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DasBlog 1.8 RC1

Posted 2005-07-29 05:10 PM in ASP.NET | Movies | DasBlog | XML | Bugs.

UPDATE: Lots of testers and readers installed this RC and found some good bugs. Image uploading was slightly broken in this build, so if you haven't upgraded, hang back a bit. Remember that all bug reports should be filed on SourceForge, not sent to Omar and I directly. Feature requests should be filed also. We'll do another RC and/or possibly the 1.8 Gold Release later this week. There are also a few more features sneaking in, including 'pluggable' pings to blog sites like Technorati.

What are you doing this weekend? Why not install DasBlog 1.8 RC1? (as always back up your data!)

New Features of Note

Anti-Spam Features

Automatic Referral and Trackback blacklist update
CAPTCHA for non-admin users
Logging and display of Comment IP addresses and resolved Hostnames for Admins
DasBlogUpgrader can strip spam from existing content folders
Support for rel="nofollow"
Ability to delete referrals and trackbacks directly from the Admin UI

Security Features

HttpOnly cookies
Admin access auditing
SMTP Authentication for outgoing mail

Syndication Features

Improved RSS Comments support for SharpReader and RSS Bandit
Upgraded Atom support from 0.3 to Valid Atom 1.0. Syndication permalink changes but 301 is issued.
RSS 2.0 validates via FeedValidator.
Ability to mark entries as "syndicated" or not. Entries can appear on the site but not in RSS/Atom.

Performance Features

Search Highlighting is optional now
Referrals are logged but not stored in XML by default. Configurable.
(This has huge performance benefits for high traffic sites.)
DasBlog Upgrader can optionally remove all referrals.
(Again with high traffic sites some folks had 5meg XML files full of referrals)
Theme templates are now cached in memory.

Content Features

Ability to pre- and post-date entries
Permalinks based on Title and Date optional: 2005/06/06/title.aspx
Latest build of Free Text Box including ability to upgrade FTB without upgrading DasBlog.
Text Editor (FTB) supports FireFox
Blog Statistics macro
Mail-To-Weblog continues to improves. Works with Thunderbird.

Extensibility Features

Custom Macro Plugin model without recompiling DasBlog

Theme Features

DasBlog now ships with 16 themes and a Theme Combo to change between them.
New theme.manifest file makes themes and image assets more portable.

Tracked by:
"Dreams of RSS, .Text, and DasBlog..." (paul.bz) [Trackback]
"DasBlog 1.8" (KodeeXII.Net) [Trackback]
"New Version Of DasBlog" (Ayende @ Blog) [Trackback]
"DasBlog Version 1.8 RC1 released" (deedee´s Blog!) [Trackback]
"New Version of DasBlog" (Julie Lerman Blog) [Trackback]
http://www.ekampf.com/blog/UpgradedToDasBlog18RC1.aspx [Pingback]
"DasBlog 1.8 RC1" (shahine.com/omar/) [Trackback]
"DasBlog v1.8 Release Candidate 1- Now available to download" (greg hughes - do... [Trackback]
"Das Blog 1.8 rc1" (The glamorous world of software development) [Trackback]
"On the Road" (Musings on the Marathon) [Trackback]
"New dasBlog version" (Useless Inc.) [Trackback]
http://www.tomergabel.com/New+DasBlog+Version.aspx [Pingback]
"Free ASP.NET Blog Application - DasBlog v1.8RC1 - Weblog Engine" (David Hayden ... [Trackback]
"Moving on up..." (ben) [Trackback]
"Upgraded to DasBlog 1.8 RC1" (James Kovacs' Weblog) [Trackback]
"dasBlog 1.8.5210.0 Upgrade" (blog. Kelly Keeton) [Trackback]
"Might be time for an update" (Earning the next skiing holiday) [Trackback]
"daBlog 1.8 RC1 Released" (Technology Policy) [Trackback]
"DasBog 1.8 RC1" (Vasanth Dharmaraj's Blogs) [Trackback]
http://localhost/Morts/PermaLink,guid,b05861c6-03b1-4f19-b907-e7109cf66073.aspx [Pingback]
"dasBlog 1.8RC1" (Elegant Code) [Trackback]
"SharePoint theme on dasBlog" (Mart Muller's Sharepoint Weblog) [Trackback]
"DasBlog 1.8 RC1" (aheil.de blog) [Trackback]
"DasBlog 1.8 RC1" (schrankmonster blog) [Trackback]
"dasBlog 1.8 RC1" (blog.truffula.tv) [Trackback]
"Upgraded to dasBlog" (marklio) [Trackback]
http://www.ayende.com/Blog/2005/07/30/NewVersionOfDasBlog.aspx [Pingback]
"New Version Of DasBlog" (Ayende @ Blog) [Trackback]

Saturday, July 30, 2005 12:01:14 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Has downloaded, and loaded on my laptop. Pretty cool. Good job, dasBlog team.

Kent Chen

Saturday, July 30, 2005 3:08:31 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I tried the upgrader, and it fails to upgrade my content.

First, when it tries to fix the dates in the content, I get plenty of these exceptions:
Saved 2005-02-13.dayextra.xml
ERROR: Cannot delete file: d:\Copy of Ayende.com\Blog\content\2005-02-13.dayextra.xml
System.IO.IOException: Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String str)
at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError()
at System.IO.FileInfo.MoveTo(String destFileName)
at DasBlogUpgrader.Program.Upgrade(String path) in C:\dev\DasBlog CE\source\DasBlogUpgrader\Program.cs:line 240

Then, when cleaning the spam I get an unhanlded exception and it dies.

Found 22 trackings/referrals in d:\Copy of Ayende.com\Blog\content\2005-02-19.dayfeedback.xml
...Found 4u in http://mp3-sharing-communities.music-download-4u.net/, removing
...Found best in http://best-mp3-file-sharing.music-download-4u.net/, removing
...Found poker in http://poker-strategy-card.guideforcasinos.com/, removing
...Found poker in http://player-poker-profile.guideforcasinos.com/, removing

Unhandled Exception: System.UriFormatException: Invalid URI: The format of the URI could not be determined.
at System.Uri.Parse()
at System.Uri..ctor(String uriString, Boolean dontEscape)
at System.Uri..ctor(String uriString)
at DasBlogUpgrader.Program.IsBadNode(String nodeValue) in C:\dev\DasBlog CE\source\DasBlogUpgrader\Program.cs:line 269
at DasBlogUpgrader.Program.FixReferralSpam(String path) in C:\dev\DasBlog CE\source\DasBlogUpgrader\Program.cs:line 340
at DasBlogUpgrader.Program.Main(String[] args) in C:\dev\DasBlog CE\source\DasBlogUpgrader\Program.cs:line 462

Ayende Rahien

Saturday, July 30, 2005 6:13:54 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Upgraded my blog to 1.8 RC1.
The upgrade went smooth and without any problems and the new themes rock!
Hope I won't be manually cleaning trackbacks spam anymore...

Just a quick bug I spotted while checking the new themes:
The 'elegante' theme displays the words 'fasBlog Elegante' where my blog title should be...

Keep up the good work! :)

Eran Kampf

Saturday, July 30, 2005 7:44:11 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Scott, the "Encrypt Login password" on the Configuration seems make no difference checked or unchecked...

Tee

Saturday, July 30, 2005 9:31:24 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Tee-

Encrypt Login Password will cause the password that you enter on login.aspx to be encrypted when posted to the server. That's all it does.

-Omar

Omar Shahine

Saturday, July 30, 2005 5:28:23 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

FYI Folks, if you've turned off Referral Logging you won't see Trackbacks. That's a bug we'll fix in the release.

Scott Hanselman

Saturday, July 30, 2005 8:53:11 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Hey Scott (& Omar) - I'm trying to play around with dasBlog some on my home XP machine, but am not having any luck. I've installed 1.8 RC1 (via the vbscript) and when I navigate to http://localhost/dasblog/ I only see the actual contents of default.aspx. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

tod

Sunday, July 31, 2005 12:27:24 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

That happens if you install IIS *after* you installed the .NET Framework. You need to run aspnet_reg.exe -i to map .aspx files to ASP.NET.

Scott Hanselman

Sunday, July 31, 2005 11:13:59 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Thanks Scott, that is exactly what happened. I just installed IIS yesterday after reading your blog entry (and taking your recommendation). Purely semantics, but just so anyone else reading this knows...you missed a few letters in the command. It should be "aspnet_regIIS.exe -i". :)

Thanks again for helping out!

tod

Sunday, July 31, 2005 2:05:51 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I'm not able to edit the configuration. It throws this error that doesn't tell me much:

Error:
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at newtelligence.DasBlog.Web.EditConfigBox.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive()
at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive()
at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive()
at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive()
at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain()
while processing http://www.tommyblogs.com/EditConfig.aspx.

Any suggestions about how to debug this? Anything I should look for in site.config?

Tommy Williams

Sunday, July 31, 2005 2:19:41 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Looks like I figured out what happened: there's a lot more needed to upgrade from 1.7 to 1.8 than just the content of the upgradedasblog folder. The various edit .ascx controls needed to be replaced.

Tommy Williams

Monday, August 01, 2005 5:34:29 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Hi Scott,
Found a bug in the 'Upload Image' functionality when editing entries.
I uploaded an image and it added an IMG tag to the editor with the following Url:
http://www.ekampf.com/blog/~/content/binary/VistaVPC.jpg
Instead of:
http://www.ekampf.com/blog/content/binary/VistaVPC.jpg

- Eran Kampf

Eran Kampf

Monday, August 01, 2005 7:05:14 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Eran - thanks. I'll look at it. Remember that SF.NET is the place to submit bug reports!

Scott Hanselman

Tuesday, August 02, 2005 7:32:20 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Scott,

Do you know if there is the problem to use FreeTextBox in Dasblog with IE 7? I recently downloaded and installed IE 7 beta 1 to my computer and found the freetextbox was disappeared when i wanted to add new entry. If so, how can it be fixed? or is there any workaround?

Thanks, Kent

Kent Chen

Tuesday, August 02, 2005 8:04:51 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Yes there is a known bug in FTB where they are incorrectly checking the UserAgent string.
http://www.freetextbox.com/forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=4548

Scott Hanselman

Wednesday, August 03, 2005 10:23:12 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Scott,

Don't know if you have already known that there is a new release of FreeTextBox on http://www.freetextbox.com/downloads.aspx.

I downloaded it and replaced the one on dasBlog web folder and changed the line on web.config like below:
oldVersion="3.0.5000.0-3.0.5000.5" newVersion="3.0.5000.6"

It works perfectly now.

Kent

Kent Chen

Thursday, August 04, 2005 7:35:31 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I just got hit by a spammer on my blog. On every page they entered a comment (which I am not manually removing). I'm going to upgrade to 1.8 ASAP. My question is, they also left behind trackbacks. How do I get rid of those?

Thanks,
David McCarter

David McCarter

Thursday, August 04, 2005 8:08:27 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

David: 1.8 lets you delete trackbacks, pingbacks, etc from the Admin UI.

Scott Hanselman

Tuesday, August 09, 2005 4:29:52 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I added information to the comments of:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1252968&group_id=127624&atid=709018

Ry Jones

Tuesday, August 09, 2005 9:50:01 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

thanks for fixing my bug.

Ry Jones

Wednesday, August 10, 2005 8:54:24 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Sorry to be difficult here, but I still cannot get FTB to work in the 1.8 RC1 of dasBlog with IE7 or IE6. I have tried Kent Chen's suggestion of upgrading to the latest version of FTB and updating the web.config, but no dice.

I hate to clutter up your comments here. If you would prefer that I file a bug over at SF.net, let me know.

Thanks!