SunBlogNuke - DotNetNuke Blog Module

As our blogging module – SunBlogNuke is becoming increasingly popular in the DotNetNuke platform, we are trying to publish more tutorials & documents and hope them cover all the awesome features although SunBlogNuke so easy to setup and build your dnn blog. Today we would like to release 3 more videos reviews & tutorials, which are contributed by Aderson Oliveira (you can get more dnn video tutorials in dnnhero.com). Meantime I hope that you enjoy those helpful videos when you are no idea to set up your dnn blog and they also make your life easier. :)

As you know, the dnn blogging module SunBlogNuke supported Disqus out of the box but wasn't able to export the existing comments to Disqus. And our clients ever requested to move their existing blog comments over to Disqus, too. Fortunately, the v4.7 began to totally support export blog data with blogml format,  so you can use any 3rd party tools to convert the comments to WXR. Then you can import the WXR file under the Generic option in Disqus.

Just search term 'blogml to wxr' in Google you should get lots of similar converters. Here we recommend this simple converter, which works well with our exported file. The tool is a Windows console application that takes two parameters, the BlogML import file and the WXR output, i.e.:

BlogMLtoDisqus.exe C:\BlogML.xml C:\ForDisqus.wxr.

To export comments of SunBlogNuke to Disqus, please follow up the simple steps below:

1. Login in your blog dashboard of SunBlogNuke with host/admin account.
2. Go to 'Import/Export Panel' and click 'export' button to download the full BlogML export from your dnn blog.
3. Provide that you have placed the console tool & the export file in the folder d:\. Go to the folder and execute it in the command window like that:
   
   BlogMLtoDisqus.exe d:\BlogML.xml d:\ForDisqus.wxr
   
   Note that you’ll need to install .NET 4.0 as well if you don’t already have it. If you can’t convert it successfully, you can send us the exported blogml file and we will help you deal with it.
4. If there is no error throwing, now you should get the converted WXR file. Next just feel free to import it under the Generic option in Disqus.

If you have more questions about  this topic or blogging,  Please feel free to post a comment below.  I’ll be happy to help.

As more and more clients requested the tutorial how to set up multiple blogs or blogging with multiple authors in the same blog, here we list what the raised requirements are and how to work around them in the Ultimate DNN Blog Module – SunBlogNuke. Hope it helps. 1) Multiple blogs Question: "I was wondering if we can add this instance of module in 2 different pages in the same portal. The two modules should have different blogs, which means module1 on page1 shouldn't show blog contents of module2 on page 2 and vice-versa. Would that be possible?" Solution: Yes, you can build multiple blog instances in different pages with different contents. Just add it and assign them in the edit blog panel with specific tab (page). Please refer to the tutorial in detail - Setting up Multiple Blogs. 2) Multiple authors Question: "We would like to use the blog module in a team environment where anyone on the team could post an entry to the same blog. The individual user should be credited as the aut ...

Actually the vote/digg feature, which allows registered users to vote for your blog posts, was supported from Ultimate DNN Blog Module – SunBlogNuke v4.0 but it is not active in default. It requires some customizations to integrate with. Today we would like to share you how to apply the awesome feature into your dnn blog.  Firstly we will introduce the basic sample with built-in feature, then extend to supply the advanced usage with developing a new vote widget and customized  styles.

Finally our development team implemented the custom fields feature for Ultimate DNN Blog Module – SunBlogNuke in the upcoming version 4.2, which will be available soon. The use of custom fields will be one of the keys to SunBlogNuke's flexibility and endless possibilities. Essentially, all a Custom Field does is allow you to add extra pieces of data to individual DNN Blog posts that otherwise aren’t there by default. We hope that it will change the way people look at SunBlogNuke and rise in popularity of SunBlogNuke, too.  We’ll look at how to put custom fields into practice and continues to show you some potential uses of custom fields later. Hope it makes you easier or more productive to use custom fields.

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 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.

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

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.