My weblog page's settings

These are the settings for my home page (the weblog) in the Conversant Structure Editor:

File Type: Weblog

Path: jim/index

The default conversation for my zone (more on zones some other time) is called jim. That's why the path is jim/index. No, that doesn't screw up URLs at all. I could explain why but do you care? It just works...

Page Title: have browser, will travel

Nav Title: Weblog

To be honest, I don't know what this one is for! ;-)

Template: weblogs

I have 4 templates right now.

• default is attached to the "jim" folder and thus all pages use this template by default.
• travel is used by the favourites-browser related pages, and doesn't have the sidebar down the side of the page.
• test is just a play template. When I'm messing around I edit this one and bind it to a test page.
• weblogs contains the weblog page specific simple-macros.

Stylesheet: hbwt

This stylesheet is also bound to the "jim" folder, so I could have chosen "[use parent folder stylesheet]" as well.

JavaScript: [use parent folder javascript]

There are no JavaScripts specific to the weblog page.

magicNavbar1: [use parent folder navbar]
magicNavbar2: [use parent folder navbar]
magicNavbar3: [use parent folder navbar]

At the moment the weblog page uses the same Magic Navbars as the "jim" folder, which are called "hbwt" and "hbwtradio" respectively.

Description: this field is blank

Don't know what this is for yet... probably reserved for something.

Owner: jim@roepcke.com

Admins can set the owner of weblogs. This should be an e-mail address or a group name. Only weblog owners can add items to a weblog. You can make a group weblog by creating a group of users in the Group Admin section and making it the owner of a weblog. Awesome!

No. of Days: 7

This is the number of days that appear on the weblog page.

Text to insert between dual carriage returns.: </P><P>

I'm VERY picky about my HTML. I haven't run it through a validator but I try my best to keep everything to spec. When I used Manila I hard coded all of the P tags in my weblog messages because Manila didn't close them. That was a self-inflicted pain in the ass, but IMHO well worth it.

In my Conversant weblog item messages, I can just put double-carriage-returns between paragraphs, and the above setting (which I lobbied for!) makes sure everything remains cleeeeean. See also: item-template.

Archives link to index?: No

If I had chosen Yes, archive URLs would look like http://jim.roepcke.com/index/2000/04/14 instead of http://jim.roepcke.com/2000/04/14. Only applies when your weblog's filename is "index". To each his own!

Weblog's Timezone: GMT -8 hr. (PST - Pacific Standard Time)

Conversant got this feature a day before its need was discovered for the WorldLink site. A few days later Manila got the same feature, and the world is better for it!

Day Template:

<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLSPACING="3" CELLPADDING="0">
<TR><TD ALIGN="RIGHT"><A HREF="/<!--#archiveDatePath-->" TITLE="Permanent link for <!--#weblogdayheader-->"><IMG SRC="http://www.roepcke.com/hbwt/linkwell.gif" HEIGHT="21" WIDTH="21" BORDER="0" ALT="Permanent link for <!--#weblogdayheader-->"></A></TD>
<TD><FONT SIZE="+1"><B><!--#weblogdayheader--></B></FONT></TD></TR>
<TR VALIGN="TOP">
<TD WIDTH="122"><IMG SRC="http://www.roepcke.com/hbwt/<!--#archiveDatePath-->.gif" height="256" width="122" border="0"></TD>
<TD>
<!--#weblogdaytext-->
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<br>

My favourite weblog simple macro is #archiveDatePath... it makes the daily images and daily permanent links easy! And I can pick my own image for that link too. See also: weblog day-template specific simple-macros

Item Template:

<P><font size="-2" color="#666666"><!--#modified--> (<!--#link-->)</font><BR>
<!--#body--></P>

The #link macro lets me link to each item in the discussion group individually. I like this because each weblog item becomes its own thread in the discussion group and this makes communication much clearer. The text that goes inside the A tags for the #link is configurable in the preferences for the weblog plugin for the "jim" conversation. I chose "discuss".

Note that each item is wrapped in <P> and </P>, and double-carriage-returns are replaced with </P><P> to keep the HTML to spec.

Discuss...