Global Moxie - Help!

Why does Big Medium always ask me to sign in twice at login?

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:03:48 UT

Question

Why am I always prompted to enter my user name and password twice when I sign into Big Medium?

Answer

This typically indicates a minor problem, easily fixed, with the index.html file in your installation’s bmadmin directory.

When you install Big Medium, the installation instructions call for updating two URLs in the bmadmin/index.html file. The problem may be that either you did not update those URLs, or that you updated the URLs to use a domain that does not exactly match the domain that you have configured in “Settings>Big Medium Server Info.” (For example, the problem could be triggered if you use the domain example.com (no “www”) in the index.html file, but you use www.example.com in your Big Medium settings.)

The result is that you’re signing into a domain that does not precisely match the domain that you set up for your moxiebin URL in the Big Medium settings. This means that Big Medium cannot capture the login cookie, and it asks you to sign in a second time at the correct domain. (In other words, you’re actually signing into Big Medium via two different URLs).

You can fix the problem like so:

Sign into Big Medium with an administrator account.
Go to “Settings>Big Medium Server Info.”
Note the domain that you use in the “moxiebin URL” field.
In a text editor, open the index.html file in the bmadmin directory, and update the two indicated URLs so that the domain matches the moxiebin URL from step 3.
Upload the revised bmadmin/index.html file to your server.

After making that change, you should no longer be prompted to sign in twice.

Do I have to buy a new Big Medium license if I’m moving to a new server?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:18:37 UT

Question

I’m moving my Big Medium installation to a new server or domain. Do I have to buy another license?

Answer

No, you can continue to use your current license. No need to purchase another.

A Big Medium software license allows you to run a single installation of Big Medium, and the license is not limited to any particular server. If you move to a new server or a new domain URL, it’s fine to take your current license along with you. (You need to purchase new licenses only when you add additional live installations of Big Medium: e.g., two licenses for two concurrent installations.)

You may, however, need to renew your service plan if it has expired. A current service plan is necessary to activate new installations of Big Medium, including re-installation at a new server or when you change the domain where you host Big Medium. Find out more about the Big Medium service plan.

What is the Big Medium service plan? Is it required in order to keep using Big Medium?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:34:11 UT

First things first, the service plan is totally optional. You’re not obliged to renew your service plan. When you purchase Big Medium, you can continue to use the current version for free, forever. You don’t have to keep renewing your service plan just to keep the same version on your server.

It is recommend that you stay current with the latest version, of course, but if you prefer not to upgrade, you’re not required to keep your service plan active. You can allow the service plan to lapse and then reactivate it later when you’re ready to upgrade.

What the service plan gets you

The service plan allows you to activate new installations. Big Medium requires activation when...

Your 30-day trial period has expired for a new installation of Big Medium
You upgrade to a new version (except bug-fix and security updates)
You move to a new server, or change the domain where you host Big Medium

In those cases, if your service plan has expired, you’ll be asked to renew the service plan before you can continue. A one-year renewal is $59.

(When you purchase Big Medium, you automatically get a one-year service plan for 12 months of free upgrades.)

Check your service plan’s status

To check your service plan’s status and to renew, you’ll need your Big Medium license number and the e-mail address to which it is registered. Sign in here.

If you have misplaced your license number, request a reminder.

Where can I renew my Big Medium service plan or check its expiration date?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:33:46 UT

Check your license status here. Sign in with your license number and registration e-mail address to check your service plan’s expiration date or to purchase an extension.

How can I update the contact info in my Big Medium registration?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:33:22 UT

Question

My contact information has changed since I registered Big Medium. How can I update it?

Answer

Sign into Big Medium with an administrator account.
From the Big Medium control panel, accounts with a “Register Big Medium” from the “Settings” menu.
Enter the license number and email address. (Be sure to use the e-mail address with which your license is currently associated, even if your e-mail address has changed.)
The next screen will allow you to update your registration information. Make any changes and click “Continue” to save your new info and return to the Big Medium control panel.

How can I retrieve my license information?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:33:02 UT

Question

I forgot my Big Medium license information. How can I get a reminder?

Answer

Request a license reminder here. Enter your e-mail address, and we will send you the license number and registration info for the license(s) registered to that address.

If your e-mail address has changed or if you no longer have access to your account, contact support@globalmoxie.com for help. Please provide as many details as possible about your registration info, including the site where you host Big Medium as well as the name and e-mail address of the person who registered your license.

How do I block the display of “one-click editing” links?

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:58:05 UT

Question

Why are edit links displayed on all public pages, even after I click “hide edit links” on the edit strip?

Answer

When working properly, “one-click editing” links should be displayed only to editors who request them. They should not be displayed at all to the general public.

If these links are instead being displayed on all pages and are visible to all visitors, that almost certainly indicates that server-side includes (SSIs) are not enabled on your server, which is one of Big Medium’s server requirements.

To fix this problem, follow these steps to enable server-side includes.

Why are submitted comments and “e-mail this page” messages ignored?

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:46:39 UT

Question

When I try to add a comment or use the “email this page” feature, nothing happens. I’m returned to the original page with no confirmation message, and the message never appears. What can I do?

Answer

This typically indicates a problem with server-side includes (SSIs) on your server. This issue is particularly common on servers hosted by Dreamhost (the company is aware of the issue but as of this writing have not fixed this configuration issue).

Big Medium relies on server-side includes—specifically, the “config timefmt” command—as one element of its anti-spam measures. If the server does not properly support this command, then all comment and e-mail submissions will be treated as spam and ignored.

There is a workaround for this problem on Apache web servers:

First, be sure that server-side includes are enabled on your server.
Add the following line of code to the .htaccess file in the top-level directory of your site, where the homepage file is stored. (If no .htaccess file exists, go ahead and create one with the following line):
```
SSITimeFormat "%S%j%m%M%Y%H%d"
```

After making that addition, comment and e-mail submissions should work properly.

(An unfortunate side-effect to this workaround is that the <%today%> widget will now show a nonsensical mess of numbers instead of the actual date.)

Why can't publishers edit certain images, documents or people?

Josh Clark — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:06:30 UT

Question

Why can’t publishers edit certain images, documents or people in the Big Medium library?

Answer

Accounts with administrator or webmaster privileges can browse and edit all library items. Other types of accounts (publishers, editors and writers) can edit documents only if they own them. Administrators and webmasters can, however, change ownership of any library item if you need to transfer ownership to a different account.

Why are these restrictions in place?

Big Medium allows you to limit individual editors, writers and publishers to specific sections of the site so that certain content is off limits for editing. Library items, however, are sitewide. So, if publishers could edit others’ library items, a publisher with limited site privileges could edit a document that is attached, among other places, to a page that they would not otherwise have permission to edit. That undermines the ability to limit publishers to certain sections. After going to and fro on this during the design, I decided to go with more security and limit publishers (along with writers and editors) to editing only library items that they actually own.

Can I change this to allow publishers to edit any library item?

Yes, with the help of a plugin. This plugin allows publishers to edit any library items (images, documents, audio/video files and people), including items that are owned by others or items that are used in sections where the publisher does not have privileges.

Installation

Library permission plugin (1 KB)

Download the “library permission” plugin.

Unzip the plugin download file to get a file named library-permission.pl.
Set your FTP client to “plain text” or “ascii” mode.
Upload library-permission.pl to the moxiebin/plugins directory on your server:
```
moxiebin/plugins/library-permission.pl
```

You’re done! Any user with publisher permissions at a site can now edit any library document.

Can Big Medium add watermarks to my images?

Josh Clark — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:36:09 UT

Question

Can Big Medium add watermarks to my images?

Answer

Yes, with the help of a plugin.

This plugin applies a transparent watermark to image files added to Big Medium’s image library. The watermark will be applied to all new images added to the library after the plugin is installed.

Example of a watermark automatically added to an image.

Requirements

Big Medium 2.0.1 or higher
ImageMagick and PerlMagick. If you’re not sure if you have these installed, run Big Medium’s compatibility checker. If it tells you that ImageMagick is installed, then you’re all set.

For best results, your watermark image should be a black-and-white PNG image with a transparent background.

Settings

The plugin adds a new “Watermarks” category to your sites’ HTML preferences (“Settings>HTML Preferences”). Here you can:

Enable/disable watermarks on new images (enabled by default).
Specify the watermark image to use (the image must be located in the moxiedata directory). The default is wmark_image.png.
Specify the position of the watermark on your images (centered by default).

Watermark plugin preferences.

Also, the code for the watermark.pl file includes a section labeled “SETTINGS”; modify these settings to suit your needs. These settings apply to all watermarks in all sites of your Big Medium installation:

$OPACITY: A number between 0 and 1 indicating how opaque the watermark should be. The higher the number, the more opaque; the lower the number, the more transparent.
%MARK_SIZE: Set to 1 for each image size to which you want to add the watermark. By default, the plugin adds watermarks to all built-in image sizes except for thumbnail (60x60) and x-small (100x100).

Installation

Watermark plugin v1.2 (11 KB)

Download the watermark plugin.

Unzip the plugin download file to get a directory named bm-watermarks. The plugin files are located inside that directory.
Set your FTP client to “plain text” or “ascii” mode.
Upload watermark.pl and watermark-prefs.pm to the moxiebin/plugins directory on your server:
```
moxiebin/plugins/watermark.pl
moxiebin/plugins/watermark-prefs.pm
```
Set your FTP client to “binary” or “automatic” mode.
Upload wmark_image.png (or replace with your own watermark image named wmark_image.png) to the server’s moxiedata directory:
```
moxiedata/wmark_image.png
```

You’re done! Going forward, all new images added to your image library will have the watermark applied.

Version history

Version 1.2 September 15, 2008: Added graceful error handling when the watermark image is missing.

Version 1.1. June 6, 2008: Added per-site preferences that allow you to enable/disable watermarks, set watermark position and choose image files for individual sites.

Can I split articles into multiple pages?

Josh Clark — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:02:50 UT

Question

Can I split articles into multiple pages?

Answer

Yes, with the help of a plugin.

The default installation of Big Medium always displays individual articles on a single page. Without the help of an additional plugin, the only way to spread a single article into multiple pages is by publishing each “page” of the article as its own individual page in Big Medium. You then have to manually add links between pages into the body text or as related links for each page.

Cue the “split pages” plugin

"Split pages" plugin v1.0.1 (6 KB)

Download the “split pages” plugin.

This plugin lets you add page breaks to any page (except for section pages) to spread out the content over multiple pages. A navigation bar is added to the bottom of multi-page articles to allow you to move back and forth through its pages. (Update: v1.0.1 fixes issues that caused broken navigation links in certain installations of Big Medium.)

The way that it works is that you put ---BREAK--- on its own paragraph anywhere you want to include a page break:

This text will appear on the first page of the multi-page article.

---BREAK---

This text will appear on the second page.

---BREAK---

This text will appear on the third page.

Be aware that when you’re adding a media element (images, documents, pullquotes, etc.) to a page, the ---BREAK--- paragraph counts when you’re counting paragraphs to align the media element in the page.

Single-page articles (pages that do not include the ---BREAK--- text) are not affected by this plugin, and they will continue to display as usual.

Page preview

When previewing an unpublished page, the ---BREAK--- page breaks are left in place so that you can review the entire article in a single page. The page breaks are processed and inserted only after the page is published.

Controlling widget display

The plugin assumes that you might not want to display all design elements on every page of the multi-page article. By default, the plugin displays the following widgets only on the first page:

<%gallery%>
<%byline%>
<%pubdate%>
<%modified%>

...and displays the following widgets only on the last page:

<%authorblurb%>
<%related%>

To customize these settings, edit lines 38-42 of the split-pages.pm plugin file, changing the @FIRST_ONLY and @LAST_ONLY variables to include the widgets that you want to display exclusively on the first and last pages respectively.

#these widgets appear only on the first page:
my @FIRST_ONLY = qw(gallery byline pubdate modified);

#this widgets appear only on the last page:
my @LAST_ONLY  = qw(authorblurb related);

A special plea

Please be respectful to both your readers and advertisers when considering the appropriate context for adding multi-page navigation to your pages.

Personally, as a reader, I don’t like the added friction of clicking multiple links or wading through extra ad-laden pages to complete an article, unless it’s a very long read. As an advertiser, I often see multi-page articles used as a cynical method for artificially inflating page-view stats, increasing CPM fees while often reducing click rates.

Make the web a better place. Be kind to both of these crucial audiences, and reserve multi-page navigation for very long articles that would otherwise have lengthy page loads or other usability issues.

Installation

"Split pages" plugin v1.0.1 (6 KB)

Download the “split pages” plugin.

Download the plugin file.
Unzip the plugin file to get the split-pages directory, which contains two files: split-pages.pl and split-pages.pm.
Set your FTP client to “plain text” or “ascii” mode.
Upload split-pages.pl and split-pages.pm to the moxiebin/plugins directory on your server:
- moxiebin/plugins/split-pages.pl
- moxiebin/plugins/split-pages.pm

You’re done! Now you can add the ---BREAK--- paragraphs to your pages, and Big Medium will automatically split them into multi-page items.

How can I display link lists horizontally or in columns?

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:39:43 UT

Question

How can I display link lists horizontally on in columns?

Answer

With a few minor tweaks to your page templates and your theme style sheet, you can make any of Big Medium’s link widgets present links horizontally across the page.

The premise

The HTML generated by Big Medium’s link widgets places each link inside its own <div> tag, with class bmw_link. By adding CSS styles that float each of these <div> elements to the left, the links stack up horizontally instead of vertically.

Setting the width of these <div> elements sets the width of the column. The right margin sets the “gutter” spacing between each column, and the bottom margin sets the spacing between each row.

The hitch

If you want one link widget to display more than a single row of links, you have to set each link’s text block to a fixed height. Otherwise, if one of the text blocks in one row is larger than the others, it will “catch” the first item of the next row, preventing it from aligning at the left of the row, and the whole thing is thrown out of whack.

By setting the links to a fixed height, we can enforce a grid no matter how much text is in each link. The drawback: If a link’s text block is longer than this height, its text will be clipped.

Putting it all together

In Big Medium, go to “Layout>Edit Templates.”
Select the template where you want to display links horizontally.
Edit the template, wrapping the widget you want to display horizontally in a <div> with a “horizontal” class. For example:
```
<div class="horizontal">
    <%links%>
</div>
```
After saving the template, follow the link on the next page to rebuild the necessary pages.

Go to “Layout>Edit Theme Style Sheet” and add the following CSS to your styles, editing the values to suit your design. For example, the following will display links in three columns in a 500-pixel block.

div.horizontal {
    width: 500px;        /*overall width for the block of links */
    overflow: hidden;
}
div.horizontal div.bmw_link {
    float: left;
    width: 150px;        /* width of each column */
    height: 150px;       /* height of each row */
    margin-right: 15px;  /* spacing between columns */
    margin-bottom: 15px; /* spacing between rows */
    overflow: hidden;
}

Save the settings, and you’re done.

"403: Forbidden" when adding new sections

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 15:07:43 UT

Question

Why do I get a "403 Forbidden" message when I try to add new content sections to my site?

Answer

This message typically indicates an error in the server's configuration file.

The gory details

(This section is primarily of interest to server administrators; if that's not you, you can skip down to the next section for the fix.)

Some Apache servers have a module named mod_security which scans page requests and form submissions for suspicious-looking behavior. Some Apache distributions, however, include a configuration error which incorrectly blocks valid form requests, returning the "403 Forbidden" error message.

Specifically, this problem configuration rejects any form submission that contains a semicolon in the Content-Type header. Alas, this breaks any valid request that happens to add a charset declaration in that header:

Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset-UTF-8

Big Medium happens to do this when it makes Ajax form submissions (i.e., submissions that happen within the page rather than requesting an entirely new page).

The fix

The fix is to change the mod_security configuration on your server.

Option one: Edit the server's configuration file

If you are the server admin and have access to your server's configuration file, you can make the following change (otherwise, contact your admin or hosting company to do it for you).

Find the SecFilterSelective entry that looks like this:

SecFilterSelective HTTP_Content-Type "!(^application/x-www-form-urlencoded$|^multipart/form-data;|^text/xml;)"

...and change that "$" symbol to ";?" like so:

SecFilterSelective HTTP_Content-Type "!(^application/x-www-form-urlencoded;?|^multipart/form-data;|^text/xml;)"

After restarting Apache, the error should go away.

Option two: Edit the .htaccess file

If you don't have access to the server's configuration file or your server admin will not make this change for you, you may be able to make the change by editing the .htaccess file in your site's main HTML directory. (If no such file exists, you can create a new file named .htaccess and upload it to your site's main HTML directory.)

Add these two lines to the .htaccess file:

SecFilterEngine Off
SecFilterScanPOST Off

After adding those lines, the error should go away.

Why don't images appear on my pages?

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:29:57 UT

Question

When I add images to my pages, they don’t appear on the page. What gives?

Answer

The problem is likely related to either the “page position” setting for the images or incomplete loading of images when adding image sizes manually.

Check the “Page Position” field for the image

The “Page Position” field determines where the image should be displayed on the page. If the “do not display on page” option is selected, the image will not display at all.

If you select “image gallery” but the page template does not include Big Medium’s <%gallery%> widget, then the image will not display. Likewise, if you select “other position on page” then the image will display only if the page template includes the <%images%> widget with the limit="other" attribute or no limit attribute at all. (If you’re not sure whether your page templates include the <%images%> or <%gallery%> widgets, check with your Big Medium administrator or webmaster.)

For more on the <%images%> and <%gallery%> widgets, see their entries in the “Widgets” chapter of the Big Medium 2 book.

The remaining page positions should display the images within the content of the page text itself, within Big Medium’s <%content%> widget. If you see neither content nor images on your pages, then your page template may not include the <%content%> widget. If that’s the case, add the <%content%> widget to your page template and give it another go.

Are you loading image sizes manually?

In Big Medium, every image has multiple versions, one for each size. For servers that have ImageMagick or another supported image library installed, Big Medium sizes and generates all of these various versions for you automatically behind the scenes. But if you do not have ImageMagick, you need to manually load each image size that you want to use. In that case, when you add a new image to Big Medium, you will see an individual field for every image size.

If you do not load an image for the specific size that you have set to display on your pages, then no image will display on that page. For example, say that you have your page-image size set to “Small (200x200 max).” If you do not load an image for that size, then no image will be displayed on the page, even if you load other sizes of that same image. In our example, you must load an image for the “Small (200x200 max)” image size for the image to display.

If you’re not sure what the page-image size is, administrators and webmasters can check and change this setting on the “Images” screen of the site’s HTML preferences (“Settings > HTML Preferences”).

For details on how all of this works and for pointers on loading images manually, please see the Big Medium 2 book (specifically, the “Images & Media” section of the “Editing Webpages” chapter, and the “Image Management” chapter).

Can Google Analytics track Big Medium file downloads?

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:40:13 UT

Question

I use Google Analytics to track visitor activity on my Big Medium-powered site. How can I configure it to track file downloads in addition to regular HTML pages?

Answer

The default HTML that Google tells you to insert into your pages will track only those pages that include that code. This means that it can’t track file downloads (because they are not HTML pages, downloads cannot include JavaScript code).

Google offers a workaround for this. The solution involves adding an onclick attribute to every link to files you would like to track. However, there’s another way to attach an onclick event to all Big Medium download files, which does not require this kind of intervention in the code. Here’s how.

Google’s recommended script looks like this (where UA-xxxxxx-x is replaced by your Google Analytics account number):

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-xxxxxx-x");
pageTracker._initData();
pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>

To track Big Medium document files, update the code like so (be sure to change UA-xxxxxx-x to your actual Google Analytics account number):

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-xxxxxx-x");
  pageTracker._initData();
  pageTracker._trackPageview();
  (function(){ //track BM document files
    var logDoc = function(evt) {
      var e = Event.element(evt);
      if(e.nodeType == 3) { e = e.parentNode; } //Safari bug
      if (e.tagName=='A') {
          var match = e.href.match(/(\/bm~doc\/.*)/);
          if (match) { pageTracker._trackPageview(match[1]); }
      }
    };
    BM.onDOM.addEvent(function(){
      Event.observe(document.body,'click',logDoc);
    });
  })();
</script>

Limitations

This code change makes Google Analytics track links only to files loaded via Big Medium's control panel. It will not track downloads of files that are linked directly from other sites, and it will not track downloads to files that were not loaded via Big Medium's control panel.