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xBlog Documentation

General Information

DotNetNuke Information

To install this module you must have a working version of DotNetNuke already installed. If you need help installing DotNetNuke, follow the instructions in Video-Library. Below are all the useful links for DotNetNuke information.

Description

XBlog is a blog program based on DNN, it has powerful functions and unique design style. In addition to article management function which common blog module has, it also includes special functions of theme management, template editing and ping service etc. The theme and template apply Velocity template language. This template language is widely used and simple. By referring to our user manual and template manual, you can call any blog and DNN data conveniently. Combined with HTML, you can create all kinds of blog interface freely. Themes can be exported/ imported as well as switched between each other freely. Furthermore, we provide numerous themes and DNN blog skins for you to build your amazing website.

Features

Content management

  • Easily add content
  • Set the status of article-Published or Draft
  • Set featured posts
  • Set the top status of articles, making them stay at the top of article lists
  • Set the date and time for the article to become visible.
  • Set article authors.
  • Allow to set various categories for articles
  • Allow to set access permission for articles
  • Set the featured image for articles. Images will be shown in the article lists or used for dashboard module.
  • Allow to set multiple gallery images for articles. Images will be shown in the article detail page.
  • Allow to set download attachment for articles
  • Allow to set link type for articles. Set the link to be DNN page, third party url or attachment
  • Allow to set logged-in users to see article details.

Export & Import

  • Allow module to import data so that you can import these data on other pages or in modules of other sites
  • Allow to import data of BlogML format.
  • Allow to import data of Wordpress site.

Import Feeds

  • Import RSS feeds from external sources and display them as articles on your web site.
  • Scheduler will check and load articles automatically every once in a while.
  • Allow to custom the style of RSS.

Comment System

  • Allow to block comments before you are approved by the administrator.
  • Allow you to reply to other comments
  • Allow you to notify user comments through email
  • Akismet can filter out spam comments so that you can focus on more important things.
  • Xblog has seamlessly integrated Disqus comments. For more information please refer to http://www.disqus.com

Newsletter

  • Visitors can register to become subscribers, who will receive the email of the latest articles.
  • You can manually specify one or more articles to send newsletter email to subscribers.
  • Allow to add DNN roles as subscribers.
  • Allow to add subscribers in batch.
  • You can custom email templates.

Themes & Templates

  • Include 5 kinds of responsive themes.
  • Include very rich settings, which will make your pages unique.
  • Themes can be customized to use basic HTML and CSS knowledge.

SEO Optimized

  • Each article has its own title, meta description, and keywords.
  • Support Friendly URLs so that you can customize url for each article.
  • Automatically generate URL Sitemap with all published posts.

Search

  • Searchable by DNN built-in search engine.
  • Xblog’s built-in search module can search Title, Summary, Content Text, Tags.

Multiple Author Support

  • Allow any security roles and users to be set as authors.
  • Allow administrator to review articles published by author.
  • Send review reminder email of the new article to module administrator
  • Allow security roles to be set as module administrator.
  • Support Gravatar to be author avatar.

Other Features

  • Support localize all static texts to native language.
  • Support AddThis.com Sharing Tools
  • Related articles can be shown at the end of articles.
  • Automatically adds related articles based on tags.
  • Multiple download attachment can be added for articles.
  • Support Rating feature, making your users have the ability to vote their favorite articles and blogs.
  • DNN Journal will be automatically updated when an article is published or updated.

Module Installation

What Are The Requirements To Use xBlog

To use xBlog, you must be running DNN 6.x or higher. We have tested it with DNN6.x, DNN7.x and DNN8.x.

Follow the steps below to install via Dotnetnuke.

  • Navigate to Host > Extensions.
  • Click Install Extension Wizard and hit the Choose File button.
  • Navigate to find the "DNNGo_xBlog_x.x.x_PA.zip" file on your computer and click "Next" button.
  • The module will be uploaded and installed.

Post settings

From this section, you will get to know blog posts, and categories related to posts, tags, import, export, as well as how RSS importing works.

Add New Post

This is the most used features of blog module, with this feature, you can add new posts or edit them.

  1. You need to fill in title and content of the post, summary part is optional.
  2. You are allowed to set links to different languages for each article. It will redirect to corresponding URL when users are switching between languages on the page.


  3. You can fill in SEO Content selectively, when not being filled in, it will automatically generate using built-in rules of xBlog. Friendly URLs can change the URL of post detail page, however please note that you can not fill in the characters which URL rules not allow.
  4. You are allowed to set additional links for an article. It will redirect to this URL when users are clicking title of the article or Read more link.
  5. You are allowed to set ratings for an article.
  6. Here you can set up the sitemap options for each post, these options will reflect in the sitemap URL provided by "General Settings" interface.
  7. Here you can control the display of Gallery and Attachments of the article detail page.
  8. Featured Images are the main pictures of the post, these images will be shown in the article list, article details and xBlog.Dashboard.
  9. You can upload multiple images.

    These images will be displayed in slider form in article detail page, you can set image rotation effect in Effects > Effect List page.
  10. You can upload attachments in Attachments List.

    Visitor can download these files in article detail page.
  11. You can set article permissions, whether to be accessed by all users or some of these roles. If you choose to set  it to be accessible by some security roles, you need to have "All Users" unchecked.
  12. You can set Publish Status and Publish time of the post, etc.

All Posts

In this interface, you can manage all posts, single or bulk actions.You can search out  posts you need to edit based on post title.

Click Newsletter button will send single post or multiple posts to the emails of specified users.


It is also possible to send multiple articles to an assigned user.


Categories

You are allowed to create a unlimited number of main categories and sub categories.


  • Friendly URL Name - Friendly URL Name - Words in each categorized URL can be set. First you need to enable Category Friendly URL in Settings > SEO Settings > Friendly URL
  • SEO Title - To set title of categorized pages.
  • SEO Keywords - To set keywords of categorized pages.
  • SEO Description - To set description of categorized pages.

Tags

You can check the Tags entered by the posts, for Tags shown here, you can add or delete.

Export & Import

You can export all content with proprietary format, but it just works with data import/export between xBlogs.

  1. You can export all content with proprietary format, but it just works with data import/export between xBlogs.
  2. BlogML import/export has a stronger compatibility, it can import/export from other programs, but it can not support all xBlog data.

 

RssFeed Source

You can import post information from other website's RSS data source, this feature replies on DNN Schedule to execute import task in a timely manner.

  1. You need to check "Schedule Enabled" to enable this feature, you can also set the execution parameters of scheduled task. "Article Status" is for setting whether to publish the imported article or not.
  2. You can click "Add New" button to redirect to RSS entry interface in "RssFeed Source" interface. You need to input corresponding options to import RSS information. Please note: it just supports RSS 2.0 specification for the time being.

Media Library

You will get to know how images and media files work in this module via the following descriptions, we offer two ways to upload images.

Media List

You can redirect to two interfaces of adding files through "Add New" or "Synchronize Files". All images of xBlog module will be displayed here, all xBlog module images under single child site are shared.

  1. You can click "Add New" to batch upload images directly.
  2. You can click "Synchronize Files" to batch import images directly.
    If you have more files to upload, then the method above is not all that helpful. To get the Files uploaded you can try the following. Put the files to be imported into a specified folder, click "Synchronize All Files" button and everything is done.

Comment Settings

You can manage xBlog comments, and some comment settings. It includes some status control and spam comment prevention in comment settings.

  1. You can set initial status for comment, whether to enable comment or not, etc. You can prevent spam comments through "Hidden fields encrypt Settings" and "Anti-spam services"
  2. You can batch set comment status through comment list interface, as well as check and delete comments, etc.
  3. You can also use comment hosting services provided by Disqus.

Newsletter

You can manage Subscription list, as well as add new subscription information through email and roles. Sub-module "xBlog Subscription" can also capture subscription emails submitted by users.

  • Add Role -  To add roles to a subscription list.
  • Add Email - To add extra users to a subscription list.
  • Batch Add New Email - To add users to a subscription list in batch.

Skin Settings

You can set the skin to be displayed in the front end, here we offer five skins. You can set this skin option after the skin is selected, you can hide and display elements in the skin.

Skin List

Here you can set the skin of the module, each skin has its own features and options.

Skin option

We have carefully created many options for each skin, these options are used to display and hide different elements.

Install & Export Skin

You can export current skin for editting, and then import. To edit a skin you need to have some certain level of HTML programming knowledge . Or you can edit these \DesktopModules\DNNGo_xBlog\Skins in web directory.

Skin Style

You can adjust the style you need directly through editing skin stylesheet file.

Module Settings

Here you can find setting options of the module, we have categorized setting options, making it easy for you to find the option you would like to set.

General Settings

There are some common options, for example, "Author Settings","Avatars Settings","Rss Feeds Settings","Sitemap Settings".

  • Articles per page - Set the blog list page and the number of items shown on each page.
  • Enable Publish Time - Set whether the Upcoming articles to be shown or not. It will not show when checked, and show when unchecked.
  • Searchable - Set the articles to be searched by DNN search.
  • Search Text - Set the search range for xblog search.
  • Author Roles - You can set author and module admin for main module. Author permisson needs to give this role to module edit permission.
  • Review new article - Set whether the articles published by author to be reviewed by admin or not.
  • Review reminder - Admin will receive a reminder email when an article is published by the author.
  • Management Module Roles - Set the role of module admin.
  • Avatars Settings - You can set avatar type, it supports DNN built-in avatar and service of gravatar.com.
  • Rss Feeds Settings - You can set some parameters of RSS feeds, you can control the number, display module and RSS stylesheet.
  • Sitemap Settings - You can set parameters for output Sitemap, you need to put sitemap url into rebots.txt.

 

AddThis Settings

Through this function, you can manage share feature of article detail page. We are encapsulating it with sharing plugin of www.addthis.com, so you can register API key to obtain more services.

Email Settings

You can turn on subscription email and set the email template. Each time when an article is published, subscription user will receive an email with article content automatically.

SEO Settings

  • Page Title -  To set whether texts of a title is included in the URL
  • Article Friendly URL - To set whether to enable friendly URL of an article or not.
  • Article URL - To customize words of an Article ID
  • Category Friendly URL - To set whether to enable categorized friendly URL or not.
  • Category URL - To customize words of a Category ID.

Rating Settings

Set the rating features for article.

DashBoard Settings

XBlog Dashboard is the affiliated module of blog module. With this module, you can display category, archive, tag cloud, sliding effect, latest articles, etc.

DashBoard Settings

After installing xBlog Dashboard module on the page, you will be prompted to redirect to setting page and xBlog main module for binding. By clicking on [Settings] in the prompt popup window, it will redirect you to the setting interface quickly.

DashBoard Settings

From this interface, you can set which main module is the data of current Dashboard module from. You can select Portal, page, module.

DashBoard Effects

After setting all binding relationships, you can set the use of this module. We have integrated various features here, for example, category, archive, tag cloud, latest article etc. In addition, it includes more than 10 kinds of different article display effects, you need to select the feature you need based on the description and images.

DashBoard Effect Options

This is the main setting interface of module dashboard, The theme, data filter option, effect option here can control the effect you select.

  1. You can select the theme of this effect, some effects may have a number of different color themes.
  2. You can set the source of these data, with these properties, you can filter the data you need to display.
  3. You can set the details of each effect.

 

DNNGo xBlog Subscription

With this module, you can capture subscription information submitted by users.

License interface

  1. You need to go here http://www.dnngo.net and register.
  2. Please install the module and add it to a page. Then click on the License link to obtain the Machine Key.
  3. You can send an email to dnnskindev@gmail.com and tell us your Invoice ID, Machine Key and Username. After that, we will generate one piece of license information. If your site is a demo site, the license will still be valid when you transfer your demo site to your live site.
  4. You can go here http://www.dnngo.net/MyAccount/OnlineAuthorization.aspx and manage your license information.

Upgrade history

Feature 5.4

  • Added dynamic option controls(color selector. urls selector and icon selector)
  • Optimized display way of dynamic option controls, making UI more beautiful.
  • Added setting function for single article access.
  • Added control options of RSS, thus it can control display images, display more links, filling mode, custom RSS style and templates, etc.
  • Added and adjusted some of the Effects, added some even better effects, and deleted some outdated effects( no influence for the already installed ones).
  • Fixed the issue of not successfully obtaining table prefix names through DNN API in some special case.

Feature 5.3

  • Fixed the bug of module authorization error under some circumstances.
  • Fixed the bug of some date format causing module error.
  • Fixed the bug of management list header being unable to sort.
  • Optimized the operating efficiency of archive module.
  • Fixed the bug of calendar module identification error after selecting date.

Feature 5.2

  • Added article status setting option of RSS import, you can set draft or post for article original status.
  • Added unsubscribe feature of subscription email.

Feature 5.1

  • Fixed the issue of article draft being unable to preview.
  • Newly added subscriber title and the relevant email token for subscribe module.
  • Added associated articles, you can control switch in skin. You can set whether to associate through article tags or read random articles.

Feature 5.0

  • Added import&export for BlogML format
  • Newly added the Friendly URLs for defining each post.
  • Added the feature to log to display for post detail section, and not turned on by default.
  • Added support for the latest DNN7 version of Searchable feature.
  • Fixed the bug of blog posts being not able to send subscribe email under some circumstances.
  • Fixed the bug of posts not displaying correctly due to the time zone.
  • Fixed the small bugs of some module framework and skin.

Feature 4.5

  • Fixed the bug that the js link of AddThis not changing into https when turning on SSL.
  • Fixed the bug that gravatar link not changing into https when turning on SSL.
  • Fixed the bug that does not show the DNN user image correctly in some circumstances.

Feature 4.4.2

  • Added hidden field form validation to prevent comments submitted by robot.
  • Fixed the issue of automatically approving the unapproved comments when turning on spam comment filter.

Feature 4.4.0

  • Fixed the bug of "DashBoard_CategorieTab" effect being not displaying properly.
  • Added the option to control whether enable "PublishTime".

Feature 4.3.1

  • Fixed the bug that page turning would make the filter invalid when checking an article of an author.
  • Fixed the bug of repeating “email”title in skin comment template.
  • Fixed the bug that the media list failed to refresh automatically when closing modal windows in media library.

Feature 4.3.0

  • Fixed the bug of sorting order.
  • Added the feature of article individual and bulk sending subscription email.
  • Optimized article subscription template.

Feature 4.1.2

  • Newly added the custom parameters for setting articles in the skin, these parameters will only be enabled when using the current skin.

Feature 4.1.0

  • Add the feature of displaying the article source address in the skin. Articles imported by RSS can choose to display the source address or not through skin options.
  • Allow comments be enabled in back end when displaying the number of comments in the skin.
  • Resolve the BUG that images can not be assigned to correctly when sharing them on Facebook.
  • Resolve the bug that media library can not upload files in PDF extension.
  • Resolve the bug that GoLogin Token can not be exported under some circumstances.
  • Allow you to import/export V4 perfectly. Images and attachments can be imported asynchronously to avoid time out when there is too much data.
  • Add multi-language function, define multi-language files for 5 skins, easy for users to localize the skin.
  • Resolve the issue that multi-language files can not be recognized by DNN, resolve all the translation issues completely.
  • Add Chinese multi-language pack to use when switching to Chinese.

Feature 4.0.6

  • Add the Open Graph Protocol of the article details.
  • Fix the BUG of displaying images incorrectly while sharing to Facebook.

Feature 4.0.3

  • Update all effects'compatibility and parameters, making it more convenient to use.
  • Update the skin's parameters, you can control the displaying effects of various elements in the skin.
  • Update the build-in JQuery to version 1.9.1, disabled by default.
  • Add new skin time line.

Feature 4.0.0

  • Re-design the framework of data management interface, independent of DNN framework and has a faster running speed.
  • Support responsiveness fully, support various mobile devices in different resolutions.
  • Nice and elegant interface, make you feel like working with wordpress.
  • Fix many BUGs under V3.0 below, with more stability.

Feature 3.5.5

  • Fix the inability for an author user to log in when composing an article using Windows Live Writer.
  • Fix the security for accessing the modal window page.

Feature 3.0.0

  • Optimize the theme handling mechanism, make it to control the theme version better and upgrade it in an easier way.
  • Optimize the template library files, resolve the DLL file missing issue in the module installation.
  • Optimize the theme operation interface, making the operation mode the same as effect interface.

Feature 2.1.0

  • Add MetaWeblog API protocol, support to compose blogs off-line by using trendy softwares like Windows Live Writer.
  • Optimize SEO elements and allow to select turn on/off by options. Add element <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> for keyword search, Tag search and Archive Date etx list pages.
  • Add article view role to check and administer all articles and comments.

Feature 2.0.2

  • Add data import/export functionality, data contains categories and image etc.
  • Add sitemap, the module has separate Sitemap containing categories and articles.
  • Optimize template files, add [ rel="nofollow" ] to comments.
  • Optimize the execution speed and stability.

Feature 1.5.0

  • Add DashBoard module which substitutes for the original Views module, it is more relaxing to create the effect and function module.
  • Add 9 image scrolling effects included in the DashBoard module.
  • Add 6 contents to display in the DashBoard.
  • Complete the design and development of data filtering interface.
  • Optimize the running speed of the entire module as well as some Bugs during your specific operation.

Feature 1.4.7

  • Add effect thumbnail of Views module.
  • Add author ranking module, allow to display his/her profile and picture.
  • Optimize article module, allow to display the author info of the selected article in article details.
  • Add article list archived by authors.
  • Optimize small issues and enable more stability.

Feature 1.4.0

  • Support blog maintenance by multiple authors, support administration of articles and relevant comments by authors.
  • Require review by the administrator before the new article post.
  • Optimize the article list interface, enable status selection, batch operations etc.
  • Fix the review failure of invalid comments occasionally.

Feature 1.2.9

  • Newly increased DNNGo.XBlog.View module, users can call multiple sets of banner slider effects through this module and configure parameters for these effects.
  • Newly increased multiple sets of Banne slider effect, you can view our module demo.
  • Newly increased FriendlyURL for articles, this can make SEO more easily.

Feature 1.2.7

  • Newly added theme with [Simple] style, it's suitable for article publishing sites and so on.
  • Newly added feature of filtering spam comments and perfect comment moderation feature. It enhances comment moderation feature of blog module through akismet.com, typepad.com, stopforumspam.com these three services.

Feature 1.2.6

  • Newly added theme with "news article" style, it's suitable for news publishing sites.
  • Optimized comment moderation feature of articles, it can configure initial status of comments to be approval or checking pending.
  • In next release, it will newly increase feature of preventing spam comment service, it will strengthen comment moderation feature of blog module through akismet.com, typepad.com, stopforumspam.com these three services.

Feature 1.2.0

  • Fixed the issue of displaying page title on article details.
  • Newly added social sharing tools. It provides sharing service from addthis.com. It can support changing and customing sharing icons. And can also provide visitors statistics feature.
  • Help your visitor promote your site! The AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget allows any visitor to bookmark your site easily with many popular services. Sign up for an AddThis.com account to see how your visitors are sharing your content--which services they're using for sharing, which content is shared the most, and more. It's all free.

Feature 1.1.8

  • Newly increased RSS Feeds feature for blog article list, it can call full article text or article summary.
  • Newly increased avatar function for comments, it can provide displaying feature for avatar of user comments through site Gravatar.com
  • Fixed the issue of Blog affiliated module and main module on different pages not redirecting.
  • Fixed the issue of choosing images in built-in media list.

Feature 1.1.7

  • We added Feature Slider effect for default theme, it requires you to choose view_feature_slider.html template in RankingList module. It's used to display rotating images.
  • We added article feature option, it's convenient for RankingList to call selected data.