Author Archives: Jonah Sheridan Fenn

Import a Blog

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WordPress allows you to import your existing blog site into the blogs.oregonstate.edu environment.

Note: To import a blog, you will need to have a valid blog export file.  For instructions on how to export a WordPress blog, please visit the Export post at: .

To import your blog file into blogs.oregonstate.edu, do the following:

  • Log into blogs.oregonstate.edu.
  • Click on the Site Admin link.
  • From within your Dashboard, click on Tools > Import and do the following:
    • Choose the blog system to import from – there are several, we’ll use WordPress for our example.
    • The Import WordPress screen appears.
    • Click the Browse button.
      • The File Upload dialog box appears. Locate your WordPress file from your computer and select it.
      • Click the Open button – your file name will autofill in the necessary field.
      • Click the Upload File and Import button.
    • The Import WordPress screen opens.
      • If you have material on your new site already, you can map authors from your old site to your new one with the Map Authors tool. Otherwise, leave it blank.
      • If your old site contains any file attachments that you would like to include, click the Download and Import File Attachments option.
      • Click the Submit button
    • A page of execution steps will appear. If there are no errors in the upload, the words “All Done. Have Fun” will appear at the bottom of the screen.  Clicking on the Have Fun hyperlink will take you to the Site View of your blog.

Things to Consider

When importing an old blogsite to blogs.oregonstate.edu, there are a few things to consider:

Upload File Size Considerations

There is a 10 MB file upload size constraint that is in place.  If the size of your blog import file exceeds 10MB, please contact CWS.

Total File Size Considerations

The total allowed blog size for blogs.oregonstate.edu is 50MB.  If your blog is larger than this, please contact CWS.

Embedded Media

Embedded media can be anything from a picture, to an audio file, or a video file. There are two different ways to embed media. You can either upload a file, such as a picture, up into the WordPress file manager, or you can embed a third party item, such as a YouTube video.

There aren’t any concerns with embedded third-party media from sites such as Flickr or YouTube. There may be issues, though, with embedded media that is linked to a directory in your old site.

After the import, your links should still work, but they will be pointing to a file that is located on your old site’s server. This may not pose an issue, but if (for some reason) the files were removed, the links to your media would break.

There are a few courses of action you could take:

  • If your media is located at a trusted, reliable source that won’t remove your files you might be all right with leaving your embeds just the way they are.
  • You can re-upload all of your media to your new blogsite and re-set all of the links. For small blogsites, this might not be a problem. For bigger sites with a large quantity of embeds, this might not be a practical solution.

Press This

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Press This is a browser add-on that allows you to grab bits of the web as you’re browsing.  You can clip text, images, and videos from any web page, edit the content, add more content, and then publish the content as a post on your blog.

To install Press This, do the following:

  • From with your Dashboard, click on Tools. The Tools screen will appear with the Press This tool listed.
  • Right click on the provided Press This link.  This will bring a little menu up.
  • Select Bookmark This Link from the little menu.  This will bring a bookmark dialog box up.  Select where you would like to store your bookmark and then click the Save button.

To use Press This, do the following:

  • If you are browsing the web and discover something that you want to save, just click on your Bookmarks and select Press This.
  • A large dialog-box will open with the title of the web page you are browsing.
  • To add your own text, just type in the text editor.
  • To add images to your post from the web page you’re browsing, click the Add Image button.  A box with all of the available images from that particular page will open.  Click on an image to add it.  This process works the same way for Video.
  • When you’re done, click the Publish button.
  • A post will appear on your site with a link to the page you visited.  Any images or video you linked to will show in your post, as well as any text you added.

Gears

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Gears is a browser add-on, provided by Google, that will transfer files from your blog site to your computer.  Storing a copy of your blogs’ files on your computer helps to speed up your browsers’ page load time.

You can find out more about Gears by clicking on the provided More information… link on the Tools page.

Note: Gears should not be installed on a public or shared computer.

To install Gears, do the following:

  • From within your Dashboard, click on Tools.  The Tools screen will appear with the Gears tool listed.
  • Click the Install Now button
  • You will be redirected to the Gears download web page.
  • Click on the Install Gears button.
  • You will be redirected to a Terms of Service page.  Read the terms and then click the Agree and Download button.
  • A download dialog box will appear.  Click the Save File button.  The Gears setup file will be saved to wherever your computer normally saves files.
  • Locate the Gears setup file and click on it to open and run it.  You will then be informed that your browser needs to be restarted.  Click the Restart Browser Now button.
  • Your browser will reopen.  Now Gears needs to be enabled.

To enable Gears, do the following:

  • Return to your blog Dashboard and go to Site Admin > Tools.
  • Click the Enable Gears button.
  • A dialog box will appear, informing you that WordPress wants to store information on your computer using Gears.  Click the I trust this site… checkbox.
  • Click the Allow button.
  • Your blogs’ files will be stored on your computer and Gears will now be enabled.

Tools

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WordPress offers links to a couple of different browser tools that can be installed on your browser – Gears and Press This.

Different browsers may operate differently.  The instructions provided here use Mozilla FireFox version 3.5.2.

Note: If you do not possess adequate permissions to install software on your computer, please contact your DCA or Department’s IT unit for assistance.