Modified SimpleLife Lifestreaming Plugin

Written by Thomas Trumble
Posted in Blog, Web 2.0 on July 6th, 2008

For the last few months I’ve been playing with lifestreaming, using the SimpleLife plugin for WordPress as the basis for this work. Based on it and some edits and ideas from Db0 I’ve modified the plugin that I am using enough that I thought that I should make it public and therefore add these features into the mix for others. You can see the results on my own lifestream. Feel free to download my modifications to the plugin and use it or tweak it to your hearts content. Let me know what you change or add as I’m interested in how this plugin keeps evolving.

Enhancements/ Changes:

My version of the SimpleLife plugin is based on Db0′s, which means that all of his enhancements from Kieran Delaney’s version are included. The key changes that I’ve made are:

Addition of 6 extra feeds for a total of 9
Addition of built in support for feeds from Yelp, YouTube Favorites, Google Reader Shared Items, Pandora Favorite Artists and Songs, Plaxo Pulse, 2 Amazon Wishlists, Tumblr and StumbleUpon
Implementation of Db0′s Google Reader Lifestream Archive and a modified version of his Google Reader Comment Tracking concept that supports and formats feeds from Twitter, Del.icio.us, Netflix, coComment, Disqus and Intense Debate
Implementation of Db0′s concept for showing the number of items and length of time in the lifestream
Commented out the charts of recent activity – they just didn’t seem useful to me, but it’s there if you want to use them and my additions should show up in them
Addition of tons of additional favicons for streaming services so you don’t need to add them yourself, whatever you want is probably now included

Notes

Just a few things that you’ll probably want to know if you use the plugin.

Just like Db0′s version you’ll need to install the SimplePie plugin to get it to work and must be running PHP5
To get formatting of Del.icio.us and Twitter items to work through the Google Reader Lifestream feed, you’ll have to use a dummy feed url or user name in the standard input fields and then add the formatting that you want. This will make sense from the SimpleLife Options page in the Settings tab
Amazon Wishlist tracking only works in the US, you’ll need to modify it for use in the UK
In order to get your Google Reader Shared Items to show up formatted properly you’ll need to edit the plugin and enter your Google Reader ID in line 1219, this is where he plugin is checking each item for conditions, you’ll see the spot

That’s about it. Enjoy!

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13 Responses to “Modified SimpleLife Lifestreaming Plugin”

db0, on July 6th, 2008 at 2:11 pm Said:

Hey there, glad you like my modifications and used them. Since the original author seems to be MIA most of the time, I’m thinking of starting a new worpdress plugin with all my modifications. Perhaps name is appropriately “ComplexLife”.

Would you be interested in joining the development if and when I start this?

Cheers!
Thomas Trumble, on July 6th, 2008 at 3:11 pm Said:

Sure, glad to help. My php skills are lacking, but I’m not bad at extrapolating off the work of others and coming up with new feature ideas. Count me in.
db0, on July 6th, 2008 at 10:50 pm Said:

Cool. I’m pretty much the same but between the two of us we might emulate a low-quality php developer

I’ll let you know when I start it
Modified Version of SimpleLife Lifestreaming Plugin for Wordpress | Lifestream Blog, on July 11th, 2008 at 12:00 am Said:

[...] If you are a user of the original plugin or are looking for one to add to your WordPress blog it’s worth a look. You can see the plugin in action here and you can find his plugin page here. [...]
Mark, on July 12th, 2008 at 11:27 am Said:

I keep getting a “fatal error” upon installation. I’ve got “simplepie-core” and “simplepie-plugin-for-wordpress” both installed and activated. When I go to activate your version of “simplelife” in my plugin panel, I get a “fatal error.”

Thanks in advance if you have any suggestions. Love the potential of this plug-in! Thanks so much.
Jeff VC, on July 13th, 2008 at 5:02 am Said:

Hi,

Thanks for this. Initially I couldn’t install because I got this:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘{‘ in *deleted*/simplelife.php on line 1219

There was a missing closing parenthesis. I’ve fixed this. You can download the fixed plugin here:

http://otrops.com/tmp/simplelife.zip

I’ll keep it up there for the next day or two.

-jeff
Thomas Trumble, on July 13th, 2008 at 7:32 am Said:

Sorry all about the error in the plugin and thanks Jeff for providing the fix. An updated version of the plugin is available for download, which should work. Let me know if you find other problems.

Thomas
db0, on July 16th, 2008 at 1:28 am Said:

Just to let you know that I’ve prepared the plugin for public consumption and I’m now waiting to be allowed in the codex

http://dbzer0.com/the-penguin-migration/complexlife
ComplexLife » A Division by Zer0, on August 2nd, 2008 at 3:56 pm Said:

[...] I’ve already got a few features I want to add and I’m also going to be merging changes from other places where I find them, i.e. the trumblog. [...]
Wordpress Plugins für deinen Lifestream | Wuensch-Media.de, on August 9th, 2008 at 5:58 pm Said:

[...] Modified SimpleLife [...]
Shawn, on September 10th, 2008 at 10:51 am Said:

how did you include your zune song plays?
Shawn, on September 10th, 2008 at 10:54 am Said:

Hmm. When I try to activate your plugin I get the following error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_OBJECT_OPERATOR in *link-to-simplelife-folder*/simplelife.php on line 1163
Thomas Trumble, on September 10th, 2008 at 11:33 am Said:

Shawn,

check out this resource for getting RSS feeds of Zune social activity. http://www.waded.org/2008/07/zune-playlists-consumable-as-usable-rss-feeds-with-yahoo-pipes/

I’ll review the plugin and see what’s causing the problem.

Thomas

Trumblog