Userland

Radio UserLand Kick Start out this week

I've received a few e-mails from readers wondering when they'll be getting Radio UserLand Kick Start, which comes out this month. I checked with my publisher, and it appears they'll be shipped from the Sams Publishing warehouse to Amazon.Com this week. ... (read more)

2003/10/13

Commercial server supports four weblog APIs

While doing research on Java implementations of the XMLStorageSystem API, the backbone of Radio UserLand web hosting, I found something unusual: Full support for the API in a commercial server product. As shown in the documentation, the OpenLink Virtuoso "universal server" supports the XML Storage System, MetaWeblog, Blogger, and Moveable Type APIs, which enables it to host weblogs created with Radio and other weblogging tools. This is my first exposure to Virtuoso, but in an article for ... (read more)

2003/10/09

Add blank lines to Radio navigator links

Some people are having trouble using my tip on adding a blank line to navigator links in Radio. To include a blank line, add an element with a space as its name: <item name=" "/>. I'm using this on Workbench. As long as you include a space or an &nbsp; entity in between the quote marks, it will render as a blank line when the links are displayed. ... (read more)

2003/09/24

Radio post index script updated

The publisher of the All That Jazz weblog called my attention to a problem with my Radio post index script: It only worked if weblog entry permalinks ended with html. I've updated the script to look for the #renderedFileExtension directive, using it to define the file extension when present, so PHP pages and other formats can be supported. ... (read more)

2003/08/15

Add navigator links to a Radio category

Radio UserLand tip: When using a category to publish a separate weblog, create a #navigatorLinks.xml file in that category's subfolder in www\categories (or copy the one in the www folder). By editing that file directly with a text editor, you can give the category its own navigator links. Jenny Levine has written a tutorial on editing navigator links that shows what this file should contain. ... (read more)

2003/08/14

Radio UserLand Kick Start on backups

A new chapter of Radio UserLand Kick Start can be previewed on Workbench: Chapter 9, Backing Up Data. Though the standard disclaimers apply -- this is a pre-publication draft -- I spent a lot of time trying out Radio's backup procedures, sometimes by necessity when an experiment went awry. At this point, I've destroyed and rebuilt my 850-entry, 1,100-page weblog around a dozen times. ... (read more)

2003/08/13

Weblog survives Radio reinstallation

I did a clean install of Radio UserLand last night to correct some nagging database problems I couldn't resolve, such as nightly scheduled tasks that stopped running and flaky retrieval of news aggregator items. It took about a half hour to update Radio.root completely, register my serial number again, and set my software preferences and theme back up. Afterward, I shut down Radio, copied my old weblogData.root file over the new one in the Data Files folder, then ran the application. Everything ... (read more)

2003/08/13

Rendering PHP Files with Radio UserLand

A Workbench visitor asks: How can I use Radio to render .php files instead of .html files when upstreaming? The file extension is determined by the #renderedFileExtension directive. By default, files are rendered with the .html extension. To set the extension to .php for an entire folder and its subfolders, edit the #prefs.txt file in that folder and add this line: #renderedFileExtension "php" Here's an example: the xmas.txt file and the xmas.php page it produces. To set the extension only for ... (read more)

2003/08/07

Orlando Vacationer weblog launched

I'm using Radio UserLand's categories feature to publish a new weblog at a separate domain. Orlando Vacationer is a weblog devoted to "Disney discounts, park perks, and tourist tips" for the Mouse-infested city that I visit with my family around 8-10 times a year. The domain is new and may not have propagated to all parts of the Internet yet, so if it can't be reached, try its category address. I'm going to write an article on Workbench about using Radio to publish a category that looks like an ... (read more)

2003/08/07

Writing UserTalk scripts without a handler

UserTalk programming tip (via Brent Simmons): If a script has no parameters, it doesn't need a handler method (a method defined with the on keyword that is executed when the script is called). When a script lacks a handler, the top-level lines of the script will be executed when the script is called with no parameters. The following two versions of a workspace.displayTime script are functionally identical: on displayTime() { dialog.alert( clock.now() ) } dialog.alert( clock.now() ) ... (read more)

2003/08/04

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