FAQs

Blog Set-up Tutorial

Adding Images Tutorial

How do I login?

Login using your Sun.com email address and LDAP password.

Getting started

FAQ-100 What is a blog anyway?

FAQ-110 Who is allowed to create an external and/or internal Sun blog?

FAQ-120 Can I really say what I want?

FAQ-130 Is there a tutorial video on getting started?

FAQ-150 How to start an external blog?

FAQ-170 What is BSC?

FAQ-180 Am I allowed to put advertisements on my blog?

FAQ-190 How many blogs.sun.com bloggers do we have?

Getting help

FAQ-200 What do I do if I can't login or I forgot my username/password?

FAQ-210 How to report problems with your blog?

FAQ-220 Are there any blogs mailing lists?

FAQ-230 Is the bloggers alias traffic archived?

FAQ-240 How do I request enhancements to the Sun blog software?

FAQ-243 How do I add a custom profile picture to my blog theme?

FAQ-244 How do I add a custom about blurb to my blog theme?

FAQ-250 Who do I contact for issues related to my Technorati links?

Using blogs.sun.com

FAQ-300 How many blogs.sun.com blogs can I have?

FAQ-310 How can I learn more about using Roller?

FAQ-320 I just posted my first entry, but I don't show up in the New Sun Bloggers section.

FAQ-340 How do I add links to my blogroll?

FAQ-350 How can I customize my blog theme?

FAQ-360 Can I format blog entries via StarOffice?

FAQ-370 How can I add images to my weblog?

FAQ-380 How do I add links to my blog entries?

FAQ-390 How do I add a youtube.com video to my blog entry?

FAQ-400 I don't know HTML, what are some of the most commonly used commands?

FAQ-410 How do I receive a notification via email when someone leaves a comment on my blog?

FAQ-420 How can I send a Trackback for one of your weblog entries?

FAQ-440 How does Roller MediaCasting work?

FAQ-450 How can I enable weblog search?

FAQ-470 How do I ping Technorati from BSC?

FAQ-480 Where is Sun's Blogging Policy posted?

FAQ-485 Can you blog about Cryptography?

FAQ-490 What is a shared theme?

FAQ-500 How do I customize a shared theme?

FAQ-510 Where can I find blogs.sun.com usage statistics?

FAQ-520 What is considered "Direct" in the Referers list?

FAQ-530 How do I add affinity badges to my blog?

FAQ-540 How do I get my non Sun blog added to the BSC planets page?

FAQ-550 How do I add an RSS feed to my blog?

FAQ-560 How do I set up a group blog?

FAQ-570 What is the easiest way to customize the look and feel of my blog?

FAQ-580 What should I do with my blog if I plan to take a temporary or permanent blogging break?

FAQ-590 What are the BSC RSS feed URLs for the full content feed and the summarized content feed?

FAQ-600 I'm trying to post a code sample in my blog it does not render properly.

FAQ-610 How do I add Digg, delicious and other Web 2.0 icons for each of my weblog entries?

FAQ-620 Clicking on any comment link on my blog leads to a 404. Why?

FAQ-630 How do I inquire about Roller features?

FAQ-640 What is RSS from a users' point of view?

FAQ-650 How can I use a Palm Treo 650 as a roller bog client?

FAQ-660 How do I use the blogs.sun.com tagging feature?

FAQ-670 What's all this about Technorati tags & what is the topic tags plugin?

FAQ-680 Can I select multiple catagories for a single blog entry?

FAQ-690 Can I provide feeds for my individual categories or tags?

FAQ-700 Can I have a blogs.sun.com feed by keyword or tag?

FAQ-710 How do I add a tag cloud to my blog?

FAQ-720 How do I use a non-Roller theme?

FAQ-730 What is ZapTXT and how can I add the ZapTXT button to my external blog page so readers can choose to be alerted about a new post via Instant Messenger, Email or Mobile (sms) Device?

FAQ-740 What is the blogs.sun.com XML RPC and how do I use it?

FAQ-750 How does one separate entries one writes, in a language other than English under a URL root specific to that language?

FAQ-760 What does marking a comment as "Spam" do?

FAQ-770 A non Sun employee wants to translate some of our blog posts and repost them on a non Sun site? Is this OK?

FAQ-780 What do the icons next to the template files mean? I noticed some have an icon resembling a blank sheet of paper, while others have an icon resembling a blank sheet of paper with a gear.

FAQ-790 How do I setup auto-posting of blog entries of new bookmarks added to del.icio.us?

FAQ-800 How do I login to blogs.sun.com?

Getting started

FAQ-100 What is a blog anyway?

A blog, is an online journal where you write things that you want to share with others, comment on items of interest to you, and link to recent reading on the web and other weblogs. At Sun, we use the open source Java-based Roller software to run our blog server and we participate in Roller development.

FAQ-110 Who is allowed to create an external and/or internal Sun blog?

Any Sun employee, temporary employee, or intern is allowed to create an internal and external blog.

Sun Contractors are allowed to create internal blogs, but not blogs on blogs.sun.com. 

FAQ-120 Can I really say what I want?

No! Make yourself familiar with Sun's Policy on Public Discourse which talks about what you can and can't blog. You should really read this before you publish material in public and bear in mind the "Don't tell secrets" advice/rule.

FAQ-130 Is there a tutorial video on getting started?

Yes, you view the video here.

FAQ-150 How to start an external blog

• Read Sun's Guidelines on Public Discourse. THIS IS REQUIRED READING. It doesn't read at all like a typical terms of use document -- it's a quick read and will keep you and Sun out of trouble. Blogs.sun.com is EXTERNAL FACING TO THE WORLD.
• Go to http://blogs.sun.com and click on "Login" in the upper right corner. There is no need to register if you are a Sun employee/intern/temp. You automatically already have an account (email address and LDAP password)
• You will land on the Edit Weblog page - Start Blogging!! However, it is best to review Roller user guide and more FAQs to learn the basics and more.

FAQ-170 What is BSC?

BSC is the acronym for blogs.sun.com

FAQ-180 Are advertisements allowed?

That depends on the type of ad.

Google ads and ~BlogAds: Not allowed. Since bloggers cannot effectively control the content of Google Ads or ~BlogAds, they are not allowed on the blogs.sun.com.

Amazon Links: Allowed. This type of is typically very tightly controlled by each blogger (e.g. links to a particular book).

Sun sponsored ad campaigns: Allowed! These are not required, but we encourage you to add them to your blog. In fact you can add the following ad server code to your blog template if you want Sun ads to appear on your blog:

<div class="banners">

<script language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript'>
<!--
   if (!document.phpAds_used) document.phpAds_used = ',';
   phpAds_random = new String (Math.random()); phpAds_random = phpAds_random.substring(2,11);

   document.write ("<" + "script language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript' src='");
   document.write ("http://ads.sun.com/ads/adjs.php?n=" + phpAds_random);
   document.write ("&amp;what=zone:44");
   document.write ("&amp;exclude=" + document.phpAds_used);
   if (document.referer)
      document.write ("&amp;referer=" + escape(document.referer));
   document.write ("'><" + "/script>");
//-->
</script><noscript><a href='http://ads.sun.com/ads/adclick.php?n=ad99629f' target='_blank'><img src='http://ads.sun.com/ads/adview.php?what=zone:44&amp;n=ad99629f' border='0' alt=''></a></noscript>

</div>

You can also add the Sun Pacifico theme and get the Sun ads widget by default.

FAQ-190 How many blogs.sun.com bloggers do we have?

Below the "Hot Blogs" panel on the right side of the blogs.sun.com home page is a section called "Site Statistics". The current number of blogs.sun.com bloggers is noted there.

Getting help

FAQ-200 What do I do if I can't login or forgot my password?

You can reset your LDAP password via Netadmin.

FAQ-210 How do I report problems with my blog?

Reports problems with your blog to Service Desk: Report a Problem -> eBusiness Applications -> blogs.sun.com. If your problem relates to blogs.sfbay.sun.com, please specify that in your servicedesk.

If you have found a bug in blogs.sun.com or blogs.sfbay, report it via servicedesk or the bloggers alias so the internal blogs.sun.com team can see it.

FAQ-220 Are there any blogs mailing lists?

Yes, please see this page (accessible only to Sun employees).

FAQ-230 Is the Sun bloggers alias traffic archived?

Yes, perform a search on mailfinder.central for "bloggers" and select the bloggers alias.

FAQ-240 How do I request enhancements or report bugs for the Sun blog software?

If you have a request for enhancement (RFE) for blogs.sun.com, report it to the bloggers alias or a member of the SunBlogs team. The blogs engineering team will assess the request and either file it in the the external Roller project's JIRA bug tracker or if it is specific to Sun Blogs, will file it in the blogs Bugster queue.

FAQ-243 How do I add a custom profile picture to my blog theme?

On the Preferences -> Settings tab, there is an Icon field. If you use one of the themes noted below, you can upload a custom profile image (Create & Edit tab -> File Upload), paste the image URL into that field, then click "Update Weblog Settings" to save your changes. Themes that can use this feature & the optimal images sizes:

FAQ-244 How do I add a custom about blurb to my blog theme?

If you are using one of the following themes, simply enter in your 255 character or less about blurb into the "About this blog" field on the Preferences -> Settings tab, then click "Update Weblog Settings" to save your changes:

• Metro
• Rain Forest
• Adept
• Propaganda
• Sun Pacifico

FAQ-250 Who do I contact for issues related to my Technorati links?

Any issues related to Technorati should be directed to Technorati Support:
http://www.technorati.com/about/contact.html
Examples of Technorati issues:

• My Technorati link ratings are wrong.
• My blog has a lot of Technorati links, but it doesn't show up on blogs.sun.com's Technorati 100
• I used to be on the BSC Technorati 100, but now am not.

Using blogs.sun.com

FAQ-300 How many blogs.sun.com blogs can I have?

There really is no limit, but remember, there are people in this world with no blogs, so setup only what you plan to use. You can access your blogs.sun.com blogs via your single blogs.sun.com account (ID/PW). To add a new blog:
1. Log in
2. Navigate to the "Main Menu" page
3. Click on "Create new weblog" on the right navigation element

FAQ-310 How to learn more about using Roller?

Take a look at the user guide for the latest release

FAQ-320 I just posted my first entry, but I don't show up in the New Sun Bloggers section.

Blogs are added to that section once the new blogger publishes their 2nd blog entry. Usually, the first post is focused on your introduction and some bloggers don't post again soon after their inaugural post. Keep in mind that the front page refreshes a few times per hour. So, if after your second post, you still don't see your blog show up in this section check back in ~20 minutes.

FAQ-340 How do I add links to my blogroll?

Login -> Create & Edit -> Bookmarks -> click on the "Blogroll" folder -> Add bookmark -> enter link Name, Bookmark URL, and Newsfeed URL.

FAQ-350 How do I customize my blog theme?

Find a an awesome step by step answer from one of Sun bloggers on http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/constantin/20040629#how_to_change_your_weblog

FAQ-360 Can I format blog entries via StarOffice?

Yes! Check out the StarOffice Weblog Publisher Add-On - it's free to Sun Employees. If you want to recommend it to non-Sun folks, they can download it for $9.95 here: http://globalspecials.sun.com/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=DisplayPage&Locale=en_US&id=ProductDetailsPage&SiteID=sunstor&productID=50984800&Env=BASE

FAQ-370 How do I add images to my weblog?

If you are using the rich text editor: 

1. Login
2. Click on Create & Edit
3. Click on File uploads
4. Browse to the file you want to upload, the click "upload"
5. Copy the URL to your photo that shows up in the green box
6. Navigate to the blog post you are creating
7. Click on the Insert/Modify Image icon (button w/ a mountain on it)
8. Paste image URL that you copied in step 5 into the "Image URL" field  
9. Click OK

If you are using the plain text editor, place an HTML IMG tag in your entry. Sample image tag: <img src="http://blogs.sun.com/lskrocki/resource/house.jpg" alt="house" align="right">

FAQ-380 How do I add links to my blog entries?

To link text, use the following: linked words here

FAQ-390 How do I add a youtube.com video to my blog entry?

Copy/paste the code in the youtube.com field called 'Embed' into your blog entry. For an example see the "About This Video" section here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=T_4b8zEYG7U

FAQ-400 I don't know HTML, what are some of the most commonly used commands?

Here are the primary HTML tags that may help, but I'd suggest taking the free web based training HTML course that SunU offers:

• To insert a hard return: <br>
• To make text bold: <B>bold text here</B>
• To make text italicized: <i>italicized text here</i>
• To strike through text: <strike>striked through text</strike>
• To link text: <a href="URL here">linked words here</a>
• To post an image, upload the image to your resource directory then insert the image tag into your blog entry. Example tag: <img src="http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/resource/image_name.jpg" ></img>
• To post a video clip from youtube.com, copy/paste the code in the youtube. com field called 'Embed' into your blog entry. For an example see the "About This Video" section here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=T_4b8zEYG7U

However, the four most important "tags" are the anchor <a> or hyperlink, the paragraph <P>, the list <OL>(numbered) or <UL> with blobs for each list item <LI> and the image tag <IMG>.

FAQ-410 How do I receive a notification via email when someone leaves a comment on my blog?

1. Login to your blog
2. Navigate to the Preferences then Settings tab
3. In the Comments section, select "Email Comments"
4. In the "Default from email address for notifications" enter your email address
5. At the bottom of the page, click on "Update Weblog Settings"

FAQ-420 How to send a trackback for your weblog entry?

1. Locate the Trackback URL for the weblog entry that you wish to ping on the other site, copy it with ALT-C (or whatever).
2. Click the Send Trackback link your weblog entry in the Weblog:Edit page. The Roller Send a Trackback page will appear.
3. Paste the Trackback URL that you found step 1 into the Trackback URL field of the Send A Trackback page and click the send button.

FAQ-440 How does Roller MediaCasting work?

From the Roller point-of-view, MediaCasting is easy. All you have to do is to give Roller the URL of your MediaCast file and Roller will include it in your RSS feed.

Adding a MediaCast to a blog entry There is a new MediaCast settings control at the bottom of the Weblog:New Entry page. You can use this control to specify the URL of MediaCast file that you wish to include in your blog's RSS newsfeed.

When you save a blog entry that has a MediaCast, Roller will use an HTTP HEAD request to get the MediaCast's Content-Type and Content-Length. After the save operation is complete, you'll see the length and type appear in the MediaCast control on the New Entry page. If the URL does not work, then Roller will reject it, your MediaCast will not be included in the RSS feed, and you'll see the words MediaCast URL is invalid appear in the MediaCast control.

This blog entry has a MediaCast and you can see it in my RSS newsfeed. If you look at the newfeed that represents this blog entry in my newsfeed, you'll see the following element.

Removing a MediaCast from a blog entry If you set the MediaCast to an empty string and save the blog entry, the MediaCast will be removed from your RSS feed.

FAQ-450 How can I enable weblog search?

In order to enable search for your weblog, simply add a #showSearchForm() call in your weblog page. Note that this shows an undecorated form. It is not enclosed in any div tags, so you will need to add those yourself.

FAQ-470 How do I ping Technorati from BSC?

Roller supports "custom pings" - a feature that allows you to automatically announce your new posts to blog search engines and aggregators. Most bloggers will want to setup pings to hit Technorati and JavaBlogs. Here's how:

If you want to ping when you post, go to the Weblogs:Pings page in your BSC account and enable the ping services you wish to alert. Once you've done that, BSC will send a ping to your chosen ping services every time you create a new post. You can also send a ping manually from that page.

For more information, check the Roller user guide: http://www.rollerweblogger.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=UserGuide_120#ref- UserGuide_120-8

Once the open source Roller 1.2 release is finalized, that link will become: http://www.rollerweblogger.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=UserGuide#ref- UserGuide_120-8

FAQ-480 Where is Sun's Blogging Policy posted?

The Sun Blogging Policy (also known as Sun Policy on Public Discourse) is posted here: http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/blogs/policy.html There is also a link to it at the bottom of the blogs.sun.com homepage.

FAQ-480 Can you blog about Cryptography?

Blogging about public information that includes information about cryptography and even source code for cryptography is OK. If the blog contains source code, you must notify the "International Trade Services" group before you publish so they may notify the US government. The one major caveat for potential bloggers is the "public information" qualifier. If the information is deemed proprietary, you have violated Sun policy and potentially US government export law.

FAQ-490 What is a shared theme?

Shared themes are a single theme instance centrally stored and used by multiple blogs. Shared themes can be updated centrally by a Roller admin. The changes are automatically inherited by the blogs using the shared themes. Custom implmentations of shared themes will not inherit the changes, so users who choose to customize a shared theme can do so, but will not receive the new theme updates until they reapply the theme.

FAQ-500 How do I customize a shared theme?

You can customize whatever shared theme you currently have selected by going to the Theme management page (Website -> Theme). On that page (when you are not previewing a different theme) you will be given the option to "customize" your current theme. Simply click the "customize" button and you will get a copy of all templates for the selected theme. At that point your theme will change to "custom" which simply means that you are no longer using one of the shared themes.

Then you can navigate over to the template editing page (Website -> Page Templates) and make whatever changes you want.

FAQ-510 Where can I find blogs.sun.com metrics?

There are many free metrics tools available on the internet for your use. Many Sun bloggers use Google Analytics and Sun's metrics took, Omniture. To get started using Omniture:

1. Request a login. Once you have a login, go to http://www.omniture.com/ and select "Log in" from the upper right part of the page.

2. Omniture Online Training: Once you have a login, go to:
Help (upper right corner) > Training (a little link under the Green section) > On Demand Training Videos

4. Join the Sun Omniture lias, if you're a wanna-be expert.

FAQ-520 What is considered a hit?

Hits include:

• hits with no referrers (generated from people hitting the blog URL directly, using bookmarks, or an RSS reader)
• hits from major search engines
• hits from the BSC home page

FAQ-530 How do I add badges or side navigation widgets to my blog?

The sunpacifico theme has a template placeholder for affinity badges. See below with a couple of samples of badge html:

<\!-\- START AFFINITY \-->
<div>
<a>
<img>
</a>
<br>
<script> </script>
<a>
<img>
</a>
</div>
<\!-\- END AFFINITY \-->

For the Open Solaris badge, strip out the "style" attribute to make the badge align directly above the bsc badge since the theme takes care of the style spacing. Here's what the orignal code on the Open Solaris.org site looks like:

<a>
<img>
</a>

There are two BSC affinity badges. Referencing the following will save you from storing an additional copy of them and if they should change, your blog will automatically inherit the change.
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/sun-images/bsc.gif
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/sun-images/bsc_chat.gif

Ideally, a user wouldn't need to edit their template to add, edit, and delete badges. There is an open Roller UI RFE to allow users to manage their badges much like they manage their blogroll, links, etc.

FAQ-540 How do I get my non Sun blog added so it shows up on the blogs.sun.com recent posts and the site's feed?

Please submit a servicedesk ticket in the following queue:

Report a problem -> eBusiness Applications -> blogs.sun.com

In the ticket, request to have your non Sun blog added to the BSC planets page. Make sure to include your blog URL in the servicedesk ticket.

FAQ-550 How do I add an RSS feed to my blog?

Your blogs.sun.com RSS feed is automatically created when your blog is created. The RSS feed url format is as follows:

http://blogs.sun.com/roller/rss/your_blog_handle

Example: http://blogs.sun.com/roller/rss/jonathan

FAQ-560 How do I set up a group blog?

First, log into your individual blog. On the Main Menu, select 'Create new weblog' from the right navigation panel. Once your new blog is created, invite users with BAM accounts by selecting 'Members' from the 'Preferences' tab.

For more detailed instructions, please see section 5.4, "Setting Up A Group Blog" in version 3.1 of the Roller User Guide

FAQ-570 What is the easiest way to customize the look and feel of my blog?

The easiest theme to customize is the Sunpacifico theme. To select the theme, login and navigate to the Preferences tab, then to the Theme subtab. Select "sunpacifico" from the drop down list, then click Save. You'll see a prevew of your Sunpacifico blog and can then select 'Customize'. Selecting 'Customize' will copy a set of theme files so you can apply deeper blog customizations.

Adding an image to the Sunpacifico header is super easy. Simply upload an image named 'thumbnail.gif' by navigating to the Create & Edit tab, then the File Uploads subtab. Browse to your image that you'd like to see in the header (by now, you should have renamed it 'thumbnail.gif'), then click Upload. The image should now be present in your header. The ideal image size is 77 x 77 pixels, but the theme will auto-crop it if it's bigger. A wider image can more easily be accommodated. A couple free light-weight image tools that may come in handy if you don't already have tools in place are Wise Pixel to capture images and Infran View to edit images.

Another cool thing about the sunpacifico theme is you can more easily paste things like affinity badges, clustermaps, or ads like one.org in the left nav by navigating to preferences -> Templates -> edit the Weblog file. Navigate to the section that looks like this:

<\!-\- START AFFINITY \-->
<div class="affinity">

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://technorati.com/embed/qv3czdbt6.js"        > </script>
<a href="http://blogs.sun.com"        >
<img border="0" alt="blogs.sun.com" title="blogs.sun.com" src="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/sun-images/bsc.gif"        >
</a>
<br>
<a href="http://www.opensolaris.org"        >
<img border="0" alt="Get OpenSolaris" title="Get OpenSolaris" src="http://www.opensolaris.org/os/about/buttons/get_os_ribbon_01.gif"        >
</a>
</div>

<\!-\- END AFFINITY \-->

All the stuff between start and end affinity is the code that you will cut/paste from the different sites for which you may want to render a banner on your blogs right navigation bar. The sites will usually tell you what code to cut/paste. See: http://akula.sfbay.sun.com/blogs/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=FrequentlyAsked#ref-FrequentlyAsked-450

Lastly, the sun.com banner ads are by default enabled on the Sunpacifico theme. You can also disable them if you'd like.

FAQ-580 What should I do with my blog if I plan to take a temporary or permanent blogging break?

If you are planning on taking a temporary or permanent blogging break, you can post an entry advising your readers of your intentions then you can update your weblog settings so your blog no longer is present on the front page of blogs.sun.com or blogs.sfbay (depending on which site it is hosted). To do this, login and navigate to the weblog settings page, then uncheck the following "Weblog is active (and should be included in community listings)".

FAQ-590 What are the BSC RSS feed URLs for the full content feed and the summarized content feed?

Subscribe to the following feed if you want the full content feed:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/rss

Subscribe to the following feed if you want the summarized content feed:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/rss?excerpts=true

FAQ-600 I'm trying to post a code sample in my blog it does not render properly.

You need enclose the code in the following tags. For example:

<code>Code here</code>
<pre>Code here</pre>

FAQ-610 How do I add Digg, delicious and other Web 2.0 icons for each of my weblog entries?

One way to increase your blog's readership and reach is to get your readers to bookmark your posts on social bookmarking sites (e.g. del.icio.us), dig them on Digg, submit them to Slashdot and other Web 2.0 sites. To make it easy for folks to do that, we've added a couple of special macros to Roller. Each displays an icon and a link for a social

• #showDeliciousPostIcon($entry) - Bookmark the the entry on del.icio.us
• #showFurlPostIcon($entry) - Bookmark the entry on Furl
• #showSimpyPostIcon($entry) - Bookmark the entry on Simpy
• #showSlashdotPostIcon($entry) - Submit the entry to the editors at Slashdot
• #showTechnoratiSearchIcon($entry) - Show all blog posts that link to your entry
• #showDiggPostIcon($entry) - Digg your entry on Digg.com
• #showRedditPostIcon($entry) - Add your entry to Reddit
• #showStumbleUponPostIcon($entry) - Add a review of your entry to StumbleUpon
• #showFacebookPostIcon($entry) - Adds your entry to a users Facebook page

To use them, you'll need to customize your theme. Here are the steps:

1. Customize your theme (if it's not already a custom theme). You can do that via the Preferences->Themes page.
2. Edit your blog's _day template. You can do that via the Preferences->Templates page.
3. Add the icons that you want inside the #foreach loop that displays your entries

For example, here a snippet of code from a typical _day template which shows how to add the icons and links for del.icio.us and Digg:

#foreach( $entry in $entries )
<div class="entryBox">

1. 1. lots of HTML and Velocity code to display the $entry

#showDeliciousPostIcon($entry) | #showDiggPostIcon($entry)
</div>
#end

tweetmeme is a little different. Matthias explains how it works.

FAQ-620 Clicking on any comment link on my blog leads to a 404. Why?

Your blog probably uses custom templates and your _day template is likely forming the comment URL in a non-standard way. To correct this, apply the following change to the code that sets the link in your _day template to look like this:

#set( $link = "$url.entry($entry.anchor)" )

FAQ-630 How do I inquire about Roller features?

Please check the documentation posted at the Roller website. If you find that the feature you want is available, but not configured on the blogs.sun.com instance, then please send email to blog-eng@sun.com. Contact the same alias to suggest an RFE or bug fix.

Roller change requests are tracked at the JIRA website, but again please funnel your RFEs and bugs through the blogs-eng@sun.com so we can ensure Sun generated bugs get flagged as such.

FAQ-640 What is RSS from a users' point of view?

RSS is a format and mechanism that allows information on web pages to be published/viewed as a stream of articles. This makes it easy to for readers to "subscribe" to an RSS feed and get notified automatically when new articles are published. It also makes it easy for people to "syndicate" articles and headlines from web sites, and republish them on other web sites. To a certain extent, RSS automates the task of "let's reload web site X and see if there's anything new there."

Your blog on blogs.sun.com has it's own RSS feed in the following format: http://blogs.sun.com/your-blog-name/feed/entries/rss

You can setup your own RSS reader to read your favorite blogs or articles that have an RSS feed. Following are a couple common RSS readers: Newsgator, Bloglines, Google Reader, and FeedReader

FAQ-650 How can I use a Palm Treo 650 as a roller bog client?

Our proto-typer, Matthias Pfuetzner, used u*Blog which can be downloaded from here: http://blogs.sfbay.sun.com/DaveLevy/entry/how_do_i_insert_images

This program has a server configuration form which needs to be set as follows.

• Name This is a Name for the record on the Treo
• Type metaWeblog
• UserName Your official Sun email address (no aliases)
• Password Your LDAP password

• Host you should know this as well, but the http:// prefix is not needed
• XML-RPC Path /roller-services/xmlrpc (at V2.3)
• Blog Id blog URL stem
• Port 80 Timeout 100 (both default)
• Image Archive Path archives/img/ (default)

FAQ-660 How do I use the blogs.sun.com tagging feature?

The tagging feature on blogs.sun.com is simple to use. On the "New Entry" screen, you'll see a field called "Tags". Simply enter in words that are your tags using spaces between the words. Each word is considered a tag. Tags with multiple words, such as Sun Java Webserver, should be entered with dashes: Sun-Java-Webserver. Most search engines will interpret the the dashed tag as one topic with multiple words.

Commonly used Sun-centric tags are posted here: http://wikis.sun.com/display/SunBlogs/Commonly+Used+Sun+Product+Tags

FAQ-670 What's all this about Technorati tags & what is the topic tags plugin?

On the settings page of roller's user panels, plugins can be enabled to perform work, primarily converting content from the user screen into the database or rendered on the html screen.

Technorati is a blog ranking and query engine/site. It asks its users to 'tag' their articles. The wikipedia entry for Technorati is here.

In order to tag an article at Technorati, you need to register. You need to install a javascript, or html button on the html weblog page, and then insert the tags into the article.

I understand that these days you need to book your tags at registration time, but I didn't have to do it so more recent registrant's collaborative comments would be appreciated

This is a stub for a paragraph on how to register at Technorati.

So the process is to register at Technorati, amend your web log templates, and then insert tags into your articles.

A tag is a piece of XML and hence case sensitive. A tag looks like this:

<a rel="tag" href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/cec2006" >cec2006</a>

This is really tedious to type and so the roller team has created a tag plugin. This needs to be enabled and then (for Technorati) the syntax

topic:[tagname]

is resolved to the tag. The plugin is general purpose and can be used to specify other hosts, the default syntax, illustrated above, assumes Technorati.

If you are a Technorati member, and have the Technorati button on your weblog html page, then your blogroll links will be interpreted as Technorati references.

FAQ-680 Can I select multiple categories for a single blog entry?

No, you can only assign an entry to a single category.

FAQ-690 Can I provide feeds for my individual categories or tags?

Yes, use the following format for category feeds:

http://blogs.sun.com/your-blog-handle-here/feed/entries/atom?cat=tag-name-here

Use this format for tag feeds:

http://blogs.sun.com/your-blog-handle-here/feed/entries/atom?tags=tag-name-here

FAQ-700 Can I have a blogs.sun.com feed by keyword or tag?

Keyword and tag feeds for all of blogs.sun.com are available via search. The easiest way is to perform the desired search and click on the feed icon in the header of the results container. Alternatively, you may use the following search feed URL format for keyword feeds. Replace the term 'java' at the end of the URL with your desired keyword.

http://search.sun.com/feed/atom/results.jsp?col=blogs&reslang=en&rf=1&nh=30&st=1&qt=java

Use the following search feed URL format for tag feeds. Replace the term 'java' at the end of the URL with your desired tag.

http://search.sun.com/feed/atom/results.jsp?col=blogs&reslang=en&rf=1&nh=30&st=1&qt=inmeta%3Atags%7Ejava

You may also set a preferred language filter in the above URLs by setting the 'reslang' parameter to the desired language code.

Another method is available outside of search, you can view tagged blogs.sun.com entries with this URL: http://blogs.sun.com/main/tags/java Again, replace 'java' with your desired tag.

FAQ-710 How do I add a tag cloud to my blog?

Per Dave Johnson: Here's what I did. I put the following code where I'd like my tag cloud to appear:

\#set($mytags = $model.weblog.getPopularTags(-1, 100))
\#foreach ($tag in $mytags)
\#if ($tag.count > 4)
<a class="tag s$
{tag.intensity}
" href="$url.tag($tag.name)"
title="$tag.count">$tag.name</a>
\#end
\#end

That gets my top 100 tags, I conditionally display only those tags with tag.count > 4 and then I use a CSS class that includes the tag's intensity so that I can size the tags. I also added the following to my CSS file to size high intensity tags larger and low intensity tags smaller.

.s1
{    font-size:60%;    }
.s2
{    font-size:80%;    }
.s3
{    font-size:100%;    }
.s4
{    font-size:120%;    }
.s5
{    font-size:140%;    }

OR apply some more design & style to your cloud.

FAQ-720 How do I use a non-Roller theme?

First, ensure that you have permission to use the theme. Understand that there may be some features that are not compatible with Roller.

To copy in the theme, navigate to Settings --> Templates. On the templates page, there may be template files with the same names as the files you would like to paste in, simply open each file by clicking "Edit", then paste in the contents of the new file. Click "Save". Repeat this process for each of the files that comprise the new theme.

If you need to create a new template file, enter the file name in the "Add a new template" field on the right navigation, click add, paste in the contents of the template file, then click "Save".

A typical theme is comprised of three files:
1. Weblog: This is the template/layout for your blog
2. _css: Cascading Style Sheet
3. _day: Drives the layout of your blog entries

FAQ-730 What is ZapTXT and how can I add the ZapTXT button to my external blog page so readers can choose to be alerted about a new post via Instant Messenger, Email or Mobile (sms) Device?

For content consumers, ZapTXT is a way to receive real-time alerts whenever a specific keyword appears on any of their favorite RSS-enabled website headlines. Readers can define ZapTasks that tell ZapTXT what to look for on blog headlines. When ZapTXT detects a specific keyword or phrase in the headline or comments, the system notifies them via email, IM or SMS text message.

For bloggers and publishers, ZapTXT has a new, free widget that enables your readers to opt-in to be alerted whenever you make new posts to your external blog and allows you to better engage with your audience. Whenever you update your site, or whenever a new headline or comment that includes certain keywords is added, ZapTXT will let your readers know about it.

To add the ZapTXT button to your external blog page, you'll need to customize your 'Weblog' template. Here are the steps:

1. Edit your blog's Weblog template. You can do that via the Preferences->Templates page.
2. Add the following code to the template and Save:

<a href="javascript:location.href='http://zaptxt.com/zaptask/discover_feed?feed='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)" ><img
alt="Monitor new posts on this site via Email, IM or Mobile Device." title="Monitor new posts on this site via Email, IM
or Mobile Device." border="0" src="http://zaptxt.com/images/btn_zaptxt_2.png" /></a>

More information on adding ZapTXT widgets can be found at http://zaptxt.com/home/publisher.

FAQ-740 What is the blogs.sun.com XML RPC and how do I use it?

https://blogs.sun.com/roller-services/xmlrpc

Example use case: http://weblogs.goshaky.com/weblogs/lars/entry/posting_from_del_icio_us

Click on Manually Configure -> Custom Blog -> MetaWeblog API, and specify my Server API URL: https://blogs.sun.com/roller-services/xmlrpc.

You may need to log into your BSC profile and reset your client API password. This should have defaulted to your old BSC password but if your client can't authenticate it's best to try setting this again.

FAQ-750 How does one separate entries one writes, in a language other than English under a URL root specific to that language?

It's fairly simple actually ...

1. Go to your settings page (Preferences > Settings) and under 'I18n Settings' check the box to indicate you publish your weblog in multiple languages.

2. When you edit entries from now on you will be given the option of choosing a language for your entries, so pick whatever makes sense.

3. On your weblog you can specify a 2 or 5 character locale string to filter your entries by language, so for spanish entries you would do http://blogs.sun.com/your-blog-handle/es/

One additional thing to note. If you are duplicating or translating entries and don't want the duplicate versions showing up on you weblog homepage then you can go back to the I18n Settings section from #1 and uncheck the option which says to show entries from all languages on your homepage. This will force your weblog homepage to only show entries from the locale you choose for your weblog.

FAQ-760 What does marking a comment as "Spam" do?

Marking a comment as spam preserves the comment, but prevents it from rendering on your blog. It doesn't trigger any kind of spam checking against incoming comments that may have similar content.

Deleting a comment removes it permanently.

FAQ-770 A non Sun employee wants to translate some of our blog posts and repost them on a non Sun site? Is this OK?

Each posting is the copyright of its author and thus it's a matter for the author of the particular posting that's involved.

FAQ-780 What do the icons next to the template files mean? I noticed some have an icon resembling a blank sheet of paper, while others have an icon resembling a blank sheet of paper with a gear.

The pages without the gear are hidden pages, which can be included in other pages but are not to be access directly. You can change the hidden flag under each page's advanced settings.

FAQ-790 How do I setup auto-posting of blog entries of new bookmarks added to del.icio.us?

Login to your del.icio.us account. On the settings page, under Blogging, click on "daily blog posting". Click on "add a new thingy". Complete the fields per the instructions on the page.
job_name = whatever you want to call the del.icio.us job that will auto-post your bookmarks
out_name = your Sun blogs user name
out_pass = your Sun blogs password
out_url = https://blogs.sun.com/roller-services/xmlrpc (this is the same for all Sun bloggers)
out_time = the time of day (military time) for the auto post. Example: "8" would be 8AM GMT.
out_blog_id = your Sun blogs handle. Ex: For, blogs.sun.com/123, you would enter "123"

Click on "Submit Query".

FAQ-810 How do I login to blogs.sun.com?

Login using your Sun.com email address and LDAP password.