Latest Updates 7.0.0.2 ---

Thanks for being part of BlogSense! There is some very important information in this newsletter so lets get started.

Custom Source Profiles

We’ve added in backup-scrape parameters. What this means is now instead of 1 set of beginning and end codes for Title and Content grabbing, we can now program 3 sets of beginning and end codes. This will help us conquer sources who’s templating systems jump around such as Yahoo News (Which has also been improved in this version by using the backup parameters feature).

In addition, Wildcards can now be used to represent dynamic parts of html code. To call a wild card use this token: %wildcard%. These wildcards can be used in Source Scraping and RSS Full Content Scraping.
Example of Wildcard use:

begin-code: class=’sailboats_%wildcard%’ id=’%wildcard%’>

Improved Post Templating

I’ve completely restructured the way post templating is handled by removing header,footer,and title template profiles and having these templates editable directly in the area where we create a campaign.

This includes having the hook buttons (which allow creating manually selected pools of video or image content to include at random into posts) as well as BlogSense’s own automatic-content tokens (Amazon Widget Token, Amazon Content Token, Ebay Widget Token, Youtube Video Token)… and have even added in token integrations for phpBay and phpZon.

In addition to the above mentioned integrations, BlogSense also now gives the user the ability to create custom %tokens% that will be replaced by user defined content.

We might also see soon the integration of WP Robot Tokens and WP Mage Tokens as this is a major direction I’ve decided to take BlogSense in; an administration platform that detects and integrates the power of the other highly celebrated auto-content solutions.

BIG NOTE: Header Profiles, Footer Profiles, and Title Template Profiles WILL NOT carry over from 6.0.x.x to 7.0.x.x. Campaigns that make use of these will have to be re-dressed.

Other Improvements and Bug Fixes

(Mass Keyword Affects)
This feature has been improved and is running at top performance now.
Added title=keyword to a href links.

(Mass Search & Replace)
Now shows post ids of affected items after replacement.

(Yahoo Answers)
Improved preview mode to show answers.

(Twitter)
Basic Authentication was canceled for Twitter. We had to implement oAuth standards to bring Twitter posting back online. YOU WILL HAVE TO DELETE AND RE-ADD TWITTER ACCOUNTS. I’m sorry, there is nothing better I can do.

(Internal Code Structure)
Now we are using Wordpress functions to add posts to the database, rather than custom queries. I’m hoping this does not bring us any trouble, but as a development decision it was necessary for non-English Wordpress Installs.

Backdating

We can now select the date we want to begin backdating from.

Bookmarking
We can now limit which campaigns are bookmarked by BlogSense. For example, if you want a campaign to only post to twitter, then you can set it up that way. Likewise you can completely have campaigns omitted from any bookmarking.

Sometimes you might want to control the quality of the content announced to your social services. You might do this to improve your readership, acquire and retain more followers, or even to decease the chances of having accounts disabled due to overuse and clutter.

Custom Fields
Custom fields are now editable directly within the campaign rather than as a global setting, and in addition we also can use the second image url found in the post as a value or a custom value of your choice.

3rd Party Software Integration & Other Post Templating Improvements
BlogSense’s templating system has now shortcode creation wizards for WP Robot and WP Mage. So if you own these softwares then you can now use the power of their automated content.
BlogSense supports short-code creation wizards for WP Robot, WP Mage, phpZon, and phpBay.
In addition I changed two of the pre-included variables: %tag_1% and %tag_2% became %tag_title% and %tag_postbody%. These variables use the Yahoo Terms API to generate a tag phrase from the title of the post and from the content of the post.
Also the variable %campaign_name% has been added, which will call the name of the campaign.

Improved Spin Database
In a joint effort to improve BlogSense spinning capabilities, a couple of colleagues donated word-token databases from their personal collection for BlogSense possible use.
After manually reviewing the 3 databases I picked the best looking one and integrated it with BlogSense. I’m looking forward to your feedback on how this affects the overall experience.

Remember, there is a setting in your ‘Global Settings’ area that if set can allow you to replace synonyms as well. The default setting only replaces phrases.

Improved Campaign Creation Interface
Just some touch ups to make it more organized and look pretty;

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Whats new in BlogSense 7.6.9.5

The latest developments with BlogSenseWp automation suite.


RANDOM POST TIMES


If the setting to randomize post times is toggled on (it’s off by default), then BlogSense will check for two parameters also defined in your settings; a minimum hour and a maximum hour. These numbers are based between 1 and 24 and represent the hours of the day. For each post, BlogSense will choose a random hour between our parameters for timestamp generation. Pretty simple eh?

ADVANCED REMOTE PUBLISHING API


This is a work in progress, but is designed for potential integration with other scripts and services. I’ve already made two videos discussing the API and one of it’s potential uses with the Google Reader App.

• YouTube - BlogSense - Remote Publishing API - Wordpress Automation - Part I (Part I)
• YouTube - BlogSense - Remote Publishing API - Wordpress Automation - Part II (Part II)

DEFINE POST STATUS BEFORE PUBLISHING

Many users have been requesting the ability to publish into draft mode or private mode or pending review mode. We've added in the ability to set this setting on each campaign.


COMBINE & MIX RSS FEEDS

This is one of those that personally I never found a user for but many of my users request due to an idea they have going. It's a cool feature and was fun to create... and does a damn good job.

How this works:

• Can create a single RSS feed out of multiple RSS feeds.
• Ability to sort by publish date ascending or descending.
• Ability to mix all items at random.
• This has been added as a tool to the RSS Tools Section.

RETAIN ORIGINAL DATES AND AUTHOR FOR RSS MODULE

Some users made case that unlike Autoblogged, BlogSense was not able to retain the original date of an article or the original author. So to eliminate this weakness these options have been added in.