Canalplan Blogs Support Forum

Canalplan Blogs Support Forum » Recent Posts http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ Canalplan Blogs Support Forum » Recent Posts en Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:44:05 +0000 Admin on "Route Importing. Configuring your Blog Account" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=18#post-22 Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:58:57 +0000 Admin 22@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ Here is the first rough guide to importing routes from CanalPlan AC and building a set of blog posts from them. These are rough notes and will be expanded on and refined as time permits. You do not need an account on the CanalPlan AC website to use the route exporting features. This first post covers the work you need to do on your Canalplan Blog to allow it to work with CanalPlan AC. Creating a Trips Page To allow your blog to support a trips page (for example : <a href="http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/mintball/trips/" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/mintball/trips/</a> ) you need to create a special trips page. To do this all you need to do is : 1) login to your blog and from the blog back end got to the Pages Menus and select Add New For the Page Title enter Trips 2) In the body of the page simply put {BLOGGEDROUTES} on the first line 3) Save the page. That's the hardest part of setting up your blog. The next bit is very easy (and optional). From the CanalPlan menu (its located at the bottom of the menu block in the backend) select General Options. You can then set the default distance format which is used when importing/displaying your blogged routes. Once you've set that then you're pretty much ready to go Admin on "Embedded Google Maps" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=17#post-21 Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:38:59 +0000 Admin 21@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ It is now possible to embed Googlemaps into CanalBlog posts. To insert a map navigate to the place in the post where you want the map to appear, then find the CanalPlan Location you want to use. Then Select "Google Map Tag" as the "insert tag as" option and click on Insert Tag, you should end up with something looking like <code>[[CPGM:Market Drayton|tnj9]]</code> Thats the simple way of using. But lets say that the map is too wide, or the zoom level is wrong, or its the wrong sort of map. These can be overridden by adding and additional bit of data. <code>[[CPGM:Market Drayton|tnj9|options]]</code> Where the options takes the form of : option=value,option=value,..,option=value Option can be: size - the size of the map zoom - the zoom level of the map. The Bigger the number the further in you zoom type - the type of map to display (s=satellite,n=map,h=hybrid) lat - latitude of location long - longitude of location So <code>[[CPGM:Market Drayton|tnj9|size=400,type=h]]</code> produces a map that is 400 square and is a hybrid (satellite with map overlay) If you want to show a place that isn't on the waterways then find the lat and long from google, or multimap or wherever. Then You can add the map tag by typing in a description for the place (For example "Steve's Office" in the CanalPlan Find then add the place as a map tag - you'll end up with something like: <code>[[CPGM:Steve's Office|]]</code> So add a fake ID location, and your lat and long so you get: <code>[[CPGM:Steve's Office|nothing|lat=52.077994,long=-2.299249]]</code> The reason for putting a description is that Googlemaps are not displayed in RSS feeds (for obvious reasons) so the maps are replaced by a descriptive tag. Admin on "Presentation of Distances" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=16#post-20 Mon, 03 Sep 2007 12:03:34 +0000 Admin 20@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ I'm currently working on some code which will automatically insert start and end places for a day if its part of a blogged cruise. It will also give the distance travelled and the number of locks. But how to present the information. Canals have traditionally been measured in Miles and Furlongs but this is slightly arcane and some people prefer other presentation methods. I'm working along the lines of: Decimal Kilometres - e.g. 3.8 kilometres Kilometres and Metres - e.g. 3 kilometres and 798 metres Decimal miles - e.g. 2.36 miles Miles and Yards - e.g. 2 miles and 634 yards Miles and Furlongs - e.g. 2 miles , 2 Â¾ flg The default distance format will be specified in the general canalplan blog options page. Admin on "Favourites" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=15#post-19 Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:45:44 +0000 Admin 19@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ Favourites allows you to build up a list of favourite locations that you post a lot about in your blogs. In the Admin menu for your blog go to the CanalPlan Options and you should see a menu tab called Favourites. The Method for adding a favourite is very similar to the method for setting your home mooring. Start typing a CanalPlan location into the first entry line. Pick the place that you want to add from the list and click on the Select Location. The place you have selected should appear in the next box (Edit the Description). Change the location text (if you want to) and then click on Add to Favourites. The place will then appear on the list of favourites. If you want to add another simply go back to Step 1 and add another. There are several options displayed to the right of the list of favourites. You can use these to organise the list. The order you select here will be the order the favourites appear in the drop down list when you are blogging. Once you are happy with the list click on Save Favourites. NOTE: You do not need to add your Home Mooring to the list of favourites as it is automatically added to the drop down list when you are blogging. Admin on "Home Mooring" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=14#post-18 Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:38:07 +0000 Admin 18@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ The Blogging system now supports the concept of a Home Mooring. This is where you normally keep your boat. In the Admin menu for your blog go to the CanalPlan Options and you should see a menu tab called Home Mooring. If you have already got a home mooring defined it will show it. To add/change your home mooring start typing the CanalPlan Name into the Find CanalPlan Location. Pick the place from the list that appears. Once you have picked it click on the Insert CanalPlan Location. This will transfer the selected name into the next box (Edit the Description). Edit the Description allows you to change the text that is used to display your home mooring. For example if your mooring is "Tyrley Farm Bridge No 59" you might decide to call it "Tyrley Farm" for short. Once you've changed the description click on the Update Mooring button. You should see the Current Mooring at the top of the page change to your new mooring. Click on Save Changes. Your new home mooring is now set. Admin on "Converting CanalPlan routes to Blog entries" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=13#post-17 Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:04:59 +0000 Admin 17@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ Well a big change in tack - talking to Nick on Saturday he told me about some major re-working of CanalPlan AC so I'm going to tie my route manager into the changes Nick is introducing into CanalPlan AC. This will stop us duplicating effort and also allow us to make the integration between the two systems tighter. Admin on "Converting CanalPlan routes to Blog entries" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=13#post-16 Thu, 05 Jul 2007 10:38:28 +0000 Admin 16@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ This is the next big thing for me to implement. I've pretty much worked out the data set that I need to be able to grab from CanalPlan and will probably discuss it with Nick this weekend over a few pints of beer. The question is - how does that information get mananged/presented in the blog. Here are a few thoughts from me - I'd love to get other peoples views on it. Importing / Managing routes - this is the main area of functionality that needs working on (the presentation of routes is pretty much sorted out). This would allow you to import new routes from CanalPlan, create draft blog entries from a route (one blog entry per day of the trip) and toggle the "published" status of a blog. When a route is published it appears on the routes list for your blog and gets a map associated with it. An example of the Map and links to blog entries can be seen here: <a href="http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/mintball/cp-route3.php?routeid=1" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/mintball/cp-route3.php?routeid=1</a> Each route would be associated with a single Category.. now I could make the import create its own category or I could have it that you have to assign it to an existing one manually. Although I like the idea of it creating a new category I think that might be something that gets implemented sometime in the future. Admin on "Customising your blog" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=12#post-15 Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:13:30 +0000 Admin 15@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ There are two ways in which you can customise the look and feel of your blog : Themes and Widgets. Themes control the overall layout and look of your blog (number of columns, colours etc). Widgets allow you to customise parts of your blog and add functionality like searching, tag clouds etc. Both Themes and Widgets are accessed through the Presentation menu. Select the theme you like from the list of available ones and then once you're happy with that you can start playing around with the location of any widgets you want. Admin on "Using CanalPlan Tags" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=11#post-14 Tue, 05 Jun 2007 19:40:40 +0000 Admin 14@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ The "main" feature of these blogs in the built in CanalPlan linker. It allows you, in a few simple keypresses, to embed links from your blogs to gazetteer entries in CanalPlan. Using it is simple : Write your post as normal. When you want to link to a CanalPlan gazetteer entry simply place your cursor in the Input box labelled CanalPlan Search: and start typing the name of the place you want to insert. Once you've typed in 3 letters you will notice that a drop down list of places that match what you have typed so far will appear. Either type some more letters, if needed, or pick the location you want from the list and click on the Insert CanalPlan Tag button. You should now find something similar to the following in your post: [[CP:Wigan Pier|ksq4]] The text between the CP: and the | is what is displayed in your post as the text for the link. If you want to change it to something more suitable for your post then feel free. DO NOT however edit the text between the | and the closing ]] Admin on "WP Flickr Post Bar" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=10#post-11 Tue, 05 Jun 2007 18:19:53 +0000 Admin 11@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ To use the Flickr post bar you need a Flickr account so if you haven't got one then you'll need to sign up. Once you have your FlickR account go to the Plugins page and enable the flickr plugin. Once it has been enabled you can configure the plugin. The simplest configuration is to simply put your FlickR ID into the appropriate field and save the settings. There are more advanced features like the size of image to insert into the post and if pictures should also be preloaded. You will probably want to play around with these Admin on "Footnotes" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=9#post-10 Tue, 05 Jun 2007 18:19:31 +0000 Admin 10@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ To use footnotes in your post simply put the text you want as the footnote enclosed in double braces (( )) where you want the footnote link to appear. When the post is displayed the text in the braces will be shown as a footnote at the bottom of the post. You can have more than one footnote per post and it even handles the numbering for you! Admin on "Twitter Tools" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=8#post-9 Tue, 05 Jun 2007 18:19:06 +0000 Admin 9@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ This plugin needs to be enabled from the Plugins Menu. Once it is enabled you can configure it. The basic configuration is to simply enter your twitter user id and password. There are various other options which you can play around with. To use the twitters on your blog you need to add the twitter "widget" to your blog side bar in the Widgets menu on the Presentation menu Admin on "Snap Shots Plugin" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=7#post-8 Tue, 05 Jun 2007 18:18:45 +0000 Admin 8@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ Snap Shots Plugin allows you to use the Snap Shots web preview technology in your blog To use the SnapShots plugin you need to enable it from the Plugins Menu. There are several options which you can configure on the configuration screen - again the best thing to do is play around with the options and find the one that you like. DO NOT change the Snap Shots Key as this is coded for the site. Admin on "Tagging" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=6#post-7 Tue, 05 Jun 2007 18:18:21 +0000 Admin 7@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ To use Tagging you will need to enable the Simple Tagging option on the Plugins Page. That's all you need to do. When you create a new post, or edit an existing one, you will notice that there is an extra input box under the main editor window titled Tags (comma separated list). Enter tags that are relevant to your post - so if you've been blogging about the Crick Boat show you might tag your post with Crick,Boat Show,rain etc. The system is "intelligent" and will try to suggest existing tags that it thinks are good matches for your post. Tags can also be searched from the sidebar search widget. Posts that are tagged are included in the site wide Tag Cloud (which is also installable as a sidebar widget) Admin on "Plugins" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=4#post-5 Thu, 17 May 2007 20:33:11 +0000 Admin 5@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ There are various "plugins" which extend the basic blog functionality. The currently user selectable plugins are: <ul> <li>Twitter Tools </li> <li>WP-Footnotes </li> <li>WP-SlimStat </li> <li>WP-Flickr Post Bar </li> <li>Snap Shots </li> </ul> These can be activated/deactivated by individual blog owners. There are some additional plugins which are turned on by default and cannot be de-activated by blog owners. <ul> <li> Bad Behaviour </li> <li>Another WordPress Meta Plugin.</li> </ul> Each of these Plugins is documented in its own post in this forum area Admin on "Introduction" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=3#post-4 Thu, 10 May 2007 20:11:51 +0000 Admin 4@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ There are quite a few features in the CanalPlan blogging system, such as the twitter tools, which can be rather daunting to set up. I plan to write up simple instructions for each of these features and as I do I will put them in this area Admin on "Got A Problem?" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=2#post-3 Wed, 09 May 2007 18:35:17 +0000 Admin 3@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ Then this is the place to ask. Admin on "Welcome" http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/topic.php?id=1#post-1 Wed, 09 May 2007 18:26:43 +0000 Admin 1@http://blogs.canalplan.org.uk/forums/ This is the forum to check for information on new features and also to request new features for the CanalPlan Blogging system