Userland

Storing graphics in a UserLand database

A UserTalk tip inspired by Marc Barrot: If you need to store a graphic in a Radio UserLand or Frontier database, use the Quick Script window to call html.commands.loadImageFile(). A file open dialog box appears. The graphic you choose will be stored in the user.html.images table. ... (read more)

2004/03/16

New Radio tool: Workbench.root

I have released the first beta version of Workbench.root, a Radio UserLand tool offering simple scripts that extend the functionality of the software. My goal is to offer a bunch of scripts that Radio UserLand users of all skill levels can put on their Web pages and Web site template files. The first release offers two scripts: Workbench.viewCategoryLinks, a script that displays a list of links for all of your weblog's public categories. Workbench.viewPostIndex, a script that displays a list of ... (read more)

2004/03/12

Upstreaming in Radio UserLand

The most common source of confusion for new Radio UserLand users is upstreaming, the process that turns a bunch of text files in Radio's www folder into Web pages on UserLand's Web server. If you can spare a couple minutes, I'll show you a simple exercise from Radio UserLand Kick Start that makes upstreaming easier to understand: Open Radio's www folder and create a new subfolder. Copy the file #template.txt from www into the new folder. In the new folder, create a text file called ... (read more)

2004/03/11

Exploits found on UserLand comment server

Two security exploits for Radio UserLand were published last night on the Radio customer support board. The first exploit allows an attacker to execute scripts on a Radio weblog's comments page. This can be used to redirect visitors to another Web site, transmit cookies to a third party, open pop-up windows, and the like. The second exploit allows an attacker to post a comment to an entry that doesn't exist yet. These exploits affect users who host their comments on UserLand servers. If you'd ... (read more)

2004/03/11

Rebuilding the bridge from Radio to Blogger

Radio UserLand's Manila-Blogger Bridge tool can be used to mirror weblog posts to a Blogger or BlogSpot site. The tool stopped working last month, as described by several frustrated Radio users on the software's support forum. The problem was caused by a change on Blogger's servers that moved it to a new URL. To fix the problem: Open the Manila-Blogger Bridge preferences page. Change Server from plant.blogger.com to www.blogger.com. Change Path from /RPC2 to /api/RPC2. Click Submit. New posts ... (read more)

2004/03/07

Translator converts Atom feeds to RSS 2.0

The RSS portal site 2RSS offers an Atom-to-RSS translator that enables Atom feeds to be read by RSS software that hasn't been extended to support the new format yet. Here's an example that turns Anil Dash's new Atom feed into an RSS 2.0 file. ... (read more)

2004/03/05

Changing comment servers in Radio UserLand

Radio UserLand tip: If you offer comments on your weblog, your pages will load slowly when UserLand's comment servers are experiencing high usage. One way to eliminate this bottleneck is to change comment servers to Pycs, an open-source clone of the Radio Community Server. Pycs can be used as your comment and trackback server even if the rest of your weblog remains on the UserLand or Salon servers. Because Pycs.Net hosts dozens of weblogs instead of thousands, the response time is usually much ... (read more)

2004/03/04

Publishing Multiple Sites with Radio UserLand

I'm using Radio UserLand to publish several Web sites: Workbench, Orlando Vacationer, and the Bizarro-world news site Drudge Retort. The latter two sites use Radio's categorization feature -- posts sent to Orlando and Drudge categories are upstreamed to their destination, the former as rendered HTML files and the latter as RSS feeds. This system works pretty well, but one drawback is that posts sometimes end up in the wrong place, as a few did this morning. I'm beta-testing the UserLand editor ... (read more)

2004/03/02

New editor for Manila and Radio UserLand

SocialDynamx is developing SmartManila, a Windows program for editing Radio UserLand and Manila sites: Once setup, you can quickly switch between different services and not lose any data retrieved or the connection established to communicate with each unique server. SmartManila brings the same benefits to Manila that FM Radio brought to Radio. Some of the highlights are: Drafts, Spell-checker, Seamless image support, Integrated multi-tabbed browser with undockable tabs, Increased ... (read more)

2004/02/26