I think I am just missing something, still. Tried that and got a 500 internal server error. Deleted the file and all was well again.
Error logs said this, but I don't think it's related:
PHP Warning: Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated - argument passed by value; If you would like to pass it by reference, modify the declaration of [runtime function name](). If you would like to enable call-time pass-by-reference, you can set allow_call_time_pass_reference to true in your INI file. However, future versions may not support this any longer. in
blahblahvanillapath/extensions/BlogThis/default.php on line 82
OK, tracking down the missing pieces. I am sorry if I "sound" cranky, I'm not, just trying to outline the steps for myself and anyone else looking at this, scratching their heads.
The problem: The posting for this extension refers to the ability to create Friendly URLs and use the BlogThis blog as the front page. A few lines of code are provided, which will apparently accomplish this task. No instructions are included as to where to put this code.
Steps Required in order to enable these functions:
1) Install Friendly URLs. Friendly URLs is a vanilla extension. However, BEFORE you install friendly URLS you must have 1-a) mod_rewrite, which is an Apache extension outside of Vanilla. Edited to add: Thank you to Miquel, with whom I cross posted, for this link with simple steps to locating mod_rewrite, if it is installed on your server. 2) Once you have mod_rewrite and install Friendly URLs, you also may need to overwrite the original .htaccess file with something Dibinoff posted in this thread. I am not certain why, or if so why the extension hasn't been updated with the correct .htaccess file. There are some special properties inherent to this type of file which mean it may not be visible under certain circumstances, (don't understand that either) so use your server utilities to look at it, rather than anything running on your own hard drive. 3) When you have mod_rewrite, and Friendly URLs with the correct .htaccess file, then add the lines of code to the file, indicated by the extension author.
I don't know whether or not I have mod_rewrite, and I'm not going to mess with that right now. Sounds like it could open a huge can of server worms. *edited to add: ok, I guess i can figure that out now, thanks for the link, Miquel.
So, I do not want friendly URLs right now (I mean, I do, but I'm not going to get them.) I would, however, like to have the option of having the blog from BlogThis as my front page. How would I go about doing just that?
I do not currently have a .htaccess file in my Vanilla root folder. Since my editor doesn't even acknowledge that as a file type, I have to create it as a text file then save it as .htaccess. Because of this, I'm not even sure what encoding to use? Assuming I do need a .htaccess file to do this, what should be in it, where does it go, and what encoding do I use? Should I just give up on this idea for now?
Sorry about all the questions, but I am self-taught and new to most of this.
- .htaccess is hidden by default in most OSes, as its name begins with a dot, in different OSes it can be made visible by differen means (e.g. Ctrl+H in Linux or just ls -l in the shell, a bit more tricky in Mac OS, ...)
- the encoding for .htaccess can be utf8, so you just cover your shoulders (i don't know if it's a real expression in english, sorry :P) in regular editors, maybe you have to save it as ".htaccess" (with the quotes)
- if your .htaccess file messes something up in the server, then just reload the previous version / delete it (depending on the case) and the bad effect will be gone.
- you can try the DefaultPage extension in order to get the blog to the front page, it's (usually) less tricky than playing with mod_rewrite + .htaccess
- the content of Dinoboff's .htaccess are a set of useful rules to turn most of the functionalities of a regular Vanilla forum with friendly urls
- if you have time to test, don't give up. you'll learn more from errors than not trying...
DefaultPage will do the trick - that's what I was using before. Mod_rewrite is usually turned on as standard in apache. However, mod_rewrite will also do the job here.
I didn't give instructions for friendly URLs, because that should be documented in the friendly URLs extension - I'm just supplying the extra code required by the .htaccess file.
RabbitAbout - I'm not sure there is a lot I can do for you. There is the same issue with images, an when looking at images, it would involve re-writing the image extension. Images are associated per discussion, not per post. And BlogThis is pulling in multiple posts from multiple discussions.
I have a feature request.
For Search Engine Optimization and To avoid Google thinking there is duplicate content, I was thinking that the blog could have only snippets of the discussion/comment (say the first 100 words) with a a link: Read More about {insert post Title}.
What do you think?
Sstawarz - not a bad idea. It could be optional, obviously.
I'll see if I can find some time for this soon. I'm working on another one of my sites right now, but when I'm happy with that, I'll turn my attention to this.
Can you please define all strings with $Context->SetDefinition()? That would make it easyer to translate. For exmaple: by elm on 07.14.08 in test or "Click to see examples" in the settings dialog.
Hope the new updates please. I've updated the description for the extension too.
Although I have created the ability to view only a particular users blog posts, there is no obvious link to these anywhere. I was waiting for suggestions on how you would like this - perhaps a link in users profiles? Or change it so that on the main blog page when you click a user it takes you to their blog, rather than their profile?
Either way, for those who do want it, for the moment you can add a new Tab using Page Manager with the correct URL.
I've also removed the portion of code that ammends database.conf as I think this causes more problems than it solves. This should mean for cleaner installs all around.
Hi Fery - I've unwhispered this, as I felt other people could benefit from it.
hey spode, just before i start with your awesome extension a quick...
multiple blogs ... does that mena that im able to assign a group and they're able to have their own unique blog? posting media ... is it compatible with jqmedia? (so can it display media on the "blog"-frontpage)
thanks mang
Anyone who has been given the "permission" to blog/unblog, will, at this stage be able to blog/unblog ANY posts. So there is a bit of an assumption that anyone with this power is trustworthy and isn't going to abuse it. I guess this should be changed, so we have two permissions "can blog/unblog OWN posts" and "can blog/unblog ALL posts". I'll add this into the next revision - that is, if people want it?
But that aside, yes, you can filter the blog to just a single user by adding &BlogUser=userid to the URL.
Posting Media is a tricky one. Most extensions aren't designed to be active on pages that are extension.php. So most likely - no. But by all means give it a go. It certainly doesn't work with the attachment plugin, which I've outlined above.
There is one way I've been thinking about that *would* make it compatible. And that would be to actually make some sort of virtual discussion, so that viewing the blog is the same as viewing a discussion, with virtual posts being pulled in from different discussions. I'd have to give that some thought
hey spode, first of all there is an unwritten law if you publish someones whispers = "don't forget to check his spelling"
ok all jesting aside ...
posting media is very very important, that makes the difference between a blog and a plain text based news system in my oppinion. how about dynamic iframes to embed media or such ?
at least i'm only a frontend designer and not a backend coder, so that would be anyhow a complete mystery to me to solve such a tricky problem with php.
I'll check his spelling, if you check your capitalization
Media is important, but it's just a case of the way all the current systems have been designed.
I could either try and do it the way I suggested, by simulating a discussion - which may end up with database duplication? Or, I would have to code all the integration myself, as a secondary system.
I'm not 100% sure with JQMedia, but most extensiobns can be made to work on extension.php pages by adding that into them. I'll look into it, as it may be a simple change.
One of the problems, is Blog, and by extension BlogThis uses ID Tags for the block elements, so a number of styles and some Javascript can get screwed up. If people let me know the exact extensions they want tested, I can give it a go.
1) after enabling the blog this extension i get this here on "settings.php?PostBackAction=Blog".
Warning: BlogForm::include() [blogform.include]: Unable to access /srv/www/web719/html/forum/extensions/BlogThis/theme/Theme.BlogForm.php in /srv/www/web719/html/forum/extensions/BlogThis-2008-08-04/library/PostBackControl.BlogForm.php on line 54
Warning: BlogForm::include(/srv/www/web719/html/forum/extensions/BlogThis/theme/Theme.BlogForm.php) [blogform.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /srv/www/web719/html/forum/extensions/BlogThis-2008-08-04/library/PostBackControl.BlogForm.php on line 54
Warning: BlogForm::include() [function.include]: Failed opening '/srv/www/web719/html/forum/extensions/BlogThis/theme/Theme.BlogForm.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/php:/usr/share/pear') in /srv/www/web719/html/forum/extensions/BlogThis-2008-08-04/library/PostBackControl.BlogForm.php on line 54
Comments
if you don't know just check some easy steps in, e.g. here
The problem: The posting for this extension refers to the ability to create Friendly URLs and use the BlogThis blog as the front page. A few lines of code are provided, which will apparently accomplish this task. No instructions are included as to where to put this code.
Steps Required in order to enable these functions:
1) Install Friendly URLs. Friendly URLs is a vanilla extension. However, BEFORE you install friendly URLS you must have
1-a) mod_rewrite, which is an Apache extension outside of Vanilla. Edited to add: Thank you to Miquel, with whom I cross posted, for this link with simple steps to locating mod_rewrite, if it is installed on your server.
2) Once you have mod_rewrite and install Friendly URLs, you also may need to overwrite the original .htaccess file with something Dibinoff posted in this thread. I am not certain why, or if so why the extension hasn't been updated with the correct .htaccess file. There are some special properties inherent to this type of file which mean it may not be visible under certain circumstances, (don't understand that either) so use your server utilities to look at it, rather than anything running on your own hard drive.
3) When you have mod_rewrite, and Friendly URLs with the correct .htaccess file, then add the lines of code to the file, indicated by the extension author.
I don't know whether or not I have mod_rewrite, and I'm not going to mess with that right now. Sounds like it could open a huge can of server worms. *edited to add: ok, I guess i can figure that out now, thanks for the link, Miquel.
So, I do not want friendly URLs right now (I mean, I do, but I'm not going to get them.) I would, however, like to have the option of having the blog from BlogThis as my front page. How would I go about doing just that?
I do not currently have a .htaccess file in my Vanilla root folder. Since my editor doesn't even acknowledge that as a file type, I have to create it as a text file then save it as .htaccess. Because of this, I'm not even sure what encoding to use? Assuming I do need a .htaccess file to do this, what should be in it, where does it go, and what encoding do I use? Should I just give up on this idea for now?
Sorry about all the questions, but I am self-taught and new to most of this.
- .htaccess is hidden by default in most OSes, as its name begins with a dot, in different OSes it can be made visible by differen means (e.g. Ctrl+H in Linux or just ls -l in the shell, a bit more tricky in Mac OS, ...)
- the encoding for .htaccess can be utf8, so you just cover your shoulders (i don't know if it's a real expression in english, sorry :P) in regular editors, maybe you have to save it as ".htaccess" (with the quotes)
- if your .htaccess file messes something up in the server, then just reload the previous version / delete it (depending on the case) and the bad effect will be gone.
- you can try the DefaultPage extension in order to get the blog to the front page, it's (usually) less tricky than playing with mod_rewrite + .htaccess
- the content of Dinoboff's .htaccess are a set of useful rules to turn most of the functionalities of a regular Vanilla forum with friendly urls
- if you have time to test, don't give up. you'll learn more from errors than not trying...
I didn't give instructions for friendly URLs, because that should be documented in the friendly URLs extension - I'm just supplying the extra code required by the .htaccess file.
RabbitAbout - I'm not sure there is a lot I can do for you. There is the same issue with images, an when looking at images, it would involve re-writing the image extension. Images are associated per discussion, not per post. And BlogThis is pulling in multiple posts from multiple discussions.
I'll see if I can find some time for this soon. I'm working on another one of my sites right now, but when I'm happy with that, I'll turn my attention to this.
Hope the new updates please. I've updated the description for the extension too.
Although I have created the ability to view only a particular users blog posts, there is no obvious link to these anywhere. I was waiting for suggestions on how you would like this - perhaps a link in users profiles? Or change it so that on the main blog page when you click a user it takes you to their blog, rather than their profile?
Either way, for those who do want it, for the moment you can add a new Tab using Page Manager with the correct URL.
I've also removed the portion of code that ammends database.conf as I think this causes more problems than it solves. This should mean for cleaner installs all around.
Be good to get any feedback.
But that aside, yes, you can filter the blog to just a single user by adding &BlogUser=userid to the URL.
Posting Media is a tricky one. Most extensions aren't designed to be active on pages that are extension.php. So most likely - no. But by all means give it a go. It certainly doesn't work with the attachment plugin, which I've outlined above.
There is one way I've been thinking about that *would* make it compatible. And that would be to actually make some sort of virtual discussion, so that viewing the blog is the same as viewing a discussion, with virtual posts being pulled in from different discussions. I'd have to give that some thought
ok all jesting aside ...
posting media is very very important, that makes the difference between a blog and a plain text based news system in my oppinion.
how about dynamic iframes to embed media or such ?
at least i'm only a frontend designer and not a backend coder, so that would be anyhow a complete mystery to me to solve such a tricky problem with php.
Media is important, but it's just a case of the way all the current systems have been designed.
I could either try and do it the way I suggested, by simulating a discussion - which may end up with database duplication? Or, I would have to code all the integration myself, as a secondary system.
One of the problems, is Blog, and by extension BlogThis uses ID Tags for the block elements, so a number of styles and some Javascript can get screwed up. If people let me know the exact extensions they want tested, I can give it a go.
1) after enabling the blog this extension i get this here on "settings.php?PostBackAction=Blog".
Warning: BlogForm::include() [blogform.include]: Unable to access /srv/www/web719/html/forum/extensions/BlogThis/theme/Theme.BlogForm.php in /srv/www/web719/html/forum/extensions/BlogThis-2008-08-04/library/PostBackControl.BlogForm.php on line 54
Warning: BlogForm::include(/srv/www/web719/html/forum/extensions/BlogThis/theme/Theme.BlogForm.php) [blogform.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /srv/www/web719/html/forum/extensions/BlogThis-2008-08-04/library/PostBackControl.BlogForm.php on line 54
Warning: BlogForm::include() [function.include]: Failed opening '/srv/www/web719/html/forum/extensions/BlogThis/theme/Theme.BlogForm.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/php:/usr/share/pear') in /srv/www/web719/html/forum/extensions/BlogThis-2008-08-04/library/PostBackControl.BlogForm.php on line 54
any ideas?