Bloggers are constantly discovering new ways to express their ideas through new
markup. There are bloggers who are using the latest state-of-the-art “visual” web design programs, but few others consider using HTML code is not
a bad idea altogether.
The XHTML family can accommodate extensions through XHTML modules and techniques to develop new XHTML-conforming modules. These modules
permit the combination of existing and new feature sets when developing content and when designing new user agents.
With so many different ways to access the Internet, the XHTML family is designed keeping in mind the general user agent
interoperability. Through document profiling mechanism, servers, proxies, and user agents are able to create best effort content transformation.
This language is both RSS and XML conforming. The content can be readily viewed, edited, and validated with standard XML tools. XHTML documents
can utilize applications (e.g. scripts and applets) that rely upon either the HTML Document Object Model or the XML Document Object
Model.
Bloggers may also use Movable Type for the weblog. Movable Type is a powerful, customizable publishing system, which installs on web
servers to enable bloggers to manage and update weblogs. This enables a blogger to hand edit the other parts and pages, including the Daily
Links, in TextPad. Bloggers may use a date format string for the individual entries, and for monthlies.
Movable Type Installation is followed by Plugins. There are many to choose from. MT Plugin Directory and the Movable Type Support Forums
are two resources that can be referred to. Most of the plugins make users typographically correct and enables them to properly use curly-quotes,
ellipses, em-dashes, and en-dashes. A feature of pluggins combines trackbacks (comments on other articles from other blogs) and comments into one
page. Another use is to create author comments and addendums in the comments engine. Few plugins may allow bloggers to add additional fields,
example: using keywords field to create additional fields. Few others create a collection of links at the bottom of each individual entry page.
Title attributes can be used with all the links. Movable Type includes a default RSS Feed. Bloggers may set up individual feeds for each thread
and comments feed by following the naming convention of individual archives - changing it to an .xml ending. Bloggers may even add a Subscription
Field.
Also, bloggers may consider using a WebDrive in place of a FTP client. This tool is used to map FTP and WebDAV servers to a network
drive letter in Windows using remote files like local ones in any application. Blogger may also consider using validated HTML 4.01 Transitional
code with a validated stylesheet.
Blogs demand more than graphic design and HTML proficiency. They demand extensive interaction with visitors. So, installing a Discussion
Forum is a must, as it allows communities to exchange ideas and opinions. Tools that could be considered are database programming, CGI/Perl
scripting, Flash animation etc.
In addition to this, bloggers may consider having an Accessory Sideblog - another blog that stores ancillary information and tools for
the existing blog.
The details of few of the blog creating softwares are mentioned below:
Accessory Sideblog allows:
- Easy updation
- Changes in entries/ information from within Movable Type interface.
- Availability of comments and trackback.
Bloggers may consider buying opensource weblogging softwares. These easily installable softwares offer features like: fully-integrated
comments, searching, file uploading and image handling, completely customizable output through dozens of templates and variables, multiple author
support, etc. For example: few blogs allow bloggers to provide a template of their page that indicates where they want your posts to appear.
Clicking the "Publish" button automatically sends their new page to the website where they want their blogs to appear. Similarly, there are sites
that enable bloggers to place the RSS feed of their blog onto any html page. For example: bloggers can copy the completed JavaScript and paste it
on any web page they would like to distribute.
Bloggers can host their blog on their own as well with any good web-hosting company. They can choose a good web host, buy space on their
server and host their blogs with them.
Facto
http://sourceforge.net/projects/facto/
Facto is a collaborative web publishing system. The system can be used for creating personal or group 'Blog' type sites. It is written
entirely in Active Server Pages (ASP) and can use Microsoft Access or SQL Server as a database backend. Its development status is : 4 - Beta, 5 -
Production/Stable and environment in which it runs is web environment, Win32 (MS Windows). The intended audience is defined to be end
users/desktop, other audience and system administrators. The software’s natural language is English. The operating system that is required is
Windows 95/98/2000 and the programming languages used are ASP and JavaScript. It is mostly used for message boards and site
management.
Facto can be a customized. One can try coding to "render a blurb in HTML" to be in a separate file. It relies on the BlurbRS recordset
having the correct field names with the SQL in some of the other files. Instead of querying the Comments table every time it displays a
blurb. The layout can also be changed as some people may not require the left or right columns. A function on the routines page can be
created that displays the blurb as required. The searchresults page then needs to be fixed since a different name for the blurb is used to do
this.
InstaBlog
http://instablog.hit.bg/
InstaBlog appeared as a result of two things: responding to the simplest possible way to maintain a weblog, and trying out the extremely
cool Perl MSN IM client. InstaBlog functions in the following manner: it is run as a background process on a machine with Internet access. With
its own Passport identification it is constantly logged into the MSN instant messenger service. When something worthy of note is found in the
weblog, chat windows is opened with the InstaBlog and the weblog entry is typed. The software takes it, adds it to a copy of the weblog it
maintains, and uploads it via FTP to a webserver. The message should appear on the website specified in config.xml. The InstaBlog bot uploads
three files: the actual weblog.xml, the stylesheet to display it (weblog.xsl), and an index.html which redirects to weblog.xml. The software is
written in Perl.
OpenJournal
http://www.grohol.com/downloads/oj/
OpenJournal is a completely Web-based interface. The software’s features include: automated file creation; automated index updating;
editing of all files through a Web-based interface; entries with or without titles and time posted; automated archiving based on a weekly or
monthly format. All done through ordinary text files and no additional perl modules are needed to run it. Basically, the software allows the
users to keep an online journal, customize and configure it. All needed to do after installation is to write in it from time to time. It requires
no third-party, external perl libraries or support programs. The program itself is relatively small and simple and takes about 5 minutes to
install and another 5 or 10 to customize. The 2.x versions of OpenJournal make use of the auth.pl perl script to handle its authentication
routines. Other features of the software include: automatic new file creation, automatic indexing, automatic weekly or monthly archiving without
need of cron, no messy backend database to worry about, uses plain text and html files, web-based editing of all files created without using
cookies, encrypted user accounts and robust authorization, multiuser support, preview functionality, configuration file separate from main
program, templated construction (easy customization), cross-platform date function.
GeekLog
http://sourceforge.net/projects/geeklog
GeekLog is a web content management system suitable for running full-featured community sites. It supports article posting, threaded
comments, event scheduling, and link management and is built around a design philosophy that emphasizes ease of use. The development status of
the software is 5 - Production/Stable. It requires web environment. The software has been designed keeping in mind the intended audience to be
developers, end users/desktop. The software’s natural language is English and uses OS Independent as its operating system. The programming
language that has been used is PHP and functions mostly to maintain dynamic content.
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