Blog Tool Guide

version: 1.8
date: 2003-04-09 16:16:58

Installation guide and ephemera for the blog tool.


Tested on:
Zope 2.6.2/CMF 1.4.2
Zope 2.6.1/CMF 1.4.2
Zope 2.6.1/CMF 1.3.1

Features of PABlog (running on CMF or plone)

  • You can have as many weblogs on a site as you want
  • Customizable subjects for entries
  • Comment system*
  • Multiple editors on all weblogs
  • Search*
  • Member registration*
  • Member profiles (if they want)*
  • Publish date (decide when you want something to publish)*
  • Expiration date*
  • Calendar*
  • RSS Headline Syndication
  • Security and Access Control*
 *uses the underlying CMF or Plone


Known problems


When using CMF 1.3.1, the blogindex_html_utils needs to be edited to remove the '.css' on the stylesheet.  Also in CMF 1.3.1, when editing comments you must hit the "Change and View" button rather than the "Change button".

New in 1.8:
  • rss generator (edit blog.rss to contain your url and blog title)
  • list last 10 comments
  • cleaned up css
  •  there is a fork of PABlogPlone for plone users
  •  changed ID generation format for cleanliness
  • added 'publish date' to entry edit form (note that if you are logged in  and are the owner of the blog, you will see the entry in the main list anyway)
  • automatically add PABlog to Calendar Types
  • removed calendarBox.pt, CalendarStyle.dtml, viewThreadsAtBottom.pt


Preconditions


  1. You have Zope and CMF installed.  You will need to install PABlogPlone if  you have Plone installed.
  2. You have CMFCalendar installed. This is highly recommended, as the archiving function derives from this. If you don't have it, comment out the relevant section of main_template. To install CMFCalendar, create an external method in your CMF root with the module name CMFCalendar.Install and the function name is install, run the test, and the move on.
  3. You have HtmlArea3 installed.  

Installation


  1. run the installer (create an external method where the Module Name is PABlog.Install and the Function Name is install)
  2. In the ZMI, go to portal_skins/PABlog, and click on discussion_reply. You will see a readonly version of the file and a dropdown and button. Make sure that "custom" is selected, and hit the button. Click the Proxy tab at the top and select Manager, and hit save.
  3. copy blog.zexp to your Zope import folder (e.g. /var/Zope/import).
  4. Back in the ZMI, select your CMF Site (in our case 'site') and import blog.zexp into the site.

Usage


Simple blog tool. Create/edit posts in the folder for the current month. You can put images/documents/files/etc in the same folder (it's just a regular Portal Folder) and access them easily.