Download Editedit

First things first, what is Editedit?

The short answer is that it's an Ode addin that allows you to edit posts via a browser based form much like you would create an edit posts with Wordpress, update your Facebook account via the facebook.com website, or interact with twitter.com (or any number of other sites).

The Editedit addin is actually two things:

1. The addin itself
2. A special theme

The theme provides the interface (a form) which allows you to edit posts in a browser.

The default theme is a little fancier than it might be, with support for live previews. The previews are based on a Javascript port of markdown called Showdown created by John Fraser (http://attacklab.net/showdown/).

As you type, Markdown formatting will be converted on the fly (by default) and you will see the rendered HTML in the preview pane complete with links, images, videos, etc that simply pop into place as soon as you finish typing the underlying markup.

How does it work?

To edit a post navigate to the corresponding page using using the edit theme:

For example:

http://sample.net/cgi-bin/ode.cgi/some_category/some_post.edit

You'll see that the edit theme's form is prepopulated with the content from the post file.

To create a new post navigate to a page corresponding to a post which does not exist.

For example:

http://sample.net/cgi-bin/ode.cgi/a_new_category/some_new_post.edit

The page will load and you'll be presented with an empty form. The post file will be created for you when you save your changes.

If you'd like to get a better sense of what it's like to use the Editedit addin, you might want to give it a try. Using the demo you can play around with editing a post using editedit, and even save your changes and see what the resulting page looks like using Ode's default theme.

Yes, for now you can save changes. Please keep it clean and do not intentionally cause trouble.

Why Editedit?

If you're at all familiar with Ode, you probably know that unlike many other weblog platform and other other content management systems, posts under Ode are plain text files. (If you're not familiar with Ode you may want to visit the project site at ode-is-simple.com)This means that you can use your preferred text editor, or any application (even a web app) which allows you to generate text files, to write and edit posts. Whatever operating system you use, you're free to use native applications, and take take advantage of all of the features they offer (e.g. search and replace, spelling checking, automation/scripting, keyboard shortcuts, text expansion and auto-completion, undo, etc.).

Even if you've never used Ode before, it might already be your favorite way to write for the web because it allows you to use your favorite apps. If in the future you discover a new favorite, you can switch and Ode will switch with you. What's more, modern file transfer apps allow you to interact with remote storage as if it were a local. Expandrive is an example of this sort of app. (Again you can use your favorite solution - some very good options are free to use.)

The simple flexibility and power of writing posts under Ode is just one of many advantages of text files, and Ode's simple is best philosophy.

Despite the power and flexibility of using an editors, at times connecting to a remote server and using a standalone app to edit the content of your site may not always be ideal. For short posts and quick edits, when not using your own computer, and in other situations, it may be faster and more convenient to be able to create and edit posts directly in a browser. Now, with Editedit Ode can do that too!

You'll find detailed installation and usage instructions included with the addin itself.

As always, feel free to contact me with questions or feedback.

Contact me directly via email at rob @ ode-is-simple.com, or better yet participate in forum and discuss Ode and Editedit with me and the rest of the community of Ode users and developers.

(If you'd rather email, that's perfectly ok! :)

Enjoy!