The CKS team has released the CKS:EBE (Enhanced Blog Edition) 2.0 today. These guys have done a terrific job! Well done all.
Go get it and deploy it!
https://www.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ProjectName=CKS&ReleaseId=5134
- Theming
- Modular Theme Framework (MTF) - no need to wrestle with the default blog master page - start from the HTML you want and simply insert the blog content via XSL.
- SEO Friendly URL's - blog post URL's that look like /archive/2007/08/25/sharepoint-chart-tool.aspx instead of /Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=37
- 5 very cool themes to use as-is, or to get you started on the development of your own including dynamic per-post links (e.g. Digg this), tag cloud, etc. Check them out here
- Linkbacks (aka Trackbacks)
- Send linkbacks to other blog posts you are linking to in your EBE blog post (these show up as trackbacks on the other blog)
- Receive linkbacks from other blogs who are posting about your blog post (these show up as trackbacks on your EBE blog)
- Spam Control
- Akismet integration to detect comment spam
- CAPTCHA to help block comment spam at the source
- Option to automatically delete spam to recycle bin
- Option to automatically approve spam-free comments
- RSS
- Custom RSS link (e.g. http://feeds.feedburner.com/myblog)
- Post trimming (only a portion of post is sent via RSS)
- Specify RSS feed item count
- Category specific feeds (e.g. /rss.xml?cat=coolstuff)
- Validates against W3C standards
- Miscellaneous
- Securing of system pages (e.g. so anonymous users can't browse your lists and libraries using SharePoint UI)
- Metaweblog API to support Windows Live Writer and migration tools.
- Client Date/Time - displays date/time in time zone of user instead of server
The EBE is deployed as a solution package (*.wsp) for either WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 and activated as a Feature on a blog site. You can activate the EBE feature on an existing SharePoint blog site and de-activate later without losing any data. Most of the EBE features are configurable on/off through a settings page accessible to the site admin.
Special thanks to the team at Provoke (Isha, Bob) including Ari Bakker who contributed to the themes and got into the project early last year and all the CKS team members.
If you want samples of live blogs hosting CKS:EBE here is a list
Blogs using the EBE
Watch out for the CKS:EWE (Wiki) Edition in the near future.