Archive for 12/14/2005

With all the buzz that’s starting to happen, I thought I’d throw my hat into the ring and try out the Structured Blogging plugin for Wordpress 1.5. This post is using the format for a software review, and for the ultimate in irony I opted to review the SB plugin itself.

Installation: Installation was very easy, just like any other WP plugin. Drop the files into the Wordpress installation, and then activate the plugin via the Plugins panel.

Usage: Once the plugin is activated, choosing the “Write” option in Wordpress now gives you 7 options in addition to Write Post and Write Page:

• Review
• Event
• List
• Audio
• Video
• People Showcase
• Group Showcase
• other microcontent

For this review I selected (surprise!) Review, and it brings up a very customized view of the normal Post editing page (screenshot). You can see from the screenshot how I filled out the new meta data that surrounds this particular type of structured post.

You’ll also note some interesting things in the screenshot that made this post a little more unique than your normal Wordpress activity:

• You can choose to upload an image right from the post interface. This is something coming in Wordpress 2.0, but is sorely missed by current 1.5 users. I haven’t yet figured out how to link to the image but give me a few Update Looks like my upload settings in the SB Options were botched. If you accidentally get a bad upload (wrong directory, etc.), you’re going to have to go into the database to fix it, as I don’t see a way to easily remove it from the post. Now, even though I did that (fixed it in MySQL), anytime I edit the post I get the old data back. Hrrm…Urgently needs fixing guys!
• The normal Wordpress shortcut tag links are missing above the main text area. This is not a deal killer, but it does make pounding out the post a bit more annoying than usual. Not sure if any WYSIWYG plugins would be handled here.
• Extra options. Not visible in the screenshot is the option to use the Outputthis.org services, as well as a Tags area for giving specific content tags to the post.
• It breaks my ShowOnFrontPage plugin (or vice versa). With my plugin enabled, the post won’t show on the front page. This obviously stinks, but I’m not sure if it’s their fault or mine! I’ll have to look it at some point in the future.
• I don’t see any way to do Trackbacks within the post..

All in all, pretty impressive, and a great way to start capturing some of this information. I firmly believe that we need to set content free, and in order to do that it has to have some self defining properties. This initiative will probably been as a landmark event in the area of aggregation of new types of microcontent. (You can quote me on that!)

P.S. Is there anything more you’d like to know that I can add to this initial sneak peek review?