CABLE Help and Usage Information

Introduction

CABLE ("Calendar BLog Engine") was designed to allow readers to quickly identify and read blog articles of interest.

Unlike older linear-style blogs that force readers to scroll through large amounts of material, CABLE can quickly and efficiently compact hundreds of entries into a single easy-to-navigate page.

Calendar Appearance and Usage

When first viewing the CABLE index, a familiar calendar layout is presented. Each day of that month is represented with a cell, which itself contains entry blocks, corresponding to entries by different authors. An example day is presented below to the right.

On this particular day, you can observe that two different authors ("Elihu" and "David) have entries, David having a single entry, and Elihu having two.

The numbers and colors of the blocks provide important information. The number within the block shows how many comments that particular entry has received, and the color of the number shows whether or not any comments have been left since your last visit.

Likewise, the background color of the entry box informs the reader whether or not he/she has read that particular entry. (Note: for this to work properly, cookies must be enabled in the user's browser).

The asterisk besides the comment number will denote whether or not this particular entry contains at least one of the topics the reader has selected on the preferences page (more on this later).

Clicking on the number within the entry's box will take you to the entry itself. Clicking on an author's name will take you to a linear list of his/her last several entries.

Entry Layout and Navigation

Depending upon what preferences the reader has set, he/she should see the entry Title, along with the date and time. There might also be a short description. If the user has elected to see comments, those too will be visible, beneath the entry itself.

At the base of the entry, based upon the preferences set by the reader, a block of navigation buttons will be present:

The upper set of buttons allow navigation within that author's entries. The date and time of those entries is noted within the button. Below this row of buttons lie the "global" navigation buttons, which allow navigation through entries by authors other than that of the currently displayed author.

The final button will take the reader back to the month calendar from which the current entry was taken.

Commenting and Comment Rating

Comments are an integral part of blogging, and CABLE allows for rapid commenting without logging in. The signal-to-noise ratio can be maintained through the rating system.

Comments must first be enabled through the preferences (covered in the [customization] section below). To enable rating, the "show comment edit box" option should also be enabled. This will allow the reader to rate comments as they see fit, as shown below.

To up-rate an example, click the "+" icon, and to down-rate, the "-" icon. Keep in mind that readers cannot rate comments they have left themselves, rate the same comment twice in a row, nor rate more than five comments in a 24-hour period.

The "X" (delete) icon is only available to the original author of the comment, or to administrators. Note that when non-administrators "delete" comments, they are set to a rating of 1, and not actually removed from the comment database.

The rating system is not a simple +1 or -1 system. It uses an asymptotic algorithm in which the initial ratings carry more weight than subsequent ratings.

Comments appear below the entry body text, and are ordered according to the reader's preferences. (Default setting is earliest first, proceeding to the latest.) The comment body is flanked on the right by a box containing the commenter's name, along with the date and time the comment was left.

Preferences and Customization

CABLE can be highly customized by readers by using the "Preferences" button on the main index (calendar) page.

Calendar Options

Show status of entries:
Toggles entry box coloration (as described above), to denote whether or not that particular entry has been read.

Show status of entries:
Toggles comment number coloration (as described above), depending on whether or not there are any new comments.

Show search bar:
Toggles the appearance of the search bar at the bottom of the calendar page.

Authors

By checking or unchecking the checkbox by an author's name, the reader may choose to toggle the visibility of that particular author's entries. If a particular author's checkbox is unchecked, you will never see any entries by that author.

Categories

In a similar fashion to the Authors block above, readers can select which categories interest them the most. Entries that fall into at least one of the checked categories will have an asterik (*) placed in their entry box on the main calendar page. This allows readers to quickly identify entries that might interest them.

Entry Options

Show entry information:
Toggles on/off various information (comments/article line count) etc. displayed at the head of each entry.

Combine an author's entries:
If an author has written more than one entry that day, checking this option will combine all of them into one page.

Sort multiple entries:
Combined with the above selection, this will determine how the entries are sorted (Ascending: the latest will be on the bottom, Descending: the latest will be on the top).

View all authors concurrently:
Similar to the Combine an author's entries option, this will combine all entries for a given day, respective of authors, together onto one big page.

Sort entries by author:
Combined with the previous two options, this selects whether the entries by author should be combined in a block when viewing all the entries together or not.

Comment Options

Show comments:
Toggles the presence of comments.

Show comment edit box:
If selected, a control panel allowing readers to rate comments will appear.

User Name:
The default name to use when leaving comments.

Sort comments by:
Sets the criteria by which comments left for a given entry will be sorted/displayed.

Comment Threshold:
Sets the cutoff rating for comments. Comments with a rating less than this value will not be shown.

Misc.

Reset History/Preferences:
In the event of strange behavior, or if the reader should desire steelsnowflake's cookies to be removed, checking this box and then "Saving Preferences" will force the default set of preferences to be applied.

Articles and Topics

Many times, despite the accesibility of content on CABLE, useful or profound entries can be easily lost after the calendar month that contained them passes. To get around this, the "Articles" section near the search box at the bottom of the calendar index contains author-selected articles that catalog exceptional entries by topic.

After clicking on the "Articles" button, a list of topics on the right hand side of the page can be expanded to the left hand side of the page. Once loaded, these topics are often further broken down by subtopic:

By clicking on "description", the basic gist of the entry can be disclosed. Clicking on "link" will take you to the entry itself. The author who wrote the particular entry and the number of comments is also displayed.

Contribution

CABLE has a built-in content submission form for readers. Readers that have interesting or useful new stories or news clippings can submit them via the "Contribute" button on the calendar index page.

Readers can select from any of the authors who have selected to make themselves available to readership contributions. Depending on the CABLE installation, the readers e-mail may or may not be required to make a submission.

Authorship Help

A full help file, language tips, and library of CABLE functions is available [here].

Licensing Information

CABLE is an open-source project free to anyone who thinks they might benefit from it. For more information click [here].