Blog Settings

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Blog Settings

by Scot Ranney • November 29, 2018

Scot's Blogger


You can create as many blogs as you like in Scot's Blogger and CMS. Each blog has it's own individual settings and is not related to the other blogs. 

Multiple blogs were introduced in version 3. If you are using version 1 or 2 please look at the Configuration FAQ entry.

 General Settings

Name of Blog

This is the name of the blog. This can be used in the blog template or ignored.

Blog Code

A unique identifying code for the blog.

Global Administrator

Your customer account login name. This gives you unfettered access in the Authors Portal to publish, write, and moderate all comments and posts.

Global Administrator Login Password

This is a convenience that allows you to automatically log into your author account without going through the login process manually.

Image Directory

This is where the images you drag and drop into your posts are stored. This can be a multi level directory, such as images/store/blogs. The directories will be created if they don't exist.

Use built in light box for images

Clicking on blog images will open them up in a floating window. The script that runs the lightbox is extremely light weight and worry free.

Store Module Path

Using the default setting usually works. This is necessary for some behind the scenes interaction.

Main Blog Featured Image URL

This image will display at the top of the blog roll.

Short Description

Top of the page content for your blog roll display in the default blog template. 

Main Description

Longer description, more content, for your blog roll page.

Image Directory

When you drag and drop an image into a post, this is the directory it will be stored in.

Path of Sitemap File

Normally you'd enter a sitemap filename here. Using your blog code and sitemap is a good practice: recipes_sitemap

Use Built In Lightbox

Using the lightbox is a nice touch because it will open a modal with the image when someone clicks on it (like most images in blog posts.) The lightbox uses the Featherlight library which is super small and fast loading. The only drawback is if you want to create image links. In this case you'd need to turn off the lightbox. We don't recommend using image links. They aren't good for SEO and who wants to lose the lightbox? Instead of using images for links, use text links under the image.

Auto-Save

This will automatically save your blog post every time it detects a new line. Useful if you walk away from your blog post and the system logs you out. Important note: autosave is activated after the first time you save the post. Best practice is to save the post once after you enter a title. Then autosave is activated. The reason this is important is that sometimes if you are working on a great blog post your editor account will time out and log you out while you are working. Then when you save, you will lose all your work. 

So: save after you enter the title.

Debug Mode

Useful for tracking problems and should be used only when requested by support.

Email Address for System Messages

The only system message at the moment is to let you know if someone left a comment. This is the email address that this message will be sent to.

Email Admin When a Comment Is Left

If you want the system to send you an email after a comment is left, turn this option on.

New comments Automatically Censored

Forces comment moderation system wide. Use with the above option to email you when a comment is left so you can uncensor it in a timely manner.

Default Number of Articles to Load

This loads X number of the most recent articles.

Max Search Results

Not in use at the moment.

Api Code

This is used for the CRON calls to auto-publish scheduled content

Automatic Schedule Monitoring

If you don't want to set up a CRON call to auto-publish your scheduled content, you can force the system to check each time a post is read. Creating a CRON event is the better way to go and if you're not sure how to do it, contact your host because CRON events are basic for server techs to deal with.

Create RSS FIle Instead of Using Generated Feed

There is a lot of information in this setting, however, basically this option allows you to create an RSS file if your site can't generated a proper RSS feed. This happens a lot in older stores because some modules put blank lines at the top of the page source which breaks the automatically generated RSS file. If this happens to you, the first thing to try is removing all old modules that do not use. If that doesn't work, then put a filename here such as blog_feed.xml

Blog Page Code

The page code you used when creating your main blog page. It should be something simple such as BLOG

Social Media

Facebook ID Number

Optional, lets Facebook know you're the author

Twitter Name

Sets up data for a twitter card, better for sharing

Publisher

Used for blog post microdata and to help flesh out SEO. You should use your official google account handle for this to get better SEO in Google.

Misc Settings

Skip jQuery

Scot's Blogger will load jQuery. If your site already has jQuery loaded you can select this option to skip the jQuery load.

Turn Comments Off

This is a global setting that will turn comments off and on for the entire blog system. Individual posts can be set to override this.

Project Honeypot API Key

This will help filter out most spam comments. Project Honeypot is a site dedicated to tracking spammer IP addresses. If you want to use this you must create an account here: https://www.projecthoneypot.org/create_account.php

After you've created your account, you must create an API code here: https://www.projecthoneypot.org/httpbl_configure.php

Turn Ratings Off

Use this option to turn ratings off for all posts.

Default Image CSS Class

This CSS class will automatically be assigned to any images you drag and drop into your posts. For example, if you are using Bootstrap, you would want img-fluid to be assigned to your images.

Editor Screen (author portal) Background URL

Add a nice image to your editor screen background. It can help inspire better blog posts.

Editor Screen (author portal) Content Background

Change the background color of the Editor Screen content area.

Number of Characters to Display in a Link

Links can be truncated in your posts. If you only want to show a limited number of characters, enter it here. The link will end with trailing .... 

Author's Note: I personally would rather see the entire link so I set mine to 999.

Save Backups

Every time you save a post a backup will be created that you can reload. Useful for that one time you really mess up a post and need a verion three or four saves back. You can delete the backups whenever necessary.

Publishers, Authors, & Moderators

Publishers, Authors, and Moderators

These are all customer login names. 

  • Global Publishers can write and publish in any category.
  • Global Authors can create posts in any category, but can not publish them.
  • Global Moderators can censor or delete comments in any post.

The settings here are only good for the blog you are in. If you want the same publishers/authors/moderators for other blogs on your system you'll need to assign them to those blogs as well.

Content Extras

Insert before the closing HEAD tag in the Author's Portal.

Put any custom CSS or other head tag content you want in the Authors Portal here.

Insert before the closing BODY tag in the Author's Portal.

ut any javascript calls or other code that you want to show up at the bottom of the page.

Replace the Redactor JS call with the following.

Scot's Blogger uses the Redactor HTML editor. If you want to change the default settings for Redactor, enter the Redactor initialization javascript you want to use here.

Insert the Following Into the Redactor JS Call

If you just want to add something in the Redactor JS you can enter the code here. This will be appended to the end of the Redactor JS call. If you're experienced with javascript, you do not need to add a comma at the end of the inserted script.

Permalinks

Permalinks are very important. They handle how the system processes the URL so the right post, category, blog, and other content shows up.

When Scot's Blogger updates your .htaccess file it puts a comment at the top and the bottom. You should never add .htaccess settings in between those comments because if you remove or update/refresh your Scot's Blogger .htaccess settings, the settings you put inside that block will be removed and lost forever.

Use Permalinks

The only time you would not use permalinks is when you are first setting up your blog. Otherwise you will want to turn this on.

Update/Refresh .htaccess Settings

Set this to YES when you are ready to update your .htaccess file so your blog post links will work correctly.

Placement: use TOP placement unless otherwise instructed. The reason is that Miva Merchant settings will override your blog settings if you put them at the bottom.

Create top level URL rule: this is a nice way to have a very clean blog URL for the initial blog roll page. However, make sure you are not interfering with any product URLs because they won't load if they are the same as the top level blog URL.

Remove .htaccess Settings 

This will safely remove the blog htaccess settings.

Permalink Base Blog Url

This can be anything, but it's best to keep is short, such as blogs or articles

Base Blog Slug

This will be the basic URL to get to your blog page, usually bringing up the blog roll.

Blog Page Code

This is the store page code for the blog. If you have more than one blog you can use the same page code to display them all unless you want a customized display for a blog. In that case you would need to create a new blog page setup (see the installation instructions) and customize the blog template. If you have questions about this contact support.

Permalink Extension

Common permalink extensions (such as .html) are available here. If you want to override the permalink extension for any reason, you can do so using the Custom Permalink Extension option below this option.

Permalink Feed URL

This is the RSS feed URL that you post to RSS sites as well as the URL people will use to subscribe to your feed.

Number of RSS/ATOM Feed Entries

This doesn't have to be a huge number, usually 20-30 is good enough.


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The blog posts on Scot's Scripts are made using by Scot's Blogger, a full featured Wordpress replacement Miva Merchant blogging module.