Newbie ASP.NET/Blog question

[DMG]

Hi

Long-time WinForms, First-time WebForms programmer here...

I am in the process of creating a personal web site, and I want to embed a
blog in this. I have downloaded and played around with dasBlog, which seems
to suit my needs.

However.

I'm wondering what is the common (best) approach to embedding a 'tool' like
dasBlog into your own site?

For example, I want my own site, with 'Home Resume Blog Links' etc toolbar
along the top. When you click Blog, it loads the dasblog into, say, an
IFRAME on my main page? And should dasBlog be a sub-folder of my website?

Or is the best approach to download the dasBlog source and then fiddle
around with it to make it suit what you want it to do? But then what do you
do about upgrades?

Have googled and googled but maybe my search terms are wrong, can't find
anything.

Thanks!

 

[Dave Bush]

Get DotNetNuke and use the blog module if you want it all integrated OR
use WordPress and don't worry about integrating it into the rest of your
site if you want to real blog.

Trust me, I've been down this road before. Nearly every professional
blogger (making more than $1000/month off one blog) in the world will
tell you the same. (ie, I'm reasonably certain they all will, but
someone is likely to prove me wrong.)

-----Original Message-----
From: DMG [mailto:[email protected]]
Posted At: Saturday, November 03, 2007 6:49 AM
Posted To: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Conversation: Newbie ASP.NET/Blog question
Subject: Newbie ASP.NET/Blog question

Hi

Long-time WinForms, First-time WebForms programmer here...

I am in the process of creating a personal web site, and I want to embed
a
blog in this. I have downloaded and played around with dasBlog, which
seems
to suit my needs.

However.

I'm wondering what is the common (best) approach to embedding a 'tool'
like
dasBlog into your own site?

For example, I want my own site, with 'Home Resume Blog Links' etc
toolbar
along the top. When you click Blog, it loads the dasblog into, say, an
IFRAME on my main page? And should dasBlog be a sub-folder of my
website?

Or is the best approach to download the dasBlog source and then fiddle
around with it to make it suit what you want it to do? But then what do
you
do about upgrades?

Have googled and googled but maybe my search terms are wrong, can't find

anything.

Thanks!

 

[DMG]

Ah, see that's exactly what I'd do if it was a means to an end!

But I'm currently re-training as a Web Developer, so I feel like I've got to
learn from it! Had a look at DotNetNuke and these kind of platforms are
great for churning out websites, but unfortunately I *do* want to do it the
hard way in this case.

Thanks for your advice though.

 

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

Get DotNetNuke

Or, alternatively, go nowhere near DotNetNuke unless it has improved beyond
all recognition since I last looked at it...

 

[DMG]

As a professional dev, I need to use this site as a showcase of my, ahem,
'talents' (restricted in the web as they are at the moment), so using a
third-party generator is out of the question for me.

Like I said, I need to do it the hard way, which will ultimately be quite
rewarding (I hope).

 

[Dave Bush]

Mark,

Take another look. I didn't recommend it because I know it is
available. I recommended it because I use it consistently and have been
developing modules for it since 3.0.

I felt the same way when I looked at it during 2.x, I even started
writing my own framework because I couldn't find anything I was happy
with. I wasn't happy with the speed in 3.x but saw the promise. But
4.x is when the platform really started taking off. There are tons of
modules already created and a very defined framework for how to create
your own.

The ONLY thing I don't like is the lack of documentation (but hey, this
is open source. You don't pay $$, you pay time) and as a CMS, I WISH it
had some way of versioning pages as well as modules on the page, and a
bit more granular control over who could do what (permissions.) But,
for the sites I create, it is the fastest way to market for the least
expense.

As a CMS, it is the only one I've seen that lets you create web sites
that look practically any way you can imagine. As a development
framework, it provides all the advantages that MFC (for Visual C++) did.
And while having that structure has it's disadvantages, for most
corporations the advantages FAR outweigh the disadvantages.

Take a look at the showcase. Boch Hot Water and NYSE are both using it
as well as several large colleges. They don't pick CMS systems without
MAJOR due diligence.


Dave Bush
http://blog.dmbcllc.com



-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Rae [MVP] [mailto:[email protected]]
Posted At: Saturday, November 03, 2007 8:22 AM
Posted To: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Conversation: Newbie ASP.NET/Blog question
Subject: Re: Newbie ASP.NET/Blog question

Get DotNetNuke

Or, alternatively, go nowhere near DotNetNuke unless it has improved
beyond
all recognition since I last looked at it...

 

[John Timney \(MVP\)]

I use thinkjot on my site, which is dasblog cut down. Its not bad, easy
enough to getup up and running, no DB needed and of course is free. I've
also made a concscious decision not to integrate it into my site so my blog
is just a branch off it.

http://www.process64.com/thinkjot/

Regards

John Timney (MVP)
http://www.johntimney.com
http://www.johntimney.com/blog

As a professional dev, I need to use this site as a showcase of my, ahem,
'talents' (restricted in the web as they are at the moment), so using a
third-party generator is out of the question for me.

Like I said, I need to do it the hard way, which will ultimately be quite
rewarding (I hope).

 

[Dave Bush]

Then do answer your original question.

Don't use an IFrame.

If I were going to "do it the hard way." I'd keep them separate and
skin them both to LOOK the same. (Which is also a possibility using
WordPress alongside ASPX code)

Ultimately, you'll have to decide on your own. But, now that I have 20
years of experience and have done a bit of hiring myself. Let me give
you my perspective on "the hard way."

If I were interviewing you, I'd be more interested in how you solved
problems than in what you specifically knew. You'd get points for
choosing the hard way so you could learn. You'd get even more points if
you told me you picked a solution because it got the job done in the
shortest amount of time and the least expense. What you have to know in
this industry changes too fast to be able to hire someone based on what
they know. Problem solving skills never go out of style.

Just my two cents.

-----Original Message-----
From: DMG [mailto:[email protected]]
Posted At: Saturday, November 03, 2007 8:13 AM
Posted To: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Conversation: Newbie ASP.NET/Blog question
Subject: Re: Newbie ASP.NET/Blog question

Ah, see that's exactly what I'd do if it was a means to an end!

But I'm currently re-training as a Web Developer, so I feel like I've
got to
learn from it! Had a look at DotNetNuke and these kind of platforms are

great for churning out websites, but unfortunately I *do* want to do it
the
hard way in this case.

Thanks for your advice though.

Get DotNetNuke and use the blog module if you want it all integrated OR
use WordPress and don't worry about integrating it into the rest of your
site if you want to real blog.

Trust me, I've been down this road before. Nearly every professional
blogger (making more than $1000/month off one blog) in the world will
tell you the same. (ie, I'm reasonably certain they all will, but
someone is likely to prove me wrong.)

-----Original Message-----
From: DMG [mailto:[email protected]]
Posted At: Saturday, November 03, 2007 6:49 AM
Posted To: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Conversation: Newbie ASP.NET/Blog question
Subject: Newbie ASP.NET/Blog question

Hi

Long-time WinForms, First-time WebForms programmer here...

I am in the process of creating a personal web site, and I want to embed
a
blog in this. I have downloaded and played around with dasBlog, which
seems
to suit my needs.

However.

I'm wondering what is the common (best) approach to embedding a 'tool'
like
dasBlog into your own site?

For example, I want my own site, with 'Home Resume Blog Links' etc
toolbar
along the top. When you click Blog, it loads the dasblog into, say, an
IFRAME on my main page? And should dasBlog be a sub-folder of my
website?

Or is the best approach to download the dasBlog source and then fiddle
around with it to make it suit what you want it to do? But then what do
you
do about upgrades?

Have googled and googled but maybe my search terms are wrong, can't find

anything.

Thanks!

 

[DMG]

I had a quick look at your site, and by keeping the theme similar it does at
first glance look like that blog is integrated with your site, although I
can see that it is separate.

What I'm curious about is whether this is the 'de facto' standard approach?
i.e. why did you choose not to integrate it with your site? Is it because
it is indeed (as I suspect) a lot of work?

I am thinking of the following set up:

My Home Site
My Blog Site

a link to My Home site from My Blog site.

Is this a perfectly acceptable setup?

I use thinkjot on my site, which is dasblog cut down. Its not bad, easy
enough to getup up and running, no DB needed and of course is free. I've
also made a concscious decision not to integrate it into my site so my blog
is just a branch off it.

http://www.process64.com/thinkjot/

Regards

John Timney (MVP)
http://www.johntimney.com
http://www.johntimney.com/blog

 

[DMG]

Yeah, good advice.

I think there are so many different tools for different solutions, and the
important thing is being aware of what is the right tool for the job.

At the moment, I am definitely looking at this as an exercise, as I am
really curious what makes the web 'tick'. Coming over from 8 years windows
development, I have so many questions!

In all likelihood, as I don't have that much time to spend on this, I'd be
satisifed finding out how it pieced together, and then probably abandon it
in favour of something that would get the job done. I'll definitely take a
look at DotNetNuke. I'll also look at creating a Home site through the
Personal Starter Kit (just to get started) and a separate blog site using
dasBlog or something similar.

Thanks.

 

[Darrel]

But I'm currently re-training as a Web Developer, so I feel like I've got

to learn from it! Had a look at DotNetNuke and these kind of platforms
are great for churning out websites, but unfortunately I *do* want to do
it the hard way in this case.

What 'integration' are you looking for?

Ultimately a good web developer knows that WordPress is the defacto
standard. ;0)

Unless you are a client have a STRONG compelling reason to not use
WordPress, use it.

As for ASP.net options, there haven't been a lot of .net blog engines in the
past.

However, there's a new(ish) open source project at codeplex that would
probably suit your needs well:

http://www.codeplex.com/blogengine

-Darrel

 

[Darrel]

Or, alternatively, go nowhere near DotNetNuke unless it has improved
beyond
all recognition since I last looked at it...

The last time I looked at it it was pretty bad, that said, while I have no
DIRECT experience, it seems to have come a long way.

And, besides, it can't be WORSE that SharePoint, right? ;o)

-Darrel

 

[Darrel]

What I'm curious about is whether this is the 'de facto' standard

approach? i.e. why did you choose not to integrate it with your site? Is
it because it is indeed (as I suspect) a lot of work?

Again, I think you're held up on this term 'integrate'. What, exactly, do
you need to integrate? Navigation can just be duplicated on both sites. As
can the HTML + CSS. You could send RSS feeds to pages on your site to show
some content on the main pages. Beyond that, though, I'm not sure what
integration one really needs.

-Darrel

 

[DMG]

Don't think I can use WordPress as my site is going to be ASP.NET and I'm
under the impression WordPress is PHP only??

See my other reply about my definition of 'integration'.

Cheers though!

 

[Dave Bush]

WordPress is PHP. But you can run PHP under IIS without any trouble.

-----Original Message-----
From: DMG [mailto:[email protected]]
Posted At: Saturday, November 03, 2007 10:27 AM
Posted To: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Conversation: Newbie ASP.NET/Blog question
Subject: Re: Newbie ASP.NET/Blog question

Don't think I can use WordPress as my site is going to be ASP.NET and
I'm
under the impression WordPress is PHP only??

See my other reply about my definition of 'integration'.

Cheers though!

 

[Darrel]

Don't think I can use WordPress as my site is going to be ASP.NET and I'm

under the impression WordPress is PHP only??

Most Windows hosts support both.

See my other reply about my definition of 'integration'.

It appears you just want a navigation bar that goes from pages on your site
to your blog and have them look the same? You could have your blog on
another server and accomplish that just fine, so I wouldn't get too hung up
on the term 'integration'.

-Darrel

 

[DMG]

Okay, integration.

Well, here's what I'm after.

I have a custom site, written in ASP.NET, which has all the usual rubbish on
it. I have a link to my blog, now I don't want to go and write my own
custom blog, so I'd be looking at 'linking' a third party one in.

What I'm curious about is whether people actually integrate these with their
web site or just (as John Timney describes) links to an external blog site.

For example, if i install dasblog, and I have it 'under' my own website,
then IIS will look like this:

MyWebsite [Virtual Directory]
DasBlog [Virtual Directory]

I have a link to my dasblog from my website, and it opens up 'inside' (by
way of perhaps an IFRAME, even although that has been derided by a previous
poster to this thread).

So the url for the blog would be, 'www.mywebsite/blog'.

Does that make any sense?

Also, to confuse things even further, I was thinking about making use of
ASP.NET Master Pages. Is it achievable to do this and link the blog in
using these, or not?

However, as I've said before if it is perfectly acceptable to have a link to
an external blog site then that's the way I'll do it.

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

You might want to take a look at BlogEngine.Net :

http://www.codeplex.com/blogengine/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=5922

It's simple to setup and easy to use.
Full source included, so you can modify to taste.

 

[DMG]

That's great, but is that how it's done? Do I create my web site around it?
And what happens if it is updated, I then need to manually merge the changes
with my source?

 

[Darrel]

For example, if i install dasblog, and I have it 'under' my own website,

then IIS will look like this:

MyWebsite [Virtual Directory]
DasBlog [Virtual Directory]

I have a link to my dasblog from my website, and it opens up 'inside' (by
way of perhaps an IFRAME, even although that has been derided by a
previous poster to this thread).

Yes, iframes are bad.

But I'm still not sure what 'integrate' means to you.

So the url for the blog would be, 'www.mywebsite/blog'.

Ah, I see, well, if it's merely a URL issue (which I don't think is a huge
deal) then your method would be fine. You could even run WordPress along
side your asp.net site if you really wanted to under the same domain.

Also, to confuse things even further, I was thinking about making use of
ASP.NET Master Pages. Is it achievable to do this and link the blog in
using these, or not?

Well, if you want to use ASP.net master pages, then you do need an ASP.net
blog system that supports master pages.

I'm not thrilled with master pages myself, but yea, that's a pure ASP.net
concept.

-Darrel