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Setting Up the IBM Blogging Template
Last month I detailed how to set up the open-source Blogsphere V3 blogging template. This month I want to continue that theme by showing you how to get up-and-running on the IBM Blogging template that ships with Lotus Domino 7.0.2
Getting Started
The first thing to realize is that the template dominoblog.ntf is only included, supported and licensed on the server install of Domino 7.0.2 and above. If you are not at least at Domino 7.0.2, the blog template is not included. Make sure your Domino server is at version 7.0.2 or higher. Once you're sure, you'll have the template on your server, and you can create a new database.
When you do, the first thing you will see is a brief site setup form as seen below:
You can fill out the pertinent information and click OK. The site details are basic info about your site, including your name, a short description of your site, the server it's on and the URL of the site. The server and Full site URL should be filled in by default and you shouldn't have to change them.
The second section is your personal details. It pulls your Notes ID name in by default, but allows you to change it if you use different info. Enter a preferred Name, an email address, your personal website (if you have one) and the default place you will be posting from. This can be Office, Home, your City, or whatever you want to use. Some folks even opt to not enter their location at all.
Once you've finished the form, click OK, and your site is set up. You can open a browser and go to the default URL you saw in the wizard above. The site will open to your blog.
If you wanted to, you could start posting immediately. It's ready to roll. You do however have a TON of options on how to customize the functionality, as well as look-and-feel of your blog. We'll delve into some of the basics in a bit.
Access Control List (ACL) Settings
ACL Settings are similar to what I wrote in my Blogsphere article, so much of the text here will be the same. Since this is a blog whose purpose is to be visited from a web browser, you'll want to make both the -Default- and Anonymous entries in the ACL have Author access with Create Documents, Write Public Documents and Replicate or Copy Documents checked.
The reason you give the default entries Author rights is to allow them the ability to comment. If you are not planning on allowing commenting, you can give both default entries Readers access.
The ACL can be locked down however you wish for defaults. If you want the site to be secure so only a project team can see it, simply give -Default- and Anonymous no access, and give the Project Team the author rights I outlined above. For the person(s) maintaining the blog, there are several roles that can be given.
Once you have the ACL squared away, you can start using your blog install immediately. If you want to tweak, there are a TON of options available to you.Admin -- This role allows access to all of the administration functionality and configuration settings. webadmin -- This role allows you to access the administration section of the blog from the web. webcompose -- This allows a user to make posts via a web browser instead of the Notes client.
What can you do?
On the left side of your blog, you have the following menu choices. They pertain to the following info:
Content -- This is the area for your blog posts and podcasts. Discussion -- This area revolves around the comments made on your blog posts and the discussion that ensues. Resources -- This area houses images, style sheets, javascript libraries, attachments and static web pages. HTML Templates -- Here you will find all of the HTML templates used for the various page types in your blog. Configuration -- This is where all of the back-end configuration and tweaking takes place. You can set up categories, tags, links, user profiles, and your main configuration document.
Configuration Document
Right now, I want to give you a brief explanation of some of the configuration document settings. These settings affect how your blog acts, and are pretty important. You will want to play around with these to see what best fits the style and purpose your blog serves. The nice thing is, you can change these at any time, so if you don't like how a setting behaves, change it back.
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When you open the configuration document you will see two rows of tabs. We're going to concentrate on what's on the Site Settings tab. Click the Site Settings tab, then click General. This section deals with the basics you used in your opening wizard. It also fleshes it out a bit.
Advanced TabFull URL of Site -- This is the full path to the blog database on your server including folder paths and an ending slash. Use full URL to override automatic Base HREF -- If you say yes to this, your IBM Blog will always use the Full URL of the site when creating dynamic links within pages of the site. If you say No, the system will attempt to make dynamic links based on the domain URL of the site. Domain URL of Site -- This is the standard website address of your site. For example http://www.mysite.com Site Title -- The name of your site Site Description -- A description tag line for your site Site Owner -- The person running the site Site Copyright -- Who owns the copyright on the blog postings Meta Data Author -- This is the author name that will be included in the HTML meta data for the page. This is used by search engines when indexing your content. Meta Data Description -- This is a description of your site that will be included in the HTML meta data for the page. Keywords -- This is a list of keywords that describe your content that will be included in the HTML meta data data for the page.
Content CreationPrimary Server - This is the server that your blog resides on and will run the agents on. You can choose the server it's currently hosted on by clicking the Set to Current Server button. Notification Email Address - This is the list of addresses that you will want to be notified of things like comments being posted to your blog. You can enter multiple addresses by doing so one per line. Alternative Port - If you are serving up this blog on an http port other than 80, you can enter than information here. Use UNID to reference attachments - Leave this set to no. Number of items to show - This determines how many posts show on the front page of your blog before archiving. 10 is a common number, but you may want to go larger or smaller depending on the length of your posts. Default Content Order - You can order your posts in Date/Time (the default) alphabetical or numerical. Traditional blogs do this in Date/Time, but you have the option to change this if your needs dictate. Include Documents for Sub-Categories - leave this set to no. Include Sub-Categories/Folders - leave this set to yes. Include Documents with Sub-Category/Folder - leave this set to no. Group Homepage content by Day - Check this box if you want to group all entries made on a day under a header for the date in question. Otherwise, each blog post appears independently of each other. No Items/Documents/Text/HTML - There may be a time when a view in your database has no data in it. If that's the case, it will display whatever error message you type here. By default it should say No Documents Found. Stylesheet Screen/Global - This is where you choose your stylesheet for viewing your site in a browser. It pulls the list from available stylesheets in your database. For more choices to show up here, you need to create additional stylesheets in the Resources area of the database. Stylesheet/Print - This is an additional stylesheet you can specify for when your website is printed. Javascript - If you want a javascript .js file loaded with every page, you can specify it here. Allow Category Templates for Documents - This tells your blog whether every Category in the blog can have its own template. If you wish for posts to look different based on the Category, you can turn this to yes. Login Text - This is the text of the link on the homepage that allows a web user to authenticate and log into the website. Enable Email Processing - This allows a blog to accept and post content that is mailed to it. This is beyond the scope of this article, so for our purposes click No.
Auto Populate Page name from Subject - Check Autopopulate to have the system use your subject as the name of your blog post. For example, naming a post This is My Test Page will result in a link to that page named "This-is-my-Test-Page?open" Append .htm - If you want the page above in the autopopulate area to end in a traditional .htm, you check this box. It would make the above link be "This-is-my-Test-Page.htm" Allow HTML in Rich Text - If you say yes to this, you can add HTML tags directly to your rich text blog posts and the system will try to render any HTML you have placed in the post. Leaving this unchecked will render the tags as is. Strip font tags from Rich Text - Clicking the Strip Font checkbox will render all text in your post in the default fonts in your blog's CSS. Underline tags in Rich Text - You can Leave the tags, Remove them, or Replace with your CSS style. By default, it tries to use your style settings, but if you want underlines, you can choose Leave. Auto-create links from Link List - You can set up a list of Links on your site to other blogs. Checking this setting will look at your blog text and if you post the text of a particular link, it will convert it to an active link. For example, if I have John's Blog set up in my link list, the system will convert it to a link in a blog post if I type John's Blog. XHTML output? - This setting forces the blog to export it's data in XHTML standard output. It adheres to standards much more strictly. Launch external links - You can choose the behavior for links in your site. You can choose to open links in a New Window or have them open up in your Current Window. Show HTML/Text field ahead of Rich Text - When you make a blog post, your default entry area is Rich Text. Setting this to yes will also allow you to enter info into the Text/HTML section of your post. That info will render before the Rich Text portion of the post. Saying No means that the stuff in the Text/HTML section will not show up on a post. Delete attachments when Document deleted - In the IBM blog template, you create attachments separately and then reference them from your post. Setting this to No will delete nothing but your blog post, All will delete all attachments associated with a post and Autolaunch will only delete special attachments that were set to auto launch. Draft Mode Documents Secured to Author - This will lock any Draft blog entry to only allow editing to the person that created it. Additional Access for Secured Draft Documents - If you wish to allow certain users access to view draft documents, you can add the proper users here. Once added they will be able to see Draft entries. Disable Category Inherited Security/Exclusions - Clicking Disable will not institute security based on categories of your blog entries.
Don't be overwhelmed
Those three tabs, General, Advanced and Content Creation are where you will make most of your initial tweaks and settings in the database. If you drill down into all of the other tabs in the configuration document, you will see a dizzying array of choices, and far too many to point out in this article.
Don't be overwhelmed by all the possibilities. Many of these choices are of the set-it-and-forget-it type. You'll make your choice once and never have to go back to it. So, you have choice. You can go through the initial wizard and get working immediately out of the box, or you can dig deeper and tweak to your hearts content. Place the database on a development server and play around with the settings and see how they affect your blog. Spend a few hours getting familiar with the settings, and you'll have your blog set up to your liking in no time.
Where to find help?
If you need help on the IBM Lotus blogging template, there are a few places you can turn to. The first is the IBM Lotus support site. Search for the term blog and you will get tons of hits on your questions with official support documentation. You can also access the Notes/Domino 6/7 forum on Lotus Developerworks to ask questions of other forum goers. If you've downloaded Notes 8 Beta 2, there is some blog documentation in the help files, and lastly, you can visit the website of the IBM Blogging template's creator, http://www.stevecastledine.com/ Steve Castledine. Steve is the IBM engineer who created and now supports the template. For blog posts pertaining directly to the template, click the 7.0.2 Domino Blog template entries link on the right side of his blog.
With the last several months focused on blogging on Domino, I hope I've given you a base to build upon, and proven to you that Domino is indeed a viable blogging platform. IBM has proven their commitment with their blogging template and announcements of blogging components in the upcoming Quickr and Connections products. Add to that the support of the open-source community with Blogpshere V3 and you have multiple options to choose from.
You also no longer have an excuse. Happy Blogging.
About this Series
This series of articles on intranet solutions with IBM Lotus Notes/Domino is intended to help readers understand the fundamental methodology and capabilities of the product and how to utilize it to deliver a feature-rich, secure, and functional corporate intranet solution. It will include implementation strategies, case studies, industry-tested tips and tricks, and, with your input, true value to the administrator or developer who wants to utilize IBM Lotus Notes/Domino technologies to deliver winning intranet solutions.
If you have any questions on the series, Lotus Notes/Domino, or if there's something you'd like to see addressed, visit the Intranet Journal Discussion Forum.
About the Author
John Roling is the Senior Groupware Administrator for a North American trade-show exhibit company and a certified Lotus Notes Administrator, Developer and all-around geek. You can keep up with him at his http://www.greyhawk68.com/ blog or drop him an e-mail at jroling@gmail.com.
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