novella 3.5 is released!!!
So I just wanted to let everyone know that I have just released the newest version of novella. The version number does not signify some massive upgrade or anything like that. This release is just an upgrade from .NET 2.0 to 3.5.
Why upgrade? Well first off, the architecture has now been greatly simplified using LINQ (and you all know that I love LINQ). Furthermore, the app no longer uses the ASP.NET Membership and Role providers so this greatly simplified the database as well.
So all in all, if you are just a user of novella, you won’t really notice much of a difference. However, if you are extending or customizing it in any way, you will quickly find out that just about every thing on the server has been rewritten.
If you want to get the latest, just head on over to codeplex and pickup a copy! And while I did test all the functionality, it is always possible that there are bugs, so if you find some, please email me at david at visionaryonline dot com.
As a final note, I am really pleased to announce that over 500 people have downloaded novella! Its not a ton, but I think it is pretty darn cool.
Ryan said,
Wrote on April 8, 2008 @ 11:09 am
I’m really liking Novella and appreciate your hard work putting it together. The one blocker is that our end users really need browse functionality when it comes to inserting uploaded images. TinyMCE doesn’t have this unless you pay for the add-on. FreeTextBox does have file browsing capabilities, so I’m looking into swapping editors. Any gotchas I should look out for?
David Baxter said,
Wrote on April 8, 2008 @ 11:37 am
Hey Ryan, I am glad you are liking it.
So basically your users want to be able to see a list of all the images they have uploaded? If I am understanding correctly, then I would think the easiest way would be to create a new page that read the contents of the upload directory.
Changing the editor might be tricky since it is so intregal to the app, however it is definitely doable. The key is understanding how to get the content from the editor (i.e. the HTML) using ajax. TinyMCE makes that process relatively painless (TinyMCE does it like this: var HTML = tinyMCE.getInstanceById(”elementName”).getBody().innerHTML;).
So make sure that whatever editor you choose has that functionality (or something like it).
If you run into any trouble, feel free to email me. When you get your project completed, I would love to see it.
David
Ryan said,
Wrote on April 8, 2008 @ 12:03 pm
Yes, I don’t want users to have to type in the path to an image, just pick it from a list, thumbnail gallery, etc. If I run into any issues I won’t hesitate to ask. Thanks for the reply.
Bebandit said,
Wrote on April 17, 2008 @ 4:45 pm
Hey Ryan,
I, too, would like to see your project when it is done! My clients want the same thing.
Bebandit
Joe Garrett (garetjax) said,
Wrote on August 19, 2008 @ 7:06 pm
David,
I think you have a tremendous opportunity judging from the source and 3 tier approach I see in your coding. I am an enthusiast of any .net language especially one that leverages ajax seemingly so well.
I applaud your efforts and believe that you’d have so many more downloads if you could showcase different designs using the platform itself. I have been looking for similar solutions to this for client websites that are in need of something more than a simplistic blog tool though another solution is quite nice that I use on my site (blogengine).
I was wondering if you plan on doing more with xml/xslt rather than direct to SQL/MSDE. I think it could be a tremendous effort but, perhaps well worth the effort.
Again, Thank you for your effort.
Joe Garrett
(aka: garetjax - designer, winamp.skinner)
David Baxter said,
Wrote on August 20, 2008 @ 10:14 am
Hey Joe, thank you so much for the encouragement.
As of last count 650+ people have downloaded the latest version…not a lot, but I have been happy so far. Of course, more is always better.
I would love to show some sites that use novella. I have a few that are coming out myself and I get emails pretty regularly of people who are using it for their sites, but I haven’t gotten any links yet.
So…if you have gotten novella and you are using it, send me a link (david at visionaryonline dot com)!!!
As for the XML/XSL…XML is actually one of my specialties because of the apps I have built in the past. However, for novella I am not sure I see the benefits of such an approach. What do you see as the advantage as compared to using SQL? I am sure there is one that I am just missing…
I hope to get working on novella again soon, but right now I am swamped with client work (not a bad problem to have, but it does cut down on the extracurricular activities :P).
The first thing I plan to add is blog tools like comments and such. Several people have asked for that feature…
I also had one user who converted the tool from C# to VB.NET so I will be posting that soon.
Thanks again Joe!
David