Whenever I read my friends blogs who host on Blogger I always admire the archive menu that comes as standard; it's pretty neat and really helps when you have a large number of blog posts over a number of years (something that bothers me because if a reader enjoys a blog post I want to make it as easy as possibly for them to find other, similar and related posts, but more on this later).
So I mocked up this simple, yet effective, version which produces a similar, self-generating, archive menu list.
Here's an example:
And here's the code (and don't forget to change the $startYear and $startMonth variables to the year and month you started your blog as well as using your blog handle instead of 'eclectic'):
## Blog Start Year
#set ($startYear = 2007)
## Blog Start Month
#set ($startMonth = 4)
## Get the current Year and Month
#set ($countYear = $now.getYear() + 1900)
#set ($countMonth = $now.getMonth() + 1)
## Text Adjust
#set ($zero = 0)
## Total number of years to cycle through
#set ($numberYear = $countYear - $startYear)
<ul class="rEntriesList">
#foreach ($number in [0..$numberYear])
#if ($countYear >= $startYear)
## Months in a year
#foreach ($number in [1..12])
#if (($countMonth != 0) && ((($countYear > $startYear) || (($countYear == $startYear) && ($countMonth >= $startMonth)))))
<li class="recentposts">
#if ($countMonth == 1)
#set ($nameMonth = "January")
#elseif ($countMonth == 2)
#set ($nameMonth = "February")
#elseif ($countMonth == 3)
#set ($nameMonth = "March")
#elseif ($countMonth == 4)
#set ($nameMonth = "April")
#elseif ($countMonth == 5)
#set ($nameMonth = "May")
#elseif ($countMonth == 6)
#set ($nameMonth = "June")
#elseif ($countMonth == 7)
#set ($nameMonth = "July")
#elseif ($countMonth == 8)
#set ($nameMonth = "August")
#elseif ($countMonth == 9)
#set ($nameMonth = "September")
#elseif ($countMonth == 10)
#set ($nameMonth = "October")
#elseif ($countMonth == 11)
#set ($nameMonth = "November")
#elseif ($countMonth == 12)
#set ($nameMonth = "December")
#end
#if ($countMonth > 9)
<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/eclectic/?date=$countYear$countMonth">» $nameMonth, $countYear</a>
#else
<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/eclectic/?date=$countYear$zero$countMonth">» $nameMonth, $countYear</a>
#end
</li>
#set ($countMonth = $countMonth - 1)
#end
#end
#set ($countMonth = 12)
##</ul>
#end
#set ($countYear = $countYear - 1)
#end
</ul>
