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10/20/2005: "Blogger"

I have been very busy building some interlinked content management systems for www.coweb.biz over the past week. This system has to be the most versatile way to add a dynamic content management system to a static website. One of the shortfalls of many perfectly good free web hosting providers is the inability to use a database or php to generate dynamic content. The solution is to construct a website with static pages and add the dynamic content with the interface provided at www.blogspot.com. This outfit is now owned by Google so the systems capabilities to service customers is guaranteed.

The unique feature of blogger is the ability to store the web pages created by the system back to your own web server. If you can access your web hosting account with a direct path via ftp the system should work for you. The only free hosting provider I have had issues with is www.50webs.com because the server operates on virtual paths. This could probably be overcome by making enquiries with the hosting provider to find out the full path.

After setting the system up you publish and manage your content at blogger and each time you rebuild files they are transferred to the storage location specified on your server. To access the weblog you point links to the index where all of the archived blogger pages accessible. Adding a site menu to the template links every archive page back to the main website to integrate the full package seamlessly.

Setting the configuration to store files offsite requires knowledge of how to access the storage server with ftp. If you can upload files with an ftp client the correct settings will allow file saving from the blogger system. You do not have to save the files to an external server they can be stored at blogger but you cannot upload your web pages or backup your web pages.

The range of uses I find for blogs is endless new ideas keep flowing on how business can benefit. Many applications are obvious where others are obscure but the limit is the users imagination. When I needed a small web site that would provide static content and the ability to add dynamic content. Instead of building a website and then trying to make the weblog look like the website I reversed the approach. 4-5 pages were created and saved with the blogger system and then edited to suit my needs. The web pages perform and operate the same as the new content pages that are added with the weblog except for the blogger bar across the top of the page.

If you need to collect information from several blogs and put it all together on 1 page it can be done with a bit of coding. The blogger template lets you adjust the pages to your exact needs and is very easy to work with if you are familiar with HTML. One day soon I will add a list of uses for a blog.