| Who am I to determine that Serendipity is | | | | if you want a more unique look to your site. |
| absolutely best blog software on the planet? | | | | |
| Well, I'll admit I've only been using blog | | | | Adding content is where Serendipity shines. |
| software for 6 months. I've only tried | | | | I found the interface easy and intuitive, |
| Serendipity, Word Press and Nucleus. | | | | especially for media management. Imagine |
| However, I have created over 20 full web | | | | that you are adding an item and you want to |
| sites using software from all areas. I've | | | | add an image. Just click on media, put in |
| used Mambo, Joomla, Nucleus, Word Press, | | | | the URL of the item you want to add and |
| Serendipity, Java Servlets and JSPs', plain | | | | serendipity goes out and pulls it down and |
| HTML pages and Serendipity is my favorite. | | | | puts it in it's own directory. Then you can |
| | | | choose how you want it to appear in the text |
| I have worked as a professional programmer | | | | (left, right, on it's own) and whether or not |
| for 15 years and with Java (as a software | | | | you want the full image or thumbnail. |
| engineer) for the last 10 years. I've spent | | | | Excellent! |
| most of that time dealing intimately with | | | | |
| various web technologies. Certainly I am no | | | | Defining and using categories is equally easy |
| blog expert, but I have a bit of experience | | | | and you can nest categories if you'd like. |
| with software. Serendipity is good | | | | Each category can have a description and |
| software. | | | | image. The description displays when the |
| | | | user put's their cursor over the category, I |
| Serendipity is a blog engine. A blog is | | | | am not sure when/if the image gets displayed. |
| simply a series of postings to a web site, | | | | |
| sometimes organized and sometimes random. | | | | Serendipity has options to use search engine |
| They are meant to quickly collect ones | | | | friendly URLs, but for some reason I wasn't |
| thoughts, but more recently entire web sites | | | | able to get these working properly on |
| are being created out of sophisticated blog | | | | GoDaddy. I'm sure there is an easy fix, I |
| engines. I believe the blog engine and full | | | | could ask at the Serendipity forum, but |
| fledged CMS solutions are converging. If | | | | haven't yet. Adding a trailing slash to the |
| what you need is a simple menuing system and | | | | rewritten addresses seems to bring up the |
| a way to get content up on the net, then | | | | page, but my ".htaccess" knowledge is not |
| perhaps a blog engine, specifically | | | | good enough to fix it myself. The URL |
| Serendipity, is what you want. | | | | rewriting works just fine on HostGator. |
| | | | Remember, using the non friendly URLs doesn't |
| Installation of Serendipity was a breeze, | | | | mean you won't get indexed, just that it may |
| both on GoDaddy and HostGator. The default | | | | take a little longer. Also, the SEO friendly |
| install went well, with the exception of | | | | URLs tend to boost your ranking a little |
| course that GoDaddy does not put your MySQL | | | | because they have the subject matter right in |
| database on "localhost", but on another | | | | the URL. |
| server. Once you know the name of that | | | | |
| server it's all good. | | | | What about integrating Ads in Serendipity? |
| | | | Serendipity has a solution for that too. |
| Once installed, changing styles is also easy. | | | | There is a plug in (comes with Serendipity) |
| Serendipity comes with a number of built in | | | | called HTML Nugget. It allows you to add |
| themes/templates which are a snap to install. | | | | arbitrary HTML to one of the sidebar columns, |
| Basically you just go to Manage Styles in | | | | perfect for those tower Google Ads or links |
| the administration menu and choose your new | | | | to affiliate programs. It takes me all of 5 |
| theme. It couldn't be easier. | | | | minutes to set up the ads on one of my sites. |
| | | | Nucleus took me quite a bit longer, I had |
| Modifying templates is also quite simple. | | | | to manually edit some of their files. Not |
| Most users simply want to change colors or | | | | very friendly. |
| graphics and this can all be done withing the | | | | |
| style.css file for your template. I chose to | | | | All in all, I like Serendipity, it is right |
| make a copy of the "competition" template and | | | | up there with Joomla as my favorite piece of |
| modify my copy. All I had to change was the | | | | open source software. The development team |
| info.txt file and style.css, add my images to | | | | has done a fantastic job and I look forward |
| the img directory and I was good to go. Of | | | | to more great releases from them. |
| course, it is not necessary to do this, just | | | | |