How to Create Custom Social Bookmark Links Widget in Thesis Theme

In this tutorial I explain about how to create social bookmark links widget. You can use this widget in sidebar, footer, inside post and wherever you want in thesis theme by drag and drop in the widget box. This example I have created twitter, digg, rss and youtube links.

Once you created the social bookmark links widget it is available in wordpress admin. This widget is similar to recent posts, popular posts, text widget. Just drag and drop to sidebar and give your social media links and save it. Now this widget will appear in sidebar.

Create custom social bookmark widget

To create your new social bookmark widget copy and paste the below code in custom_functions.php file.

/*create social bookmark widget***********/

class my_subscribe_widget extends WP_Widget {
function my_subscribe_widget() {
$widget_ops = array('classname' => 'widget_bu_subscribe', 'description' => 'Add an RSS and twitter link' );
$this->WP_Widget('my_subscribe_widget', 'Social Bookmark Links', $widget_ops);
}

function widget($args, $instance) {
extract($args, EXTR_SKIP);
echo $before_widget;
$title = empty($instance['title']) ? ' ' : apply_filters('widget_title', $instance['title']);
$rss_link = empty($instance['rss_link']) ? ' ' : apply_filters('widget_rss_link', $instance['rss_link']);
$twitter_link = empty($instance['twitter_link']) ? ' ' : apply_filters('widget_twitter_link', $instance['twitter_link']);
$youtube_link = empty($instance['youtube_link']) ? ' ' : apply_filters('widget_youtube_link', $instance['youtube_link']);
$digg_link = empty($instance['digg_link']) ? ' ' : apply_filters('widget_digg_link', $instance['digg_link']);
if ( !empty( $title ) ) { echo $before_title . $title . $after_title; }; ?>
<ul>
<li><a title="Subscribe to the RSS Feed" href="<?php echo $rss_link; ?>" <img src="http://fourblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Feed1.png"
    border="0" alt="" />Subscribe to the RSS Feed</a></li>
<li><a title="Submit on Digg" href="<?php echo $digg_link; ?>" <img src="http://fourblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/digg1.png"
    border="0" alt="" />Submit on Digg</a></li>
<li><a title="Follow on Twitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/<?php echo $twitter_link; ?>" <img src="http://fourblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Twitter1.png"
    border="0" alt="" />Follow us on Twitter</a></li>
<li><a title="Subscribe to the Youtube channel" href="<?php echo $youtube_link; ?>" <img src="http://fourblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Youtube-icon1.png"
    border="0" alt="" />Subscribe to the Youtube channel</a></li>
</ul>
<?php echo $after_widget;
}
function update($new_instance, $old_instance) {
$instance = $old_instance;
$instance['title'] = strip_tags($new_instance['title']);
$instance['rss_link'] = strip_tags($new_instance['rss_link']);
$instance['twitter_link'] = strip_tags($new_instance['twitter_link']);
$instance['youtube_link'] = strip_tags($new_instance['youtube_link']);
$instance['digg_link'] = strip_tags($new_instance['digg_link']);
return $instance;
}

function form($instance) {
$rss_default = get_bloginfo('rss2_url');
$instance = wp_parse_args( (array) $instance, array( 'title' => '', 'rss_link' => $rss_default, 'twitter_link' => '','youtube_link' => '','facebook_link' => '') );
$title = strip_tags($instance['title']);
$rss_link = strip_tags($instance['rss_link']);
$twitter_link = strip_tags($instance['twitter_link']);
$youtube_link = strip_tags($instance['youtube_link']);
$digg_link = strip_tags($instance['digg_link']);
?>
<p><label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('title'); ?>">Title: <input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('title'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('title'); ?>" type="text" value="<?php echo attribute_escape($title); ?>" /></label></p>
<p><label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('rss_link'); ?>">RSS Feed Link: <input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('rss_link'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('rss_link'); ?>" type="text" value="<?php echo attribute_escape($rss_link); ?>" /></label></p>
<p><label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('twitter_link'); ?>">Twitter Username: <input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('twitter_link'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('twitter_link'); ?>" type="text" value="<?php echo attribute_escape($twitter_link); ?>" /></label></p>
<p><label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('youtube_link'); ?>">Youtube Link: <input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('youtube_link'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('youtube_link'); ?>" type="text" value="<?php echo attribute_escape($youtube_link); ?>" /></label></p>
<p><label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('digg_link'); ?>">Digg Link: <input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('digg_link'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('digg_link'); ?>" type="text" value="<?php echo attribute_escape($digg_link); ?>" /></label></p>

<?php
}
}

register_widget('my_subscribe_widget');

The above code I have added only twitter, digg, rss and youtube links. If you don’t want any links just remove <li> to</li> of which link you don’t want and add your image uploaded path.

To paste the above code in custom_functions.php file use ftp which is the safest way.

The path is public_html/fourblogger.com/wp-content/themes/thesis_16/custom/custom_function.php.

Once you added the above code your social bookmark widget is created in wordpress admin to see this select widgets button under appearances tab in the left side bar of the wordpress dashboard.

Inside the widgets you have social bookmark links widget drag and drop into sidebar_1. Which is looks like the below image.

If you want this in footer first you should widgetize your footer then add it. If you want bookmark links below the post add widget box below post then drag and drop the social bookmark links widget inside the post widget box.

This new widget you should fill the description field with your twitter username, digg, rss and youtube links and title also. Once you filled just save it. Now check your site sidebar you have your social bookmark links.

Share your experience in comment section.

Related Tutorials:

1. How to add Social Bookmark Icons at Right Side of the Post in Thesis Theme
2. Thesis Theme Customization Tutorials for Sidebar Round-Up
3. Widgetized Thesis Theme-Header, Content box and Footer
4. How to Add Floating Feedback Social Bookmarking Icons in Thesis Theme
5. How to add your social bookmark icon into Thesis theme

Tagged as: bookmark, share, sidebar, social, widget