Now running RobMensching.Blog.

# by Rob Mensching on Monday, January 12, 2009 10:05 PM

After a couple bumps this morning, I finally upgraded my blog to the brand new RobMensching.Blog engine. All of the old links should redirect to their new location, especially the feed subscription link, so no need to worry about updating your links. However, if you are subscribed to my feed you probably saw a few duplicate entries show up since the RobMensching.Blog engine generates entry/@ids differently than Subtext.

So how about a few fun facts about RobMensching.Blog engine:

50% Software + 50% Service - I very much prefer writing and editing blog entries in a client rather than a web browser. That's why I love the "Software plus Service" message promoted by Microsoft. Thus RobMensching.Blog is built around the awesomeness that is Windows Live Writer. Not only are posts completely managed by Writer but I route comment moderation through the custom buttons in Writer. There is no "admin console" on the server side.
100% AtomPub - the RSS and the MetaWeblog API specifications felt very gooey and hacky to me. Conversely the Atom and AtomPub RFCs felt specific and well designed. When I learned that Writer would support AtomPub I was elated that I could completely bypass RSS and MetaWeblog API.
5% the code - Subtext always felt incredibly bloated for me. Subtext has roughly 37,000 lines of code (I skipped all unit test code, blank lines and comments). RobMensching.Blog has about 4,000 lines of code but 2000 of that is generated by LINQ to SQL. That means there is really only 1,900 lines of actual code or 5% of Subtext. Now Subtext does a bit more than RobMensching.Blog but I didn't want most of it. 1,900 is a lot easier for me to remember, enhance and verify later.

As I mentioned before the server is running IIS7, .NET Framework v3.5, ASP.NET MVC and SQL Server 2005 via LINQ to SQL.

I may make the source code available in the future but there are a few more things I want to implement before considering that. In the meantime, please let me know if you find any issues or have any comments about the new look and feel. I control all of the code now so improvements are only limited by my available time.

tags: rob, mensching, robmensching.blog, software, plus, service, subtext

9 Comments

Comment by Joe on Monday, January 12, 2009 10:49 PM

Yes Rob Great new engine, look forward to it getting better and when you release it.

Comment by Trevin on Monday, January 12, 2009 10:50 PM

Very cool that you are using Live Writer for comment moderation. Way to embrace Microsoft culture and tools :)

Comment by ErikG on Tuesday, January 13, 2009 9:39 AM

Your link to http://robmensching.com/robmensching.blog/ mentions use of "Windows Liver Writer". I didn't know Microsoft had gotten into the organ transplant business. :-)

Comment by Rob Mensching on Tuesday, January 13, 2009 10:58 AM

Heh, thanks, EricG. Fixed now. I have the hardest time typing "Live Writer".

Comment by Heath on Tuesday, January 13, 2009 11:10 AM

Very fast! I also didn't realize WLW supported all that. I haven't been keeping up to date on their APIs (just over a year ago to write an add-in I desperately needed for my blogging), but now my interest is piqued. I'll have to check out more. About the only thing I've noticed so far is that the styles don't work in IE8 Beta without compat view enabled. Since you're writing the UI anew, I figured I'd mention it. For example, http://robmensching.com/robmensching.blog shows the homerule crossing through the text if compat view isn't enabled.

Comment by Jason on Tuesday, January 13, 2009 1:00 PM

Google reader keeps thinking all your posts are new even after I've marked them as read 3 times now. Not sure if this is google's problem or the new blog engine.

Comment by Joe Cheng [MSFT] on Tuesday, January 13, 2009 4:02 PM

Very cool! Hope you do consider putting it up on CodePlex or something. "Liver Writer", you're far from the only one: http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22liver+writer%22&scoring=d

Comment by Rob Mensching on Thursday, January 15, 2009 11:25 AM

Jason, the repeated new posts problem was a bug that I've fixed. This blog entry http://robmensching.com/blog/posts/2009/1/13/First-bug-fixed-in-RobMensching.Blog has the details. Joe Cheng [MSFT], thanks for answering my AtomPub questions. I'll probably release the code somewhere once I cross off a couple more things on my todo list.

Comment by Vinay on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 10:37 PM

Rob, Has the source been released yet? I wanted to see how you have worked with Live writer for the moderation bit. I am eager (read desperate) to get the code..

RobMensching.com /Blog because setup isn't just xcopy

Now running RobMensching.Blog.

9 Comments