Bright Kite for Wordpress
I couldn’t find a plugin, and thought it would be very web 2.0 to have my current location on my blog, so decided to write a plugin. Turns out it’s much easier than I anticipated, location is pulled from the published XML and stuck into a static Google map. Easy.
Seeing as it was so straight forward, I went the extra step further and made it customisable from the plugin admin section. If it’s of any interest to anyone, here it is:
Download iBrightKite
Update: The plugin has been approved by Wordpress. Success.
Update: I’ve made some changes, the plugin should now be compatible with PHP4 (in theory) and locations can now be cached. If it didn’t work before, please try again.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:25 am
I’m getting the update feed but no gif; is this due to the js libraries I’ve got in the slideshow? I see yours is running and looks great!
October 31st, 2008 at 12:53 am
Sorry Simon, an oversight on my part meant that you couldn’t enter a Google maps API key. You can grab one here: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html and the latest version of iBrightKite (1.0.2) has a fix for this
Dave
November 4th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Excelent post. I wish good luck from Private Krankenversicherung
November 6th, 2008 at 11:12 am
生是做网站的人。死是做网站的鬼。我的网站什么时候才有你网站的那么成功啊。羡慕中~~~
November 11th, 2008 at 3:41 am
I got everything installed and have my API key, however, my widget says, ‘I’m lost’. Any idea how to fix this?
November 11th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Hi Rolando, sorry you’re having problems
The reasons for this could be:
* BrightKite not returning any info / Timing out
* Your server not supporting cURL or SimpleXML functions.
BrightKite does tend to have intermittent problems, might be worth trying again. If it still doesn’t work, I’ll try and investigate why for you
November 26th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
@Rolando-
For what it’s worth, don’t forget the simplest of mistakes. I was getting the same error until I realized I accidently added an extra letter to my brightkite user name. Works great now.
@Dave-
First, thanks for your work. This was exactly what I was looking for. Where in the ibrightKite.php file can I change the name of the widget?
November 26th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Nevermind. I thought I changed the name correctly, but I just forgot to deactivate and reactivate the plugin. It’s all good in the hood now. Thanks again.
November 26th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
@Flynn – Glad you’re finding it useful! If there are any features you’d like to see / improvements to stuff, just let me know.
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:54 am
Good, I have added to my favorites,
this title:dave mcdermid » Blog Archive » Bright Kite for Wordpress
By the way, i want make a friendlink with your site~ if you could,please do and mailto me[sharks1039@gmail.com],wish to you~111
December 19th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
顶~~~~我叫爱情地图，希望能交个朋友哈！
December 21st, 2008 at 7:10 am
Dave,
Thanks so much for this plugin! It’s exactly what I needed.
Is there any way to add a link to my Brightkite account?
December 21st, 2008 at 9:55 am
@Bridget I’ve updated the plugin so the ‘checked in’ text is a link to your bk profile, you should be able to update automatically from wp-admin.
Thanks for the feedback
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Hi Dave,
I’m also getting ‘I’m Lost’. I have double checked my Google API Key, and my BrightKite username – all ok.
I’m running WP 2.7.
Any ideas?
Like your LastFM widget – any recommendations?
Thanks in advance.
Jas
December 23rd, 2008 at 7:36 am
@Dave Thanks so much!
December 27th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Hi Dave, I am having the exact same issues Jason is having. Would love any help you can give us. Thanks.
December 28th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
The issue is with PHP4 as the plugin depends on SimpleXML, which is PHP5+. Seems many people still have blogs on php4 environments, I’ll look into a fix for this.
December 28th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
hi. Thanks for plugin
perfect.
Regards
December 28th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Hey Dave thanks for the update! It works now!
December 29th, 2008 at 2:13 am
Dave,
This looks very promising and I appreciate your efforts!
Does the plugin have the ability to be added to any portion of a WP install using a tag include or is it limited to the widget functionality only?
It would be very helpful if it coud be implemented anywhere on the site independent of WP’s built in widget capability.
Thanks again,
Dre
http://www.armeda.com
December 29th, 2008 at 10:15 am
@Dre sure, just call the function ibrightkite() and that’ll give ya the link and a map.
@baron, @cristina – glad you like it
December 29th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Dave, awesome.
I will implement it tonight on http://www.armeda.com.
Have a great holiday and thank you for the reply.
Cheers,
Dre
December 29th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
As an update, I called the function on my custom sidebars and it looks great, meets W3C standards, and I can now auto update my geo data from my iPhone wherever I am.
Thanks for the great plugin and I hope to see more good stuff in the future.
Warmest regards and Happy New Year.
Dre
http://www.armeda.com
February 1st, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Hi!
You should had to the instructions that BrightKite is a website and it’s required to have an account there.
Ricardo
February 8th, 2009 at 1:32 am
I’ve installed the plugin and noticed that it will show my status but not the map. I’ve made sure the settings were correct in admin section. Any ideas on why it wouldn’t work? I already have the Google API key too.
February 8th, 2009 at 1:35 am
sorry, nevermind. I realized that I had used the wrong URL when signing up for the Google Map API. All good now!
April 15th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
If you want to see a reader’s feedback
, I rate this post for 4/5. Decent info, but I have to go to that damn google to find the missed parts. Thank you, anyway!
April 15th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Hi, I can’t get it to update my location. All other settings work. I have the correct user ID, clicking the link “checked in X days ago” takes me to my BrightKite profile. Set it to always load location from BrightKite, still seems like no communication with BrightKite.
Please advice!
April 18th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
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June 4th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
[...] iBrightKite, Version 1.0.4 Par Dave McDermid pour afficher une mini-carte géographique avec ma dernière géolocalisation connue via mon compte sur le service Brightkite. [...]
July 6th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
wvzObC Oh hell yeah
July 6th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
great site. I love online games,
July 6th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
beautiful site..)),
July 6th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
great site. I love online games,
July 6th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Thanks this design is very good..,
July 6th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Oh hell yeah
July 6th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Hi! The post is really interesting! I
July 6th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
what gives you that idea?,
July 6th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Don
July 6th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Great topic, nice message. Thank you.,
July 6th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
it
July 6th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Bravo! Nice Article.,
July 6th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
it
July 6th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Hi can someone please translate for me thanx,
August 19th, 2009 at 12:44 am
Hi, I dont see any instructions on how to obtain a iBright username. I am lost too.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:57 am
You can sign up for brightkite at http://brightkite.com/
September 20th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Thanks very much for your iBrightkite plugin for Wordpress. I use it on my professional blog and my photoblog.
I came over today to find out if something was amiss with the plugin, because I noticed that my location was reported as “I’m lost”. I changed the display mode from Google Map to text mode and back, and all seems to be well again.
I enjoy the levity that “I’m lost” gives. This is so much better than a ugly error message, when the problem is temporary.