Comments on: Feedback on Drupal for campus blogging http://www.darcynorman.net/2005/03/13/feedback-on-drupal-for-campus-blogging/ apparently much happier in person Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:03:04 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Tatonca http://www.darcynorman.net/2005/03/13/feedback-on-drupal-for-campus-blogging/#comment-79670 Tatonca Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 #comment-79670 I have a blog_theme.module if you would like to give it a try - it keeps the users chosen theme persistent for their blog, image gallery, and all nodes they publish. You can get it here - http://www.blogtown.ca/files/blog_theme.module.txt - I have not been granted a drupal CVS account yet otherwise I would have put it up for everyone to have a go... ;) Enjoy ~Tat~ I have a blog_theme.module if you would like to give it a try – it keeps the users chosen theme persistent for their blog, image gallery, and all nodes they publish. You can get it here – http://www.blogtown.ca/files/blog_theme.module.txt – I have not been granted a drupal CVS account yet otherwise I would have put it up for everyone to have a go… ;)

Enjoy

~Tat~

]]> By: D'Arcy http://www.darcynorman.net/2005/03/13/feedback-on-drupal-for-campus-blogging/#comment-79671 D'Arcy Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 #comment-79671 Tatonca, that sounds perfect! I'll give it a shot first thing in the morning! Thanks! Tatonca, that sounds perfect! I’ll give it a shot first thing in the morning! Thanks!

]]> By: D'Arcy http://www.darcynorman.net/2005/03/13/feedback-on-drupal-for-campus-blogging/#comment-79672 D'Arcy Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 #comment-79672 Ok... I couldn't wait :-) I checked it out, and it works great! It seems to conflict with sections.module, though (which I wasn't really using, so I just disabled it). Thanks again! Ok… I couldn’t wait :-)

I checked it out, and it works great! It seems to conflict with sections.module, though (which I wasn’t really using, so I just disabled it).

Thanks again!

]]> By: D'Arcy http://www.darcynorman.net/2005/03/13/feedback-on-drupal-for-campus-blogging/#comment-79673 D'Arcy Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 #comment-79673 Tatonca, that's almost perfect! The re-use of the user's custom site theme may be a bit confusing, though... I'll see if I can hack a version of this module to have its own theme selector somehow. Tatonca, that’s almost perfect! The re-use of the user’s custom site theme may be a bit confusing, though… I’ll see if I can hack a version of this module to have its own theme selector somehow.

]]> By: Sam Ottenhoff http://www.darcynorman.net/2005/03/13/feedback-on-drupal-for-campus-blogging/#comment-79674 Sam Ottenhoff Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 #comment-79674 > Multiple blogs per user This sounds like an issue for taxonomies. A user could categorize their post as 'academic' or 'personal'. Then instead of having the blog module display all content, you could view the content through the taxonomy lens. > Multiple authors per blog Organic Groups has a lot of potential and works espcially well with the often-formed groups in the academic world. OG is the best way that I know of to create group blogs. Setting a custom theme seems difficult. I would do it with a combination of autopath and the sections module. You may also want to look at hacking the blog_theme module for groups. > blocks should only show the comments and posts from that blog This should be a relatively easy hack in the comments.module and blog.module. Look for the function comment_block(), line 154 of comments.module. blog_block() is at line 275 of blog.module. > How to export content in a usable format? An RSS feed seems about as close to interchangable as you will find. Drupal will even throw attachments in the feed as an enclosure. Do any other blog tools import RSS feeds and turn them into editable posts? Drupal has a module that allows turning an imported RSS post into a Drupal node. > Multiple blogs per user

This sounds like an issue for taxonomies. A user could categorize their post as ‘academic’ or ‘personal’. Then instead of having the blog module display all content, you could view the content through the taxonomy lens.

> Multiple authors per blog

Organic Groups has a lot of potential and works espcially well with the often-formed groups in the academic world. OG is the best way that I know of to create group blogs. Setting a custom theme seems difficult. I would do it with a combination of autopath and the sections module. You may also want to look at hacking the blog_theme module for groups.

> blocks should only show the comments and posts from that blog

This should be a relatively easy hack in the comments.module and blog.module. Look for the function comment_block(), line 154 of comments.module. blog_block() is at line 275 of blog.module.

> How to export content in a usable format?

An RSS feed seems about as close to interchangable as you will find. Drupal will even throw attachments in the feed as an enclosure. Do any other blog tools import RSS feeds and turn them into editable posts? Drupal has a module that allows turning an imported RSS post into a Drupal node.

]]> By: tatonca http://www.darcynorman.net/2005/03/13/feedback-on-drupal-for-campus-blogging/#comment-79675 tatonca Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 #comment-79675 <em>The re-use of the user’s custom site theme may be a bit confusing, though… I’ll see if I can hack a version of this module to have its own theme selector somehow.</em> I agree - I hacked the user profile and stuck the themes selector under a tab called 'Look and Feel' with an explanation that it would set the theme for their blog as well... unfortunately the 'look and feel' tab didn't appear until I created another setting under 'look and feel' using the profile.module - It did however reduce the support about it to null.;) The re-use of the user’s custom site theme may be a bit confusing, though… I’ll see if I can hack a version of this module to have its own theme selector somehow.

I agree – I hacked the user profile and stuck the themes selector under a tab called ‘Look and Feel’ with an explanation that it would set the theme for their blog as well… unfortunately the ‘look and feel’ tab didn’t appear until I created another setting under ‘look and feel’ using the profile.module – It did however reduce the support about it to null.;)

]]> By: tatonca http://www.darcynorman.net/2005/03/13/feedback-on-drupal-for-campus-blogging/#comment-79676 tatonca Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 #comment-79676 <em>How to export content in a usable format? Users are concerned that if they spend a bunch of time and effort contributing content to the Drupal site, that they are then locked in. They can’t export to an interchange format and then bring the content in, say, to MovableType or WordPress, or whatever. Lock-in is bad. </em> I am working on another module right now that imports rss feeds as nodes... I think this is the feature you are looking for in reverse... so they update thier 'blogger' account or whatever it will import into drupal when cron runs, and then when someone adds a comment on their drupal site, it will trackback to their other site... I haven't got anything concrete yet, but if you are interested I'll let you know when I've got something usable... How to export content in a usable format? Users are concerned that if they spend a bunch of time and effort contributing content to the Drupal site, that they are then locked in. They can’t export to an interchange format and then bring the content in, say, to MovableType or WordPress, or whatever. Lock-in is bad.

I am working on another module right now that imports rss feeds as nodes… I think this is the feature you are looking for in reverse… so they update thier ‘blogger’ account or whatever it will import into drupal when cron runs, and then when someone adds a comment on their drupal site, it will trackback to their other site… I haven’t got anything concrete yet, but if you are interested I’ll let you know when I’ve got something usable…

]]> By: D'Arcy http://www.darcynorman.net/2005/03/13/feedback-on-drupal-for-campus-blogging/#comment-79677 D'Arcy Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 #comment-79677 Tatonca, that's useful, but not what I need :-) I'm more concerned about having people spend a lot of time contributing stuff to Drupal, and then have no way to take their content with them when they leave the campus (graduate, move on, etc...). Ideally, some form of "export my blog to MovableType export format" would work best, since just about every CMS/Blog out there reads that as input. Tatonca, that’s useful, but not what I need :-)

I’m more concerned about having people spend a lot of time contributing stuff to Drupal, and then have no way to take their content with them when they leave the campus (graduate, move on, etc…). Ideally, some form of “export my blog to MovableType export format” would work best, since just about every CMS/Blog out there reads that as input.

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