So we've got a ninja platform, loads of plugins, awesome themes and sites, an API and a multiuser version - what's next?

tombeardshaw

http://www.tombeardshaw.com

I've just made an iPhone interface for my Sweetcron site. The iPhone likes a simple interface, so it's easy to create a good looking view for your mobile lifestream.

If you don't have an iPhone, here are some screenshots of the theme mashed together, showing the social media items it supports.

Azri from Brainstorm sets out how to create an iPhone theme in Sweetcron.

Here are the steps that I took to set it up:

1. Replace _header.php with this code - sets up the redirect when it finds the iPhone


2. Rename these theme files:
   
   • _header.php -> _header-normal.php
   • _activity_feed.php ->_activity_feed-normal.php
   • _footer.php -> _footer-normal.php
   • _single.php -> _single-normal.php
3. Create these iPhone theme files:
   
   • _header-iphone.php
   • _activity_feed-iphone.php
   • _footer-iphone.php
   • _single-iphone.php
   • main-iphone.css

Then get to work!

Azri has a few other tips, and I'd add it's a good idea to express all widths in percentages, then the theme then adjusts to the iPhone's orientation based display.

I started with my normal theme files, but changed the feed source navigation tabs to a drop down (which works nicely on the iPhone), put search front and centre then a simple activity feed.

Item display was based on my main theme but with just service, date, title and type.

All the items link directly to the original except blog posts, which display comments as well.

So there you have it - Thoughts?

Like?

tombeardshaw

Tangled Up in Blue - a new Sweetcron theme I've released at http://www.tombeardshaw.com

Add a CMS WYSIWYS editor into the write blog part of Sweetcron. Use the link in 1st comment for javascript.

tombeardshaw

A Wordle from my website RSS. Guess what I've been thinking about...

Tangled Up in Blue... a cool blue Sweetcron theme putting your blog up top, your lifestream below.

"Wow this is a hot looking SweetCron implementation"

Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb)

Download | Demo (coming! - this site runs on it atm)

Please follow the 10 steps in the Readme.txt carefully!

Evolved from Boxdaddy, based on YongFook's classic Boxy theme, has been tested on Sweetcron 1.08e and has:

• Tabbed navigation for single source activity
• 'Link/blog/video/photo/audio' labels for items
• Full, blog & page RSS feeds (i.e. feeds for search, tags, services etc)
• A nice user interface using service colors and rounded corners in CSS3
• A blog display area at the top of the homepage (thanks to teh blog ar (not) dead)
• All items news shares and links go straight to original source
• Audio players for both Blip.fm and Last.fm
• Twitter lives in the sidebar now - way too noisy for this Sweetcron
• A friendfeed page for the hell of it
• Disqus integration (just add your username to files)

I've added a plugin folder with the relevant plugins bundled inside the zip. 

(Update: Version 1.1 includes IE fixes - 23/1)

User requirements: some PHP and CSS knowledge

If you have any problems, post them to the Sweetcron Code Group thread Comments, ideas and feedback welcome!

Code for setting up a multiple use of Sweetcron by modifying the dbase

25 great Sweetcron themes for getting inspiration and ideas

My website runs on a system called Sweetcron - an open source lifestreaming app. These are my early thoughts on setting it up, using it and what it can do.

If you're into social media mashups, I think you'll like it, but you're going to need to know some code.

Sweetcron is new PHP software created by the Sweetcron-Meister Yong Fook which pulls in items from social media data feeds around the web onto your own hosted site.

At the moment, I've got feeds from a number of services running into the site, including:

• Photos I add to Flickr
• News items I share from RSS feeds I read within Google Reader
• Links that I bookmark in Delicious
• Web pages I Digg via Digg.com
• Videos I upload or favourite on YouTube
• Tracks I love on Last.fm
• Songs I play on Blip.fm
• And last, but not least, blog posts I write myself via Sweetcron itself

Why use Sweetcron?

Sweetcron certainly isn't for everyone, but the system appealed to me for a few reasons:

• It's different... and I'm just like that, I guess


• I'm as interested in sharing other people's content as I am in my own, and Sweetcron treats a link to someone elses content as important as my own writings


• I'm not a prolific writer and hate the feeling many bloggers have that they have to write something, but I don't want my site to sit there without updates for days on end while I procrastinate about blogging (nor force myself to write when I've nothing important to say, or someone else is saying it better)


• I want to build a collection of useful, interesting stuff that I can go back to, and others can access if they find my tastes interesting


• I like the concept of Lifestreaming - Friendfeed is an awesome social app for doing this, but it's just way too complicated for someone like my mum to get her head around. I wanted a nice simple way of displaying my stuff that anyone could appreciate


• It was a challenge to hack around in the code and customise the system for my own purposes

Tweakage

So I installed the system, added some feeds and had a tinker. I changed the design a bit, added a tab for each of the main feeds I use to the top (so you could look at, for example, just my bookmarks, or photos, or videos etc). I added a label to every item, so the user knows what it is - a blog, a link, a video or a photo. And I removed Twitter from my main activity stream - more on that later.

I also set up an RSS feed for just my blog posts as well as the default feed for all items, as the default feed was initially just way too noisy to be useful (especially when Tweets were included).

I got loads of help from the others in the Sweetcron Google code group and even got some requests from some people to give them the code for the theme I'd been developing, so I released the Boxdaddy theme, which to my surprise, lots of others have used and customised for their own purposes.

I've continued to tweak the functionality of the site, and I've enjoyed getting stuck into the code and creating something unique. I'd love to get comments/feedback on the site, and the next thing I want to look at is the design - I'm no graphic designer and I'm well aware that the site looks a bit bland, so if anyone wants to give me some suggestions, I'm all ears!

So what's it like using Sweetcron?

There's an interesting shift in thinking that takes place when your actions on Social Media sites result in a new post on your website. It's different from aggregating your content on Friendfeed.

When bookmarking a page, for example, on Friendfeed it just drops into the endless datastreams - some people notice it, most don't, but it really doesn't matter in the end - Friendfeed is a kind of black hole for web content.

When the same action creates a new item on your site, however, it takes on a greater personal significance and this has certainly made me think about the usefulness and importance of what I'm sharing a lot more.

Another thing that's happened is that I tend to think about the balance of services that I'm using more. When you look at your own site and see 10 google reader shares in a row it just doesn't look so good, so it kinda prompts you to mix up the services you're using a bit. For example, if there haven't been any photos for a while it'll prompt me to go back to my camera and get something new onto Flickr.

For Blog writing, Sweetcron doesn't have much of a Content Management system - you just get to add the title, content and tags - that's it. There's no image insert, no B, I, U buttons... no "Kitchen Sink" of the kind you find in Wordpress, so everything has to be hand coded. It's something that's definitely a key issue to improve the system if it's to be more useful to the average user, but I'm happy working in HTML, so I'm not too bothered by it, but it does make writing slower, and I'd like to see a decent CMS integrated soon.

My thoughts on Sweetcron

I really like the concept of a self hosted lifestreaming website and I'll be keeping my eyes open for some of the other projects coming online - for example Kakuteru (A Ruby on Rails solution).

I've got a few thoughts I want to push out there to see if they resonate with anyone else...

• It's not for everyone. Don't try Sweetcron if you're not comfortable digging into the PHP and CSS code on your site - it's not a simple "install and go" solution - you'll need to customise it. (Although, of course, if you need someone to customise it for you, I'm open to offers! - Get in touch!)


• Sweetcron could really do with a back end CMS for blog posts - perhaps someone will be able to point me in the direction of an easily integrateable PHP CMS, or hopefully, Yong Fook will incorporate it into his next release


• Sweetcron doesn't discern any hierarchy of information - each item is treated as an equal, so it helps to create other ways of highlighting your more important content. For example, I've added a 'Recent Blog Posts' scrolling textbox to my sidebar to highlight my own writing.


• Related to this, Twitter is a problematic service to incorporate in your main Sweetcron activity feed. If it's in there, your site will tend to be a flood of Tweets, or you may find yourself limiting your use of Twitter so as to avoid flooding your website with tweets (I did this at first). This can seriously limit the value you can get out of Twitter, which is a free flowing conversational medium. I wanted to be able to use Twitter as and when I wanted, so eventually, I just pulled the Twitter feed out of my main site and put the stream into my Sidebar. This works way better for me.


• UPDATE: I've just added a blog container at the top of the home page instead - nod to the teh blog ar (not) dead theme


• I'm quite interested in the possibilities that Sweetcron offers for creating an group or event website - it could be really useful for a project involving a number of different people focussing on a particular topic, or event. I'd quite like to get an opportunity to work with the system to try that out

All in all, I love what Sweetcron enables me to do with my own site, which is to just get on with reading, sharing and creating content on social media sites, knowing that my website will be updated with the content I choose, and it doesn't need any heavy curating by me.

Of course, it could do with some improvements - I think a back end CMS for blog writing and media uploading is probably the most important, and there are a bunch of issues with particular feed types - so configuring Sweetcron is not a straightforward process - but you can get help from an active community on the Google Code Group and I think the end result is very elegant and user friendly.

So what do you think? Like my site? Useful idea or should I just junk it and get on the Wordpress express train like everyone else?

I've been doing some work on this site recently and have done a lot on my about page in particular.

Sweetcron is an interesting platform, as it allows you to download the (open source) code and host your own site on your own domain and server, a bit like Wordpress.org.

The difference is that as well as having a blog engine, Sweetcron pulls feeds in from, well... anywhere - I use it to pull in my content from social media sites I use.

I'll probably write a bit more about Sweetcron, as I think it can be a really useful platform for creating websites for individuals, events and brands.

I've also done a lot of work on my about page. This is an interesting exercise in working out some issues about direction, identity, branding and digital presence.

There's a danger with the rapidly developing web that pre early web stuff can get lost, so I've compiled a list of my 'greatest hits' - things I've achieved in my life that I proud of.

Wherever possible, I've I've put in a relevant link - have an explore - there's some interesting stuff in there.

I had lots of people emailing to ask for the theme to my Sweetcron site, so I decided to make it freely available.

Boxdaddy is built on YongFook's boxy theme, and adds:

- Tabbed navigation for single source activity pages

- Brings back the 'link/blog/video/photo' label 

- A blog only RSS link

- Source specific item announcements

- Standard sidebar but with tag cloud

If you want to install it, you'll need the latest version of Sweetcron, and you will need to go through the installation instructions in the readme.txt or it won't work.

Download the theme here

If you need support implementing the theme, I've created a thread on the Sweetcron google group - let's keep the technical discussion there.