idigital

After becoming frustrated with the Clayton's Mambo Blog, the blog you have when you're not having a blog, I decided to have a go at using b2evolution to create the blogs for my new site.

Using Jason Murphy's excellent Mambo Wrapper component and a wee bit of template hacking in b2, it's suprisingly easy to get working. I've only just started, but it looks like a great way to have the best of both worlds.

I'm thinking it wouldn't be too difficult to create a simple b2 skin that uses the MOS template layout and CSS.

Is anyone else working on 'integrating' b2evolution? It's the best blogger I've found and why re-invent the wheel I reckon.

Cheers,

Damian

stingrey

Keep an eye out here:
http://mosforge.net/projects/mosb2e/


Even though it doesnt look like there is any activity, having been in contact with Tim, works is being done on it as it is a major requirement for a large site he is building.

He has assured me that once the site is launched somtime July I think, he wil release the integration between b2evolution and mambo that he has crafted.

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setup

Hello,
This will be a big component for mambo in future

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idigital

Ah, well I don't think I can wait that long

I'll be sure to get involved with Tim's project once I've polished off this ultra-top-secret one that I'm working on

tonyskyday

That's a nice looking bit of blog software.

Perhaps I lack vision a little bit on this, but I'm trying to imagine it integrated with Mambo, and I'm not seeing the kind of benefit you get from integrating, say, a photo gallery.

Mambo already stores content just fine, it just doesn't display that content in a blog-like way, and you can't limit an author to a particular section. It seems to me that this can all be overcome, however.

-Tony

idigital

Why re-invent the wheel? Integrating other OS software can also bring new people into the community and even bring communities together to forge a stronger community.

I mean, forum software is all third party and it always will be. Same goes for many aspects of a cms that are taken for granted by community builders.

At the moment MOS doesn't really have a blog feature, just the ability to add content in the same way with a different name than news.

There is *much* more to blogging than adding bits of content everyday, while these other features may be easy to build into mambo I say again - why re-invent the wheel?

Also, I doubt blogging will be incorporated as a major feature into the core, as it is a community oriented not a business oriented feature.

Gayle was/is doing some interesting work with blogging in Mambo, not sure if that is an active project. Either way, b2evolution is the best blogging software around and it's not overcomplicated as far as integration goes.

Well, back to the grindstone for me

tonyskyday

Right, but it's already got it's own decidedly non-Mamboish admin interface.

It's already got it's own templating system.

You say perfecting a blogging component for mambo is reinventing the wheel.

I say integrating b2evolution (or any app focused on content storage and display as mambo is) is retrofitting. Have you ever seen an old concrete building that needed a new HVAC system? It's very ugly with pipes and junk all lining the walls and ceiling. Sure, with that analogy you could say that it's cheaper than building a new building, but this is open source software, the only thing that costs is our precious time.

I haven't looked at Mamblog or whatever it's called, but I'm betting either it can be improved, or a new system can be developed that takes full advantage for MOS. Otherwise, might as well do as you have done and simply use the wrapper to simulate integration. (Well, ok, it's not that simple, but you get my point.)

idigital

Yeah I understand what you're saying, and you're right. Thing is no-one seems to have the time to create a decent blogging extension for Mambo.

As for the templating system of b2evolution, it's very simple just like Mambo. In the end I'll probably just hack b2 apart and make a blog thing for MOS myself if no-one else does.

In the meantime, I'll just wrap it up and see how it goes. This way I can also have other users contribute their blogs through w.bloggar, even though I will have to use the b2evolution admin it's not a bad trade-off.

Do you check your email btw? Heh.

tonyskyday

All good points. I guess since I'm in no hurry to blog through MOS, it isn't such an urgent matter to me. However, in the end I would like to see a thirdparty component that can handle this well. It does have it's applications in the world of professional web sites. For instance, many politicians have blogs that they or their staff update.

I wonder how Gayle is going with her metablog project. I think she had it working with w.bloggar...

Yes, but I'm horrible about returning emails that I get while I'm at work (except for work-related emails).

-Tony

idigital

Yeah, I have to retract that bit about blogs not being "business-oriented"

It would be great to have such functionality built-in to the core.

Then again, forums are also business-oriented, are they not?

Whatever is wrong with community oriented CMS I'll never know. I understand keeping the core small and sleek, it's just where the lines are drawn seems a bit hazy.

Ah well, not that it matters anyways.