This content is 14 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about adding a Tweet button to a self-hosted WordPress blog, and followed up by writing about using a little CSS trickery to align the Tweet button (thanks to Alex Coles). Whilst I was implementing the Tweet Button, I also went about putting a Facebook Share button on each post.
There are plug-ins to do this for me but why use a plugin when the answer is just a single lines of code in two files within the template?
In the same paragraph as the Tweet button (i.e. styled with the same class), I used this code, generated using the Facebook Share Button generator:
This time, the code is identical for both index.php and single.php as, unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t seem to give me any control over the title of the link (it just takes the </code> tag from the page). <a href="http://askville.amazon.com/add-Share-Facebook-button-webpage/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=1539369">There is another method, using query string parameters in the URL</a> but I chose to stick with Facebook’s recommended method.</p>
<p>Incidentally, I chose to Share, rather than <a href="http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like">Like (which can be implemented by following these guidelines)</a> because they have subtly different purposes and <a href="http://daggle.com/facebook-button-facebook-share-keeping-1792">each is represented in a slightly different manner (as Danny Sullivan describes in his post on the subject)</a>. After reading Danny’s post, I agree that Share is best for linking to a single post, whilst Like is more suited to the site as a whole (someone might <em>Like</em> markwilson.it and <em>Share</em> one or more posts from the site).</p>
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<article id="post-1979" class="post-1979 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry tag-social-networking tag-wordpress">
<header class="entry-header">
<h2 class="entry-title"><a href="https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/08/more-on-implementing-twitters-tweet-button.htm" rel="bookmark">More on implementing Twitter’s Tweet button</a></h2>
<div class="entry-meta">
<span class="posted-on">Posted on <a href="https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/08/more-on-implementing-twitters-tweet-button.htm" rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date published" datetime="2010-08-26T18:51:56+01:00">Thursday 26 August 2010</time></a></span><span class="byline"> By <span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/author/mark-wilson">Mark Wilson</a></span></span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
</header><!-- .entry-header -->
<a class="post-thumbnail" href="https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/08/more-on-implementing-twitters-tweet-button.htm">
</a>
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<div class="juiz-outdated-message jodpm-top">This content is 15 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.</div><p>A week or so back, I wrote about <a href="http://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/08/adding-a-tweet-button-to-a-self-hosted-wordpress-blog.htm">putting a Tweet button onto a self-hosted WordPress blog</a>. The method I used was fine – it works – but I was struggling to place the button within my page (I knew where to put it in my code but it seemed to display in the wrong place sometimes, as a result of some of the floats that the stylesheet applies).</p>
<p>That’s when I called in my buddy <a href="http://www.alexcoles.com/">Alex</a>: XHTML and CSS wizard; and fixer of many things on this site.</p>
<p>He spotted that, even though <a href="http://dev.twitter.com/pages/tweet-button">Twitter gives us three options for implementing the Tweet button: JavaScript, IFrame, and roll your own</a>, the <a href="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js">JavaScript implementation</a> also uses an IFrame.</p>
<p>The trouble with this is that IFrames are bad. Well, not really bad, but certainly deprecated for Strict HTML and XHTML, and certainly not the direction I want to be heading in for a compliant site. Ideally, I would find another way around the issue but rolling my own Tweet button doesn’t look great) and Twitter’s implementation uses several images in one file, just showing the appropriate section of the image. I could use this, with image replacement techniques for hover and click (which is what Twitter do) but, to be honest, that was a little out of my league, so IFrames it is…</p>
<p>Alex helped me style up the button – if you want to do something similar, this was the CSS that he used:</p>
<p><dirtycode:noclick>p.social-media {margin-top: -15px;}<br />
iframe.twitter-share-button {float: left; margin-right: 1em;}</dirtycode></p>
<p>Together with adding <code>class="social-media"</code> to the <code></p>
<p></code> tag in the code to display the tweet button so that it now reads:</p>
<p><dirtycode:noclick></p>
<p class="social-media"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="<?php the_permalink(); ?>” data-text=”<?php the_title(); ?>” data-count=”none” data-via=”markwilsonit”>Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></p>
<p></dirtycode></p>
<p>When I asked him how this works, he explained that the class on the <code></p>
<p></code> is just to close up the top margin; the real magic is floating just the Tweet button (which cured the CSS float issues that had been frustrating me).</p>
<p>Of course, there may be plugins to display buttons like Tweet, Facebook Share/Like, etc. but when something only takes a couple of lines of code, I’d rather implement it natively than add to the list of plugins running on my WordPress installation.</p>
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<article id="post-1972" class="post-1972 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry tag-social-networking tag-wordpress">
<header class="entry-header">
<h2 class="entry-title"><a href="https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/08/adding-a-tweet-button-to-a-self-hosted-wordpress-blog.htm" rel="bookmark">Adding a Tweet button to a self-hosted WordPress blog</a></h2>
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<span class="posted-on">Posted on <a href="https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/08/adding-a-tweet-button-to-a-self-hosted-wordpress-blog.htm" rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date published" datetime="2010-08-13T11:59:34+01:00">Friday 13 August 2010</time><time class="updated" datetime="2010-08-14T15:06:47+01:00">Saturday 14 August 2010</time></a></span><span class="byline"> By <span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/author/mark-wilson">Mark Wilson</a></span></span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<a class="post-thumbnail" href="https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/08/adding-a-tweet-button-to-a-self-hosted-wordpress-blog.htm">
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<div class="juiz-outdated-message jodpm-top">This content is 15 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.</div><p>Yesterday, Twitter launched their official button for websites and keen-eyed observers will have noticed that markwilson.it now sports a shiny new “tweet” icon at the head of each post. It’s pretty easy to do (<a href="http://twitter.com/goodies/tweetbutton">Twitter generates the code for you</a> – and has an <a href="http://dev.twitter.com/pages/tweet_button_faq">FAQ for developers</a>) but there may be a couple of things to watch out for, <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/08/13/tweet-button-bloggers/">depending on your blog’s content management system</a>.</p>
<p>I use self-hosted WordPress, and these were the changes I made to the site:</p>
<ul>
<li>For my single posts, I just added the Twitter-generated code to an appropriate position in the single.php file.</li>
<li>For my main index page, I edited index.php, but didn’t want the generated link to be to the current page (my home page with several recent posts) – I wanted it to relate to the particular post that the viewer is tweeting from. Adapting a tip from <a href="http://www.davidteng.com/">David Teng</a>, I added two parameters to the link code (<code>data-url="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"</code> and <code>data-text="<?php the_title(); ?>"</code>).</li>
</ul>
<p>Now, by clicking the Tweet button on this post, the link generated relates to the post – and not the home page for the blog.</p>
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<span class="cat-links">Posted in Uncategorised</span><span class="tags-links">Tagged <a href="https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/tag/social-networking" rel="tag">Social Networking</a>, <a href="https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/tag/wordpress" rel="tag">WordPress</a></span><span class="comments-link"><a href="https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/08/adding-a-tweet-button-to-a-self-hosted-wordpress-blog.htm#comments">2 Comments</a></span> </footer><!-- .entry-footer -->
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<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2014/01'> January 2014 (6)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2013/12'> December 2013 (4)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2013/11'> November 2013 (5)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2013/10'> October 2013 (4)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2013/09'> September 2013 (5)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2013/08'> August 2013 (1)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2013/07'> July 2013 (9)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2013/06'> June 2013 (3)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2013/05'> May 2013 (8)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2013/04'> April 2013 (2)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2013/03'> March 2013 (9)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2013/02'> February 2013 (8)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2013/01'> January 2013 (12)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2012/12'> December 2012 (8)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2012/11'> November 2012 (16)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2012/10'> October 2012 (18)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2012/09'> September 2012 (7)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2012/08'> August 2012 (14)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2012/07'> July 2012 (9)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2012/06'> June 2012 (13)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2012/05'> May 2012 (17)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2012/04'> April 2012 (12)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2012/03'> March 2012 (17)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2012/02'> February 2012 (13)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2012/01'> January 2012 (9)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2011/12'> December 2011 (15)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2011/11'> November 2011 (23)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2011/10'> October 2011 (10)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2011/09'> September 2011 (11)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2011/08'> August 2011 (11)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2011/07'> July 2011 (17)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2011/06'> June 2011 (13)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2011/05'> May 2011 (15)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2011/04'> April 2011 (14)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2011/03'> March 2011 (17)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2011/02'> February 2011 (11)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2011/01'> January 2011 (7)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/12'> December 2010 (9)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/11'> November 2010 (13)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/10'> October 2010 (11)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/09'> September 2010 (14)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/08'> August 2010 (10)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/07'> July 2010 (2)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/06'> June 2010 (11)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/05'> May 2010 (10)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/04'> April 2010 (10)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/03'> March 2010 (14)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/02'> February 2010 (13)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2010/01'> January 2010 (8)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2009/12'> December 2009 (7)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2009/11'> November 2009 (10)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2009/10'> October 2009 (19)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2009/09'> September 2009 (19)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2009/08'> August 2009 (21)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2009/07'> July 2009 (25)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2009/06'> June 2009 (19)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2009/05'> May 2009 (19)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2009/04'> April 2009 (26)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2009/03'> March 2009 (24)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2009/02'> February 2009 (24)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2009/01'> January 2009 (26)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2008/12'> December 2008 (25)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2008/11'> November 2008 (34)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2008/10'> October 2008 (36)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2008/09'> September 2008 (50)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2008/08'> August 2008 (36)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2008/07'> July 2008 (38)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2008/06'> June 2008 (17)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2008/05'> May 2008 (25)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2008/04'> April 2008 (22)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2008/03'> March 2008 (25)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2008/02'> February 2008 (24)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2008/01'> January 2008 (14)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2007/12'> December 2007 (16)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2007/11'> November 2007 (23)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2007/10'> October 2007 (22)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2007/09'> September 2007 (14)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2007/08'> August 2007 (27)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2007/07'> July 2007 (44)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2007/06'> June 2007 (16)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2007/05'> May 2007 (23)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2007/04'> April 2007 (17)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2007/03'> March 2007 (26)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2007/02'> February 2007 (26)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2007/01'> January 2007 (11)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2006/12'> December 2006 (16)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2006/11'> November 2006 (26)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2006/10'> October 2006 (12)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2006/09'> September 2006 (22)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2006/08'> August 2006 (17)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2006/07'> July 2006 (26)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2006/06'> June 2006 (15)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2006/05'> May 2006 (39)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2006/04'> April 2006 (13)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2006/03'> March 2006 (8)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2006/02'> February 2006 (33)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2006/01'> January 2006 (42)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/12'> December 2005 (19)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/11'> November 2005 (21)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/10'> October 2005 (38)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/09'> September 2005 (15)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/08'> August 2005 (32)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/07'> July 2005 (31)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/06'> June 2005 (17)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/05'> May 2005 (28)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/04'> April 2005 (8)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/03'> March 2005 (22)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/02'> February 2005 (29)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/01'> January 2005 (8)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2004/12'> December 2004 (17)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2004/11'> November 2004 (8)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2004/10'> October 2004 (25)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2004/09'> September 2004 (36)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2004/08'> August 2004 (22)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2004/07'> July 2004 (8)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2004/06'> June 2004 (8)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2004/05'> May 2004 (6)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2004/04'> April 2004 (3)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2004/03'> March 2004 (2)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2004/02'> February 2004 (6)</option>
<option value='https://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2004/01'> January 2004 (2)</option>
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I spotted the same strange characters at the head of the file (they showed up in