Trackbacks are getting easier

Ever since I was introduced to trackbacks a couple of months ago I've had a worry about them... they're difficult to setup. So I thought I'd do something about it.

After a bit of help from my good friend Andrew Beacock, I got my head around trackbacks and set up a Haloscan account so I could get them installed onto my own blog. Getting it up and running was pretty straight forward, but then the tricky bit arrived... actually performing a trackback ping request.

In order to make a request you need to go to the Haloscan account and enter the trackback ping URL for the post that you want to ping. You then need to enter the details of your own blog... the blog title, post link, title and extract. It all seemed like a lot of hard work to me.

So here's what I did:
I wrote a Firefox extension to send trackback ping requests to Haloscan

In order to use it you need to set it up:

1. Install the extension


2. Configure it with the address of your blog feed (rss and atom are supported). You'll find it under Tools -> Haloscan Ping
   
3. Log into Haloscan

In order to send a ping request:

1. Write your blog entry and publish it


2. Go to the blog you want to ping, and select the trackback URL


3. Right-click and pick Ping Haloscan


4. Pick the entry from your blog to ping with and click OK

Simple as that!

At the moment I'd regard the extension as being at alpha stage, so for now I'm sending it out on request. If you'd like to try it out then mail me and I'll send you a copy.
Once I've got some positive feedback for it I'll try to publish it on Mozilla Update and Mozdev.

Update:You can mail me here...

Technorati Tags: Robert+Baillie,Andrew+Beacock Firefox, extensions, Haloscan, trackback, Mozilla, browser, internet, web, blog, software, tech, technology