Essential Blogging

Essential Blogging

by
Released August 2002
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9780596003883

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Book description

Anyone can run a blog (an online journal). From personal diaries to political commentary and technology observations, bloggers are making their voices heard around the world. Essential Blogging helps you select the right blogging software for your needs and show how to get your blog up and running. You'll learn the ingredients of a successful blog, and then get detailed installation, configuration and operation instructions for the leading blogging software: Blogger, Radio Userland, Movable Type, and Blosxom. After showing you how to acquire, set-up, and run these leading software packages, Essential Blogging takes you through the more advanced features, so that by the time you finish, you'll be up and blogging with the best of them. Essential Blogging covers:

  • the important components of a blog and a blog post

  • installing and configuring the tools

  • a survey of desktop blogging clients

  • advice and experience from real-world bloggers

  • hosted blogging with Blogger and Blogger Pro

  • desktop blogging with Radio Userland

  • server blogging with Movable Type

  • posting, editing, and deleting blog entries

  • adding pictures to blog entries

  • syndicating your stories with RSS

  • consuming RSS feeds with Radio Userland

  • customizing the appearance of your blog with templates

  • managing and customizing archives of blog entries

  • adding comments to your blog

  • self-hosting your blog vs using a blog-hosting service

  • going under the hood with the Blosxom blogging system

    • Written by prominent bloggers and authors of blogging tools, Essential Blogging is a no-nonsense guide to the technology of blogging.

    Table of contents

    1. Essential Blogging
      1. Preface
        1. Audience for This Book
        2. Structure of This Book
        3. Conventions Used in This Book
        4. Comments and Questions
        5. Acknowledgments
          1. Cory
          2. Rael
          3. Scott
          4. Shelley
      2. 1. Introduction to Blogging
        1. The World of Blogging
          1. Can I Blog?
          2. What Would I Talk About?
        2. Anatomy of a Blog
          1. Title
          2. Subtitle
          3. Suggest Link
          4. Blogroll
          5. Mailing Lists
          6. Counters
        3. Anatomy of a Blog Post
          1. Title
          2. The Picture
          3. The Posting
          4. The Quote
          5. The Link
          6. Discuss Link
          7. Attribution
          8. By-Line
          9. Permanent Link
        4. Syndication
          1. Publishing a Feed
          2. RSS Aggregators
        5. Blogging Tools
          1. Hosting
          2. Price
          3. Syndication
            1. Local versus remote
          4. Summary
      3. 2. Desktop Clients
        1. The Settings
        2. BlogScript
        3. BlogApp
        4. blogBuddy
        5. w.bloggar
        6. Slug
        7. Radio UserLand
      4. 3. Hosted Blogging with Blogger
        1. How Blogger Works
        2. Requirements
        3. Your Blog, Quick Start
          1. Creating Your Blogger Account
          2. Creating Your First Blog
          3. Posting
        4. Basic Blogger Settings
          1. Title and Description
          2. Formatting Basics
          3. Blogger Archives
        5. Managing Your Posts
          1. Adding and Formatting Entries
          2. Modifying Entries and Adding Images
          3. Cleaning Up
        6. Archiving in Detail
          1. Generating New Archives
          2. Troubleshooting
        7. Changing Your Account Profile
        8. Basic Use of Templates
          1. Changing the Blogger Template
          2. Incorporating a Non-Blogger Template
        9. Self-Hosting
          1. Why Self-Host?
          2. Configuration
          3. Troubleshooting
        10. Browser Shortcuts
        11. Blogger Buzz
        12. Group Blogs
        13. Removing a Blogger Blog
        14. Support
      5. 4. Desktop Blogging withRadio UserLand
        1. Installing Radio UserLand
          1. Downloading
          2. Installation
            1. Windows
            2. Macintosh
          3. Registering
        2. Welcome to Radio
          1. Starting the Radio Application
          2. The Desktop Website
        3. A Visual Tour of Using Radio
          1. Writing Original Content
          2. Reading Your Weblog
        4. Routing or Commenting on Content
          1. RSS in Radio
          2. Subscribing to a Feed
          3. Commenting on a Feed Item
        5. The Radio Menu
        6. Setting Your Radio Preferences
          1. Blog Title and Description
          2. Blogdex or Navigator Links
          3. Adding Titles to Your Posts
          4. Not Using Internet Explorer?
          5. Saving Without Publishing
        7. Publishing Your Blog
          1. Publishing to radio.weblogs.com
          2. Publishing to Your Own Site via FTP
          3. Checking Publishing Status with Events
          4. Republishing Your Entire Blog
        8. Stories Instead of Posts
          1. Creating Stories
          2. Editing Stories
          3. Limitations
        9. Adding Pictures to Your Posts
          1. Pasting from Internet Explorer
          2. Adding Pictures by Uploading Files
          3. Notes on Upstreaming Files
          4. Limitations on Upstreaming Files
          5. Using the MyPictures Tool
        10. Source Editing Your Radio Entry
          1. Updating Radio.root
      6. 5. Server Blogging with Movable Type
        1. Why Use a Server-Based Solution?
          1. Independence from a Central Server
          2. Ability to Store Your Data Behind a Firewall
          3. Control over Your Data
        2. Installing Movable Type
          1. Requirements
          2. Downloading
          3. Locating Perl
          4. Installation Directories
            1. The location of the application
            2. The location of the Movable Type database
            3. The location of your blog directories
          5. Configuring
          6. Installing Files
            1. Connecting to your web server
            2. Uploading the application
            3. Creating your database directory
            4. Creating your blog directories
          7. Required and Optional Perl Modules
          8. Initializing
          9. Troubleshooting
        3. Using Movable Type
          1. Logging In
          2. Configuring Your Blog
        4. Creating a New Entry
        5. Comments
        6. Adding a New Author
        7. Uploading an Image
        8. Syndication
        9. The Future of Movable Type
      7. 6. Advanced Blogger
        1. Basics of Blogger Pro
          1. Spellchecking
          2. Posting via Email
          3. Future and Draft Posting
          4. Image Uploads
        2. The Blogger Template
          1. The Template Tags
          2. The Template View
        3. Template Customization
          1. Adding a Blogroll
          2. Adding a Blogger Pro Title
        4. Customizing the Archive
          1. Creating a Custom Archive Page
          2. Changing the Location of the Archive Files
        5. Adding Comments
        6. Incorporating Statistics
        7. Automated Blogrolling
        8. Adding Support for Syndication
        9. Integrating Blogger into an External Application Environment
        10. Exporting Blogger Data
      8. 7. Advanced Radio UserLand
        1. Radio, Frontier, and Manila
        2. Radio Techniques
          1. Shortcuts
            1. Automatic shortcuts
            2. Creating your own shortcuts
          2. Using Mail-to-Weblog to Post to Your Weblog
          3. Categories
            1. Enabling categories
            2. Creating your own categories
            3. Assigning posts to categories
            4. Advanced categories
          4. Using the Blogger API in Radio
        3. Backing Up Your Radio
          1. Backing Up All Data on Windows
          2. Backing Up all Data on the Mac
        4. Themes, Templates, and Macros
          1. Using Existing Themes
          2. Customizing Templates with Macros
          3. Useful Macros
          4. Saving Your Customizations
          5. Enabling Comments
          6. Listing Recent Posts
          7. Additional Macros
          8. Creating and Downloading Themes
        5. Understanding How Radio Works
          1. Overall Content Management System
          2. Object Database
          3. Scripting Language
          4. Network Engine
          5. RSS and Content Syndication
          6. Logical, Consistent, Permanent URL Structuring
          7. Web Services, SOAP, and XML-RPC
          8. Open Architecture
        6. Important Radio URLs
        7. Upstreaming
        8. Online Resources for Advanced Users
      9. 8. Advanced Movable Type
        1. Changing the Look and Feel of Your Blog
          1. Modifying Default Templates
            1. Your list of links
            2. Public display of categorization
          2. Movable Type Tags
          3. Advanced Template Manipulation
        2. Blog Configuration
        3. Archiving Options
          1. Archiving by Category
          2. Multiple Archive Templates
          3. Archive File Templates
            1. Date hierarchy
            2. Categorized individual entries
            3. Usage of existing syntax
          4. Archiving by Calendar
        4. Using the XML-RPC API
        5. Security Issues
          1. Web Server Security
          2. Private Blogs
        6. Tips and Tricks
          1. Displaying a Random Entry
          2. Displaying the Last N Nonconsecutive Days of Entries
          3. Blog Locally, Publish Globally
          4. Customizing the Entry-Editing Screen
          5. Multiple Blogs, One Movable Type Installation
          6. Displaying Entries on Other Pages
        7. More Information
      10. 9. Minimalist Blogging with Blosxom
        1. Requirements
        2. Downloading
        3. Installing Blosxom
        4. Optional Configuration Directives
        5. Blogging
        6. Viewing Your Blog
          1. The Archives
        7. Editing and Deleting Entries
        8. Creating Another Weblog
        9. Syndicating with RSS
        10. Customizing and Styling
        11. Aggregating RSS with Blagg
          1. Requirements
          2. Downloading
          3. Installing Blagg
          4. Configuring
        12. Running Blagg
          1. Interactive Blagging
          2. Automatic Blagging
          3. Blagging to Other Blogs
          4. Under the Hood
        13. Third-Party Additions
      11. 10. Blogging Voices
      12. Index
      13. Colophon

    Product information

    • Title: Essential Blogging
    • Author(s):
    • Release date: August 2002
    • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
    • ISBN: 9780596003883