Fixed the problem with Warning messages !

Users who experienced big annoying Warnings at the top of their b2 pages, should download the updated b2 distribution, and replace the files b2functions.php and xmlrpc.inc with the updated ones.

If you have big warning messages as described in the previous post, here's a complete guide to fix that "bug".

Fix for "Warning: Call-time pass-by-reference has been ..."

Some users have reported problems with b2's new XMLRPC code. It looks like 6 big warnings on the top of every page, that say "Warning: Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated - argument passed by value;...".

The solution is to edit php.ini and set 'allow_call_time_pass_reference' to 'true'.

There's another way, for people who cannot edit php.ini, using Apache's .htaccess files.
Create/edit a .htaccess file in your b2 directory and put these lines:

<IfModule mod_php4.c>
php_value allow_call_time_pass_reference 1
</IfModule>

Tested the .htaccess method and it seems like it works. Please tell me how it goes when you use this fix. If it still gives warning, I'll make non-XMLRPC distributions of b2 available.

b2 v0.6 pre-release version is out !
It's in the /releases folder, as usual.

I've been working hard to fix all the bugs I could, but it's still possible that you stumble on a bug. If you do, please report it in the forum, or e-mail me if it's a security-related bug (which is very unlikely, but you never know...).

This new version features file/image upload, template tags enhancements, lots of speed improvements, an XMLRPC interface implementing the Blogger API, post preview, RSS syndication, and a new spellchecker (since the old one, spellchecker.net, isn't free anymore).
You can "post to the future", by editing the date of the post: the post wouldn't be displayed until it's the right time in your timezone.
You can post through a SideBar (IE5+/NS6+ only), in addition to the regular bookmarklet (bookmarklet now working in IE5 Mac).
Oh, you can also post multiple-pages entries now. And with the new cookie system, you stay logged in for days until you logout (be careful and logout on shared computers though)

Have fun !


UPDATE: just fixed some bugs with the comments. If you downloaded the file already, download it again and replace the file b2template.functions.php in /b2-include - also, add a line to b2config.php that says $comments_notify = 1; if you want to have comments emailed to you.

UPDATE (10:00): bugs fixed, new versions are online: replace b2profile.php, b2login.php and b2register.php with the new ones.
Those who download the file now do not have to apply these fixes.

Fixed the cookie login system in 0.5.2 (which will be named 0.6 now) and implemented a new system to convert html entities to their unicode counterparts in order to be more XML-friendly. For example, &eacute; (é) gets converted to &#233; when the page is displayed, even if you hard-coded it as a HTML entity.

I was just wondering if categories in Cafelog are case-sensitive. They should not. My opinion is that it would be far easier to make XML-RPC references by name rather than ID. For instance, as in AppleScript, the default blog (or labelled 1 like this blog) can be referred to as 'default'.

FORUMS ARE BACK
But they're empty. Your user accounts have been preserved, so you don't need to register again.

Read the announcement.


I wish I could have been, but I won't be there to reply to e-mails, forums, etc, this weekend.

THE FORUMS ARE BROKEN.

For some weird reason, all posts suddenly had a wrong timestamp: Unix timestamp 0, which is 1/1/1970; and some posts are listed as posted in 2010.

It might be a defect in the CVS version of phpBB2, or a booboo of my database, or it could be someone found a security breach in phpBB2 and exploited it here. In the sad event that it would be a security breach, I backed up every MySQL databases here, and will probably backup the files too.

In the meanwhile I'm going to re-install phpBB2, this time using the latest RC version instead of CVS. I'll try importing all users there manually, hoping it works as expected.
Please do not post in the forums before I re-install them.

Development is going fine and there's only a thing preventing me from releasing b2's new 0.5.2 version. So I might aswell do a pre-release, while I fix the thing. It's something to do with cookies, it just won't log you back in like it does in CafeLog (for example when I reboot I'm still logged in), so actually you wouldn't notice the change from 0.5.1

How about it ? Anyone interested by a pre-release ?

If you look at its specs, the Blogger API doesn't allow a title and a category for the posts. However, when you'll use that with b2, you'll be able to use title and category by typing them with your post: just put <title>your title</title> and <category>your category's ID</category> in the body of your post (at the start or the end, for example), and there you go

I think everyone will be very pleased to see this.

The b2-powered blogs list has been updated. I removed a dozen blogs that were 404 or didn't use b2 anymore, and added a bit more than 30 blogs. I may have some links stored on other computers, so these may make further additions soon. If you don't see your b2 site there, feel free to e-mail me.

Note to users: if you request I add your site to the list, then stop using b2 some weeks after that, please have the courtesy of warning me so I can remove your link.

FreePHP has a tutorial about installing and setting up b2 - in italian.

b2 now supports multiple-pages posts, you can try the feature on the test installation there: b2 v0.5.2 public test.
Just register then post away.

Just type <!--nextpage--> to start a new page (except for the first page).
For example:
The quick brown jumped over <!--nextpage--> the lazy dog.
Would make 'the quick brown jumped over' appear on the first page, and 'the lazy dog' appear on a second page.

This morning I could use Radio Userland 8 to update the b2 test blog, thanks to Radio's new Blogger-Manila Bridge feature. It basically is a mirroring feature to mirror your Radio entries to a Blogger-API compliant blog, such as b2's next version, Blogger (duh!), DruPal...
Now you will be able to use Radio, among other Blogger API clients, to update your b2 blog.

Another blog client that I like is Bloggar, I guess I'll volunteer to translate it in french sometime.

I'm not Asian, but if you are asian check this: ImAzn now offers to install b2 as part of their free hosting package !

I just noticed that SpellChecker.net stopped offering a free banner-supported service. This means there won't be spellchecking in future b2 releases, or I'll have to find an alternative solution. If you know of any solution, please contact me or reply here.

Wow, this is some interesting usage of b2: a directory of Portuguese/Brazilian blogs. They are listed by categories, and visitors can leave comments about the sites that are listed, since each site listed is actually a b2 post.
/me applauses.

My host just upgraded to PHP 4.1.1, so some things might look broken. I'm pleased to see b2 still works in this version. I might still upgrade the code to make it use the 4.1.x improvements, when enough hosting companies have switched to it.

One broken thing, is the little script I used to display the /releases folder. So in the meanwhile, here are the links to download b2:
b2 v0.5.1 (20011206) (zip file, that's for Windows users - for others, here are the links to tarballs: tar.gz, tar.bz2)

Converters are here: GreyMatter, Blogger. Just download, rename to .php, upload in b2 directory, run from browser and follow the instructions.

I don’t know whether this place is the best to post such a link, anyway there seems to be a new b2/cafelog competitor. While it won’t be free (but a 40$ shareware), it seem to have a quite impressive feature list. This is just to say that Michel deserves even more credit, giving his code away completely for free. (BTW: which licence is b2/cafelog distributed with? GNU/GPL?)

I think there is some error with the archives. The January 2002 archives are not showing. That's all.

You know what, I'm stupid. I made a fumble and overwrote the original design with the 0.5.2 testdrive template. Sorry, you'll have to handle this plain text version while I have no time to get the old design back (I do not have my computer and my original files here yet).

Sorry

Anyway, in the meanwhile here's where you can download b2 and a list of b2 powered blogs, should you want to see examples of how users of b2 can use it

Howdy !

I'm hardly online these days, I hope all of you are OK. To those whose e-mails I didn't reply to, please wait a bit, I will get to you asap.

Links galore !
OurBox.com - OurBox is a hosting company that's got some nice plans, and can come with b2 pre-installed !
BlogWorks.com - oops, you cannot use b2 because you forgot you got ASP instead of PHP ? No problem, here's a good ASP blog script !