Welcome to the metaApps, the home of metaBlog and other useful apps.

Update on .NET Based Weblog App
It is probably past time for an update on the status of the .NET Based weblog tool that I have built here. I continue to enhance it and use it at this site as well as a couple of others. There is even at least one other person using the app on their own server, and requests come in every day for a copy.

To those of you that have emailed me for a copy, there is nothing to download at this time. In the next couple of weeks I hope to close any loose ends on this app and make it available to anyone that wants it. The problem with this goal (it is the same goal I've had for months), is that invariably, there will be some other bit of functionality that I want to add, or some aspect of existing functionality that I want to tweak. I promise, I am going to do my best to not do that until the app as it exists today, with regards to current functionality, is available for download.

I am sure that there will be kinks to work out once it is released, but there always are, and at least it won't eat your posts for breakfast.

So, if you are interested in this app, stay tuned.

As an FYI, I will be in the Bay Area all next week (2/9 - 2/15) attending some training for my 9-5 job (training is at Documentum, if you must know). I wish I was going out there for VSLive! this year, but such as life. Anyway, my evenings will be free, and I'd love to hook up with any of you .NET bloggers that live out there or are in town for VSLive.

Posted by Bryan @ 11:46 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (1) | # | TrackBack (0)

"Recent Entry List" Feature Added
I've added a server control for listing the most recent entries. This control allows the page designer/developer to specify the number of entries to show in the list (default = 10), and optionally the most recent entries for a specific category by providing a categoryid.

You can see it implemented over at my personal site - bryan.daneman.org.

Posted by Bryan @ 1:14 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Updates Coming Soon
I will be off work (the job that pays the bills) for the better part of the next two weeks. Look for some updates on the weblog application during this time.

Posted by Bryan @ 12:39 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Feed Reader Admin Update
The list of feeds in the Feed Reader Admin area is now paged, displaying 15 feeds at a time. I did this because my list of feeds was dropping off the bottom of the page and having to scroll to the bottom all the time was bugging me - no other reason. :-)

Let me know if you have any problems.

Posted by Bryan @ 3:11 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

RSS 2.0
After spending a couple of minutes looking through the specs for RSS 2.0, I've updated metaBlog so that it now generates RSS 2.0 XML documents - and valid ones at that!

The decision to go with 2.0 over 1.0 was based primarily on the similarities between pre 1.0 versions and 2.0. I also used this as an opportunity to use the XMLTextWriter in .NET. It is very nice. Much better than building up an XML document by concantenating strings or even the stringbuilder.

Posted by Bryan @ 9:54 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Updates
I've been working on some performance tweaks to the admin area. Now, when you create or edit an entry, the building of the RSS XML file runs in its own thread. Next, I will be placing the call out to weblogs.com in it's own thread too.

In other areas, I am working on the feed reader so that it only updates feeds when they've been modified.

These updates have not been moved into production, but they will be there soon.

Posted by Bryan @ 9:32 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (1) | # | TrackBack (0)

Admin Area Redesign Update
Just a quick update on the metaApp Admin area redesign...

It is coming along slowly but surely. The new UI is so much better than what currently exists (take my word on this).

As I am going through and doing the redesign, I am finally getting around to finishing things that had been left undone. I am also adding a new feature, that is a newsletter module. It can be used for sending out mail merge emails. You simply create a store procedure that for getting your mailing list and any data that you want to use, then create a new mailing list, specifying the newly created sproc, and you are good to go. When you go to send out a newsletter, you'll select the mailing list you want to send to, then you'll get a form for entering your newsletter. Any column being returned from your sproc is available for the mail merge.

It's like it. Anyway, all of this and more - coming soon.

Posted by Bryan @ 1:35 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

TrackBack URL For metaBlog Weblogs
Ok, here is the URL (scroll down to the HTTP GET info) to send a TrackBack ping for an entry posted here, or over at my personal site.

Eventually, I will create a nice little "TrackBack" link for every post with the pertinent details. Until then, just know that you need send a request to the URL listed above, providing ALL of the querystring fields - you don't have to provide data for each field (except for the URL), but you must at least have the field listed.

By the way, you can get the ID for the entry you are pinging by mousing over the Permalink (#) icon and then looking at the URL shown in the status bar of your browser (look for entryID=).

Posted by Bryan @ 1:26 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

More TrackBack
Well, I thought that I was cruising along with this TrackBack implementation, until...

I had the bright idea of creating a web service to receive the trackback, which seems to work really well, except for one small issue - I can't mark a method as a webmethod if it has optional parameters. According to the TrackBack doc, only the URL is required. If I move forward with the TrackBack web service, everything becomes required. I don't mind this, but what about some tool out there that doesn't provide everything...the trackback ping will fail.

So the question is this...do I continue on, or do I just create a ASP.NET page to handle the pings?

Posted by Bryan @ 12:39 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (1) | # | TrackBack (1)

TrackBack
I've decided to go ahead and implement Trackback within metaBlog. I am researching it now. I should have it implemented in the next day or two. Of course it's been a long time since I last built metaBlog, and I've made a couple of changes since. Once I get TrackBack in place, I will release another build (bet you didn't know there was a first build).

Posted by Bryan @ 10:13 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Still Here
No, the project has not died. It is still here, as am I. I've just decided to spend time focusing on other things for a little while.

I hope to get back to finishing this thing soon.

Posted by Bryan @ 12:59 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Working On A Redesign
I am currently working on a new look for the admin area. In addition to a new look, I will also be completing the admin functionality (such as user management). Once done, I will finally be comfortable in releasing the application to the general public.

Sorry, no time frame for this - but at least I am writing code again.

Posted by Bryan @ 10:37 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Things I've Been Thinking About
I am thinking that it might be nice to add an option to be notified when comments are posted. This could be done via email easily. I would like to know when someone has posted a comment on my weblog, and I could see benefit in allowing users to specify that they wish to be notified when someone comments on a specific post - this is very similar to the "subscribe to thread" feature found on many message boards.

I've also been thinking of adding in support for articles, similar to other weblog/cms apps.

Well that's it. As you can see, not only have I not been writing much code, I haven't been thinking much either ;-).

Posted by Bryan @ 3:02 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Display Number of Entries Or Number of Days
I've just completed a feature that was supposed to be around from the very beginning. You can now specify whether a specific number of entries are displayed or the entries for a specific number of days.

I will be rebuilding metaBlog tonight so that anyone requesting to test the app will have this feature available.

Posted by Bryan @ 5:15 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (1) | # | TrackBack (0)

Hard Coded Stuff
I just realized that I hard coded some stuff in the code that generates the RSS feed XML file.

I will get this fixed shortly. Until then please change the Managing Editor and Webmaster information to reflect your own information.

Posted by Bryan @ 1:39 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

metaBlog Is Available For The Brave
No, it's really not that bad, but it is incomplete and undocumented. However, I do have a nice little installer that will take care of most of the headaches. Let me know if you'd like to try it out and I will email you the URL for downloading.

Remember...if you use this, you are encouraged to provide feedback, just no bitching ;-).

Posted by Bryan @ 3:41 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Almost Ready
metaBlog is so close to being ready. I have been a bit under the weather the past day, so it is taking a little longer than I had hoped. I am working on the final touches now. Stay tuned.

Posted by Bryan @ 5:49 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Installing metaBlog
I've almost got everything in order for y'all to be able to get metaBlog up and running on your own site. The database scripts are done, all that is left is a tweak here and a tweak there to the code, and possibly some minimal documentation. Look for a download link this weekend.

Posted by Bryan @ 7:17 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

metaBlog Update
After trying to fly under the radar somewhat, metaBlog has been discovered. The application is not complete. It is rough around the edges. It lacks documentation. It does work.

That said, I am happy to provide the files necessary to run metaBlog on your own server. For the time being, if you are interested, email [email protected]. I will begin preparing the files for download, but that is still several days away.

So you know, to use metaBlog you will need to have access to a server running Windows 2000 (Professional or Server), Windows XP (Professional), or .NET Server, with the .NET Framework installed (obviously) along with IIS and SQL Server. Initially, metaBlog was going to work with any sort of data source, and it still might, but not at the moment.

Posted by Bryan @ 11:09 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Web sites Using metaBlog
There are now a couple of web sites using metaBlog. Ok, so they are either friends or family, but it's a start. Considering I haven't even made the code available for download, even two is great.

Jacob's Playland
Tracy and Steven's Weblog
and of course, my own web site

Posted by Bryan @ 5:12 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (2) | # | TrackBack (0)

Like Most of My Projects...
Development on metaBlog has slowed dramatically since it got to the point of being usable for me own needs. This seems to happen with all of my projects. Hopefully, I just needed a break and will be back to it soon. There is still a lot of work to be done.

Posted by Bryan @ 6:42 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Intellisense and Custom Server Controls
I've created an XML Schema that provides the metaBlog server control with support for Intellisense while using the HTML view of Visual Studio .net.

I will post more info regarding this shortly, just wanted to let y'all know.

Posted by Bryan @ 5:53 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (1) | # | TrackBack (0)

Changes To Admin Area
I've made a small change to the metaAppAdmin area - I am now loading the user controls programmatically as they are needed, versus hiding/unhiding them.

Hopefully this will result in a little better performance.

Posted by Bryan @ 9:56 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

metaBlog News Web Site
I've set up a new metaBlog News web site - dev.metaApps.com.

The site is geared towards bug reports/fixes and feature requests/announcements. It even has its own RSS Feed.

Posted by Bryan @ 11:03 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Getting Ready To Deploy Beta 1
I am in the final stages of preparing Beta 1 for deplpoyment to the first beta tester machine. Stay tuned.

Posted by Bryan @ 11:57 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Beta Requests
For those of you that might want to be a beta tester/user of metaBlog, please send an email to [email protected].

I posted this email address already, but I didn't realize that there wasn't a catchall account for metaApps.com. There still isn't, but an account for the address is now setup. So, if you sent a request already, please send it again.

Thanks.

Posted by Bryan @ 5:31 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

New Feature Thoughts
Just thought of another control to add to metaBlog...damn I hate when that happens.

A "most recent" control...actually, I don't need to do a new control, the metaBlog control itself will handle that nicely - I think.

Posted by Bryan @ 3:23 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Category Management
Category management is nearly finished. I made one change to how the categories were structured...they are no longer hierarchical. It is just easier for them all to be on the same level. I didn't change the database structure, and the update/new code supports it, so hierarchical categories are a possibility down the road.

Posted by Bryan @ 4:03 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Delays
Other things came up over the weekend, such as fixing the FeedReader service that I have running on the server. It wasn't that it was broken, just that it needed improving.

Look for an update later today or tomorrow.

Posted by Bryan @ 9:35 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

metaBlog Beta 1 Update
metaBlog should be ready for it's first beta release sometime this weekend. (fingers-crossed).

The initial beta is going to be limited, so please email if you'd like to try it out. (You'll need ASP.NET and SQL Server).

Posted by Bryan @ 10:55 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Perhaps You Were Wondering...

<metaApps:metablog id="blog" password="***" username="***" runat="server">
	<entrydateheaderTemplate>
		<div class="dateheader">
			<%# container.entrylongdate %>
		</div>
		<p />
	</entrydateheaderTemplate>
	<entryTemplate>
		<span class="posttitle">
			<%# container.entrytitle %>
		</span>
		<br>
		<%# container.entry %>
		<br>
		<br>
		<span class="credits">
			Posted by <%# container.firstname%>
			@ <%# container.entryTime%>
			| Filed Under <%# container.categoryName%>
			| Talkback (<%# container.commentCount%>)
		</span>
		<p />
         </entryTemplate>
</metaApps:metablog>

Posted by Bryan @ 6:31 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Final Steps
I have finally run out of low hanging fruit with regards to metaBlog development. That means it is time to knock out the few remaining items that I've been putting off either because they are hard, time consuming, or I just didn't want to deal with them.

Once these items are done, I will be releasing the first beta of metaBlog.

Here's a quick list of the remaining items.

• Blog Management Page
• User Management Page
• Category Management Page

I think that is it. There are a couple of additional items that might make it into the first beta, but more than likely I will reserve them for a quick turnaround into the second beta. We'll see.

Posted by Bryan @ 8:54 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (1) | # | TrackBack (0)

A Small Step Forward
The time has come to make some significant changes to the structure of metaBlog, so it was installed at another site for additional development purposes.

I have been developing it here, but these changes were so extensive, that many things would break and be broken for a week or so.

The primary focus of the change is moving all of the logic from the web site code to the metaBlog server control. So far so good. Once the move is complete, metaBlog will be ready for a beta release.

Posted by Bryan @ 8:46 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Lots To Do
Features to add to the server control: archive list, link list, recent entries.

After that, I am at the point of cleaning up.

Posted by Bryan @ 10:50 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Better Support For Mozilla
Yes, I am working on better support for Mozilla. It is still a headache, but I am noticing fair number of visitors using it.

Posted by Bryan @ 10:28 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Connectivity Issues, metaApps Downtime
We've been having some connectivity issues the past few days. At first I thought it was a problem with the ISP, but now it seems to be a problem with the server. Perhaps a bad NIC, but then I started using the other NIC and the problem happened again. Time for some research.

Posted by Bryan @ 8:04 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Templates
I haven't done much in the past couple of days, but I have fixed the category server control so that the header template works properly.

So far, I have entry management and RSS Feed management complete. I hope to have weblog management and category management done within the next couple of days. From there it is on to user management.

I am shooting for the end of June as a release date (1st beta).

Posted by Bryan @ 2:00 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Ping Weblogs.com Feature Implemented
Pinging of weblogs.com test was a success. This feature has now been implemented.

Posted by Bryan @ 5:24 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (1)

Pinging weblogs.com
I am working on the code to ping weblogs.com when there is an update.

I am using XML-RPC.NET provided by Charles Cook.

After a couple of missteps, I think I finally have it ready to go. Time for a test.

Posted by Bryan @ 4:02 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (1) | # | TrackBack (0)

TODO:
There are many things still to be done before metaBlog is ready for a beta release. The following is a list of some of those things:

• Archival of entries.
• Permalinks.
• Edit link from your entries to your admin area (when logged in).
• Rewrite of stored procedures to honor the expiration date of entries.
• Write code to ping Weblogs.com when there is an update.
• Blog management.
• User management.
• Category Management.

There is much more, but this should keep me busy for a bit.

Posted by Bryan @ 9:49 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (2) | # | TrackBack (0)

RSS Feed Update Service
A service is now running on the server that will update all subscriptions every 60 minutes.

Of course users can still update individual subscriptions at anytime by simply clicking the "Update" link.

sle...zzz...e.....zzz...zzz...p...zzzzzzzzzzz

Posted by Bryan @ 2:00 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (1) | # | TrackBack (0)

RSS Feed Aggregating
Users are now able to aggregate and view RSS Feeds in metaBlog. Now if I can only finish the rest of metaBlog so that users can actually use it.

Posted by Bryan @ 2:14 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

News, News, News
Here at metaApps, I desperately need to get some rest, but no, I continue coding on. My desire is to build the best possible application that I can.

Tonight I've been busy adding in news aggregation which will allow you, the user, to add your favorite rss feeds for aggregating from the admin area of your metaBlog. Make sense? Ok, then I will go to sleep and explain away later.

Just trust that you will like this feature.

Posted by Bryan @ 3:34 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

RSS Enabled
metaBlog weblogs now generate an RSS news feed whenever content is created or updated.

Check it out here.

Posted by Bryan @ 1:47 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

More To Do
I have got to get the archives going. Got to.

Posted by Bryan @ 4:18 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Looks Good
Bryan, You have done a great job on this app When will it be completed? ;)

Posted by Tom @ 11:40 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (1) | # | TrackBack (0)

Soooooo Close!
metaBlog is very close to being ready. It is taking a lot longer than I anticipated mainly because I haven't been working on it much, but is getting very close now.

This is the first post made since I created a metaBlog specific database and renamed many tables, columns, and rewrote many store procedures.

Time for a break.

Posted by Bryan @ 5:11 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Tasks Left

• Modify database tables and sprocs for use within metaBlog app
• Create Comment page template
• Create login page
• create admin pages

Posted by Bryan @ 12:22 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (3) | # | TrackBack (0)

Working, working, working
I'm still working hard on metaBlog. Hopefully it will be ready for a limited distribution later today.

Email me at bryan at daneman.com to get a copy when it is ready.

Posted by Bryan @ 12:19 PM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (1)

metaBlog Deployed
This morning, metaBlog was deployed to its first website.

Ok, so it was only this site, but hey this site is the home for the app, so why not use it here?

Things went very smooth, except for that pesky runat="server" property I sometimes forget.

Listening To: "Voodoo Child" by Moby

Posted by Bryan @ 11:49 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Things To Include In The First Release - Code Name

• Basic blog template
• View by category
• Comments
• Category List w/number of posts
• Basic content management
• Basic user management
• Basic blog management
• Script for creating the database, tables, store procedures, creating user, setting proper permissions, and inserting standard data

Hmmm...there seems to be a theme here - basic. Yes, but it is better than nothing.

Listening To: "Spectrum" by Andrew Hill

Posted by Bryan @ 11:53 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

Moving Along
Things are progressing nicely with metaBlog (do you like that name? have a better one?).

I just need to provide a content management page, make a better default interface for navigating content by categories, and separate the blog parts of the database from the daneman.org database, then I'll be ready to distribute this app (very limited at first).

Listening to: "Blues March" by Art Blakey

Posted by Bryan @ 11:28 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)

To Do's
Now that the template engine is built, here is a list of other things I need to do.

• Determine how metaBlog fits in with my existing systems.
• Create a blog specific admin area
• Archives
• Calendar
• Links
• Events
• Enable group blogs
• Design web site for metaBlog
• Commenting system
• Workout categories - single level or hierarchical

Listening to: Sublime - What I Got.

Posted by Bryan @ 9:59 AM | Filed Under metaBlog News | Comments (0) | # | TrackBack (0)