June 29, 2003

Gallery Password

bastish 12:07 AM | (1) |

Gallery User Name

bastish 12:07 AM | (0) |

Default Album

This is the Album your images will be saved to by default. If you wish to post to a different album, you can override this with a @album=albumname@ line in your email

NOTE: This is a perfect place to use the Majic Moji feature.

bastish 12:06 AM | (0) |

FTP Dir

bastish 12:05 AM | (0) |

FTP Pass

bastish 12:05 AM | (0) |

FTP User

bastish 12:05 AM | (0) |

FTP Info

If you have any troubles, comments, or questions, please leave a comment below.

bastish 12:04 AM | (0) |

Contact Email

If you would like to be notified of new features, or if you would like me to help you troubleshoot any problems you may be having should I happen to notice, please leave your contact email address. I will not use it unless you have also checked the contact permission box. I'll simply watch you suffer through endless frustrating hours of trying to figure out why your post wont show up, even though I see the problem and it would only take a few keystrokes to fix it. so please check the permission box.

bastish 12:03 AM | (0) |

Mob-Roll

If you would like your moblog to be added to the Mob-roll, as a link at the left, or an image at the right, please enter the URL to your moblog's top page, and check the appropriate mob-roll permission box.

The mob-roll links on the left will show the last updated moblogs.

The mob-roll images on the right may or may not exist as you are reading this. I would like to have the latest imge of each user, and I would like to allow people to display the latest moblog images of their friend's sites too, however I don't want to take the risk of displaying someone's porn moblog on my site... when this feature is up and running I will let everyone know who has checked the mob-roll image box.

If you would like help in debugging your moblog in the event that something isn't working correctly, having this will help me immensely. I will not make this URL known to anyone else, unless you have checked one of the mob-roll permission boxes.

bastish 12:03 AM | (0) |

Blog Name

This is the name of your Blog as it will appear in the Mob-roll.

bastish 12:02 AM | (0) |

Blog URL

If you would like your moblog to be added to the Mob-roll, as a link at the left, or an image at the right, please enter the URL to your moblog's top page.

If you would like help in debugging your moblog in the event that something isn't working correctly, having this will help me immensely. I will not make this URL known to anyone else, unless you have checked one of the mob-roll permission boxes.

bastish 12:02 AM | (0) |

Resize Images

I have had several inqueries into the best way to resize images on a persons moblog. If you don't have the software or the knowhow to do this on your own server, the best way is to let Mfop2 do it for you.

This feature will be coming soon... as soon as I figure out why it only works half of the time. If you are interested in using this feature when it is ready, or in helping me test it, just leave a comment below, or let me know by email

bastish 12:01 AM | (0) |

Guest Email List / Password

The guest email and password feature allows you to post to your moblog using one Mfop2 account, and multiple email addresses. This means that you can have friends and enemies post to your account without letting them see your blog login information in the Mfop2 registration page

To use the guest email feature, simply

  1. Add all the email addresses you would like to allow into the guest email text field one per line.
  2. Choose an password that you will distribute to your guests.
  3. The guests can then use this password in the normal Mfop2 password fashion (@ps=guestpass@) to moblog to your blog.

NOTE: previously, Mfop had the option to allow any email with the "*" wildcard. Mfop2 does not have this feature for certain logistic and security reasons. To make it easy to register as many users as you like however, I am considering a simple API which will allow you to have a form on your own site which will update your guest email list, so users can even register their own email.

bastish 12:00 AM | (0) |

Majic Moji

Majic Moji allow you to save time typing. Mfop2 allows you to keep your own database of helpful shortcuts which will expand to any text string you wish before being posted to your blog.

A simple example of Majic Moji in action would be to have

:-)
Expand into
<img src="smile.gif">

To use Majic Moji:

  1. First, save your registration if this is a new registration, or if you have just made a change to your from email of Mfop2 password.
  2. Open the Majic Moji editing window by clicking on the "Add Majic Moji" button.
  3. Enter any string of charachters without spaces in to the smaller text field. These should be characters that are unlikely to appear in a normal post, "hi" would be a very bad choice. "HHI" would be a better choice.
  4. In the larger text field, add the text you would like your Majic Moji to expand to. This can include HTML, Mfop2 template variables ([name=Jon] or [name]), it can even contain other Majic Moji (results may very)
  5. Click Save.
  6. In your moblog post, simply type your Majic Moji where you would like them to be expanded.

Majic Moji together with the Mfop2 tags can be very powerful if you dare explore their full potential.

Before posting your moblog post, Mfop2 will parse the text several times, this means that Majic Moji can be inside Mfop2 tags, or Mfop2 tags can be in expanded Majic Moji. The order in which Mfop2 processes you post goes like this:

  1. Collect all variables: i.e. @name=Kumiko@
  2. Remove all lines beginning and ending with "@"
  3. Replace [post_body] in your template with the text of your email.
  4. Expand all Majic Moji. (allows you to store tags in Majic Moji)
  5. Replace all [tags] with the values collected in step 1.
  6. Process all [if_xxx] tags
  7. Expand all Majic Moji a second time. (Allows you to store Majic Moji in variable values)

Some of the uses I can think of would be to store user signatures if you are allowing many people to post to the same moblog. For example, my signature could be

KKCC
which could expand to
<a href="http://www.bastish.net">Kevin</a>

This whole idea of storing tags inside Majic Moji and vice-versa confuses me. The good news is, no one even has to use it, and you certainly don't have to make it complicated, but if you want to experiment, go ahead. And if you come up with some great time saving combinations, or if you have any questions, please leave a comment below.

bastish 12:00 AM | (0) |

June 28, 2003

Template

By default, the html Mfop2 sends to your blog will look like this

<img src="/path/to/your/image/xxx.jpg" alt="xxx.jpg"><br />
The text from your email

Most people like to have more control over what their site looks like, and hand coding HTML on a cell phone is, well....

To make your life easier, you can enter HTML markup to your hearts desire into your template. Mfop will input all the images and text directly into the template where you have specified, before posting the whole template to your blog.

The original Mfop only had thre tags, [img], [imgsrc], and [post_body]

Mfop2 has some reserved tags mentioned below, but better yet, it allows you to make your own tags as well. Even better than that, if allows you to use [if_xxx]HI[/if_xxx] tags too. The easiest wat to explain is probably just to give you an example.

Your Example Template
<div class="images">
[if_img]<img src="[img_src_path]" alt="[alt1]">[/if_img]
[if_img]<img src="[img_src_path]" alt="[alt2]">[/if_img]
[if_img]<img src="[img_src_path]" alt="[alt3]">[/if_img]
</div>
[if_pf]Posted From:<a href="http://www.at-navi.com/pcx/jsp/map/mapMilLoginCtl.jsp?lat=[lat]&lon=[lon]&unit=0&datum=0&sc=2">[pf]</a><br />[/if_pf] <p>[post_body]</p>
In the post from your phone (with two attached images):
@P=mypass@
@T=The title of the post@
@alt1=My Lunch@
@alt2=My Desert@
@lat=35.54.21.54@
@lon=139.37.27.55@
@pf=Omiya Station@
I was in Omiya today, and this is what I had for lunch!
What Mfop2 will post to your blog:
<div class="images">
<img src="/image/001.jpg" alt="My Lunch">
<img src="/image/002.jpg" alt="My Desert">
</div>
Posted From:<a href="http://www.at-navi.com/pcx/jsp/map/mapMilLoginCtl.jsp?lat=35.54.21.54&lon=13 9.37.27.55&unit=0&datum=0&sc=2">Omiya Station</a><br />

I was in Omiya today, and this is what I had for lunch!

Now, I know that is still a lot of typing, but just because you can make a big template, doesn't mean you have to. Just pick tags that make sence to you, and you think you will use at least some of the time. (even if you don't use it everytime, the [if_xxx] tags will keep the option at your fingertips.

Different templates for different situations:
[if_isbob] <img src="/images/bobsface.gif">
Posted by BOB! <div style="border: #f00 solid 5px;> [post_body]</div> [/if_isbob]
[if_isjon] <img src="/images/jonsface.gif">
Posted by JON! <div style="border: #3ff dotted 1px;> [post_body]</div> [/if_isjon]
In a mail from bob:
:isbob=1:
Hi I'm bob! I like red!
What Mfop2 will post to your blog:
<img src="/images/bobsface.gif">
Posted by BOB! <div style="border: #f00 solid 5px;> Hi I'm bob! I like red!</div>
Reserved Tags:

Basically, to make sure you don't override any current of future Mfop2 tags, just be sure not to start any of your own tas with a capitol "M". However, if you wish to override an Mfop2 tag, you can. Currently the tags that I Mfop2 has special uses for are:

@P=mymfoppass@

This is used to enter your password into your mail. If you try to use this for something else, you probably wont be able to log in.

@T=Title of the post@

This will be sent as the title of your blog post.

[img_in_tag]

If this is in your template, it will be replaced with

<img src="/path/to/your/img.jpg">

[img_src_path]

If this is in your template, it will be replaced with

/path/to/your/img.jpg

[if_img][/if_img]

This is saved for if you have images or not. It is replaced one at a time for each image attached to your mail. If you have this twice, but attach three images, only two will appear. If you have it three times and only attach two images, the last one will be chopped off before the post is sent to your blog.

bastish 11:59 PM | (1) |

Pages to Rebuild

Check the pages you would like rebuilt each mobblog post.

NOTE 1: You really should rebuild at least the index and Individual archive. If you do not select the individual archive, and are using the MT default blog settings, your permalink will be broken.

NOTE 2: If you check pages that don't exist on your site, such as Category when you do not even have a Category template, it will not work correctly.

bastish 11:59 PM | (0) |

Comments, Pings, Linebreaks, Status

bastish 11:58 PM | (0) |

Default Category ID

Entry the category ID of the category you would like your post to be posted to by default.

For example, if you have a category on your regular blog called Moblog. you can get the ID of this category by going to the Category admin screen, and clicking on Edit category attributes.

The category ID will be at the end of the URL. An example from my site for category number 23 looks like this...

http://www.bastish.net/cgi-bin/admin/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=category&blog_id=10&id=23
Overriding the default category

You can override the default category at the time you send your email by adding:

:cat=xxx:
on a single line in your mail, where xxx is the category ID you would like the mail to be posted to.

bastish 11:56 PM | (0) |

Image Upload Path

This is where the images will be uploaded to, relative to the Local Site Path you configured with your blog.

If the local site path in your MT configuration is

/home/melody/public_html/blog

If you are saving your images in a directory called /images/, and the full url of an image would be

http://www.myblog.com/blog/images/000111.jpg

Then in the Mfop registration page, your should enter simply

/images/
Local Site Path: (From Moveable Type manual)

The path to the directory where you main index file(s) will be located. When you use ``Rebuild'' to publish your site, your index templates will be generated into this directory. An absolute path (a path starting with /) is preferred, because it is not dependent on the location of your Movable Type directory; but if you choose to use a relative path, the path should be relative to your Movable Type directory.

Example: /home/melody/public_html/blog

bastish 11:55 PM | (0) |

Img Src Path

This is what will show up in the <img> tag. This should start with a "/" and be the directory path from your server root (up to .com|.co.jp|.net|.nl|.co.uk etc...), up to the image directory.

For example...

img Src Path = /plod/images/
  1. Your main web site's url is http://www.bastish.net
  2. Your image can be seen in your browser at http://www.bastish.net/plod/images/000111.jpg
bastish 11:55 PM | (0) |

mt.cgi URL

This is simply the URL to your Moveable Type cgi. This is probably the URL you type into the browser when you want to se the login or adimin page Mine looks like

http://www.bastish.net/cgi-bin/admin/mt.cgi

Some of you who are geeky might wonder why I don't use the MetaWeblog API and mt-xmlrpc.cgi. Well, when I first made Mfop, I tried to, and it didn't work on my own instalation. I'm sure I could have figured out why and fixed it, but I'm not sure that non geeks could, so instead I went directly to the mt.cgi. Also, when I first made Mfop, my own MT version was too old to support images via xmlrpc.cgi.

Currently Mfop and Mfop2 work with all the MTs that have tired it as far as I know. In the future I would like to move to the API, just because I would feel safer that nothing will change, and it will require less queries to the user's server, but as it is, I have seen very few problems with this method.

bastish 11:55 PM | (0) |

Author Name, Password & ID

The Author name & password are what you use to log into your blog.

For Moveable Type, if you are uncomfortable registering your main blog login information, you can create a separate author for moblogging. If you do this, the new author should have permissions to

  1. Post
  2. Upload
  3. Rebuild

If you don't know the author ID, you can find it by taking the following steps.

  1. Log into your Moveable Type account using the author you will use to Moblog.
  2. Near the top of the page, there will be a link saying "User: authorname".
  3. Click on the link that is the name of your moblog author.

The url will have the author's id at the end. Mine looks like this:

http://www.bastish.net/cgi-bin/admin/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=author&id=1
bastish 11:53 PM | (0) |

Blog ID

If you don't know the Blog ID for your blog, you can find it by following these steps:

For Movable Type

  1. Log in to your MT admin screen
  2. Click on the name of the blog you will be moblogging to

The blog id should be at the end of the URL. For this Mfop Manual blog, the url looks like this

http://www.bastish.net/cgi-bin/admin/mt.cgi?__mode=menu&blog_id=10

For Blogger

  1. Log in to your Blogger account
  2. Click on the name of the blog you will be moblogging to

The blog id should be at the end of the URL. For this Mfop Manual blog, the url looks like this

http://www.bastish.net/cgi-bin/admin/mt.cgi?__mode=menu&blog_id=10

bastish 11:53 PM | (0) |

Mfop Password

The Mfop2 password is used for two purposes

  1. Logging in to your Mfop2 account.
  2. Posting to your blog.

You have the option to not require your Mfop2 password when posting. The benefit of this of course is that you do not have to type it into your mail each time. If you choose to use this option, Mfop2 will validate your moblog post using only your From Address. Please be aware that spoofing the from address in an email is a trivial matter, and if someone really wanted to, (or is Mfop2 gets so big that spammers take note) they would be able to post to your site.

The other use of your Mfop2 password is to log into your account and change your settings. It is for this reason that if you wish to allow guests you don't fully trust to post to your site, you are encouraged to create a separate guest password, which will allow the guest to post to your account, but they will never see your actual blog password.

Please note that your Mfop2 password may be the same as your blog password if you choose, but if you choose a separate password, the Mfop2 password is the password you need to include in your email.

Usage

In your email body, you must include a single line which looks like this

@P=myMfop2pass@

In the first Mfop, the password was passed in the subject line of your email. like this

[mypass]

This was just bad bad bad. As people from other countries began using the system, I soon realized that I would have to add a lot of patches to handle different encodings of the subject line, which is usually handled differently. Some users didn't even have control over what gets put in their subject line depending on their provider.

In Mfop2, I totally ignore the subject line. There is no backward compatibility.

bastish 11:30 PM | (0) |

From Address

The from address is simply the email address of your mobile device.

I have only had one issue with the from address in the past. This was a result of a certain provider which apparently used some sort of a forwarding system to send mail for their client, so the From address was not the same as the sending device.

If this is the case for you, and you know about it, just ake the appropriate adjustments in your registration.

bastish 11:13 PM | (0) |

Blog Type

Currently Mfop works to some extent with three popular applications:

Mfop2MT

Currently, of the three I am most confident with the Mfop2MT support. This is simply because either Mfop or the user has total control of all variables involved in posting. Moveable Type also makes it a little easier for Mfop to control such things as the post date, and post title.

Mfop doesn't not currently use the MetaWeblog API to post to Moveable Type. The reason behind this is simply that when I first created Mfop, I couldn't get it to work with my own instalment via the API. I found that it worked fine if I post directly to the mt.cgi script, so I kept it that way and have not had any problems yet.

Because Mfop relies on parsing the HTML of your sites admin screens, if you have customized these screens, Mfop may not work, but it may work so please give it a try. Likewise, if MT changes these pages drastically in a future version, Mfop may not work for these versions. If this happens I'll be sure to fix it up real quick-like.

Mfop2Blogger

Blogger users have been quite satisfied with Mfop2Blogger support. Once in a while the Blogger server is unavailable, and a short while ago the location of the posting API script was moved, breaking Mfop for some users, but everything seems to be fine now.

Really the only major drawback with Mfop2Blogger, is that the Blogger API doesn't support Titles. This means that as an Mfop to Blogger user, if you wish to display the title of your post on your site, you will have to add something in your Mfop template similar to this

<h2>[post_title]</h2>

From a blog viewers standpoint, this may be only slightly noticeable, however, note that if you are publishing a xml/rss version, of your blog, the title will not appear in the appropriate position in your xml.

Mfop2Gallery

Although not techincally a "blog" (whatever that is) Mfop has some support for Gallery. Gallery's support is limited, but if enough Gallery users register and begin to request more flexibility, I'll do my best to add as much as I can.

I am still experiencing some difficulties posting to some Gallery instalations, so please let me know if it doesn't work for you. Currently I use the Gallery Remote Protocol version 2

Mfop2xxxxx

If you are using another blogging software, and would like me to add support to Mfop, just let me know. I'm always happy to tackle a new challenge.

Other Resources

For more about APIs, check out a review of blogging APIs at d2r

bastish 08:48 PM | (1) |