Gravatars Without a Plugin
Ronald Huereca 
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Connor Wilson has published a tutorial on how to setup Gravatars on your WordPress blog without the use of a plugin.
If you are comfortable editing theme files and don’t want the overhead of a plugin, then this technique should work for you.
I’ve added in my input in the comment’s section on how to use his technique in the sidebar of a post as well, which should be useful for blogs with multiple authors.
(8 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
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Or one could just wait a week until WordPress 2.5 comes out which includes core Gravatar support.
A week!? But I want my plugin-free Gravatars NOW!
Its a nice tut for gravatar but i think Connor’s forgot to mention gravatar official doc http://site.gravatar.com/site/implement
The “rating” part is important, you dont want to see triple-x-rated avatar in your blog.
I’ll just wait for 2.5 to be released, easier for me
But I imagine there will be many who won’t upgrade to 2.5 right away. I know some bloggers still using 2.1x.
[...] are doing to your blog once you click Activate, and so I really enjoyed a post I found thanks to Weblog Tools Collection that shows off how to add Gravatars to your blog without using any [...]
[...] are doing to your blog once you click Activate, and so I really enjoyed a post I found thanks to Weblog Tools Collection that shows off how to add Gravatars to your blog without using any [...]
I’ve leave another comment on Connor’s post. Maybe Ronald and you guys find it too odd as I’ve thought the author’s pingbacks (only the author’s own site) should be gravatar-ed as well.
http://www.connorwilson.com/2008/03/02/how_to_setup_gravatars_for_your_blog_-_plugin_free/
[...] this through my Weblog Tools Collection on my WordPress dashboard. Check out this neat Gravatar application that doesn’t use a [...]
1) How much overhead could a gravatar plugin have?
2) Won’t built-in gravatar support use as much overhead as a plugin?
3) I still think the Gravatar service should be redone to allow various images with various ratings. You could use your X-rated image on sites that allow it and G-rated on those that don’t.
4) We’ll see if it’s actually released in a week. I remember the past delayed releases all too well.
If I don’t upgrade to WP 2.5 right away, will there be an updated Gravatar plugin to download? I’m worried about my other plugins breaking with 2.5…
Also, I’m wondering how to link Gravatar icons to the Gravatar site so n00bs know how to get one.
1. Depends on the plugin. I was using an old one that had quite a bit with caching and everything.
2. Again, it depends on the plugin. If a plugin author coded the plugin in such a way that it only loaded itself on certain pages, then probably the overhead would be the same.
3. I agree that would be nice. But I don’t plan on having an X-Rated image anytime soon
4. Yes, I’m waiting anxiously too.
[...] updates from this blog via email.Several commenters mentioned on yesterday’s post regarding Gravatars without a plugin that WordPress 2.5 would be having built-in Gravatar [...]
[...] commenters mentioned on yesterday’s post regarding Gravatars without a plugin that WordPress 2.5 would be having built-in Gravatar [...]
It doesn’t look like the way to call Gravatars is changing, so no worries on plugin incompatibility. As far as your other plugins. I’m afraid I can’t speak to that.
If you have some PHP knowledge, you can do a check to see if an ID exists on the Gravatar site and change the link of an author to point to a tutorial page. Such a technique is beyond the scope of this comment, but I can provide a link or tutorial (if a link isn’t available) if interested.
[...] Weblog Tools Collection [...]
[...] The Avatar function is confirmed to be part of WordPress 2.5 - Gravatars Without A Plugin [...]