WordPress Plugin : Google Friend Connect for easy commenting
Google Friend Connect plugin for WordPress is plugin that allow user easily leaving comments on any blog that using this plugin.
Instead of traditional way that need you to fill up your name and email, Google Friend Connect simplify it, by utilizing existing Google, Yahoo, AIM, or OpenID account to authenticate you.
If you see any ‘Sign In’ button like this, with just single click, you’re authenticated to leave comments on that blog.
If you familiar with Facebook Connect, this plugin is working exactly the same way.
Before you can use this plugin, you have to install Google Friend Connect. You can get similar instruction here.
First, install Friend Connect and get your Site ID
- Sign up at the Friend Connect site.
- Install the canvas.html and rpc_relay.html files on your site.
- Get your Site ID.
see InstallFriendConnect for details.
Then, install the plugin
- Make a new directory under wp-content/plugins called fc_plugin
- Download the contents of the wordpress/src folder into the wp-content/plugins/fc_plugin directory
- Open wp-content/plugins/fc_plugin/fc_plugin.php. Look for the function called fc_get_site_id(). Replace the number in this function with your Site ID.
- Check that the path in google.friendconnect.container.setParentUrl() matches where you put the canvas.html and rpc_relay.html on your site.
- Login as admin in WordPress, look for the plugins menu and activate the plugin.
This plugin also available for phpBB and Drupal. Download here.
This is an interesting development. JanRain also has a fully hosted SaaS platform solution called RPX (http://rpxnow.com), which has some of the best functionality of a Facebook Connect or a Google Friend Connect. RPX allows website visitors to login to enabled sites using not only their Facebook or Google accounts, but also their accounts from MySpace, AOL, Yahoo & Windows Live ID.
RPX allows for auto synchronization of social profile data between an identity provider and an RPX-enabled site, and RPX also allows users logging in with their Facebook profile to post back information to their Facebook News Feed.
There is also a WordPress plugin available for RPX here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/rpx/
Check out this great post from John McCrea (Plaxo’s VP of Marketing) on JanRain’s role as a neutral party in the emerging market for OpenID and portable identities: http://therealmccrea.com/2008/12/19/as-online-identity-war-breaks-out-janrain-becomes-switzerland/.
@Michael, thanks for putting this info. RPX looks in better shape as it is not platform-dependent. Sure I’ll give a shot later.
Hi,
I am after a plugin that gets the user’s GOOGLE APPS login details on a WordPress site so they can comment and feel like the google apps site and wordpress site is networked together.
any ideas? thanks
Will this plugin be really useful? Are there many WP users who’ve got it installed?
excellent plugin, my friends use and they sayd it is very convenient