Let It Snow!
In Odds & Ends
Introduction
It’s the time of the year. Why not dress up your WordPress blog with some fancy falling snow flakes? Let It Snow is a WordPress plugin I wrote back in 2007, just before Christmas and it is currently one of the more popular plugins in the WordPress plugin directory. Since Christmas is coming, I thought I should just give this plugin a little refresh and move it to the COMA blog from where it originally was, on the Widgeo.us blog. I am no longer working at Widgeo.us and since this was initially a little pet project of mine anyway, I should just house it somewhere close.
The plugin works best if you have a blog (a WordPress one of course) that has a dark background, else the snow would be invisible on a too light background. Anyway I hope you like it and that it will give your blog that little more festive sparkle.
History
In 2007, WordPress.com introduced a falling snow option for its users after Matt Mullenweg asked for a falling snow script. Because the feature was only available to WordPress.com users and not self-hosted WordPress blogs, I took the falling snow code and made a plugin that exactly the same thing. All users needed to do was to download and activate the plugin to have beautiful falling snow flakes on the blogs.
Download and instructions
Download the plugin at the WordPress Plugins Directory.
[...] Let it Snow [...]
Thanks for this plugin.
This time is Christmas time, good time to make some snow on our blog :)
I would have used it on my own blog if it was white. Maybe I’ll just set one up to demo.
wow this simple plugin is awesome.
thanx man.
Glad you like it!
[...] [...]
Your plug in is great – except that on the theme I wanted to use the snow comes down with “boxes” around it – ie “snowflake framed” is there a way to fix that?
Hello pk, I think your theme is adding border’s or background colors to images. I suggest you contact the author of the theme so he can modify the theme.
[...] – link Sper sa va [...]
I was wondering if there is a chance of this effect working on a static site, no wordpress. Is it doable? And if so, would it be hard to do the hack? Thanks, novice here
The plugin works fine, thanks for your great work!
there’s just one problem: CPU usage. is it just me or does the plugin create 50% average cpu usage? Cause in my case, it does. tested on Chrome, FF 3.5/3.6, IE7/8 in Windows/Linux (Ubuntu 9.10)
Otherwise I’d let it roll on my blog :)
@John You can get the regular script which I based the plugin on at http://www.schillmania.com/projects/snowstorm/
@Dave Yes the CPU usage can be quite high, as with any other animation intensive scripts. It can be worse if you have a graphically complex layout because the CPU will have to work harder to redraw the screen. You can try changing the settings of the plugin so it’s less intensive.
[...] one last thing. In case you are wondering how I got it to snow, it was by using the Let It Snow [...]
[...] thể giúp bạn tạo hiệu ứng tuyết rơi cho blog. Tại đây tớ giới thiệu plugin Let Is Snow. Các bạn hãy cài đặt và sử dụng [...]
I’m using the plugin in my blog right now and I love it!
Thanks for the awesome plugin. :D
Hello Cindy, your blog looks great! I’m really getting the Christmas vibes just by looking at it.
I totally laughed out loud after successfully installing this-How fun,thank you!
Hi from Holland,
this is a great effect! Can it be used on web-log.nl too?
or can you give them this application too?
thanks!
Gerard
I LOVED this plugin when my blog was on Wordpress.com, LOVED it. So simple and pretty. Now that I’m on a self-hosted Wordpress platform, I’m sad I updated to 2.8.6. Can I switch back so I can have snow for a bit?
Er — I don’t know much about code. *sigh*
Hello Janine, it will work with WP 2.8.6.
@Cynthia. Glad it’s making you happy!
@Gerard. Is web-log.nl some kind of blog hosting service like WordPress.com or Blogger? You can try asking them to implement this as a feature or if you can edit your blog theme/template you can try using the original snowstorm script at http://www.schillmania.com/projects/snowstorm/ (you’ll need to know some HTML and Javascript though). Why not switch to WordPress?
It will?? I installed and activated it before I commented before; it didn’t seem to work. Maybe it needs a little time?
Oh yay, it’s working! Aen, you have no idea how happy I am right now. It’s like I’m six years old again.
Thanks much!
Looking good Janine!
It’s possible to have the snow ONLY on the homepage?
Hi there!
Firstly, I love your plug-in. It is the most beautiful and natural animation of snow, and I’ve tried a few other snow plug-ins. Thank you for providing and spending your time to update this plug-in. =)
I was wondering if it was possible to limit the size of the container in which the snow falls in.
If you take a look at my blog (keep in mind that I’ve only published one test post, I’m just working on getting the theme right before I start blogging!) you’ll see the Christmasy logo up above. I can remove the black background of the logo to make it transparent and remove the snowflakes that are already there – instead, I would love to have your snow fall, but only within my logo, and (optionally) pile up at the bottom of the logo rather than at the bottom of the window.
Is it also possible to change the snow image into the snowflakes I already have on my blog? (in that case, the snowflakes wouldn’t pile up, they’re much too big! :P)
I know I’m asking for a lot, but if you could help me out or at least tell me if it’s possible, that would be much appreciated! I’ll be checking and hoping for a reply! ;-)
Good job!
I want it only on the homepage too, please help.
Hello, love the plugin! But a couple people have complained that it slowed down video playback on our site. Would it be possible to only display this on the homepage?
http://takezer0.com
Thanks! :)
I know you do something like this:
Just not sure where to include that in the plugin file.
Er,
Okay, fixed it! For anyone wondering how to make it only snow on your homepage, this worked for me:
http://takezer0.com/secrets/letitsnow_homeonly.jpg
@ Andrea, jrsdhr, Sean Duran…
We’re really busy with client work and I’m afraid this updating this plugin with the suggested features is not high on our priority list. I guess I’ll add an option to restrict snow to only on the homepage by the end of this week.
@ Bookie
Thanks for the positive comment! I think I might consider some of your suggestions. I probably wouldn’t have the time to implement them all. So I hope you can make do with what we have now. Sorry!
By the way if you want snow only on the homepage, use Sean Duran’s hack while I try to get a new version up.
http://takezer0.com/secrets/letitsnow_homeonly.jpg
=( There’s no existing code “template” that I can use in the Editor of the plug-in that can limit the parameters in which the snow falls, without having to do a plug-in update for everyone?
[...] 3.Let it snow [...]
Hi I’ve been tried to using it in my Wordpress blog. But it looks like it doesn’t works well, because it gives disturbing flashes at the bottom of the page. I think it’s an error :( Is there anyone having that kind of trouble also?
It’s too bad because it’s a simple but cute plugin to add in this christmas time..
In case anyone is interested, I made a small hack to limit snowfall to the month of December so I can just leave the plugin on all year and it will only snow when I want it to. It is similar to the Sean Duran homepage only hack, but instead of “if(is_home()) print($snowJS);” I used “if(date(‘n’) == 12) print($snowJS);”
Perhaps if I get ambitious I’ll code it so different things can fall throughout the year. Maybe rain in spring, leaves in fall, snow in winter, probably just turn it off for summer.
On a side note about Sean Duran’s hack, if anyone uses a static page rather than their blog posts for their homepage, use “if(is_front_page()) print($snowJS);” rather than “if(is_home()) print($snowJS);”
[...] a WordPress plugin by Aen Tan called Let It Snow! So please enjoy the view while you can, otherwise you have to wait until next [...]
[...] stelle, stelline eccetera??), oppure questo, ho optato per la seconda, usando due plugin appositi, Let it snow e [...]
Awesome plugin! I just wrote the same thing in jQuery. I’m using yours for my blog and my code for my companies e-card.
Great plugin and great hack SD!
I just turned it up here: http://www.theorchardsblog.net
Thank you!
Nice Plugin, but it does not run on my blog :-(
I am using WP 2.8.6 with the dkret theme
Hello,
I just wanted to note that at current the plugin is using an older version of snowstorm.js. The new version the newest version (1.4.20091115) does not require images which is nice. I believe all other options are pretty much the same.
It might be something worth looking into, I’m using the newer version everywhere but inside my blog with no problems.
I also liked the suggestion to limit the time-frame the snow is on either to a month, year, date whatever.
Thanks for your work on this plugin,
Brooke
[...] ただいまこのブログにはWordpressのプラグイン、let it snowを設定しているので雪が降ってる…ハズ。 なんかいろいろとパラメータを弄れるので設定中。 7年ほど前は全部自作したなぁ、Flash使って。 アニメーションの軌跡も自分で全部設定するというとてもアナクロな設計。 今考えるとむちゃくちゃである。 若いってスゴい。 [...]
I love love love love love it :)
Makes the site so nice and festive!
Heart you amazing smart people for making things like this! Yay.
Perfect work! Greetings from Czech Republic.
Hi Aen, thanks for posting this.
I have added to my blog http://www.2sane.com, but I have the same problem with @FOS – the trebling scrollbar at the bottom.
(this happens even if I disable the sticky option).
It happens both in FireFox and IE.
Anybody have a fix or suggestion about this please?
@pk – I had the same problem, my theme was adding a border to each snowflake.
An easy fix I have done on the plugin itself, not altering the theme files:
In the plugin editor, go to the Let it Snow plugin and then edit the file let-it-snow/script/snowstorm.js
There is a block in there like this:
this.active = 1;
this.o = document.createElement(‘img’);
this.o.style.position = ‘absolute’;
this.o.style.width = flakeWidth+’px’;
this.o.style.height = flakeHeight+’px’;
this.o.style.fontSize = ‘1px’; // so IE keeps proper size
this.o.style.zIndex = zIndex;
this.o.src = imagePath+this.type+(pngSupported && usePNG?’.png’:’.gif’);
docFrag.appendChild(this.o);
Make it:
this.active = 1;
this.o = document.createElement(‘img’);
this.o.style.position = ‘absolute’;
this.o.style.border = ‘0′;
this.o.style.width = flakeWidth+’px’;
this.o.style.height = flakeHeight+’px’;
this.o.style.fontSize = ‘1px’; // so IE keeps proper size
this.o.style.zIndex = zIndex;
this.o.src = imagePath+this.type+(pngSupported && usePNG?’.png’:’.gif’);
docFrag.appendChild(this.o);
That is, you add the line:
this.o.style.border = ‘0′;
that tells it to have zero border on the image.
It worked for me!
[...] 最近把let is snow这个插件给搬出来了。。 很不错的插件–飘雪的效果~ 很温馨！以后每年进入12月份都把它拿出来用用~ 不过。。。到是真的给偶下场雪啊！ [...]
Hello there! I just installed let it snow and i keep staring at my site. It’s snowing! Is there a way i could make the snowflakes bigger?
[...] plugin-plugin WordPress yang menyediakan efek salju ini. Salah satunya yang bagus adalah plugin Let It Snow yang di buat oleh Aen Tan. Anda bisa mendownloadnya melalui halaman plugin di [...]
[...] for wordpress.com blogs. Now though several snowfall plugins are available, I am using the Let it Snow WordPress plugin designed by Aen Tan. You can Download Let it Snow from the WordPress Extend [...]
[...] los blogs wordpress.com. Ahora sin embargo ahora hay varios plugins disponibles, estoy usando el Let it Snow para WordPress diseñado por Aen Tan. Usted puede descargar Let it Snow [...]
First, thanks for this great plugin, I really love ist.
Version 1.3 works pretty well on my self-hosted Wordpress blog, but after I upgraded to 2.0 I’ve recognized some very old issues have come back.
On my blog all snowflakes come with a border (again) and in Firefox the horizontal scrollbar is flickering every time a flake hits the fringe. This has been a problem with version 1.0-1.2 (I don’t know exactly), but has been fixed in version 1.3. Now all these problems are back, why?
I would appreciate if you could give us again a fixed version. Thanks in advance (as long as there is no fix I’ll be using 1.3 further on, it works pretty well even with WP 2.8.6 and 2.9.
[...] for wordpress.com blogs. Now though several snowfall plugins are available, I am using the Let it Snow WordPress plugin designed by Aen Tan. You can Download Let it Snow from the WordPress Extend [...]
[...] plugin si chiama Let it Snow, ed è scaricabile tranquillamente dal database plugin di wordpress.org. [...]
Loved the plugin, but thought it would be nice to be able to set a date range for the snow to fall, so I made a few additions adding a date-start and date-stop setting, I also added a confetti option so the snow changes to colored confetti on New Years Eve. Aen, contact me directly if you want my revisions.
Hey Walter, would love to add your contribution to the plugin. Maybe as part fo the next version for end 2010.
[...] 10 годин, тому для урочистого прикрашання встановлено плагін Let It Snow!. Результати його роботи якраз літають за [...]
[...] Let it Snow طراحی شده توسط Aen Tan می باشد که شما می توانید آن را از [...]
Great plug-in! With a little bit of tweakin’ I now have black snow. :D
[...] for wordpress.com blogs. Now though several snowfall plugins are available, I am using the Let it Snow WordPress plugin designed by Aen Tan. You can Download Let it Snow from the WordPress Extend [...]
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