Blogo for the Notes client - preview »

FERDY CHRISTANT - MAY 28, 2006 (12:53:54 PM)

I announced earlier that I was working on version 1.20 of Blogo, and how it would contain only subtle improvements, one being support for social bookmarking. I changed my mind, version 1.20 will also contain a much bigger improvement: Notes client support.

Blogo has always lacked Notes client support, it was build for the web from the ground up. Still, the Notes client support should be a welcome addition. It allows for blogging on a local replica. It also beats a web client for administration purposes, for example to quickly filter the recent wave of comments spam. I do not plan to support rich text blogging for the Notes client, because that format is utter crap and spoils all the effort I put into making the blog software standards compliant. I will try to include a preview pane, however.

I'm now at the point where the basic layout and views are in place:

Click to enlarge

There's still much work to do, I have to build all the forms again for the Notes client, and have to ensure it all keeps working as expected. Nevertheless, I hope you welcome this upcoming feature.

Comments: 8

COMMENT: DANIEL

JUN 2, 04:46:37 AM

comment » As a developer who's regularly run up against Dominos limitation of being able to have RTF in the client and bad html on the web OR clean html on the web and unreadable source on the client - I'm very interested in how you're intending to implement the client preview pane. «

COMMENT: FERDY

JUN 2, 06:27:35 PM

comment » Daniel,

Good question. I intend to keep it simple. Basically in the Notes client bloggers will still have to edit the blog content using HTML syntax. Next, the preview pane will render the HTML in the Notes client (seems to be possible from R6). The preview will give a good idea of the blog entry on the web, nothing more. I still have to implement it though, so who knows what I run into. «

COMMENT: DANIEL

JUN 4, 05:34:13 AM

comment » My experience with the HTML rendering in the Notes client is that the source page HAS to be from an http server. Which in my opinion limits the usefulness of that feature enormously.

However, I'd be delighted if you could prove me wrong. :) «

COMMENT: LARRY

JUN 5, 11:21:00

comment » Beste Ferdy,

Wat mij opviel in de vorige versie van de template is dat je een vijftal Forms hebt met dezelfde of soortgelijke subforms. Ik vond dat een hele mooie manier van programmeren.

In principe zou je voor een blogForm en een articleForm geen apart notes Form te hoeven maken. Je zou hetzelfde Form ook via aliasen kunnen aanroepen. Tevens maakt het in mijn ogen niet veel uit of een veld BlogTitle heet of ArticleTitle. Title is genoeg. Met 1 extra veld genaamd "DocumentType" kan je een Form in een ArticleView laten terugkomen, resp. in een BlogView.

Een blog die ik zelf heb ontworpen, bevat slechts 1 Form (met 1 subform voor Web en 1 subform voor Notes) met een DocumentType field. Het DocumentType field heeft opties als "Blog", "Article", "Agenda", etc. etc.

Als je zometeen alle Forms via Notes en Web wil benaderen krijg je in jouw opzet ipv circa 5 Forms circa 10 Forms.

Just a thought «

COMMENT: LARRY

JUN 5, 11:25:58

comment » sorry nog even

De voordelen zijn dat je minder Forms en Fields hoeft te hebben. 1 Form en minder dan 10 fields volstaan. Dit maakt het design overzichterlijker, maakt het makkelijker te onderhouden voor jou en makkelijker voor anderen om een nieuwe view toe te voegen.

Voorbeeld van dat laatste, stel ik wil voor een fanclub ook een View met alle liedjes. Dan hoef ik slechts 1 DocumentType toe te voegen (Music of Songs of zo) en 1 View die selecteerd op DocumentType="Music" «

COMMENT: ROMAN KOPAC

JUN 10, 18:59:05

comment » I think rich text editing in browser with e.g. FCKEditor would be a more welcome addition to Blogo. «

COMMENT: FERDY

JUN 14, 08:14:52 PM

comment » Roman,

Now I'm in doubt. I'm either gonna allow for Notes client blogging, or go for web rich text editing. Doing both makes things messy when editing the same document using both clients. Hmmm.... «

COMMENT: ROMAN KOPAC

JUN 17, 20:10:06

comment » True, you can't do both, because it seems that there is only one person on this planet that can do it right (Ben Langhinrichs). With web interface you will be able to post well formed XHTML (if you're into it) or be able to post from computers without Notes client (obviously) - like internet cafe on some Thai island where you spend much deserved vacation. It requires more work, but Jake and Ben have some nice examples on their sites. Notes still wins for administration purposes. «