I decided I needed to sort of rush out this update, because as-is Related Entries breaks the post/page entry form validation in Mango 1.3.x. So first, here's your download information:

Plugin version:

1.0

Last Updated:

2009-02-27

Requires:

Mango Blog 1.3

Auto-install URL:

http://fusiongrokker.com/get/RelatedEntries

First, the bad news. Just like with LogViewer (and upcomming plugin updates), I've decided to change the plugin id, which means you can't install this version over top of the old version. You'll first have to manually de-activate and delete the old version; then you can use the above URL in the auto-installer. I'm sorry! The good news is that none of your old related entries data will be lost. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I promise not to change the ID of this plugin again.

What's changed?

Aside from some file locations and names, not much. Since jQuery is now built into Mango Admin, this plugin's inclusion of the library caused a conflict which prevented form validation from working. So the major change with this version, besides updating it for Mango 1.3.x, is that jQuery isn't included any more. There aren't any functional differences.

When time permits, there are a couple of small bugs that I need to work out, so I hope to have another update in March some time.

This update is entirely thanks to Seb Duggan. He says he made the changes because he wanted to play with the new custom icon support in Mango 1.3… So thanks, Seb!

The new version now has a nice little bug icon, instead of the puzzle piece that all custom links were given in older versions of Mango. Here's updated screenshots with no logs present (left) and some logs (right).

LogViewer version 1.0 (the new version) requires Mango 1.3 or later, so here's a link to download LogViewer 0.3 for older versions of Mango Blog. Or, for the enterprising nerd, you can always pull a previous version out of the SVN Repository…

Although you can still install manually (the old way) if you want, Mango 1.3 now includes auto-install. On the Add-ons page, there is now a tool that will download the zip and install it automatically:

So in the future, look for this box to get the URL for the auto-installer:

Plugin version:

1.0

Last Updated:

2009-02-25

Requires:

Mango Blog 1.3

Auto-install URL:

http://fusiongrokker.com/get/LogViewer

It recently came up on the Model-Glue mailing list that it's possible to create mappings via code in ColdFusion 7 by dropping down to the underlying Java and using undocumented, unsupported features.

This is not exactly the same as creating per-application mappings as you can do in ColdFusion 8, but instead, you're messing with global mappings. It's still pretty rad!

I figured I would go ahead and blog it for my own future reference, and if it helps anyone else in the process, awesome.

factory = createObject('java','coldfusion.server.ServiceFactory'); mappings = factory.runtimeService.getMappings(); // From here you can add and remove mappings as you please. // Add a mapping: mappings["/test"] = "C:\somedirectory"; // Remove a mapping: structDelete(mappings,"/test");

Mango 1.3 was released yesterday through it's auto-update process. If you are using a version of Mango older than 1.2.x, you probably don't have the auto-updater and will need to manually upgrade. Ignore the fact that that page indicates the latest version is 1.2.4 — if you click the download link you'll get the latest version.

With version 1.3, some significant improvements have been made in the plugin development process. If you have ever developed a Mango plugin, or intend to in the future, I highly recommend you read Seb Duggan's post on the changes. (And this supplementary post…)

I'll probably make a PDF cheat sheet for these and other Mango things soon, so that I have something I can print out and keep in a handy place (with my jQuery and Model Glue cheat sheets, of course!). I'll be sure to share that with you here.

You can also expect new versions of all of my plugins to make use of the updates; coming soon!

In Mango, adding pods can be super simple — mostly html with a touch of CFML; or you can go nuts and write a plugin that adds a pod that does something crazy. In this series of posts I'll try to cover everything you could possibly want to know about pods.

Before we get started, the first thing you need is a pod-enabled theme. They aren't all pod enabled, unfortunately. If you're not sure if your theme is pod-enabled, the quick way to tell is to click the "Pod Manager" link on the left side of your blog admin. If your theme is *not* pod-enabled, you'll get a message that says Current theme doesn't have any pod locations or it is not Pod-enabled. Otherwise, you'll see the pod manager.

Toward the end of this series, I'll post showing how to make your theme pod enabled, if you're writing or updating a theme. It's not that difficult.

Template Pods

In most pod-enabled themes, there's a sidebar.cfm or similarly named file, which contains a block of code implementing the <mangox:Pods></mangox:Pods> custom tag set. It should look something like this:

...

Don't worry too much about what that does, we're just using it as a landmark. This file is where pods are rendered, so it makes sense to define some simple HTML pods here with it. You'll likely find some "Template" pods with it, and we're going to add to them. Let's say you want to add a pod with an About Me blurb. Add this block of code outside the mangox:Pods block. Techincally, it should also be inside the <mangox:PodGroup> tags. Mango supports multiple pod groups, and if your theme has more than one (more than one <mangox:PodGroup> block) you'll want to define your pod inside the pod group where you want it to be rendered.

I'm your host, Adam. I write about web development, ColdFusion, and more and more I find myself writing about Mango Blog.

If it's not instantly obvious, the part that makes Mango recognize this as a pod is the <mangox:TemplatePod id="about-me"> and everything between the tags is the content that will get rendered at the pod location.

This method is great when your pod is just some simple HTML — perhaps embedding a flash widget or including some advertising or a graphic to link to another site. It's primary drawback is that it is only available to the skin/theme you code it into. If you switch themes, you need to copy it to your new one. Obviously that's not too difficult, but it is something you should be aware of.

Next time, I'll cover writing a plugin that adds a pod.