Tuesday Feb 12, 2008

Figured out a few things in b2evolution

Posted at 08:38:20 pm by hari under Site related (419 views)

I've figured out a couple of things in b2evolution today.

The plugin system is really powerful. Many options I was never aware of earlier are configurable using the plugin management system. For instance, I have just now enabled smilies in comments and it automatically displays the list of smilies for commenters as well. Took me this long to figure out that smilies could also be rendered in comments.
b2evolution rocks. Much better than WordPress in my opinion because it is so configurable. This along with a far, far superior widget management system, easy multi-blogging and a powerful, yet intuitive templating system, I am so glad I moved to b2evolution.

On a side note, I also discovered how to remove the rel="nofollow" attribute in comment author links, but this one took me a while longer to figure out because the anti-spam plugin was automatically re-inserting the nofollow. This confused me for a while, but it turns out that even this behaviour can be configured within the plugin's options.

Finally, I've enabled Gravatars here on an experimental basis, but based on user feedback, I'll either keep it or remove it.

24 comments

Comment from: titanium [Visitor] · http://www.creativehedgehog.com

OOH! a new one-

I like the new smilie feature.

I'm feeling that I'll have to play with B2 for a little side project of mine- looks like it might be what I'm looking for.

A little side thought- though my email and website are remembered, my name isn't. :no:

Tuesday Feb 12, 2008 @ 20:49

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

Titanium, it's not a new feature. It was just a feature I was too dumb to figure out earlier. :))

About the cookie system not remembering your name, I have no idea. It looks like you need to check your browser cookie for this site and examine its contents and report it back to me.

Tuesday Feb 12, 2008 @ 20:52

Comment from: RT Cunningham [Visitor] · http://www.untwistedvortex.com/

I'm just commenting to see my gravatar. :>>

Not really. Earlier versions of B2Evolution weren't so hot, Hari. It was until the latest version release that they topped WordPress in a lot of features (for the blog part, that is). But now, WP is so entrenched it would be difficult to catch up again.

As for me, I'll stick with WP until ummm my server crashes. Yeah, that's the ticket. :lalala:

Tuesday Feb 12, 2008 @ 21:24

Comment from: Troy [Visitor] · http://freesite.iblogger.org

Wow, another b2evolution user. There seem to be very few of us around the blogosphere

.

Actually, I'm now moving to wordpress to make it easier for my web designer & to get some common WP plugins to work such as CommentLuv, which never discovers my feed. It's been a nice rn with b2evo, and I personally really like the way you've don it with your blog, but I feel it's hard to ignore WP when, like me, you don't know PHP and want to build a network of bloggers.

I have never used WordPress, though, so I hope I don't lose some of these things you've mentioned that I now take for granted. The customization of b2evo's few plugins is unparalleled.

Tuesday Feb 12, 2008 @ 23:19

Comment from: Lin [Visitor] · http://www.tellinitlikeitis.net

Hi Hari,

First time here after seeing your comment on RT's post about "post titles" on Untwisted Vortex.

I'm not at all familiar with b2evolution, but I've seen it mentioned several times. I'm on Wordpress after dumping Blogger awhile back and wouldn't dream of doing anything else at this point. Wordpress rocks in my opinion. :>>

Oh.., I love the little smilies we can use in our comments here. It's fun to be able to say that RT is -----> :crazy:

Wednesday Feb 13, 2008 @ 04:52

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

RT, yes, earlier version of b2evolution weren't so great, but even back then, they had features. Maybe the templating system was too cluttered at that time, though. But what really impressed me was the lead developers' willingness to accept suggestions and their small but extremely friendly community.

Troy, WordPress was great when it was in 1.5x series, but since 2.x they've made it extremely bloated. Also WP is nowhere near as customizable as b2evolution in the back end.

Just as an example, in b2evolution it's possible to control the exact formatting of each post using filters by clicking a single check box, while in WordPress, you can only control post filters through the template code.

Lin, yes, WP seems great after you use a hosted blog service like blogger, but you still need to check out other self-hosting options before you get fixed on WordPress. I'm trying to market all the different options out there and I hope I can get at least a few people to use other blog tools which are really as good, if not better in some ways, than WordPress.

Wednesday Feb 13, 2008 @ 07:36

Comment from: Troy [Visitor] · http://freesite.iblogger.org

Just thought I'd let you know that I upgraded b2evo and I really like it. Took a look at WordPress's plugin system, and I'm not interested in editing the code directly to change settings so I think I'll stay

. I need to make a few corrections to my previous post, also

Wednesday Feb 13, 2008 @ 18:20

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

Oh, that's fantastic news, Troy.

Yeah, that's the reason I left WordPress. Too many code edits for simple stuff. :yes:

Wednesday Feb 13, 2008 @ 19:03

Comment from: Ray [Visitor] · http://lostaddress.org

FWIW, my name also wasn't remembered, but my email address and url were.

Thursday Feb 14, 2008 @ 02:45

Comment from: Ray [Visitor] · http://lostaddress.org

And my Gravatar isn't showing up :no:

Thursday Feb 14, 2008 @ 02:45

Comment from: Ray [Visitor] · http://lostaddress.org

And now it is, how strange (feel free to ditch this post and it's predecessor!)

Thursday Feb 14, 2008 @ 02:47

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

Ray, I'll look into the issue of cookies. But as to gravatars not showing occasionally, I think it's to do with gravatar's server and not mine as the images are external.

Thursday Feb 14, 2008 @ 08:07

Comment from: hari [Visitor] · http://literaryforums.org

Test comment to check the cookies system. EDIT: It works fine. I wonder whether you clicked on "remember me" before posting the comment. To me it works without a problem. Also let me know what browser and OS you are using.

Thursday Feb 14, 2008 @ 08:11

Comment from: ray [Visitor] · http://lostaddress.org

Win XP SP2 and Firefox 2.0.0.12. I did click "remember me" when leaving the comments yesterday and today on the same PC only my email and URL are remembered.

Not a big issue for me

Thursday Feb 14, 2008 @ 15:56

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

I've been unable to reproduce that behaviour. I tried posting a comment as a guest earlier and it still remembers my name, e-mail and URL. Using Debian Iceweasel version 2.0.11.

Thursday Feb 14, 2008 @ 17:30

Comment from: MrCorey [Visitor] · http://coreythompson.com

So, lets try IE6 on Win XP SP2, modified and hacked to crap by my employer. When at home, I'll try with Firefox 3beta *(beta, my ass! pre-alpha)on Hardy Heron.

And the results are...

Thursday Feb 14, 2008 @ 19:51

Comment from: MrCorey [Visitor] · http://coreythompson.com

A gravatar shows and my info is ther af ter checking "remember me"

Thursday Feb 14, 2008 @ 19:51

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

Thanks, MrCorey. I couldn't see any errors at my end too. For those experiencing cookie problems - I suggest clearing your cookies and trying again (but I bet you'd have done it anyway)

Thursday Feb 14, 2008 @ 20:05

Comment from: MrCorey [Visitor] · http://coreythompson.com

FF3.0b3 on Ubuntu Hardy Heron (somewhere around Beta 1, I guess - why did they replace FF with version 3-crashy?) and I am going to post this, expecting that I will see my Gravatar, etc.

Friday Feb 15, 2008 @ 08:34

Comment from: titanium [Visitor] · http://www.creativehedgehog.com

The problem is not that it is forgetting my name, but remembering my email and website. Ticking "remember me" and it remembers my name.

Saturday Feb 16, 2008 @ 18:27

Comment from: titanium [Visitor] · http://www.creativehedgehog.com

It would be nice if remember me is ticked automatically after you tick it once- or on Drew's site, he has a "forget" check box. My name is forgotten (not the others) when I don't click the remember me box.

Saturday Feb 16, 2008 @ 18:29

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

TG, I'll set "remember me" to be default.

Saturday Feb 16, 2008 @ 18:34

Comment from: titanium [Visitor] · http://www.creativehedgehog.com

was still un ticked!

Thursday Feb 21, 2008 @ 04:42

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

Titanium, I haven't had time to edit the code yet.

Thursday Feb 21, 2008 @ 07:36

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