Hi everybody,
If you are here, then you are a select few to get a sneak peek into
our new product labeled BlogBox. BlogBox is built on ColdBox 3.1 and
pure ColdFusion ORM via Hibernate. The fantastic and exciting thing
about BlogBox is that it sports our new architecture of being
completely modular. You are no longer restricted by the application
in order to modify it or extend it. BlogBox is a composition of a few
ColdBox modules that work in unison and can be easily extended either
by more ColdBox modules or simple ColdBox MVC. It can also be
installed into any running ColdBox 3.1 application and leach onto the
parent host. Want to create new sections, sure create another module,
reuse layouts, etc. You do not have to adapt to BlogBox as much as
you need to know how to build MVC applications with ColdBox.
You can add custom interception points to anywhere in the BlogBox
request cycle as it is also the same as a normal ColdBox request. So
you can easily add custom security, logging, caching, you name it. We
also built on ColdBox's event driven programming via interceptors and
have wired BlogBox's internals with tons of event execution points so
you can extend it. As of now, BlogBox sports simple security,
posting, enhanced commenting engine with spam protection and rules
engine, layout (skinning), content widgets, and more.
As of now, the product is in the alpha stages and fully functional.
We are continually developing it and hope to have an open beta in the
next coming months. There are still many open things to build but
would love your ability to test the product and also have input into
it. The product will be open source but also backed by Ortus
Solutions professionally with training, support and consulting. We
will also be creating paid modules that can be enhancements to the
core.
Also, all custom created widgets, layouts and modules can be linked to
forgebox: www.coldbox.org/forgebox, as we will be providing auto-
update capabilities for these items plus the core modules themselves.
Source Code:
https://github.com/Ortus-Solutions/BlogBox
Installation:
- ColdBox 3.1 must be installed first: www.coldbox.org/download
- Once you download the package from the github repository do the
following (install in a webroot under 'blogbox' for ease of use)
1. Open the Application.cfc
2. Modify the dialect for the ORM settings if not using MySQL (As
of now MySQL is tested only)
3. Change the 'dbcreate' to 'dropcreate' so the first request can
build the db and data for you
4. Make sure you create a datasource called 'blogbox' or whatever
you like, but modify also here in the Application.cfc if you do.
5. Run the application
The 'dropcreate' will create the database for you and populate it with
data for you. Once loaded, you can hit the application and it will
present a welcome screen with the loaded modules:
-blogbox
-blogbox-ui
-blogbox-admin
You can hit on the "blogbox-admin" to enter the administrator module,
sample credentials are:
- username: blogbox
- password: blogbox
You can hit on the "blogbox-ui" to enter the blog module.
The "blogbox" module is headless and it holds all the necessary
components for BlogBox to work.
Anyways, please try it out when you can, our repository is constantly
being updated as we prepare the product for launch. We are currently
working on the following areas:
UI
- RSS feed creations
- Event caching
- Creation of more rendering widgets
- Creation of 1 more BlogBox layout
- Documentation of all events and inserting the events in all
locations
Admin
- Documentation of all events and inserting the events in all
locations
- Layouts Manager
- Widgets Manager
- Widgets Documentation
- Email Templates Manager
- BlogBox Modules Manager
- File Manager
- Editor File Management integration
- Dashboard Simple Reports
Free Modules To Build
- Akismet
- Syntax Highlighting
Wiki Creation at wiki.goblogbox.com that will host all the
documentation.
