SharpMT

SharpMT – 2.1 Beta 1

17 Comments

All sorts of goodies; all of them from user feedback (although I did put a spin on a couple of things here and there) so it should please a few people. There is one huge upgrade to the install process – huge in possible impact – because it now checks to see if version 1.1 of the .NET Framework is installed before letting SharpMT install itself. Please let me know if this causes a problem, i.e. if it tells you the Framework is missing even though you know it is installed.

Insert Image Link for Uploaded Images – This was a suggestion: since you are uploading an image to your blog, why not have SharpMT automatically insert an image link to point to it? On the Options dialog, under the new Tags tab, you’ll find a new custom tag called Image. When you go to upload an image, you will see a new check box that says Insert IMG tag with this link as SRC on the upload dialog. These are obviously intertwined. Unless I explain this with an example it will sound ugly: if <img src=”[IMAGELINK]” border=”0″> is the current Image tag, the when it is inserted into an edit box it will replace [IMAGELINK] with the uploaded picture’s link. You could also change the Image tag to something like <a href=”[IMAGELINK]” target=”_blank”><img src=”[IMAGELINK]” border=”0″><a> to get fancy. Also, if the check box on the upload dialog is disabled you didn’t have focus on an “available” edit box when you uploaded the image.

Custom Tags – On a related tags note, you can now set three different customizable tags. They are activated as Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, and Ctrl+3 and will only be active if there is a tag set (obviously). SharpMT ships with 1 set as strike, 2 as p, and 3 is empty. When you set the tag, you can set the tag to be “Enclosing” or “Contained”: strike acts like bold would so it is Enclosing – p acts like br or hr so it is Contained. Confused? Watch the test for the check boxes and you’ll see a simple preview of how your tag will be displayed. Also, the shortcut for these items on the menu show up a Ctrl+D1 instead of Ctrl+1 – nothing I can do for that but Ctrl+1 works just fine so I’m happy.

Updated Interface – By popular demand, there’s some added features to the general UI of the Main tab: resizing boxes to make more room. The Title/Category and Excerpt sections can not be “Minimized” and “Restored”. There is also a splitter control between the Body and Extended sections: move the splitter to resize the controls accordingly. These two don’t get a minimize option as they share the same space but you can hide one almost entirely by using the splitter. Also, the settings of these sizes and positions are captured with the closing of each Draft; the last most saved settings will be used for the next draft created/opened. This works well if you like one set layout: set it up, close the draft and never change it again (because you won’t have to).

New Draft-Level Default – For new drafts there is a new default setting for the “Authored On” setting. As a default it can either be “Server Time” (meaning that you uploaded post will be assigned the date and time by the MT server) or non-Server Time. If non-Server Time, the date and time for Authored On will default to the time that SharpMT created the draft and can be edited before posting to the server.

Links Window – If you do a refresh on your links (or as you add new links) you will begin to see blog entry’s date and time (as it stored in on the server) in the Blog Links’ details window.

Spell Checking – Looks like the control I’ve been “evaluating” is currently priced at $194. There’s less than 1/2 of that in the collection bucket so it looks like y’all aren’t getting it in this release… soon though, maybe. If I ever get enough cash for it, SharpMT will be upgraded within a day.

Download SharpMT 2.1 Beta 1 and read the FAQ for more information.


17 thoughts on “SharpMT – 2.1 Beta 1”

  2. Dude, I love the custom tags – especially for the imagelink (I never do things the simple way, so it’s nice to be able to add the link automatically the way I like to have it!)

    Maybe it would be a cool idea to have something for alt texts (like a little box in the upload window where we could put the alt text and it would automatically get added to the link?) – just an idea, but it’s nice the way it is too ;)

    The only things lacking for ME in sharpmt are the spelling check (did someone already suggest aspell to you like i think zempt uses??) and a version for PALM (pretty please? :) ). Other than these 2 things, sharpmt is a damn sexy proggie – thanks, and keep up the good work!!

  3. @Spyke – glad the custom stuff works – that was a late minute inspiration that I thought might help. The Image Upload link thingy is about the same – I was thinking about an insert Image Link thingy but I wasn’t too keen on it… I’ll see about adding alt tag support – would just be another field on the upload screen.

    As to spelling, that’s a bit of an issue all the way around. When I started this I went out looking for a spelling widgit – seeing as my spelling sucks – and I found a killer one. Easy to integrate and has the underlining/red bit like Word – the only problem is that it’s $200/product and I refuse to spend any cash (beyond the hosting, time, and compiler money) on development. I looked into a open source checker, then integrating Word’s and a couple of others but none were as well done as this one control. I even contacted the team that wrote it about giving me a pro-bono version but no dice. I’m just hopeful that I’ll eventually get enough donations to pay for the control.

    As to Palm, the only coding I’ve done there has been WebClippings (no code) and J2ME (which I’m still in therapy for)… sorry, but the odds of me getting into the Palm platform are anywhere from 0 to -50. But I’ll keep working towards the spell checker! :)

  4. Hey Randy,

    Nice, nice job on the edit UI changes. Makes it much easier to edit!

    There is a small bug for you to iron out there though. If you resize the Entry Body to maximum, so the Extended Entry field disappears altogether, then weird stuff happens when the Excerpt field is alternately minimised and restored.

    It doesn’t happen when it’s the Extended Entry box which is resized to max and the Title/Category fields are min’d and maxed. Actually, works like I expected it to.

    I’ve got more comments specific to this upgrade @ http://www.synaptic.bc.ca/MyMessyWorkbench/archives/000130.php and general thoughts on offline blogging editors @ http://www.synaptic.bc.ca/MyMessyWorkbench/archives/000098.php if you’re interested. When I get a chance, I’ll consolidate these comments into proper feature requests.

    Cheers,

    p.

  10. @P – Oops, yeah, that’s a bug. I added the splitter AFTER the minimize logic and it showes… I’ll get to that for Beta 2. I’ll also pop over to the websites and see what’s happening out there… as is obvious I do listen to (and want) as much feedback as I can get!

    As to the honor system, I think I’ve been emailing with that Blogger – I’m working with Amazon to set up just such a system but I’m having issues with how they set it up – i.e. my person email gets used instead of a different email – and I’m waiting for them to get back to me. Maybe I should accept MO’s or something too. Once I get a spell checker I’ll shut up about donations though – that it certain.

    Odd about the timeout – I’ll see if I can increase the timing for it. I know that everything that should be turned on is but there could be another setting floating out there… thanks for the props too :)

  13. I love this! I made a comment with two or three suggestions, and a few days later, here’s a beta that takes care of all of them. Amazing response. I don’t particularly need a spell checker, but I’ll put some $ in through paypal just as thanks for the work that’s already gone into this.

    This is my only posting tool now. Only one last request: any way to change the default key setup so that ctrl-delete is delete the current word rather than delete-to-EOL? I keep having to retype a lot of stuff. A small (one- or three-level) undo would also be helpful, as it would in any editor.

    Oh, and I’m getting an error on startup, “String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.” But I can click “continue” and it’s fine. I think this started when I turned “Use server time” off.

    Wonderful piece of software.

  14. @Mark – don’t get spoiled by the fast turn around :) You’ve found me during an active Dev cycle, which is a good time to get suggestions in!

    Actually, a few people have stepped up in donations this week – just $75 away from a spell checker at the moment! I appreciate the support!

    I’ll look into the edit tweaks and Undo levels, but in all honesty I’m not doing anything there: what’s there is stock and standard for the .NET version of the Edit Box as Windows sees it… enhancing it will be something I wasn’t planning on, but I can take a peek at it.

    As to the bug (and the yes, that is a bug), this might be something new with this version… I assume that you’ve got 2.1 Beta 1? Also, do you have “Use Server Time” as a default or no? I’m just curious, as I haven’t seen that (yet) on my system…

    Thanks again!

  15. I love the program, and I’m thrilled to see the splitter between Entry Body and Extended Entry text fields. Thanks!

    One request: it’d be a big change, I know, but it would be nice if it were easier to switch between blogs (both on the same and different servers). I have three different blogs that I sometimes post to. Two of them are on the same server, which isn’t so bad to switch between, but it would still be nice if the state (‘Blog Links’) would switch with the different blog. The third blog is on a completely different server, and switching to it is obviously much more work.

    Again, thanks. It’s a really nice program.

  16. @Mike, et al. – The problem with supporting multiple blogs – and Patrick goes into this at length in his review – is that MT doesn’t make it easy. With each blog, it’s more than just the blog to store/track/manage: there’s the blog id, the categories per blog, the links per blog, the text filters per blog, as well as the authentication fields which may or may not be the same across the servers/blogs. On top of that, not everything comes down or goes back to the server in one call. For example, if you post an entry to an MT server, it first sends the post data, then sets the categories, then adds the trackbacks/pings, and *then* rebuilds the entries. Why? Beats the shit outta me – that’s a question for the XML-RPC API and the MT designers. In addition to all of that mess, then there’s the fact that categories and text filters have to be stored OR you have to be online to sync them, which can cause one of three problems: a) you can fault on a post because the categories aren’t there, b) you can post to an entirely wrong category, seeing as many blogs might have category “1” (MT sets them by number, not name), and c) you’d have to be online all the time to write, which would negate the whole reason for an offline writer.

    So anyway, given the above, multi-blog support is not something that I want to get into, nor do I plan to… I know I said the same thing about multi-drafts being supported but that was a me-issue; this is a much larger issue that is mostly beyond my control. If it was a question of setting a flag or tracking a list of blogs (which I do anyway) then I could do it, but there’s too many things that can go very wrong with this to make it worth while, IMHO.

    And thanks for the support! :)

    By the way, beta 2 should be packaged and ready to go by Friday, at the latest.

  17. The bug with the date string appeared when I changed the default on “use server time,” but stayed after I tried turning it on and off. But I had installed the beta over my previous version of SharpMT, so I uninstalled everything, reinstalled the beta and the error’s gone.

    No need to tinker with the .NET editor if it’s working. I just need to learn not to use Ctrl-Del all the time. I always change it in MS Word.

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