This post covers inserting phpBay code into theme files. I came up with a cool idea for using it and thought I’d share it. I have a couple blogs that are 99% hands off, and have automated content, and I wanted a way to insert some auctions to the end of the posts without having to do it manually. Doing it this way you will end up with exactly the same auctions at the end of each post, which won’t be as targeted, but it’s still proven to work.

You could add some extra php code to show different auctions based on the current category, but I won’t get into that here. If I get enough requests in the comments I’ll edit this post.

This will be handy if you have an auto-blog on one main topic. I’m sure you can think of some other applications for it, this is just one purpose.

Look through the table of contents below if you want to jump to a different section first. Below the TOC are the quick steps to add phpBay code to your theme files.

Table Of Contents

• Introduction
• Installation/Activation
• Configuration
• Testing
• Per-Post/Per-Page Settings
• Geo-Targeting
• Making The Images Clickable
• Replacing WordPress Search With eBay Search
• Inserting phpBay Code Into Theme Files
• Buy phpBay Pro (20% off coupon: DA9CD69F42)
• From Picking A Market To Building/Managing Your phpBay (Or BANS) Site

Remember, phpBay has a sidebar widget you can use, but if you want more control, and want to add auction listings to the bottom of all posts, follow these steps…

1. In your WordPress admin panel, go to Appearance -> Editor.
2. On the right side you should see a file called Single Post (single.php), click it to open up the file in the editor on the left.
3. In this file there should be a command to show the post content. Look for the_content(). Just below that you can insert the phpBay code.
4. You can use any and all parameters here just like you would in a post or page, the example below shows just the keyword and the number of posts.

   

EDIT (June 9th, 2010): Use the code below if you want to show different auctions based on Category ID or Post/Page ID…

First.. you want to get the ID, to do that for the catgeory, under the ‘Posts’ menu click ‘Categories’, hover over the category name and in the status bar (bottom of browser) you will see a URL. The URL links to a page that allows you to edit the category. Don’t click it, instead just look at the end of the URL… the catgeory ID is after the ‘cat_ID=’ part.

It’s a similar process for posts/pages. Go to ‘Edit’ under ‘Posts’ or ‘Pages’. Hover over the post or page name and in the status bar at the end of the URL you’ll find the ID just after the ‘post=’ portion.

Now.. for most themes you can use the Category ID and/or Post ID values in single.php. For pages, use page.php.

The code for showing phpBay ads for a specific category… (replace {ID} with the actual Category ID that you found using the steps above)

NOTE: I just remembered… you can also use the category name rather than the ID if you prefer.

Text File With Code

For displaying ads for a specific post you usually just add proper phpBay code to the post add/edit screen. However if you want to show ads for a specific post but have more control of where it goes (instead of just the body of the post) then you can do that by editing the theme. Just use the code above but instead of the ‘in_category’ command use ‘is_single’.

More info: phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Inserting phpBay Code Into Theme Files

BTW, did you notice that I added a couple extra sections to the manual? I will also be covering SEO and PPC keyword tracking. Also, I will explain how to add phpBay code into your themes and give an example of when that might be useful. Those sections will be up in a few days. So far, I have had the luxury of having these posts pre-written because they exist already in a PDF manual I wrote. The new ones however have to be done from scratch, plus added to the PDF. I shouldn’t be delayed too long, if at all, I still want to try and get a post a day out to you. Anyway read on for the steps…

Table Of Contents

• Introduction
• Installation/Activation
• Configuration
• Testing
• Per-Post/Per-Page Settings
• Geo-Targeting
• Making The Images Clickable
• Replacing WordPress Search With eBay Search
• Inserting phpBay Code Into Theme Files
• Buy phpBay Pro (20% off coupon: DA9CD69F42)
• From Picking A Market To Building/Managing Your phpBay (Or BANS) Site

Making The Images Clickable

To make the images in your auction listings clickable you just have to make a quick change to one or two of the template files that phpBay provides.

There is one file to change if you use columns and another file to change if you don’t. It doesn’t hurt to change them both in case you switch between a single column and multiple columns on occasion. Here’s how…

1. Download the files ‘template.ebay.results.html’ and ‘template.column.results.html’ located in the ‘/wp-content/plugins/phpBay/templates/’ folder, to your computer.
2. Open ‘template.ebay.results.html’ with a text editor. If using TextPad, right-click it and click TextPad and it will open with TextPad. If you double clicked it, it will likely just open in a browser and you won’t be able to edit it, so you will want to open it like mentioned.
3. Locate the line with the code: (it’s all on one line, it’s just wrapped in the image below)

   

   and change it to: (again, it’s wrapped)

   

4. Save the file and re-upload, overwriting the existing file.
5. Now open ‘template.column.results.html’ with a text editor.
6. Locate the line with the code:

   

   and change it to: (wrapped code below)

   

7. Go back to your test page and Refresh (F5) it to see your changes.

Next we’ll replace the WordPress search with a search that displays phpBay results instead.

More info: phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Making The Images Clickable