Dipity now oEmbed Positive
Do you have a WordPress.org blog? Do you want to enable easy embedding of your Dipity timeline? Well, good news, Dipity is now oEmbed positive. Thanks to a slick bit of engineering from our developer team WordPress/Dipity users with programatic knowledge can now turn on this oSo useful feature.
Harry Potter Wants You to Try the Dipity oEmbed
So what is an oEmbed? It’s essentially a way to make embedding easier. Instead of using a clunky, hefty embed code, you simply copy and paste the URL and the internet magically grabs the code for you. It’s your chance to use Dipity just like Harry Potter would. According to oEmbed.com, “oEmbed is a format for allowing an embedded representation of a URL on third party sites. The simple API allows a website to display embedded content (such as photos or videos) when a user posts a link to that resource, without having to parse the resource directly.”
For Dipity, enabling oEmbed also represents a step in the right direction for making it on the WordPress.com internal whitelist. This will finally allow Dipity users with hosted WordPress.com blogs to embed our timelines. It will also open the Dipity oEmbed up to other services.
In order to use the Dipity oEmbed on your WordPress.org site, take a look at these instructions:
To find out more about the oEmbed standard, have a look at oEmbed.com. The dipity oEmbed endpoint is located at http://www.dipity.com/oembed/timeline/
It accepts any URL pointing to a dipity timeline and supports JSON (default) and XML. If you are able to access your theme’s code, you can programmatically add Dipity to your Wordpress instance’s whitelist. Simply add the following line of code into your theme’s functions.php file: wp_oembed_add_provider(’#http://(www.)?dipity.com/([/]+)/([/]+)/#’,’http://www.dipity.com/oembed/timeline/’,true).
Once you have done this, you will be able to use your Dipity widget on your blog simply by entering your the URL.
Good luck and godspeed!
-Steve
2 commentsMiquiel Did It and So Can You: Create a Timeline, Become A Pro
One of our awesome Dipsters responded to our recent offer: create an in-depth interactive digital timeline and get a free Pro Account with Dipity. Miquiel Banks, or @kmedia09 on Twitter showed us just how it’s done with a great timeline of the Major Movie releases for 2011.
This great timeline allows you to track upcoming blockbusters, indy films and more. Since movie theaters now ask for your first born child, an arm and a leg in exchange for a ticket, visitors could use this timeline to decide when they should actually spend money at the theaters.
Wanna catch and action flick? Cowboys and Aliens comes out a week before Rise of the Planet of the Apes. For anyone who prefers James Franco to Daniel Craig, this information is quite helpful.
Check out Miquiel’s timeline here or on Dipity and then scroll down for more information on how you can get your free Dipity Pro account.
Whether you’re an experienced chronographer or just trying Dipity for the first time, now is your chance to take your timeline creation up to the next level. In exchange for a bit of quality content, Dipity is prepared to offer you a Pro account ($99.95 a month value) completely free of charge. Pro accounts offer some amazing features such as ad-free timelines, custom backgrounds/skins, bulk upload and removal of event limits. Don’t miss your chance to grab a topic and a free Pro account too. We’ll even throw in a Dipity T-shirt to boot!
We’ve selected some topics that will make great interactive digital timelines. All you have to do is claim one in the comments section below, put together the timeline on Dipity as best you can, and send a link to PR@dipity.com. We will decide if your timeline is up to par and then help promote your timeline on our front page, Twitter and this blog. If you own a website or blog, you can add it as an embed on your end, driving some sweet traffic to your personal page. Sound good? Let’s get started.
Here are five topics to choose from and a brief summary of each. Feel free to propose your own topic in the comments section and we’ll get back to you!
1. Paul Ceglia versus Facebook
When someone comes along claiming they own 84% of the world’s second biggest website, it’s bound to grab some headlines. The story grows when the accusing party suddenly produces alleged contracts, proof of payment and emails that have big time law firm DLA piper convinced his case is worth their time.
For your timeline, you could tell the story of the legal proceedings or of the alleged negotiations between Mark Zuckerburg and Paul Ceglia. You could even combine the two for a more complete picture of the story. Whatever floats your boat!
This article is a great read and should help you get started.
2. Nintendo Company Timeline
With Nintendo set to announce their new HD console, now is a perfect time to create a timeline about the company’s history. Founded on September 23, 1889, Nintendo tried everything form hand made card games to love hotels and taxi companies before finally settling on the video game industry. Today, they are one of the world’s biggest gaming companies and the third biggest company in Japan.
Their interesting and rich history would make for an excellent company history timeline. You could also put together a product release and milestone timeline simliar to our Apple Timeline.
Check out this article about the new console and the Nintendo Wikipedia page for a bit of inspiration.
3. The Royal Wedding: Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Romance
Life as a prince isn’t all caviar and carriages. As a member of the royal family, Prince William is under constant scrutiny for his relationships, lifestyle and just about everything else under The Sun.
Kate and William’s romance has gone hot and cold since 2001 and trust me, there is a whole lot of information, pictures and articles out there on the web. Building a timeline of their sometimes rocky relationship should be easy peasy.
Start here for some great data on the subject.
4. Protests in Syria
Our Libya, Egypt and Tunisia timelines all got a lot of hits, but it seems not many people are paying close attention to the conflict in Syria. Maybe your timeline will help increase awareness as another country in the region is undergoing violent and dramatic regime change.
You could use various articles from around the web to put together a timeline of all major events or maybe focus on the rise and fall of the al-Assad regime.
Conflicts such as these are tough to put in perspective and require extensive research to track. Luckily Reuters offers a good article to help you get started.
5. The Barry Bonds Perjury Case
Barry Bonds hit more home runs than anyone in MLB history. However, his alleged used of steroids and performance enhancing drugs has made his achievement feel more like a disappointment. Bonds was brought before a Grand Jury on perjury charges and now stands convicted of obstruction of justice.
This seems to be a common theme with sports heroes, so one approach might be to build a timeline of steroid cases across American sports. You could also put together a Barry Bonds career timeline. Here is a good place to get started.
Other timeline topics:
Major Movie Releases for 2011, NFL Labor Negotiations, Federal Budget Cuts, The NBA Playoffs
We hope you participate and help get the word out on Twitter, Facebook and more. We really hope a lot of users will jump at the opportunity get a free upgrade simply for contributing high-quality content. Don’t miss out on the free Pro accounts!
Teachers interested in getting an ad-free account to use in class: get your students involved!
Independent Journalists interested in gaining recognition and syndication for their work: Ed Yong’s Stem Cell timeline was a huge hit.
Bloggers, Social Media mavericks and organizations interested in bringing traffic and attention to their website or cause: embed your excellent digital timeline on your own site!
Best of luck and can’t wait to see what you Dipity-do!
-Steve
Community Manager
