The world may not need another web log product, but I did, and so I'm releasing it on Zope.org. I wanted a blog that didn't look like other blogs, I wanted features not found in many blogs, and I wanted it to run on Zope.

See my site USDef.org for an example of the Bloggem Product. What you see on USDef.org is pretty much what you get out of the box.

Installation Instructions

Drop the "Bloggem" directory in the "Products" directory of your Zope installation and restart. The Bloggem Product requires Structured Text (now included with Zope distributions). See License.txt for license information.

Features

Out of the box, the Bloggem Product supports standard dated blog entries and many general features:

• Categories and sub-categories
• "Sticky" items that remain at the top of categories/sub-categories
• Multiple entry types with their own icons
• Navigation by categories (and sub-categories)
• Navigation by entry type
• Navigation by calendar
• Structured text support
• ZCTextIndex searching of content and titles
• Breadcrumbs
• CSS Support
• Minimal, but nice-looking formatting

Bloggem entry types are children of a parent class that is easily extensible. The Bloggem Product contains 7 different entry types:

• Bloggem Article
• Bloggem Link
• Bloggem Organization
• Bloggem Event
• Bloggem Book
• Bloggem Email
• Bloggem Address

Each entry type has its own fields, icon and display. See BloggemItem.py for instructions about how to create a new entry type and associated fields.

Additionally, the Bloggem root and categories/sub-categories have their own descriptive fields, which are optional:

• Descriptions
• Meta titles
• Meta descriptions
• Meta keywords

Values for these fields are inherited if they do not exist, except for meta keywords, which append to those of parents.

Disclaimer

I am a coder by hobby only. Some of my code, and especially my conventions, may cause head-scratching. Nevertheless, the code works for me, and I am open to all suggestions. I tried to comment my code/script as much as possible. I am releasing the initial version as 0.70 because it works fine for me; however, documentation is as yet unwritten.

Known Issues: Version 0.70

1) I have tested Bloggem on Zope version 2.6.1 (Linux and Win) only.

2) Bloggem does not work as the default root of a Zope installation (with the name index_html). I have not spent much time trying to debug this. It does work fine as root when used with the Virtual Host Monster.

3) The Bloggem ZCatalog fails when items are added via the Virtual Host Monster. When using VHM, entries must be added via the actual URL of the Zope installation. The Bloggem Product has error handling for this, so if you try to create an entry via VHM, Zope will raise an error.

4) When the Bloggem Product is added to a Zope installation, the Bloggem entry types "Bloggem Article," "Bloggem Link," etc. get added to the "Type to Add" selection list of the ZMI. Bloggem entries are designed to be added only from within a Bloggem. The Bloggem Product will raise an error if a user attempts to add a Bloggem entry outside of a Bloggem; however, I have not figured out how (if it is even possible) to prevent the ZMI from displaying these in the ZMI selection list.

Change: Version 0.71

Fixed issue number 4 above. When a Bloggem is added to a Zope installation, only "Bloggem" shows up in the ZMI add selector. Thanks to Sylvain for suggesting an easy fix (visibility=None in __init__.py).

Credits

Thanks to runyaga at ZopeLabs for the code that produces the calendar. Thanks to Dean S. Jones ([email protected]), whose SourceForge project produced the icons.