dasBlog vs. Community Server
I've set up a new personal blog at
www.georgevreilly.com/blog.
I'll be posting non-technical stuff there
and I'll be cross-posting on technical matters to
Weblogs @ ASP.net.
Here's how I ended up running dasBlog on the new blog.
In the spring of last year, I attempted to install both
.Text and
dasBlog
on my XP Pro laptop.
I failed, signally, to get either one working.
The details have mercifully faded with time,
leaving me only with a residue of frustration.
I've been meaning to put some photos of mine up on the web for a while.
A week ago, I went to download
nGallery,
as I remembered hearing good things about it in the past.
I learned that nGallery is now part of
Community Server
(as is .Text).
After navigating through the somewhat confusing portal,
I downloaded a copy of Community Server 1.0.
Then I spent several frustrating hours trying to get it
running on my laptop.
Community Server requires a SQL Server back-end,
but you can also use
MSDE,
the standalone Microsoft SQL Desktop Engine, which comes without a GUI.
I downloaded MSDE and the
SQL Web Data Administrator,
as well as
MSDE Query.
I can spell "SQL", but that's about where my knowledge of SQL stops.
I tried to follow the instructions to create the database tables.
I did manage to create the master table,
but I could not figure out how to set the various permissions
that the instructions demanded.
I googled extensively and looked through the archived forums
at CommunityServer.org and
SqlJunkies.com,
to no avail.
Really! If I can't figure this stuff out,
most people are never going to get Community Server
running on their own systems.
Don't get me wrong.
Community Server/.Text is a good blogging system,
if you can surmount the barriers to entry.
I'm a competent, skilled developer,
but I've never needed to learn SQL,
and I wasn't motivated enough to dig further.
(I've since realized that my hosting package at
iHostSites
includes MySql, but not SQL Server,
so this would have been all for naught.
I think.
Double aargh!)
I gave up on Community Server in frustration,
and decided to fall back to nGallery.
I got nGallery installed and running easily enough.
Alas, it was flaky and it was all too easy to get
ASP.net throwing unhandled exceptions back at me.
I spend too much of my life troubleshooting other people's bugs,
and I wasn't prepared to invest any more time on this avenue.
At this point, I googled for "web album software"
and came up with
JAlbum.
I'm much happier with JAlbum.
It worked flawlessly as soon as I ran it and it's versatile.
Photos will start appearing on my personal website,
www.GeorgeVReilly.com,
soon.
Yesterday, I decided to give
dasBlog
another try.
That was altogether more successful.
I did not manage to get it running on my laptop,
but I did get it running on a XP Pro desktop system,
as well as on my public website.
I did have a little difficulty getting it to run on my desktop system,
but that went away as soon as I ran aspnet_regiis -i
to reset ASP.net.
I'm not sure why it doesn't run on my laptop,
but the enormous amount of stuff that I've installed on this system
surely plays a role.
Indeed that may have been the reason why nGallery puked on my laptop.
Someday, I'm going to have to flatten the system and
reinstall only the important stuff.
Net results:
Album software: JAlbum 1, nGallery 0.
Blogging software: dasBlog 1, Community Server 0.
