robrohr.org : tests

Testing newMediaObject

robrohr — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 17:35:00 GMT

It turns out there was a problem with the file version of the update of the Community Server MetaBlog implementation that was available on Robert McLaws's website, but I believe I have fixed the issues.

If you see my head, then the newMediaObject implementation worked and I can nuke my Live Writer -> FTP -> FolderShare -> Community Server image upload hack and replace it with Live Writer -> Community Server. I know Margot will definitely like that.

Update: hitting the MetaBlog.ashx file now shows that the newMediaObject method is now available, but Windows Live Writer continues to complain when I insert an image.

Uploading images in blog posts...

robrohr — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:34:26 GMT

This is a sample PNG of the interface of the Microsoft Live Writer interface, tested for image insertion and uploading through a ghastly hack.

What a pain!

When I first started blogging, I used Blogger at my brother's recommendation, for several reasons:

It was free.
It was somewhat easy (for me).
It was highly customizable.

The remnants of that blog are still visible at http://stampy.uvm.edu/robrohr, the original robrohr.org. I would create my ray HTML templates with custom tags inserted into the bitstream where all of the bloggy goodness was to appear. I had control of styles and layout; Blogger hosted the database of posts and would generate new pages from my templates whenever I added a new post, and those would be pushed back to my web server via FTP, at which point my bloggy goodness was available to nauseate global internet audiences.

Sometime around 2002, the University at which I worked decided (rightly) that unencrypted userid/pwd traffic across the campus boundary wouldn't be allowed, and the era of FTP came to a sudden close. At that point, I decided to look into installing blog hosting software on my server directly, avoiding the transfer of pages and account information outside the Uni. Thus begat .Text which begat Community Server 1.0, which begat Community Server 1.1, which begat Community Server 2.0, which begat Community Server 2.1 (framework 1.1 then 2.0). And the framework loaded and the service account had permissions and it was good.

Since then, I have tried various tools to create blog posts remotely, looking for anything that would make post creation easier than the builtin web editing pages. Many had promise until it came to handling inline images in the blog posts at which point they all gracefully/gracelessly choked.

Up until today, my process for mashing images into posts involved pushing images to the web server using Foldershare, then inserting raw HTML <img /> tags in my post source view. It worked but it's far from WYSIWYG, and not the most natural editing environment.

My current setup which I am testing with limited success is as follows:

Set up FTP server on client machine.
Block all FTP access to all but the loopback address (localhost :: 127.0.0.1)
Link FTP destination folder on client to web visible folder on the web server via Foldershare.

By this method, I can use FTP to publish images to the client machine, images which get synchronized to the appropriate folder on the web server. FTP auth traffic never goes over the wire (loopback - Whee!). Images get pushed to the web server via encrypted synchronization channel (Foldershare). No script kiddies will have any success pounding away at my FTP. Not pretty, but I can finally use a pretty good tool to generate posts with rich image handling.

Squee!

So you want to import a picture...

robrohr — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 19:57:44 GMT

Yesterday, I downloaded and installed Windows Live Writer (Beta) and everything worked swimmingly as long as one didn't wish to include images in the blog post. Unfortunately, one did want to import images. One has been wishing for an easier way to get images on the server and included in blog posts for quite some time.

Naturally, Community Server has not implemented the newMediaObject method of the MetaBlog API for importing images/media into the blog content repository. This is the preferred mechanism by which Windows Live Writer and other blog automation applications insert images into your posts. So I hopped over to the Community Server web site to see if anybody had hacked newMediaObject functionality on top of the MetaBlog web service (I would not be surprised if somebody had). Lo! Behold! Lo and Behold! I had somehow missed the fact that an upgrade to Community Server (ver 2.1) was now available! Hey, maybe the new upgrade would add functionality to the MetaBlog implementation!

So, I downloads, and I upgrades, and what do you know? I melt the blogs again. It wasn't so bad this time around. I eventually found I had screwed up a permissions issue that resulted in me getting a cryptic, and not so useful error message, along with a pile of events in the event log. Anyway, all that helpful advice referring to the ASPNET account in troubleshooting Community Server? This actually refers to the Network Service account when your blog server is running Windows Server 2003 as the underlying OS. I'm sure you wanted to know.

In summary, the blog server is back up and functioning, and nobody needed to raid the google cache of old versions of all the pages in order to rebuild the site like last time I melted the blog.

Creating blog posting using Windows Live Writer

robrohr — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 02:32:23 GMT

From time to time, I check out various methods for generating new blog entries. This entry was generated using Windows Live Writer. Not only is it a WYSIWYG editor, it downloads your custom style sheets from your blog so you see exactly the layout that you would see once the post is published.

Hmmm... Importing images to the blog hosted on Community Server 2.0 via MetaBlog API is not currently working. This is something that I hope can be solved quickly. - Rob Rohr

Image handling is considerably better than normally available using web entry. Now if only the MetaBlog API handles photo importing into the Community Server structure. Since MSDN blogs are hosted on Community Server, then I suspect future versions will support photo imports if this version doesn't.

Another podcast test...

robrohr — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 21:13:00 GMT

Trying a new method of ~~inserting~~ embedding to see what happens in different browsers...

Open source single button player from musicplayer.sourceforge.net.

I am looking for a flash-based audio player that I can use to embed audio in posts that will be usable cross-browser. No luck yet finding anything that is not obnoxious, unusable, or ugly. Hmmm.

The audio above is a capture from the Wednesday night traditional Irish Music session at the Radio Bean Coffeehouse in Burlington, VT.

Schematic of a Spamanimal.

robrohr — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 02:42:00 GMT

Mommy, where does spam come from?

Just installed newest version of Community Server

robrohr — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 23:32:00 GMT

I'm still mucking about, trying to make the templates my very own. I will try not to break this puppy darned thing.

There appears to be the option to add ink items to this blog, but I can't yet figure out how to do it...

Hmmm.

Margot's having trouble posting...

robrohr — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 03:28:00 GMT

Community Server is giving Margot a nasty/useless error message as she tries to post to her blog.

Margot has informed me that "Community Server hates me. Tee-hee."

Just checking to see if I can post (same server.)

I apologize for the low pithiness-to-post ratio.

All my old content are belong to us.

robrohr — Wed, 18 May 2005 21:16:00 GMT

I've managed to import all my old content from both previous incarnations of the robrohr.org blog (.Text and Blogger driven.) Thank you, Google page cache and Newsgator RSS cache! There are a few internal links between posts that need to be updated, but until I can get Community Server and FreeTextBox to stop mutually mangling my HTML, I will only update internal links at my whimsical pace.

One of the benefits of the Community Server blog engine, is my ability to precisely define posting publication dates, past, present or future, so all my old content is shown with original publication dates. I was not able to do this on the .Text blog (robrohr.org version 2) so all content moved over from the previous blog had a publication date of May, 2004 when I installed .Text. Unsightly.

One of the things I miss about the .Text blog was my ability to auto-link terms. On the old blog, whenever I typed "Margot," her name would be automatically linked to her blog. You will notice that didn't happen here. Let's try a little e-tantrum. Margot Margot Margot Margot! Nope. Nothing.

I've lost all my comments, though, as well as a pile of my blog-cred. Links into my v2 blog point to this useless page that says, "Try the real blog, and use the search box to find what you were looking for." Lame. I know. You are not psychic. You don't know what I wrote, otherwise, you wouldn't be here. The Search function is cool though, and in addition, it works.

I'm conflicted.

Blog melted. Recovery proceeding slowly.

admin — Mon, 09 May 2005 17:41:00 GMT

Last week, I melted my blog (http://robrohr.org) as well as Margot's (http://mangot.info). Needless to say, I wasn't pleased. Thanks to Google caching and the Wayback machine, we'll be able to recover most of our posts, and paste them into this new, and somewhat snazzy Community Server application. Old blog posts should reappear slowly, but surely.