Hotlinks in post are not active

[Thomas]

Hi, A awesome friend of mine introduced me to GM and since she is beyond busy with her house, I thought I'd bring this issue here to see if I could solve it. When I type my blog, I was entering links, first as just www.xxxxx.com and then by coding them in shtml. When I upload my post, the links are not going to where they are supposed to go, but instead show up as "page cannot be found" with the address bar showing my website/blog address. Is there a work around or a differnt way I should be doing this?
Thanks
Thomas

[coldstone]

Hmm, could be several things (is www.xxxxx.com your actual site?).

• I would check your configuration and make sure it has your web address correct.
  
• Check if 'auto linking' is active? I think it might be by default. Try turning that off and rebuilding your site.
  
• When you say 'shtml' are using just the 'a href' html tag?
  

I suspect that autolinking might be your culprit. Write back if that does/doesn't work. Or you could simply not enter the html markup for the link and allow autolinking to do its thing.

Could you post a before and after of the issue (what you coded for a link and what you are seeing as the address?).

[petefinnigan]

Hi Thomas,

When you are in the editor adding a new entry and want to add a link, first type in the link text, i.e. - "pete finnigans Oracle security website" (quotes not needed) and then highlight the text and hit CTRL-SHIFT-A and a popup window should come up with "http://" already filled in. All you need to do is fill in the URL, i.e. www.petefinnigan.com.

Then you will get correct links in your posts. As far as I know this only works in IE, also if you are on version 1.3.1 of GM then there was a bug in this. I found and fixed the bug, see my blog post " Another Greymatter Bug in the 1.3.1 upgrade" for details on how to fix it.

hth

cheers

Pete

[jet]

Hey,

I'm having the same issue with setting links in 1.3.1

I readthe other post you referenced, but am getting lost a bit in exactly what needs to be replaced and/or added.

Is there any way to be a little more clear in exactly what text and where need to be added to the gm-library to get the Ctrl-Alt functions to work.

Thanks a bunch!

[petefinnigan]

Hi,

have a look at web.petefinnigan.com/greymatter_mods.htm where i have added my modified gm-library.cgi file. its stored on my page as dot txt, just rename and dont forget to backup your own copy first.

cheers

Pete

[jet]

Wonderful! Works great. Thanks Pete.

(also helps me to be able to see the code and compare, so I know where I was not "getting it")

Geoff.

[JR]

Just installed GM 1.6.1 vanilla.
Attempted to do a test entry.

• There is no help link/button for the newbie poster.
  
• While there is a reference for Ctrl-Shift A/B/I for link/bold/italics, none of these hot keys work using IE7 or Firefox2 which begs the question, what is the syntax for link, bold, italics and more specifically, where does the poster find this information ?
  
• What are fake link 1/2/3 typically used for and what file or template needs to be edited to change or delete the links ? For example, what is the process to change fake link 1 to point to the help file ?
  

[coldstone]

You'll want to read through the gm-manual.html that came with the GreyMatter software.

• Are there specific questions about posting? Or are you suggesting that there should be a link? What information would the help cover?
  
• That feature seems to have disappeared a few releases back and there are plans to restore them. See this link for more info: greymatterforum.proboards82.com/index.cgi?board=gmdevboard&action=display&thread=1155757202&page=1#1155931793
  
• The fake links are just placeholders to until you modify the templates. If you go into the control panel and look around you will see that alot of the site is customizable. I believe you will want to change the "Editing Header, Footer & Sidebar (& Custom) Templates".
  

Read through the gm-manual.html file and write back if you have more questions. We are looking for ways to make GreyMatter easier to use and more helpful so suggestions are always welcome.

[JR]

• No specific questions. Was looking for more for a detailed template customization guide, including examples. Apparently a lot can be accomplished with the templates; but, there is nothing documenting any sample code. YAGM is a place to work backwards from. To the extent that people are willing to share/show their GM implementation in YAGM, they should be willing to display the template coding that makes it happen. This sample code can then be used in the template customization guide.
  
• It's not necessary for the hotkeys to work so much as for there to be examples of how to accomplish their function manually. For example this forum has buttons for bold and italic and link and it has detailed help by way of the help button
  
• the fake links are an example of missing documentation. How is one to know that the fake links are in the sidebar template ? After the application installs successfully, at a minimum, one should be forced to modify the Editing Header, Footer & Sidebar template especially as it is the main page.

BTW - what is the syntax for bold, italics, and link ?

[coldstone]

If you look at the comment page for any entry on your site (assuming you have comment turned on):

Formatting hints: bold text, italics & underlining can be done easily by bracketing text with two **asterisks**, \\backslashes\\ or __underlines__ respectively


And linking depends if you have auto-linking on or not. If you do then you don't have to mess with the html tags.

A help section would be useful and is a consideration for future work (or now if anyone wants).

I would like to see the templates become easier to pass around and share as well, but if you are interested in someones templates, feel free to ask, that is partially the point of YAGMS. As far as template examples, thats what the default template is, an example. If you read your gm-install.html:

The default templates included with GreyMatter are quite plain-jane, but they should be enough to provide a starting point and, hopefully, to give you a basic idea of GreyMatter's template & variable usage.


The manual and install pages are not perfect and we are always happy to answer questions, but it does seem that some of your questions could be answered by reading and exploring your site. Feel free to play around with GM, you can always remove a few files to start out fresh.

[JR]

The installation was the default. There appears to be a comment link (see my practice entry); but, no formatting hints.
Please advise.

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Is there a syntax that can be employed to create a friendlier link similar to the one used in this forum; eg. [ url = http://... ] friendly link name [ /url ] ?

Is there a horizontal rule ?

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The default templates included with GreyMatter are quite plain-jane, but they should be enough to provide a starting point and, hopefully, to give you a basic idea of GreyMatter's template & variable usage.

For me, the objective is simply to get something out there that works, at least in the first pass. I disagreeumption is that the default installation would accomplish that and it came very close
If the setup would have asked for the name of my weblog and placed it in the title of the header template and if it had left the fake links in the template there; but commented out, that would have worked.

The post install section of the doc could simply state that the minimum customization required is to change the title in the header template and to replace or comment out the fake links in the sidebar template. Then follow up with something like "many people change the background color and here's how you do that" (listing the template modified and the code employed).

For the folk using the blog, a readily available explanation of how and why they would use the music and mood fields would be helpful.

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My questions are those of a newbie. Is there a GM FAQ ?

[coldstone]

I had forgotten that that formatting is listed on the configuration page, under the Easy Formatting option. Also, if you search for 'formatting' in the gm-install.html file, you will find some information.

There has been talk of a 'wizard' that would help with intallation and setup.

As far as a GM faq, there isn't a centralized one yet, however there is a gm-cookbook.html that I would like to address questions such as yours (feel free to add to it).

It sounds like you looked at some of the sites in YAGMS and that is a good way to find out more about GM, you can see how other people have used the music and moood fields. You can also see what links people have replaced link 1, link 2, etc. with.

While efforts could certainly be made to improve the documentation, the gm-install does state:

Also, you should be modestly comfortable with editing HTML to customize templates ...

It seems like you should become more familiar with html, try www.w3schools.com for references. Hopefully the documentation will be more accessible, but not every question can be answered and there will always be some effort required from the user. Did you look at the "Detailed Install" section in the gm-install.html file?

[JR]

I had forgotten that that formatting is listed on the configuration page, under the Easy Formatting option. Also, if you search for 'formatting' in the gm-install.html file, you will find some information.

Checking the Miscellaneous Options Configuration shows the default for Allow "easy formatting"? as Both (entries and comments). Nonetheless, there is no reference regarding its syntax on the comment page

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It sounds like you looked at some of the sites in YAGMS and that is a good way to find out more about GM, you can see how other people have used the music and moood fields. You can also see what links people have replaced link 1, link 2, etc. with.

My recommendation is that a topic be created for Customization as it is the next logical step after installation and it would be a great place to share how GM is being used as well as what customizing code is being used to achieve desired objectives.

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Quote:Also, you should be modestly comfortable with editing HTML to customize templates ...

My HTML editing comfort level is fine; it's my referential and logic skills that need work. For example, the Main Index Template states:

... typically the first page that people will see on your weblog/journal

In my way of thinking, the Header, Footer & Sidebar template would be included here.

[coldstone]

No, but there is syntax on the configuration page and in the gm-install.html. While the default templates could be updated with that information, it is assumed that when you install GM you will customize the templates. Even if the formatting text was on the page, someone might want it somewhere else, worded differently, etc.

Basically, YAGMS is for almost exactly what you describe. I can edit the board description to make that clearer.