Read More hack for Blogger with automatic Thumbnail creator script

You might have noticed that since few weeks I have been using a strange script which enables us to summarize content and show only the summary with a thumbnail in Home Page , Archives page and Labels page.
Since some of my readers requested this hack in gtalk, so I am going to explain How to add this hack to your blogger template.

Before going into this , I would like to mention the previous versions of this created by some of my fellow Bloggers.

• Eblog Templates
• Hackosphere

But these versions had some disadvantages like :

1. It can’t automatically create summaries.

We need to add the following tag in all post pages while writing new posts

Type your summary here
<span id=”fullpost”>
Type rest of the post here
</span>

2. This feature can be available only for future posts.

That is if you already have 50 posts in your blog and then after that you are adding this hack to your template then you need to add the above tag in each and every previous 50 posts to make this hack working. But it’s a tedious process.

3. Can’t create Thumbnails automatically

This hack can’t create automatic thumbnails for posts.
Now a new version has been developed by my blogger friends. I would like to share that new version of read more hack with you all.

Read More hack with automatic Thumbnail creator script

This hack has overcome all the drawbacks of the previous version of read more hack. This hack is developed by Blogsphera . ( Translated version ).
Let’s see the installation instructions :

Adding the Javascript in the header

To add the javascript files to the header , first login to your blogger account. Then navigate to Layout section of your blog and then move to EDIT HTML sub tab.
There search for this tag : </head>
Now place the follwing code above that tag </head> :

<SCRIPT type=’text/javascript’> var thumbnail_mode = &quot;no-float&quot; ; summary_noimg = 500; summary_img = 400; img_thumb_height = 130; img_thumb_width = 281; </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT src=’http://www.smashingtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/read-more.js’ type=’text/javascript’/>

then save your template.

Final step : ADD the code in post body

Now check ” Expand Widget Templates ” option in the edit html page. And then search for this tag

Now replace that whole tag with the code below :
<b:if cond=’data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;’>
<p><data:post.body/></p>
<b:else/><DIV expr:id=’&quot;summary&quot; + data:post.id’><p><data:post.body/></p></DIV> <SCRIPT type=’text/javascript’>createSummaryAndThumb(&quot;summary<data:post.id/>&quot;);</SCRIPT> <div style=’clear: both;’/> <div style=’border:0px;padding-top:5px;;float:right;text-align:right;’><span class=’readon’><a expr:href=’data:post.url’ rel=’bookmark’><img src=’http://i422.photobucket.com/albums/pp302/bloggeracs/ReadMore.png‘/></a></span></div>
</b:if>

You can now preview your template and then save it.
it will look like this :

Customizing The code

Now let us see how to customize the code to suit your style :

• var thumbnail_mode = “no-float”;
By default i have selected no-float. That the image will be unformatted. If you want the thumbnail to be shown only on left use the option ” float ” instead of “no-float”.
• summary_noimg = 500 ;
This code will decide how much characters must be shown in the post if that post doesn’t contain any images. I have selected 500 characters.. you can customize it to suit ur template.
• summary_img = 400 ;
If the post contains image , then this code will decide how many characters must be shown in that post. Change the number of characters to be shown to suit your template.
• img_thumb_height = 130;
This tag decides the height of the thumbnail to be shown in the post. Vary the number 130 to suit your template.
• img_thumb_width = 281 ;
This tag decides the width of the Thumbnail image to be shown.

Adding read more image

The author of this hack haven’t included any read more buttons in this hack. But I have modified the code and have included a image to link to the full post. If you want to change the image then replace the url of the image with your own image or if you don’t need any read more button , then replace the code in final step to this one :
<b:if cond=’data:blog.pageType == “item”‘> <p><data:post.body/></p> <b:else/><DIV expr:id=’”summary” + data:post.id’><p><data:post.body/></p></DIV> <SCRIPT type=’text/javascript’>createSummaryAndThumb(“summary<data:post.id/>”);</SCRIPT> <div style=’clear: both;’/><div style=’border:0px;padding-top:5px;;float:right;text-align:right;’><span class=’readon’><a expr:href=’data:post.url’ rel=’bookmark’>Read More…</a></span></div> </b:if>
change the tag in red to suit your style.

Hope I have explained everything in this script.