_ _ o _ _ ___ _ ))`) ___ _ _ _ )) )) ___ ))_) )) __ ___ ((,' ((_( ((\( (( (( (( ((_( ((__)(( ((_)((_( _)) ...add your own topping Version 1, RC4 18 November 2005 ------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS: About | Features | Install | Change it | Copyright ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ _ _ ___ )) __ _ )L ((_( ((_)((_)((_( (( VanillaBlog has sprung from collaboration between creative writers, journalists, software developers and designers at Access Space: the UK's longest-running trash technology lab, in Sheffield. We wanted a Blog which: * WE OWN. We want to decide how it works and where it's hosted. * IS SIMPLE. We want to get straight on with our writing, not take a crash course in publishing software. * IS FLEXIBLE. Some of us want to write poetry and stories. Others want to get into journalism. And some just want to meet other like-minded people. So we'd like a blog that does all of this, please. * IS TRANSPARENT. If we feel like it, we want to be able to take it apart, break it and put it back together. And we want this to be as easy as possible. * WE CAN SHARE. We want to be able to give it to our friends; building a grass-roots blogging community who are not dependant on closed, proprietory systems. * IS PORTABLE. We might want to change our web hosting provider, but we're not all experts. Moving our blog and keeping our data is important, and we'd like it to be easy. * IS CHEAP. We haven't a whole lot of money between us, so we want a blog that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to host. Luckily for us, Access Space is brimming with enthusiastic people with a wide range of talents. As a result, the development of VanillaBlog is being driven by artists and creative writers; and being implemented by expert web- developers, usability professionals, open-source enthusiasts and graphic artists. And, lucky you, you've got yourself a copy! So what's it do, then? ------------------------------------------------------------ __ _ )L`__ ___ )L _ __ __ __ (( (('((_( (( ((_( (| (('_)) This is Version 1, RC4. RC means "Release Canditate". Basically this is the first working version, though you might notice one or two glitches. It also means we're working hard to finish one or two more features before we consider it to be the FINAL Version 1 release. PLEASE let us know if you find any bugs or problems. Also, please take care to back your site up regularly - especially while VanillaBlog is still under development. The main features available now are: * Functional basic blogging system. * Articles can be added, altered and deleted through a secure log in account. * Articles can optionally be grouped into categories - in fact each article can be "tagged" to belong under several categories. * The article creator/editor accepts plain-text, but there is also an option to accept HTML markup for formatting. * A "links" system is included, so you can list your favourite websites from within your blog. * A "contact" form is also provided, which allows people to get in touch but doesn't give your email address to spammers. * A blog configuration tool, which allows you to change basic information about the blog and the way it works. * A rudimentary templating system. We say "rudimentary", because we want it to improve. But in essence, "templating" means you can create a new "look" and "layout" for your blog with just a LITTLE knowledge of HTML and stylesheets. * Plain-text database system, using the Txt-DB-API program. That means the blog is totally portable and needs no additional database server (unlike most other popular blogging systems). * Commented source code :) We WANT you to hack VanillaBlog, and if you've never played with web-design, we hope VanillaBlog will gradually entice you to roll your sleeves up and get your hands dirty! * High build-quality, standards-compliant code, and exemplerary levels of accessibility. All these things sound a bit technical. But the main points are these: - VanillaBlog is secure - VanillaBlog conforms to accessibility legislation. In fact, it goes well beyond simply "conforming". - VanillaBlog makes the most of cutting-edge web technologies, yet works well for any imaginable computing platform or browsing device. ...not that we like to blow our own trumpet or anything ;) In addition to these fine features, the following will be available within the next week or two: * An Image uploading system. This will allow you to associate an image with each article, if you wish to. * A comments system. At your discretion, visitors will be able to leave comments about your articles. ... And when those are done, the party's REALLY gonna start! ------------------------------------------------------------ o _ _ _ _ _ _ __ )L ___ )) )) (( ((\( _))(( ((_( (( (( OK. Enough bragging already. How do we get this thing working. First up: REQUIREMENTS. You'll need: * A computer to work from. It really needs to be connected to the internet, and we'd recommend using a Linux-based operating-system for youthful, beautiful skin ;) ( If you don't have your own computer, you'll at least need access to one that you can use to initially publish your blog from. This is where Access Space can help - visit http://access-space.org to find out how ) * An FTP program. This is the software that most people use to "upload" their website in the first place. We use gFTP or NCFTP, but any old FTP thang will do - so long as it allows you to change file permissions on the "remote" site (most do). * Some web space. This is fairly easy to get hold of if you ask around and spend a day Googling. Access Space can provide you with web space if you want to get involved with our activities. But, when looking for hosting, you'll need to make sure it includes PHP 4+. And that's it. No other fancy features required. Though, if you've got a choice, we do think VanillaBlog will run better on a UNIX or Linux- based server, as that's the kind of box it's been developed on. Then, when you've got all that set up, here are the steps you need to take to get VanillaBlog up and running. 1. DOWNLOAD THE SOFTWARE: You'll want the most recent version of VanillaBlog, so check our website first (http://blog.access-space.org). Go to our downloads page, get the latest ZIP-file and download to an appropriate location on your computer. 2. UNPACK THE SOFTWARE: Using your favourite/easiest unzipping utility, unzip the VanillaBlog directory (us techies use the word "directory" where you may say "folder"). 3. CHOOSE A USERNAME AND PASSWORD: This is very important. To begin with, the username for your site will be "username" and the password, "password". To prevent Tom, Dick or Harry from helping you to publish articles, you'll need to choose a username and password of your own. To do this, look inside your newly unpacked VanillaBlog directory. Then move into the "data" directory and find the file "user.php". Edit this file to include your own login details (full instructions are given in the file). 4. UPLOAD VANILLABLOG TO YOUR WEB SPACE: Using your favourite/easiest FTP utility, upload the contents of the unzipped VanillaBlog directory to your web space. 5. CHANGE PERMISSIONS OF THE DATABASE FILES: Trickiest bit here. When you've uploaded VanillaBlog, move into the "data" directory, and from there into the "vanillablog" directory. Use your FTP program to change the permissions of all the files in data/vanillablog to "666". This means they can be read and overwritten by the VanillaBlog software - important if you want VanillaBlog to actually save your articles :) [n.b.] As a security measure, we've included an .htaccess file in the "data" directory. This means no- one can get at your data except you (via FTP/SSH) and your own VanillaBlog software. 6. You're done! You should now be able to visit your new blog with a web browser and get writing! Happy blogging! ------------------------------------------------------------ _ o _ _ __ ))_ ___ _ _ ___ __ _ )L )) ((_ ((`( ((_( ((\( ((_( ((' (( (( (( _)) o We very much hope you'll get so comfortable with your new blog, that you'll want to start changing the way it looks. Before you start, it might help if you learn a little bit about HTML (the language webpages are made from) and style- sheets (or CSS - the language we use for controlling how web pages are displayed). It would also help if you gain a fleeting understanding of what PHP is and what it looks like. PHP is the programming language that all the fancy, technical bits of VanillaBlog are made from. But we're expecting very inexperienced people to mess around with VanillaBlog, so don't worry if it's all a bit new to you. So here are a few tips to set you on your way... HOW THE TEMPLATING WORKS: VanillaBlog looks for available templates in the "templates" directory. When you're logged in, you'll see on the "Change Blog Settings" page an option to name which template to use. Each template is simply a directory full of the right PHP pages, style sheets and images, stored inside the "templates" directory. VanillaBlog comes with some alternative templates - "vanilla", "coffee", "mint" and "liquorice" - just to give you the idea. If you want create your own template, you need to duplicate one of these directories. That way, you'll have all the right files, each containing helpful comments suggesting common alterations to make. VanillaBlog will automatically pick up any extra directories inside the templates directory and you can choose which one you want from the "Blog settings page of your website. START WITH THE STYLES The easiest and quickest starting point when designing your own template is the stylesheet (CSS). In the template/{yourtemplate} directory, you'll see a directory called "css", and in here a file called "screen.css". Have a look at this file first. Try and guess what each "rule" in the stylesheet is doing, and look at the comment tags which explain some of it (comment tags in a stylesheet start with "/*" and end with "*/"). If you feel the comment tags are begging you to change something, don't be shy: get hacking! Each time to make a change to any, you'll need to upload the changed file (to the exactly equivelant place on the remote server!), point your web browser at your blog and hit the "refresh" button. It'll a bit awkward to start with, but if you learn a few keyboard shortcuts for controlling your software you'll soon get faster. PLAYING WITH THE TEMPLATE PHP FILES: You may want to change the presentation of your blog, or alter the way it looks. If so, you should have a look at the collection of PHP files that makes up each template directory. Again, we've done (and we're doing) our best to comment these files so you can work out what's going on. However, you should be careful about what you do here. The template PHP files have been very carefully thought through to provide an accessible and clear interface. We're not going to tell you how to write your own website, but we do think that heavy editing of the template PHP files could adversley affect the way your site works. The template stylesheet is capable of having a far bigger impact on page design and layout that the PHP files. Start there, and if you find there's no other way round the issue you're trying to tackle, we hope you'll find the PHP easy to suss out and modify to suit your purposes. TEMPLATE META INFORMATION To help with packaging templates to share with others, we've added a "meta information" directory to each template. In future, this may be essential for the template to work with VanillaBlog. The main file to look at now is: templates/{template-name}/meta/tpl-info.php We hope it makes sense, and is easy to use as a basis to create your own. TRANSLATING VANILLABLOG We've made it easy to translate VanillaBlog into your own language. Look inside the "languages" directory. You'll see a file called "english-gb.php". This file sets language variables which are called from the templates whenever needed. Here's an example: $language['article-new'] = "Write a new article"; To translate this phrase, you simply need to change "Write a new article" into whatever that is in your language. We suggest that before you do any translating, you create a copy of "english-gb.php" and rename it appropriately: "deutche.php", for example. Any language files in the language directory will be picked up automatically by VanillaBlog and you'll be able to select a your new language from the "Blog settings" page of your website. ------------------------------------------------------------ o _ _ __ __ __ __ _ __ _ ___ ))_ )L ((_ ((_)((_)\(/'(| (( ((_( ((`( (( )) )) _)) Finally, we need to tell you that we've copyrighted VanillaBlog so that we can release it under the open-source General Public License (GPL). This is a funny kind of license that gives you more freedoms on signing that you had before you signed it. We love it, it IS the future, and we fully encourage you to get on the web and find out more about the GPL if you don't already know about it. Anyway, here go the copyright notices... ------------------------------------------------------------ COPYRIGHT NOTICE: ------------------------------------------------------------ The VanillaBlog software is Copyright 2005 Access Space Network Limited, Sheffield, 1 Sidney Street, Sheffield, S1 4RG, UK. http://access-space.org VanillaBlog incorporates the "PHP-TextDB API" which is distributed under the BSD license - please see the scripts contained within the txt-db-api directory of VanillaBlog distribution for further details. ------------------------------------------------------------ LICENSE: ------------------------------------------------------------ This file is part of VanillaBlog. VanillaBlog is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. VanillaBlog is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with VanillaBlog; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA ------------------------------------------------------------ [end of file]