bioneural.net » iblog

Step-by-step iBlog to WordPress

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

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

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... Update 03.04.09: Migrating from the perpetual iBlog 2 RC? Check out the iBlog Survivors forum, including Jerry's export script. As icerabbit notes, iBlog 1.x users could also employ this script after importing to iBlog 2.x as an intermediary stage. 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 ...

Welcome to WordPress

Bruce — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 03:30:31 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Beware: As at March 16 2006 this site is potentially unstable. Lots of things are broke. If you are using Internet Explorer 6 or older please consider upgrading to a browser with better standards support, such as Firefox, Safari, or Opera. bioneural.net has migrated from iBlog to WordPress. How to migrate from iBlog Coming... sometime. Update 29.05.06: A step-by-step migration guide is now online, here. Things to fix Weather Icon: WARNING: You forgot to make the cache directory writable. Please chmod 777 this folder. Should show icon + temp only; why is other data displaying? iStockPhoto feed is not displayed. Why? Warning: fopen(): URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/.ashea/bioneural/bioneural.net/wp-content/plugins/latestistockimages.php on line 50 Warning: fopen(http://www.istockphoto.com/istock_myfiles_rss.php?ID=430123): failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/.ashea/bioneural/bioneural.net/wp-content/plugins/latestistockimages.php on line 50 Dreamhost Support say: We've purposely disabled URL access to php system functions (such as copy() open() etc.) because of security and performance problems. We have replaced it with CURL: http://wiki.dreamhost.com/index.php/CURL Unfortunately, it's beyond the scope of our support as how to port your script to use CURL instead of the system calls, but we can definately say it would do the job. You may want to talk to the maker of the plug-in about converting in, since frankly no good PHP is written using fopen these days. Solution may be SimplePie or reverting to JavaScript via Feed2JS? I tried hacking the plug-in based on some CURL examples but this took the site down! SimplePie is not so simple; temporary reversion to Feed2JS completed solution currently in testing implemented (with help from ...

Apple .Mac membership looking less attractive

Bruce — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 06:53:01 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Once, long ago, being a member of Apple's .Mac seemed like a good idea—even value-for-money. Following the recent Macworld in San Francisco (Jan 2006) I'm left wondering what I'm getting for my money. I use Gmail instead of .Mac for e-mail, because I find it more flexible in use for mail forwarding to and from my domain. I used to make use of Virex, until Apple killed support in recognition that it caused some users more problems than it solved (I now use ClamXav). The .Mac membership area used to make software freebies available (including iBlog); this habit has long since dried up. Occasionally the Pulbic folder on my iDisk sees use as a drop-box, but the only .Mac feature I use regularly is HomePage integration with iPhoto for sharing holiday snaps (although there are excellent free alternatives, such as Galerie). When Mac OS X Tiger was released .Mac users were promised "exclusive" widgets; they never materialised. And now Apple has released iLife 06, together with iWeb, the icing on the cake of disappointment. Apple promotes iWeb as if it's some kind of benefit of a .Mac membership—but it's not. It's not included. whereas it used to cost £70 for a .Mac membership, if you want to enjoy all the features Apple trumpets, it now costs £125 (£70 for .Mac plus £55 for iLife 06). Add your ISP costs to that and you have a fair bit of cash to spend on a more transparent and competitive hosting service. A couple of "first impression" ...

Blogging with ecto: big on features

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

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

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 ...

Adding recent posts to your iBlog

Bruce — Sun, 14 Aug 2005 04:42:14 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Many blogs display a panel for "recent posts" which rely on server-side scripting. iBlog doesn't do server-side scripting, but you can achieve the same effect by using someone else's sever, the power of RSS, and a bit of JavaScript. Here's how... 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. Before you do this, consider that iBlog provides a perfectly good list of recent posts by default, in the BlogPage.txt template. You could, however, choose to display only the most recent post on your blog home page (set "Number of entries in blog page" to 1 in Display Settings). In such a case in makes more sense to list the topics of recent posts in the navigation area (for example). Step 1: Know your feed For this to work you need to publish an RSS feed (iBlog does by default; why wouldn't you?). Make a note of your feed URL; it will look something like this: http://www.bioneural.net/blog/rss.xml Step 2: Feed your feed to Feed2JS Bring up Feed2JS in your web browser; click on the Build tab. Then: Enter the URL of your feed as above; Set "Show channel" to no (people won't need reminding they're viewing you blog); Set the "Number of items to display" to 5 if you want to list the last 5 posts; Set "Show/hide item descriptions" to 0 (we want entry titles only); Set "Use HTML in item display" to no (we'll control display ...

Ads in your iBlog RSS feed

Bruce — Thu, 26 May 2005 21:04:53 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Google are currently beta-testing intergration of AdSense adverts with various blogging systems. A few of the feeds I subscribe to in NetNewsWire now carry ads (e.g. Engadget). Since I already use AdSense and it makes a (tiny) amount of $US, I applied to be a beta tester out of curiosity but was turned down. However, I decided to try and make it work anyway using iBlog... This article refers to iBlog (version 1.x), a Mac blogging client that was formerly used to publish this site. It may refer to design elements and other features that have since been replaced. Google AdSense FeedPage.txt is the file that iBlog uses as a template to generate your RSS feed. It's just a text file so easy to edit. I simply copied the AdSense code I use in iBlog's Navigation Editor and pasted it into the file after the <$EntryAbstractOrBody$> placeholder tag. It didn't work. I'm guessing because the AdSense code is a JavaScript and/ or contains multiple line breaks. Amazon Associates I also have an Amazon Associates account. With a small amount of editing you can make the iframe code generated by the link builder into valid XHTML. When you're done just paste the code into FeedPage.txt after the <$EntryAbstractOrBody$> tag; you might want to add a break before and after the iframe for cosmetic reasons. Each iBlog entry in the feed displays a different ad. In NetNewsWire the ads appear at the bottom of the abstract (it works in Safari RSS too):

Tagophilia: the game of tag (as played with iBlog)

Bruce — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 10:44:41 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Tag—you're it! The game of "Tag" has always been popular, and now people who played it as children are reliving their misspent youth on the web by tagging everything in sight. Flickr lets members tag their photos with keywords. Technorati lets bloggers use their entry categories as tags. The "social bookmarking" service del.icio.us uses tags to classify and group shared bookmarks. In each case such "related" tags serve to offer the reader the option to find "more like this", whether it be a photo or an article. iBlog users can get in on the act too... 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. Flickr, Technorati, and del.icio.us weight tags according to how many times they appear in their database: try it out here, here, and here. As Technorati explain "The size of the tag indicates how full of goodies it is." What was I saying about children? But tags don't have to relate to something vaguely related. They can also be used to link to something very specific, such as an article in Wikipedia. I decided to add what I call a "Tagophilia bar" to my postings (as in "tags indicating affiliated things—and for the love of it", get it?). I think this is a development to keep an eye on, and something that will no doubt evolve as more and more people and services become "tag aware". ...

Identify offsite links in iBlog

Bruce — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 05:23:27 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

It's highly likely your blog contains links to external sites, as well as to other pages within your own site. iBlog gives you the option to open any hyperlink in a new window. It can be useful for users to know in advance whether the link they are about to follow will open a new window and/or take them "offsite". Here is one way to provide this information by applying a CSS rule to your iBlog stylesheet... 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. It is easy to determine which links that you create using the iBlog RTF entry editor should open in a new window: The Add/Edit URL dialog box in iBlog iBlog uses the "target" attribute to label links that should open a new window: target="NewWindow" We can make use of this attribute to create a CSS rule that will apply only to links that open in a new window. For example, we can add a right-aligned icon as a background image (thanks Dan!). The following rule will do this for active and visited links with the target attribute specified, within the class "entry" (you would omit this if you wanted to apply the rule to all such links): .entry a[target=NewWindow]:link, .entry a[target=NewWindow]:visited { padding-right: 15px; background: url(offsite.gif) no-repeat center right; } Click here to replace the current page. Click here to open a new window. Tested and works with Safari, Firefox Mac + PC, ...

Migrating from iBlog to WordPress

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

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

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 ...

Handling wide images in fixed-width layouts

Bruce — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 17:52:34 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

If your blog has a fixed-width stylesheet, what do you do when you have an image that is too wide for its container? If you are using iBlog 1.4.1 to drag-and-drop images into the RTF editor, you don't have the option to scale or size-restrict the occasional wide image by styling it directly e.g. <img src="" style="width:450px" />. You do, however, have the option to style a div container using the HTMLCode tag. So how does this help? 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. The problem In Safari and Firefox a wide image that breaks out of its fixed-width container just sits on top of the content behind. Not pretty: IE6 on Windows is much more pushy, preferring to shove other div containers around in a suspiciously Microsoftesqe way: The problem, therefore, is this. For flexible designs, how do iBloggers: Drag-and-drop one version of a wide image into the iBlog RTF editor that will not break out of a fixed-width div container. Constrain image proportions at all times. Display a full/ actual-size image if the user switches to a variable-width stylesheet for widescreen viewing. Achieve the above while preserving cross-browser (Safari, Firefox, IE6 Win) harmony. Method A: Overflowing with joy What about using the overflow CSS property to always show a full-sized image, but with a horizontal scroll bar when necessary in a fix-width design? In the RTF editor we would enclose our wide ...