alifity [ playground ]

Yesterday, I started to build wordpress theme from zero for this blog. This is easy, but challenging and fun. I will release it free after I finish it, so always take track off ;).

I try to follow some guidelines on building wordpress theme, from basic to hack. Vandelay Design in its post titled “9 WordPress Hacks to Encourage User Interactivity” show me several wordpress hacks to make our blog more interactive. In point 4, Add Custom Bookmark Links, they suggest to add social bookmark button, and they hardcode it. Like:

Hey, waits! Digg as I know have embeddable button, and it is based on javascript, like this:

So based on javascript or hardcoding? Ok.. let’s analyze.

Hardcoding absolutely faster than based on javascript, this is also suitable if you don’t want to show details, like ‘how many who have dugg’ or ‘how many retweet of this post’.

Pros of based on javascript is to make button more interactive, and also show useful information than hardcoding. But, the cons are, as javascript behavior, it may block http request until it loaded, so it make your page like stop loading if you have slow internet connection.

Which approach that yo have to take is depending on your needs. In this blog, I used both combination. As you see in the bottom, I hardcode post to Delicious, StumbleUpon, and Facebook. And using based on javascript for Reddit, Digg and Tweetmeme.

As the information to Integrate these javascript button, you can visit:

• Integrate: “Digg This” Button
• Put reddit.com buttons on your site
• TweetMeme retweet button

If you want to hardcode it, The Designed has good post about the social media URL pattern that you can use. If you have any thought, put them on comments below.