rdToolbar was first conceived many years ago in an attempt to streamline the content entry process for SmartEdit users, whilst grouping together custom RQL plugins/functions in a consist location on the page.

So what is it?

In a nutshell it is a panel that sits at the top of every ‘master’ or ‘foundation’ page in SmartEdit mode. It consists of:

• A big fat clickable Open/Close button for the page
• A number of customisable clickable buttons that can trigger any RQL plugins/scripts that you wish to integrate into your project
• Basic page information that is displayed to the user regardless if the page is open or closed.

You may have actually seen the toolbar before whilst editing your profile/solutions within Solution Exchange – which I contributed to the site around 6 months ago.

The toolbar has gone through a number of different incarnations since the initial version – most of which were around improving performance (it now uses asynchronous AJAX calls to obtain page information via RQL). Installation is a piece of cake too – just a simple cut and paste job.

What versions of the CMS are supported?

At this point in time, the toolbar is only supported in RedDot CMS Version 10+ – and requires the use of ‘master/foundation’ page project setups. I have no plans to make it work with target containers – as I’m a firm believer of staying well away from them from a usability and maintenance perspective!

As mentioned, you can customise the bar in any way you like. Everything is controlled using JavaScript/JQuery and CSS. All you need to do is create a new button (using the Photoshop template provided), add the required HTML/CSS and attach a jQuery event to it. (As an example of how to do this, ive included two plugins as part of the installation – ‘checkbox keyword assignment’ and ‘one click page workflow submission’. (I may create a blog post explaining how to do this step-by-step if you need a hand with this!)

Installation

1. To install, simply unzip the file into the plugins directory. Make sure that the ‘rdToolbar’ is sitting in the root of plugins folder.

Download rdToolbar – rdToolbar.zip (182KB)

2. Add the required javascript and CSS for the toolbar – id suggest adding this in a global location where it can be referenced across the whole site (such as a header/JS/CSS container)

<script type="text/javascript" src="/cms/plugins/rdtoolbar/common/js/jquery.pack.js"></script>
<script src="/cms/plugins/rdtoolbar/common/js/rdToolbarStatus.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/cms/plugins/rdtoolbar/common/styles/menu.css" media="all" />
(make sure that references points to the location of your plugins directory)

3. Add the following code directly after the body tag.

<!IoRangeRedDotMode>
<div style="display:none;"><!IoRedDotOpenPage></div>
<div id="reddot-menubar"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(document).ready(function() {
// set up page variables
rdToolbarStatus.vars.pageguid = '<%!! Context:CurrentPage.Id.ToString(N).ToUpper() !!%>';
<!IoRangeRedDotEditOnly>rdToolbarStatus.vars.pagemode = '1'<!/IoRangeRedDotEditOnly>
rdToolbarStatus.vars.defaultextension = '.htm';
// run the plugin
rdToolbarStatus.init();
});
</script>
<!/IoRangeRedDotMode>

Theres no need to add any placeholders for this to work. Just cut and paste directly into your foundation templates

I hope you get plenty of use of out of the RedDot plugin!

With this in mind, I created the ‘Add Page’ plugin a while back but never actually had the time to rewrite it for ‘general’ use… until now! I got the idea after seeing the Add Page option under the RedDot placeholders drop down, but soon worked out that this feature no longer works (please tell me otherwise if this is not the case!)

This ‘Add Page’ plugin enables you to create and connect pages (and page parts) to lists, containers and anchors with a single click. It also gives you the flexibility to create pages without having to open up a parent page first.

For each link placeholder within a page, the plugin will automatically insert a custom RedDot which – when clicked – will prompt the user to enter in a headline for the new page. Users can then select what type of page they wish to create (via template preassignments) either inline within the page – or when prompted to enter the headline.

Installation

1. Download and unzip the Add Page plugin file (rdUIAddPage.zip, 35Kb) within the plugin directory of RedDot CMS

2. Cut and paste the following code within the header section of each foundation page where you want to use the plugin

<script type="text/javascript" src="/cms/plugins/rdUIAddPage/jquery.pack.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/cms/plugins/rdUIAddPage/rdUIAddPage.js"></script>

<link href="/cms/plugins/rdUIAddPage/rdUIAddPage.css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(document).ready(function() {
// set up page variables
rdUIAddPage.vars.pageguid = '<%!! Context:CurrentPage.Id.ToString(N).ToUpper() !!%>';
<!IoRangeRedDotEditOnly>rdUIAddPage.vars.pagemode = '1'<!/IoRangeRedDotEditOnly>

// run the plugin
rdUIAddPage.init();
});
</script>


3. Adjacent to each link placeholder, add the following line of code:
<div class="RedDotCreatePage" link="lst_pages" mode="1"></div>

Set the ‘link’ attribute to the name of the link placeholder you wish to target (in this case ‘lst_pages’).

(Optional) The ‘mode’ attribute (set to either 1 or 0) enables you to control where the template selection occurs.
When set to ’1′, a drop down list of template preassignments is displayed inline within the page:

When set to ’0′ (or when the attribute is blank), the drop down list selection is displayed to the user when prompted to enter in the headline for the new page

4. If you wish to use the plugin for RedDot CMS Versions 7.5 – 9, please change the following variable within the rdUIAddPage.asp file to indicate the CMS version you are using.
Const CMSVersion = 10

Limitations

The plugin does not support the use of Target containers at this point in time. This is something I am looking at adding in the near future.

Soul-A-Go-Go – Melbourne’s premier soul and funk party is back for November at Bella Union.

I’ll be making a special appearance this month alongside resident selectors Vince Peach, Pierre Baroni & Manchild

$10 for PBS members and $15 for future members.

Get in super early from 9pm.

SOUL-A-GO-GO
Saturday 5th November at Bella Union
9pm til late

The first time called for the ‘local’ RedDot user account to be replaced with a service account when changing from a single to a muti-server publishing cluster. The reason for doing this was to enable both servers to access a shared location on the network where all Assets were stored – which could only be access via a service account for security reasons.

Most recently whilst working for a company that required all IT systems and applications to be migrated from one network to another as part of an acquisition, RedDot Service Accounts had to be modified to run under a new active directory service.

Changing the service account that RedDot runs under isn’t that difficult, but it is a little tedious. All of it has to be done manually. I wasn’t able to find any documentation anywhere on the web on how to do this, so I figured it would be best to document the process for other users. This was the first time I had to do this (in the past I was able to rely on infrastructure teams to take care of installation and server maintenance), I called on the assistance of Open Text support who pointed me in the right direction to get it working.

Modifying the COM and DCOM Settings for RedDot CMS

1. Under Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Component Services, select ‘My Computer’
   

2. Right mouse click on ‘My Computer’ and select Properties > COM Security. Click Edit Defaults
   
3. Click the Add Button and then the Advanced Button to enable you to search for Users and Groups. Locate the new Service Account which you will use to run RedDot CMS and assign this account with Local Access permissions.
   

   

   We while are at it, ensure that the following Users and Groups have also being assigned the same level of permissions:
   
   Administrator
   Administrators
   IUSR_servername
   IWAM_servername
   RedDot

4. Once you have saved these changes, repeat the same steps for Launch and Activation Permissions.
5. Expand the DCOM Config folder and edit the properties of each of the RedDot objects (each of the RedDot objects are prefixed with ‘RD’)
   
6. Select the ‘Security’ tab and ensure that ‘Use Default’ is selected for both Launch and Activation Permissions & Access Permissions
   
7. Scroll to the bottom of the list and edit the properties of each of the ‘hexadecimal’ objects. Only edit the permissions of each of these objects that belong to RedDot – which can be determined by checking the local path field under the General tab (it should point to the location where RedDot is installed on the server). For these objects, ensure that ‘Use Default’ is selected for both Launch and Activation Permissions & Access Permissions.

   

Anonymous access authentication for each of the virtual applications under ‘CMS’

1. Edit the properties of each Virtual Application under ‘CMS’ within IIS
   
2. Under the ‘Directory Security’ tab, click on the Authentication and access control ‘Edit..’ button
   
3. Specify the username and password of the new RedDot service account within the corresponding fields. Ensure the enable anonymous access checkbox is selected.
   

RDServer.ini file settings

Ensure the Domain and Username of your new RedDot service account is added to the top of the RDServer.ini file:
[Defaults]
RedDot-User Domain=AD
RedDot-User=RedDotServiceAccount

Over the years we have noticed all too often how many nights focus on just one style of music. We wanted to take it back to when we first started spinning records – when DJ’s would consistently blur the lines between genres of music throughout their sets. A single dancefloor where there wasn’t separate rooms pushing different sounds. DJ’s were judged on skill, music knowledge and charisma. Parties were about music, not haircuts.

Our first monthly night kicks off this Saturday – 16 July @ LOOP BAR

GOOD THINGS PRESENT PET SOUNDS @ LOOP SATURDAY 16TH JULY

FEEL GOOD JAMS PROVIDED BY -
…
ARI ROZE (MIGHTY HIGNESS RECORDS)
Recently moving over from Byron Bay with around 150 crates!! Record digger king! Ari also runs the oz soul label Mighty Highness and put out a double 7 inch ep last year of modern soul sounds. Expect nothing but positive party music!
checkout his site www.ariroze.com

INKSWEL (SUPERIOR ELEVATION/ BOOGIE BASH)
Melbourne native…Inkswel recently dropped the sold out ‘get to my party’ 12 on BOOGIE BASH Records (Rush Hour Sub Label) featuring collabs with KID SUBLIME, GARY DAVIS & REGGIE B. He recently did a remix for DARWIN THEORY with TOM NOBLE out August 1st on superior elevation. A true party rocker, expect a set journeying through 80s boogie rap, proto house into late night dance floor Detroit.

EDD FISHER (PBS RADIO/ UP AND COMER WITH SOULFUL CRATES)
Edd is a man of diversity, crates of soul to get the booty shaking!

JUMBO (GOOD THINGS CO-FOUNDER)
www.eyjumbojumbo.tumblr.com

BECOME A FAN OF GOOD THINGS HERE and keep up to date of forthcoming parties.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/GOOD-Things-DJ-Collective/113256455434174

I am aware of the do’s and don’ts in regards to RedDot CMS performance, however I have had the luxury over the past year or so to build and manage RedDot CMS / Open Text Web Site Management projects on some super spec’ed servers. It’s difficult to notice any significant performance hits when pages are served up straight away, regardless of what methods you use to build up your project and how many pages are connected. Rule of thumb: always stick to best practises and you’ll be OK, however it’s not always easy getting hold of these best practises at the best of times..

I have been working on a number of CMS enhancements on the Solution Exchange site with Danny Baggs recently, which also includes the integration of my toolbar plugin in SmartEdit mode (which will be available for download shortly!). Although the majority of the plugin makes use of ‘info’ placeholders to obtain page information, I needed to run some RQL queries to order obtain user account details. These queries were being run using pre-executing code inside the CMS templates.

Given that there are a couple of unique performance challenges with the SolEx site that are currently being rectified (in particular the direct integration of the CMS component into the site), any gains to be made on the CMS project front shouldn’t be overlooked. Shout outs to Jian Huang (Senior Consultant @ Open Text) who recommended we run all RQL queries via AJAX calls to speed up performance of the page. I’m glad to report that page load times have dropped significantly when creating and editing solution and profile pages!
There’s now plenty of information up online on how to run RQL via AJAX – so I won’t go into too much detail here on how it’s done, although I will say that it is fairly straight forward.

It’s also worth pointing out that RQL commands (if possible) should be executed against the COM objects rather than the web services, as Jian indicates it “competes with Management Server for RQL communication bandwidth.” (Manuel Schnitger and Dennis Reil have recently indicated that this will be replaced with WCF in the near future.)

I would also recommend you check out Oshyn’s whitepaper ‘RedDot CMS: Improving Installation Performance‘ for other RedDot CMS performance hints and tips.

I would very much be interested to hear from anyone who has metrics around performance gains/hits regarding various RedDot CMS features such as RQL COM vs Web Services, Render tags and PreExecute code.

WAX MUSEUM RECORDS AND DR.CROFT PRESENTS…

DIRECT FROM AMSTERDAM

KID SUBLIME
…
(REDNOSE DISTRIKT/ RUSH HOUR RECORDINGS / KINDRED SPIRITS/ DOPENESS GALORE)

BASEMENT SESSIONS OZ TOUR!

Innovator of modern soul. One of the first to flip beatdown sample based house on the Rush hour imprint well before blog driven abelton edits became the cool thing! From hip hop upbringings working at the dutch brand of the FAT BEATS record store (RIP) and holding down soul and underground RNB flavour for the KINDRED SPIRITS family. An original REDNOSE DISTRIKT member and man of pure,raw,original flavour!

Growing up in Amsterdam, Jacob Otten, aka Kid Sublime, started to play drums and piano at the early age of five. As a teenager he founded his first band with schoolmates, dedicated to hardcore punk, and short after was heavily attracted to skateboarding and hip hop. Hooked on Gangstarr’s ‘Step In The Arena’ video he found his new passion: scratching. He started practicing, won a Dutch scratching contest and landed a job in the Fat Beats record store in Amsterdam. Only 17 at the time he received local fame through his mix tapes, and got an MPC to enhance his mixes. A year later Jacob joined Dutch-Brazilian band Zuco 103 and travelled the world as their tour DJ. Short after he released his first solo tracks on Steven de Peven’s Zephons Mom label. The two formed their infamous Rednose Distrikt outfit and in 2003 released their highly acclaimed debut album ‘Iller Dan Je Ouders’ (Iller Than Your Parents) on Amsterdam’s Kindred Spirits imprint. Jacob went on to start his own label called Jahwell (in conjunction with Rush Hour Records), dedicated to soulful house music with a b-boy attitude. His first solo album as Kid Sublime, entitled Basement Soul, created quite a stir among taste making connoisseurs and featured guest vocals by the likes of Melodee, Lilian Vieira (Zuco 103), Nicky Guiland (Heavy), Alma Horton and Jneiro Jarel among others. Always looking to try something different, he followed his LP with Rappin’ Blak on Dopeness Galore, and his collection of ballads called The Alicia Beat Tape. Big!

+ SUPPORTS

INKSWEL
KIM DEZEN
RAMBL
KANO 172
BENNY BADGE

Al Kent – Saturday 2 July

MIDNIGHT MARAUDERS – WAX MUSEUM RECORDS AND PMJ PRESENTS…

AL KENT (BBE/MILLION DOLLAR DISCO/GLASGOW)

As a first-class DJ, record collector, producer and promoter – Al Kent is a man that lives and breathes disco music. Born in Glasgow in the late 60s, Al has been collecting disco, funk, northern soul and house music since the early 80s. Over his three decades of collecting Al has amassed one of the world’s largest collections of …rare disco records. This has translated into amazing DJ sets which have taken Al all over the UK and Europe with appearances at the main room at Southport Weekender, Joey Negro’s Z Records party in London and Respect is Burning in Paris – the latter two at the personal invitation of Joey Negro and Dimitri from Paris who consider Al their favourite disco DJ.

Al has turned his love of DJ’ing and collecting into a passion for producing original disco music. In 2008 he released his acclaimed debut album “Better Days” on BBE with his band the Million Dollar Orchestra and in 2009 released his own “Secret Sounds” LP. Al is also responsible for releasing over 60+ edits on labels including Jisco, KAT Music, StillLove4Music and his own Million Dollar Disco imprint, with more productions to follow.

In addition to DJing, collecting and producing Al promotes the Million Dollar Disco parties in Glasgow, which have hosted Dimitri From Paris, Rick Wilhite, Sadar and Rahaan as well as the Bad Mouthin’ warehouse parties where Al and Rahaan play a monthly residency.

Due to his deep musical knowledge, BBE Records asked Al to compile their Disco Love compilation series which focuses on uncovering rare disco and soul. After the first volume sold out in record time, Al has just released Volume 2 and will be releasing the “Best of Disco Demands” box set on BBE in July 2011.

supported by
MANCHILD
JULIEN LOVE
ANDRAS FOX
KIM DEZEN
BENNY BADGE

$10 entry- very limited capacity

I created a plugin sometime ago that enables you to copy/connect multiple elements from one content class to another. But I thought id extend the idea one step further by enabling ‘duplicate’ copies of individual content elements to be created within content classes.

This is especially handy when having to create multiple Text elements without having to manually reset the text editor settings individually for each element. (I wish there was a way to set default options for each new Text element project wide – rather than having all options selected!)

The plugin has been developed using RedDot CMS v10+ and works within projects that incorporate the use of single or multiple language variants.

Installation:

Download the plugin, unzip and copy the folder ‘rdUICopyElement’ into the RedDot CMS plugins folder. Refer to Chapter 7 ‘Administering Plug-ins’ of the Open Text Web Site Management Server – Server Manager Guide on how to import plugins.

How to use it

When a content element is selected under a content class in SmartTree, the following option will appear within the Action Menu:

Clicking on this link will automatically create a copy of the selected element.

Download the plugin : ‘Copy Content Element’ (ZIP, 21Kb)

Of course there’s always Delivery Server that provides these features that aren’t available within the CMS, however adopting this technology usually incurs a learning curve (particular around the use of the propriety ‘Dynament’ code). Most developers/agencies would rather utilise a technology that they are already proficient with or one where they can tap into large pool of readily available developers and or resources.

The key point I would like to stress here is that you should (by any means necessary) keep all server side code outside of your CMS project – i.e. don’t embed code directly within your Content Classes!

There’s a school of thought that it’s better to keep all code and templates within one central location – the RedDot CMS project – by inserting code directly into templates and linking resources and libraries via media RedDot placeholders. The argument for doing so is that if the project needs to be relocated to another server, all that is required is deploy is a full site publish from the CMS.

I recommend not adopting this approach since relocating the site to another server happens infrequently (much less than actually having to deploy code changes) and developers end up spending more time having to integrate code changes back into the CMS on a regular basis. This ends up being a manual step – developers aren’t able to utilise deployment, software configuration management and version control best practises to minimise risk when deploying changes.

The best approach is to insert custom tags into your web pages in the position where you want to include dynamic functionality. The CMS is just used to publish out content as separate files to the web server where code has been deployed separately and can be included/referenced within the site pages.

There is a detailed step-by-step guide up on the RedDot CMS Blog site explaining how to embed .NET code with your project. If you are using C# or VB.NET – everything you need to know about embedding User Controls into your site templates has been covered.

Although my knowledge of Java is quite limited, I have had success using JSP templates to enable you separate out page layout and code in much the same way as .NET user controls.


<jsp:include page="templates/quick_search_form.jsp" flush="true">
<jsp:param name="docPath" value=""/>
<jsp:param name="styleClass" value=""/>
<jsp:param name="showExamples" value="false"/>
</jsp:include>


On the ASP and PHP front, I would suggest that using Function or Sub calls – where all code is stored within separate files and added within the page using includes.

To facilitate adding these tags or calls across site pages, I use a combination of basic template page parts (containing the tags that I need to include in the page) and containers positioned within various areas of a page – such as the header, main body and sub content areas:

I wrap all tags around a render tag to check if the page is currently being publish, as this is the only time we want them to appear within the page:

Then its just a case of connecting up the individual page part ‘tags’ to the required positions (containers) within my site pages.

This way I can add the required tags to any page in my site (regardless of which foundation page template I use). Just remember to set the filename extension of each foundation content class to that of the server side language that is being used (e.g. .aspx, .php, .jsp, .asp etc)

Of course it’s important to document our work (no matter if it’s a RedDot or some other ECMS project) and on most occasions providing training and support material is a deliverable when handing over a project to client.

But does it always have to be a formal step-by-step manual?

Over the past couple years I have been replacing training and support manuals with custom video tutorials. Nothing too fancy or over the top in terms of production value – just simple and quick screen captures with voiceover. All that’s required is software to record everything (I usually use CamStudio – and its Open Source as well!) and a microphone. The other great thing about CamStudio is that it can automatically generate Flash SWF files for each video you create so you can embed them directly into your RedDot CMS projects within a custom “Help” page in SmartEdit mode.

There are plenty of resources online that provide evidence on the benefits on video based learning. I won’t go into too much detail but here’s just a sample:

• Faster skills transfer
• Higher receptivity to learning and retaining information long term
• Video is modular in content by providing control over the content and timing of training sessions

I did take some time to get the hang of producing a couple video tutorials as it’s not a case of just pressing record and thinking you will be a ‘one take wonder’! It does require a little bit of prep work up front, in particular coming up with a basic script that outlines exactly you will be demonstrating/explaining in each video.

I’ve found it best to break up topics into quick 2-3 minute videos. For example, don’t try and explain how to create or edit pages in one big long video, instead focus on key tasks such as:

• using the text editor
• uploading documents
• publishing
• editing/sorting navigation links

Users will then be able to find help on specific items of interest rather than having to wade through lots of unwanted information.

Try and make your training videos as generic as possible so can reuse them for other clients/projects. For future projects you will only then need to create new videos covering custom or unique features – such as RedDot CMS plugins or new Red Dot’s that you have created.