I just wrote my first WordPress Plugin!  You probably just saw my post about it… I decided to do a formal post to document the plugin (which I can use for the plugin’s URL on the WP Plugin site) and then post afterwards to announce it to the masses.

Anyway, it’s called Google Calendar Feed Parser and it does basically what the title implies.  You give it the URL for a Google Calendar feed and it parses and displays the feed for use in a sidebar to show upcoming events on your calendar.  There are still a lot of improvements that I’d like to work into it, but version 0.1 has some pretty solid core functionality and should work well in any WordPress theme.

Try it out on your blog and let me know what you think.  I’m excited about it and I plan to continue working on adding functionality so suggestions are very welcome.

Update: I’ve added a screenshot of the plugin in action on a blog I administer.  You can view it here.

Google Calendar Feed Parser is a Wordpress Plugin designed to facilitate incorporating a Google Calendar XML feed into your WordPress blog.  I wrote this plugin after being unable to find an existing plugin to provide similar functionality.  I intend to keep this plugin up to date, compatible with the most recent releases of WordPress, as they occur.  If you have suggestions, comments, advice, etc. or you would like to help me develop the plugin, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.  Any help is appreciated (especially since this is my first WordPress Plugin).  Please let me know if you have any timezone related issues, I had some odd problems getting the times to appear properly.

To install Google Calendar Feed Parser:

1. Download the zip archive and extract it to the wp-content/plugins directory.
2. Go to the “Plugins” page in the WordPress Admin interface and click the “Activate” link for the Google Calendar Feed Parser.

To configure Google Calendar Feed Parser:

1. Go to the “Settings” page in the WordPress Admin interface and click the link for the “Google Calendar” page.
2. Set the URL for the calendar feed and other settings as desired (see below for full explanation of all options).

Options:

1. Feed URL: This is the URL of the feed you wish to incorporate in your blog.  It should be of the form:
   

   http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/userID/public/full?param=value&param=value…

2. • For a listing of available parameters, see the Google Calendar API documentation. I found the following query string to provide desirable results:
     

     ?orderby=starttime&sortorder=ascending&futureevents=true&singleevents=true

   • Note that the max-results parameter should not be specified here as it will be handled by the setting below.
3. Static URL: Use this option if you want to have each event link to a single URL (e.g. have each event link to a page where you’ve embedded your Google Calendar).  If you leave this set to “No”, the plugin will use the link provided by the feed for each individual event.
4. Max Results: Use this to set the maximum number of events to retrieve and display from the calendar.  If left blank, the plugin’s default is 4.

To Use Google Calendar Feed Parser:

1. Include a call to the function <em>gcal_parse_feed()</em> at the spot where you want the feed to appear.  I use the feed in my sidebar but you could use the feed wherever you want.
2. Include style rules in your template’s stylesheet to customize the look of the feed.  A single event outputted from the plugin would be of the form:
   

   <div id=”events”> <div class=”event”> <h3><a href=”http://some-link-here”>Event Title</a></h3> <p id=”event_time”>July 12, 2009 from 9:00pm to 10:00pm</p> </div> …more events here… </div>

Donations:

If you like this plugin, please consider donating.

Changelog:

Version 0.1 (first):

• Ability to set feed URL.
• Choice of whether to use event URL from feed or static URL for each event.
• Ability to set max-results parameter.

Future Functionality:

• Ability to customize query string from the Admin interface in WordPress.

April Fool’s Day was welcomed just 18 minutes ago (EDT) and already there are a wealth of pranks littering teh intarwebs.

First, I present to you the Global Internet Maintenance Organization (GIMO).  The GIMO is the organization responsible for the cleanliness and upkeep of the intertubes and has designated April 1st as its annual “Internet Cleaning Day”.  The GIMO’s very own Alexander Gotham sent out a mass emailing just today announcing this to all internet users.  For more information, visit their website.

Second, Google released a brand new service today called gDay.  Powered by MATE technology, gDay seeks to provide the user with tomorrow’s search results today.  Check it out here.

Third, the author’s of XKCD, Questionable Content and Dinosaur Comics have teamed up to present what I find to be the most humorous April Fool’s Day prank I’ve seen.  Take a look at their respective websites, keeping in mind which you’re clicking on.  I think you’ll find the results quite amusing.  Of course, this will probably no longer be valid after April Fool’s Day is over.

Fourth, heeding the requests of the aforementioned Alexander Gotham of the GIMO, P-Dub of pdub.net has brought his site down for spring cleaning.

Fifth, Zach and Ryan officially announced the end of the Clarkson Open Source Institute.  All hardware is either being sold or donated with proceeds benefiting the K12 Program and the MCS Department here at Clarkson.

Sixth, I saw this link at the top of my Gmail screen last night, but at that time it didn’t actually go anywhere.  This morning, however, it leads to a new feature in Gmail known as Custom Time.  Check it out for yourself.

What a funny day.  I will probably update this list as I become aware of new pranks, so stay tuned.

It’s been far too long, blog.

This post is dedicated to new news. I will discuss this news in several categories. Enjoy.

My life: I miss home, Joelle, my family, and my dog. I’ve been back at school for almost 2 weeks now, just trying to slip into this semester’s routine and stay on top of my work.

Google Android Contest: As I’ve mentioned, a group of us from the lab have set out to build an application that will run on Google’s new Android platfrom (part of the Open Handset Alliance). Progress so far is very good and we’re actually hoping to have two separate submissions for the March 3rd-ish deadline.

Classes: They are going well. Most everything has been fairly straightforward so far but I’m expecting the workload to get somewhat heavier as the semester progresses. One thing I’m looking forward to is an idea Pat and I have for a project for our Computer and Network Security course. I’m not going to delve into too much detail here because I don’t want to leak information about it to anyone on the Clarkson campus (it could affect the results of our little experiment). If you don’t go to Clarkson and would like more details, let me know.

COSI: Maybe I should finish the time server project I started last semester. Hmmm…

K2CC: For those of you who don’t know, I’m a member of the Clarkson Amateur Radio Club. The club does a lot of neat projects, a few of which I get involved in here and there. Check out the wiki I set up. There’s a license exam coming up on February 2nd and I’m considering upgrading to a General Class license. I’ll let you know how it goes.

My Website: Recently added on the right hand side of my blog’s home page is a link to a calendar that shows my schedule. I’ll try to keep this thing as up to date as possible so that if you want to know when I’m available or what I’m up to you can check there. Also, I’m working on a photo browsing application (using some AJAX) that I hope to put up here at some point, I’ll let you know when that becomes available (it will probably be password-protected, so you’ll have to know me to check it out).

Clarkson: Is a mess. There’s construction vehicles all over and it’s become one huge mud/snow pit. Due to the abundance of dirt everywhere, maintenance has decided to use dirt to coat every slippery surface on campus. Not only does this make the surface somewhat less slippery, it contributes a great deal to the mud collection here at the University. This is as opposed to using salt which would effectively melt the ice and actually prevent a muddy mess, and that would be terrible.

Potsdam: It’s cold here (sorry, that’s not new news). This morning my computer informed me that it was -1. -1 is cold.

I think that will be all for today. I’ll try to post more often, I promise.

I’m writing this post from my bedroom… looking forward to a good night’s sleep in my bed. :)  Arrived home safely today around 1 and am very happy to be finished with school for a couple weeks.

Thought I’d update you all with an addition to the things to do list for break. Some of us from COSI have decided to participate in the Google Android Contest. We have a few pretty sweet ideas and work is to start over break with the hopes of having a basic prototype done by the start of the semester. If you’ve never heard of it, check out the site to see what it’s about. Should be a lot of fun.

Anyway, it’s late and I’m tired.

Hello everyone, hope you’re all having a great Thanksgiving! It’s good to be home enjoying the holiday with my family and spending time with the girl I love.

An update on classes… instead of COMM341 (which was a question mark anyway), I’ve registered for COMM440 - PHP and MySQL. I’m just hoping that it will be at least slightly entertaining and challenging, I would really like to learn something in that class. Everything else is the same, this 5 class line-up shouldn’t be too bad for next semester… the only class I’m a little concerned about is CS344…

In other news, I want an Ipod Touch and a MacBook Pro. Enough said I think.

VMWare Server 2.0 Beta was released just recently (check it out here). I downloaded and installed it on my Windows Vista desktop and have been very pleased so far. The biggest difference I saw right away is that the application is web-based. All the management functions and VM usage occurs inside your browser. I’ve found two issues I think I should point out:

1. I first tried running it in Firefox… this worked fine until I went to the VM’s console tab to view my VM as it booted. The program told me I needed to download a plugin for Firefox, so I clicked the link and the plugin wouldn’t install properly (it gave an error about not being able to write to something). So (using IE Tab) , I tried it in Internet Explorer. The plugin installed fine and I’m now able to view my VM’s console.
2. The first thing I noticed after installing VMWare was that it asked me to login. What was I supposed to login with? Good question. After doing some hunting online, I found that I was supposed to use the existing user account on the system. But my user account wouldn’t work. Upon further investigation it occurred to me that it probably wanted the administrator account. I had to go through the process of enabling that account and setting a password and I was instantly able to login to the VMWare Infrastructure Client.

With that, I’ll be off for the day. It’s time to pay more attention to the football game at hand. Again, I hope you enjoy your holiday.