Deluxe Blog Factory is a multi user blogging component from The Factory developed for Joomla! 1.5. Deluxe Blog Factory comes with everything you need for blogging so you do not need to install additional extensions, everything is found within the Blog Factory component.

Some of the features of Blog Factory are: 
  • Multi Blogging: unlimited number of users can have blogs on the same website.
  • Comments with integrated Captcha words to prevent spam.
  • Fully SEF and SEO oriented, SEF urls.
  • Import Blogs into Joomla content.
  • Full control over the Blog component from the administrator backend.
  • Follow other blogs and be followed.
  • Social networking websites bookmarking.

    Before you can start blogging you first have to create an account, click on Create an account, usually located on the Login Form.

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    A Registration form should appear looking like this:

    
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    All fields are mandatory and should be entered correctly, depending on the website settings the account will be activated instantly, by email or by an administrator. The Username is the one you will be using for logging in.

 

    To start blogging click on My Blog Dashboard and register a blog.

 

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    After registering a blog you can go to My Blog Dashboard to see the content of your blog, comments and followers.

    
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    The Deluxe Blog Factory component has a Web 2.0 Dashboard that allows you to drag and arrange the panels as you wish only by clicking and dragging with your mouse. You can hide or show any panel by clicking on the + sign found in the right corner of each panel. The Latest Posts and Comments panels also have an individual refresh button so you don't have to refresh the entire page to see the latest comments or posts.
    
    Each of the panels has the option to view all of its content. The Latest Posts panel also gives you the option to add a new post or view only the unpublished ones.There is also the Comments and Pingbacks page that can be accessed by clicking on the small "text balloon" icon in the right of each post. This will take you to a list where you can view all of them by selecting the appropriate filter.

 

     If you click on the "All" button on the panels you will be taken to a list with all the content. When hovering over a post the Unpublish/Publish, view, edit and delete buttons will appear. 

 

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    Here you see all the posts, their date, category and comments. There are also some filters for category or status. When hovering over a post the same options will appear as in the Latest Posts dashboard panel.
    If you want to modify the status of a post select change category from the drop-down menu and a new menu will appear on its right with the categories on your website, then click go.                                           
    
    When hovering over with your mouse above the toolbars of the Latest Comments, Latest Followers, Latest Posts and Followed Blogs panels a configure button will appear. By clicking on it  the panels will change to configuration mode where you can choose how many to show and depending on the panel, a few other options.

 

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    For instance the Latest Comments panel has the option to choose how many characters of the comments to show if a specific comment exceeds the set amount. You can also set the widget reload interval in minutes. When you are done with the configuration press "save" or "cancel" to return to the normal view. Each panel loads and refreshes individually so you don't have to worry about losing changes made to another panel if you are editing more than one at a time.

    In the Settings page of the Deluxe Blog Factory component you can find General and Avatar settings, and Blog settings if you have a blog created. 

    The General area shows your Name and Website, the website will be shown when posting comments on the website.

 

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    Under the Blog page you will find the Blog description, number of posts per page, pingbacks, update notifications, comment notification and report notification. 

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    Selecting "No" for "Send update notifications" will disable both the new comment and report comment notifications.

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    In the Avatar section you can upload an avatar or use you Community Builder avatar, if available on the website. To upload an avatar click on "Select image" and select it from your hard drive. After making your desired changes click on "Save settings", the Settings page can also be found in the Shortcuts panel in the Blog Dashboard.

 

    Creating a new post can be done by clicking on "Write a New Post" in the Main Menu or by going to your Blog Dashboard and clicking "Write new post" in the "Shortcuts" panel.
    
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    Under the Post Content section you have the Name and the main body of the post, where you write the actual article. On the toolbar under the Name you have a few text features and Media management. Clicking on the green downward arrow opens the second toolbar with extra text editing features like font or text color.

 

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    The Deluxe Blog Factory component allows all users to upload content onto the website they can user later or just store, the amount of space each user has is set by the administrator and can vary depending on user class. 

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    To access the Media management panel click on the respective thumbnail and the folder manager will pop up.

 

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    You can add as many folders as you want, delete them and upload files to a file. When you upload files they will be stored in the folder you are browsing at that time. Moving files can be done by clicking on the item, dragging and dropping it over the folder you want to move it in.

    Click on Upload files if you want to upload something, choose the item you want to upload and an upload screen will appear.

 

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Click on Start uploading and wait for the file/s to upload.
    
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    Now that you have uploaded content on the website, you can use it in any post without having to look for it on your hard drive or use the files when you don't have access to your computer. 

 

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    To insert the picture in the article just click "insert" on the picture thumbnail.

 

    Another way to insert pictures in the text is by clicking on the Insert/Edit image thumbnail (the small three icon).

 

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   This is used for adding images located on the internet, just paste the link of the picture in the Image URL space. There are also some alignment and dimension options available. 
    

    If you want to add media to the article you can click on the filmstrip thumbnail and the Insert/edit embedded media pop up will appear.

 

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There are also some Advanced options for the media you want to add.

 

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When you are done adding content to the post you should go to the Post Information tab and add tags, choose category, select if you want to allow others to write comments on your post or allow pingbacks.

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    Optionally you can add Metadata Information like a description and keywords.

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   After you are done with everything click on "Save post" or "Save and return" which will return you to the previous page. You can edit posts from the dashboard in the Latest Posts panel or by clicking on the edit icon when viewing the post in your blog.The button is located under the post.

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Viewing all the Blogs on the website can be done by going to the Latest Blogs.
 
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    If you want the blogs can be shown either in thumbnail mode or in a list where the owner is also shown by clicking on "Change View". If you want you can view only the blogs you are currently following by using the filter.

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By hovering your mouse over a certain blog, a bar with the View blog and Follow options will appear. If you select to follow a blog you will be announced if the owner posts anything new, the notification is sent via email.

    To view the specific blog click on View blog or the blog name, depending on the view you chose.

    
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    Here you see all the articles on that blog along with some Category options, its followers and the RSS feed. Under each article its category and number of comments is shown. If you click on a specific category only the posts under that category will be shown, to view all the posts again click on the "all categories"  text that will appear under the name of the blog.

 

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    Clicking on the name of an article will open the detailed view.

 

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    Here you see the whole post along with its tags, category, comments, rating, the Bookmarks and who posted it under what blog.

    Each user can rate a post by clicking on the stars (1-5), depending on the rating of each post they will be shown by the Top Rated Posts module.
    The Deluxe Blog Factory component allows you to submit every post on a social news website like Digg or Facebook, just click on the respective bookmark and you will be directed to its homepage.
    If you want to submit a comment just fill in the fields in the "Write a comment" section, enter the correct Captcha word and click Submit. Comment may have to be approved by the blog owner or the administrator of the website. 

 

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    To view the latest posts on the website click on Latest Posts on the main menu, this will show you a list with all the blogs in order from the last posted to oldest. All posts from all blogs are shown here, they can be filtered the same way as in the Blog view by clicking on the category or blog name of the respective post.

    The Deluxe Blog Factory component comes with seven modules for easy display and management of content on your website: Tag Cloud, Random Blogs, Latest posts, Top Active blogs, Top Rated Blogs, Top Rated Posts and Search.

Revised "Deluxe Blog Factory" version 1.1.1.