Blogger Label Cloud

I'm a big fan of word clouds, or tag clouds. When I learned of Blogger's new post labeling system, I knew somehow that label cloud can be done. So a little Google search and I found this wonderful widget on phydeaux3.

phydeaux3's label cloud has some very nice customization features including minimum and maximum font-size, algorythm-based color changing and a choice to show count. Installation is pretty simple with only 3 different parts to copy.

I've installed it on my own blog and made a number of small changes (making it way better):

1. added minPostCount where the cloud only display the label which have at least the specified amount of post. This is useful for a large blog with too many labels.
2. reduced to only 2 parts to copy, i.e. CSS codes and widget codes.
3. Non-javascript friendly. The original label cloud only works if JavaScript is enabled. Although most people usually have JavaScript enabled, there is nothing wrong to make it JavaScript-disabled friendly. Besides, it's good for search engine indexing.
4. Using relative URL instead of absolute URL where you are required to insert your blog address, a move that I ... well ... considered as unnecessary (unless you're using FTP)

Installation in two parts:

1. CSS. Goes anywhere between the tags <b:skin> ... </b:skin>, preferably right before the end tag
   

   /* Label Cloud Styles
   ----------------------------------------------- */
     #labelCloud {text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;}
     #labelCloud  .label-cloud li{display:inline;background-image:none !important;padding:0 5px;margin:0;vertical-align:baseline !important;border:0 !important;}
     #labelCloud ul{list-style-type:none;margin:0 auto;padding:0;}
     #labelCloud a img{border:0;display:inline;margin:0 0 0 3px;padding:0}
     #labelCloud a{text-decoration:none}
     #labelCloud a:hover{text-decoration:underline}
     #labelCloud li a{}
     #labelCloud .label-cloud {}
     #labelCloud .label-count {padding-left:0.2em;font-size:9px;color:#000}
     #labelCloud .label-cloud li:before{content:"" !important}

2. Widget. Goes anywhere between <b:section id="'sidebar'"> ... </b:section>
   

   <b:widget id='Label1' locked='false' title='Label Cloud' type='Label'>
   <b:includable id='main'>
    <b:if cond='data:title'>
      <h2><data:title/></h2>
    </b:if>
   
    <div class='widget-content'>
    <div id='labelCloud'>    <ul>
      <b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'>
        <li>
          <b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:label.url'>
            <data:label.name/>
          <b:else/>
            <a expr:href='data:label.url'><data:label.name/></a>
          </b:if>
          (<data:label.count/>)
        </li>
      </b:loop>
      </ul></div>
   <script type='text/javascript'>
   // Label Cloud User Variables
   var maxFontSize = 20;
   var maxColor = [168,181,248];
   var minFontSize = 8;
   var minColor = [0,0,0];
   var lcShowCount = false;
   var minPostCount = 0; //integer
   
   // Don't change anything past this point -----------------
   function s(a,b,i,x){
        if(a>b){
            var m=(a-b)/Math.log(x),v=a-Math.floor(Math.log(i)*m)
               }
        else{
            var m=(b-a)/Math.log(x),v=Math.floor(Math.log(i)*m+a)
            }
        return v
     }
   
   var ta=0;
   var c=[];
   var labelCount = new Array(); 
   var ts = new Object;
   <b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'>
   <b:if cond='data:label.count'>
   if (<data:label.count/> &gt; minPostCount) ts[&quot;<data:label.name/>&quot;] = <data:label.count/>;</b:if></b:loop>
   
   for (t in ts){
       if (!labelCount[ts[t]]){
             labelCount[ts[t]] = new Array(ts[t])
             }
          }
   tz = labelCount.length-1;
   lc2 = document.getElementById('labelCloud');
   lc2.innerHTML = '';
   ul = document.createElement('ul');
   ul.className = 'label-cloud';
   for(var t in ts){
      for (var i=0;3 &gt; i;i++) {
               c[i]=s(minColor[i],maxColor[i],ts[t]-ta,tz)
                }     
           var fs = s(minFontSize,maxFontSize,ts[t]-ta,tz);
           li = document.createElement('li');
           li.style.fontSize = fs+'px';
           li.style.lineHeight = '1';
           a = document.createElement('a');
           a.title = ts[t]+' Posts in '+t;
           a.style.color = 'rgb('+c[0]+','+c[1]+','+c[2]+')';
           a.href = '/search/label/'+encodeURIComponent(t);
           if (lcShowCount){
               span = document.createElement('span');
               span.innerHTML = '('+ts[t]+') ';
               span.className = 'label-count';
               a.appendChild(document.createTextNode(t));
               li.appendChild(a);
               li.appendChild(span);
               }
            else {
               a.appendChild(document.createTextNode(t));
               li.appendChild(a);
               }
           ul.appendChild(li);
           abnk = document.createTextNode(' ');
           ul.appendChild(abnk);
      }
    lc2.appendChild(ul);   
   </script>
   
      <b:include name='quickedit'/>
    </div>
   
   </b:includable>
   </b:widget>

After installing, you'll just have to make changes to the variables to suit your blog best. The bold section is where you customise your settings.

I think it's pretty straight forward how this is used, incase you need more explanation you can get a complete documentation on phydeaux3.

Have fun.