Few people mentioned that my FlickrBar widget for BlogEngine.Net got out of sync with Widgets framework after framework got interface change. I have updated widget to work with latest releases including 1.6.0 and 1.6.1, you can download it using link below. Instruction on how to use are dead simple: move files in the corresponding location and widget will pop up as an option in the zone dropdown. Go to “edit” and enter what kind of photos you want streamed down to your blog, set number of photos to display, may be change CSS (for example, use “padding:2px” to get gaps between pictures). You can see end result on the right side bar in my blog.
FlickrBar.zip (38.25 kb)
Sorry about post title, could not resist :) You probably saw these "new" and "hot" links next to list items all over the place. Something was added or updated and it makes sense to put an indicator that clearly shows this. I wanted to do it for list of extensions on BlogEngine site, so that when something new added anyone could see it right away, because list is pretty large. And I don’t want to maintain it afterwards, that image should go away when it is not “hot” anymore, all by itself. How hard is this with BlogEngine and .NET? Walk in the park: More...
Spam comments are annoying and sometimes looking at comment allowed by Akismet or some other anti-spam service you think – I’m sure I would do better. It is just so hard to get the plumbing in or I would made my very own solution. With BlogEngine.Net 1.6 it is not, you can easily implement your own anti-spam filter or add existing if you like it more than built-in Akismet. Here is how. More...
After few delays new version of BlogEngine.Net has been released. Although this release is mostly incremental with minimum breaking changes, there are quite a few improvements, enhancements and bug fixes to make it worthwhile for those stuck on previous versions to upgrade. Upgrade instructions can be found here, and you can download new version from the project site on CodePlex. More...
One real surprise for me was that not many people use BlogEngine as their sandbox and playground. To me as a developer from the beginning it was mostly a toy and only over time it grew up into something bigger with responsibilities attached, so I’m sort of impressed. It seems like what most folks really want is a stable mature product with great features and scalability built it. There is understandable desire for cool new tech on part of some but most seems really care about how it serve their blogging needs (ye, I know, shocking…). So in the end it looks to me like loud and clear call to power along with demand for more advanced and polished tools and features.
Largely as a result of iPhone revolution, mobile devices today more wide spread and connected to the web than ever. It is increasingly important for web sites to look good on the small screen to attract mobile users. BlogEngine.Net has mobile theme that looks ok, but we need more and better. I’ve been looking for options and played a little with some of the frameworks available for other platforms. There are some interesting development, and I’m interested in doing more here. As first experiment, I updated my previous iPhone admin add-on and combined it with simple but fully functional mobile theme. It got a list of categories on front page, from where you navigate to the posts. You can also login and publish posts using admin add-on that became part of the theme. Take a look at screen shots, they are pretty self-explanatory. More...
This poll is not official and may be a little early, but it will provide BlogEngine team with some ideas on where we all, as a community, want to move. Are we looking for Wordpress.net? NewCrazyCool.net? Something in between? Please share your opinions and thoughts, it's all greatly appreciated. More we know, easier it is to make decisions and change gears. You can vote either using poll in the side bar or following the link. Feel free to drop a comment if you think of other options or just want to let everybody know what's on your mind. Don't be too harsh though, it still Christmas ;)
Thanks to the magic of Metaweblog API and BlogMailr service, you can email posts to BlogEngine just as easily as publishing them from Windows Live Writer, Word or iPhone. Here is what you need to do. Open personal account with BlogMailr, it only takes few minutes and it is free for personal use. Once your account setup you'll be able to add blogs to it. You have to provide user id and password so that BlogMailr can auto-login and publish posts on your blog. More...
My previous post was about awesome code syntax highlighter JS library I have converted into extension for BlogEngine and no so awesome button I’ve added to TinyMCE to insert code snippets. Let’s make it better by building custom plugin that will let us select language and enter actual code in the pop-up window eliminating messing up with TinyMCE editor itself. More...
There are several implementations of this extension for BlogEngine, but I wanted it to work with latest JS library and be more configurable. And also I wanted it play well with TinyMCE - yes, it might come as a shock but some people don't use Windows Live Writer. I don't know why... So, if you go through usual routine downloading and moving files to corresponding location (you’ll need to overwrite couple) this is what you’ll get. More...
