PAGES LIVE

Blog

A blog is a web page where you can leave text, photographs, audio files, and links, typically but not always on a daily or weekly basis. The term is a shortened form of weblog. The EZGenerator Blog Page designed to be customized to meet your blogging needs. It's the web equivalent of a 'magazine column'. You edit, add articles and content live online, not in EZGenerator.

To add a Blog page to your site:

Go to the Editing Tools.
Press Live (Php) button in Insert page section and select Blog page.
Select preferred preset. Blog page has a few predefined layout presets.
Set any other options you want and press OK.

Basics

Generally, the blog page consists of some or all of the following objects: blog object, month archive, recent posts, recent comments, tag cloud, blog search, category archive, category drop-down menu, link to administrator. You can keep all or some of them in your blog page. Each of these objects represents different element of your blog.

You can preview your Blog page only when uploaded on a PHP enabled server. To test this functionality offline you can Install your own test server on your PC.

Blog objects

The blog will look confusing at fist. You will be adding content online, not in EZGenerator. To better understand how Blog page objects change the appearance of your page you will need to view it live online. The Blog objects will allow you to re-design your blog by adding/removing objects, and changing their position.

The blog object is the only required object as it displays content of blog posts. Visitors can review posts and make comments on them, but only the blog owner can manage the posts, including creating posts. For better security the Blog page supports CAPTCHA (human test) in Post Comment form. Each blog post has date header, title, content, image or link to mp3 file and footer.
The Month archive object builds a monthly archive.
Recent posts and Recent comments display the most recent posts/comments list - with date and title for posts, and date and first 30 characters for comments.
Blog search object builds search box for visitors to easily find certain post.
Category list and Category drop-down menu are used so visitors can browse posts by category.
Link to administrator screen will lead you to the administrator screen, where you (the blog owner) manage posts and comments.
The Footer consists of posted by info, date and time, permalink, comments link, trackbacks link (if enabled) and category link. These are called object parameters.
Permalink is the permanent url of a blog post. As blog content changes regularly, visitors may need to know the permanent url of a certain post.
The Comments link shows the number of comments posted and opens Post Comment form. The Comments link is visible only if comments are enabled (see below).
The Categories link will list all posts for a specified category. Trackbacks link will provide users with trackback url in case they want to ping your blog.

With these parameters you define what information to show for each post. Add and remove parameters in %BLOG_OBJECT(...)%, within the brackets.

When you first visit your blog page and none posts are posted yet, post with Blog definition from Wikipedia will be displayed as default. Once you post some posts, the default post will disappear.

Database

This page can use MySQL or flat files database (depending on the MySQL switch in MySQL Settings). All blog posts and comments will be stored in a MySQL database or on the web server in flat files in ezg_data/ folder. You can add multiple blog pages in your project, and each one will have its own database.

Customization

Re-order add or remove the blog objects, as explained above in the Blog Objects section.
Translate blog language labels, using Blog Settings panel >> Labels.

Blog Settings

The following properties are available in the Blog Settings panel, accessed from the Toolbar. Make sure to configure these settings.

This tab is divided into few sections. Some of them have a small button () at the bottom right corner. Press it to access more settings.

Notification

Send Notification to (editbox) - The blog administrator email address. All notification emails when comment/trackback is posted will be sent to this email address.
From (editbox) - Email address to be used as "From". Use different email address than in "Send to" to avoid email being marked as spam.
Admin Notification (button) - Subject and message for the notification email.

Front Page

On Frontpage (drop-down menu button) - Display Excerpt (if available) or Content.
Posts Order (drop-down menu) - Posts can be ordered either by creation date or by last modified date. This setting will be also applied to the RSS.
Limit Posts (drop-down menu) - The maximum number of posts to be displayed in the blog front page.
Recent Posts (drop-down menu box) - The maximum number of posts to be displayed in the Recent Posts sidebar.
Comments (drop-down menu) - The maximum number of comments to be displayed in the Recent Comments sidebar.
Limit Lines (drop-down menu) - The maximum number of lines to be displayed for each post.
Labels (button and editable listbox) - The blog captions used in blog. You can translate the default captions in your preferred language. Use Default settings button to restore the default settings.
Reversed Posts (check box) - Check this box to show old posts first on the front page and in the RSS feed. Otherwise the newest posts are shown first.

Comments

Enable Comments (check box) - Check to allow visitors to make comments on posts. Note, that when you make new post you can forbid comments on post level (see below).
Forbid url's (check box) - Check if you want to forbid users to include url's in the comment body.
Require Approval (check box) - Check if you want to approve comments before they show on blog.
Enable e-mail (check box) - Check to enable email field in Post comment form.
E-mail Required (check box) - Check to set email field as required in Post comment form.
Facebook Comments (check box) - Check to enable Facebook Comments option in your blog. With this option users can comment on your blog posts and their comments will show on their Facebook profile also.

RSS

In RSS feed (drop-down menu) - Choose what content to use in RSS item description - Excerpt or Content.
Cache RSS (check box) - If checked, RSS feed will be cached. It will be refreshed each time you edit or add new post.
Feed Settings (button and editable listbox) - Sets some special RSS settings (Experts only).
Limit Posts (number selection box) - The maximum number of posts to be generated in the RSS feed.
Limit Lines (number selection box) - The maximum number of lines to be displayed for each post (when Content is displayed).
Use HTML formatting (check box) - Check to use the HTML formatting in the RSS feed (Description).
Scale Image (max width) (check box and number selection box) - Check to include scaled image in the RSS item description (applicable for images inserted with Upload File option in the Write Post form).

Media

Offline Media (button) - Upload large or bulk media files that are inconvenient to upload online (through Add new post form). Use the Add button to add the files you need to transfer to server. Later when you post in your blog, you can use these already uploaded files.

Accessible Macros Fields

Each page has a Macros Fields panel, accessed via Editing Tools. This panel contains objects that you can insert on page.

Blog Object - The main Blog system.
Recent Posts - The most recent posts are shown.
Most Visited Posts - The most popular/visited posts are shown.
Top Rank Posts - Top rated posts are shown.
Recent Comments - Most recent comments are shown.
Month Archive - Creates a month-by-month archive of activity.
Collapsible Year Archive - Creates a yearly archive of activity.
Hor Category List - Horizontal blog topic category list.
Ver Category List - Vertical blog topic category list.
Category Combo - Category drop down menu object.
Tags Cloud - Shows a panel of key words/tags used in blogs.
Search - Search the blog entries.
Category Search - Search the blog categories,
Page Navigation - Page navigation tools.
Home Link - Takes the user back to the blog home page.
RSS Feed button - generates link to blog RSS feed (see below).
Administrator - generates link to blog administrator panel.
Logged info - generates logged info macro in your site - %LOGGED_INFO%. This macro is applicable for protected pages or pages with admin screen (as Online Editable Page, Calendar, etc)and will show username of the logged user along with link to user profile's page and logout link. Check Page Protection for more info on page protection.
Logged - will display 1 when user is logged, 0 when not logged (supported in MySQL project only).
Logged user - will display name of currently logged user (supported in MySQL project only).
Guest count - will display number of guests currently browsing site (supported in MySQL project only, requires Counter enabled and Monitor users enabled).
User count - display number of users currently logged (supported in MySQL project only, requires Counter enabled and Monitor users enabled).
Users - will display names of users currently logged (supported in MySQL project only, requires Counter enabled and Monitor users enabled).

In case you want to use your own blog home link, insert your custom hyperlink and use %BLOG_HOME_URL% as url.

Field parameters

Some objects can be inserted with additional parameters.

Blog object

Normally the blog object lists all posts with title, date, image/mp3/other (if available), content and footer. Using a few parameters you can customize this default layout. The parameters are:

%title% - insert the post title
%date% - insert the post date
%image% - insert the post image (if available)
%content% - insert the post content
%excerpt% - insert the post excerpt
%category% - insert category link
%permalink% - insert post permalink. Use %permalinkurl% as url if you insert custom permalink hyperlink.
%fullarticle% - insert link to the full article (post), in case only excerpt is shown on the frontpage
%commentslink% - insert post comments link. Use %commentsurl% as url if you insert your custom comments hyperlink.
%trackbackslink% - insert post comments link. Use %trackbacksurl% as url if you insert your custom trackbacks hyperlink.
%comments% - list all comments posted per post
%postedby% - insert the blog owner name
%tags% - list all tags posted per post
%ranking% - show the ranking bar for the post

If you want to change the default date format used with the %date% parameter, use: %date[mmm d, yyyy (ddd)]%, where the syntax follows the standard %DATE% Macro syntax. If you want to set month or week name in upper case, use MMM and DDD.

For example:

%BLOG_OBJECT( %title%
%image%
%date%)% - will list all posts with title, image/mp3/other and date

%BLOG_OBJECT( %date%
%title%
%image%
%datetime% )% - will list all posts with date, title, image/mp3/other and date&time footer

Recent posts

Normally, recent posts object lists all recent posts with title link, date and (::) as bullet. Using few parameters you can customize this layout. The parameters you can use are: %title%, %date% and %item_url%.

For example:

%BLOG_RECENT_ENTRIES( * %title% %date%)% - will list recent posts with (*) as bullet, title as link, and date

%BLOG_RECENT_ENTRIES( * %title% )% - will list recent posts with (*) as bullet and post title as link

In order to set one of the parameters as link to the specified post, you should make this parameter hyperlink (with Link type: url, and Url: %item_url%)

If you use Upload File field to attach image, when writing posts, and want to include the image thumbnail inside recent posts bar, use %image[100,80]% parameter. 100 and 80 are sample width and height and you can change these.

Recent comments

Normally, recent comments object lists all recent comments with title link, date and (::) as bullet. Using few parameters you can customize this layout. The parameters you can use are: %title%, %date% and %item_url%.

For example:

%BLOG_RECENT_COMMENTS( * %title% %date%)% - will list recent comments with (*) as bullet, title as link, and date

%BLOG_RECENT_COMMENTS( * %title% )% - will list recent comments with (*) as bullet and comment title as link

In order to set one of the parameters as link to the specified comment, you should make this parameter hyperlink (with Link type: url, and Url: %item_url%)

Month Archive

Normally, archive object lists all archive periods with date link. Using few parameters you can customize this layout. The parameters you can use are: %title% and %item_url%.

For example:

%BLOG_ARCHIVE( :: %title%)% - will list archive periods with (::) as bullet and date as link

%BLOG_ARCHIVE( * %title% )% - will list archive periods with (*) as bullet and date as link

In order to set %title% parameter as link to the specified period, you should make this parameter hyperlink (with Link type: url, and Url: %item_url%)

Category List

Normally, category list object lists all categories with category link. Using few parameters you can customize this layout. The parameters you can use are: %title% and %item_url%.

For example:

%BLOG_CATEGORY_LIST( :: %title%)% - will list categories with (::) as bullet and category title as link

%BLOG_CATEGORY_LIST( * %title% )% - will list categories with (*) as bullet and category title as link

Same for BLOG_CATEGORY_LIST_VER object.

In order to set %title% parameter as link to the specified category, you should make this parameter hyperlink (with Link type: url, and Url: %item_url%)

Category drop-down menu

Normally, category filter drop-down menu is set with fixed width. In case you have categories with longer names, you may need to make this drop-down menu wider. To accomplish this, use the following syntax:

%BLOG_CATEGORY_FILTER(XXXpx)%, where XXX is the drop-down menu width

Using RSS

RSS or Really Simple Syndication allows visitors to subscribe to websites that have provided RSS information feeds. RSS is a useful tool for sharing your site updates with users that may be interested. RSS makes use of code that scans the content of your blog for updates and broadcasts those changes to subscribers through an RSS feed. EZGenerator blog page uses RSS 2.0 format for the feed.

To set RSS feed for your blog, you should follow these steps:

Insert RSS button from Macros Fields panel.
Set the RSS settings in Blog Settings panel. Read RSS Specification for detailed explanations on each RSS setting.

If a visitor is interested in your blog and wants to be informed when updates are available, they can use the RSS button to get the RSS feed, and pass it to their favorite RSS aggregator.

Administrator panel

The Administrator lets you manage your Blog - review, add, edit and delete posts, edit and delete comments. The panel is accessible through the administrator link (if any is placed on the Blog page) or via Online Administration panel. This panel is username&password protected.

To insert administrator link in your Blog page:

Go to Editable Tools > Macros Fields panel.
Drag-and-drop administrator field on your Blog page.

Start Blogging, Write a post

To add new blogg post:

Go to blog administrator panel.
Select Write Post from the administrator menu.
Select Category for the post. Each post has to belong to one category. You can add new categories using Add new category link.
Fill in Title.
Fill in Content. Use the HTML editor to format text, insert and scale images. Note, that the formatting you provide here will overwrite the default formatting set in Blog Settings.
Use Upload File field if you need to fast upload image, MP3 or another file type (if activated). To expand supported file types, go to Settings menu (see below).
Fill in Tags (keywords), separated with comma. These are used as keywords and as tags when building tags cloud.
By default when you add new post, its publish date is current date. Use Publish Date field in case you want to set different publish date. Later you can change this date at any time.
If you want to send trackback to certain blog (in case you have included content from external blog), you may use Excerpt field to type excerpt from your blog post content. This excerpt will be sent to the pinged blog. If you don't use excerpt , text part from Content will be used instead.

Type blog url in Send Trackback To field to ping certain blog.
If you want to allow comments for this post, check Allow Comments. This setting will overwrite the global Enable Comments setting in Blog Settings panel (see above).
If you want to allow trackbacks for this post, check Allow Trackbacks.
Press Save button.

Note: Fields marked with * are required.

Posts

Use Posts screen to review/edit/delete posts.