A pure Xara Blog

A few have enquired as to adding a Blog to a Xara website.

Xara does not do this natively as a Blog requires a backend service and repository on the server or a third party application to handle this as Xara sites are static HTML.

Here is a no cost alternative: http://acorn.xara.hosting/xBlog/
The details on how it all works are in the Blog itself.

I have rushed a few bits. The DateTime Stamp does work but I changed my mind mid-flight and so it is an almost working version I have published.
The only other JavaScript is for navigating between Blogs using the Next/Prev Blog controls.
Everything else is straight Xara.

The idea is a website has an IFRAME that is linked to a Blog.
Each Blog is a separate Xara design published to a sub-folder, blogs.
A Blog is published as a 5-digit number (nnnnn.htm); each new blog is the next higher number. I have used 00000.htm as an area to list the published Blogs.

The idea is a designer build the main website and sets up the Blog area on the server.
The Blogger, who can be the designer, only ever publishes to the blogs folder.
If the Blogger is your Customer, they need to own an XDA. Xara Web Designer Premium works and it relatively cheap. It need not be updated.

What I want back from you is what you consider makes a Blog (for you).
If there is a demand, i will try and built it in.

If you use the supplied Template, remember to test it working, you need to Export the landing page (with IFRAME) to a local folder, create a sub-folder called blogs and export the Blogs to there. Just a Preview will not populate the IFRAME.

Acorn

Outstanding. If I were Xara I would put you on a retainer. Sadly I am not Xara. You contribute so much to this product.

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

Outstanding. If I were Xara I would put you on a retainer. Sadly I am not Xara. You contribute so much to this product.

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I totally agree Acorn.

This is a great idea. I’m not a website builder but was curious to read through your blog pages. It was slightly above my level of understanding but I did notice on a couple of pages (the first and the last I think) the word ‘blog’ became ‘blob’.

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Originally Posted by Jonopen

This is a great idea. I’m not a website builder but was curious to read through your blog pages. It was slightly above my level of understanding but I did notice on a couple of pages (the first and the last I think) the word ‘blog’ became ‘blob’.

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Cheers Jon, corrected.

I've added a new Blog.

My first go at an automatic datetime stamping is a bust as, when it works, it is returning the current time.
The fallback is to just manually type in the "publish" date.

Acorn

UPDATE - got the automatic datetime stamp to work.
The new code puts the time in the header and it retains the published date and time properly.

Acorn,

How would this work with search engines crawling the blog from the main site? Would the blog pages show up in the site map?

Ray

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Originally Posted by RKissane

Acorn, How would this work with search engines crawling the blog from the main site? Would the blog pages show up in the site map? Ray

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Ray, very easily but you have the added complication that when you access the blog it is own its own and not wiithn its main website form.

I will therefore have to script a redirect for it.

Acorn

THAT is darn good stuff. Thanks @acorn.
Since a few of us, women and men are getting a little long in the tooth …

1. Acorn, it’s time to write a book. Do it! Every tip. Everything you know. Do a start up and watch for donations. I’ll contribute.
2. @gwpriester … Already has some books. How about writing an update. I remember your Corel manuals. I bought Corel because it was Canadian.

I’m forgetting @egg and @initostar. How about something in pdf form.

Since I’m feeling a little sentimental these days on my love of this program, we have to remember all those who contribute to this board. Many work with the program for a living.
A few are retired (me) and I do things for free.
We’ll always have the digital, but pdf and books are my way.

Thanks everyone for all you do!

Great stuff Acorn
You have helped me numerous times over the years. Your never ending support and innovation is invaluable. Thank you!

Have I seen a picture of you Acorn. I really do want to see who is behind this wonderful person.

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Originally Posted by bwood

THAT is darn good stuff. Thanks @acorn.
Since a few of us, women and men are getting a little long in the tooth …

1. Acorn, it’s time to write a book. Do it! Every tip. Everything you know. Do a start up and watch for donations. I’ll contribute.
2. @gwpriester … Already has some books. How about writing an update. I remember your Corel manuals. I bought Corel because it was Canadian.

I’m forgetting @egg and @initostar. A few are retired (me) and I do things for free.

Thanks everyone for all you do!

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By no means should we forget Egg, initostar, and Gary P, in particular Egg has has helped me more then he will ever know

=D> I love you all. Now thinking of retiring but will hangout here at times. We will see. My current clients are devastated with me stopping work for them. No one knows what tomorrow brings. Look at the world situation, Ukraine and covid before that, God help us...An alien invasion?

You will be missed around here behzad.

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Originally Posted by wizard509

By no means should we forget Egg, initostar, and Gary P, in particular Egg has has helped me more then he will ever know

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You bet Larry. This winter I was having trouble with logos on backgrounds and @egg actually did a video for me. I was so impressed.
@initostar has helped me with video headers. Great board, great program.

I have finished designing xBlog for now.

I have corrected the DateTime Stamp.
I have added a mechanism for switching Desktop to Mobile (solo) mode. Solo mode works best on a SmartPhone.

I have just finished an HTML <table> listing for adding Blog details so they can be searched easily.
Again, the principle of having a hands-off approach to the main website has been achieved as the bloglist.htm file is a standalone <table. with search and filtering included.
It is published to the same location as the main website but separately. I added it into the main website as a Placeholder in a new Search page.
Its links open the found Blog in Desktop view.

Acorn

I absolutely agree with all that has been said about writing a book and about the value of the contributions made by Acorn, @gwpriester, @egg and @initostar and others. I have used Web Designer for many years but always seem to get stuck on the same things. To give any tips at all on how you would set up the design of a simple website from scratch without being caught out by not having correctly set up styles/colours etc would be so good. I have looked at the official documentation, but the parts about web stuff in it are too brief; I have looked at the official videos and they are too slow and don't fit the way I would work. I pick a lovely template from the library, full of excitement and hope - but by the time I have finished with it, it looks like a dog's dinner. I think if someone has previously used the other Graphics products in Xara before they used the Web designer, they would stand a better chance of mastering it. I do think this is an incredible product though.

To wizard509Attachment 131765

I want to get started as soon as I have some time to dive into it.

@acorn.
Just a clarification. Is the blog component an item that the client can change? Or is this a component that the designer is changing.

Sometimes a blog is just a page with updates for products etc, whilst other pages remain the same. More of a convenience. Thanks for your hard work on this one.

Bill, the blog component is a Xara Template that the blogger has access to.

If the blogger wants to change it then they keep the page size the same and change everything else.

Changing the page size impacts the main site so the designer would have to be advised.

The blogger is publishing a set of Xara single page web pages.
All they have to worry about is the naming of the page conforms to the numbering that I advised.

Acorn

Presumably, this still has to be done within a Xara Desktop Application for edits whoever does it?

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Originally Posted by ss-kalm

Presumably, this still has to be done within a Xara Desktop Application for edits whoever does it?

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Keith, yes.
I did state, "If the Blogger is your Customer, they need to own an XDA."

That does, however, not means it has to be this way.
You could write a very simple HTML Template and advise the Blogger to only add words in the areas you indicate.
You could expend the method to anything that produces HTML. Adding in images and links is a bit more complex and if going down this route I would propose a MarkDown editor, one that allows simple editing and outputs to HTML.

I did also indicate it was "a pure Xara Blog."

Acorn