There is a patch for Bloo version 1.10 that is necessary if you are getting nasty errors when upgrading from Bloo version 1.00 to 1.10. Basically, the patch fixes a problem that occurs for webhosts that do not have gpc magic quotes turned on by default.

You'll know you have the error if you get something that looks like this when you run the upgrade program:

SQL Error: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that
corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near
''Page.sidebar'' at line 6:select o.overlay_id ,o.syntax from vl_overlay
o where o.syntax like '%Post.form.search%' and deleted_flag = 'N' and
o.name = 'Page.sidebar'

Installing the patch and re-running the upgrade will fix the problem. The patch is relatively small - just two files.

You can download the patch here.

Two new themes have been uploaded to the Themes blog and are available for downloading and use on your Bloo blog. They are:

Butterfly (based on the Expression Engine theme by Thomas Arie Setiawan).



Elegant (based on the Elegant 2.0 WordPress theme by ShinRa)

Some new themes have been uploaded to the Themes blog and are available for downloading and use on your Bloo blog. They are:

Daleri Dark (based on the Wordpress theme by Andreas Viklund).



Pure (based on the WordPress theme by Celestial Star)



Note: Pure requires Bloo version 1.10 to function properly. If you're not already on that version, you can upgrade to it by following the instructions here.

Field of Dreams (based on the Field of Dreams WordPress theme by Nathan Metzger)



Note: Field of Dreams requires Bloo version 1.10 to function properly. If you're not already on that version, you can upgrade to it by following the instructions here.

Refreshing (based on the Refreshing WordPress theme by Kate of rock-kitty.net)




More themes are coming soon . . .

Bloo version 1.10 is (finally) released! It includes some nice improvements over 1.00. You can download it here.

Below are the main features and fixes included in this release

• New and improved install and upgrade programs
• Title-based permalinks are now available. In other words, instead of your post permalink appearing as http://myblog/post_id=1, your permalink can look like http://myblog/posts/out-of-the-bloo-a-blog
• Beefed up security layers to protect against hacks.
  
• Searches now work for static pages as well as posts
• Improved the emails sent on comments and trackbacks
• Linefeed to BR tag replacements for posts and pages are now smarter. They won't add BR tags within TABLE, OL or UL tags
• General improvements in sidebar styles and organization
  
• Fixed a problem with the published date in the Comments RSS feed
• Fixed a problem with the Recent Comments link, which was preventing it from working
• Fixed a problem with the upgrade/install Ping that caused some blogs to hang on install
  

Click here for the detailed release notes.

For those of you on version 1.00 that have installed Patch 2, please avoid creating new themes within the system (i.e, don't create table-based themes). A problem has been discovered that will cause the blog not to initialize if you create a new theme.

This has been fixed and the fix will be in the next release of the software (1.1) coming soon. In the meantime, if you run into a problem after creating an on-the-fly theme within Bloo, you can get back up and running by manually deleting the new theme from the snap_on table.

If you need help, leave a message here.

Again, this only affects you if you're on Bloo version 1.00 patch 2.

Bloo version 1.00 Patch 2 has been released to resolve some known security holes in Bloo. If you are a Bloo version 1.00 user, this patch is highly recommended (note: it is only for version 1.00). You can download the patch, in either zip or tgz format, here. Just click on bloo.v.1.00.patch02.zip or bloo.v.1.00.patch02.tgz.

(for more information on the already-released patch01, click here)

In other news, work on Bloo version 1.1 is movin' right along. Expect the new version to be released soon!

An error was found in the default Page.sidebar overlay that comes with version 1.00 of Bloo. The fix for this is trivial, and there is now a patch available (bloo.v.1.00.patch01) that will fix it, here.

Note: If you are an upgrader who has already customized Page.sidebar, most likely you already have a good View Recent Comments link in your sidebar, so you may not need the patch. For new installers, the patch is necessary; you can also just customize your sidebar and fix the View Recent Comments link manually (go to Look and Feel, Overlays, and find and edit Page.sidebar in the Custom category) rather than bothering to download and install the patch.

The problem was due to some quotes in the href for that link that were inadvertently left as html entities in the overlay.

Also in the patch a small problem with the Last Published Date in the Comments RSS feed is fixed.

This is the big one . . . the first full Production release of Bloo! You can download it here.

Here's what's new in this release:

• Commenters on the blog can now edit their most recent comment after posting it. This ability lasts for several minutes
• The Private post type was created, allowing posters to create posts that can only be read by logged in posters or administrators.
• The Popular Posts extension now can have a specified time-window wherein it measures comment activity (rather than always just measuring for the life of the post)
• The blog now includes a “Lost your password?” feature, to allow users who have forgotten their password to get a new one.
• Now posters can create static pages, which are like posts but don’t display a date stamp and can only be displayed by going to the static page’s permalink URL. In other words, static pages don’t roll along in the normal post stream. This feature is useful for creating more “timeless” pages, such as an “About Me” page.
• The Bloogroll can now recognize a constant set in an overlay that specifies which Bloogroll categories to display. The constant is bloogroll_category_list, and is set in an overlay (usually Page.sidebar) using this syntax: _=bloogroll_category_list=Category 1,Category 2=_, substituting, of course, the real categories you want to display for Category 1 and Category 2
• Created the Contact extension, which allows the blog to have “Contact Me” and “Contact Post Author” links which will display forms through which users can send email messages to the blog administrator(s) or a post author without knowing the recipient’s email address
• Added links for “Older Entries”, “Newer Entries” on the Post display page to allow for navigation to older and newer posts.
• The permalink for posts is now, by default, on the post title, rather than the post time.
• Created the "Favorite Posts" SnapOn, which allows the administrator to show a list of his/her favorite posts from the blog.
• Created a Comments RSS feed.
• Created versioning in the system, which Bloo uses to detect when an upgrade is needed.
• We now have a new Bloo logo!
• Created a Trackback Send form, for sending trackbacks to other blogs.
• Form navigation is now smoother as the first field on most forms is now in focus by default.
• Changed the display of the “Everyone” security role to the more appropriately named “Guest”
• Renamed the “snapons” directory to “core”, for clarity’s sake.
• Removed the Remote Blacklist Spamicide extension SnapOn from the core release. Never much liked how this one worked (too many false-positives)
• Fixed a security vulnerability in Comments editing
• Fixed a problem with Post categories that have apostrophes in them (they were blanking out when the post was re-edited).
• The Bloogroll category drop-down was getting confused when the Category ID was greater than 10. This is fixed.
• Fixed problems with the RSS feed that caused it not to validate in certain feed readers.
• Fixed alignment problems in the post form when their were no post form extension snapons (such as Quicktags) enabled.
• Fixed a problem in the Lag Time Spam Checker extension snapon that was causing it to fail when checking trackbacks.
• Numerous other internal fixes and improvements

You can read the detailed release notes here.

Forgive the silence recently. Much work has been in progress. The production release of Bloo 1.00 is nearly ready and will hopefully be released in the next two weeks or so.

Huzzah!

The new Themes blog is available! This is a space where Bloo themes can be demoed and downloaded. Some new themes are coming soon.

The theme blog is here: http://www.outofthebloo.com/themeblog/

There is a new patch available for release candidate 2. It's a relatively straightforward one - it fixes a security vulnerability in the comments SnapOn and also fixes a bug in category selection while posting: any category with an apostrophe in it was getting cleared when a post was edited.

You can get download the patch here.

Bloo now has a project site on Freshmeat.net. I waited this long to set one up there because I wanted to wait for a production version. Now that we're at release candidate two, the time seems right.

Also, got a comment on the Bloo site yesterday: Bloo has been featured on LinuxLinks.com.

Cool . . .

The second production release candidate of Bloo, version 1.00, has been released. You can download it here.

Below are the features and bug fixes included in this release:

Features

• Multiple Category Tags. Now a post can be filed under multiple categories. This one was long overdue . . .
• Modified the post changes protector extension to handle changes to the post category.
• Redesigned the layout of the post admin and post display. In particular, made changes to accommodate multiple categories
• IP Blacklist - yet another Spam fighting SnapOn for Bloo. This one allows you to blacklist certain IPs so they can't leave comments or send trackbacks
• Multiple comment protection. In the past, people who were too quick on the Submit button might see their comment hit twice. This has been fixed.
• Reworked the ThemeSelector so that the admin can select which themes he/she wants to be in the rotation. This is important because in the past, all themes showed up, even "Bloo Base", which isn't a very presentable theme.
• Added capturing of the create and modify user id to the comments and post tables. Now we can see who did what.
• Made some general improvements to the phoo base foundation classes
• Date formats are now configurable by the admin. Now the admin can set the date format for the post date, post time, and comment time display. In addition, moved Post, Comment date formats and display settings to the Look and Feel section. Just seemed more natural.

Bugs Fixed

• An ampersand in a post title screws up the RSS feed. This has been fixed.
• When comments are sent to moderation, the user is not notified. Instead, they are just told “Thank you for your comment”. This has been resolved
• Those with “Everyone” status don’t have any real access to the admin panel. Fixed. Now they see a minimal administration panel, which basically just gives them the ability to edit their profile
• Error messages on login are very plain. Made 'em look nicer
• Simple Human Check display doesn’t start on its own line. Now it does.
• CommentFloodQuery was not working. This has been fixed.
• Upon upgrade or install, SnapOn and Theme lists were not shown in alpha order. They are now.
• First quote in Bloo Quote was not being selected as current upon entry of that quote into the system. Fixed.

You can view the detailed release notes here.

Watch me for the changes . . .

The BlooQuote patch is now deployed to Sourceforge. You can down load it by clicking here and selecting the bloo.v.1.00rc1.patches.zip or tgz file.

This fixes a pesky problem in Bloo release candidate 1 in which the Bloo quote of the day no longer advanced. In addition, administration of the BlooQuote snapon is improved so that you can now select the quote you want to make the current quote.

Work is continuing on release candidate 2.

Watch me for the changes . . .

You'll notice that my Jack Handy quotes now roll forward nicely.

I'll be releasing that fix out on SourceForge in a patch file soon.

A bug was discovered in the BlooQuote snapon that basically freezes it at the first quote - in other words, doesn't roll forward through the daily quotes - when you upgrade to release candidate 1.

There's a patch coming out for that. I'm going to test it here first.

Also - multiple category tags are coming! Been working on the interface . . .

I just upgraded this blog to release candidate 1. Note the timezone designator in the post timestamp. Cool . . .

The first production release candidate of Bloo, version 1.00, has been released. You can download it here.

While it certainly doesn't represent as large a leap forward as the Beta 2 release, this first production release candidate contains some nice features, with more coming (and hopefully quickly) on release candidate 2.

New features in this release:

• TimeZone Processing - Awww yeah! I've never been a fan of the "enter the number of hours between you and GMT" form of blog timestamping. First of all, that doesn't work well with daylight savings time, and plus it just seems kind of stick-and-rock. Now, when installing or upgrading a Bloo blog, you can actually pick your timezone, and let Bloo handle the rest - it will adjust time displays for daylight savings time, etc., and you don't have to pay attention to whatever your current offset to Greenwich is. There are new date formats also that will display the timezone for you in the post timestamp. Also, all internal times are now stored in GMT. I like platonic ideals - rather than storing internal times in database tables using the server time or other such fickle measure, Bloo stores everything in GMT. If you change your timestamp on your blog, all timestamps on all posts, comments, etc, will adjust.
• Got rid of one of the SnapOn packages in Bloo - the Lists package. This was used on a lot of behind the scenes stuff but was basically superfluous. Removing it also allowed us to remove the list_types table.
• Performed other cleanups on the settings table.
• Added new Settings menus, split up the General settings into more manageable pieces, such as Blog Profile, Discussion Settings, Time Zone settings, and Post and Comment Display Settings. You can now also adjust the number of posts to display on the main page, the number of comments to show in recent commentary, and the formats to use for date and timestamps.

Most of these changes, other than the addition of timezone processing, were just nice and necessary improvements. Much more is coming in release candidate 2.

Watch me for the changes . . .

Patches for the Bloo Beta 2 release have been deployed. Here's some detail on what's been fixed:

Patch
ct_code_001 - This fixes a problem with the ct_code spam filter that caused it to think all comments made to posts with long names were spam

rss_001 - This fixes some formatting problems with the Bloo RSS feed

style_001 - This fixes a problem with the styling of links in the sidebar.

These are all minor fixes, but still good to have. No more patches are expected for the Beta 2 version. Download the patches from the link above (they all come in one file) and view the readme.txt files for install instructions.

Now, to get to work in earnest on version 1.0!

Watch me for the changes . . .

After testing Bloo beta for a couple of weeks, the "feature" that wins the dumbest idea prize is making ALL sidebar links block style. That wasn't very smart - it affects too many other things. D'oh . . .

Patches will be forthcoming on that, plus there's a fix for the CTCode spam SnapOn and some RSS fixes coming.