Label Sphere v2

A reader pointed out that my Label Sphere wasn't working as advertised. I took a look at both our blogs and they both looked fine, then I realized it must be a browser issue. I looked again with Firefox and sure enough the labels were all stacked on each other at the bottom of the gadget. I made the mistake of only testing in one browser (Google Chrome).

The issue with Firefox was that the label container was collapsing, then JavaScript got a very small height for the container which resulted in a very small sphere. To keep the container from collapsing I added the following to the style of the container (as stated in the link):

overflow: hidden;
width: 100%;

For the sake of completeness I checked the Label Sphere using IE8 on my gf's computer (the only IE I can get on Arch Linux is IE6 and I've decided I don't want to support IE6) and sure enough IE8 had a JavaScript error about "Object doesn't support this property or method". This error occurred while trying to set the a:link and a:visited colors to the current blogs theme. IE8 doesn't support setting :visited in JavaScript. It's also been documented that IE7 needs both :visited and :link (eg a:link:visited) but I'm not sure if that's related. A simple try around the :link and :visited lines with an empty catch worked around this problem. The only downside is that a blog's visitors using IE8 won't see the blog's link and visited color scheme in the Label Sphere.

One other thing I noticed is that the Label Sphere moved smoothly and quickly in Google Chrome, probably because of their V8 JavaScript Engine. Firefox and IE were slower and stuttered a little.

So for anyone using IE6 (or any other outdated browser) it's time you upgrade! And if you aren't using Google Chrome you should give it a try.

Comments

The Emerald Tribe said…
First of all, thank you for creating the app. For the lay person its great. But its difficult to incorporate because there are no options to adjust color, font, size, etc. If I could change these items so would integrate better into my color palette that would be awesome. Until then I will have to hold off using until that release. Thanks again. John Wes Green
February 19, 2010 at 7:58 PM
Alex said…
Hello "The Emerald Tribe", I have updated the Label Sphere gadget to automatically use the blog's color scheme and font style. I'll look into adding user preferences for the other options you mentioned.
February 21, 2010 at 12:18 PM
Alex said…
Hello John, looks like the font and link color are still not being set correctly. Only the background color is correctly changing to the blog's background color. I will look into it. Thanks for the feedback.
February 23, 2010 at 10:40 PM
molhokwai said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
March 1, 2010 at 7:26 PM
molhokwai said…
Like "The Emerald Tribe" I will first of all say thanks for creating the gadget.

I would be glad to help for the adding of the user preferences and other options...

I would also like to interest you to this project: "https://www.freelancer.com/projects/AJAX-CSS/New-paradigm-commerce-website.html"...

Thanks...
March 1, 2010 at 8:13 PM
benjamin said…
Hi there, is there any way to change the colour of the hyperlinks?
Thanks :)
March 31, 2010 at 2:00 PM
Ian Findlay said…
I really like you label sphere :D

Comes in very handy.
April 21, 2010 at 3:01 PM
Askketul said…
all words are rotating in short space so unable to see any name. it is not using the width of the widget.
May 27, 2010 at 5:44 AM
Chickenbellyfinn said…
Indeed a very good widget, practical and impressive-looking (that's rare).
Unfortunately, the link color seems to stay at the default blue and purple, which are hard to read on my dark background. I tried to change it with css (If that's a dumb idea, don't laugh, i'm new to all this). Is there a way you can add an option on to the widget, or even make it work with css? Thanks.
June 19, 2010 at 7:10 AM
Alex said…
Thank you everyone for your comments. I will be working on a new version of the label sphere that will hopefully incorporate all of your requests such as changing the label's font and color.
June 20, 2010 at 10:02 PM
kila said…
when u have the new version with editable colours, how can i upload it or at least know when its ready?:)

can u send me a message to my blog pls?

regards,
kila
June 22, 2010 at 6:34 PM
Anonymous said…
app very good, but i like change the color.

*I from Brazil, sorry for bad english.
July 13, 2010 at 8:28 PM
Bixu Lezadu (original) said…
Hello!

I was using your LabelSphere through the Blogger "gadget installer" and was working fine. Later, I'v added some hacks to my blog, messing directly at the code, and it has stopped working.

I tought was when I added references to Prototype&Scriptaculous, what may be conflicting with your script.

My interest was on getting the code to try porting it for this resource, but I didnt found any useful source. So, could you release the fontcode n/or try to update it?
July 20, 2010 at 12:27 PM
Bixu Lezadu (original) said…
Just confirmating: the problem is confirmated on Prototype&Scriptaculous hack.

This is sad, coz I want to add some new resources to my blog, and doesnt wants leave LabelSphere!
July 20, 2010 at 2:30 PM
Alex said…
kila: I will post a message on your blog when the new version is ready.

Djo!: Changing colors will be in the next version. To be released soon...hopefully.

blogger mania: Thanks!

Bixu Lezadu: I have been thinking about releasing the code. The next version will be available under the ISC license. Can you post the Prototype and Scriptalicious lines which are causing a problem for you? I'll try to get your problem fixed before the next release.
July 20, 2010 at 11:06 PM
Bixu Lezadu (original) said…
@Alex: the problematic lines are just those ones what implements the Prototype&Scriptaculous funtionality to the blog, or else:

< script type='text/javascript' src='http://www.google.com/jsapi' >< /script >
< script type='text/javascript' >
google.load("prototype","1.6.0.3");
google.load("scriptaculous", "1.8.2");
< /script >

As far I'v researched for, this happens coz JQuery (the API you'd used for) "declines" to the stringvar calling in benefit of others API. There are a few tutorials over the net where teaches how to avoid this, as these from own JQuery docs:
http://docs.jquery.com/Using_jQuery_with_Other_Libraries

Well... Hope I'v helped!
See ya, and good luck!
July 22, 2010 at 2:24 AM
jpressley said…
Hey...I have labels on my posts but theyre not appearing in the sphere. HELP!
July 25, 2010 at 1:49 PM
Nur farhana said…
I'm having the same problem as jpressley...
August 8, 2010 at 9:06 PM
Jackie said…
Thank you for your label sphere. I've been looking for one that actually works. The blogumus did not work very well. It is looking great on my blog. Please let me know whenever you make the other changes . I guess I should follow your blog to get updates eh? *winks
September 12, 2010 at 7:58 AM
Μισταρκός said…
I have installed the label sphere on my blog http://mistarkos.blogspot.com/ but It shows only the first Category. I update it but it doesn't show the 2nd category. Do I have to add it or it gets it automatically?

Thanx.
September 24, 2010 at 3:27 AM
Zainil said…
I dont want to show all my labels, I want to display only some specific labels...how do I do that in Label Sphere?
October 14, 2010 at 11:01 AM
Beauty Benefits said…
Ive finally figured out how to add labels, but the sphere still says NO LABELS.
November 17, 2010 at 3:12 PM
Pheepsangels Perfectsoulgirl James said…
my sphere are not working anymore..what can i do?
March 8, 2011 at 11:24 PM
bdaul said…
How do I change the color of the text of the labels? I am using your wonderful gadget...on a dark green background. The default color of the gadget is navy blue. How can I change that?

Thanks again, --bill bdaul@pacbell.net
March 24, 2011 at 4:06 AM
Anonymous said…
hi thanks for creating this widget...but i wish there's a way for me to personalize the color or the font...
April 23, 2011 at 9:35 AM
Lasu aka Marek Kozieł said…
Hi,

You can always prepare few base versions:
read / green / blue / while / black
It should do not take much time, but can help much till better version will be available.

Greetings.
May 4, 2011 at 12:51 AM
Saya Garapan said…
This sphere is the rock star of blogomania.
May 24, 2011 at 10:32 AM
Sophie said…
Thanks for the gadget! I really want to use it in my blog, but it doesn't seem to update when I delete a label! It would be really great for it to work, but I need the labels to sync and update with my posts!
thanks!
July 9, 2011 at 11:10 AM
Fabrizio said…
Thanks for creating this beautiful app. Well, I think the Sphere is not working again, even in Google Chrome.Perhaps you can see what's happening.

Fabrizio
August 5, 2011 at 3:59 AM
Alex said…
Hi Fabrizio, it looks like something broke in google gadgets

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/bloggerdev/RASeZwLD6ok

but it appears to have been fixed.
August 5, 2011 at 3:16 PM
Unknown said…
Hey!
The gadget doesn't work on my blog, it says that there are no labels, how do I add some labels??? Help
September 3, 2012 at 10:34 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Update to Label Sphere

I've finally had some free time to work on the Label Sphere. The new version should correctly color the labels according to your blog's color scheme on Chrome, Firefox, and IE 8. The new version has not been added to the Blogger gallery yet, but when it does get added I will post an update. To use the new version, add a new gadget to your blog, select "Add your own" and use the following URL http://alexdioso.github.com/LabelSphere/LabelSphere.xml I've also released the gadget under the GPL here https://github.com/alexdioso/LabelSphere
Read more

Label Sphere

My first Google Gadget is at the top of the left column of my blog. I've seen label clouds around and they all used flash so I decided to write one in JavaScript. I figured it would be a good learning experience. This gadget uses JavaScript and jQuery to rotate divs around a single point. Depth is represented by changing the font size and opacity. You can add my gadget to your blogger layout by adding a new gadget and searching for either "Alex Dioso" or "Label Sphere". I've also updated my .vimrc for use with JavaScript.
Read more