SunBlogNuke - DotNetNuke Blog Module

Today we are glad that the monthly release v3.7.8 for Ultimate DotNetNuke blog module – SunBlogNuke is available for download. In this building we extended dnn core token replace functionality with more awesome & handy tokens and integrated with dnn core profile avatar. In the meant time, that is also a fixed and enhanced version with solving lots of issues and some performance optimizations.As usual, the complete details for all of the changes can be found in the Release Notes.

Major Highlights in v3.7.8:

• Supported [coreprofilelink] token for blog users so that you can custom it with redirecting to dnn core profile page.
• Integrated with dnn core profile avatar, which is available in DotNetNuke 5.3.x and later version.
• Added alternate option to switch comments to Disqus, which is a 3rd party comment system.
• Enhanced Content Slider Widget with supporting more flexible tokens like [ENTRYTEXT], [blog:title] & [author:avatarurl].
• Enhanced edit post panel for better user experience.
• Converted comment status "Reject" into "Delete" to fix issue that Rejected Actually Deletes the Comment from db.
• Fixed issue where comments with links getting mangled sometimes.
• Fixed issue where notification always sent no matter whether checked or unchecked in the assignment process.
• Fixed issue where can not parse template - "Header in the Post" and permalink issue in the template.
• Fixed issue where thumbnail not works well in the Content Slider Widget.
• Fixed issue where directly enter specific admin panel without correct permission.
• Fixed issue where "Latest Without Featured" mode is NOT WORKING in the Content Slider Widget.
• Fixed issue where the Toggle Dashboard fails pretty badly to use IE7.
• Fixed issue where modifying user role not work in assign user panel.
• Fixed issue where ignore "Max.Items.Count" option when applying "LatestWithoutFeatured" mode in Content Slider Widget.
• Fixed issue where contributors are able to publish post without moderation in WLW.
• Fixed issue where cannot create new category in WLW.
• Fixed issue where comments still displays in the recent comment widget after related post deleted.
• Fixed issue where new tag appears in the tag cloud immediately event if the post is scheduled to publish in the future time.
• Code refactoring & performance optimization.
• Other small fixes & customizations.

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. Just refer to the tutorial - A Quick Note for Enhanced and Fixed Version - SunBlogNuke 3.7.x and follow the instructions. Another possible issue may like the post mentioned - Windows Live Writer failure. Hope it makes sense.

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

The SunBlogNuke Team

We just successfully upgraded our blogging platform website from DotNetNuke version 05.01.00, to version 05.05.00. So far, so good. We finally upgraded to dnn v5.5 because this fantastic release includes lots of stabilization and new killer features, especially content localization and enhanced performance, which are what we were looking forwards to.

Another good news is that our Ultimate Blogging Module - SunBlogNuke also have been fully tested with DotNetNuke 5.5.  We are not aware of any issues at this time and it just work as we expected. Later we will release a new building v3.7.5  with fixing some more bugs and issue. Hope it makes sense for you.

Enjoy Blogging and Writing. :)

As you know, we recently released Ultimate DNN Blog Module – SunBlogNuke v3.7.x with some enhancements and small fixes, including code refactoring. When you would like to upgrade this version, please note that if you had developed any customized theme ever you MUST modify all view files lightly, including BasicView.ascx, DetailView.ascx, CommentView.ascx, TagsView.ascx, SearchView.ascx, and PrintView.ascx. Just follow the two steps below:

1. Find out your customized theme folder which should be placed in the $YourRoot/DesktopModules/SunBlog/Themes/YourCustimizedTheme/.
2. Open up the BasicView.ascx, find the first line declaration and modify it like that:

   Original:

   <%@ Control Language="vb" AutoEventWireup="false" EnableViewState="false" Inherits="DnnSun.SunBlogNuke.Framework.PostViewBase" %>

   Modified:(yes, it is so easy and just modify "Framework" into "UI".)

   <%@ Control Language="vb" AutoEventWireup="false" EnableViewState="false" Inherits="DnnSun.SunBlogNuke.UI.PostViewBase" %>

3. Like the step 2), check out whether there is declaration about Toolkit. If exists, modify it like that:

   Original:

   <%@ Register TagPrefix="toolkit" Namespace="DnnSun.WebControls.Toolkit" Assembly="DnnSun.Modules.SunBlogNuke" %>

   Modified:(You should notice that just modify "DnnSun.Modules.SunBlogNuke" into "SunBlogNuke.Core".)

   <%@ Register TagPrefix="toolkit" Namespace="DnnSun.WebControls.Toolkit" Assembly="SunBlogNuke.Core" %>

The same process for the other view files.

In the end, make sure you MUST follow the tutorial if you had developed any customized theme ever, otherwise you will encounter the error like "Could not load type 'DnnSun.SunBlogNuke.Framework.PostViewBase'.". When you visit your good main blog page in your dnn website. If not just skip it :) Hope it makes sense for you.

The vast amount of cool customizations maybe one of the reasons why people choose Ultimate DNN Blog Module - SunBlogNuke instead of using other blog services basing on DotNetNuke platform. Today what I would like to show you one of those cool things is tag cloud widget.

Refer to the last tutorial about how to implement a customized calendar date in the Content Slider Widget of Ultimate DNN Blog Module – SunBlogNuke v3.6.x or later version, today we continue to share a more awesome code sample for you and it indeed works well in our home page. As you go ahead do some customizations basing on SunBlogNuke, like the must-have widget module – Content Slider Widget, you will understand what the cool extendibility and flexibility our blogging modules supply for your dnn website. Firstly take a look at the screenshot below:

We’ve received a feature request from our client Tyler. He hoped that we can provide a handy way to deal with the datestamp of their dnn posts, including format and style, for example, he want to be able to pull out the day (27) and convert the month to abbreviated form, e.g., Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec.

I also agree his point and indeed blog calendar date icons, which show the publication date next to each entry, provide a simple way to spice up your blog design. Using just a single image, a bit of CSS and some simple configurations this tutorial will show you how to implement something similar in the Content Slider Widget (& your own themes, which will be supported in next building). Plus we share some resources for you to use. Note that you should apply those customizations with Ultimate DNN Blog Module – SunBlogNuke v3.6.x or later version which had been integrated with DNN Core Token APIs and provides you more extendibility and flexibility.

Today we are glad to announce that the built-in sitemap provider is available for Ultimate DNN Blog Module – SunBlogNuke. Actually the provider is inspired by the post Creating a Sitemap Provider For Your Module. Thanks Chris' efforts and great tutorial. From the guideline, I knew that in DotNetNuke Core 5.3 there was some work done around the Core search engine sitemap provider that was referred to as "The sitemap now allows module admins to plugin sitemap logic for individual modules" in the release notes. So modules that have many pieces of content on a single page (Ex. Forum, Blog, Articles, etc.) can be picked up by the search engine sitemap provider. The basic flow is so simple and straightforward that we just took some minutes to implement it.

Active Social has some powerful extensibility capabilities which you can leverage with your SunBlogNuke installation. For example, you can add an additional tab to the Active Social user profile page, and load the SunBlogNuke "Content Slider" widget within it - giving you a "My Blogs" tab.The cool thing about this is that then you can apply the same learning to integrate other modules that can use a custom user key. Today this tutorial will cover how to integrate SunBlogNuke to Active Social User Profile Tabs and show you the flexible capability it owns.

Active Social and SunBlogNuke can play very nicely together, thanks to some good design choices in Active Social, and the extensive skinning capabilities of SunBlogNuke. It's possible to use Active Social avatars within the SunBlogNuke comments and author images, starting from v3.6.1 of SunBlogNuke. I have done this successfully with Active Social 1.6 and 1.7. Today this tutorial will cover how to integrate Active Social avatars with SunBlogNuke and show you how easy and simple it is.

"SunBlogNuke gave AuTechHeads a solid and flexible foundation for members to post to its blog. Although its features are outstanding, and keep growing rapidly, one of the biggest attractions to us is the quality of the support, and responsiveness of the developer. We can't be more thrilled at the value of our investment!"

- Matt Marlor (AuTechHeads.com)