BlogPlanet User Manual

The documentation is available for reading online. The manual references the full version of BlogPlanet, if you are using the light version, some sections (camera and pictures) are not applicable.

User Manual

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Installation
2.1 Installation requirements
2.2 Installation from a PC or Mac
2.3 Installation from the Internet

3. Setup
3.1 User Properties
3.2 Site Properties
3.3 Program Properties

4. Using BlogPlanet
4.1 Making a new post
4.2 Managing saved posts
4.3 Taking pictures with the camera
4.4 Managing saved pictures
4.5 Managing the user dictionary
4.6 Using html tags in the editor

5. Limitations

6. Feedback

7. Disclaimer

1. Introduction

Blogging is becoming ever more popular. A growing number of websites offer blogspace to users and new blog features are invented at a steady pace. Blogs can be edited with a web browser or with special client applications that run on the user's desktop or notebook computer. So you need a computer with internet access – and what if you're on the go?

Introducing BlogPlanet: A blog client that runs on your mobile phone. It lets you write texts in a comfortable way, upload these texts to your blog server and modify them later. And BlogPlanet lets you take full advantage of your mobile phone's built-in camera by enabling you to take pictures directly from within the program, upload them and insert them into your posts.

2. Installation

2.1 Installation requirements

The following requirements have to be met to use BlogPlanet:

1. Smartphone which supports J2ME and Mobile Media API

2. A minimum of 100kB free phone or card memory (1 MB recommended)

3. A blog account that is compatible with the Blogger API for uploading posts and the MetaWeblog API for uploading pictures.

If you don't have a blog account yet, you can still go ahead and start using the program with the default setup, which lets you post to the BlogPlanet-Demo blog on blogplanet.net (http://www.blogplanet.net/BlogPlanet-Demo).

2.2 Installation from a PC or Mac

1. Use the infrared or bluetooth client to transfer BlogPlanet.jar to your phone (you might need to enable bluetooth or infrared on the phone first)

2. Open the Inbox of the Messages program. You should find BlogPlanet.jar there. Select it and chose "Install". Follow the instructions on the screen. It is recommended that you install BlogPlanet to the memory with the maximum amount of free space.

3. After successful installation you can remove the BlogPlanet.jar file from your Inbox.

2.3 Installation from the Internet

For installation from the internet, you must have a web browser installed on your phone.

1. Start your phone's web browser

2. Open the following URL: http://www.blogplanet.net/files/BlogPlanetPre.jad

3. Depending on the browser you are using you can either install the program directly or you have to download it to your phone's memory.

3. Setup

The first time you start the program, you should change the program settings according to your preferences. If you don't have a blog account yet, you can leave the user and site presets and post to the BlogPlanet-Demo blog at http://www.blogplanet.net/BlogPlanet-Demo.

The settings are divided in three categories, User, Site and Program Properties:

3.1 User Properties

Notes:

You can find out your blog id by looking at the URL that shows in your web browswer while editing your blog. Look for "id=", the number behind that is usually your blog id.

On the Nokia 3650, chosing a picture size larger than the recommended 160x120 pixels will only result in increased picture size. The quality will not change since the phone only enlarges the 160x120 picture to the resolution you set. Setting the picture format to PNG will result in very large files, which is usually not worth the slightly better quality.

3.2 Site Properties

Note:

Enable Picture Support when you are posting to a blog than runs on MovableType or you are sure your server supports the MetaWeblogAPI.

3.3 Program Properties

4. Using BlogPlanet

4.1 Making a new post

1. Chose "New Post" in the main menu.

2. Enter your text using the keypad.

   Use the #-button to toggle T9/all small/all capitals/... just like you're used to.

   Press the *-button to insert special characters.

   Use the Options menu to insert a line break, text formatting options, user defined words from the dictionary and links to pictures.

3. When you are done editing your post, press OK.

   You can now send the post immediately, only save it for later or discard the post.

4.2 Managing saved posts

• Chose "Saved Posts" from the main menu.

• The list of all saved posts is shown, in chronological order, newest on top. The ball at the beginning of each line represents the status of that post, green is sent, red is unsent. Next to the ball are date and time of the post and the first couple of characters of the post's text.

• Selecting an entry in the list and clicking the joystick or chosing "Edit" from the Options menu loads that text into the editor and lets you modify it.

• Chosing "Send" from the Options menu will send the selected post to the server.

• Chosing "Delete Local" will delete the post from the phone's memory.

• Chosing "Delete Remote" will delete the post from the server.

4.3 Taking pictures with the camera

1. Start the camera by chosing "Camera" from the main menu

2. Find your motive and click the joystick or chose "Capture" from the Options menu to take the picture.

3. The picture is shown on the screen. You can now select "Save" from the Options menu to save the picture or "Send and save" to upload it directly to the server.

4.4 Managing saved pictures

• Chose "Picture Gallery" from the main menu

• The list of all save pictures is shown, in chronological order, newest on top. The ball at the beginning of each line shows whether that picture has been uploaded or not. It is followed by date and time of the picture and the first characters of the URL at which the picture can be found. If the picture is not uploaded yet, "local" will be shown instead of the URL.

• Selecting an entry in the list and clicking the joystick or chosing "Show" from the Options menu loads that picture and shows it.A ticker will scroll the URL and size of the picture at the top of the screen.

• Chosing "Send" from the Options menu will send the selected picture to the server.

• Chosing "Delete" will delete the picture from the phone's memory.

4.5 Managing words in the user dictionary

1. Chose "User Dictionary" from the main menu.

2. All entries are shown in alphabetical order

3. Clicking with the joystick or chosing "New Entry" from the Options menu will let you make a new entry in the dictionary. All characters can be used in a dictionary entry but the length is limited to 128 characters. Click with the joystick or chose "Save" from the Options menu to save the entry or chose "Cancel" to discard.

4. Chosing "Delete" will delete the selected entry from the dictionary.

4.6 Using html tags in the editor

You can use any html formatting in the editor, it will be passed to the server and the web browser will render the text accordingly. You can store your own frequently used html tags in the user dictionary and access them from within the editor.

Support for two frequently used formatting options, bold and italic, is already built into the editor. If you want some bold text in your post, chose "bold" from the Options menu while editing the text. The program will insert <b> into your text at the current cursor position. This is the opening tag for bold and all text from here until the closing tag will be formatted as bold text on the web page. Now write your text and chose the "! bold" command from the menu to close the bold tag. </b> will be inserted into the text.

The same works for italic text. Use the corresponding "italic" and "! italic" commands from the Options menu.

5. Limitations

There are some known limitations to the functions of the program:

1. On some older phones the picture quality is very low when sizes 320x240 and 640x480 are used. This is caused by the implementation of the phone's KVM. Apparently the picture is taken in 160x120 resolution and then enlarged.

2. Out of memory conditions may occur. This is due to the limited memory available to the program and tends to happen especially when larger picture sizes are used.

3. Pictures saved in the phone's memory that were taken with the standard phone camera application cannot be accessed from inside the program due to Java(tm) security restrictions. (Well, there's actually a beta version that allows access to those pictues in the file system, but it only works on some models. Contact us if you think you want to try it.)

4. The maximum length of a post is approximately 1040 characters.

6. Feedback

Please send your questions and suggestions to support@blogplanet.net
News about the program, a FAQ and new versions are available at http://www.blogplanet.net

7. Disclaimer

The user acknowledges that the author of the software makes no warranty or condition of any kind, either express or implied, statutory or otherwise, with respect to the product including, but not limited to, the implied warranties or conditions of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and that the user assumes the entire risk as to the use and performance of the product. In no event shall the author be liable to the user or any other person for any direct, indirect, special, consequential or incidental damages (including without limitation, damages for loss of revenues or profits, business interruption, loss of business information, and the like) arising out of the use or inability to use the product, including any viruses or other problems of any nature or kind whatsoever, all of which such risks the user voluntarily assumes.