SunBlogNuke - DotNetNuke Blog Module

I hope everyone is having a good weekend!  Today we are glad that the fixed release v4.1 for for Ultimate DotNetNuke blog module –  SunBlogNuke is available for free upgrade. This release contains  some new awesome features which are the high priority feature requests, such as supporting the ability to import external blog data with blogML format (you can find more details about it in that tutorial – Migrating from WordPress to DNN Blog) and threaded (nested) comments (please refer to the post - Awesome Upcoming DNN Blog Feature: Threaded Comments), as well as great enhancements. Here I would like to thanks A LOT for Daniel Taft’s contribution and he had offered to improve the localization resources, which will make our  module easily friendly and understand. In the mean time, we followed Matt’s suggestion and converted "RecenteComments Widget" into an optional module, which you can add into any page at any time and point it to any blog on the portal. As usual, the complete details for all of the changes can be found in the Release Notes.

Major Highlights in v4.1:

• ENH - Updated styles for all core themes with CSS Sprites.
• ENH - Improved the fill-in tag process by providing the ability to view all tag when editing post.
• ENH - Improved localization resources.
• ENH - Implemented import feature with blogML format so that you can migrate external blog data, like Wordpress, to SunBlogNuke.
• ENH - Supported threaded (nested) comments with specific levels deep.
• ENH - Converted "RecenteComments Widget" into an optional module. Now you can add it into any page at any time and point it to any blog on the portal.
• FIX - The SHARETHIS script broken when post title with double quotation marks.
• Lots of other fixes & enhancements.

NOTE: As with any release, we recommend you perform a complete file and database backup before performing any upgrade on a production website and that you first conduct a trial upgrade on a staging version of the site. Following these guidelines will ensure that you are able to recover should any unforeseen problems arise during the upgrade process.

Note that some issues may occur if your original version of SunBlogNuke is lower version, like 3.x, and you've developed your customized theme. Please refer to the tutorial - Must-Read Note for SunBlogNuke v4.x and follow the instructions. Hope it makes sense.

You can get it here. Blog your way and enjoy life. :)

The SunBlogNuke Team

Now we have been busy wrapping up development of the next version of the Blog module (4.1.0) and I would like to get some of the most pressing features included with this release, like import external blog data with blogML format (you can find more details about it in that post – Migrating from WordPress to DNN Blog). Here I prefer to share another awesome blog feature – threaded (nested) comment, which is included in the roadmap of Ultimate DNN Blog Module – SunBlogNuke and also lots of clients request from the time our blogging module born.  Have a look at how it actions below:

Today I finally converted the navigation menu of our website as an unordered list, which is originally built with TABLEs and so ugly for SEO. It is updated with DNN Nav Menu, which is a lightweight menu based on semantic markup like UL, LI tags. It will help search engines to better understand the menu structure. So it is an excellent news for us and our website with ultimate dnn blog module – SunBlogNuke.

Today we are glad that the release candidate version 4.0 for Ultimate DotNetNuke blog module - SunBlogNuke is available for free upgrade finally. In this building we had taken lots of attentions on "Refactor". With refactor it will be able to extend more features easily. Plus, we make it stay flexible by reducing obstacles to changes so that you will respond to customers' requirements quickly. We hope that it will be the kind of beautiful, elegant and productive software. Also it includes some awesome features, like integration with Google reCAPTCHA, support for Vote Up/Vote Down and new theme configure process with providing thumbnail and preview feature. As usual, the complete details for all of the changes can be found in the Release Notes.

Major Highlights in v4.0:

• ENH - Refactored theme configure process with providing thumbnail and preview feature.
• ENH - Extended thumbnail feature when editing post.
• ENH - Split "TagCloud Widget" into an optional module so that you can add it into any page at any time and point it to any blog on the portal.
• ENH - Converted old url with new "year/x/month/x" format in the monthly archive.
• ENH - Added new option for coping any existing blog settings when creating new blog, so don't have to go through and do all of it manually every time.
• ENH - New rule with no captcha for post author.
• ENH - Integrated with Google reCAPTCHA
• ENH - Implemented new Vote Up/Vote Down feature.
• ENH - Released new themes - eNews theme with supporting thumbnail view.
• FIX - Journal entry in the Active Social not posted when publishing draft.
• Lots of fixes & enhancements.

As with any release, we recommend you perform a complete file and database backup before performing any upgrade on a production website and that you first conduct a trial upgrade on a staging version of the site. Following these guidelines will ensure that you are able to recover should any unforeseen problems arise during the upgrade process.

Note that some issues may occur in the upgrade process if you've developed your customized theme. Please refer to the tutorial - Must-Read Note for SunBlogNuke v4.0 and follow the instructions. Hope it makes sense.

You can get it here. Enjoy blogging and good writing! :)

The SunBlogNuke Team

As you know, the Ultimate DNN Blog Module - SunBlogNuke v4.0 will be available to download for free upgrade. In this building we took more attentions on "Refactor". With refactor you will be able to extend more features easily. However, if you would like to upgrade it and also you ever developed any customized theme or did some customizations, you MUST modify all view files lightly, including BasicView.ascx, DetailView.ascx, CommentView.ascx, TagsView.ascx, SearchView.ascx, and PrintView.ascx. Otherwise the "Event Viewer" of your dnn website will be filled with lots of errors, like "Could not load type 'SunBlogNuke.Framework.PostViewBase'.". Actually that task will be so easy that just follow some simple following steps.

That is a brief buzz for our development team recently.

We are glad to tell you that our product is in active development and we are moving on as planned. Our guys are trying to enhance the Ultimate DNN Blog Module - SunBlogNuke and provide you the working and valuable product. In this stage we are focusing on the next building v4.0 in which we took more attentions on "Refactor". With refactor you will be able to extend more features easily. Plus, we make it stay flexible by reducing obstacles to changes so that you will respond to customers' requirements quickly. We hope that it will be the kind of beautiful, elegant and productive software.

BTW, also it will include some awesome features, like integration with Google reCAPTCHA, support for Vote Up/Vote Down and new theme configure process with providing thumbnail and preview feature. Please stay tune and it will be available to download. :).  Well. have a quick look at the screenshot about new theme configure panel:

And we are looking forwards to your feedback. We know that the more feedback we get from our clients, the better our product will be and also we will know which areas require attentions next. So please tell us what you want most or leave your comment below if you are interested in Ultimate DNN Blog Module – SunBlogNuke. Thanks a lot.

Today we upgraded our blogging platform website with DNN Core Forum v5.0 and the latest Ultimate DNN Blog Module – SunBlogNuke v3.8.2. Until now everything works well. The new forum module includes more better SEO options available following best practices and integrated with more awesome core features like Taxonomy Integration and Core Profile Photo Integration. New Blue Theme is VERY excellent too. You can find more exciting features in the links - Forum 5.0 on DotNetNuke.com and http://dnnforum.codeplex.com/releases/view/53503

Also you may have a look at the release note about SunBlogNuke v3.8.2:

• ENH - Added new token [BIO] in the entity Author.
• ENH - Integrated with Active Social Journals.
• ENH - Provided more handy parameters in Rss Feed, including "item"(Limiting items number) and "excerpt"(Whether including excerpt when activating "Full Show in Rss Feed").
• FIX - Avatar broken when integrated with dnn core profile.
• FIX - Rss Feed ignore "items max" option and always returning all posts.
• Other small fixes & customizations.

As usual, the complete details for all of the changes can be found in the Release Notes.

Enjoy Blogging and Writing. :)

Today we released a RC version 3.8.0 of our dnn blogging module which includes an option for Active Social journal integration. We finally added Active Social Journal support using the new Journal API. You will learn more about this great new feature over in our team blog. Thanks Will’s help and great support.

A special thanks goes out to Matt Marlor for pushing Will and I to finally make this happen.

You can get it here. Enjoy blogging and good writing! :)

The SunBlogNuke Team

Starting with SunBlogNuke version 3.6.0, the blogging module full supports for dnn core token replace functionality that allows you to use replacement tokens inside your template of widgets like Content Slider Widget. This new feature provides a MUCH needed enhancement to the Ultimate DNN Blog Module - SunBlogNuke. You will find it very helpful and very powerful because you are able to completely customize their own different view from the available data. Today I am taking the time here to give you a brief overview of this awesome function.

We use SunBlogNuke for our Hearing Aid Blog. It is a fantastic DotNetNuke module. It’s easy to set up, very flexible, and very powerful. It has all the bells and whistles needed for a great blog and it’s very easy to manage and administer. Also, the developers respond to queries very quickly and professionally. Highly recommended!

- Daniel Taft (www.australiahears.com.au)