New version of logic (logic_mascot) the Ode 1.x default theme.

Most of the changes involve reworking the HTML and CSS markup, but there are some noticeable changes to the look of the theme as well.

Note: These preview link will take you to themes.ode-is-simple.com and load that page with the selected theme. You may want to open the link in a new tab or separate window.

Preview

Preview of logic_mascot 1.2.6

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You may prefer to read this post using the 'text_page' theme, a single column layout without the sidebar.

I'm posting a short version of the installation instructions included with the release for a couple of reasons:

1. I've been told the instructions included with the release are too long.
2. I think it's important to give anyone thinking about installing Ode a little preview of what the process is like (before downloading the release).

I should also mention that the requirements are minimal - An Apache-like web server with support for Perl. Ode itself, requires no non-standard modules (though various addins might).

The release package includes very thorough installation instructions. They're so detailed in fact that I've been told they actually confuse; making installation seem more complicated than it is. How's that possible?

Well, if I were to guess... When faced with a lot of reading we all tend to skim. That may be a good strategy for reading a long newspaper or magazine article, an academic paper, or a book, but it's not a good way to deal with what are essentially step-by-step instructions.

For example

Instructions for baking cookies

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place cookies in oven for 15 minutes.
3. After 5 minutes reduce heat to 325 degrees.
4. Take cookies out of oven.
5. Let cool before eating.

If you miss even one of those steps, the process will most likely not end with you enjoying delicious cookies.

Of course, it would be difficult to miss one of those steps as written. But if I stretched that out to be 5 pages of running commentary, then you might miss something. And if you did, it wouldn't be your fault.

So, what to do? There are two options:

Slow down and read through the longer version of the instructions included with the release, making a special effort not to miss anything.

Read the shorter version of the installation instructions here.

Either way, be sure to ask if you have questions or run into any difficulty.

I have absolutely no doubt that we can get Ode up running for you. (Assuming the host computer meets the necessary requirements.)

Remember, Ode is intended to be instructional. With that in mind, I'll repeat something I've heard over and over again in school:

1. The only stupid question is the one you don't ask.
2. Others are likely to have the same question. By asking you're not just benefiting yourself.

I like to think that Ode is equal parts project and community. Asking questions is a large part of what makes a community effort like this work.

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If you've read through the project site, this blog, or spent any time on the forum then you probably know that I believe Ode and other projects like it are important - both to the continued health of the open web, and to all of us who appreciate the importance of the contributions of individuals like you and me, and the value of our participation and content.

The 'social web' is making us all bit players, or extras, in our own online lives. Increasingly our content is channeled through sites and services that we don't understand let alone have any control of over. These sites (Facebook and others) rise to obscene valuations fueled by user contributions, and by taking advantage of the our individual expertise, authority, creativity, local presence, reputation, personal information, etc. and the inherent value of our relationships.

Freely sharing is great, as is any other equitable exchange (whether we're talking about ideas, news and information, or good and services). However, in my opinion there is nothing equitable about the lopsided nature of the exchange between many social sites and their users.

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Steven Rosenberg has written a little article mentioning various self-hosted blogging platforms including Flatpress, Blosxom, PyBlosxom, Ode and others. I wanted to address a couple of his questions about Ode.

Though you can probably follow this post on it's own, I do recommend that you start by reading Steven's FlatPress and other flat-file blogging systems first. I'll wait...

OK, are we all back?

As I've already said, I wanted to add a couple of things about Ode and along with my opinion about a static mode, security, and some of the other topics Steven brings up in his post.

About implementing a static mode

1. I'm experimenting with two different types of static rendering at the moment.

The first is something like 'on demand'/just-in-time static. It works the way that you might guess it does. A static page is generated when a page is first requested. Subsequent requests for the same page are served statically.

The second is a dedicated static mode with which the entire site is generated offline.

In the end, I'll probably do both because a) I like the just-in-time solution and b) offline static mode is an often requested feature. To way of thinking, a project like this is about serving the interests of the community, not just scratching a personal itch.

However, Steven's right, I'm not a big proponent of static mode operation in general for several reasons. I'll mention just two...

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This will be short and to the point. This is in response to a user request. Given that a native commenting addin is not yet available, I do want to make sure that there is some sort of commenting solution for the time being.

Note: This is based on a very early pre-release of the disqus addin for Ode.

Download the disqus addin

Introduction

Disqus is a popular 3rd party commenting system with a lot of bells and whistles. To learn more, you'll want to visit their site. In fact you must visit the site and set up an account.

Disqus has a lot of features including (among others):

• Notifications,
• Media embedding,
• Integration with Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites

One of the big advantages of using Disqus is that it allows you to require that users authenticate to comment, without requiring that you manage authentications, or ask users to set up an account on your site.

Visitors can authenticate through Disqus using: a Disqus account, Twitter, Yahoo, and OpenId.

(There's also an option to allow visitors to post as guests using only a name and an email address.)

Should you use Disqus for comments?

At the moment a 3rd party commenting service is your only option with Ode. So if you want to enable comments right now, it's either Disqus or something else like it. What if the native comment solution were available and it did everything you need, should you use Disqus then?

I'd say it depends on how you think of comments.

If you consider comments an integral part of your site then you might prefer to have native comments saved locally along with the rest of your site content.

On the other hand, if you consider comments a nice extra, but not necessarily part of the content of your site, then a hosted service might be better for you.

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You could say there are two 'types' (Maybe 'kinds' is a better word because type sounds technical when used in the context of programming and this is not in any way a formal distinction) of addin interface routine:

1. Replacement type routines
2. All of the others

The key distinction is that you can have as many of the second type active at the same time, but only one of each of the replacement type routines.

Let's take a closer look at the replacement type routines and you'll understand why that is...

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If all addins include the same interface routines, how does ode.cgi keep things straight (i.e. avoid naming conflicts)? As you'll see once we start looking at some example subroutines, each addin must include a package statement declaring its namespace. By referencing these namespaces, Ode can target specific routines in specific addins with otherwise identical names.

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by getting to work documenting the addin interfaces (finally). I'm going to keep this fairly short and to the point (because I want to be able to finish). The idea is for me to come back periodically, adding to the descriptions, correcting small errors, etc. (Or maybe opening the documentation up as a wiki.)

Of course, if you have any questions, just ask *please*. Documentation is more of a process than a task to be completed. The process works a lot better with your involvement. By asking you can make sure that your questions get answered now, instead of eventually. That will help you and potentially many others as well. (People tend to have the same or similar questions.) So whether you want to help yourself, or be generous and help others, contributing to the documentation effort by asking questions is the way to go.

Ode's addin interface scheme is intentionally simple, as you'll see.

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I'd like this to be the year that Ode really hits its stride. To my way of thinking that means, among other things:

• Documentation
• Cleaning up the website(s)
• More addins and themes

• Slowly and carefully reviewing ode.cgi itself

  Making small improvements here and there, and planning for the next release.

• A t-shirt :)

Documentation is the most important piece of this in my mind (if just narrowly), so I can think of no better way to celebrate Ode's first birthday. I've been working on documentation for a couple of days now and will continue to do so consistently.

So, Where is the documentation anyway?

Well it's an interesting question. If you're someone who has struggled to find info about Ode, you might be surprised (maybe disbelieving is a better word), when I say that the documentation has been here all along!

Let me explain...

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Most of this is either fairly self-explanatory or covered by the documentation at simpleviewer.net. There really is nothing specific to Ode about using SimpleViewer. (That's the point after all :) Still if you're looking for a detailed step-by-step walk through along with a couple of suggestions, you might want to read this through.

Regardless, give SimpleViewer a try. I think you'll like it.

You might prefer to read this relatively long post using the text_page theme.

I've decided to tackle photo galleries for this first how-to for several reasons:

1. Photos are important and speak directly to the idea of 'the personal web' I like to think about. Integrating photos with a weblog is a unique and compelling way to share experiences. Photos on their own are a little abstract and captions don't help enough. Tags, though informative are about as pleasant to read as an entry in a library catalog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_catalog). A weblog post gives context to the photos while the photos enliven the text. It's a perfect marriage. I'd love to see more Ode sites featuring lots and lots of photos.

2. It's pretty straight-forward and the results are really nice. Though people post lots of photos to social media sites, this is an area where I believe weblogs have the advantage.

3. There's a particular solution I really like and want to talk about.

Let's get started.

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