WORKING WITH YOUR BLOG
All the style sheets and templates in the world would be useless without the database that ExpressionEngine uses to build your blog. The database is the skeleton that pulls together the style sheet, the templates, and the blog content into a coherent Web site — and that provides the production system that lets you edit the templates, style sheet, and content.
When you installed Expression Engine, you created the database that controls your blog. If you ever need to change any of the general configuration settings, log into ExpressionEngine and click the Admin tab. The System Preferences section allows you to control macro-level database settings. When you install ExpressionEngine, it creates a blog for you. Before you jump into customizing templates and style sheets, you can use this default blog to understand the capabilities of ExpressionEngine. The best place to start? Create a few new posts to your blog and then view the resulting pages EE creates. Are you ready to post to your blog? Log into ExpressionEngine and click the Publish tab. What you see is the default blog entry page. You can customize or even add more fields if you need to by visiting the tools located in the Admin tab and following the instructions in the User Guide.
To post to your blog, follow these steps:
1. Title your blog entry.
This is the only required field in the blog posting.
You can leave the URL Title field blank. ExpressionEngine generates the URL title, which is used in the full address of the blog entry, based on the information in the Title field.
2. Write a short summary of the entry.
Use the summary to pique your readers’ interest and get them to read more. Many bloggers don’t bother with a summary. Other bloggers display the summary only on the first page of their blog and make readers click to get the full post.
3. Fill in the following fields:
• Body: Contains the bulk of your blog posting. In most cases you won’t go on and fill in the Extended field, but put all of your entry in the Body field.
Your blog posting reflects the spacing you use in the Body field. Want to skip a line and start a new paragraph? Use the Enter key as you do in a word processor; there’s no need to insert spacing using HTML tags.
• Extended: This field is for occasions when you have an extra-long blog entry and don’t want the entire posting to display on the home page of your blog. Text that you place in the Extended field is only visible to users who click the permalink. The best way to get a feel for this field is to go ahead and try it!
• Trackbacks: Use this field to include a Trackback URL from some¬one else’s blog you’re citing in your posting. When you publish your entry, ExpressionEngine uses the Trackback information to notify that blog publisher that you’ve referred to their blog. I cover Trackbacks in more detail in Chapter 11. You don’t have to use Trackbacks, but they are an easy way to create links from other blogs without lots of work on your part.
• Entry Status: Determines whether content is visible on your blog or only entered into the production system. Set your entry status to Open, and your entry is published to your blog when you submit it. Choose Closed, and ExpressionEngine saves the entry so that you can come back to it later.
• Author: Normally this field reflects the name of the person who is currently logged into the system. It is most useful for blogs with multiple authors.