The Blog Manager > Adding a Blog to a page

In this section we explain how to insert a Blog that we have created in the Blog Manager, into the page, so that your web site visitors can post their comments. The system is designed so that the Blogs are added to the page with the necessary settings to display the Blog correctly, from there the Blog comments and other settings are configurable from the Manager. This makes it easy to manage, without going to the page again.

To insert a Blog into the page, you will need to either open the page you wish to add the Blog to, or create a new page. In the example i have a blank page. The Sequence of Clicks are: Click once in the page where you would like the Blog to appear. Click the Insert Tab on the tool bar. Click the Insert Object icon. Click Blog Object.

Now that the object has been added to the page, double click the object, to access the object properties.

If you select the Default Blog, the page will display the Blog that you choose. (This is the preferred way to add a Blog to the page.)

If you enter a page to redirect to after the form is submitted, the system will redirect you to another page, where you could have a message of thanks. This is optional, so if you would like the post to automatically display on the page (un-moderated), this option may not be necessary.

Below enter the form options that will display on the page. The Name, Email and Comment text is displayed in the Blog form with the respective fields.

When a visitor adds a comment, the system can automatically send a email to users registered in SoftPage. Select either Everyone or specify any number of users. The Email template allows you to style the email that will be set to the respective members.

The Form Style tab contains some settings that will configure the display of the form that visitors see and complete. The Layout options set the general display of the form. Either with text aligned to the right, left or with the text above the field.

Specify the "Form width" and the "Text width" within the form area. The form width is the width of the entire Blog and also specifies the width of the text area where visitors type their message.

Showing the Recent Blogs, show a list of the top 5 recent blogs on the top right area of the Blog message.

Showing the Blog Topics, shows the list of Blog Topics that you may have set up in the Blog Manager.

Showing the Blogs, shows the actual Blog Message and reply comments, If you don't enable this but enable the Recent Blogs and you can create yourself a Blog Navigation.

The Visible option controls the Moderated or unmoderated function of the Blog. This is that the comments are automatically added to the list, rather than the Blog Manager (yourself, most likely) having to enable the comment in order for it to show on the page.

In the Validation Tab, you can configure the Auto Reply options. You can select an automatic email to the visitor. When the email is delivered, the Reply Name, Email and Subject can be specified. The actual Validation options follow. The "Required text" is the text that will display to the right if the text field if the visitor does not enter all the fields. The color is the color of that text.  (Usually a bright color like red).

"Captcha" is a system that prevents no-humans from submitting your forms. This is an increasing problem on the web, where "bots" visit the site and submit the forms, this can happen 100 of even 1000 times a day, and becomes extremely irritating. Using the Captcha text displays a code that the visitor has to re-enter into a field. This code is random and encrypted and therefore cannot be guessed preempted, making it impossible for a bot to submit the form.

The Captcha message is the text that appears at the bottom of the form, usually a message like: "Please enter the security code below into the field on the right"

The Email Validation option has two options, One - none. This is without validating the email.

Two - Link. This is when you embed a link into the automatic reply email. This usually includes a message that instructs the visitor to click the link. Clicking the link validates the email. The page that displays when the link is clicked is specified when the visitor clicks the link.

The third, and most common validation is automatic - This is when the system automatically validated the email address with the internal DNS validation system. It checks the email and validates the domain.

Once all these settings are in place Click OK, to apply the settings. These settings are editable, so that you can go back an edit these later. If you don't have them correct right now, you can go back and edit them later.