How to fix wordpress 2.6 dashboard to have incoming Technorati Links

Article Last Updated: 6^th Apr 2009
Posted by Ruhani Rabin in Wordpress | View Comments |

From WordPress 2.3 onwards the administration dashboard displays Google blog search incoming links. Which is not always to the point and also not updated frequently. Lot of us suffers possibly because we are so used to look for incoming links to our blog from Technorati, which is more accurate, updated and to the point. I was looking for a possible solution in Google, found a few, namely from Soft Tech Reviews. Soft Tech Reviews described the situation related to wordpress 2.3.xx. I was studying it and I found out the structure for fetching the blog incoming links has been changed dramatically in WordPress 2.6, now it’s more object oriented code and the fetch RSS codes doesn’t stay in /wp-admin/index-extra.php , it actually uses index-extra.php to call the object from /wp-admin/includes/dashboard.php.

So I had a quick look. Its been defined from line 38 of dashboard.php as you can see below (this file is dashboard.php in wordpress 2.6)

   1: // Incoming Links Widget   2: if ( !isset( $widget_options['dashboard_incoming_links'] ) || !isset( $widget_options['dashboard_incoming_links']['home'] ) || $widget_options['dashboard_incoming_links']['home'] != get_option('home') ) {   3:     $update = true;   4:     $widget_options['dashboard_incoming_links'] = array(   5:         'home' => get_option('home'),   6:         'link' => apply_filters( 'dashboard_incoming_links_link', 'http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&scoring=d&partner=wordpress&q=link:' . trailingslashit( get_option('home') ) ),   7:         'url' => apply_filters( 'dashboard_incoming_links_feed', 'http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch_feeds?hl=en&scoring=d&ie=utf-8&num=10&output=rss&partner=wordpress&q=link:' . trailingslashit( get_option('home') ) ),   8:         'items' => 5,   9:         'show_date' => 0  10:     );  11: }

So I’ve tried to change the urls as usual then I found out Technorati himself fetching the RSS in a different manner. Rather than using the “?partner=wordpress” is now “&partner=wordpress”. Anyway I tried a few combinations of urls such as

“http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.ruhanirabin.com

&partner=wordpress”

and also I’ve tried to put in

“http://feeds.technorati.com/cosmos/rss/?url=http://www.ruhanirabin.com&partner=wordpress”

Now confusing part is the second one able to bring up incoming links but unable to recognize the Blog title of the incoming url. (See below for an Idea). It displays the “Somebody” because it can’t identify the resource.

wordpress-2.6-incoming-url-technorati

I’ve modified the code (dashboard.php in WordPress 2.6) as you can see below (Note I’ve changed the item display default to 10 ).

   1: // Incoming Links Widget   2: if ( !isset( $widget_options['dashboard_incoming_links'] ) || !isset( $widget_options['dashboard_incoming_links']['home'] ) || $widget_options['dashboard_incoming_links']['home'] != get_option('home') ) {   3:     $update = true;   4:     $widget_options['dashboard_incoming_links'] = array(   5:         'home' => get_option('home'),   6:         'link' => apply_filters( 'dashboard_incoming_links_link', 'http://www.technorati.com/search/' . trailingslashit( get_option('home') ) .'&partner=wordpress'),   7:         'url' => apply_filters( 'dashboard_incoming_links_feed', 'http://feeds.technorati.com/cosmos/rss/?url='.trailingslashit(get_option('home')).'&partner=wordpress'),   8:         'items' => 10,   9:         'show_date' => 0  10:     );  11: }

Please feel free to leave your comment on this or maybe you can study the ending part of the dashboard.php which actually disassembles the RSS format and format it. That part of the code begins at Line 314 [ $sidebar_args are handled by wp_dashboard_empty() ]. If you can modify it to fit just drop a line to me. Hope this will help those who really seeks the option to get back the good ol’ Technorati incoming links on their dashboard.

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About Ruhani Rabin

Ruhani Rabin is the original owner and author of this blog. He also reviews web 2.0 startups at Tech2all.com. Largely interested in web 2.0 apps & Social Media. Currently the Vice President of MOL Access Portal (MOL is owner of Friendster.com). Also he is Web 2.0 & Social Media Researcher and a Total fun Geek!.. There you have it ;)

Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/ruhanirabin

inpaki
This dashboard widget queries Google Blog Search so that when another blog links to your site it will show up here. It has found no incoming links… yet. It’s okay — there is no rush.

http://www.methoo.com
Sunil Jain
Thanks :)
does this work in 2.7.1???
Navjot Singh
Managed to edit to the correct feed url...atleast show all link points to the correct direction but in the widget it still says:

This dashboard widget queries Google Blog Search so that when another blog links to your site it will show up here. It has found no incoming links… yet. It’s okay — there is no rush.

Seems the toughest job...to edit the incoming links in Wordpress 2.6.2.
Navjot Singh
Somehow...it seems it caches the incoming links somewhere. Because even after using the code...old url keeps on displaying unless you change it once by using edit command. Somewhere the memory of incoming links get cached in either cookies on PC or somewhere on server.
Navjot Singh
Even after using your code, it didn't work in Wordpress 2.6.2!

And after several tries it worked then also it displayed the url with that &partner in the link which gets breaken in technorati.

Pls clean up the code.
Ruhani Rabin
@Andy, Thanks I'm really hoping someone will help on this and make a plugin because everytime update wordpress .. the core files got replaced.. I would love to see the results of google blog search too.. But i don't know why it's always empty.
Andy
This is great information, but for many of us changing the core files is intimidating if we aren't coders and it also means every time we upgrade we need to make the changes again, or they're erased as the changed files are overwritten. I don't know why they've made the previous plugin useless, and switching from one service to another for incoming links so darned difficult. It flies in the face of what's great about WordPress for most of us: its former ease of customisation when it comes to most everything, allowing us to have what we need and want.

I really hope someone comes up with a plugin for the majority to use, or the person who made the plugin that worked between 2.3 and 2.5 updates it for 2.6, if they indeed can.

What's more, the Google Blog Search box seems half-baked, because why include an 'edit' link that users trying to change the RSS information will quickly find results in no change at all?

I'd be happy to let the WordPress developers force me to use Google Blog Search, even though it runs counter to everything else about WordPress, if Google Blog Search actually worked, and worked well. Most of the time I have this darned annoying blank box on my admin dashboard.
Ruhani Rabin
Hi @Lomig, if you can improve it please let me know :) hope it helps
LOmiG
hi, thanks a lot for that, i go and try it on my blog.

great !