Blog:: Craig Pringle

I have not abandoned BlogPad - though I do think I need a complete code review. I have been doing a lot of learning about tablet and smart client development recently in preparation for the session I am giving at TechEd NZ. In line with this I have decided to add Network Location Awareness to BlogPad and combine this with defensive programming techniques. In short - I'm going to track network state and only try to talk to the server if I'm connected. Simple enough to do.
The other change I am making is something I need to do to make BlogPad easier to use on a small screen tablet - I'm adding the ability for the user to configure the pen size.
I have found that the easiest way to do this is to create a DrawingAttributes object, configure the settings and assign the drawing attributes object to the DrawingAttributes property of each InkEdit on the main form.
Right now I have it hard coded to fine to suit the LS800 until I create the GUI to allow the user to configure it. It looks like this:

' Create DrawigAttributes object
Dim myPenSettings As New DrawingAttributes
myPenSettings.PenTip = PenTip.Ball
myPenSettings.Width = 3
myPenSettings.Height = 3

Me.iEditTitle.DrawingAttributes = myPenSettings

Me.iEditBody.DrawingAttributes = myPenSettings

In moving to the LS800 I thought I would take the opportunity to try out a different RSS reader. I tried the native support in the IE7 and Outlook 2007 betas and found them lacking. I have now installed Rss Bandit and I really like it!
One of the coolest features I've found so far is its support for NNTP newsgroups. I am liking having all my news and info is one app. I am already toying with the idea of a "Blog this in BlogPad" plugin...

I just hand wrote 4 posts on the train using BlogPad. How cool is that?

Last night I integrated the new RTF parser into BlogPad and built myself a new version for testing. Seems a bit flakey but it sometimes works. when it does the parser supports basic formatting and hyperlinks. I'm getting there :)

I posted last night that I had made some significant progress on Blogpad.  Specifically I made huge inroads into a problem that I have been struggling with for a while - converting RTF markup into HTML.

Last night I decided to look again for an example where someone had done something similar.  And this time I found something! 

I stumbled across this article by sgoliver on The Code Project that uses C# to parse RTF anc can convert it to HTML.  The first problem is that I don't know C# - all the programing I've done to date has been in varients of VB.  When I downloaded the example project I encounted the second problem.  All the variable names and comments are in Spanish!

I built the demo application and gave it a try and it worked.  So what I had was code that worked - but that I really didn't understand.

Not to let a little thing like that stop me I set about trying to turn it into something I did understand without breaking it. 

My first step was to try to turn C# into VB.Net.  As with many things in life Google had the answer.  A quick search for "C# VB.net Converter" yelided several results.  I tried a few and got the best result with this C# to VB.Net converter on Developer Fussion.

Now I'm working through the code and fixing up a few things the converter did not get quite right.  Next I'll go through and use Babel Fish to translate the Spanish variable names into English so I can better understand how it works.

For the last couple of weeks I have not had much time for blogging and none at all for working on BlogPad.  Tonight I decided to spend some time coding BlogPad and made huge strides.  I've got a partially functional RTF to HTML converter - which is a big win.

Amazing how putting something aside for a couple of weeks can give you a whole new perspective.  :)

There is one BlogPad feature that I am really struggling with - though I suspect that a REAL developer might have some ideas how to tackle it. I want to parse the rtf produced by a InkEdit control (which inherets the RichEdit control) and produce well formed xhtml. I want to do this so I can preseve formating, links and images that are pasted into the InkEdit control.

I did find a comercial control that is suppose to do this but a) it was expensive and b) the xhtml the trial version produced was rarely well formed.

Is there anyone out there willing to have a crack at writing something to parse the rtf from a RichTextBox and output well formed xhtml? You will of course get kudos in the credits. If you are interested reply via comments or using the Contact button in the right menu bar.

What is in the Alpha? Support for MetaWeblog API Support for text only posts. Automatic ink-text conversion for the title and body fields. Known issues: The TIP icon gets in the way need to hide this Have to use the TIP to correct errors I have something else planned. Images links and formatting are lost when you post.

You might ask - since I am building the Alpha - where is the Alpha going? I have three brave souls that will be testing it out for me. Thanks guys - I look forward to your feedback.

This is just a quick test before I build the Alpha of BlogPad. If this works then I'll package it up and post again about what is (and isn't) in the alpha.

I think I've got the categories working - the XML looks OK, but the proof is in the posting! I need to put in some error handling for things that I know break BlogPad, such as no network connection, and then I'll be looking for alpha testers. The alpha will only support the MetaWeblog API so if your blog supports that and you are interested in testing leave a comment or use the "Contact" button in the sidebar of my blog.

Just a quick test post from BlogPad to make sure my implementation of the MetaWeblog API New Post method. If this works then I just need to hook in the categories and add in some error handling for an Alpha.

Update:  That worked - just had to come and assign the categories after the fact. 

Hey - I had a breakthrough.  For the last day or so I've been struggling with why I could not populate the categories listbox programatically.  Not unusually it turned out I had done something stupid.  I had used the CheckedListBox.BeginUpdate method then added the categories.  I tried adding the categories (in a number of ways actually) and they would not show up.  Finally figured out I had omitted the corrosponding CheckedListBox.EndUpdate so the update was never committed.  Doh!

Now I can get the categories via the MetaWeblog API and populate the list as shown below.  Notice I am using the CheckedListBox control rather than the standard listbox as it provides a much easier and more obvious mulitple select interface for the pen.

Now I just need to rewrite the NewPost method to post via the MetaWeblog API and I'll be able to do text posts with categories from BlogPad.

After a couple weeks off I am going to be restarting BlogPad development.  I have come to a decision that is going to set me back a bit so don't hold your breath for a RC before the new year.

I was using a free library I found to handle the MetaWeblog API.  Unfortunatly this is a bit limited as several API features have not been implemented - such as assigning post categories.  As such I have taken the decision to drop this library and write my own from scratch.  This will allow me more control and give me the ability to reuse functions for several APIs.  That will make it easier to add support for additional APIs into BlogPad going forward.  It will take me longer now, but a better result in the end.

I also need to figure out the best way to convert the RTF in the ink edit to HTML for the post.  If anyone has done this before I would love a couple of pointers.

I'm holding off on further development of BlogPad.  I am getting a copy of Visual Studio 2005 to work on it with.  Since I know that is coming I have held off installing the RTM version of the Visual Basic Express Edition.  I've taken the opportunity to have a bit of a code tidy up, but I'm holding off writing new until I get VS 2005.

It's not dead - it's just resting. 

I have lots to do as I was going to use a library someone else had already written for some of the blog API communications, but it is just too limited.  I'd have to write extensions to handle some of the missing functionality of it so I might as well just write my own so I have control of all of the source.

And BTW jk - yes I will support TypePad.

A couple of people have asked if BlogPad will support posting ink as an image rather than turning it into text.  Rob's comment on my previous post is a good example.

"By allowing a post in ink, you could keep the ink part and generate it as a graphic, then also store the recognized text as alt text and text that goes along with the post for google search purposes. A user would just need an ftp account in order to reference the graphic."

It is something I will experiment with and I may include it as an option you can select.  But I don't want to rely on FTP - most blog APIs seem to support including an inline image so that would seem to me to be the way to do it.  Also there is an application that does this now - check out Julie Lerman's BLink.

Rob goes on to say:

"The way it is set-up right now, I wouldn't see any benefit over just using the TIP with just a blogging tool like BlogJet."

Firstly I am not attempting to replace full featured blogging clients - I want something simple to allow me to create short posts quickly with a pen.  If I want to create a lengthy post with lots of formatting or to compose a post offline I'll use something else.

The benefit of this approach over the TIP (not well demonstrated in the screencast I will admit) is that you get a bigger writting area.  You can full-screen blog pad and write anywhere in the body window.  I often find the floating TIP is too small and the docked TIP is not always comfortable to write in at the top or bottom of the screen.

Lastly - I've created a BlogPad category for those who are interested.