Well it's been an interesting week trying to get my open source blog software to play nice on my IIS6 server. I chose blosxom first and foremost because it was perl-driven. I already have perl installed on my server and thought this might be a quick way to get things going.
And things did get going quickly...until they came to a screeching halt.
Installation directions did provide some assistance for those of us of the unenlightend unwashed masses using...dare I say it?...a Microsoft product. A little adjustment here or there to accomodate something that was developed for a unix system should be expected, so I followed along.
But a blog isn't a blog unless folks -- you folks -- can provide some feedback. This ability is not built into blosxom. It's part of a plugin; additional software that enhances the base functionality. The writeback plugin was not working as it should. Looking for a solution, I googled, I poked around, I searched and searched and searched and searched. Blosxom has been around for a few years now and no one's documented any IIS problems with the writeback script? This is just weird.
Amplifying the unpleasantness of all of this were the myriad variations of the writeback script, each promising enhancements etc. which only slowed me down as I would attempt in vain hoping one would play nice with IIS. None did.
So I posted a question to the 1100-member online blosxom community. In a few sentences, I tried to clearly define the problem symptoms, the setup of my system, and asked for input in helping me to get the product working on my server. The response was silence. Apparently if you openly associate yourself with a certain Redmond-based software company, the unwritten rule in the Blosxom Community is shun him.
Not knowing Perl, not having a Perl book in hand (arriving any day now, though) but having access to some cool online resources and a steadfast determiniation, I was able to slog my way through the writeback script to create a logging function and debug the problem.
I'm certain the Blosxom community isn't as bad as I portray them. Still, if the open source community wants to bring folks into their fold, a little love towards those outside wouldn't hurt.
For the record, the problem occured in the if statement when determining if a POST was issued from the writein plugin. IIS does not seem to be returning values from the plugin('value') calls. I pulled all the variables that are checked in this statement out and the check looks like this now:
$isPost = ($getpost eq 'POST');
$isWrb = ($blosxom::flavour eq 'writeback');
$isTkb = ($blosxom::flavour eq 'trackback');
# Only spring into action if POSTing to the writeback plug-in
if ( $isPost && ( $isWrb || $isTkb ) )
Sorry about that...
One of the reasons you might not have recieved any answers from the list is simply that almost no one seems to use IIS. It's sad but true. I am glad you found a solution, though, and I hope you don't mind but I posted an article about it on the UNBLUG. I figure if it will help someone else than that's a good thing, right? :)