bioneural.net » ecto

Schedule a future post in WordPress

Bruce — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 09:34:57 +0000

Since my blog will soon be unattended (by me anyway; it will be overseen by a human minder) for several weeks, I wanted to know how easy it would be to automate a once-weekly post for my image-of-the-week (IOTW) feature. It turns out this is easier done than said—requiring only a few mouse clicks, a calendar, and a single sip of coffee. Writing the post This post was published by my server before I got up. I wrote the post as normal using ecto, an excellent offline editor compatible with many blogging systems including WordPress. This time the only difference was that I chose to send the post to the server as a Draft, rather than Publish. Likewise, if you're not using an offline editor you can compose a post directly in WordPress and save it with Post Status set to Draft. Managing the post Login to the WordPress Admin panel and choose Manage then Posts. Your recently uploaded/ saved Draft should be visible there. Choose Edit to open the post and look for the Post Status and Post Timestamp controls. Note that you can still choose View to privately confirm the appearance of the post at this stage; the URL is "live" but the post doesn't yet show up on your site or in your web feed. A very useful facility! The Post Status control should initially reflect the draft status of your post, while the unedited timestamp will reflect the time of upload: We now need to make changes to each of these controls. First, ...

Step-by-step iBlog to WordPress

Bruce — Mon, 29 May 2006 10:57:22 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

I talked about doing it, and even tried out the some of the theory. Eleven months later I did it. This is a reconstruction of the process I went through in migrating from iBlog to WordPress. In the best tradition of reconstructions it is put togther partly from hand-written plus typed notes, old screen captures, lots of coffee, and reliance on memory. Apologies if it seems a bit dis-jointed. I should have gotten to it sooner, but you know how it is... Alternative post title: "Crossing to the Server Side" WordPress.com or WordPress.org? Having decided on WordPress, the next step is to decide if you want hand-holding (.com) or wish to bring the warp core online and experience the full power of a DIY install (.org). In a nut shell, with a WordPress.com hosted account you get: Blog stats (but you can add this functionality to a DIY installation); Askimet plug-in activated (but you can activate it for DIY using a free API key. More important is what you don't get relative to a DIY installation: The ability to import your posts from previous blogging systems; The ability to use plug-ins of your choice; The ability to edit (and create new) custom themes. The choice is yours. Sometimes being constrained is a good thing (i.e. you have better things to do than tweak code 'till the early hours); other times it is a bind. If you chose the .com option you're done reading here. Otherwise, if you dare, read on... (A) Create a WordPress development environment Download and install the MAMP local ...

Ecto: the review

Bruce — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 11:55:56 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Ecto: the review: A good overview of ecto at Past Thinking.

Blogging with ecto: big on features

Bruce — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 20:16:24 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

This blog is published using the iBlog client, an easy-to-use OS X application that makes uploading static pages to the .Mac server simple. iBlog version 1.x has been around for a few years now and despite a number of updates its basic feature set has remained relatively static. However, version 2.x is now in development and promises to add some of the features requested by users in the small but friendly community Forum. Mac fans can now choose from an increasing range of blogging software, and here I take a quick look at ecto, a seemingly popular and well-regarded client. This article refers to iBlog (version 1.x), a Mac blogging client that was formerly used to publish this site. It may refer to design elements and other features that have since been replaced. Ecto is described as: a feature-rich desktop blogging client for MacOSX and Windows, supporting a wide range of weblog systems, such as Blogger, Blojsom, Drupal, MovableType, Nucleus, TypePad, WordPress, and more. This software is far from a gooy mess (as in ectoplasm... sorry) but not perfect, and in some ways overly complex. I was unable to get iPhoto or iTunes integration working (I tried version 2.4.1 with a Blogger account). I want to highlight some of the things that work well from the point-of-view of an iBlog user with a "version 2.x wish list" in mind! Do you prefer plain or RTF? iBlog 1.x uses and RTF editor which is responsible for introducing spurious code that has thus far prevented this blog from ...

Migrating from iBlog to WordPress

Bruce — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 23:58:48 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

On the one hand there's iBlog, a "rough edges" application that reads RSS feeds and generates a blog composed of static web pages with no add-on tools (commenting, counters, search, etc.). It has a small user base and limited on-the-ground support but it is supremely easy to use. On the other hand, there are a number of "specialist" applications that have cared out a niche, integrating with well-established and comprehensive server-side solutions like WordPress and Movable Type. Frustrated by iBlog's inconsistencies and poor support for web standards, the time has come to consider making the transition to an alternative solution that meets my expectations. Here, I look at WordPress... Update 29.05.06: See also "Step-by-step iBlog to WordPress" here. A solution made of parts Sometimes several solutions acting in concert can be better than a single solution that does everything, but nothing all that well. There are several applications that might help a migration from iBlog. An alternative RSS reader Sometimes you'll want to create a fresh blog entry; at other times you might be reading the RSS feeds of other sites and want to "blog this". I already use NetNewsWire ($US25) which is a great RSS reader, and version 2 has support for external weblog editors such as MarsEdit and ecto. An alternative weblog editor When you choose "Post to Weblog" in NetNewsWire, your external editor opens and extracts the title, link, and description of the RSS item. Incidentally, this also works if you set iBlog as the external editor (but you'll need to edit away the ...