news

Flickr compatible atom feeds

Matt — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:09:12 GMT

I just completed work on Flickr compatible Atom Feeds.

You can use any plugin, gadget, or widget that will consume flickr feeds with schmoto. Instead of flickr's feed url, feed it the schmoto one instead (ex: http://yoursite/schmotolog/atom.xml ) The atom.xml file will always be at the root of your schmoto site.

It's never too early to start making money

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:24 GMT

Wah? What's that in the sidebar? why, it's a "make a donation" paypal button. Why not click it, type some numbers in and hit pay?

I need some help getting a move on. Think of it like that time in the Peter Pan play when you had to clap to keep tinkerbell alive. It's like that; but with money instead of clapping.

"Why not" indeed.

Migration script is finished

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:23 GMT

and I'm busy testing it with my own log. I've found some rough edges in my admin interface.

I expect to have things smoothed out and ready to go by January 9th or so.

Early Beta published

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:23 GMT

I've reached a point where all the initial features are implemented, and I've begun to use the beta with my own schmotolog. I've deployed the new engine and site, and I'm ready to entertain beta testing requests.

If you would like to test, please us the Contact Us page to send your email address to me.

Thanks to those who help me through the alpha.

New administration site

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:23 GMT

I grew tired of the tediousness of creating the administrative website. So I decided to start over with it using .net 2.0 and all the built-in functionality I could find. The good news is that it took me a quarter of the time to get something even more functional than what I had. And it looks way better, and the ajax is a lot more smoothly integrated.

I just need to put some more spit and polish on it and flesh out the features. Then I'll be ready for a public beta.

I can feel it now.

soon.

Admin Finished

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:22 GMT

I just completed the basic structure of the admin site. I have only to put some polish on it, deploy it, and create migration scripts, and I'll be ready to launch the Schmoto Alpha.

If you would like to join this private alpha test, drop me an email.

Denniker Migration script finished

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:22 GMT

To those of you using the pre-Alpha version "Denniker," I have good news. I'll be migrating you to the new "Schmoto" codebase soon.

I think you'll enjoy the new features

Image and Post sorting
Image resizing
Easier to use templating system
Web 2.0 Administration UI
RSS feed generation
Monthly Archive menu and pages

Thanks for hanging in there with me. And Happy Holidays!

I have Haloscan comments

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:21 GMT

Haloscan is a comment hosting and managing service. It's free as long as you don't mind some small adds on your comment page.

The nice thing about it is that you don't have to have any kind of dynamic web tech on your website. This makes it easy to incorporate into schmotologs. It just takes a bit of template hacking to add the necessary javascript calls.

I've added to this page, and to my blog page. Check it out.

Derailed by java

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:21 GMT

I had planned to release a private beta by the start of September; but instead I was derailed by a Java class.

I'm always excited to learn a new language. Java is cool for a few reasons. I like it because it's OOP, and you can do so many things with it on so many platforms.

I'm looking forward to writing software for my phone.

HTML Template Engine

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:20 GMT

Creating the template engine was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I've used regular expressions to parse the template tags out of the template. That made it a snap.

I'm considering creating an extensible template engine to release as open source; because, I can't seem to find one for .net out there. It'd be nice to give something back to the community that I've received so much from.

Almost finished with the base pages

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:20 GMT

I've been working on the admin site GUI for the past week and I'm almost finished. I've only got two more pages to code. I'll then go through the pages again to test and tweak.

I plan on releasing a private alpha very soon. If you'd like to help me out by using this and testing, let me know.

Coming Along

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:19 GMT

Thanks to my lovely wife for allowing me to dedicate an entire week, I'm finished with the templating system overhaul. Now, I'm on to building out the member area GUI.

I'm going to focus on getting the beta done by the end of September.

Finished with the auto-resizing

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:18 GMT

Schmoto will automatically resize the photos you mail in to dimensions that you define. Schmoto will enforce a size restriction of 100K on images to keep from bogging down the system as well as reducing storage and bandwidth costs.

I've only got a couple more things to work out before I'm done with the mail service/daemon.

Schmoto Templates

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:18 GMT

I've recently realized that I haven't fully thought through the whole template idea. I've began to design a solution that will include a template browser with thumbnails and working previews. It will also allow you to preview your own templates.

I'm about 25% into the web gui of the Member's area. I've got the basic design done. I'm just coding all the individual screens now - Although, I've put this on hold until the template choosing system in fleshed out more.

RSS Support Done

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:17 GMT

I have just completed the RSS XSLT. So, all schmotolog's will have RSS support built in.

Here's a screenshot of the feed on My Yahoo page:

Progress

Matt — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:14:17 GMT

I think I've finished the engine. I'm debating on whether I want to start beta testing the engine before I get a web UI created. I'm not sure; but I don't think the UI is going to take long.

Update: I've got the engine deployed and a dev schmotolog working.