How to create blogs in Lotus Notes 8

More and more people run their own blogs, where they make online texts, in turn, other people - with or without authentication, depending on configuration - can be commented on. Lotus Notes 8 has now been realized in its own comprehensive blog capability, based on a template. The template for creating new blog is called the IBM blog and has dominoblog.ntf the file name. It is found in the list of advanced templates. Since access to blogs on the Web, the blog must be created on a Web server. It's best to create equal a full-text index, to efficiently search large blogs.

The site configuration

Immediately after the creation of the Notes application for the blog a dialogue box appears in which the basic information can be defined for the site. For information on the site details should be given blog site. These include the name and an optional but useful description and the primary server. It is located at the server through which access the blog is. With set can be selected a different server, for example, if a replication other open web server for external access will be one on this server and for accessing the blog will serve as the primary. The URL for the blog is created automatically. In the lower level there is the personal details with information on Blogger. These include the user in Notes and the user name to be used in the blog. In addition, other data such as e-mail and website of the blogger to be given. The site can be configured as the default, but can be adapted for each entry in the blog.

Security for blogs

The first step after creating the video database is to establish the basic security settings. It is all about, whether and in what activities you want to allow anonymous access. The security settings are controlled by the ACLs for the created application (database). Particularly important are the access permissions to Anonymous. These are initially set to Author and allow the creation of documents in the blog. If you indeed read access for all, but after a change would only allow authentication, you have access to the value of reader traffic to go in and restrict to read access. This means in consequence, however, that you must then manage the users of the blog. These must all be listed in the Domino Directory, or - on Directory Assistance - in another directory used for authentication. Click here to go to quite a bit of extra effort.

Create content, post messages

After creating the blog, you might add in the next step website. This is done with the New button content that appears by default. If they are not in the current view to see content you can select when one of the sub-points, make the button at the upper edge will appear. In the new document for the creation of content you can then create the first blog entry. In the Content tab to have only the subject and the rich text will be shown, so the title for the blog entry and the actual text. Since it is a rich text field, you can format the text as well. In addition, let the button action and also insert graphics, HTML formatting, attachments and other elements on insert. The categories in the Categories tab, you can only use it when it has defined in advance. In the next chapter we'll talk more about the categories. Important are the security settings that can be configured to restrict access to specific security groups. Also there is a also specify an expiration date for documents. The other registers are not needed for "normal" blog entries.

Order by categories

Categories for the content of blogs must be created in Categories area. For content with New Categories can create a new category. This must be specified as a name first. When tagging can be created for specific sites, tags, search the blog. Moreover, can the content requirements for the formatting to make the sorting and security. With the security settings, certain categories are protected, so the content is not visible to all users. After creating categories, this can be in any can be adapted already generated blog entries accordingly.

Discussions in blogs

Blogs live primarily on the quality of the blog entries themselves - are important but also the discussions that occur around individual entries. For each blog entry you can control whether a discussion should be supported. This can be done at the appropriate commands to use the Action button. There can be discussions open and close, and enable and disable. The latter makes it take a discussion to temporarily suspend or resume. In blog posts, where the discussion is supported, you can add comments. This can be directly on the Notes button to make Comment. A comment is always a theme and commentary text. On the comments in turn, further responses will be created.

The blog on the Web

On the content of the blog is of course not only with the Notes application, but also on the Web accessible. The easiest way to test the functionality of the preview, the bodies appear to be different. However, there was in this region in the current Beta 3 of Lotus Notes 8 still has some bugs when it came to the correct display and update information in the blog. But one can assume that these smaller deficiencies are eliminated until the release of the final version - after all, is in the blogs talking about a completely new feature. However, it is already clear that this is a very interesting addition to the existing functions of Lotus Notes is. This is true even when the Domino server is not in Internet access, since the blog in some areas also a good alternative to the discussion are Lotus Notes databases.

The Wizard Blog

With the buttons at the top there are the Wizards. In addition to administrative assistants for various functions of the blogs are accessed. Basic details can be set with the basic settings that were configured the device in to be adapted. With the blog services can be automated functions in blogs on and off. Examples include communication with specific search pages for blogs, but also the maintenance of the blogs, for example through the automatic deletion of blocked entries. With the wizard, HTML site templates can use HTML templates to selected pages on the blog as the search or help page is assigned. You can also access a wizard on the statistics for the blog. The functionality described represents only a portion of what we do with the blogs of Lotus Notes 8 and what can be configured there.