Patrick Mason

From Windows Live Writer

patrickmason — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:34:00 GMT

Just testing Windows Live Writer as my new post engine to ncg.com for all my Graffiti CMS

New Day, New Design.

patrickmason — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:09:00 GMT

My absence on the blog scene, though not uncommon is fueled more by motivation than laziness this time. I have been diligently working redesigning this site. Sure, I love the oranges, blues and greens, but have decided to go for a more clean look with more features. Why now? Well why not. Truth be told I feel this has been a long time coming and I happy to be getting close to completion. It is my goal that within the next week you will be looking at the new NeighborhoodComputerGeek.com.

So what should you expect? Here is the list so far:

Yes, it will use Graffiti CMS. Enough said.
New Event Calendar for Graffiti by myself
New Photo Gallery plugin by myself, with some collaboration.
New decked out theme
A new focus on services rather than ramblings

I am excited about this change and hope it is successful. Hopefully the next post you read will be at the new site. If you are interested in seeing the beta site, drop a comment and I can get you access.

Graffiti and Yet Another Forum.NET 1.9.3

patrickmason — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:21:00 GMT

There has been much buzz around getting forum support into Graffiti, and one solution is to use YetAnotherForum.net(YAF). Now the problem is in most shared hosting environments you would be forced to run the forums under a Virtual Directory in graffiti and that will not work out of the box. The key is merging the web.configs together so they operate off of the graffiti web.config.

NOTE: As always, you use this at your own risk and I cannot be held responsible if you mess something up. Back up your graffiti site and database before trying any of this. There its said, you are on your own buddy. ;)

There is a great article Here on how to get it going in graffiti but it seems a bit dated and the steps need some expansion to work with the latest release of YetAnotherForum.net. So after much playing around I got it to work and so I will share. First off, download the YetAnotherForum.net build for the .NET framework 2.0 from here. Save yourself time but not doing 3.5. Will it work? Maybe. Not for me and time is money so 2.0 worked out of the box. with these steps, 3.5 did not.

First, get YAF to work as its own website like it says in the other article. This will assure you get everything set up correctly. You can point the db.config connection string to your Graffiti Database. It will create the schema inside it without interfering. If you host in anenvironment where you can have multiple SQL dbs, its your call.

Now:

Create a folder in your graffiti website called forums(or whatever but for me it was forums). Make a virtual directory on your web site that points to this folder. The alias of the virtual should be the same.
Copy the entire YAS site to this new folder. You should have already created a web.config from reccommend-config.config as described in the YAS install notes. Rename that web.config to something else to ensure it is not processed.
Now copy the mail.config and UrlRewriter.config to the root of your graffiti site.
Now from the renamed web.config in the forums directory, copy the <configSections> element to the graffiti web.config right under the configuration node.
Now copy the entire <add> connectionstring node from the YAS db.config under the connection string in the graffiti web.config so there are 2 connection strings under the <connectionStrings> element in the graffiti web.config.
Now from the renamed YAS web.config, copy the <system.net> node to the graffiti web.config above <system.web> the node.
Now from the renamed YAS web.config, copy the <rewriter> node to the graffiti web.config above the new <system.net> node.
Copy all the keys (not the <appSettings> parent node) from the YAS app.confg to the Graffiti web.config <appSettings> node. Keeping the comments is up to you.
Now create a new location in the graffiti web.config and set the path to your forums folder <location path="forums"></location>
From the renamed YAS web.config copy the entire <system.web> (including the system.web) node into this new location element
In the newly pasted area find <pages> and in that node find <namespaces>. Above every child node in that namespaces node add the 2 new nodes <remove namespace="Graffiti.Core" /><remove namespace="Telligent.Glow" />
And that should be it, run it and it should work fine

If you have issues or comments please let me know

New Graffiti CMS Theme: extended

patrickmason — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:26:00 GMT

Fresh off the press here is a new template converted from Free CSS Templates.org. It is another creative commons license and the footer links must remain in tact. It is new and I have viewed it in FF3 and IE7. Report me any issues and I will make updates as needed. Enjoy!

New Graffiti CMS Theme: BlackRounded

patrickmason — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:03:00 GMT

This is a theme I converted from Free CSS Templates

It is in XML form and is distributed under the Creative Commons 2.5 License and can be used any way needed provided the footer links remain in tact. Enjoy and report any issues to me!

We Have a New Home!

patrickmason — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:58:00 GMT

Well If you are reading this, welcome to our new home! My hosting contract with WebHost4Life came to end this month and rather than renewing I chose to go another direction. I am pleased to announce I have chosen SoftSys hosting to host this site. Please be patient as I bring things online!

Joggr Egg Noggr Results

patrickmason — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 00:13:00 GMT

Well I finished my 3rd 5K today and I am happy to report a new best time. Me and the better half finished in 29minutes and 29 seconds. I finished 10th in my age group and she finished 8th in hers. It was a great race with great weather, looking forward to the next one!

4 New Puppies!

patrickmason — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:27:00 GMT

Well on Friday(12/5) our litter was born. We are now the proud new parents of 4 black English Cocker Spaniels! Well at least until they are sold. They were born fast, all 4 in under 45 minutes. Yesterday we had their tails docked and dew claws removed and they are at home resting with mom. There was 1 girl and 3 boys, all healthy. To see pics go here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Patrick.G.Mason/OurNewLitter#

New Litter Any Day Now..

patrickmason — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:13:16 GMT

Well, its just about that time to welcome our new litter of English Cockers into the world. We expect them to be born sometime this week. As of the ultrasound we are expecting 3 for sure, but based on her weight and size we think maybe at least 4 or 5. We go for xrays in 2 days so we will know for sure then, if she lasts that long. We have no idea what coats to expect since we bred a red with a blue rhone so it should be interesting.

For those who may not be familiar with English Cockers, read more here. There is a significant difference between Englsih Cockers and their American counter parts which most people are familar with.

Jog'r Egg Nog'r 5K 2008

patrickmason — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:15:00 GMT

Well you think I would learn, but I have now been registered for another 5k in December. Me, my dad and better half will be running the Jog'r Egg Nog'r 5K on December 20th here in Dallas. And to think most of my life I hated to run. Actually, I can't really say I like to run now, but I really like finishing :) Plus I just bought me a new Garmin Forerunner 305, so now I have to have a race to try it out in. Time to beat is 30:31!

Offical Site: http://www.thrustonracing.com/