Pandora Sidebar

March 9, 2006

Over at Pandora we’ve just added a new feed mechanism that makes it easy for you to add Pandora to your blog sidebar. For example, I added these two lines to my blog template:

<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”http://www.pandora.com/styles/feeds/
songs-art-gray.css”/>
<script src=”http://www.pandora.com/feeds/people/tconrad/
favorites.js?max=5″><
/script>

This automatically generates the sidebar listing my favorite songs that you see at the right on this page. Similarly, you can add a list of your stations using these two lines:

<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”http://www.pandora.com/styles/feeds/
stations-buttons-gray.css”/>
<script src=”http://www.pandora.com/feeds/people/tconrad/
stations.js?max=5″></script>

To generate something similar for your page, click here and follow the instructions.

Update: We released a new version tonight that should make things work better in a wider variety of settings. In particular we’re using CSS that is a bit more explicit about what should be displayed and how. We’ve also updated the mechanism we use for opening new windows that should fix some problems with popup blockers.


14 Responses to “Pandora Sidebar”

  1. SKI Says:

    good stuff tom…

    however, before i would deploy, i
    would want it to open a very small
    window, about the size of the button,
    with a “pause|play” and “exit”
    button on it.

    the huge pandora “loading…” window
    looks “beta version” at best.

    -ski

  2. Andrew Sherman Says:

    Ha! That was so easy!

    Now how can I customize it so it says ‘favourite’ not ‘favorite’? :-)

  3. deb Says:

    i’m confused. I added a My Stations list, but nothing happens when i click a link to a station… is something suppose to happen. Also, the test won’t center correctly. ah well.

  4. Tom Conrad Says:

    d.m.

    I think the problem may well be a popup blocker. Check to make sure that whatever blocker you’re using doesn’t stop the station from coming up.

    Tom

  5. iReeb Says:

    It doesn’t work for me neither.
    And it’s not a popup blocker. :O

    Neat thing, anyway :)

  6. Tom Conrad Says:

    Hi iReeb, if you send me a link to the page where you’re trying to use it, I’m sure we can get it working. Might take a little CSS hacking.

    Tom

  7. snowqueen Says:

    I cut and pasted it into my blog and it seems to be working fine. I had to allow the popup for the blog as I use Firefox. This is a fab programme! Especially useful for people like me who can’t remember artists and song titles! Thanks!

  8. Nelson Rodrigues Says:

    The images of the albums don’t center!

  9. Tom Conrad Says:

    We’ve learned the hard way that the CSS we’re using needs to “zero out” some styles. Otherwise the element (for example, the album art) runs the risk just inheriting a style from the page. We’re making that change tomorrow night (March 13). That should fix the album centering problem.

  10. simons_jamjar Says:

    A little fiddly, but should look great once uploaded. Thanks Tom!

  11. Andy Says:

    When are you going to make an affiliate program? Currently I have my own “favorites” list that I have to alter by hand which links to itunes and makes me money from my music review website. I would rather use pandora’s generated lists because it will stay current with what I’m currently listening to and that is simply awesome. But then I don’t make money anymore.

    Any chance Pandora will have an affiliate program soon?

  12. iReeb Says:

    Works great now!

  13. letti Says:

    oh, i love this!!!! thanks for the codes..


  14. Your post is very interesting, i have bookmarked your blog for future referrence :)


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