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

- Select the "Content" element

- Select the uBlogsy "Create Blog Post" tab

- 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):
- The uBlogsy Landing page
- 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.