JenSocial: Social Web Directory and Ning Tips

Social Web Directory :: Social Network Directory :: Ning Tips and Ning Support

Add ShareThis or AddThis Link to Upper Left of Window

To add the ShareThis Site Feature to upper-left portion of your window, and have it show even when someone scrolls down, add the following code to your Analytics Box.
Note: An issue has been found with the ShareThis block, on a Ning Site. When you activate the pop-up, any programs running javascript, like the music player, photo slide slide, widgets, etc... will temporarily stop running. Your visitors can still share the pages, just a little confusing.

PLEASE SEE ADDTHIS alternative at bottom of Discussion.

Option #1: ShareThis
1. Go here, and grab your own code:
http://sharethis.com/publishers/getbutton. At first I didn't think it mattered. But, I believe it does. It appears that each publisher has their own unique Publisher's code.

2. Edit your code, to look like the code below. Change the position parameters to suit your needs.

3. Adjust the font size to suit your needs. 1.25em means 125%, in comparison to your normal font size of 100%.

4. Add your edited code, to the Analytics Box.

TIP: Basically, all you're doing is wrapping a DIV around the code you grab from sharethis.com - - and floating the sharethis link on your site.

5. I notice a little glitch, when you scroll down, although you can still see the Link Text, the popup opens at top, and user can't see the box. If this is an issue for you, change the parameter "fixed" to "absolute".

PLEASE BE SURE TO GRAB YOUR OWN CODE.

You can see an example of this link, upper-left of this site.

<div style='position: fixed; top: 30px; left: 15px; font-size:1.25em!important;'><script type='text/javascript' src='http://w.sharethis.com/button/sharethis.js#publisher=9cebbd04-2e8b-45e6-943a-052697482be1&type=website&buttonText=ShareThis%20Site!&style=rotate'></script></div>

Option #2 AddThis Button (instead of ShareThis)
I like both of these bookmarking/sharing apps. As mentioned above, the ShareThis pop-up temporarily prevents other javascript(s) from running. The con to AddThis: it's pop-up will be displayed behind any Flash components. But, that would be rare, and the site visitor can easily scroll down to access sharing sites in list. This is not an uncommon flaw.

I'm providing the "absolute position (doesn't scroll with page)" on this one.
AddThis Code:

<div style='position: absolute; top: 75px; left: 15px;'><a class="addthis_button" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=xa-4b3bf4f83e6b3451"><img src="http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/v2/lg-share-en.gif" width="125" height="16" alt="Bookmark and Share" style="border:0"/></a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b3bf4f83e6b3451"></script>
</div>


You can customize and grab your own code, for tracking purposes, at:
http://www.addthis.com

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kiribati My Homeland on December 30, 2009 at 3:23pm

Thanks Jen for this tip! I have put it on my site ..but the problem is - when the box comes up, then the slidephotos, the music and vote on the main page stop, but when I close the share link pop up box then the features continue! Can you help, please? It is so a great item and i want to keep it!

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on December 30, 2009 at 6:45pm

Oh my. I see this. It's happening on any page where there is a javascript block running. Course it's temporary (only while pop-up share this box is open) - - but definitely weird to site visitors.

I don't know if there's anything that can be done. I'll let you know if I come up with a solution.
Thanks for reporting this.
Jen

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on December 30, 2009 at 7:19pm

Again, thanks for reporting the issue about ShareThis temporarily stopping program code running javascript. I have provided an alternative: AddThis. Please see code in original Discussion text box.
Best,
Jen

Permalink Reply by Kiribati My Homeland on December 31, 2009 at 3:21am

I'm more happy that I used your tips and learning from them as well! I'll report issues to you as I come across. I have tried the alternative Add this and things functioned very well..thank you for the code. To me, my site has changed much since joined Ning Directory, when surely I couldn't make them without your help.
Thank you.
amota

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on December 30, 2009 at 7:23pm

I'm experiencing really odd issues in "reply" boxes lately. I left this message 2 minutes ago, and cannot find it.

Thanks again for reporting the issue about ShareThis app temporarily stopping program code, running javascript. I have added an alternative: AddThis. Please see instructions in original Discussion box, for this tip.
Best Regards,
Jen

Permalink Reply by K.King on October 28, 2010 at 8:08am

Great i have put it on my network !How do i put it so that it appears in the blogs and video next to the share link next to facebook and twitter

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on October 28, 2010 at 12:04pm

Good question King. I'll add this to my list. I'm creating a list of premium tips, that I will charge a small one-time fee for access to. I don't think I've ever written this tip, I doubt it. It takes adding special script and injecting the code via the Custom Code Box.

Best,

Jen