BlogSphere V3 – New Features So Far

Want to know what’s up and coming in BlogSphere
Version 3, well here’s the scoop…

1. Multilingual Blogging.

When you create a blog entry in your
default language you now have the ability to create alternative language
versions of the same entry.  When a visitor comes to your site the
browsers language settings will be detected and if an alternative language
version of an entry exists for the visitors language then they will see
that version on screen.

2. Browser Sensitive Translations.

All of the prompts and standard bits
of text will be rendered to the screen based on the visitors browser language
settings if a translation document for that language exists, if not then
the visitor will see the default translations.

3. Multiple Categories.

Blog postings can now have multiple
categories. The categories for a posting will be used for Technorati tags
if you have enabled them and will also be output in the RSS feed correctly.

4. Site Skins and layout templates.

Based on the MoveableType V3.x layout
you can now change the entire layout of your site by simply editing the
layout template. Layout templates can contain special BlogSphere tags that
are replaced during render time with the correct information or text translation.
Once you have your layout the way you like it then you can apply a CSS
file to style it to your liking. Out of the box BlogSphere is compatible
with most MoveableType styles with a few minor tweaks.

5. Comment Moderation and Locking.

Comment entry has been expanded to allow
comment moderation and locking.  When comment moderation is enabled
then when a new comment is left on your site it will be marked as ‘awaiting
approval’ and the comment text will not display on the web. If you have
marked a blog entry as ‘locked’ then the ability to add new comments will
be disabled and the comment entry form will not display.

6. Anti Comment Spam.

Comment spam detection has been expanded
to include a few new methods to detect if an entry is spam or not.

7. Instant Comment Notification.

Want to receive a new email when a comment
is left on your blog. With this option enabled you will be notified immediatly
when a new comment is entered. No more waiting for a scheduled agent to
run.

8. New Improved Side Blocks.

Side Block support has been expaned,
you can have as many as you want, You can set the name for the block in
each block definition document, you can specify if the links block should
list the categories and even choose which categories to display.

9. More logging.

BlogSphere V3 will support better logging
options and now has the ability to log RSS reads. You can also disable
logging in the configuration incase you don;t want to keep track of any
of the stats internally.

10. New Notes Client interface.

The notes client interface for Blogsphere
has been completly rewritten and standardised. Configuration and logging
menus are kept out of the way for when you need them and the default menu
just contains the options you need for creating and maintaining your blog.

11. Better Upgrade Support.

With a complete rewrite comes a better
method for upgrades. If you replace the design of your blog with a newer
version then it will automatically detect the upgrade next time you open
your database and run the upgrade routines. If you skipped a few versions
don’t worry the new upgrade routines will move each document through all
intermediate versions to make sure that you don’t loose any functionality.

12. Enhanced RSS Feeds.

Using FeedBurner for your RSS feed then
just enable it in the configuration and all the links to your RSS feed
will point to the Feedburner Version.  You can also specify if you
want to include the full HTML and Read More text in the feed or not.

I hope this short list of details keeps
everybody happy.  BlogSphere V3 won;t be released untill I’m 100%
happy that everything is working 100% correctly. however if you fancy doing
some beta testing of the new template then let me know and I’ll add you
to the list.