So it seems that now the email system I used before for sending emails is now integrated well into BalfBlog 2.0.
This functionality is included in a separate file so users may modify as they wish.
Within the last few weeks I have been working on major improvements to the integration of what is now known as BalfBlog. Version 2.0 was released just 2 days after version 1.1 and was released due to a complete change in the way it works. This allows it to integrate well with any website and requires minimal effort to install. If you follow my blog you'll probably know that I've been posting about this quite a bit.
One of the things about the new BalfBlog and the way in which my website works with this blogging system is the way in which it integrates with my own website. This makes it painless to install and one of the things I've noticed is how easily my website copes with this design.
But it doesn't stop there. ClickIt is my latest website and the main site is nearly finished. One of the features I've wanted to add was a blog. I found just how easy it was to integrate BalfBlog with Bootstrap as well. One change to a file and that's it. Ready to go. By the end of June this year, I will officially announce the finished version of BalfBlog, until then feel free to get in touch with me and arrange to get a copy of BalfBlog version 2.0b.
I am proud to say that BalfBlog 2.0, the biggest change since the original release of the open designed blog, is now finished. The following list explains every major change applied to BalfBlog 2.0:
- TinyMCE 4.0, the latest, much flatter looking version of TinyMCE.
- Removes the requirements for a custom blog. Now the backend dashboard of the BalfBlog is entirely unique. There is a screenshot at the end of this post about this. In version 1, the blog backend was powered by your own website. Unfortunately this meant that users needed a lot of knowledge to install BalfBlog. Now BalfBlog requires just 4 user inputs to get it done. I will be uploading a sample blog you can mess about with soon.
- Create user from the interface, finally. A button on the interface of the backend allows you to easily add a user.
- Completely object oriented
- No search box built in, you will need to provide your own. BalfBlog does provide support for a search query being applied to the posts, all you need to do is add the ?qry query string to the end of the URL where the GeneratePosts() call is made.
- Now there are only 13 files required to work with BalfBlog, and no longer is there an admin section.
- Updating is much easier through the fact that only a few files need updated
- Security has been improved since now, provided you are using Apache or Nginx on your server, you can use the .htaccess directives in the directory to protect against direct use. This is provided by default.
For the very first time since buying my 2012 Mac Mini in 2014 I have reformated it with a fresh OS X install. There was no particular reason for this other than wanting a fresh install of OS X with the very minimal install again - too many files on my system were taking up my drive, so it was just time. The system was still running absolutely as it was when I bought it, so it was nothing related to that. Just saying, Macs don't need that kind of reformat anyway.
Anyway, since this is the first reinstall of OS X on that machine, I thought I'd give my configuration script a try. It really is wonderful, and it's really all thanks to my friends Ben and Merlin that it's as good as this.
The script looks like:
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
brew install rlwrap
brew install Caskroom/cask/smlnj
brew install Caskroom/cask/osxfuse
brew install sshfs
brew install python
brew install homebrew/x11/swi-prolog
echo "Insert Dropbox path:"
read input_variable
echo "export $DROPBOX=" >> ~.bash_profile
echo "$input_variable" >> ~.bash_profile
if [ ! -d ~/Pictures/Screenshots ]
then
mkdir ~/Pictures/Screenshots
fi
rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
sudo cp "$DROPBOX/Mac configurator/configuration/com.apple.dock.plist" ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
sudo cp "$DROPBOX/Mac configurator/configuration/com.apple.finder.plist" ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Pictures/Screenshots;
killall SystemUIServer
So once I got my Mac up and running and Dropbox installed, I run this script to copy all the necessary files across to their places, which restores my Mac to how it should look (i.e. it makes Finder and the Dock identical across my Macs). I've highlighted line 12 because it is where my Dropbox directory is put into my Bash profile so that I can reference it from any script easily.
By the way, this is not me saying that Bash is beautiful, because the syntax is horrible. All I am saying is it is a pretty powerful little shell scripting language.
To help maintain a better consistency with modern browsers I have introduced a GlyphIcons font. This font adds some extra requirements to the browser that is viewing it but makes it much easier for me to develop for the future.
I found these icons just the other day and think they are awesome. You can find them in quite a few places on my site, least of all the sidebar and site links. You'll find that they make the success and failure pages much better too.
BalfBlog version 1.1 is my second major release to the public. It will resort back to the original plan/design of using query strings to post. I'm hoping to cut it to just two PHP files as a result of this: one for BalfBlog and one for the data and information. Ultimately, this may not happen, but it might.
More importantly, banner images will be removed as of version 1.1 (you should have received an email about this if you have downloaded BalfBlog in the last two weeks). Banner images were one of the first features to come to JBlogs back in the day but have since lost my interest in the development side of things - far too many complications.
Crucially, the new update will focus on the object oriented style introduced earlier in the year. The key focus within this project is to make the admin side of the blog easier to use.
The next few months will be a difficult few for me as I have to work much harder than normal on my university course.
Now in my final semester of my final year at university, I can finally see the end of it all and feel like I have the potential to finish it.
However, over this time I will likely end up neglecting my website and it's content. I may post a blog entry every so often but there will be no major content added to the site.
If you want to get in touch with me, feel free to contact me using the usual methods.
I'm very happy to announce today that I have now got my own 'mask icon' for my website.
Perhaps you have seen (if you use Safari on El Capitan) that many web pages get their own icons whilst others just get given the first letter of their title. Well now my website joins these sites.
Here is an example followed by my own mask icon.
So go on, pin my website to your Safari browser now to try it out!
Very recently I created an online tool for converting Spellcraft elements into the spells that Spellcraft uses. It's reasonably simple but none the less I find it really useful. You can find it here.
Today I have decided as part of the refurbishment of my own blog, I will be removing the BalfBlog posts from my blog and putting them on the blog dedicated to my projects. This blog has also been running for some time and since it is the intended place for BalfBlog posts, this is where I will be putting them.
As well as this, I have chosen to move all of my posts about my Zenith Engine from my own blog to the ZenLang website and the blog dedicated to ZPE and ZenLang. I recently opened this blog but it has long been the aim to remove these from my blog.
I have plans to rename the blog dedicated to BalfBlog to my project blog, where I will put information about all of my main projects.
