Random Bytes


  I've changed the output of a few of the template variables - they should now render properly via RSS as well.

I think. C  |  T (396)  |  #
  I've changed the output of a few of the template variables - they should now render properly via RSS as well.

I think.
{{sys.sidesmiley}} C  |  T (4)  |  #
  I installed a new template series - "Spaghetti Western" - you're lookin' at it (if you're actually reading this at my blog and not via some RSS feed somewhere ;)

Guile did it.

You can access them via your control panel. Have fun, I'm going to get my bicycle tuned up. C  |  T (52)  |  #
  At the request of a small, but growing, contingent of Wing Fans (me), I've created a new blogsticker system variable.



Simply add {{sys.wingfan}} to any post and the sticker will show up. C  |  T (72)  |  #
  A blogroll is a list of links to blogs that you want your readers to visit for one reason or another (hopefully because you think that the links are worthy of sharing!)

Blogware makes it easy to include a list of links on your page - no HTML required!

A few easy steps.


  1. Log into your Blogware control panel
  2. Click on the "Blogrolls" link in the left hand navigation panel.
  3. Click on "Add Blogroll" at the top of the page in the main content section (with the white background). It can be hard to see this link - we need to make it more eye-catching.
  4. Choose a one-word, no special characters, name for your blogroll. You can use "blogroll" or "links" if you want. Try and choose something short and memorable. Type your choice into the form field labelled "Name".
  5. Choose a name for your blogroll that you would like to use to describe your list of links to visitors to your blogware. This will be used as the header for your list of links. Type this choice into the "Label" field.
  6. Choose a sort order for your links from the drop down list.
  7. Enter in a description of your blogroll in the "Description" form field. "Hopefully you find these links useful" is appropriate - you can use as many or as few characters as you want. This is an optional step.
  8. When you've completed this first set of steps, click on the "Create Blogroll" button.


Congrats - you've created an empty blogroll! Now you have to add some links for your visitors to click on!

You should now have a screen in front of you that includes the information that you just entered, as well as a new section labelled "URLS". This is where you add your links (we're almost done).


  1. In the "Title" field, enter in the name of the site that you wish to link to. This is usually the name of the home page that you are linking to (i.e. "The Blogware Home Page"), or a colloquial name for a particular resource (i.e. "My Stuff")
  2. In the URL field, enter in the complete web address (URL) that you wish to link to. You may cut and paste directly from your browser into this field. Note that if this is not a properly formatted address an error will occur.
  3. The other two fields are optional. If you don't know what they mean, SKIP THEM!
  4. Second last step - click the "Add Now" button to save your link.
  5. Wash rinse and repeat until you have created all of the links that you want. When you are done, proceed to the last step.


LAST STEP!!!


This is the easiest one. Click on the "Blogrolls" link in the left hand navigation pane of your control panel and choose the Blogroll that you just created as your default Blogroll. Once you've picked one, click the "Update Now" button.



You're done!!!


When you next visit your Blogware, you should have a shiny new blogroll on your front page. If you don't just hit "Refresh" in your browser to update your cache. If it still doesn't work, drop me a note! C  |  T (31)  |  #
  I've uploaded a new template series made by Guile called "Elegance" and uploaded a fix to Steel Grey - All available from your Template Manager in the control panel.

Both of these were sent to me a few weeks back :( - I'll get my act together sooner or later. C  |  T (28)  |  #
  I've added a few new Global Template Variables that you can toss anywhere in your blog posts or templates.

{{sys.ross}} -

{{sys.bwpv1}} -

{{sys.bwpv2}} -

{{sys.sidesmiley}} -

The Blogware stickers were made using a really cool button maker that is making the rounds.

The smiley is actually a QBullet - be sure to check their terms of use to make sure that you are using it properly.

I've sent the good folks at Matterhorn a message explaining to them what I want to use these for - if the response is positive, I will upload the entire collection as GTVs... C  |  T (318)  |  #
  With bubble control in the picture, readers will have to start dealing with a less than flat blog space - moving back to a much more hierarchical structure where everything *isn't* always on the main page.

I'm beginning to see some really great applications coming together that will really start to give Elliot's "Readers Movement" some more cred, muscle and capability within blogdom - much of it kickstarted or facilitated by blogware. Neat stuff. You'll definitely see some more on this at some point.

Vivent longtemps le mouvement de lecteurs!1



1Ummm...yeah, that was via babelfish... C (2)  |  T (88)  |  #
  Lots of steps here - but only when you are starting from scratch. The results are worth it - especially if you take a lot of pictures and want to share them with your friends and family.

There are two broad steps for creating a photoblog. First is to create a photoalbum to hold your pictures, and the second is to actually upload and describe the pictures that you want to share.

  1. Login to blogware - if you've forgotten, click here (but don't forget to come back and read the rest of instructions - or print them)
  2. Click "Manage Categories" on the right hand side.
  3. Click "Create new", also on the right hand side.
  4. From the drop down menu, select "Photo Album"
  5. In the "Name" field, type a short memorable word that the system will use to describe your new photo-album. This "Name" is for machines, so it shouldn't include any spaces, special characters like "#" or "_" and should look good in your URL.
  6. In the "Label" field, type a short memorable public label for this category. This is for people to see and use, so it can include spaces, use more than one word and include special characters.
  7. Click on "Save Changes".

You've just created a photoalbum (yay!).

Next steps is to put some pictures into your new photoblog.

These steps are going to get easier, but for now;

  1. Click on "Manage Categories" in the right hand navigation panel.
  2. Click on the name of the new photoalbum that you just created - also in the right hand navigation.
  3. Click on the "Browse" button and select the picture that you wish to upload to your album.
  4. In the "Save As" Field, give your photo a name and file extension. For instance "leaves.jpg" or "birthday.gif".
  5. Click "Upload Now"
  6. Wait for the file to completely upload - your screen will automatically reload once this happens. If you are uploading a large picture, this may take a few minutes - be patient and don't hit refresh or "Upload Now" multiple times. Its tempting, don't do it.
  7. The new page will include a resized version of the picture that you just uploaded and a few fields that allow you to make comments about the picture using the same editor that you use for all of your blog posts.
  8. Scroll down and enter a title for the photograph into the "Title" field.
  9. In the "Body" field, enter in as many comments as you wish to make about the photo. Don't worry, you have lots of space - these comments will be used on a page of their own, so you won't fill up the screen with text and push the pictures off ;)
  10. Make sure that the "Post Status" drop down menu is set to "Publish" and then click the "Publish/Save" button.


That's it! If you encountered no errors, you should be able to visit your blog, select the photoalbum that you create and view the pictures that you uploaded.

There are a ton of other options and features that we didn't touch on, like batch uploads, but these will become self-apparent to you as you use the system - and our documentation gets better.

In the meantime, drop me a note if you have any questions. C (4)  |  T (45)  |  #
 






Here's a slightly newer more complete draft of the docs. Unfortunately, a lot of this documents interfaces that have not been implemented yet :(

Overview


There are two main components to Blogware - your Blogware home page and your Blogware
Control Panel. This document explains the high-level functions of the Blogware Control Panel.
Other documents will detail specific functions in more detail.

Getting Started

Logging In

In order to administer your Blogware, you must be logged into the Blogware Control Panel. To login, simply point your web browser at http://www.blogware.com/admin and enter your Blogware administrator ID and your password in the Username: & Password: form fields. Clickt the Login button with your mouse or hit Enter on your keyboard to submit the data and gain access to the Blogware Control Panel.

Administration Overview

There are thirteen (we didn't plan it that way) functions available from the Blogware Control Panel.


  • "Main" - Clicking this link will take you to the main login page.
  • "Post Article" - Allows you to post a new article to any category of your
    Blogware.

    • "Advanced Article Options" - Allows you to modify advanced
      article publishing properties


  • "Logout" - Logs you out of the Blogware Control Panel.
  • "View" - Opens a new window and displays your Blogware home page.
  • "Article Library" - The Blogware Article Library is where you will find
    all of the articles that you have posted to your Blogware. The Article Library
    allows you to manage all of your articles from one simple interface.
  • "Category Manager" - allows you to create, manage and modify all of the
    Blogware categories that you have created.
  • "File Manager" - allows you to upload, view and delete images and other
    files that you have uploaded.
  • "Blogware Settings" - manage your basic Blogware settings and defaults.
  • "Permissions" - change the settings for your Administrative Users and manage
    any User Groups that you have created.
  • "Look & Feel" - manage the look and feel of your Blogware home page.
  • "Manage Links & Blogrolls" - create new Blogrolls and manage existing ones.
  • "Blacklist IP Addresses" - allow and disallow users from viewing your Blogware.


Post Article


Articles are the backbone of your blog. Articles are also referred to as "Posts",
"Entries" and even sometimes "Blogs" (not sure about that last one - http://ross.blogware.com
is a blog, not a collection of blogs). Creating, or posting, a new article is
a simple exercise. From your main Blogware home page, simply click on "Post
Article" (or do the same from your Blogware Control Panel).


This will load the Blogware Article Editor. The article editor is a simple
interface that allows you to create and publish a new Blogware article. Your
first step is to select which category you would like your new article to appear
in. If you have not created any subcategories, the only option available will
be "[Top level]".


Now, you must start composing your new post. There are three main parts to
every post - the title, body and excerpt.


Article Title: This is the general headline or name of the post. It should
be short and descriptive and entice the reader into wanting to read more. Think
of this as a newspaper headline.


Article Body: This is the main meat of your post. The Article Body can be as
long or as short as you want. It should be funny - or informative - or both.
:)


Excerpt (Article Summary): Some templates may choose to display a summary of
the article instead of the whole article. Filling in this field will allow these
templates to present more appropriate information to your readers.


Only the Article Title field is mandatory - you may leave either of the other
two blank - but keep in mind that it might make it difficult for people to understand
your point if you don't make it.


Lastly, you must choose whether or not you want to save this article and work
on it later, or publish it immediately to your Blogware. If you wish to save
your work thus far and finish it up later, simply select "Finish This Article
Later" and click "Save Article". If you would like to publish it immediately
to your Blogware, select "Publish this article now." and select either "Preview"
or "Save Article". Selecting "Preview" will let you see what the article looks
like before displaying it on the public section of your Blogware. "Save article"
will publish the article immediately with no preview.


Advanced Article Options


Advanced users might wish to modify the properties for an article before publishing
them. The average user will typically not need to modify these settings.


Formatting: Setting this to HTML will cause Blogware to render the text
that you have inputted for your article. This means that any valid (and invalid)
HTML tags will be interpreted by Blogware and alter the resultant output to
your readers. Setting this to text will cause Blogware to not render any input
and the text of the article will simply be displayed.


Convert Newlines: This allows you to set whether or not Blogware should
attempt to render line and paragraph breaks in HTML. If this option is checked,
Blogware will render paragraphs with appropriate <p></p> tags and
line breaks with a <br> tag.


Accept Trackbacks: Set this option if you wish to track when other sites
explicitly reference your posts. This is known as "Accepting incoming trackback
pings".


Allow Comments:Set this option to allow or deny your readers the capability
to post comments to your articles.


Use auto-discovery for remote pings: Set this option to automatically
discover which sites you have linked to in your post and notify them of the
reference you have just created. This is also known as "automated trackback
discovery" and "sending a trackback ping"


URLs to Notify (ping): Specify which, if any, web services or sites
you would like to notify that you have posted a new article. This is a free-form
field that allows you to enter in any valid http: address that accepts pings.


View available template variables for inclusion in excerpt and body:
Click this link to create and display a list of all template variables that
you may include in your article.


 


Article Library


The Article Library allows you to manage all aspects of articles that you
have already posted to your Blogware. You can change specific properties for
a single article, such as its headline, or change specific properties for a
number of articles all at the same time in batch mode.


The default view for the article library is to present up to 20 articles at
a time listed in reverse chronological order in a table format. You may increase
or deacrease the number of articles displayed by the Aritlc Library at any time
by changing the "Show x articles at a time" option at the top of the
display and clicking the "Change Article Count" submit button. This
will refresht the page and change the number of artiicles displayed based on
your preference.


If you have more articles in your library than you can display at any given
time, you can view the next page of articles by clicking on the [Next] link
at the top and bottom of the page. You may also directly jump to a specific
page by clicking the page number that you wish to jump to.


There are six columns to this table, labelled "Edit", "Title",
"Change Category", "Post Status", "Date Published",
"Author" and "Mark for deletion". The following descriptions
provide a more detailed explanation of each of their functions.


Edit - Click on the "#" icon that precedes each entry in the article
library will open the selected article in the article edtor. Clicking the title
of the article in the next column over has the same effect.


Title: Clicking the title of the article will open the selected article in
the Article Editor.


Change Category: Changing the drop down selection in this category will change
the category that you originally filed the article in and move it to the newly
highlighted category. Note that if you move an article from a privileged category
to an unprivileged category, that the article will be viewable by readers of
the new category and not subjected to the original article permissions.


Post Status: Changing this option allows to to publish an article that was
previously saved as a work in progress, or "unpublish" an article
that was previously available for public reading,


Date Published: This column can not be edited.


Author: You may enter in the name of any author that has permission to post
to your Blogware.


Mark for deletion: Selecting this option will delete the selected article.
You may select more than one article at a time for deletion.



Commit Changes: Selecting this option will save the changes that you made to
specific articles. You will be asked to confirm the changes once, and then the
changes will be effected.


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


--==end==-



C  |  T (53)  |  #
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"Random Bytes" is a produced for and by Ross Rader.

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