Installing uBlogsy Umbraco Project

After recently installing the Umbraco blogging project uBlogsy and reading some forum posts relating to difficulties, I decided to write this article to give a few pointers to those looking at uBlogsy for the first time.

If you are intending to install uBlogsy into your existing site, please read the integrating uBlogsy into your existing site after this article.

Getting the Umbraco project uBlogsy up and running for the first time

This guide is not intended to be a one stop all inclusive resource for advanced uBlogsy users, however, if you are installing / configuring uBlogsy for the first time, the following high level steps should help you get started:

1. Download uBlogsy from our.umbraco.org to your local machine.
2. Install the uBlogsy package via your Umbraco admin interface (Developer (Section) > Developer > Packages > Install local package).
3. Initialise default nodes by creating your first post (Content (Section) > Content > Create Blog Post (Tab) > Click to create)
4. Remove unwanted content nodes.
5. Decide how you desire blogging folder structure (eg. flat, in year folders, in year followed by month etc.) and configure nodes.
6. Configure email settings.
7. Configure general settings.
8. Customise templates, content types and style sheets.
9. Test.

I intend to further describe areas you may want to consider when integrating uBlogsy into an existing site in a future post, so please visit again shortly or subscribe to out RSS feed (link to right) to keep updated.

Initialising the default uBlogsy nodes

If installing the uBlogsy into a blank Umbraco instance, a set of content nodes are created.  I found that when installing uBlogsy against a mature Umbraco site with existing content, these nodes are not created.

To initiate the default uBlogsy nodes, log into the Umbraco admin area then:

1. Navigate to the "Content" section
   
2. Select the "Content" element
   
3. Select the uBlogsy "Create Blog Post" tab
   
4.  Create your first uBlogsy blog post
   

After installing to a blank Umbraco instance, or following the above steps, you should have a number of content nodes as follows:

Remove unwanted default uBlogsy content nodes

Years and test posts

Included in the default uBlogsy content are a number of test blogs, so to get started, right click and delete 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Informational pages

A navigation bar is included in the package with content created under the "Pages" node, been included in the navigation.

For example, if the out of the box content is published, the "About" and "Contact" pages are rendered as follows:

If you do not want these sections, simply delete the nodes and the navigation items will be deleted accordingly.

Unwanted Folder

Dependant on desired URL structure, delete the "Posts" node, as new nodes should be created to suit your requirements.

uBlogsy Email Settings

Email setting are primordially setup in two place (excluding the SMTP settings in web.config):

1. The uBlogsy Landing page
2. The uBlogsy Email Templates (three templates)

The uBlogsy Landing page contains some default settings under the "Contact Info" tab which can be overwritten in the Email Templates along with further setting.

uBlogsy General Settings

uBlogsy has settings in a number of places including in XML files, however, for most installs, reviewing each tab of the uBlogys Landing page, will suffice.

This article is intended to get you started on the uBlogsy package and should offer particular assistance for green field sites focused on blogs, articles etc.

For the best results with integrating into existing Umbaco sites, a deeper understanding of the uBogsy Document Types and Templates is required.  Time permitting, I intend to write some further guidance on this area in the coming weeks, so why not subscribe to our RRS feed to be alerted about this and other articles.

Richard

Update:

The integrating uBlogsy into your existing site article is now available.