Related Posts by Categories; Blogger Widget

Blogger/ Blogspot widget “Related posts by categories” shows related posts according to user defined categories at the end of each post. Another widget “Related posts widget for blogger” displays only a list of related posts but this widget shows posts under different labels, categories or tags. You can display desired posts under desired categories and also can specify the number of posts to display in your blogger blog. Needless to say, this widget will help your blog users to explore more related posts under the categories they are interested in.
Follow the specific instructions below to add this hack widget to your blog.

Follow the below steps properly and in order to have the similar widget you see in the pic above.

Widget Adding Instructions / Steps:

1. Go to Blogger Dashboard - click Edit Layout - then click Edit HTML

Wait: Before Editing your Template, Save a copy of your current template by clicking 'Download Full Template' in 'Edit HTML' page of the Blogger 'Layout' Window and 'Preview' the changes before Saving.

2. Check the ‘expand Widgets Template Box” as shown in the figure below.



3.Then Search (Ctrl+F) the code given below in your template:

<data:post.body/>

4. Copy and Add the code given below just after the above code:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<div class='similiar'>

<div class='widget-content'>
<h3>Related Posts by Categories</h3>
<div id='data2007'/><br/><br/>
<script type='text/javascript'>

var homeUrl3 = &quot;<data:blog.homepageUrl/>&quot;;
var maxNumberOfPostsPerLabel = 4;
var maxNumberOfLabels = 10;

maxNumberOfPostsPerLabel = 100;
maxNumberOfLabels = 3;


function listEntries10(json) {
var ul = document.createElement(&#39;ul&#39;);
var maxPosts = (json.feed.entry.length &lt;= maxNumberOfPostsPerLabel) ?
json.feed.entry.length : maxNumberOfPostsPerLabel;
for (var i = 0; i &lt; maxPosts; i++) {
var entry = json.feed.entry[i];
var alturl;

for (var k = 0; k &lt; entry.link.length; k++) {
if (entry.link[k].rel == &#39;alternate&#39;) {
alturl = entry.link[k].href;
break;
}
}
var li = document.createElement(&#39;li&#39;);
var a = document.createElement(&#39;a&#39;);
a.href = alturl;

if(a.href!=location.href) {
var txt = document.createTextNode(entry.title.$t);
a.appendChild(txt);
li.appendChild(a);
ul.appendChild(li);
}
}
for (var l = 0; l &lt; json.feed.link.length; l++) {
if (json.feed.link[l].rel == &#39;alternate&#39;) {
var raw = json.feed.link[l].href;
var label = raw.substr(homeUrl3.length+13);
var k;
for (k=0; k&lt;20; k++) label = label.replace(&quot;%20&quot;, &quot; &quot;);
var txt = document.createTextNode(label);
var h = document.createElement(&#39;b&#39;);
h.appendChild(txt);
var div1 = document.createElement(&#39;div&#39;);
div1.appendChild(h);
div1.appendChild(ul);
document.getElementById(&#39;data2007&#39;).appendChild(div1);
}
}
}
function search10(query, label) {

var script = document.createElement(&#39;script&#39;);
script.setAttribute(&#39;src&#39;, query + &#39;feeds/posts/default/-/&#39;
+ label +
&#39;?alt=json-in-script&amp;callback=listEntries10&#39;);
script.setAttribute(&#39;type&#39;, &#39;text/javascript&#39;);
document.documentElement.firstChild.appendChild(script);
}

var labelArray = new Array();
var numLabel = 0;

<b:loop values='data:posts' var='post'>
<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
textLabel = &quot;<data:label.name/>&quot;;

var test = 0;
for (var i = 0; i &lt; labelArray.length; i++)
if (labelArray[i] == textLabel) test = 1;
if (test == 0) {
labelArray.push(textLabel);
var maxLabels = (labelArray.length &lt;= maxNumberOfLabels) ?
labelArray.length : maxNumberOfLabels;
if (numLabel &lt; maxLabels) {
search10(homeUrl3, textLabel);
numLabel++;
}
}
</b:loop>
</b:loop>
</script>
</div>

</div>
</b:if>

5. Save your Template. That’s it.

Widget Customization

You can change the number of maximum related posts being displayed, search for the code below (within the code given in step 4) and change the number "3" to any desired number. Its good to have related posts in accordance with the space available to display. Generally, two or three categories is enough. However, you may display the number of categories and posts as you wish.

maxNumberOfLabels = 3;

Widget Use and Summary

In conclusion, this widget is not only an important widget for making your blog look professional but also an important widget to help users to quickly navigate or move on to other important and related posts.