and replaced regular URLs with TinyURLs which seems to display just fine.

I've used this version in a test blog which displays just fine, though I'm waiting to hear back from Chris to know if this works in a template with many other other flash and javascript widgets.

If many of you are still seeing a blank screen, please let me know and I'll write up a tutorial (or post one in the forum) to help you code a script for your label links rather than rely on the URLs generated by Blogger.
02 September 2008 02:08 Chris said...: Amanda,
You are amazing!! Thank you for all the hard work you have done. I am now a devoted lifetime reader of this blog :)
02 September 2008 02:43 Balbino de Araujo said...: I"d posted this tip with the credits in my blog ( about tips and blogs)It's working nice in another Linux Blog.
Thanks! Its a great Workkkkk!!!
Regards, From Rio de Janeiro
Balbino de Araujo
02 September 2008 04:30 Dion said...: great work amanda..UTF-8 characters?
02 September 2008 09:55 Riasmaja said...: Dear Amanda,

Thank you very much for your solution abaout transparent background. And it works well in my blog.

I've added this solution link in my article too.

Once again, Thank You very much..

Best Regards,
Riasmaja
02 September 2008 10:35 Benjami Tennyson said...: Hi Amanda . I'm from Vietnam , so my blog use UTF-8 characters . When i setup this widget to my blog , it won't work propably in language. Please fix character encoding .
P/s : If i wrote wrong, please forgive me ^^
boyprodx's Blog
02 September 2008 12:57 ceoxi said...: doesnt work please help me http://ffb.ceoxi.com
02 September 2008 13:44 Amanda said...: @ceoxi: Without meaning to be rude, considering that you're using my Entrecard logo for your blog header and have ripped my most recent post from Blogging Tips without so much as a link back to the original sources, I don't feel inclined to help!

@Dion and Benjami: Roy Tanck emailed me this morning with a link to his article for adding support for other languages.

This does require editing of the Flash file though. I could probably do this, but as I don't have a flash editor at the moment, I may need to ask a friend to help.

For anyone who requires support for other languages, please let me know your language of choice by leaving a comment. Once I am able to edit the flash, I'll do my best to support the most common requests and provide instructions for use.

It may be a while, but I hope this will eventually be helpful for those who need it :)
02 September 2008 17:18 iEn said...: awesome! thx for de great flash label cloud :D
02 September 2008 21:07 Dr Chewbacca said...: Cool, thanks for this great widget !
02 September 2008 21:58 Justine said...: Well Amanda, I got it working perfectly now, using a transparent background and red text, but... isn't there supposed to be something under the label cloud, giving you credit for it? It's not showing up on my blog.

Justine :o )
02 September 2008 22:05 Justine said...: Okay, now I'm going to cry. I had it perfect, except your name was showing up on my RIGHT sidebar while the label cloud was on the LEFT. I removed the gadget from the right, that just had your name there, and now the label cloud isn't working for me again! Went right back to white background, grey text even though I re-pasted it in the template and changed the codes. Argh!!!!!!!!

Justine :o )
03 September 2008 00:12 Regulação em pauta said...: Hey Amanda,

Very good gadget! Looks beautiful, but when I refresh the page (IE7) or go out home (IE 7) tags cloud disapear! And I have so many clicked tags that you can't read any of them (Firefox 3.01). It seems to be problems with others codes like Google news or search. But could be a code position in blogger too.

Here is the site I'm trying to make it work with: http://assetans.blogspot.com/

Thanks!
Antônio Cordeiro
Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
03 September 2008 01:16 deenoh said...: This a error come out "The widget with id Label99 is not within a section (actual parent element is: div.) Every widget should be in a section."

Armanda how to fix it?..thanks
03 September 2008 03:24 Thang said...: Hi Amanda,
Can you develop a hack to limit the showing posts on each label when visitors click on label-link? In my blog, it shows 20 summary posts when somebody clicking on blog-label. How can I reduce the number of summary posts down to 6 or 7?
03 September 2008 05:04 dzerom said...: hey amanda can you help me i love this widget but when i installed the code preview it , it was fine and when i save it the labels are blank pls... help...... http://blogging-without-a-cause.blogspot.com thanks dzerom.........
03 September 2008 09:12 ipanks said...: ah that for blogger template beta.actually i want to change into blogger beta but i am worried if after i change it, i must optimize all again.
03 September 2008 10:35 Xkalibur said...: thanks!
03 September 2008 17:44 skotbites said...: Hi Amanda, great widget.

Seems I'm having a similar problem to Chris. I've 2 blogs based on the same template with a similar number of widgets on both and the labels are of similar lengths.

www.skotbites.com works perfectly.
www.blu-raypricecheck.com shows a blank square.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
04 September 2008 01:45 faisal Samiullah said...: Thank you very much Sir. You have been really helpful.Keep up the good work.
04 September 2008 03:46 Halil said...: Amanda,
Thanks for the widget. It worked nicely, one problem though..language support for Turkish Please !!
It will be a perfect widget when encoding is correctly done.

Thanks
04 September 2008 15:42 david said...: Thank you! Thank you!

I have a minor problem that eludes me (probably because I'm not too bright).

The Blogumus works great but will sometimes jump the margin...a form problem, not a function problem.

http://conversechristian.blogspot.com/
04 September 2008 21:35 The GHC Group said...: How can I put this label widget at bottom of blogger instead of side bar? Also, I am getting blank cloud. I know it has been an issue to others but can't seem to find the post with the solution.

I would like to replace the cloud I have now with blogumus. Please see mine at http://www.blogger.com/html?blogID=2153318532824414291

Thanks
Bryan
05 September 2008 00:28 أحمد كمال said...: The widget works fine with English labels. The Arabic labels do not show at all. If all labels are in Arabic it looks blank. I tried to change my Arabic labels manually to English and it worked just fine.

Do you think there could be another version supporting the UTF8 characters?

Thanks a lot for all your efforts. I really like your useful blog entries.

Cheers,
Ahmed (http://ra7aya.blogspot.com/)
05 September 2008 04:55 Justin said...: Hi Amanda,
Thanks for the tutorial on doing this widget.

I had tried this but there are some problems happened to me.
I just started my blog, and I have a few labels (I think is 4)
At the beginning, the labels's box did show the words but when the label become more and more, the box doesn't show any words already.

Hope that you can help me on this.
This is my blog http://justinwasborn.blogspot.com/

Thanks
05 September 2008 05:52 HafizAdam said...: great widget Amanda..
but I noticed something: It doesnt include one label.
I got 9 labels but it just shows 8.
And it randomly choose which labels not to show.
Try refresh and you'll notice it.
Haha.
05 September 2008 08:00 Jackster® said...: same problem here as HafizAdam
i have 4labels, but it only shows three..

check it here
http://jacksterisme.blogspot.com

can u plz fix it for me,
thanx 4 ur great widget by the way =)
05 September 2008 13:18 Simon said...: Hey Amanda congrats on joining 9rules! Cool blog bay the way, just a pitty I'm not using blogger ;)
05 September 2008 15:17 JNeto said...: Muito obrigado! (Thanks!)

JNeto
Recife - PE
Brasil
05 September 2008 16:37 أحمد كمال said...: I noticed the same like HafizAdam and Jackster. There is only one missing label.
06 September 2008 04:01 Herman Santoso said...: It works, but it the label that it show is missing 1 label. Please check my testing blog at
http://free-prize.blogspot.com/
06 September 2008 09:09 Emmanuelle Tabbara said...: Hello and thanks for this beautiful work.

It seems on my blog www.gitelapasserelle.com that retrieving labels from the blog is not working for

so.addVariable("tagcloud", "tagsb:loop values='data:labels' var='label'a expr:href='data:label.url' style='12'data:label.name//a/b:loo>/tags");

but when I change it to a specific named list of labels it works

so.addVariable("tagcloud", "tagsa href='http://myblog.com/search/label/mylabel' style='12'>MY LABEL/aa href='http://myblog.com/search/label/mylabel2' style='12'>MY LABEL 2/a "etc ... "/tags");

(Sorry I had to get rid of special tag characters to post this comment...)

Did I misunderstood something ?
Thanks
06 September 2008 10:33 César Ortíz said...: Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us; with your help internet is getting more friendly for all.
07 September 2008 08:46 The Honorable 'Sass said...: Hey Amanda,

Your work is incredible and you certainly have the patience of a saint and it's respected and honored by all. I have a situation of it showing up blank on my blog like Chris and I was just hoping whenever you find a free moment you maybe check my site out and float me some advice on the situation if you could. Thanks so much.
07 September 2008 14:17 coco said...: Love the widget, but like in the stationery tag clund,can I have a minimum two posts with the tag to be reflected in the tag cloud?

Please help. My tag cloud looks like a messy sphere.
08 September 2008 07:35 Online Coupon Class said...: Works great for me. No problems.
08 September 2008 09:21 syilpid said...: wow.. nice widget
08 September 2008 20:24 El Diablo Des. said...: Hello.
I've been trying but I only get the blank screen that Chris used to get.

Thanks for ur help.
08 September 2008 22:08 Steve-O said...: hmmm... your label cloud works well here at Bloggerbusters, but at my blog I just get a black box. Any ideas? I left it up there for you to check out if you want....
08 September 2008 22:09 Steve-O said...: http://www.noiroftheweek.com/

that's the blog I attempted to update...
09 September 2008 02:22 yashar said...: Hi Amanda. Thanks for your efforts. I have installed the codes to my templates, but the labels does not show anything and it is blank.

http://engineering-inventions.blogspot.com/
thanks
yashar
09 September 2008 11:01 klethegr8 said...: perfect... worked fine...

thanks a lot...
09 September 2008 15:01 Amanda said...: It seems this default installation works for most of us, and in cases where a blank widget is displayed, it *should* work, but there is conflict with either other scripts or the length of URLs for label pages.

Luckily Roy Tanck has sent me a different version which doesn't use JavaScript, only the Object embed.

This is a more "foolproof" method suitable for those who can't make the original method work. However, it is more complicated to install: I cannot make the labels display automatically (the Blogger templates won;t work with flash embedded around the label tags). This means that the widget must be coded manually for each person.

It's similar (though not the same) as the method I used for Chris' blog. This version will allow you to embed inside a widget, which can be moved around your layout.

As soon as I can (likely later today) I'll write up a tutorial to explain how to hand code Blogumus for instances when the default installation does not work.

@Chris (If you're reading this): I'll get in touch to explain how to add this new version instead, as this will prevent the need to edit your template further. And sincere apologies for my lack of emails: I've been incredibly busy with the kids and am now working too, so much less time for blogging :(
09 September 2008 15:15 El Diablo Des. said...: Thanks for your time.
09 September 2008 18:52 me2d said...: Thank's Amanda... It's work great in my blog :)
10 September 2008 02:43 rajesh said...: Spectacular widget. thank u
rajesh n
http://masterandstudent.blogspot.com
10 September 2008 04:33 AnggaRifandi said...: Amanda thanks for the widget and I'm really interested to show this tutorial in my personal blog. Would you like give permission to show your tutorial in my blog?
this is my blog in Indonesian language, http://coratcoretblog.blogspot.com.
Hope you would like to check my blog :D

Also I have a question about post a comment box like your site. Can you tell me how to make it?
10 September 2008 12:04 indungg said...: hmmm,...... I Did It,.......success! thanks
10 September 2008 12:12 AnggaRifandi said...: Sorry Amanda for double post but I like to know how to make expand collapse widget?

I've read in several article about expand collapse but I still don't got it.
10 September 2008 17:32 Team said...: Hi Amanda, I went through all the problem descriptions,but couldnt figure out similar problem. I have a different issue,The widget works fine at home page, but after opening second page the animated cloud not working, Instead normal archive style lable appears. Please give me your opnion about this problem as I want to implement this to my main blog.
10 September 2008 19:45 Anonymous said...: This is a great tag cloud indeed.

However, I have also the problem that there is always one tag missing from the cloud. I wonder why?...

Thanks for any advise!
11 September 2008 12:54 Harun said...: thank's for a lot Amanda (sok boso inggris, he..he..)
12 September 2008 23:20 ليمو said...: oh...sanks for this blog
i wont to cheng the backgrawend of the command
soory may englsh is not good
soory
13 September 2008 04:59 Joana Morais said...: Hi Amanda, Blogumus is simply briliant! I would love to know if Blogumus can be implemented in Neo Template(by Ramani)- (fetchLatestPosts javascript function).

thank you
xx
Jo.
13 September 2008 15:24 ibnoe said...: hi... thnak's for your info... i like it and i i will make it on my blog (bahasa ingeris patah-patah macam gergaji dewi persik)
13 September 2008 19:26 Klaus said...: whow! This is great! Thanks a lot, Amanda! Already perfect!
13 September 2008 21:26 Author said...: WoW!!.its a kool widget.thanks amanda, appericiate the hardwork
14 September 2008 11:45 NELSON MAGUILLA said...: Por favor me ajude ,instalei a nuvem em meu blog,mas nada aparece.Só uma tela em branco.help-me?
15 September 2008 01:09 RC said...: It isn't working for me
15 September 2008 01:10 RC said...: Check my site
http://remixconcepts.blogspot.com/
15 September 2008 02:59 Steve-O said...: after a little trial and error I think I found my problem. I don't use a blogger url, but rather my own unique one that I have blogger forward my site to (instead of noiroftheweek.blogspot.com it's noiroftheweek.com)

When I do a test of your code on a "blogspot" url it works fine. Then when I try to add it to the blog that uses my url it doesn't work - even though the template is exactly the same.

Any work arounds for this?
15 September 2008 09:08 Bunda Rierie said...: hi, manda
its work in my blog, but i rather a pink colour to my background, can u help me with the pink code? thx
15 September 2008 21:14 Sudam said...: Fantastic yaar, full marks to you for this label cloud widget. I am using the same and it works fantastically and gives to life to my blog.
Thanks
16 September 2008 13:09 chan said...: Thanks Amanda, Its work fine here..
Its really look cool..
If u free visit my blog
www.kireimanga.blogspot.com
(^.^)
16 September 2008 15:54 Anonymous said...: hi from indonesian
"masak punya amanda sendiri gak gak bisa jalan linknya."
thank for response
16 September 2008 17:04 Anonymous said...: muchas gracias eheheh :D me salio todo perfectamente saludos ^.^
16 September 2008 21:09 Tarry Singh said...: Dear Amanda,

Hate to bother you with YABW (Yet Another Blank Widget) problem.

I am an industry analyst and was drawn to your efforts in solving many problems. I fully undrstand that you have a family, like me and kids, if you cannot look into my blank widget.

My blog is at http://tarrysingh.blogspot.com
if you wish to check it out for me.

Thanks much and keep up the good work!

Tarry
17 September 2008 13:43 Dilu said...: It is working fine....

Thx. brother...
17 September 2008 14:46 Amanda said...: Sincere apologies for the delay in replying about "blank" Blogumus problems!

I have just posted an alternative installation method which should work for everyone, regardless of any other scripts/objects in the template or the length of label names (which seemed to cause issues for some Bloggers).

This has been tested extensively on many different test blogs, and thankfully I was able to devise a method which uses existing labels rather than being hand-coded.

I sincerely hope this works for everyone now! Let me know what you think :)
18 September 2008 14:25 Joe said...: I like this! so I'm using this one.
Thank you for letting me know.

I'm sorry poor English. I'm Japanese.
21 September 2008 04:53 Tiago said...: Hello Amanda!

Great job!!! I really enjoyed the tag cloud. Congratulations !!

I am using it also on my blog here in Brazil.

If you have some time, please visit to see how it worked.

Sorry also for my poor english.
Regards,
Tiago
21 September 2008 16:49 indonesianku said...: at last i can instaled it on my blog. thx u soo much amanda mmmwah hehehe
22 September 2008 09:55 zGreat said...: Hi Amanda,

It could not display the animated flash, but the box is there.
Yet to save it. will try again soon!

Anyway, thx amanda. Keep up the good work!
22 September 2008 17:39 DINIZ said...: i can't install. help-me please!
23 September 2008 11:21 IbnuJusup said...: thank you... you are all the best..:) really works.....
23 September 2008 22:06 Dustin Williams said...: I'm getting an error message when I paste the code in my template:

The widget with id Label99 is not within a section (actual parent element is: div.) Every widget should be in a section

How can I fix this?
24 September 2008 00:30 Moxie said...: The flash label cloud is great, I really love the look of it. Unfortunately, I have too many labels showing up in the cloud, so it's hard to read any of the links... Is there a way to modify the html so that I can set a min value (say 2 or 3) for labels to be included, rather than just every label I've ever listed?
24 September 2008 18:33 Sriram J. Iyer said...: hi,

If i dont give credit for this, its a sin!
I have added your link in the label cloud itself! Thanks a lot buddy!

Have a look @ http://rpos6dot5.blogspot.com
26 September 2008 06:15 BlueFragment said...: This is great!
One thing - I put "C#" as a label and it shows up correctly in the tag cloud.
However, when clicking on it, it returns no result!!!???
Is it because of the "#"?
How do I workaround with it?
Please take a look at http://stolenbit.blotspot.com.

Great job!
Thanks a lot.
27 September 2008 14:20 R Stha said...: I need to show only specific label in this cloud. Any help will be appreciated.
27 September 2008 14:54 R Stha said...: I did it.
Thanks for the stuff.
28 September 2008 08:14 Amal said...: I have installed the widget successfully.But it is showing only 6 labels inside it.There are 7 on my site .How can i display all the labels on my site.
28 September 2008 09:08 Stephen Pickering said...: Every Twitter Widget I try to add always says this:

We are sorry, this gadget appears to be broken.

This gadget has errors, and cannot be used until fixed. Learn more
29 September 2008 05:15 Steve-O said...: still doesn't work for me :(

Just a white box shows up...
29 September 2008 21:06 Airon Faustine said...: Really nice! Thanks for the tut!
I change its background to match mine.

http://scratchslap.blogspot.com
01 October 2008 15:43 BlueFragment said...: I've managed to solve the problem of clicking on a tag with "#" in it yields no result.
Please see my post for more details :)

http://www.stolenbit.com/2008/10/blogumus-tag-cloud-with-in-tag.html
01 October 2008 23:42 maleset said...: two words "thank you"
02 October 2008 00:06 Anand Jage said...: hi there, thank you for blogumus but i have a widget installation problem.. I am using the non animated label cloud.. CSS has been modified .. is the old widget installation causing a problem?
02 October 2008 15:46 rpf_81 said...: I have installed this succcessfully in my blog http://hollywood-and-bollywood.blogspot.com
02 October 2008 19:21 Anonymous said...: wow, nc tutorial.

thx, body ^____^

http://untoong.blogspot.com
03 October 2008 00:06 earthlingorgeous said...: I tried to install it on mine but it's blank help!
04 October 2008 15:01 Anonymous said...: this doesn't seem to work on IE, but works great on Firefox. How can we get it working on IE?
05 October 2008 05:30 Dom DiFucci said...: it don't work
05 October 2008 15:59 Sharad Poddar said...: This Widget is supper sexy.
Mindblowing. Check it out here:

Ebooks Catalog
07 October 2008 03:26 franko said...: Thanks amanda but most people who see a blank screen are using a a tag/label cloud hack.. anyway to work around this?
07 October 2008 07:30 Judie said...: Its a great post and useful also because today everybody want to buy shopping goods online.
Thanks for such an helpful post.
07 October 2008 09:56 Pengait said...: i like!
07 October 2008 20:44 Acis said...: Great work, Amanda!

It would be even greater if I could use the widget with the Greek language.
08 October 2008 09:57 jhangora said...: Lovely.I added the widget & made a post about it in my blog too.Thanx a lot Amanda.
09 October 2008 09:12 Connie said...: Thank you! This is a beautiful widget!! And you were right, so easy to install.
10 October 2008 07:23 Rüdiger V. said...: ;-((
your animated label cloud is NOT working in mY bloG

http://vossyline.blogspot.com

all in german - but still no animation - just a white square

;-((
10 October 2008 12:12 Rüdiger Voßberg said...: made it :)

yep - reducing the number of tags is the secret!

cheers
rudi
10 October 2008 12:58 Rüdiger Voßberg said...: ... but still found a bug: your tool doesn't work with the german "ulaute" ä, ü, ö and ß!

if you click on a word with 1 of these letters, the browser shows a mistranslated url with no results

;(
rudi
10 October 2008 19:21 DIARIKU said...: Thanks... Amanda.. Looks great.. I've done by followed your instruction..
12 October 2008 19:37 Anonymous said...: Hello Amanda!
Congratulation for your work.
I'm from Portugal and
my "Blogumus: a flash animated label cloud for Blogger! not working in my blog".

Can you help me?
http://spliuware.blogspot.com/

Best Regards
12 October 2008 21:57 CarverVictim said...: Just installed this, it looks great and works perfectly. Thanks a lot.
13 October 2008 11:04 António Freitas said...: not working....
any help?
Best Regards
http://spliuware.blogspot.com/
13 October 2008 20:48 LD Techno Kids said...: Thank you so much Amanda & Roy!!! A fabulous tool! Any idea on how easy it is to change the shape of the frame (i.e. put it in the form of an object?)
14 October 2008 07:19 teleTwenties said...: Thanks again for the great code. I've played around for days and can't get the labels tag off of my widget. Any ideas?
14 October 2008 18:37 Master K said...: Thank Amanda, I just have installed. It's good looking.
14 October 2008 21:59 Raúl Montero said...: Thanks, good job.
Un saludo desde España.
15 October 2008 06:23 Cacho said...: i fell in love with the widget when i saw it, unfortunately it doesn't work in my blogspot page. I tried installing as per instruction but it only shows an empty space where the widget should be. I can right click it and change settings for Adobe Flash so it means that it recognizes the code but it has problems displaying it. Please take note that i have an existing custom tag cloud. Please help!
15 October 2008 13:58 Mariecel said...: Thank you so much for this article! I've only started blogging last week (with no previous experience with html), and I was able to understand what to do. Well written!
15 October 2008 19:18 marewa said...: thanks......
17 October 2008 08:02 Judy said...: Online shopping is now a easy way of buying anything which they want by using the internet.so people want to know more about this.
Its a nice post about the same thing.
Thanks
17 October 2008 16:30 gWt said...: can this be use on a single photolog template?
18 October 2008 18:53 Аспарух Иванов said...: Can you do this to be good for cyrillic, pls? :)
18 October 2008 20:01 Tarry Singh said...: Even after copying the latest version it doesn't help. Amanda, please help :-|

http://tarrysingh.blogspot.com