[pmwiki-users] Kind-of Blog 1.1 released

[Mikael Nilsson]

ons 2005-12-14 klockan 14:41 -0600 skrev Patrick R. Michaud:
> On Wed, Dec 14, 2005 at 08:58:10PM +0100, sven saurwein wrote:
> > (4.2)
> > use the abstract yyyymmddxx uniqute url for (:pagelist:) flexibility to 
> > display and sort things
> 
> (:pagelist:) already has the flexibility to display and sort
> things, and can sort based on criteria other than name (e.g.,
> posting date or last modified date).  So we don't need to use 
> the page name for ordering, since we can easily do it other ways.
> 
> But there's another approach.... everyone repeat after me...
> 
> 
> 
>                  "Trails are our friends!"

Ok, you have a point...

> Why worry about the names at all?  All we really want is some way of
> ordering sets of posts and accessing them in some order, and that's
> exactly what trails are for!  So, having seen the discussion and 
> taken a little more time to think about it, here's my view of a blog:

"All we really want" - I'm not sure I agree, on a number of (solvable)
points.

> 
> *  All blog entries are normal wiki pages, with normal page names.
> 
> *  The edit form has a "post blog article" checkbox or button, which
>    causes the current entry to be added to the beginning of a 
>    "blog trail", much the same way that pages are automatically 
>    added to RecentChanges pages.  (It may in fact turn out to be 
>    the same code that handles both.)  

Well... one aspect is missing - *extreme* ease of use. There needs to be
predefined ways of adding blog archives, and a very easy to use "Post"
page, where you *don't* have to give a page name. I'm eager to avoid
complex scenarios like:

* Invent a new page name
* Go to that page in some way (by typing the URL, or adding it manually
to another wiki page and clicking the link)
* Press edit
* Write post
* Checkbox needs to be checked.
* ... more?

We really need a process that looks like:

* Click "Post"
* Write blog content, including title
* Click "Save"

> 
> *  Other posts to the page don't affect the blog trail.
> 
> *  By having the pages on a blog trail, one gets RSS feeds (and
>    podcasts!) for free via .../BlogTrail?action=rss .
> 
> *  The blogger always has the option of reordering articles in
>    the blog by simply editing the blog trail.  Articles in the
>    blog trail can easily belong to different WikiGroups.

Make sure, though, that a DateCreated property (or whatever) is
preserved when editing posts or trails. We need to be able to create
nice and correct archives *automatically*, no manual intervention.

> Comments?  If there's roaring approval then it's very possible
> I could add the above directly to 2.1.  Page comments would
> follow shortly thereafter, since I'd know how to integrate it with
> the blogging scheme.

Make sure not to forget the above. Most stuff needs to be simple and
automatic... but I'm sure it's doable.

/Mikael

-- 
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose