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4.3. Blog Module

You may have decided that you'd like to engage your site visitors in an informal dialogue, or share opinions and information that may not fit on one of your standard website pages. A blog offers the perfect opportunity for this type of communication. Whether you decide to set up a one way conduit for sharing information with the public, or you'd like to open it up for visitor comments and feedback, the Bistro Blog Module makes it simple, without sacrificing flexibility.

4.3.1. Setting up the Blog Module

Once you have installed the Blog Module, you can begin using it right away or you can change the default configuration settings if they don't meet your needs. To make changes to those settings,

In the Configure Blog area you can select a variety of settings. A description of each of those settings and how they effect the way your Blog functions follows.


Title: enter the name you would like to give your blog - this title will appear in your Site Content area as You can call this Bloggerator whatever you'd like!

User Information: Enter the information that you would like to have appear as the resident blogger.

Togglable Options: Feeling: In this area you can select whether you want these options to be available on your blog. In the case of "feeling" options, when turned on, they allow you to identify your mood or the music you were listening to when you wrote your post.

Togglable Options: Blog Display Related: In this area you can enable or disable various options that impact the way your blog displays on your site.

News Feed Options: your blog lets you offer a number of news feed options

Current Tags: As you make posts to your blog, you can enter tags associated with each post. Appropriate tags will draw people to your blog who might be interested in the content it includes. All tags that have been defined in your blog posts will appear in this list in the configuration area of the module. If you decide that a particular tag is not appropriate, you can remove it by selecting it and clicking the remove button. The tag will then be removed from all blog posts that used it.

Social Links: Social ranking options let you make your blog posts available for ranking on various social ranking websites like Digg, Delicious, and Reddit. For each option you select, a button will be added to all blog posts. Readers can then select these buttons to have the webpage ranked on one of those sites. To enable social ranking, first turn it on by clicking the On radio button. Then select which social ranking sites you wish to feature by checking the appropriate boxes beside each name.

Email Notficiaton: When enabled, this setting will automatically send an email to the "blogger of record" (at the email provided in User Information) when someone posts a comment. The email provides an outline of the comment and a direct link to the post. Note: make sure your SMTP information has been set up correctly in your Bistro system setup so that email notifications will work throughout Bistro.

Other Options: In this last section, you can select how many blog posts and comments you would like displayed on each page by typing in the desired number.

Once you have selected all of your desired settings, click the blue save changes button to save your new configuration settings, or to exit without saving your changes, click cancel.

 

4.3.2. Using the Blog Module

To use your blog module


From here you can add, delete, or edit your blog postings.

4.3.2.1. Opening an Existing Blog Post

To open an existing blog post for editing, you have two options:

With either of these methods, your blog post will open into the standard WYSIWYG editing screen where you can edit it as described in the Add a Blog Post section which follows.


4.3.2.2. Adding a New Blog Post

To add a new post to your Blog, click the blue [New] button from your Blog Module main screen. This will open the blog post editing screen where you will create your blog post.

Note: A more detailed description of the editing functions in Bistro can be found in sections 3.9.1. Using the WYSIWYG editing toolbar in Standard Mode and 3.9.2. Using the WYSIWYG Editing Toolbar in Advanced Mode of this manual.

As you become more familiar with Bistro, you will find that the platform has a few useful shortcuts built in to help you make the most of your website.

Linking to Other Pages on Your Site

A quick way to insert hyperlinks to other pages within your site is to use the Insert a link: drop down list directly below the main editing area. Every page on your site is automatically added to this drop down list (once it is saved), offering a quick and easy way to add internal page links on your site. To insert a link in your blog post to another page on your site,

For more information about cross-linking the pages within your website, review Section 3.9.5 - Cross Linking the Pages on Your Site

Adding AutoStuffTM

Another powerful shortcut that is built into Bistro is called Autostuff. When you use the Insert AutoStuff feature, you are actually inserting a tag that will be automatically replaced with certain specified information, when your website loads.

For example, if your Bistro installation includes an Event Calendar Module and you want the blog post you are creating to include a reference to the next three calendar events; you can insert the AutoStuff statement [SUMMARIES OF NEXT 3 EVENTS] anywhere you want within the content of your post. When a visitor views your blog and reads this post, they will see links to the next three upcoming events. As events are added to the calendar, the post will update automatically to display the next three chronological events.

This means that you can add content in many places on your site that only has to be updated or changed in one location. The drop down list of available AutoStuff is updated automatically based on the modules currently installed on your site and is accessible from all modules that include content editing capability.

To enter an AutoStuff tag:

You will find a list with explanations of all module related AutoStuff tags in section 9.3. AutoStuff Entries

For more information about how AutoStuff works, review Section 7 - Using AutoStuff

Creating Custom URLs

The typical URLs that websites generate automatically are not user friendly. In many cases, they make it more difficult for search engines to properly index your website pages. Bistro allows you to add an easy to recognize, custom URL for each blog post (or any page) on your site. To do so, simply type your custom URL into the Create a custom URL: text field just below the Insert AutoStuff drop down list.

Viewing and editing Comments

If you have enabled public comments in your blog, you will want to keep track of what is being posted and, on occasion, you may want to edit a comment.

Below the editing area of the main blog module screen and below the various options described above, is a blue bar that says # Comments (Click here to open/close your comments). When you click on this blue bar, it opens a listing of all comments that have been posted to your blog.

Comments can be opened for editing by clicking on the title of the comment. The email address of the person who posted each comment is also provided so you can contact the person who submitted the comment if necessary.

Addtional Information

Below the comments section is another blue bar. When you click on it, the system generated Blog ID associated with the posting becomes visible.

When you are finished creating or editing your blog post, remember to click [Save] to capture it and post it to your Blog or click [Cancel] to exit without saving. Your action will be confirmed and you can continue editing your posts or use a different module by clicking on the appropriate option.

4.3.2.3. Deleting a Blog Post

From the Blog Module main page, you can delete any existing blog post as follows: