DasBlog 1.8 RC1

July 30, 2005 12:10 AM Comments [21] Posted 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]
Comments [21]
« DasBlog 1.8 will/does produce Atom 1.0 v... | Home | The Day I Met Uhura »
Saturday, July 30, 2005 8:01:14 AM UTC
Has downloaded, and loaded on my laptop. Pretty cool. Good job, dasBlog team.
Kent Chen
Saturday, July 30, 2005 11:08:31 AM UTC
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 2:13:54 PM UTC
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 3:44:11 PM UTC
Scott, the "Encrypt Login password" on the Configuration seems make no difference checked or unchecked...
Tee
Saturday, July 30, 2005 5:31:24 PM UTC
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
Sunday, July 31, 2005 1:28:23 AM UTC
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
Sunday, July 31, 2005 4:53:11 AM UTC
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 8:27:24 AM UTC
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 7:13:59 PM UTC
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 10:05:51 PM UTC
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 10:19:41 PM UTC
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 1:34:29 PM UTC
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 3:05:14 PM UTC
Eran - thanks. I'll look at it. Remember that SF.NET is the place to submit bug reports!
Scott Hanselman
Tuesday, August 02, 2005 3:32:20 PM UTC
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 4:04:51 PM UTC
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
Thursday, August 04, 2005 6:23:12 AM UTC
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 3:35:31 PM UTC
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 4:08:27 PM UTC
David: 1.8 lets you delete trackbacks, pingbacks, etc from the Admin UI.
Scott Hanselman
Wednesday, August 10, 2005 12:29:52 AM UTC
I added information to the comments of:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1252968&group_id=127624&atid=709018

Ry Jones
Wednesday, August 10, 2005 5:50:01 AM UTC
thanks for fixing my bug.
Ry Jones
Wednesday, August 10, 2005 4:54:24 PM UTC
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!
tdfb
Comments are closed.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer’s view in any way.