EasyBlog Quick Start Guide
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Transcript of EasyBlog Quick Start Guide
EasyBlog
Advanced blogging tool for Joomla!
Quick Start Guide
Introduction
If you need a much more powerful and user‐friendly blogging tool for Joomla!, EasyBlog is your
answer. EasyBlog is a blogging component for Joomla! and it comes with built‐in Twitter integration,
Ajax‐based commenting system, reCAPTCHA integrations, and many more features that might
change your perception about blogging with Joomla! platform. EasyBlog is licensed under the
GNU/GPL.
Help and Support
Support Channel Our support is done via our helpdesk system for premium subscribers and forum support for non‐
premium subscribers. At the moment, we do not provide any support via telephone or live chat.
What We Support Although we are offering support plan for every purchase, there are some limitations what we support. Below is the list of supported issues.
1. Issues in the products 2. Setting up component 3. Usage of our products 4. Non‐documented issues, tips and tricks regarding our software. 5. Minor changes to our products in order to work on the site. 6. We do povide support only for ONE of your domain name. You can install EasyBlog in
multiple sites, but support is for one domain only.
What We Do Not Support And here is the list of unsupported issues.
1. Huge customizations. If you need customizations, email us for a quote 2. Massively hacking the core files. 3. Template / theme customizations. 4. Template conflict issues.
Please take note that we reserve the right to refuse any or all modifications and feature requests of our software.
And also, since we are not selling the software but support subsciption, we do not offers any refund to your purchase.
System Requirements
Joomla! Before installing EasyBlog, you will need to ensure that you are running the latest version of Joomla!
for your site. It is always recommended you to use the latest version of Joomla! Please check
Joomla! official website to check the most recent updates.
PHP PHP version 4.4.x and above is required. EayBlog has been tested and working with some warning
message in PHP 5.3.x.
MySQL Since EasyBlog support UTF‐8 characters, MySQL version 4.1.3 and above is required.
Minimum Width To ensure a smooth sailing layout with EasyBlog’s Dashboard, a minimum width is required for the
site. It needs a minimum of 640px wide (English language). It has never been tested with other
languages yet. A much comfortable width would be at least 700 pixels.
Installation & Upgrades
Installing or upgrading EasyBlog is as simple as installing other 3rd party Joomla! extensions. Follow
the steps below to start installing or upgrading EasyBlog.
Step 1 Proceed to your Extensions > Install/Uninstall menu item under Extensions.
Step 2 Click on Browse button and select the EasyBlog installer file.
Step 3 Proceed by clicking on Upload File & Install
Step 4 That’s it! Installation is completed now.
Upgrading the component follow the same procedure with installation.
Getting Started!
Congratulations! You now have multi bloggers blogging environment for your Joomla! site. Before
proceeding, do take note of the configurations in the back end of EasyBlog.
What’s next? After you have installed EasyBlog, you will have to configure your blog to match your requirements
and branding. Here we will show you to configure the basic settings for your blog.
Blog title and description
Now go to Settings tab in your EasyBlog configuration panel, and configure at least the two settings
listed below.
1. Global blog title.
This is your blog title, will be used in most of your blog pages, except when users view blog posts
and bloggers page.
2. Global blog description.
The description of your blog. Same with global blog title, the description you set here will be
used in most of your blog pages, except when users view blog posts and bloggers page.
Select WYSIWYG editor We allow you to select your own editor for writing blog posts. By default Joomla! includes TinyMCE
editor. But you can use JCE or CKEditor if you think these editor suits you better.
On your EasyBlog setting page, click on Layout tab. You can see the option to configure the editor at
the bottom of the page.
ACL (Access Control Lists)
Our component comes with advanced ACL that can control actions for specific user groups and
users. You can set who can write blog posts, publish the posts, create tags, create categories, and
many more. Now why don’t we set some basic permission to your user groups?
Let’s go to Components > EasyBlog > ACL to get started. This is the default ACL settings for your user
groups.
Actions Super Administrator
Administrator Manager Publisher Author Registered
Can write entry? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can publish entry? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can burn feed? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can upload avatar? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can manage comments? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can update Twitter? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can delete own blogs? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can add post trackback? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can contribute to frontpage?
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Can create category? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can create tag? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can have Google Adsense?
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Can enable blog privacy? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can post comments? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Can subscribe to blogs? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
With these settings, we can conclude that your blog allow all registered users to write blog posts. If
you want to allow all your users have their own blog, you can leave this settings like it is. No need to
change anything.
Let’s say you want to allow specific users to post blog, including yourself, of course. What you need
to do is set all permissions to No for other user groups except Super Administrator.
Actions Super Administrator
Administrator Manager Publisher Author Registered
Can write entry? Yes No No No No No Can publish entry? Yes No No No No No Can burn feed? Yes No No No No No Can upload avatar? Yes No No No No No Can manage comments? Yes No No No No No Can update Twitter? Yes No No No No No Can delete own blogs? Yes No No No No No Can add post trackback? Yes No No No No No Can contribute to frontpage?
Yes No No No No No
Can create category? Yes No No No No No Can create tag? Yes No No No No No Can have Google Adsense?
Yes No No No No No
Can enable blog privacy? Yes No No No No No Can post comments? Yes No No No No No Can subscribe to blogs? Yes No No No No No
Please note that with the settings above, all users, excluding you as Super Administrator, cannot create any blog post.
Then, from the dropdown list on your right side, select Assigned.
Now create New ruleset by clicking on New button at the top, right of your page. Now you can see
sets of permission to configure. To select user, click on Browse.
With the user selected, set the permissions, depends on your requirement.
You can see the ruleset listed on your ACL listing. To edit the ruleset, simply click on the Edit link
located on the right side of the item.
You can preview the permission of the ruleset by hovering your mouse over the title.
Categories
By default, EasyBlog includes only ONE category, Uncategories. But you can add unlimited numbers
of categories for your blog posts. Now go to Components > EasyBlog > Categories, and add as many
categories as you wish.
You also can add categories in your Dashboard. Head on to your EasyBlog Dashboard and click on
the Categories button. You’ll see the form to create category on the top of the section.
Tags
According to Wikipedia, tag is a non‐hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information
(such as an Internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file). This kind of metadata helps describe
an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. Tags are generally chosen
informally and personally by the item's creator or by its viewer, depending on the system.
You can add as many tags as you see fits. There are no limits on how many tags can be created.
To create new tag, simple head on to your Components > EasyBlog > Tags and click on New button
on your top right corner. Fill in the required information and Save.
You can create new tag in your EasyBlog Dashboard as well. Go to your Dashboard, and click on
Tags button. Fill in the form and click Create button.
Writing blog You can write your blog posts either in EasyBlog Dashboard in frontend, or in EasyBlog Panel in
backend.
To start writing your first blog post, jump to EasyBlog menu. You’ll see EasyBlog toolbar menus at
the top of your page. Hover your mouse on the last item on the right (we called it Dashboard menu),
and you’ll see a set of dropdown menu with different type of actions.
Now click on the Write new entry link. You’ll be redirected to our EasyBlog editor and you can start
writing your new blog post.
On the top of the editor, you can see few tabs. Each tabs contain other configuration option fo your
blog posts.
Editor
This is your main content area. It contain blog title and blog content.
Introtext
If you want to split your blog post using Read more feature, add your intro content in this tab. It
contain another editor, just for you blog intro.
Permalink
By default, EasyBlog will create permalink for you based on your blog title. But of course you can
change it as you see fits.
Options
This tab contain all other post configuration like category to use, when you want to publish the post,
set either the post is for public or private and so on.
Tags
In Wikipedia, a tag is a non‐hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as
an Internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file). This kind of metadata helps describe an item
and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. You can add as many tags as you desire for
your posts.
Trackbacks
According to Wikipedia, trackback is a methods for blog authors to request notification when
somebody links to one of their documents or blog posts. Here you can set the trackback URL to ping
when you publish your posts.
Post Status EasyBlog comes with four predefined post status;
1. Published
Blog posts will be visible to all users and visitors. But the privacy will rely on your own
setting.
2. Unpublished
If you set Unpublished, the posts will only visible to blog owner and site Admins (Super
Administrator and Administrator) only.
3. Draft
This is unfinish blog post status. For example, you are writing a blog post but cannot finish it
in a day, just set it as Draft. It will not be visible for other users or visitors except the blog
owner and site Admins.
4. Schedule
Just set the publish date and time to the future date, and will automatically get published by
EasyBlog.
There is one more status, Pending Review in EasyBlog. But you cannot set to this status manually. It
only applies to those blogger who cannot publish blog posts. Only those who have permission to
manage it can publish the posts. By default, we allow all Admins to manage all pending posts.
Creating your own theme
All the themes actually based on default themes. Every files that control the layout of the page is
inside default theme. So, if you want to change the theme for your EasyBlog, we advise you to
either:
1. Create new theme in JOOMLA/components/com_easyblog/themes/ folder, or
2. Create template override in your
JOOMLA/templates/your_current_joomla_template/html/com_easyblog/ folder.
Creating new theme To create new themes, you can create new styles.css inside your new theme folder, for example, you
want to name it as mytheme, all you have to do is:
1. Create new folder in JOOMLA/components/com_easyblog/themes/mytheme/
2. Create new styles.css in your
JOOMLA/components/com_easyblog/themes/mytheme/css/
If you wish to change any HTML output, you can copy specific file in your theme folder. For example,
you want to change the layout when user reading blog post, copy blog.read.php to your
JOOMLA/components/com_easyblog/themes/mytheme/ and edit the file. EasyBlog will check the
existent of the files, if not exists in your theme folder, it will load the file from default theme.
Creating template override Same as creating new themes, creating new template override is very easy. Follow the same
procedure as creating new themes, but put it inside your
JOOMLA/templates/your_current_joomla_template/html/com_easyblog/ folder.
Creating new dashboard theme If you wish to create new dashboard theme, create new dashboard folder inside your new themes,
example:
1. JOOMLA/components/com_easyblog/themes/mytheme/dashboard/
2. JOOMLA/components/com_easyblog/themes/mytheme/dashboard/css/styles.css
Or if you are using template override,
1. JOOMLA/templates/your_current_joomla_template/html/com_easyblog/dashboard/
2. JOOMLA/templates/your_current_joomla_template/html/com_easyblog/dashboard/css/
styles.css
If you wish to edit any html output, copy files from default dashboard theme to your new
dashboard theme folder.
Note
Please note that the CSS file must be named as styles.css, or else EasyBlog wont recognize your styling.
Please link the styles.css from default theme in your CSS file using @import or any other technique you prefer to make sure all have fallback styles if it's not defined in your new theme.
Thank you for supporting EasyBlog!
Need support? Find us on the boards
http://stackideas.com/forum/
Follow us on Twitter
http://twitter.com/stackideas
Vote for us at Joomla! Extensions Directory:
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/news‐production/blog/12630/