Development on BloGTK 2.0 is nearing public release, but before BloGTK 2.0 is ready for primetime, it needs testers to put it through its paces. So, if you are feeling adventurous and want to give BloGTK a spin on your distro and blog, here is how to do it.

Getting Started

First of all, you will need the following packages for your system:

• bzr
• python (2.6.2 recommended. BloGTK is not Python 3 compatible.)
• python-gtk2
• python-gnome2
• python-gnome2-extras
• python-feedparser
• python-gdata
• python-webkit

On Ubuntu, you can add them all by going into a Terminal window and executing the command:

sudo apt-get install bzr python-gtk2 python-gnome2
python-gnome2-extras python-feedparser python-gdata python-webkit

On other distributions, follow the instructions for your particular distribution. (For RedHat-based systems, you should be able to replace “apt-get install” with “yum install”. Some distributions may have slightly different names for these packages (such as “python-webkitgtk” instead of “python-webkit”)

Once you have the required packages, you’ll be able to start testing BloGTK.

Getting the Code

The next step is to get the code for BloGTK from launchpad. Go to the directory where you want the BloGTK code to be located. Next, you will use Bazaar to get the actual code. In your Terminal window, execute the following command:

bzr branch lp:blogtk

Bazaar will then download the BloGTK code to a “blogtk” directory.

Right now, BloGTK is run from its own directory. When the program is ready, it will be installed for all users. For right now, you can install the development version without disturbing any older version of BloGTK on your system.

Using BloGTK

Go to the newly-created “blogtk” directory in your Terminal and execute the following command:

bin/blogtk2

BloGTK should open up and prompt you to configure your first blog account. From the configuration screen you should be able to add as many blog accounts as you wish. From there, you should be able to play with BloGTK to your heart’s content.

How to Create a Helpful Bug Report

The goal, of course, is to get as many people testing BloGTK as possible, and for them to find and help squash as many bugs as possible. To do that, I need bug reports. You can either submit a bug report through Launchpad or leave a bug report right here on the blog. (I would prefer bugs to be put into Launchpad, but will settle for blog comments.) Here are the things you should include to make your bug report helpful:

• Your Distribution (i.e. Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, Arch, etc…)
• What Version of Your Distro? (i.e. Fedora 11, Ubuntu 9.04, etc…)
• What Blogging System? (i.e. WordPress 2.8, Movable Type 4, Blogger)
• What Error Did You Get? To find out what errors may have occurred, look both at any printed message in the Terminal window and any messages in the status bar of the application. If there’s an error message in the Terminal, try copying it into the bug report.
• What Were You Doing When You Got The Error? For instance, something like “I was editing a post on my Blogger blog in the editor, and then tried to insert a new blockquote by hitting the toolbar button, and then I got the error.” The more details, the better.

Again, the more bugs that can get squashed, the better. Also, if there’s a feature you want added in a future version, feel free to bring that up as well. However, at this point the focus of development will be on getting rid of bugs and fixing code before adding something new.

A hearty thank you in advance to everyone who helps in testing BloGTK. This program has taken a long time to develop, and I hope that the wait will have been worth it. Each bug report will help make BloGTK better.

UPDATE: Added python-gnome2-extras to the list of required packages.

UPDATE: Changed instructions to reflect the change to the folder structure in the newest revisions.

Tags: BloGTK, testing, Updates

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 13th, 2009 at 4:44 pm and is filed under BloGTK, Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.