Blog Day Afternoon : blog software

Another ASP.Net Blog Software Program

Blogette — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:19:00 GMT

I have found another ASP.Net blogging software program that I like: BlogEngine.Net. It looks very much like dasBlog, but I've noticed it has additional features. One additional feature I like about BlogEngine.Net is that you can create additional pages, such as an "About Me", that you can create and have available on your menu. It also can import and export using BlogML, a must-have nowadays. BlogEngine.Net does not currently have as many themes as dasBlog, but the themes they do have use the standard master page and controls which for me is easier to edit.

Choosing an ASP.Net Blogging Software Program

Blogette — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 19:19:00 GMT

I needed to add a blog to a website. Nothing fancy, just a simple blog, but it had to be quick. I've looked at many blogging programs over the years and eliminated them as possibilities for one reason or another. One of those was DasBlog. I was turned off by the fact that it writes the data to an XML file. I figured real software would use a database. But I was desperate and decided to give it another chance. One big thing in its favor is that it creates search engine friendly URLs. Most of the simpler blogging packages do not - they use querystring parameters. For search engine optimization, though, distinct URLs was a must. I installed DasBlog and started playing around with it. The installation was very easy. Not having a database and all the extra permissioning that goes along with it really sped things up. I was pleasantly surprised to find it had quite a few themes. It was easy to find one that looked close to our existing website and then modify it. I also rearranged the items in the right-side column. I had set it up on our test server. To get it to the live server, I just FTP'ed the whole directory, added write permission to a few folders and modified one configuration setting. Another side benefit to not having a database, is that I could tell the content writer that after entering data on the test server, she can FTP her entries to the live server herself.

I am very pleased with the performance and ease of use with DasBlog on our website.

Choosing an ASP.Net Blogging and Forum Software Program

Blogette — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 13:49:00 GMT

I don't like building an application from scratch. If I can find an application out there that already does what I need, I'll use it. And if it is FREE, even better. I always look for free apps. Some aren't worth anything and you do have to wade through the garbage to find the treasures, but it is worth the effort.

In my job, I was given the task of finding a blog and forum application. Since I'm a .Net programmer, of course I wanted it to be in ASP.Net. I did several internet searches, found some possibilities, and downloaded the ones that looked interesting. I installed them and did a comparison, mostly based on (1) how easy was it to install and (2) how easy is it to use and understand (for me and as an end-user). By far the most outstanding product was Community Server. I have used Community Server 2.1 on a personal site and used it for a business customer as well. This website, www.Blogiversity.org, is Community Server 2007. To get all of the functionality we needed, we did have to pay for it, but it was well worth it. The site looks good, it is fairly easy to change the looks of it, and it performs well. It isn't all that easy to add your own content, such as the Contact Us page on this website. However, more internet searching turned up others that have been through the process and shared their findings. I just followed their process and it worked out just fine.

Blogiversity had been up and running for a while and suddenly one day I was no longer able to login with Internet Explorer. Oh, great. I hadn't made any changes to the Community Server software or the web server it was hosted on. What had happened? Logging in worked fine with FireFox. I did an internet search again, found a couple of other people that had the same problem. One thing I tried that didn't work was adding www.Blogiversity.org as a trusted site in IE. Finally one person's blog entry that put me on the right track mentioned cookies. I have been accessing the development site of Blogiversity and the production site of Blogiversity from the same computer and both sites had the same cookie names. I went into Control Panel of Community Server, Membership, and Cookie and Anonymous settings and changed the settings so that the dev and live sites had different cookies names. It worked!