Now that the latest version of BlogEngine.NET is out, it is easier than ever to get your blog running with VistaDB Express.  I’ve been using VistaDB Express with BlogEngine.NET for a little while now and just love it.  I’ve become a fan of the lightweight, file based database for a single user blog.  I think it is a perfect way to store your blog data.  Enough of my gushing already, let’s get on the real info.

Getting BlogEngine.NET 1.4 to work with VistaDB is super easy, but will require you to upload a few more files.  I’ve put together a new screencast that will walk you through the steps, show you exactly what to do and what changes are being made.

It is incredibly simple however.  You simply download the BlogEngine 1.4 VistaDB Express Pack, unzip it, upload 3 files, and enjoy the goodness that is VistaDB Express and BlogEngine.NET 1.4.  In the screencast, I also take a little time to walk you through the main changes made to the web.config to make this work.

If you are starting a new BlogEngine.NET blog, I strongly recommend it.  If you already have a BlogEngine.NET blog and want to convert over to it, I’ll get to that soon.  I promise. :)

BlogEngine.NET 1.4 supports storing your data pretty much however you’d like.  By default, it will store your data using XML.  However, with a few simple steps you can be running your entire blog off of a database.  Today, I put together a new screencast to show you exactly how to configure your blog to use SQL Server.  For the veterans out there, there is some key changes in BlogEngine.NET 1.4, so it should be worth watching for you as well.

It is important to point out that this screencast starts with BlogEngine.NET 1.4 installed with the default providers.  If you need help getting to that point, please watch the installing BlogEngine.NET 1.4 screencast.

It is important to know that BlogEngine.NET actually has 4 providers that can be configured.

• Blog Provider – Store posts, pages, settings, etc.
• Membership Provider – Store user names, passwords, etc.
• Role Provider – The role the users are in.  (Administrator, Editor)
• Profile Provider – Information about the users.

This new screencast will walk you through getting the BlogProvider and the ProfileProvider setup using the new DbBlogProvider and DbProfileProvider. 

For SQL Server, I’d recommend using the SQLMembershipProvider and the SQLRoleProvider that are built in to the .NET Framework.  I made a screencast a while back on getting these set up, so I figured I’d save the effort and just link to it again for setting up these providers.  Nothing has changed in the configuration.

I’ve decided to start another series of screencasts to celebrate the new version of BlogEngine.NET.  The best place to start is at the beginning so here is the installing BlogEngine.NET 1.4 screencast.  Hopefully, it will be helpful in getting you up and running quickly.

I mentioned the previous installation screencast in in this screencast.  If you are looking for an example using an older version of IIS, you might want to view this one.  The process is basically the same.

Also, I’d like to add that if you are having trouble with your password, the first time around, an application reset might do the trick. 

If you have questions or need help, please check out the BlogEngine.NET forums.  There are lots of very helpful people and information to be found there.

I’ve decided to stick with just the flash version this time around as I’ve seen minimal usage of the wmv files I’ve made in the past.  If another format is needed, let me know.

Good luck with your BlogEngine.NET installation.

Over the past few weeks, I've received a bunch of questions on using the Quote of the Day widget so I had been planning to put together a quick walk through screencast to show you how to use since I really didn't cover usage very thoroughly in my earlier post.

Since I was working on a new theme earlier this week, it seemed like the right time to do this, but I also find a minor bug with the control when previewing themes so I made a small change to correct this.  It was a minor fix, but if you are starting fresh or feel like upgrading, I'll include the updated control at the end of this post.

The screencast walks you through adding the widget from download to theme update.  I don't cover making changes to your CSS to make it look the way you want in your theme, but I've tried in in 4 themes already and haven't needed to do anything special to make the widget look right.  I'll include the register and usage line below so you can see them more clearly and don't have to copy notes while watching the screencast.

Again, this widget works fine in 1.2 and 1.3.  I'll make an updated version when 1.4 gets closer.  You can download the QuotesWidget 1.0.1 here.

I finally finished up my customizable BlogEngine.NET theme.  I started it long ago to see how easy it would be as well as how much you could actually do within a BlogEngine.NET theme without changing the code base.  I ended up taking the theme much further than a theme should go and decided to scale it back to what you see here.

A customizable theme to me is a theme that has options to change the look and display without requiring the user to work with the code pages. 

I went ahead and made a screencast to show you how it looks to an administrator and see exactly what is customizable about this theme.  For those unwilling to sit through the 90 seconds or so, here are the items that can be customized in this theme.

1. Layout: fixed or fluid (fixed to 1024 width or to fill the screen)
2. Color: 5 color styles to choose from
3. Columns: 2 or 3 column layout
4. Open Text section: Just a title and content box that can be filled in with whatever you'd like to see.  (I use it for an "About Me" section on the sidebar.)

I'm excited to see customizable themes like this mixed with the new widget framework in the next version of BlogEngine.NET.  It will make it a snap for people to make their blogs look exactly how they want.  A lot of the features I had added into this theme originally removing items, reordering, etc, is done much better in the the widget framework that Mads Kristensen has started.

That's it.  Go ahead and try it out.  There are likely some issues with it, so if you find any problems, let me know.  (You are welcome to send me the fix as well.)

Download: Theme-NonZero1.3.zip