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...

If you are using Commentor with Waegis like I do, you probably got email about Waegis suspending services for uncertain time this coming Friday (September 4th). Waegis served me well all this time and blocked hundreds of spam comments helping to keep this site reasonably clean. I hope it will find a way to get back soon, meanwhile you might want to flip the switch and start using Akismet as your primary anti-spam service. Here what I did to get Akismet up and running. More...

I've got email from user having issues with embedding HTML snippet into BlogEngine's page. Not really sure what was wrong with that tag, because I have never get to test it. Why? Because it is sometimes easier to add simple extension or widget than to deal with row HTML when it comes to BlogEngine. Seriously, it took me way under half an hour following steps in my own simple widget tutorial to put this together, and this is including time spent opening Disby account. More...

If you are using Picasa extension I published while back you might want to take a look at another choice and try to use HighSlide JavaScript library instead of the LightBox. Just take a look at this post by Radim Boušek and get it there along with instructions. I’ve never herd about HighSlide before, but it seems like a nice thumbnail viewer with Ajax support and more options, so give it a try.

Attached to this post is a small extension which is really just a proof of concept. To install it, do the regular routine: unzip and install files into corresponding locations. This is what we always do to install extension in BlogEngine. It is not hard, but requires you to have FTP client, opened port for FTP connection and, most importantly, you must have some basic administration skills. As I said nothing extra ordinary here, but still – we should not assume casual blogger comfortable doing all this little tricks. It’s a good thing most of BE users are also .NET developers ;) More...

With BE.NET 1.5 release candidate out of the door, it is a good time to look at some of the new features. Most of them are small and incremental, but nevertheless are interesting. One such feature is support for compiled extensions. There are several reasons you want to compile extension rather than provide source code, such as security, protecting intellectual property, simplifying deployment (for large extensions) etc. If you find a reason to choose this route, this guide is for you. More...

There is new extension in town. It is built on Picasa SlideShow, but it adds web album functionality to it, this is why I decided to package it as separate extension. After all, it is not a slide-show any more, not just SlideShow at least, so I did not want name to cause a confusion. I also bundled it with LightBox – it uses it to transform thumbnails into larger pictures. It is optional, and if you opt to, you can ignore LightBox files when coping extension to your blog. Installation process is basically the same, you just copy files to corresponding locations and then go to Extensions/Edit section. More...

Sometimes you have an extension that you want to respond to events before all the others. Or may be you have two extensions that depend on each other and one should always fire before the other. It is not a common scenario, but I did run into it more then once and had to come up with less than perfect workarounds to resolve this. It would be nice to know in advance in what order extensions will respond to events, and now you can. More...

I'm a long time Picasa fan. I used it before it was bought by Google and even before I new what the Google is. Now at version 3.0, although not as popular as Flickr, Picasa is a great choice as desktop photo manager and it's Web Albums is a valuable online photo storage. Web albums itself is nice classy web application with pretty good flash slide show. You can even get a code to embed slide show (or photo) into your own blog, which works great for occasional use, but can be daunting if you plan regular photo posts. More...