Moving forward - bludit 2.xx

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bayerberg
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Bludit 1.xx is a cool piece of work, its extensible, ubereasy to fiddle with even for people not versed in php/js. Not sure about changes in Bludit 2. Heres my take on matters:

Lets push Bludit to the masses. Both devs and users. Users are easy - we need to give them what they want. That usually is flaveless functionality + tools to keep visitors coming. Devs thats a bit different bundle of fish, here there are other things to keep in mind. We need to bake in more of the tedious things devs don't want to do. Its easy to create themes for Bludit so now it's more about the functionality.

Direction
More of the same but better. Theres no reason to change what people are used to. A bit more better UX, thats it. Split between pages and posts should stay. The main problem is what you can do with pages/posts already created.
Changing page position, changing parents on the fly, bulk actions. You know, wordpressy things :).

Change of focus
Bludit seems to be focused more on general public. If something is directed at everyone usually noone takes notice. Lets make Bludit into a default tool for marketers (one pager or landing page with a couple of subpages/conversion & tracking tools/ ease of deployment), small to medium businesses (couple of pages with a seo optimised blog fused with facebook/twitter ) and pro user who are fed up with the bloat that comes with wordpress type solutions (api + plugin creation/ease of customising each and everyt Bludit function via functions.php or less wordpressy file ;) )

What should be baked in:

- Twitter/ Facebook cards
This is obvious. Social media features are mandatory whether anyone likes it or not. Both sites provide enough documentation to do this quite quickly. My take on this looks like:

Code: Select all

 <?php if($Url->whereAmI()=='page') { ?>
    <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
    <meta name="twitter:site" content="<?php echo DOMAIN.$Page->permalink() ?>">
    <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@<?php echo $Site->twitter() ?>">
    <meta name="twitter:title" content="<?php echo ''.$Site->title().' - '.$Page->title().'' ?>">
    <meta name="twitter:description" content="<?php echo $Page->description() ?>">
    <?php if($Page->coverImage()){ echo '<meta property="twitter:image" content="'.DOMAIN.$Page->coverImage().'" />'; } else { echo '<meta property="og:image" content="'.DOMAIN.HTML_PATH_THEME.'img/social-media-default.jpg" />'; } ?>

    <meta property="og:url"           content="<?php echo DOMAIN.$Page->permalink() ?>">
    <meta property="og:type"          content="article" />
    <meta property="og:title"         content="<?php echo $Site->title().' - '.$Page->title() ?>">
    <meta property="og:description"   content="<?php echo $Page->description() ?>">
    <?php if($Page->coverImage()){ echo '<meta property="og:image" content="'.DOMAIN.$Page->coverImage().'" />'; } else { echo '<meta property="og:image" content="'.DOMAIN.HTML_PATH_THEME.'img/social-media-default.jpg" />'; } ?>

    <?php }	elseif($Url->whereAmI()=='post') { ?>

    <meta name="twitter:card"         content="summary_large_image">
    <meta name="twitter:site"         content="<?php echo DOMAIN.$Post->permalink() ?>">
    <meta name="twitter:creator"      content="@<?php echo $Site->twitter() ?>">
    <meta name="twitter:title"        content="<?php echo $Site->title().' - '.$Post->title().'' ?>">
    <meta name="twitter:description"  content="<?php echo $Post->description() ?>">
    <?php if($Post->coverImage()){ echo '<meta property="twitter:image" content="'.DOMAIN.$Post->coverImage().'" />'; } else { echo '<meta property="og:image" content="'.DOMAIN.HTML_PATH_THEME.'img/social-media-default.jpg" />'; } ?>

    <meta property="og:url"           content="<?php echo DOMAIN.$Post->permalink() ?>">
    <meta property="og:type"          content="article" />
    <meta property="og:title"         content="<?php echo $Site->title().' - '.$Post->title() ?>">
    <meta property="og:description"   content="<?php echo $Post->description() ?>">
    <?php if($Post->coverImage()){ echo '<meta property="og:image" content="'.DOMAIN.$Post->coverImage().'" />'; } else { echo '<meta property="og:image" content="'.DOMAIN.HTML_PATH_THEME.'img/social-media-default.jpg" />'; } ?>

    <?php }	else { ?>
    <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
    <meta name="twitter:site" content="<?php echo $Site->url() ?>">
    <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@<?php echo $Site->twitter() ?>">
    <meta name="twitter:title" content="<?php echo $Site->title() ?>">
    <meta name="twitter:description" content="<?php echo $Site->slogan() ?>">
    <meta name="twitter:image" content="<?php echo DOMAIN.HTML_PATH_THEME ?>img/social-media-default.jpg">
    <meta property="og:type"   content="profile" />
    <meta property="og:url"    content="<?php echo $Site->url() ?>">
    <meta property="og:title"  content="<?php echo $Site->title() ?>">
    <meta property="og:image"  content="<?php echo DOMAIN.HTML_PATH_THEME ?>img/social-media-default.jpg">
    <?php } ?>
I know, dont bash me for the quality of the code :) There might be a case for adding facebook/twitter specific descriptions. SEO/ marketing focused users would appreciate that. You might have noticed I'm using fallback when pages/posts dont have any covers uploaded. Thats one of things that would make Bludit stand out from the crowd - social media readyness available straight out of the box. One other this that would make users love Bludit even more is sharing options on posts (and optionally pages). As simple as:

Code: Select all

<p class="share-this">Share on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=<?php echo DOMAIN.$Page->permalink() ?>" class="share facebook">Facebook</a>,
<a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=<?php echo DOMAIN.$Page->permalink() ?>&text=<?php echo $Page->title(); ?>&via=<?php echo $Site->twitter()" class="share twitter">Twitter</a>,
  <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=<?php echo DOMAIN.$Page->permalink() ?>&title=<?php echo $Page->title() ?>&summary=<?php echo $Page->description() ?>&source=<?php echo echo $Site->url()>" class="share linkedin">LinkedIn</a>.</p>
This would remove yet another headache for both users and devs.

- Google Analytics
This one is a no-brainer. It should be one of the firs options in settings/advanced. Easy to do and implement. We could talk about more elaborate implementations but even the bacis one should be enough.

To think about

- Medium.com style text editing
There are a couple of solutions done already (https://yabwe.github.io/medium-editor/ for example). I understand writing this from scratch would be a tall order and somebody might be able to create a plugin that does that but the sooner Bludit moves away from dev focused content entry the better.

- Schema.org shemas
SEO rules the world, anything that would enable users to partake in this would make them return to Bludit for more. Preselecting itemscope from a dropdown in pages advanced settings should do the trick, based on that we could wrap important bits with spans or divs containing relevant itemprops.

- Generic advertising solution
Something as simple as posting a piece of custom code every couple of posts or generic "this post was sponsored by xxx" + custom tracker link at the end of post content. Everyone wants to earn money and this would be a good way to do that :)

Tweaks
-Change of page order when adding new pages.
Instead of changing page order by hand it would be nice to have one simple question just above the Save button: Where do you want this page to appear - in front / at the back / pick page position. After that its just a matter of automagically changing the page order of sibling pages.

Expiry date
Some pages and posts tend not to be evergreen and need to be deleted or modified some time after posting. This would be helpfull for marketers pushing Facebook/ Eventbrite events and such.

Canonical, next / previous post
This would be helpfull two ways, one - for the users, we would enable easy content consumption just by adding next/previous post buttons and second - for better integration with social media, facebook creates post carousels form one link.
bludit plugins and themes - makeitblu | I do things, check them out on behance and dribbble.
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Edi
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Thank you very much for your proposals!

We can discuss them one by one. But it's Diego, the developer of the project, who has to decide.

In advance one point: Google Analytics.

You can connect with Google with the plugin Google Tools.

But my experience is: A lot of my customers are not really interested in Google Analytics nor statistics at all. And in fact, the data are not easy to understand.

Anyway: It's already here. ;-)
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diego
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Hi,
Twitter Cards and Facebook (Open Graph) are plugins and are pre-installed on Bludit.
As Edi said, Google Analytics, Google Tag and Google Site verification code are integrated on the plugin Google.

I have some items from your ideas on my Todo List, thanks.

Diego
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Edi
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bayerberg wrote: Mon Aug 14, 2017 3:20 pm - Medium.com style text editing
There are a couple of solutions done already (https://yabwe.github.io/medium-editor/ for example). I understand writing this from scratch would be a tall order and somebody might be able to create a plugin that does that but the sooner Bludit moves away from dev focused content entry the better.
An interesting project, thank you for the hint!

Perhaps it's possible to make a plugin with it. It depends how the editor can be integrated.

What exactly do you mean with dev focused content? HTML? Markup?
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bayerberg
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@diego
you missed one small detail - baked in :)
more useful things get baked in to the core more people will want to use bludit. plugins are a major drawback when comes to wordpress maintenance, both devs and users dread seeing new wordpress updates cause that spells a raft of updates for plugins. Sometimes when plugin author doesn't care what happens or abandons it altogether users are prone to hacks. If bludit bakes in things more sought after it has better chance to make a dent in the CMS world. I know about what can be added to it, i added a ton of custom fields to mine, removed jquery altogether (from the template at least) and run barebones vanilla js. I'm talking about less proficient people who have a need for a speedy site or an easy to run blog.

What a modern CMS should have on board without plugins:
- social media integration
- user tracking
- content visibility controll
- vanishability :)

social media integration - thats self explanatory. you need facebook/ twitter, sometimes linked in. google+ isnt big enough :) so can be discarded.

user tracking - analytics are one thing but stats on what was viewed and for how long plastered all over the dashboard would be awesome. Yep, i know that theres a plugin for that. If bludit would have visit counters baked in there would be a way to display for example hot/ hotter/ hottes posts, style the hottest ones differently.

content visibility is a must. that means controlling who sees it and for how long. it would be cool to have something like http://sociallocker.org/ baked in but that might be a bit much. Something simpler would be great to have - expiry date + options what to show after that date passes. This would cover contests and events.

vanishability is one of bludits strengths. you can set it up in seconds and erase it without a trace in the same time. that makes it great for product landing pages, contests and events. no databases to worry about.

in my eyes bludit is close to being a perfect tool for a marketer and blogger on the go. those tweaks would make it a "must have" tool in your arsenal

@Edi
dev focused content entry - markdown / html as main ways to enter data. its cool for people who know how to use it. your average marketer or small business owner doesn't know what markdown is and has blurry idea about html. Sooner bludit implements something for the masses sooner the masses start to use it ;)
bludit plugins and themes - makeitblu | I do things, check them out on behance and dribbble.
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diego
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Hi,
is better to have a modular system (Bludit Core + Plugins) until to have all stuff in the Core, is easy to find bugs, is easy to disable/enabled features, is easy to maintenance the Bludit Core, and the biggest for me the user can create plugins without need it to integrate to Bludit Core, a lot of Pros.

Anyway, the plugins "must be inside Bludit" such as Google stuff, Twitter Cards, Facebook Cards, are going to be included always with Bludit.

There are a lot or a ton of stuff to develop for Bludit, I have a lot of ideas, but I really don't have time to do all of this.

Regards
Diego
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Torsten_Kelsch
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Tweaks
-Change of page order when adding new pages.
It would be nice to be able to reorder existing pages by mouse, not only by typing in numbers. This could be programmed with AJAX, as far as I know.
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