SharpMT – 1.0 Beta 7, RC2

First some useful location information:

Product info: https://www.randyrants.com/sharpmt/

FAQ: https://www.randyrants.com/sharpmt/faq.htm

Download: https://www.randyrants.com/sharpmt.exe (always the latest version – currently Beta 7, Release Candidate 2)

Beyond that, what’s news for Beta 7? It’s definitely a second Release Candidate. Beta 7 has a bug fix for the Add URL ComboBox, both from a crash and some better handling for deleting characters. It’s not as quick to offer a URL anymore but I find that to be better than not being able to enter a URL that you want, just because it’s in the list already. Also new to the Add URL dialog is a Target edit box. The four most common “names” are in the drop down list, but you can also type in your own frame name, if you need too.

Lastly, I added a small thing that might help appease some of my users. One of the most often asked for features is editing capabilities via SharpMT – I would have thought it would be spell checking or even WYSIWYG editing, but it’s actually editing. My thought on this is that it’s beyond the scope of this particular project and it would be “dangerous” or at least irresponsible of me to try. For me, I believe that if I were to offer editing “properly” I would have to stay in sync with MT at all times. Keeping two databases in sync at all times is nearly impossible. In a multi-user environment, there’s always issues and even with a single user in a local versus server environment, it’s dangerous. What happens if you have a version locally, then you update a post on the server itself while at a cyber-cafe, and then you edit and upload the local version? Ugly? Very much so.

There’s also the issue that I have with what SharpMT is supposed to be from a functional standpoint. I see it as an offline authoring tool that allows your to upload to a server, once you get re-connected. A number of people see it as a MT desktop based tool or a web page replacement tool. The difference between the two might seem subtle, but frankly the difference programming-wise is actually pretty huge. I doubt anyone, aside from the makers of MT itself, could ever fully replace the MT web-based pages. There’s too many configuration options that aren’t exposed via the XML-RPC interface and then there’s the whole database sync issue. Personally I believe that if you are online – which you’d have to be to post the updates – and you need to edit an existing post, you’ve got a great set of editing tools already available via the MT server.

In an attempt to help my users, however, I have added a new menu option on the context menu of the Blog Links window. If you have a draft selected, you already had the option of Opening the existing post via a browser, but now you also have the option of Editing the existing post via the MT tools. One caveat: this will only work if you have allowed MT to “Remember you” between logins – that is, when you last logged in, you checked “Remember Me”. If you haven’t opted for an auto-login, you will be shown the login screen if you use this link. I’ve already tried to have the MT page log in the user automatically but that was a no-go. The best I can do is open the browser with the link filled in – besides, it works well if you use “Remember Me”. And of course, you have to be online for this to work!

This is it, release-wise. Honestly, I believe this is the good build for the final release. I’m going to float it out there for a few days – if I don’t hear anything by Tuesday or Wednesday, I’m calling it a “final” and I can take break before starting 1.1.

Thanks for the ongoing support, too! Oh, and you can download beta 7 here!


12 thoughts on “SharpMT – 1.0 Beta 7, RC2”

  1. OK, a couple suggestions I have for this (though I think it’s a great program so far, and I’ve been looking for an excuse to get rid of w.bloggar). If any of these features already exist, I apologize.

    1) A key command to post, so I don’t have to select it from the menu. Like ctrl-enter, for example.

    2) When I create a link, I usually set the target as blank. A suggestion: When you use the link dialog, it defaults back to whatever target you used before so I don’t have to select blank everytime (basically, I’m looking for a way to use my mouse as little as possible).

    3) In that same vien (sp?), I’d like the entry screen options (allow pings, publish mode, etc…) to default to whatever I used last.

    4) After I post, I’d like entry fields to be blank, or at least have the option to. When I post, I’m usually posting a bunch of stuff at once, and I’d have to clear every field to post a new entry.

    5) And a question: I don’t know a lot about hot the xml-rpc stuff works, but when I post via this, does it read what sites I’ve setup in MT to globbally ping (blog.gs, blogrolling, weblogs.com, etc…) and ping those sites when I post via SharpMT? w.bloggar doesn’t work really well in that regard.

    6) One last suggestion: Spell Check. I suck at spelling, at that’d be a cool feature (just tie it in to MS Office’s spell check, or something ).

    Otherwise, great job!

    -Jake

  2. i would love to try this out, but when i start the app i get an error message:

    the application failed to initialize properly (00xc00somethingsomethinsomethin). click OK to terminate application.

    :(

  3. Very nice app.

    One request I must make is for the ability to change the code the B and I buttons add.

    I prefer the more semantically useful strong and em tags to b and i.

    Thanks.

  4. @Jeek – Noted – will be considered for 1.1, when I plan to add a new HTML control.

    @Ken – Do you have the 1.1 version of the .NET Framework installed? Please let me know if you do and you’re still getting an error…

    @Jake – I thought about putting in a short cut for Posting (probably Ctrl+P or F5) but I was concerned about people hitting such a key “accidentally” and ending up with duplicate postings… that’s why it’s not there :)

    For the Link and the Advanced defaults… defaulting Link is useful for people that always point to the same target frame and annoying for people that point to multiple frames for different links. I can tell you that tabbing and cursor keys can replace the mouse, but I think this will stay as is – unless there’s a mass uprising. I don’t use the Target field, myself, so I have no preference yet. [All of my local links open in the same window; all of my external links open a new window via JavaScript]

    As to the Advanced options, what you’re asking for is how they originally worked and that caused confusion for people that were switching between old drafts and new posts, etc., which is where the “new” defaults options came in… so I’m afraid that too will be staying.

    After a post, I can clear it to new (Ctrl+N). I’ll see if I have to change any other code for this release though and add it to the request list.

    With regards to blogs.gs and weblogs.com getting pinged on changes, yes – that does happen now. At least from my server it does – I’ve set the “always ping these two sites with changes” options for the Blog which is why they fire.

    And lastly, spell checking. I’ve got a solution for it – I actually have to take it OUT before building it for the public – and it works pretty well. However, to get a licensed copy of the control I’m using, it’s $200. As donations continue to come in, they’re going into the “Spell Check” kitty. I also want to make sure that the HTML control that FurryGoat.com is working on is compatible before having to spend another $200 for a different one. I was also dead set against having to require someone to have Word installed, just to type up blogs… at this point it’s a cost issue. While I’m more that happy to not make money on this project, I’m definately not coming out of pocket for it… well, especially because I have it working for me ;)

    Thanks for all the feedback!

    Randy

  5. OK, the ctrl-n solved one problem, and I see you’re working on the spelling issue. A few replies.

    While I understand your concern with using the Office spell check, my feeling is that you could at least leave it as an option that someone could select until you are able to license the proper controls. Then once you get the other one, turn it off. But regardless, leave the office spell check link as an option, but turned off by default….an “un-supported” feature, if you will. I don’t know much about the .net framework, but I would assume it wouldn’t be too hard to tie into MS Office stuff (but I’m not a software programmer, just a PHP guy myself :)).

    As for the link/entry/advanced defaults, I understand your reasoning, but here’s mine (and I think this would make it appeal to more folks, but maybe it’s just me): While there are a lot of folks that use wacky targets to a bunch of different places, there are folks like me who post 7 or 8 thinks a day, each with a few links, all that have to be manually set to “_blank”, and I rarely use “Draft” in MT, and publish right away (my site’s not that popular that I can’t afford a screw up). Personally, this is what’s keeping me using w.bloggar right now is that I’m usually blogging between doing 400 other things, and don’t have a whole lot of time. To manually go in and change the options every time I post annoys the heck out of me. Leave it off by default, but at least throw a check box in the options field that says “Remember Previous Post’s Options” or something similar.

    As for the key command to post, yeah, I understand that it can accidently post when you don’t want to, but I, personally, leave the keyboard as little as humanly possible (generally only use the mouse when I’m in Photoshop, Pagemaker or on the Web). This might be another thing that would be an “Option”. No sense in turning features off in case some of your users don’t like them. At least leave them as an option for use folks who do :)

    Anyway, great product, and is giving me more of a reason every day to bull doze some software on my system :)

  6. @Jake – Thanks for the continued feedback! With regards to linking in Office, it’s not that easy. In most of my attempts to leave out things that are compiled in at design time, it’s not an easy thing to do with C#. I leave my current Spell Checker control in while I’m debugging. When I want to cut a release for the public, I have to delete the control and comment out all references too it because if I don’t, C# tries to find it and will crash if it doesn’t. Besides, I’m waiting to see what happens with the new HTML controls before settling on a spell checker control. The one that I have now is what I want to use, but if it doesn’t interopt with the new controls I have to investigate something new. Lastly, the Word-SpellCheck hooks are strictly character driven. It would be up to me to create the UI for it, which is no small task, given the error checking and controls required… consequently, it’s not happening in the short term – not for a project like this!

    With the previous options, I’m sorry but someone else already beat ya to it, as a feature. Maybe something will be done for 1.1, but it’s basically come down to a difference of ideals and in a case like this whichever side got coded most recently wins.

    With regards to a short cut key for posting, I completely agree in that I use the keyboard as little as possible. If I change anything for this final release I’ll add it, but it might not make it in there until 1.1

  7. Randy,

    Thanks again for putting up with my comments, and I do appreciate yours! I’ll be keeping up with the development of this, that’s for sure!

  8. Hey, if you could come up with a PocketPC 2002 port I would just be in heaven! lol.

    Lets all just pushing, lol.

  9. Actually, I’ve worked with the Windows CE platform since before it’s initial launch in 1996… and given that Mobile Forms is a part of VS.NET 2003, it would be more of a port than anything else.

    However, I’m not touching it… the thought of handwriting a blog entry makes my head hurt :)

  10. Lol!

    I use the notepad a lot at work for making Entry notes, and a good PDA based MT client would be a lifesaver for me.

    I do however understand your position. Been There, Done that!

  11. Can SharpMT pick up the plugins for the text formatting option? I’ve got Textile installed, but it hasn’t been picked up and I can’t select it.


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