I'm still experimenting with Matt Mower's liveTopics tool. Here is a short explanation of how the 'see also' line and 'master index' page are created.

After I installed the liveTopics.root file in my Radio Tools folder and restarted Radio, a new entry field appeared on my weblog's local home page, under the textarea field, as can be seen here.

I enter a string of keywords, separated by blanks, in the Topics field. I can check on existing topics by clicking the popup menu.

The keywords are attached to the post, in a sub-table, and retrieved automatically by liveTopics every time I edit the post.

They are displayed on the public version of s l a m, under each post, because I inserted a special <%liveTopics( <%itemNum%> )%> macro call in my #itemTemplate.txt file.

In the public version, each keyword is a link to s l a m 's master index page. The master index is an OPML outline file, allTopics.opml, updated by liveTopics every time a post is created or modified with keywords.

allTopics.opml lives in www/outlines/topics and is rendered with activeRenderer. The look of the rendered master index is modifiable through a #template.txt template in the topics folder.

Matt has added a lot of other neat tricks to liveTopics. Stay tuned...

5:59:30 PM      [Macro error: Can't call the script because the name "liveTopicsSuite" hasn't been defined.]

[Macro error: Can't call the script because the name "liveTopicsSuite" hasn't been defined.]

A little later than I'd wish, beta 8 of activeRenderer is out.

This version fixes a horrendous bug, a few minor ones, and brings in the tool registration suite.

I was dumb enough to include the 2 user preferences that govern the 'look' of the home page - outline publication dates and outline individual posts - in a table which was reset every time the tool was updated.

I apologize to all the beta testers I drove nuts with this one. The error is now fixed, user preferences are now part of [weblogData.root].prefs.

Beta testers beware: before updating to activeRenderer beta 8, use activeRenderer's Preferences page to restore your weblog to a non outlined look, and check the #itemTemplate.txt and #dayTemplate.txt template files to verify they have been restored to their original contents.

Beta 8 also fixes a number of minor bugs in outline presentation and tool installation.

I slightly modified the output of the renderer code to accomodate Matt's liveTopics master index page.

This version also asks you to register your tool with xml-rpc.it's service. Registration is free, fast, and non mandatory. But I'd like beta testers to register all the same, to check the registration process and send me some feedback.

xml-rpc.it is operated by eVectors. After we make sure that the registration process works seemlessly, I intend to help Paolo and Simone make it available to all developers of Radio tools. More on this later.

If you're not part of the beta testers team, but wish to join, send me a note .

Version 1.0 beta 9 will iron out a few problems with the automatic update code, and will handle titleless posts without the 'orphan' centered wedge - I gave in, even though I still think titleless posts are worthless :-)

4:57:08 PM      [Macro error: Can't call the script because the name "liveTopicsSuite" hasn't been defined.]

[Macro error: Can't call the script because the name "liveTopicsSuite" hasn't been defined.]