I upgraded the blog's software to the latest version of BlogEngine, v2.5. I took the chance and did a makeover using another template. I tweaked a WordPress theme to work under BlogEngine. This required updates to the HTML, CSS, JavaScript and the server .NET code. I liked the old theme, shown below but I decided to use a theme which is more quaint and mellow. This time one of the requirements was to use a white background for the posts. It's easier to display images with that background.
BlogEngine's theming framework could have been more flexible if it didn't create dynamic HTML which had no css styles. I would suggest to the developers who maintain BlogEngine to add some empty classes in the code which creates HTML. This way non developers can add the classes declarations in the css files.
The new features added to the blog are:
- Use Disqus as the comment platform. The older blog used the internal comment system. I noticed a lot of comment spam displaying in the blog even though I was using Akisment & a captcha. The spam was from the same ip address so this was a determined spammer. I am not implying Disqus will eliminate all the spam but their platform is pretty flexible and some users might prefer it because they can use the same shared login with other blogs. I will see how Disqus performs over time.
- Share blog posts among the different social networks. The buttons show under the full view of each post.
- The post can show its own thumbnail. This is a feature added on top of BlogEngine.
I have looked at tens of WordPress themes like the ones at ThemeForest and WooThemes however some of the finest ones I found are from ElegantThemes. My previous theme was also from them. During my search I noticed there are hundreds if not thousands of themes available for WordPress.
I hope you like the new upgrade. Enjoy. Please report any issues.
The blog's previous theme
