Blog-esque Futurequest compatible packages?

[EdSpidre]

I searched the forums but didn't really find any answers to this but I was wondering if anyone knows of php or perl projects out there that offer the ability to do something similar to what you can do at www.weblogs.com or livejournal.com.

I know Gallery wouldn't work because fquest runs php in safe mode but I don't know if this produces a limitation on any content management or packages that require apache to write to physical files.

My main requirements are: some form based interface to enter in content and template based so it is easily customized.

TIA

- Ed

[sheila]

Here are some previous discussions on this topic:
http://www.aota.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10813
http://www.aota.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11832


Good luck,

[Mandi]

I've got Moveable Type running great on my FQ account . . . I know a few others that are as well.

[EdSpidre]

Sheila & Mandi,

Thanks for your input. I'm going to probably put moveable type on my site shortly. One question though, do either of you know offhand if I can run multiple instances of MT. I ask this because I have an IRM that I would like to be able to run a totally separate blog in.

Thanks again.

[PaulKroll]

Movable Type says it can either run via Berkeley DB or MySQL. If it's under an IRM, you'd have to run it via Berkeley DB: can't access MySQL from IRMs.

[Mandi]

Mine's on an IRM, so no MySQL. Works fine without though, . . . of course it's not as elegant to my Inner Geek, LOL.

[EdSpidre]

I've got MT running and an IRM using the instance as well. So far I can say that I like it a lot. It's a pretty good package without the complexity or insecurity of phpnuke (yes I know postnuke and phpwebsite are decent alternatives but are overkill for my requirements).

Thanks again for the info.

[skolnick]

I've been (not) using blogger. It was just too hard to use for me to sit down and update regularly.

Based on this and other threads on FQ, I downloaded MT 2.21. I installed it and more or less configured it in under an hour, not including updating templates to match my site design, but including integrating all the code into my CM system.

We'll see, once I update the templates and switch my on-line blog from blogger to MT whether I do a better job of updating.

[EdSpidre]

Yeah that was my one stipulation on any kind of 'blogger' type service. I didn't want it hosted on another machine and I wanted it easy to use. I'm pretty technical but hate to jump through hoops if I don't have to.

It took 30 minutes to get everything up and running and using one of MT's default template sets. Very very nice if you ask me, of course I don't have anything else to compare it to.

[skolnick]

I just moved all my old blogger entries into MT. Not too bad, but then I didn't have much there. I did a big cut and paste. <sheepish grin> The "right" answer would be to figure out the file format and do some kind of direct port.

I did notice that the default template for MT looks really really bad in Navigator 4.77. That will be my next task (I want to change it to look like the rest of my site anyway).

[Mandi]

The NS issues are most likely css problems; the default template relies VERY heavily on CSS.

[Dunx]

A somewhat belated contribution, but one of the bloggers over at O'Reilly was looking for a blog system for a class he was supporting:

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/1894

He settled on Movable Type also, but more because it was reasonably robust and extensible than necessarily because it did _everything_ required.

For myself, I use Blogger at the moment but I'm going to port my scribblings across to a tool of my own making soon. Well, soonish...

[skolnick]

Originally posted by Mandi:
The NS issues are most likely css problems; the default template relies VERY heavily on CSS.

You sure got that right. I sat down this evening to update the templates. All the positioning is in CSS. That may be the pure approach, but it makes a mess for those of us who still feel we need to support Nav 4.77.

I am going to take a step back and think about the design using tables and pass on CSS positioning.

[Dunx]

Originally posted by skolnick:
I just moved all my old blogger entries into MT. Not too bad, but then I didn't have much there. I did a big cut and paste. <sheepish grin> The "right" answer would be to figure out the file format and do some kind of direct port. There's actually a porting page in the MT docs, with specific instructions on getting your data out of Blogger.
http://www.movabletype.org/docs/mtmanual_importing.html#exporting blogger entries

(not that you wanted to know this now...)

[skolnick]

You don't mean you expected me to read the documents before I did the install do you!

<sigh> I'm usually so good about things like that. Guess what I'm going to be doing tonight?

[Dunx]

Well, you won't be alone.

I'm thinking I'll probably cut across to Movable Type myself in preference to writing my own blog framework, since I'm looking at what I have to do over the next six months and it doesn't fit...

[skolnick]

I spent a little time on the MT documentation this morning before I left for the office. I also got the template for the main blog page (not the archive pages or any of the subsidiary pages) converted to tables and my site's css.

Content and positioning are in the html and presentation is in the css. It works in everything I have tried, with anomalies in Nav 4.77 (no css, so the fonts are hosed) and Nav 6 (the calendar days of the week don't line up with the dates). It's all pretty grimly manual at the moment, with cut & paste copies of my templates instead of just pulling them in. I'll have to give that some thought before I flow the format through the rest of the pages.

My blog. (http://www.skolnick.org/blog/)

Oh yeah -- I'm confident enough in my choice that I deleted all the blogger files and cancelled my blogger account. This is definitely better.

[Mandi]

Looks good! I like your comment about nice people not finishing last :D! You know that the linked text (skolnick.org) in your header disappears into the surrounding table, right? Just checking that you Meant to Do That ;)!

Love your garden, too. (And psst, it's spelled *Grandiose* . . . :P!)

[skolnick]

Mandi --

Thank you for your kind words. I fixed the spelling error. <grin> I really don't like it when I misspell things.

I now about the linked text in the header disappearing into the table background. That isn't what is supposed to happen, but I am still struggling with getting the CSS right for that. It is supposed to be the same color as the other text in the header, turning red when you hover over it. <sigh> I haven't looked at it for a while, but I have enough other CSS work coming up that I should use that as a mini-project as I go through my CSS references.

The garden is looking better and better. I barely have time to keep up with weeding and puttering so getting out there with a camera to update the photos keeps getting put off.

[skolnick]

Interestingly enough, NPR WAMU (http://www.wamu.org) is having a "Tech Tuesday" edition about blogging. They do stream audio from their web site if you are outside the Washington DC Metro area.

[george_c]

Interestingly, I've also been looking at and installing several CMS to add one to my site. Here's my brief review on what I've tried so far:

MoveableType- Nice, clean interface, and is sufficient for regular journal type sites. Also since it builds all entries into static html pages, nice on the server and search engines. However, it's not free, and lacking in features compared to dynamic (versus static html) systems. Backup could also become messy.

Pmachine.com- A dynamic (php/mysql) version of MoveableType in many respects. More features than MT, and administration is easier. Also, Pmachine can double as a forum. Between MT and Pmachine, I recommend PM, not just for the added features, but cheaper cost.

PostNuke- A dynamic, free CMS. Good for powering Slashdot-like sites. User input/comments can be configured to allow for specific HTML tags (versus all or nothing with the above two), which is great if submitted articles on your site require formatting (ie: a tutorials site, a scripting site etc). In fact, this is the reason why I may have to choose PostNuke over the other two. Cons of PostNuke are that it's a mess to install (boy are there lots of files), and seems to be a lot less efficient than MT or PM. But it's free!

Phpweblog.org- Looks to be a PostNuke clone. Haven't tried it out yet, though may in the near future.

Hope this helps. In the end I may have to settle on PostNuke, as it's free, feature rich, and user input can accept specific HTML tags.

[EdSpidre]

pMachine looks pretty nice feature wise but having to shell out $45 for pMachine pro or whatever in order to be able to host multiple weblogs may be its downfall. On the other hand, if some of the complexity is desired, then cool. After you posted that, I thought to myself, "Great, something better right after I've started my blog". The features I did like were the 'timelock' capability and the send an email form feature.

I'd like to hear anyone elses feedback on a comparison between pMachine and Movable Type. I'd also be interested in hearing what features you guys looked for in a blog as well as what kinds of things you'd like to see in MT.

[Dunx]

Movable Type is free for personal use, which is all I'm after at the moment.

And there's always Bloxsom (http://www.oreillynet.com/~rael/lang/perl/blosxom/) . 61 lines of Perl at the last count.

[george_c]

Originally posted by Dunx:
Movable Type is free for personal use, which is all I'm after at the moment.

And there's always Bloxsom (http://www.oreillynet.com/~rael/lang/perl/blosxom/) . 61 lines of Perl at the last count.

Well, Pmachine is also free for personal use, minus a few features.

[Jeff]

I'm probably asking a stupid question, but from where did the word "blog" originate?

[sheila]

weblog

;)

[Jeff]

Well it sounds cool - still not quite sure why it makes sense, but hey :)

'gotta search through the webarchive

---taking this thread to a new and yet undiscovered level of unhipness...