bloggertech
December 22, 2001
Posting from Bloggar release candidate 1, another Blogger API client. (The site is in Portuguese, and the Babel Fish translation is worse than the original, so I'm not sure how far they are from release.[Update: released 12/25/01. Blogger API shut down 12/26/01. Ouch.])
What else? Cut copy and paste buttons, bold italic and underscore, new post, insert text file, save post (saves as post.txt - to save as, you have to go to the file menu), template editing, edit posts (last 5, 10, 15, 20, or by post ID#), choice of font size, and an option to clear the window after posting or not (though the window clears when you change to a new blog, so no posting to multiple blogs!).
So far, the only problem I've had was figuring out that you save an edited template by clicking "Post". I think I would add a separate "Save template" button rather than reusing "Post" without even changing the label. [Update: more seriously, it converts any HTML character entities (in your template or in posts you edit) into their character equivalent. Not so nice if your template includes a bunch of sample code. [Update to the update: both supposed to be fixed in v1.0, but until the API is available again, I can't try it out.]]
I tend not to do much text alignment, but this is centered.
And this is aligned right.
And if I type enough to show it, this is justified. All because Bloggar has buttons with word processor style icons for left, center, right and justify, which insert a div with the align attribute set. Pretty cute. The link and image buttons offer a dropdown for class, though it doesn't seem to populate the way I've always wanted one to (parse the template for inline or external style sheets, get them, parse them for classes).
What else? Cut copy and paste buttons, bold italic and underscore, new post, insert text file, save post (saves as post.txt - to save as, you have to go to the file menu), template editing, edit posts (last 5, 10, 15, 20, or by post ID#), choice of font size, and an option to clear the window after posting or not (though the window clears when you change to a new blog, so no posting to multiple blogs!).
So far, the only problem I've had was figuring out that you save an edited template by clicking "Post". I think I would add a separate "Save template" button rather than reusing "Post" without even changing the label. [Update: more seriously, it converts any HTML character entities (in your template or in posts you edit) into their character equivalent. Not so nice if your template includes a bunch of sample code. [Update to the update: both supposed to be fixed in v1.0, but until the API is available again, I can't try it out.]]
Patience is a virtue.
do any of you know how to add that 'post a comment thing' so that ppl can add comments about ur posts...No answer in twelve minutes? After posting in a thread about the fact that the server that runs template editing is down, so that all you get when you edit your template is a scary-looking blank textarea? Well, I guess there just isn't anybody anywhere who knows how...
joyce-judith ... [12/22/2001 3:20 PM]
okay...guessss not
joyce-judith ... [12/22/2001 3:32 PM]
December 16, 2001
Unless someone else decides to go down the Blogvoices, Reblogger, BlogBack and Snorcomments path (and why would they?), I'm afraid that remotely-hosted dotcomments is next in line. After months of light activity, the main comment and source of support is getting a bit more active.
So, since the hurdle of ftping a couple of files, creating a directory, and chmodding them, and pasting a couple of bits of script in a Blogger template is a bit high for some people, and since I'm teaching myself PHP anyway, I got to thinking about a PHP install program for it, which would ask for your Blogger and Barrysworld usernames and passwords, let you customize the colors and fonts in dotcomments, and then create the directory, send the files, set the permissions, get your template through the API, insert the script, publish the blog, and open it in a "there you go" window.
The unexpectedly most-difficult part? Finding a place in the Blogger template to put the scripts. It's fairly obvious that finding the right spot for the script that displays the comment link would be difficult, since there isn't any real standard for what ought to be in a byline, much less where the byline should be, but what's less obvious is that finding the <head> of many Blogger templates is no less difficult. I would have thought that the first thing anyone would learn about HTML would be that an HTML page has the following structure:
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
with no exceptions, nothing between </head> and <body>, and one-and-only-one of each tag. Sadly, a Blogger template is just as likely to have two or more <body> tags and no </head> tag at all. So template parsing will have to involve dozens of possible solutions: find a </head> and go before it, find the first <body> and treat it as an implied </head>, find no <body> and no </head> anddelete the whole damn template...
One of the best things about Blogger is that you can put anything you like in your template, as long as it has <Blogger> and </Blogger> somewhere in it. One of the worst things about Blogger is that you can put anything you like in your template, as long as it has <Blogger> and </Blogger> somewhere in it.
So, since the hurdle of ftping a couple of files, creating a directory, and chmodding them, and pasting a couple of bits of script in a Blogger template is a bit high for some people, and since I'm teaching myself PHP anyway, I got to thinking about a PHP install program for it, which would ask for your Blogger and Barrysworld usernames and passwords, let you customize the colors and fonts in dotcomments, and then create the directory, send the files, set the permissions, get your template through the API, insert the script, publish the blog, and open it in a "there you go" window.
The unexpectedly most-difficult part? Finding a place in the Blogger template to put the scripts. It's fairly obvious that finding the right spot for the script that displays the comment link would be difficult, since there isn't any real standard for what ought to be in a byline, much less where the byline should be, but what's less obvious is that finding the <head> of many Blogger templates is no less difficult. I would have thought that the first thing anyone would learn about HTML would be that an HTML page has the following structure:
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
with no exceptions, nothing between </head> and <body>, and one-and-only-one of each tag. Sadly, a Blogger template is just as likely to have two or more <body> tags and no </head> tag at all. So template parsing will have to involve dozens of possible solutions: find a </head> and go before it, find the first <body> and treat it as an implied </head>, find no <body> and no </head> and
One of the best things about Blogger is that you can put anything you like in your template, as long as it has <Blogger> and </Blogger> somewhere in it. One of the worst things about Blogger is that you can put anything you like in your template, as long as it has <Blogger> and </Blogger> somewhere in it.
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