One of the most requested features that we get on Highwire is the ability to create and manage your own blog directly through your Highwire admin. We are happy to announce that we have completed this feature! Highwire now offers a fully integrated blog to help you get more involved with your customer community.
With our new blogging platform, you can publish detailed blog articles, categorize using tags and engage discussions with moderated commenting system.
Where can I see an example?
You can view an example on our Benchmark demo theme which has a customized blog theme at http://benchmark.highwire.com/blog
How do I get started?
To enable your blog and start posting, just visit the "Blog" section under the Marketing menu. You will be asked a few questions to get your blog started. Once your blog is set up, you can start publishing articles by adding posts.
What's the URL for my blog?
Your blog will be located as a sub-directory of your stores domain. ex: http://www.mystore.com/blog
How do I customize my blog?
We added two additional templates to the template system specific for blog pages. If the blog.html and blog_post.html files doe not exist, we'll use a generic blog template. We've done our best to make the generic template work with your existing theme, but there may be a few inconsistencies.
If you are using the Benchmark theme, you will want to download or re-install to obtain the latest blog templates. If you want to customize it further, you can view our template documentation at:
Comments
31 comments
Ryan,
I've attached a ZIP that contains the blog.html and blog_post.html for the benchmark theme. There's also a blog.css which you can append to the theme.css file or you can add it separately.
benchmark_blogfiles.zip
I've maintained a blog at blogspot for the last couple years. Is there a way to import all of those post to my shop blog?
There's no current way to import from existing blogs.
"Is there a way to import all of those post to my shop blog?"
Cut-paste the heck out of it all. It's tedious if you have a lot of blog entries, but it will work. :)
I had been using the custom pages option to post my articles, but now I can consolidate those into the new blog. :)
Question - if I set up the blog, and don't like it, can I remove it?
Great, thanks Tomas! : )
Quick question Tomas... if i use an image url from a current product for blog but then the product is deleted from stock will the image remain on my blog?
"Question - if I set up the blog, and don't like it, can I remove it?"
You can easily delete or unpublish any posts.
"if i use an image url from a current product for blog but then the product is deleted from stock will the image remain on my blog?"
Yes, product images are deleted after a product is deleted. We are currently working on a "Shared Image" library which you can use for products and blog posts.
Excellent new feature!
Small irritation: does it have to override the font settings? The post text and 'Leave a Comment ' title stay as Helvetica Neue, regardless of your settings in the Theme Designer.
More importantly, it overrides the font color - which is a big problem if your store has white text on a dark background!
Capture3.JPG
We tried to make the generic template work with most themes. If you need further customization, this can be done with your own HTML templates and CSS. I've attached some sample code on an earlier post.
This is super great. Kinda sad for the fact I asked would highwire be adding a blog to the system anytime soon late last year and was met with a no. spend $500 to add one to my site. Is there anyway to transfer my blog from wordpress to the platform yall have?
@imperfectconcepts - yes, it was something that we got out sooner than expected :-) -- The best way to transfer is to just do a copy/paste! It will take a bit to do at first, but once you are done it will be one less headache dealing with another platform!
It seems that blog posts show on website as oldest first, can this be changed to show most recent first?
yes, that's not right.. let me get this resolved here shortly
Thanks Guys ; )
Another thing I have noted..
I have added 6 blog posts with images and they all show on front page. Shouldnt this be limited to a couple per page with links to the rest, the page seems awfully long??
Denise, that's what the "excerpt" option is for. This will be a limited display of the blog article displayed on the main blog pages.
Oh right I see thanks Tomas. On your demo, it shows to the right hand side "recent posts" and tags but mine does not, why is that?
And also just spotted, if I click on one of the "tags" below posts it shows "no posts found" but I have a number of them with the same tag?
There was a bug for tags with spaces. This has been fixed.
Your blog looks different and doesn't have the side bar because it's using a generic template. You'll need to customize it if you want to add additional features.
Ok thanks Tomas : )
I'm trying to use NetworkedBlogs to auto post to Facebook. It's asking for my Feed Link (which is not the same as the blog home page). Where do I find that?
Also, if someone subscribes to my rss feed, it just post new items as I add them. Is there a feed link for our blogs that people can follow? I'm assuming it's the same link I need for NetworkedBlogs, but there should be a way for people to follow our blogs.
I'm not familiar with that tool, but your blog is located at yourstore.com/blog
From NetworkedBlogs
"Your feed link may also be called a feed url - these are synonymns.
Generally, if you don't know your feed link, you should contact your blog host provider for assistance."
They are not looking for yourstore.com/blog. Normally, what I would use is yourstore.com/rss, but that is just a feed of new items as they are added, not a blog feed. Having an option for people to follow your blog is pretty standard, but I'm not seeing that anywhere.
We don't have an RSS for the blog -- i'm going to put this into the feature request
Actually, we were able to get this featured added for you- Just attach .atom to the end of your blog URL.. so for example, yoursite.com/blog.atom (here is our benchmark theme blog rss http://benchmark.highwire.com/blog.atom )
Greg, first thanks so much for working on this.
Is there anything else I have to do, maybe to the template? I'm using the benchmark template, but when I add the .atom to the end of the URL (http://www.randomactsart.com/blog.atom), I get a 404 page not found error.
hmm.. I just went to that URL for you and it works great for me... what browser are you using? meaning, this works great on my end.. i see your feed: http://www.randomactsart.com/blog.atom
I just tried it again and now it works. Thanks so much!
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