ibm lotus software © 2006 ibm corporation ibm lotus notes domino blog template steve castledine

IBM Lotus Software

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM Lotus Notes DominoBlog Template

Steve Castledine

IBM Lotus Software


What is a Blog?

A blog (short for weblog) is a online journal that is frequently updated and intended for general consumption.

Blogs are defined by their format: a series of entries posted to a single page in reverse-chronological order. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author/s or reflect the purpose of the Web site that hosts the blog.

The author of a blog is often referred to as a blogger. Many blogs syndicate their content to subscribers using RSS (Really Simple Syndication), a popular content distribution tool.

IBM Lotus Software


What is a Blog (more)?

Visitors can post comments to entries on the site.

Each individual entry can be linked using a “Permanent Link” (or Static URL) from other sites

Contains archives of posts – By Month, by Category

IBM Lotus Software


A typical “Blog”

IBM Lotus Software


Where did blogs come from?

IBM Lotus Software


Blogs in the Enterprise

So what do blogs do in the Enterprise?

They enable groups of people to Communicate, Discuss, and therefore collaborate. So not just for personal use.

Who are these Groups?

CEO’s Office (organisation communication)

Projects (You can email in Content, Central store of project data)

Teams

Organisations (free marketing, instant response to negative market information, product research, solicit customer opinion)

Yourself – just sharing ideas with others

IBM Lotus Software


The IBM Lotus Notes Domino Blog Template

Introduced at version 7.0.2 as part of the “Innovation Pack” (includes the blog template, Notes in a USB Stick and RSS template) – will run on 6.x+ but not supported or licensed

Included within the server install

Allows end users to create blog websites on a Domino Server

Easy as creating a new database from the server side template

Template is powerful and allows end users/customers to customize the web site entirely and without changing the underlying notes design.

IBM Lotus Software


It is a standard Lotus Notes Application

Blog Database

IBM Lotus Software


Key Features

Content can be added via a Notes Client or Web Client

Inbuilt RSS feeds – Content/Categorised Content/Comments

Comment System (with built in SPAM protection)

Podcasting – iTunes feeds

Social Bookmarking – Categories/Tags

Automatic content archiving, searching, future publishing and expiry

HTML Template and Tag based system for ease of Web Design editing

IBM Lotus Software


Why use Domino for blogging? Key Features mentioned before

Security

Replication

Ease of Use

Existing Architecture

Notes on a Stick – take your Lotus Notes Client on a USB stick and blog anywhere

IBM Lotus Software


Creating a New Blog

Creating a New Blog is as simple as creating a new Notes Database from a Template

IBM Lotus Software


Creating a New Blog - Wizard

Database then asks some questions and you are away

IBM Lotus Software


Out of the Box Website – www.jeffeisen.comLotus Notes Chief Architect

IBM Lotus Software


Customising the Blog Application

Entire Website can be customised (via Lotus Notes Documents)

Database can be customised via:

– HTML Template and Tag system

– Stylesheet (CSS)

– Configuration Document

IBM Lotus Software


Customised Template – www.edbrill.comBusiness Unit Executive, Worldwide Lotus Messaging Sales

IBM Lotus Software


Customised Template – www.stevecastledine.comMyself

IBM Lotus Software


Customised Template - developerWorks Blog

IBM Lotus Software


Domino Server Team Blog – www.dominoblog.com

IBM Lotus Software


Theme - CoffeeSpot

IBM Lotus Software


Theme - Regulus

IBM Lotus Software


Add On – Statistics Template

Allows you to capture usage information for your blog. For example:

Daily Page Impressions

Monthly Page Impressions

Referrers – Any “linkage” to your site from others

Site Searches (including Googles if a public site)

RSS Feed Hits

Available from Lotus Support Website:

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=463&context=SSKTMJ&context=SSKTWP&q1=blog&uid=swg21246924&loc=en_US&cs=utf-8&lang=en

IBM Lotus Software


Add On – Statistics Template

IBM Lotus Software


Add On – Theme Template

Allows you to capture, manage and distribute themes easily between databases

Build a list of preferred company themes

“Push” updates to existing blog databases

Download Themes from a central source

Available shortly (version 1 Early May) ….

Probably direct from my website, maybe it will get upgraded to Lotus support download

IBM Lotus Software


Add On – Theme Manager

IBM Lotus Software


Manual “Theme” editing/customisation

HTML Templates (stored as Lotus Notes Documents) hold the html and system tags.

Three Template Types for Customisation

Page – For formatting each web page eg homepage

Item – For formatting each entry

Block – So we can reuse blocks of html within our pages

IBM Lotus Software


HTML Templates

IBM Lotus Software


TagsTags tell the blog application where to place key data

<$DXSubject$> - Subject of Post

<$DXAuthor$> - Author of Post

<$DXItemContent$> - Actual Content of Post

<$DXTitle$> - Title of Blog

Example:

<html><head>

<title> <$DXTitle$> </title>

</head>

<body>

IBM Lotus Software


Stylesheet (CSS)

Edited within Notes Document so do not need to edit Lotus Notes design.

Database “parses” Content Rich Text when saved so stylesheet takes precedence on formatting (removes font tags – can be switched off)

IBM Lotus Software


Configuration Document

Configuration document stores all the key settings for the database – including:

Any text/html generated by the system

Site Settings/Options

Switching on/off various features: Emailing Content, Logging Statistics, Email Subscriptions, Technorati Pings, Podcasting

IBM Lotus Software


Configuration Document Location

IBM Lotus Software


Resources Lotus Support site under “Domino Server” – search “Blog”

Lotus Notes 8 Help Documentation

Personal Website http://www.stevecastledine.com

IBM Lotus Software


Resources Two Articles on creating Themes from Scratch: http://www.stevecastledine.com/sc.nsf/dx/Creating-a-new-Theme1.htm

http://www.stevecastledine.com/sc.nsf/dx/Creating-a-new-Theme2.htm

IBM Lotus Software


Questions