do all the widgets in blogger remain functional?


Author Message
Lynn Krawczyk

Posted: 11/21/2009
Quote message 

Hi all,

I've downloaded the free trial of artisteer and am really impressed with it. I'd like to make a blogger template with it. I'd like to export the code and install it myself rather then having Artisteer do it.

What I'm wondering is if all the blogger widgets remain functional when I install this template? Such as link lists, archives, raw html, etc...

If it does, I'll happily buy the program and go to town but I don't want it if it disables everything that blogger offers.

Thanks!

Lynn
 
Avatar X

Posted: 11/21/2009
Quote message 

One thing i forgot to mention is that the you of course can continue to customize your Blogger Blog once installed. Just make sure that you save whatever code you add after that on Word file if change templates with artisteer. That way you don't have to go and hunt it down to your backed up template or that way you only use the backed up template as reference to customize a new template.

Oh and another reason why i plugged my Blog is because it is actually about Blogger.
 
Sylvain

Posted: 11/21/2009
Quote message 

I have a similar experience with Blogger and Artisteer than AvatarX but with some little differences:

1- I don't see Adsense on my machine WinXP with IE7 but I do see them on another machine with IE8.

2- On my page, I have put the Google Translate This, Adsense and Amazon. Funny enough, when I first load the page in FF 3.5 or 3.6, everything looks fine but if I close FF and then reopen it (with the option to automatically reopen the last tabs ON), the Google Translate This and the Adsense are replaced with Amazon.

I need to refresh the page on FF3.6 Beta or to open a new tab on FF3.5 to see the page correct again.

3- For entering plain and ordinary HTML text, it's better to use the HTML/Javascript gadget than the Text gadget because with the later, it will strip some of your HTML tags, replace the <br/> with Cr/Lf and add new blank lines everywhere every time you'll edit your text.

4- In the same way, for the Copyright Text gadget, you must be careful not to leave behind any superfluous Cr/Lf.

5- When testing the latest version of Google Translate This (the one that is pretty), everything was fine at first but suddenly, I was unable to see one of my blogs in IE7 and I was getting the ugly "Internet Explorer cannot display this page..." and on FF, the translation was ON by default instead of behind OFF. Some glitch must have crawl its way through the service because both IE and FF were affected; albeit differently. Strangely, the other blogs were OK but I did not took any chance at all and I reverted back to the older version of the Google Translate This, the one with the ugly big white square and the big frame that appears at the top when you activate it.

I don't know about you but personally, I prefer to have something ugly than something buggy.

6- The white space that you can see between the menu and the top of the first article is created by the Search This Blog with Google gadget. This is where the result of the search will appear.

7- If you want to use Windows Live Writer or some other blog editors, expect to have to make the usual corrections for the Editing with Theme mode. Not difficult if you know how to do it (I'm in the process of writing an article about this and WLW, it should be ready in a few days if you want to know how to apply the correction for WLW).

I suppose that you'll find some other glitchs as well; as it's always the case with any complex HTML code but overall, I well satisfied with the combination of Blogger and Artisteer.

As a shameless plug, I've just created a testing blog with many of the gadgets - as well as both Adsense & Amazon - so that you can see them in action in your browser(s) if you want to: http://test.sylvainlafontaine.com

Notice that this web site is still in its enfancy because I've just started to write it a week ago.

Hoping that any of this will be of any help.
Sylvain

 
Avatar X

Posted: 11/21/2009
Quote message 

@Sylvain:

Just checked it out with all browsers and your blog is fine minus the issues i already stated.

The issue with the followers gadget can be solved by building your customized version of it

The issue with the gap of blank space because of the search and loading field can be solved with some custom css.

The text gadget should never be used that way as it also got some other unfortunate limitations.

I actually found out that your translate gadget simply don't works with Chrome/Iron 3-4. maybe you should get a customized one so it works better. that or a Bing translate widget that works without problems.

The issue you got with the adsense and some elements don't loading up sound to me like you either forgot to refresh your template everytime you updated artister 2.3 (from beta to rc to final) since that is a issue that happens because of that.

The other possible explanation is simply your browser cache in some of your browsers, cleared them out and it may also be the solution since i see everything fine in your template overall.

Never try to supposedly "debug" your template with the "preview in" feature in artisteer, I found it a bit inaccurate from testing to the actual deployed version.

Besides giving how easy is to deploy from artisteer if you are using Blogger, i find that there is no need. In wordpress or Joomla is of course a huge time saver.

Oh, and may i ask MVP of what you are?. just curious. :P

Hope this helps

-A



 
Sylvain

Posted: 11/22/2009
Quote message 

Hi AvatarX,

Thanks for the comments.

I know that many of these problems can be solved by building our own gadget or by customising the CSS/HTML. However, I'm not sure if this is the kind of response that Lynn is expecting to get. Personally, I try to limit at a minimum these hacks; otherwise, what's the point of using Artisteer instead of building your template from the ground up?

For the problem with Chrome and the Translate gadget, I found so many problems with Chrome when I first tried it that I don't even bother myself anymore with it. However, I should try Opera.

As for the refreshes, I'm not sure to understand what you mean exactly with « The issue you got with the adsense and some elements don't loading up sound to me like you either forgot to refresh your template everytime you updated artister 2.3 (from beta to rc to final) since that is a issue that happens because of that. ». I'm in the process of building my blog, so I'm already refreshing the Blogger template practically every day but maybe you are thinking about something else?

For the MVP status, at first, I was a MVP for Virtual Technologies but now, I'm a MVP for the Windows Live Platform but I don't know why.

Finally, have you been able to get your hands on Wave 4?

@+
Sylvain

 
Avatar X

Posted: 11/22/2009
Quote message 

@Sylvain:

My last responses were exclusive to your case. the part of the refreshing the template were meant what i think you just said of refreshing the blog from artisteer to blogger. But then another worry arises on Blogger having a bad cache of the template. this can happen sometimes it don't updates some things properly on gets bugged after you play too much with a template. my solution to that is to load a minima template from the template changer and then rechange it from artisteer. hope you understand what i mean.

On the MVP that is very nice. No, Windows Live has always been super elusive to even figure out when updates are been pushed and to where in the world. I am tester of many Microsoft products as part of connect and open registration to private betas.
 
Sylvain

Posted: 11/22/2009
Quote message 

@AvatarX:

For the refreshing of the templates, yes, I have myself the impression that effectively, Blogger seems to miss something a few time. Now, I always take the precaution of saving the full template right after saving any change to any gadget. But for my problem about the missing Adsense in IE and the refresh problem with FF, I've already tested that on a separate site that has been created just for this purpose of testing those without anything else but my Artisteer template and I did not see any change or improvement.

Finally, for Wave 4, it must be a private beta: I've just looked at Connect and I didn't find anything (public) about Wave 4 or a possible latest version of Windows Live.

@+

 
Avatar X

Posted: 11/28/2009
Quote message 

but i didn't saw any problem in the test one you showed and i tested cross browser. So that is very odd. the only other explanation could be if you are using your adsense with google analytics and your ip is taken as source. when you merge them that way it do does that in some occasions.

Otherwise i really don't have a clue.

On the WL W4 thing: There are no connect, opt-in. WL has always been very particular, they always do the testing internally for the private betas. No idea why. I hoped that now that Sinofsky is head of both Windows Client and Windows Live Division this would have changed. But so far that is not the case.
 
Claud

Posted: 9/12/2010
Quote message 

I've downloaded the free trial of artisteer and I'm impressed. But there's one issue with previewing new posts in Blogger that is not working. Some posts preview fine, while others will only open on a new blank page and some won't do anything at all. I would consider purchasing this software f I were sure about what is happening.

I also have noticed that the Blog Archive widget doesn't work properly in Hierarchy style. When you click on an month it won't expand to show the post in that month.

Can anyone help me figure out these bugs before decide to buy it?

cheers
 
Claudio

Posted: 1/11/2012
Quote message 

Quote Claud:

I've downloaded the free trial of artisteer and I'm impressed. But there's one issue with previewing new posts in Blogger that is not working. Some posts preview fine, while others will only open on a new blank page and some won't do anything at all. I would consider purchasing this software f I were sure about what is happening.

I also have noticed that the Blog Archive widget doesn't work properly in Hierarchy style. When you click on an month it won't expand to show the post in that month.

Can anyone help me figure out these bugs before decide to buy it?

cheers


Cheers, the Blog Archive gadget really don't works, it freezes in hierarchy mode. I have this problem with my blog, and I'm waiting a solution. For now, I removed the gadget as the Artisteer team don't fix it.

Hugs,


Claudio
 
Claudio

Posted: 1/17/2012
Quote message 

Quote Claud:

I've downloaded the free trial of artisteer and I'm impressed. But there's one issue with previewing new posts in Blogger that is not working. Some posts preview fine, while others will only open on a new blank page and some won't do anything at all. I would consider purchasing this software f I were sure about what is happening.

I also have noticed that the Blog Archive widget doesn't work properly in Hierarchy style. When you click on an month it won't expand to show the post in that month.

Can anyone help me figure out these bugs before decide to buy it?

cheers


Claud

I find this part of my template code that is freezing the vertical menu. I think this can help you to solve your problem to.

This is the problematic code:

function artFixVMenuArchive(){
if (jQuery("#art-vmenu-archive").length > 0){

if (!false){ /* valor padrao=false */
jQuery(".art-vmenublockheader").css("display", "none");
}
jQuery("#art-vmenu-archive a").each(function(i) {
if (this.href.replace('#', '') == window.location.href.replace('#', '')) {
jQuery(this).addClass("active");
}
});
var a = jQuery("#art-vmenu-archive a.active");
a.parents('#art-vmenu-archive').find("ul, a").removeClass('active');
a.parent().children('ul').addClass('active');
a.parents('#art-vmenu-archive ul').addClass('active');
a.parents('#art-vmenu-archive li').children('a').addClass('active');
}
}

If I delete this, the menu works correctly, but breaks the template images.

Let's see if anyone here in the forum can help us to fix this bug.

Hugs,


Claudio