Reasons to use or not to use the built in Blog in RW

RapidWeaver Classic General
1

Hi there,

I plan to use a blog to be able to power the News / latest part of my website.

I am aware if I use RW direct blog page, I will need to publish the site (or updated pages)

I want to be able to make posts, use tags, be searchable, post the latest blog posts on social media,

the blog posts can be in the site style and will usually be a title and a couple of paragraphs, some with one photo and some maybe with a gallery of a few.
I have stacks but I do not need any fancy style and my theme is responsive.

So being new to this, will the built in Rapidweaver Blog page be sufficient or do I need something more advanced? I don’t really want to have additional costs if it can be helped.

Is there anything else I am missing or other reasons to use another service or avoid the built in page.

Thanks

Russell

3

If you ever want to add any content when you’re away from your Mac, then the built-in blog is not the way to go. See the current discussion on this here: A way to post on our site while not using RW

However, if you’re happy to do everything from your Mac. the built-in blog is quite adequate.

1 Like
4

Thanks. It is as I thought. I basically need my Mac and hard file with me to edit so a no go if I am traveling without my Mac

caffeineinjection can you tell me a little more, what you mean regarding the blog not matching the site? Does it have different colors, fonts?

Thanks

6

If you search on the community page, you’ll find a few different pathways to what you’re looking for (and there’s new ones coming out all the time).

http://rapidweavercommunity.com/search?q=blog

Personally, I’ve used Armadillo, Blog stack (via Typed.com) and Joe Workman’s Tumblr stack. And they all do the job, albeit a little differently.

7

Got it. I am good with this. Thinking Armadillo is going to do what I want it to and as I will have a couple of sites to do, I only have to pay once.

Only thing worrying me is the amount of ‘problems’ people seem to have getting it to work. (thats all that seem to turn up on the search). I am not an expert at this.

9

I’m have a similar discussion here: Creating a blog site using stacks

Turns out I can’t use the built in blog page because the theme I’m using (Blueball Freestack Responsive) is built differently so you can’t combine the two.

I’m currently considering:

  1. Armadillo (but I’ve never successfully installed it correctly so it’s put me off it).
  2. Pulse (it works! But I want to incorporate a flickr feed into my posts so I’m not sure it’s ideal).
  3. RW/Writer but I don’t want to pay for this particular blog.
  4. Some sort of stack. I’ve been trying with Flickr and Tumblr stacks so far, I’ve not found a perfect fit yet but it’s a work in progress!
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The main sticking point with Armadillo installation is privileges. Once you get those right, there are seldom many problems. Recently there has been a little confusion due to changes in the way that Armadillo stacks work but this should have settled down now. And NimbleHost are always very helpful.

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11

If you’re using one of my RapidWeaver theme designs, then you also have access to the free Blog Enhancement Kit. This is a Javascript code snippet you add to the Custom Javascript box in the RapidWeaver Page Inspector on your blog page. This will turbo-charge the RapidWeaver blog page type and add several additional features to it (like social buttons for people to click and share your blog posts).

Searching would be feasible using any of the existing search addons or a custom Google search.

Most addon RapidWeaver themes include a lightbox plugin which can be used to make images open at a larger size and you could perhaps setup an image gallery for people to navigate through. Likewise Flickr and other similar services can let you setup slideshow galleries and photo streams that can be embedded into blog posts.

Although you have stated a preference for a free solution, I’d also recommend you at least have a quick glance at the RW/Writer stack by @blueballdesign or Armadillo by @nimblehost. Both of these are powerful blogging solutions and backed by some of the best customer support available.

4 Likes
13

Will, I don´t get the Blog Enhancement Kit to work, and can´t see it on your blog either…

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Definitely works for me on my blog, it works for other people, and @caffeineinjection reports above that is it working fine too! So you must be doing something wrong. Contact me through my website if you want help getting it to work or start a new forum thread.

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Ok. Now I see the it, but only when I click on the title of a blog post. Is that the way it is supposed to be?

I still don´t see it on my own blog page, so think I might need some help.

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I use Armadillo and think it’s great as a replace,net blog that allows you to edit from any web connected device. It’s extremely cost effective. The recent solo content works well as a cms option as well. Can’t wait for the upcoming gallery options Nimblehost mentioned on the road map.

I am by no means a technical wiz and got it running fairly easily. Check your hosting provider info with Johnathon before you purchase if you are concerned about comparatability. Making note of the values you enter setting it up…Then just make a MySQL database via your hosts c-panel. Install Armadillo, make a page for the armadillo admin stack selecting your server hosting company in the options. Publish the page, go to that page and it steps you thru entering all the required inform wrote down while setting up the MySQL database. .
Once you’ve done that you can start making a blog page or solo content.

One thing to remember with the most recent is that the blog stack and the admin stack cannot be on the same page or your blog content will not show. That tripped me up when I upgraded, but Johnathon’s great help pages on site set me straight. His customer support is top notch if you run into issues.

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@Gabrielle I’d be happy to help with any issues you are experiencing with Armadillo. Please do get in touch so we can assist!

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Thanks for your fast response and help! The missing brackets (my mistake) made all the difference.

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One that I like and not mentioned is Backsnap. Don’t know if it would fit your needs or not. I’ve used it a few times and liked it.

20

Ok I’m no nearer a solution. My preference for this blog because it’s photo based, was to start with Flickr posts, which I can then import into a tumblr blog. Then I wanted to export the Tumblr blog into Rapidweaver. Couldn’t achieve what I wanted. Then I thought I’d try Flickr directly into Rapidweaver but you can’t set up a categories or other blog trimmings. Then I tried Tumblr into Rapidweaver but again no categories. Then I trashed Flickr and Tumblr and tried Pulse but can’t get the galleries to show up in the blog post. So now I’m getting old and grey and about to throw my screen out of the window.

I’m ready to try Armadillo again. But if I can get it to work the way I want to, I’ll sodding eat EVERYBODY’S hat.

21

If your hosting supports what Armadillo’s requirements its not hard to set-up

  1. Linux/Unix host account (not Windows aka IIS)
  2. PHP (would recommend 5.6 as 7.0 is really new and earlier versions will loss support soon)
  3. MySQL

Depending on host company. setup is quite easy.

  1. Make sure PHP is enabled and set to the proper version.
  2. set-up a mySQL database (I would do this in tab on your browser so you can cut a paste the database/user stuff)
  3. Publish your site with the Main Armadillo’s stack
  4. Go to that page and follow the set-up instructions (paste the database info here)
  5. Log on to Armadillo’s dashboard and finish the setup

@nimblehost has excellent support to help you out if you get stuck.

1 Like
22

I’ve found a solution to my blog issues! Everybody pass me your hats.

I couldn’t get to grips with the Tumblr stack or the Blueball Tumblr stack because it kept resizing photos when you click on them, I think it’s a Tumblr issue rather than a stack issue. Same thing with the Microblog stack. I couldnt use the built in blog because I’m using the wonderful Blueball freestack theme and wouldn’t change that for the world. I couldn’t get Pulse galleries to work with my pulse posts.

In spite of all that, I now have a gorgeous shiny new working blog WITH pictures in a gallery format, PLUS categories just as I wanted them, and it’s all thanks to Jonathan and Armadillo. It’s got a very easy userface setup and all of my pain and torment is now a thing of the past.

I can’t praise Armadillo enough right now.

Now I can say with pride, check out ma blog you lot! (if you don’t mind boobies and bums that is): http://www.seldombluefashion.com/blog/.

Thank you Jonathan for being so helpful, I can’t wait to use it as a CMS system for my next client :-).

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@willwood

Do you have a instruction on how and where to install this at?

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Sorry, I’m not sure what you’re replying to. Referring to the original forum thread title (Reasons to use or not to use the built in Blog in RW), the RapidWeaver Blog page type is built into RapidWeaver already. It’s available in the ‘Add Page’ menu.

If you need help with some other aspect of blogs (like BEK, Armadillo or Tumblr) it may be advisable to start a new thread on the forums and tag the relevant developers. This thread has run its course now and @Gabrielle confirmed yesterday that a solution has been found using Armadillo, so this topic appears to be closed now.