Thursday 30 October, 2008 (dasBlog | Fixes | Reviews | Team System | Visual Studio | Web)
I have been messing about with some template experiments in dasBlog using Notepad++ and Visual Studio 2008. That is changing the site layout by editing homeTemplate.blogtemplate, dayTemplate.blogtemplate and itemTemplate.blogtemplate for a dasBlog Theme. These files are basically html files with dasBlog specific macros for inserting the blog functionality.
Notepad++
First off I love Notepad++ as a replacement for Notepad. I have had a hard time doing more complex things in Notepad++ due to my addiction to Microsoft's intellisense... Editing the .blogtemplate files is dead simple in Notepad++ since it is very easy to get syntax coloring - you simply choose a language (html) from the language menu and viola everything is color coded. The file that you are editing doesn't need to have the correct extension or even be written in the language you choose. Notepad++ does its best and highlights whatever it can recognize.
There is also an auto completion function that you access by pressing CTRL+space, but this function is really only a text completion function and does not take any notice of the context that you are typing in. It just pops up an alphabetical list of potential text candidates based on the letters that you have already typed. For simple programming tasks this is more than adequate and Notepad++ does have a significantly smaller footprint than Visual Studio, so you can install it on pretty much any computer or server without anyone complaining for quick debugging tasks.
What I really have been missing is proper html intellisense for the .blogtemplate files.
Visual Studio 2008
Obviously Visual Studio does not have support for the .blogtemplate extension. For awhile I hacked my way around it by renaming the files to have a html extension while editing, which sort of works. The main problem is that I keep forgetting to change the extension back before I start testing my changes - so this was causing unnecessary pain... I had a vague memory of configuring something like this before and found these instructions. For the sake of completeness I include them here also:
1. Go to the Tools->Options menu.
2. Pick Text Editor -> File Extension from the tree in the left part of the Options dialog.
3. Type your file extension, .blogtemplate in my case, in the Extension text box.
4. Select the appropriate editor from the Editor dropdown.
5. Click Add and then Ok to close the dialog and re-open your files.
If you cannot see the Text Editor node in the tree view of the Options dialog then you probably need to click on Show all settings in the bottom left hand corner of the dialog...
Using this feature you can set up pretty much any color coding and intellisense support that you like in Visual Studio for file types that Visual Studio lacks support for. All I am missing now is auto completion for dasBlog macros in .blogtemplate files, this seems like a much tougher problem.
Friday 18 April, 2008 (Blogging | Reviews)
I have been trying out Windows Live Writer for a couple of posts just to get a feel for how it works. Since my change of jobs and using four different computers on a daily basis for a couple of months I haven't got my IT workspace back in order again. Previously I was using Zoundry for offline editing which I thought worked ok.
Using Live Writer seems to be on par with Zoundry so I'll stick with this for a while and see what happens. The only feature from my original feature list that is missing is support for trackback pings, I have a feeling that most blogs probably don't allow trackback pings due to the risk of spam anyway so I don't feel that this is much of an issue.
Thursday 07 December, 2006 (Agile | Reviews | Scrum | XP)
A colleague of mine informed me of a very interesting document that Henrik Kniberg at Crisp has published as a PDF. It is entitled Scrum and XP from the Trenches and is a detailed description of how Henrik and his colleagues have implemented Scrum. While Scrum is not a prescriptive method and does not require that you work with specific templates or that you perform tasks in a specific manner it is still good to see how others have implemented Scrum and use their experiences to adapt your own implementation of Scrum. It is well worth a read!
Thursday 23 November, 2006 (Blogging | dasBlog | Reviews)
I listed a set of features that I think I require for using off-line or desktop blogging tools. Here is my first round-up of test results, if nothing else is noted then these tools are Windows based. This first round will be focusing on free tools and if I can't find what I am looking for then I will start checking the commercial tools.
I'll summarise at the top so you don't have to read the entire post if you don't want to. The only two tools of the 9 that I have tested (10 with w.bloggar) that nearly meet my requirements are Zoundry and Lycos-Qumana both of these tools have the following problems for me: no support for <H4> tags which I use as subheadings and it doesn't seem possible to create new categories from within the tools. These are minor problems to say the least, at the moment I am using Zoundry for posting but I think I am going to have to try out Lycos-Qumana some more.
Lycos-Qumana
A free Java based editor with big name backing (Lycos) this is easily the tool that I have the highest expectations for, download here. Auto configuration of blog settings means it is super easy to get started. Pinging, tagging and trackback support built in. Spell checker with instant underlining of misspelled words of you want that. It is easy to manage existing posts and drafts but I couldn't find how to add new categories and there is no built in support for rmy <H4> headings. There is no custom preview with the sites style sheet but image uploading is supported. The user interface is not as intuitive as it could have been. Tested version 3.0
Zoundry
Zoundry is a free editor with an intuitive interface and easy access to draft and existing posts. Spell checking support, image upload, tagging, pinging, trackback style sheet preview, XHTML support and source view. Zoundry pretty much has it all although I have had difficulties getting trackbacks to work since you don't get notified if they were accepted or not. My only problem with Zoundry is that I have to add my sub-heading formatting manually since I want to use <h4> and there is no support for that. There is also no support for creating new categories.
Bleezer
Bleezer is a free Java based so is available for multiple platforms. It's a bit rough around the edges but was simple to configure for my dasBlog. It adds "Powered by Bleezer" to the end of posts. I don't like being forced to support Bleezer with a link every time I post, it should be an option as it is in some other tools. There is basic text formatting support but the interaction between the editing pane, which is a plain multi-line textbox, and the preview was difficult to master. The spell checker doesn't understand HTML formatting so has all sorts of ideas about what I am trying to spell with my <h4> and <p>. Also the HTML editor has no contextual help or tag completion. There is basic category support but no support for creating new categories. There is support for pinging, tagging, uploading over ftp and previewing with a custom style sheet, but no trackback management. Downloading existing posts for editing should work but I couldn't get it to play nicely with dasBlog. There is no list of unpublished local posts, you save them as files to disk and have to manage them manually so I feel that it will require quite a bit of manual work to use Bleezer for managing ongoing writing. All in all this looks like a promising tool but it has nowhere near the feature-set that I require for blogging. Tested version 0.9.5.6
blogBuddy
The first thing that strikes me with blogBuddy is the clean and simple interface. Unfortunately it just makes me feel like all of the features that I am looking for are missing... Connecting to dasBlog was no problem, neither was getting existing posts and editing them. Again there is no list of ongoing work and I couldn't find a way to save unfinished posts without posting them to my blog as unpublished work. Text editing and formatting is very basic through a textbox with HTML code support either from the tool (<B>, <I>, <U> and <A>). The spell checker and some other parts of the GUI returned developer errors. No preview, upload function, pinging, tagging, categories or trackback but it is free. Tested version 0.5
BlogDesk
Initially this looks promising, while downloading BlogDesk I read through the feature set and it seemed to cover most of my requirements. Connecting to a blog is a breeze with the help of a wizard, there is even an option for dasBlog as the blog type which makes it easy. The connection wizard tests all the functionality too if you want: uploading, getting categories and so on. After the wizard has run you can go into a tabbed dialogue and change all the details. Editing is done in a WYSIWYG pane but can also be done in HTML so you can make sure that the tool hasn't messed up your formatting. Unfortunately switching between normal (editing) mode, preview and source (HTML) is done through a menu so multiple clicks are required although there is a keyboard shortcut the interface doesn't feel intuitive. Spell checking seems to work and there are options for additional languages and custom dictionaries. It appears that there is some kind of trackback support but I couldn't figure it out and there is no mention of it in the included help file. Managing draft posts and existing posts was relatively simple although it required multiple clicks through a menu so switching between posts is not something that you do with a single click. New categories could be added through the blog configuration interface and using them was as simple as checking them in a list. Contextual menus everywhere made it simple to find the more advanced setup issues. Technorati tags are supported but no automatic pinging. This free tool contains many of the features that I am looking for but in the end it is not intuitive enough for me to use regularly and some of my main features are missing. Tested version 2.6
BlogEd
Another free Java based blog editor touted as a very simple Blog editor. It has the typical Java application feel which I personally don't like at all. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to connect to dasBlog at all. Tested version 0.7
JBlogEditor
Free Java based blog editor, JBlogEditor is a giant download (15,4 MB) which either means that it is really good or that it has loads of pointless features. The first thing that happens when I connect to my dasBlog is that the application crashes, a Java error log has been created so I can see that it is a real crash whether it is a fault in my configuration or caused by my previous Java editor test I don't know (and don't care). Simple switching between different drafts and published posts but that crash really puts me off the tool. There is no formatted editing mode, its just HTML editing with tool support and a preview pane. No tagging, pinging, trackback or uploading really means this is useless for me. Tested version 0.6
IMHO
IMHO Instant Blogger is a sourceforge project so it is free and open source, there is also a plug-in architecture and a couple of formatting plug-ins available for download. Setting up my connection to dasBlog returned a developer exception caused by a missing http:// Once connected there are many features missing: creating categories, tagging, pinging, trackback management, editing existing posts. In addition I hate the user interface, there are no menus and you don't know where to go to find functions that there are no buttons for. Tested version 1.3.2106
PowerBlog
I couldn't get this to work at all for dasBlog, the blog setup was so difficult to understand that I don't know if it just doesn't support dasBlog or if I didn't get the configuration right. Tested version 2.4.3
Wednesday 22 November, 2006 (Blogging | Reviews)
I have realised that it is very difficult for me to write blog entries entirely on-line. Apart from my FreeTextBox problem (it won't load) which forces me to enter HTML by hand, I usually don't finish a post in one sitting so I need to save my unfinished work somewhere. Putting it up on the blog and not publishing it is obviously an option but the web interface is not optimal for working on multiple posts in parallel. So to solve my problems I have started looking into off-line blogging tools. So far I have only tried out two tools: w.bloggar and Zoundry. Neither of which really solves all of my problems although both solve parts of it. At the moment Zoundry is what I am using to post this with. I have found a couple of blogs which cover offline tools:
http://blogpraxis.de/archive/2005/05/29/what_do_i_expect_of_an_offline
http://blog.qumana.com/blog/_archives/2005/5/28/893063.html
http://www.arunn.net/scienceblog/2006/07/10/offline-blog-tools/
And I have seen a demo of Words blog support so perhaps I could use Word 2007 as my blogging tool http://blogs.msdn.com/joe_friend/archive/2006/05/12/595963.aspx
My required features
- Trackback ping management.
Autodicovery of trackback ping urls and preferably listing of potential urls for trackback from the content of my post.
- Save multiple unpublished posts locally.
- Create new categories and use existing categories.
Categories should not be placed inside the post but use dasBlogs category functionality.
- Be able to ping Technorati and others.
- Tagging support.
- Upload function for images over ftp or any means that dasBlog supports.
- Spell checker (preferably instant like word).
- Posting preview preferably with my sites css.
HTML (xhtml) formatting support with HTML viewing so I can see what has actually happened.
- Right click in post for formatting and contextual operations.
- Download of existing posts for edit.
- Low cost (preferably free)
Must be at least free to try or feature crippled trial but with all of the key features are available.
- Must work with dasBlog!
Available tools
I found a nice list of off-line / desktop blogging tools here so at some point in time I am going to have to go through them all try them out.
Friday 17 November, 2006 (Agile | Architecture | Reviews)
I have been working on putting together the documentation for a project these last few days and I use Visio for all my diagrams. I don’t always create UML diagrams for my projects because they just take too much work. UML in Visio is difficult to use as pure documentation since you also need to create the underlying structures for it to work properly and there is some pretty extensive validation built in, although obviously nothing like Rational’s software. I was working on a sequence diagram when I realized that some of the UML features that I wanted to use where not implemented in Visio. I have never really thought about it but it turns out that Visio only supports UML 1.2. There have been several minor revisions of the UML specification since 1.2 was released in 2002 and the latest version of UML is 2.0 (I believe that 2.1 is on its way).
Searching the Internet I quickly found UML 2 template support for Visio at Software Stencils. These are simply new shapes for Visio with some smart behavior. Unfortunately you don’t get any help with your UML syntax using these templates, so you either have to know your UML or accept that your diagrams don’t conform to the UML specification. They are not useful for forward or reverse engineering nor are the artifacts integrated with each other so a change in one place will not propagate to other instances of the same artifact in other places. Maintaining you diagrams is potentially more work with the new templates than using the built in UML support that Visio offers. On the other hand maintaining UML documents that are not integrated with your code is just a lot of work no matter how you do it. But who really uses UML in a completely integrated modeling tool? You can only realistically expect the static structure / class diagrams of UML to be integrated with your code, getting automatic generation of activity or sequence diagrams at the right level of granularity seems to me to be too much to expect. And if you use Visual Studio 2005 you will probably use the built in Class Diagram support instead, which is a visual representation of your code and allows refactoring and reworking of your code through the diagrams. Channel9 has more info on the Class Diagram / UML debate.
In the end this really begs the question of what we want to use UML for. I am in the Agile Modeling camp we should be using UML and other modeling tools as abstract representations of our system to enable communication of the concepts and structures that exist or could exist in our software. A whiteboard or a napkin should be all that is necessary to start modeling your software together with others. Just taking a snapshot of your whiteboard after you have finished drawing is enough for team documentation. Sometimes you want a more formal look for including your models in official documents or for presentations and that is where Visio or any other modeling software comes in handy; simply a way of getting your diagrams into an electronically editable format. My colleague Peter Tallungs is a firm believer of Word’s built in diagramming support as the best way to document your models since this does not require any additional software from your readers (article published in Computer Sweden in Swedish). I guess I agree with him in principal but in practice I find that the lack of built in support for software diagramming in Word just makes it too difficult to work with your models. For all of us who want a balance between formal modeling, agility and ease of use the Software Stencils templates offer a perfect solution for Visio.
Useful UML resources
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Wednesday 15 November, 2006 (SharePoint | Team System | Reviews)
I got a question from one of my many readers 
wondering why I didn't think that TeamPlain was right for me. Since this is a topic that I was planning on writing about I put together a list of my gripes! Unfortunately I haven't had time to try out Teamprise yet which is a related technology, but if I ever get around to it I will definitely write about it here too.
Don't get me wrong I think that TeamPlain is a great piece of software, I would really like to be able to use it but I have some issues with it. I work as a consultant on smallish custom development projects (2-10 developers) for clients who are usually not that technically savvy. Projects normally range from a couple of weeks to a year or so (although some are a lot longer). We also work quite a lot off-site and on multiple projects in parallel, so having a web and web service based interface to Team Foundation Server is great for us. Best of all most of the features that we as developers need is built into the product more or less out of the box. The value that TeamPlain could offer us is giving our clients, project managers and general executive types easy access to more parts of TFS than they get through SharePoint.
Problems that I see with TeamPlain for us
- When opening documents via TeamPlain they are not opened via SharePoint and cannot be updated to the SharePoint document library. SharePoint is web based also so we could just have connected to the SharePoint site instead.
- Reports can be accessed via SharePoint just as well as with TeamPlain, ok you don't get the nice looking drop-downs with a list of reports. On the other hand the reports are web based so users can connect to the report server instead.
- The integration with Source Control is read-only so it is only useful for non-developer access to source control. We don't want non-development artifacts stored in source control; they should be stored on the SharePoint site or in the wiki, so we have no use of this feature.
- There is no SharePoint integration, so you have to choose if you go in through SharePoint or the TeamPlain entry point. Since we also have a wiki this means we actually have to choose between three entries instead of having one big Project Dashbord with the status of the entire project and quick access to all areas. We have implemented a quick fix for our wiki by putting it inside a WebPart on the SharePoint site, we could do the same with TeamPlain but I don’t believe that this is optimal.
- There is no API for interacting with or modify TeamPlain nor is it possible to use parts of the TeamPlain GUI in other Web Apps or from within SharePoint. The license explicitly prohibits users from modifying TeamPlain.
Features that would make me look at TeamPlain again
- SharePoint integration so I could give users access to the features in TeamPlain that I want through WebParts. Then each Project could customize their views depending on their specific needs.
- Floating user licensing for the lite edition since we only really need the work item editing capabilities for our clients at the moment.
- Some form of feature customization or extensibility, partly just for the sake of it (I am a developer after all) but also because I believe that customizable products will always be more useful.
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The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent
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