Frequently asked questions and known issues

• Q: Why is the recent post list is out of order?
  This only happens with the edition for Community Server 1.0. Due to a bug in Community Server 1.0 blog web service API implementation, PostID's are 0 for all posts when you retrieve recent posts. Since the form depends heavily on the PostID being non-zero and unique, there may be a lot of strange behaviors caused by this.
   
• Q: The post creation date shown by CSBlogger is different than what Community Server shows. What do I do to correct this?
  See the entry regarding "Time Zone Adjustment" below.
   
• Q: Why are there now two editions? Which one should I use?
  It turns out http://blogs.msdn.com, the Community Server I developed the form against, has a version higher than 1.0. There are slight yet very annoying changes on the web service APIs between those two. The result of this is that I have to create a different form for each of them. (It is not impossible to create one form to work with both, but not worth the extra efforts. )
  
  If you are on blogs.msdn.com, go for the msdn edition. Otherwise try the CS1.0 edition first because that is the public release currently available. If that doesn't work out, try the msdn one.
  
  Now how can you tell whether it works? If you get an error message like the one below and you are sure the password  is correct, you need try the other edition.
   

• Q: What is that "Time Zone Adjustment" for?
  It is used to compensate the time zone difference between your local machine and your blog server. Here is how to determine the proper value for it:
  • Set its value to 0 in CSBlogger
  • Time Zone Adjustment = [Creation time of a post shown on the blog server] - [Creation time of the same post shown in CSBlogger]

  Additional notes:

  • For west coast users of http://blogs.msdn.com, this value should be 3.
  • This may not be necessary if you setup your account on Community Server correctly. I was not able to figure out how though. If you can, you don't need this and please do tell me how, :-)
     
• Q: My blog entries look different on the web than what they look like in InfoPath. Why?
  CSBlogger can actually round-trip the html sources just fine in most cases. It is Community Server who strips out most formatting before it renders the web page. You can verify this by comparing the HTML source from community server and the XML source of a form file saved by CSBlogger.
   
• Q: Sometimes I can not paste contents from certain web pages into the post body?
  This is a known issue with InfoPath 2003 SP1. To resolve this, you can contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix as described in KB 890952. The fix will be available to general public when Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 2 is released. To workaround this issue, paste in NotePad first then copy your content from there.
   
• Q: The pictures I inserted in InfoPath doesn't show up on the web page of my blog?
  Graphics will be embedded in form data as encoded base64 strings when inserted in an InfoPath form. Most browsers can not handle that. To workaround this, switch to HTML source editing mode, then locate and modify the <img> you just inserted. Or simply insert the tag by yourself like this <img src="http://example.com/example.jpg" />.
   
• Q: What is the difference between CSBlogger and SimpleBlogger?
  CSBlogger can only work with blog accounts on Community Server, whereas SimpleBlogger can only work with .Text blog servers.
   
• Q: I have a form created with SimpleBlogger. Can I use it with CSBlogger?
  Sorry, no. Because the underline blog APIs are totally different between the two, the data structures of SimpleBlogger and CSBlogger are not compatible to each other. The only way to transfer data from between them is to install them on the same machine, then manually copy your posts over.
   
• Q: I have SimpleBlogger installed on my machine. Do I have to uninstall it first before installing CSBlogger?
  No, the two can coexist as mentioned above.
   
• Q: Will you continue to develop of a new version when Community Server 1.1, 2.0, ... etc. is out?
  It depends on the work involved. If it is like what happens when .Text evolves into Community Server, then no.
   
• Q: Will you develop a generic version for other type of blog servers using the MetaBlog API?
  Most likely no. I don't have the time to develop an interface for the XML-RPC protocols which MetaBlog API uses to communicate.
   
• Q: How can I reach you if I have more questions?
  You can do so via my blog: post a comment or use the contact form. Please also check my blog for updates on this tool and related topics.