MT-SPA Configuration

Perhaps more than any other plugin, MT-SPA depends greatly on its settings (detailed below). So the first step is to visit the plugin settings page in your blog. This must be done for each blog. Before you do, make sure you have the Snap.com key that you recorded during the installation process (you did record it, right?).

Next, open the settings for MT-SPA and enable the plugin for this blog. Once you do, enter your key, and set the rest of the options. You can change them later, you will just need to rebuild the templates that include the tag used by the plugin. Feel free to experiment, as there are a lot of available combinations. For now, you might just want to use the default values.

Make sure you save your settings, because if the plugin is not enabled, or if it doesn't have your key in it, it won't work. The other settings are fine on their default values, but those need to be there - so remember to save!

MTSnapPreviewAnywhere

This is the one and only template tag for this plugin. According to the developers at Snap.com, you should place their code in the <head> of your document, so that's where I suggest you put it - somewhere in the <head> of your document.

Wherever you place it will result in a string of JavaScript being generated when the template is rebuilt. If you have a shared header in your site that is included on all pages, so much the better, because there is nothing page-specific about this tag.

Remember that if you change any of the settings, you will need to rebuild all of the templates where you have inserted this template tag. If you do not, the tag will still work, but it will not pick up the changes that you make.

That's it. Really. Unless you want more detail. In that case, read on.

MT-SPA Settings

Enable MT-SPA for This Blog. If you want to use MT-SPA on this blog, this setting has to be checked. If you are using MT-SPA and want to turn it off for any reason, you can un-check this box, save your settings and rebuild.

Enter Your SnapShot™ Key. This is the 32-digit alphanumeric key you received during the signup on the Snap.com form-based signup process. If you haven't done it, nothing will work - so do it!

Display SnapShot™ for All Links. On many sites, you'll want to let the service do the work automatically, and in that case you will check this box to show the preview on all links. In other cases, you'll want to turn it off and set the preview manually (see the Scanning HTML Elements discussion below for details on this).

Display SnapShot™ for Local Links. Most links on your site probably look about the same, so showing previews of them will probably get a little old. Keep this box unchecked to only show previews of sites that are external to yours. This setting is ignored if the prior setting is disabled.

Display SnapShot™ Search Box Below the Thumbnail. If you would like to provide a Snap.com image search box below the preview thumbnail, check this box. Otherwise, uncheck it to disable this feature.

Display Only PreviewShots™. The new SnapShot™ functionality provides for some extra parsing, which provides your site visitors extra information in the pop-up. But if you'd like to turn this off, and revert to the default behavior present in the original Snap Preview Anywhere™, simply check this box to turn on the PreviewShots™, and all pop-ups will just display as they always did! For more on the special pop-ups, see below.

Ad an Icon to Indicate SnapShot™. A lot of users have expressed displeasure at having to deal with all these pop-up windows all over the place. By using a special icon to indicate which windows have a preview attached, you can tell your users what to expect. Enable it here.

Show SnapShot™ When Cursor is Over Both Link and Icon/Only When Cursor is Over the Icon. Decide how you want the preview window to behave for users by selecting an option here. Only active if you use the icon above - otherwise the preview displays when over the link, because there is no icon!

Display Your Custom Logo. If you have elected to upload a custom logo to the Snap.com site, then you can check this box to display it. However, if you have not uploaded a custom logo, don't check this box!

SnapShot™ Theme Selection. Simply click on the color you'd like to use. The text box below the colors displays the currently selected theme, but it is not able to be used to key in your selection - you have to click a color to choose your theme.

The final option is to choose which HTML elements you want SnapShot™ to scan for items to preview. This is the most complex item, so I've given it its own section, below.

Scanning HTML Elements

At the core of SnapShot™ is an engine that scans the HTML elements on your page to determine when it should (or should not) display a preview.

By manually adding a class of snap_preview to an HTML element, then that will cause the preview to be displayed - provided that element is being checked according to the rules above. In a similar vein, adding a class of snap_nopreview will cause an element that would normally display a preview to not do so - but again, only if it is within an element typically being checked (otherwise it wouldn't work anyway!).

Confused yet? It is a bit odd, and chances are that you proably won't need to do this. It's also the only configuration option that you can't control through the settings screen, since it deals with individual links. My suggestion is to try using the settings first, because otherwise you're getting into a bit of a maintenance nightmare.

Disabling SnapShot™

It is true that some people don't like the feature. It's also true that they can disable them very easily by using the "Options" within the preview screen or by visiting this page.

Just keep in mind that the disable function is based on cookies, so if the user removes their cookies, they will lose this disable preference and must reset it.