Blog Pro 2.0 User Guide

“Blog Pro”

User Guide

Version: 2.0

Website: http://www.magpleasure.com

Support: [email protected]

http://www.magpleasure.com/

mailto:[email protected]

BLOG PRO USER GUIDE 2

Table of Contents

Blog Pro Description .................................................................................................................... 4

Configure Blog Pro ....................................................................................................................... 5

Top Menu Integration ............................................................................................................... 5

Footer Menu Integration ........................................................................................................... 6

Search Engine Optimization ...................................................................................................... 7

Layout ...................................................................................................................................... 9

Post ........................................................................................................................................ 14

URLs and Redirects ................................................................................................................. 15

Comments .............................................................................................................................. 16

Recent Posts Block .................................................................................................................. 17

Tags ....................................................................................................................................... 17

RSS ......................................................................................................................................... 18

Publisher Information ............................................................................................................. 19

Social Buttons ......................................................................................................................... 20

Sitemap .................................................................................................................................. 20

Look and Feel ......................................................................................................................... 21

Notification of Added Comment ............................................................................................. 21

Notification of Post Publishing ................................................................................................ 23

Customer Notifications ........................................................................................................... 23

Post Creation ............................................................................................................................. 24

Content Editing ...................................................................................................................... 27

Thumbnail .............................................................................................................................. 32

Meta Data ............................................................................................................................... 35

Statistics................................................................................................................................. 36

Posts Management .................................................................................................................... 37

Author Name by Default ............................................................................................................ 41

Comments Management ............................................................................................................ 42

Reply to a Customer Comment ............................................................................................... 44

Categories Management ............................................................................................................ 46

Tags Management ..................................................................................................................... 49

Import Posts from WordPress and aheadWorks Blog ................................................................... 51


Import from WordPress ........................................................................................................... 51

Import from aheadWorks Blog ................................................................................................ 52

Customer Notifications Management ......................................................................................... 53

Comment Subscription ........................................................................................................... 53

Notification Log ...................................................................................................................... 55

The Frontend View ..................................................................................................................... 57

Uninstall Blog Pro ...................................................................................................................... 66


Blog Pro Description

Blog Pro is a powerful extension for blogging in Magento stores. It allows you to create

various posts using thumbnails, images, videos and other tools to make you blog

informative and interesting to your customers. Optimize your posts for search engines and

add share buttons to attract new readers and prospects. The extension has intuitive

interface and is easy customizable in spite of such a variety of options.


Configure Blog Pro

Blog Pro has many options and settings that will be useful to you while creating blog posts.

To configure the extension, go to the System → Configuration → Blog Pro or СMS → Blog

Pro → Configuration backend page.

The page contains 18 sections, which are described below.

Don’t be afraid of such a large number of settings. We have optimized the number of

options and tried to do them shorter, but still functional. Besides, the default values have

also been optimized to fit the needs of most stores.

Top Menu Integration


1) Display: Select Yes if you want to display the blog link in the top menu.

2) Label: Specify the label of the link.

3) Position: Define the sequence of the link among other links.

Footer Menu Integration

In this section, you can configure the blog link in the footer.

4) Display: Select Yes if you want to display the blog link in the footer menu.

5) Label: Specify the label of the link.

6) Position: Define the sequence of the link among other links.


Search Engine Optimization

Blog Pro allows you to optimize the blog for Google and other search engines. Well thought

meta title, keywords, and description will help you to appear higher in search results and

attract more potential customers to your store.

1) Route: Specify the URL title, which will redirect visitors to your blog page.

2) Title Prefix for Blog Pro: Specify the default prefix that will be displayed in a browser tab

when you open a blog category or search for a tag.


3) Meta Title for Blog Pro: This is the title of the main blog page in a browser tab.

4) Meta Keywords for Blog Pro: Specify the keywords by which customers can find your

blog. Try to find such words and phrases, which are most relevant to the topics you

cover in your posts.

5) Meta Description for Blog Pro: This description is displayed in search engines results.

Write a description that will describe your blog most accurately and attractively to

customers.


Layout

In this section, you can configure how blocks with different blog information will be

arranged in the frontend. We have defined four layout types: desktop layouts for the main

blog page and for a post page, and the same layouts for mobile devices.

The configuration is easy and convenient since all the layout blocks are visualized.

Desktop Post

Arrange blocks as you want them to be displayed on the post page in the frontend. Choose

one of several layouts and edit the arrangement of the blocks.


You can drag, add, delete, and interchange the position of the blocks as you need.

To move a block, press the left mouse button, and drag and drop the block into the

necessary place.

To add a block, click the “Plus” button and select one of the available variants.


If you want to delete a block, click the basket in its upper right corner.

This is how the desktop post layout looks in the frontend:


Desktop List

Arrange the blocks on the main blog page. The actions with the blocks are the same as for

the Desktop Post layout.

You can arrange posts in list and grid.

List: Grid:


Mobile Post

Posts on mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, have a 2-column layout. You

can choose whether to place the blocks on the left or on the right side.

The screenshots below show how a mobile post looks in the frontend. To see the tab with

categories and other blocks, a customer should swipe it from the left or right side.

Mobile List

The main blog page also has a 2-column layout on mobile devices just as the Mobile Post

layout.


List

Define the quantity of posts displayed on one blog page in the frontend.

If you have more posts in your blog, customers can switch the pages with the Older Entries

link:

Post

1) Display Author Name: Select Yes if you want to display the name of the post author in

the frontend.


2) Display Number of Views: Enable this option to display how many store visitors have

already viewed a post.

3) Display Print Link: Select Yes to allow customers print a post. It’s useful if you write

articles containing helpful information to your customers.

4) Display Categories: Enable the option to display categories a post belongs to.

5) Display Tags: Enable this option to display the tags related to a post topic. Due to tags,

customers will be able to find all articles with the same topic.

6) Date Format: Decide if the publishing date will be displayed in the standard format or as

the number of days passed from publishing.

URLs and Redirects

1) URL Postfix: The .HTML postfix shows search engines that the page is static, and,

therefore, is reliable. This postfix will help you to improve your store SEO.

2) Redirect to SEO formatted URL: If you enable this option, customers and search robots

will be redirected to a SEO-friendly post page by 301 redirect.


Comments

1) Use Comments: Select Yes to enable comments in the frontend.

2) Automatic Approving: Select Yes if you want that comments to a post will be published

without admin approval.

3) Allow Guest Comments: Enable the option to allow non-registered customers to

comment your posts.

4) Quantity of Recent Comments in Block: Define the quantity of comments that will be

displayed in the “Recent Comments” block.

5) Display Date for Recent Comments: Select Yes to show the date when a comment was

left in the “Recent Comments” block.

6) Display Short Content for Recent Comments: Due to this option, customers will see the

beginning of recent comments in the block.

7) Attribute rel=”no follow” for Links in Comments: If you select Yes, search engines will

not follow links in comments. It is useful if someone posts spam comments with links

to other sites.


Recent Posts Block

1) Recent Posts Quantity in Block: Define the quantity of posts that will be displayed in the

block.

2) Display Short Content: Select Yes to allow your customers to read the beginning of posts.

3) Display Date: Select Yes to show the date when a post was published.

4) Short Content Limit: Define the number of letters that will be displayed in the block for

each post.

Tags

Tags are more specific than categories and help merchants to describe their posts in more

detail. Due to tags, customers are able to find posts with the topic they are interested in

quicker.

1) Minimal Posts Number per Tag: Define the minimal quantity of posts that a tag should

have.


Note: Try not to write only one post for a tag. It will be useless to customers, and,

besides, you may be penalized by Google for having two pages with the same content

(post and archive).

2) Use 3D Cloud to Display Tags: To make tags more noticeable to customers, you can add

a block with a 3D tag cloud to the main blog page and post pages.

3) 3D Cloud: Height: Define the height of the 3D cloud block.

4) 3D Cloud: Color Scheme: Choose the color scheme of the cloud that will suit your store

design.

5) 3D Cloud: Text Color: Input the HEX code (#FFFFFF, #ACACAC) of the color that will be

applied to most popular tags (they have the bigger size than other tags).

Note: the color code should be written without #.

6) 3D Cloud: Tag Color for Less Used Tags: Input the HEX code of the color that will be

applied to minor tags (they are of a smaller size than the popular ones).

7) 3D Cloud: Tag Highlight Color: Input the HEX code of the highlight color.

RSS

Due to this option, you and your customers will be able to parse an RSS feed from your

blog and insert it into a Magento RSS feed page. It will allow customers to get the latest

posts, comments and other content from the blog without visiting the store.

1) Display Link on List: Select Yes to display the link to the RSS feed on the main blog page.

2) Post Feed: Select Yes to allow customers to insert posts into an RSS feed page.

3) Category Feed: Chose Yes to allow customers to insert categories into an RSS feed page.

4) Comment Feed: Select Yes to allow customers to insert comments into an RSS feed page.


Note: insert the http://www.yourstore.com/rss address into your RSS link so as

customers could get feed from your post.

Publisher Information

A publisher is the website which publishes posts. You can have several authors but the

publisher is only one (e.g. the Magpleasure publisher). The information about the company

that publishes a post is important when sharing content on social media. If a person finds

your post on Facebook, he/she will see that it belongs to your site.

1) Facebook Account: Specify your Official store Page on Facebook.

2) Twitter Account: Specify your Official store Account on Twitter.


Social Buttons

1) Enabled: Select Yes to display social share buttons on a post page.

2) Networks: Choose networks where your customers will be able to share posts.

Sitemap

Sitemap helps Google and other search engines to understand your store structure better.

1) Enabled: Select Yes to enable the sitemap in your store.

2) Include: Select the blog parts that will be included into the sitemap.


Look and Feel

Color of Blog Icons: Select a color for the icons displayed at the top of a blog post (the

author, number of views, the Print button, etc.).

Notification of Added Comment

This option allows you to receive notifications of new comments even if they are approved

automatically. It will help you control what visitors leave in comments and delete spam

messages timely.

1) Receiver: Specify an email or several emails where notifications of new comments will be

sent.

2) Sender: Choose the email from which notifications will be sent.

3) Notification Template: Select a notification template. You can use your own template or

the Blog Pro one.


This is a notification of an added comment that is waiting for approval. You should approve

it in the backend of your store.

If comments are approved automatically in your store, the notification will be the following:


Notification of Post Publishing

This notification will be sent when a scheduled post is published.

1) Receiver: Specify an email or several emails where notifications of publishing will be sent.

2) Sender: Choose the email from which notifications will be sent.


the Blog Pro one.

Customer Notifications

1) Enabled: Select Yes to send customers email notifications that someone replied to their

comments or added a new comment to the post.

2) Sender: Choose an email from which notifications will be sent.


the Blog Pro one.


Post Creation

Blog Pro features allow you to create various blog posts adding images, thumbnails, videos,

forms, etc. Besides, you can optimize them for search engines and increase leads traffic to

the store.

To create a post, go to the CMS → Blog Pro → Add Post or CMS → Blog Pro → Posts backend

page and click the button.


Content

1) Status: Select the status of the post.

Enabled: The post is displayed in the frontend.

Disabled: The post is not displayed in the frontend.

Hidden: The post is not enabled but you can see how it will look in the frontend. For

this, click the link above the post that will appear after saving. We recommend you

to set this status until the post is ready for publishing.

Scheduled: The post will automatically be published at the time that you define in

the Additional tab.

2) Title: Specify the title of the post.

3) URL Key: The URL key is created automatically after specifying the title. If necessary, you

can update it or write manually.


Note: if your blog title is written in non-Latin letters, the URL will be transliterated to

Latin letters automatically. See the example below.

4) Short Content: In this field, you can write a short description or summary of the post to

draw customers’ attention to its content.


Content Editing

In the new version of Blog Pro, we’ve integrated a new, more convenient, editor. With the

help of the tools in the grid, you can quickly format text, change fonts, add images, videos,

create lists, tables, etc.

Cut Post

You can use the first paragraph of the post as a short content. For this purpose, disable

Short Content. Then, put the cursor on the place where you want to stop the short

description and click the Cut Post button.

The first paragraph is cut:


The frontend view:

Magento Variables

Sometimes it is necessary to quickly insert into a post an email address or telephone in

order customers could contact you, the sales team or another department. The Magento

Variables option will allow you to do it in one click.


Autosave and Drafts

Autosave allows you to create a blog post and not to worry that the content will be lost in

an unexpected situation. If you close or reload the post page without having saved it

beforehand, the content will be saved automatically.

When the page is loaded again, you will see the following notification above the post:

If you click the Reject the Draft link, the unsaved draft will be deleted, and you will continue

working with the latest saved copy.

Note: if you haven’t saved the content at all from the beginning, the content field will

appear empty.


How to Add Image

There are several ways of adding images to a post.

The First Variant

Choose the necessary place for the image. Click the Insert Image button in the grid. An

AJAX window appears on the screen:

Drag an image and drop it in the field, or choose it from the files on your device.

The image is inserted into the post:


The Second Variant

Drag an image from a directory on your desktop and just drop it to the necessary place

right in the post.

The Third Variant

Click the Insert Image button in the grid and go to the Choose tab. Here you can choose

an image that was uploaded to the store previously.

The Forth Variant

Click an image and press Ctrl+C. Then, choose a place for the image in the blog editor and

press Ctrl+V.

5) Tags: Specify the tags that are related to the post topic. If you used a tag once in the

past, it will be autocompleted.


Thumbnail

A thumbnail is an image, which is displayed at the beginning of a post. It serves for catching

customer’s attention and encouraging him/her to read the article.

Open the Thumbnail tab.


There are two sections in the tab.

Thumbnails

1) List Image: Choose an image that will be displayed on the main blog page.

2) Post Image: Choose an image that will be displayed in the post.

Note: if you add only one image, it will be displayed for both list and post.

3) Image Link: You can insert a link to an internal page in your store or to another website.

Display Settings

Grid Width: It is the width of the thumbnail when posts are arranged in grid on the main

blog page.

Note: the grid width can be defined for each post separately.

Compare the middle width and the normal width:


Additional

In the Additional tab, you can specify the author’s name, categories and store views where

the post will be published.

Author

1) Name: Specify the author’s name.

2) Google Profile: Paste here the link to the author’s Google profile. The link is clickable in

the frontend.

Note: to display the author’s name in Google search results, you should also share a

post on your profile after publication.

3) Facebook Profile: Provide the link to the author’s profile on Facebook.

4) Twitter Profile: Provide the link to the author’s profile on Twitter.


Additional

1) Publish Date: Define the date when the post will be published.

2) Send Notification on Enabling: Select Yes if you want to receive a notification of post

publishing. It is convenient when a post is scheduled.

Note: Specify email(s) where notifications will be sent on the extension configuration

page (Notification of Post Publishing section).

3) Posted in: Select a category or categories the post will be published in.

4) Visible in: Choose a store view where the post will be published.

5) Allow Comments: Select Yes if you want to allow customers to leave comments to the

post.

Meta Data

Meta data, which includes meta title, description, and keywords, helps search engines to

correctly analyze what your post is about.

Open the Meta Data tab.

Metadata is created automatically after post saving. If necessary, you can change it.

1) Meta Description: Specify the meta title of the post.

2) Meta Keywords: Specify keywords and phrases on which customers can find your post.

3) Meta Description: Write a short description of what your post is about.


Statistics

In this tab, you can see how many unique views a post has received so far.

When the post is finished, click the button.

This is how the post looks in the frontend:


Posts Management

You can change content, status or store view of an existing post whenever you need. For

this, go to the CMS → Blog Pro → Posts backend page.

Every post has two options: Edit and Duplicate.

If you want to make some changes in the post content, select the Edit option or just click

the post line.

The Duplicate option is useful if you need to publish the same post in another store view,

but want to change the content or translate it into another language.


The extension gives you the possibility to delete, duplicate, change a status, update a post

category in bulk. Check the necessary posts and select the required option in the Actions

field. Then click the Submit button.

Update Store View in Bulk

Select Update Store View in Bulk in the Actions field. Upon clicking the Submit button, a

page for updating store views appears.


Posts Transfer to Another Store View

If you need to transfer posts from one store to another, check the Add Store View option

and select the store view where you want to publish the posts. For example, it will be the

French store view.

Then, check the Remove Store View option and select the store view from which the posts

will be deleted. In our case, it is the English one.

Click the Update button.

The posts have been removed from the English store view and transferred to the French

store view:


Posts Copying to Another Store View

If you want to copy posts to another store view in bulk, check the Add Store View option

and select the store view where you want to publish the posts.

Note: the posts will not be removed from the first store view.

Click the Update button.

The posts have been copied to another store view:


Author Name by Default

If you want to publish all posts from one author without entering his/her name and Google

profile every time, you can specify the author name once and use it as default. All posts

will be published from his/her name if you don’t enter any changes in the tab with author

info while creating a new post.

To create an author and use his/her name as default, go to the System → My Account

backend page. Click the button in the upper right corner.

Fill out the fields in the opened window:

1) Name: Enter the name of the author.

2) Google Profile URL: Specify the URL of the author Google profile.

3) Facebook Profile: Specify the URL of the author Facebook profile.

4) Twitter Profile: Specify the URL of the author Twitter profile.

Click the Save button.


Comments Management

Comments are a necessary part of every blog. With their help, you can communicate with

your customers and learn their opinion on the topics you cover.

To manage the existing comments, go to the CMS → Blog Pro → Comments backend page.


To edit a comment, select the Edit option in the Action field or just click the comment line.

On the comment page, you can change the customer name, email, comment content, status

and store view.

After editing the comment, click the button.


Reply to a Customer Comment

If you want to reply to a customer in comments, choose the Reply option.

After it, a form for replying will appear. It already contains the author’s name and has the

Approved status for more convenience. Specify the author’s email and write your reply.

When the reply is ready, click the button.


The reply is added to the comment:

Blog Pro allows you to approve, reject or delete comments in bulk. It saves time if you have

many pending comment.

To change the status, check the necessary comments and click the Change Status option.

Then select the status which you want to set for these comments and click Submit.

After submitting, the checked comments will change their statuses.


Categories Management

Categories help customers to better navigate in your blog, and find the necessary posts

faster.

Creation of a New Category

To create a new category, go to the CMS → Blog Pro → Categories backend page and click

the button.

The page contains two tabs.

General

1) Name: Specify the category title.

2) URL Key: Specify the category URL.

Note: the URL is created automatically but you can change it if necessary.

3) Sort Order: The sort order of a category is defined automatically. If required, you can

change it.

4) Status: Select the status of the category.

5) Visible in: Choose the store views where the category will be displayed.


Meta Data

In the Meta Data tab, you can specify a meta title, keywords and description. They will allow

search engines to index the category better.

1) Meta Title: Specify the meta title of the category.

2) Meta Keywords: Write keywords and phrases by which customers can find the category

in search engines.

3) Meta Description: Write a short description of the topics, which are covered in the

category.

Click the button.


Categories Management

To manage the existing categories, check one or several and select an option in the Actions

field.

When a new status is submitted, the chosen categories will change their statuses.

You can also delete, duplicate, change store views and statuses of categories in bulk. You

can do it by analogy with store view bulk update.


Tags Management

To view all the tags that are used in your store blog, go to the CMS → Blog Pro → Tags

backend page.

Tag Editing

The extension allows you to edit each of your tags and add meta data to them. It is useful

for improving store SEO, as tags with meta data can be understood and indexed by search

engines better.

Open the tag you want to edit.

Note: if you edit a tag, the changes will be applied to all the posts which have this tag.


General

If necessary, you can change the Name or the URL Key of the tag.

Meta Data

In the Meta Data tab, you can specify the meta title, keywords, and description for a tag.

1) Meta Title: Specify the meta title of the tag.

2) Meta Keywords: Write keywords and phrases by which customers can find the tag in

search engines.

3) Meta Description: Meta description allows Google to understand what your tag means.


Tagged Posts

In this tab, you can view all the posts that are marked with the chosen tag. Moreover, you

can pass to the post editing page by clicking the tag line or selecting the Edit option.

When the tag is finished, click the button.

Import Posts from WordPress and aheadWorks Blog

If you have used WordPress or aheadWorks blog extensions before, you may want to import

all your previous posts to the new blog.

The Blog Pro extension will allow you to import your posts in a few minutes.

Import from WordPress

To import posts from WordPress, go to the System → Blog Pro Tools → Import → WordPress

backend page.


Fill out the following information on the page:

1) WordPress Host: Specify the URL of the WordPress blog or any specific post which should

be imported.

2) Admin Username (for WordPress): Set up the name of the admin in the field.

3) Admin Password (for WordPress): Define the password that you used for logging to the

admin panel on WordPress.

4) Import in: Choose the store view where you want to import posts.

Click the button after all the fields are filled out.

Import from aheadWorks Blog

To import all the posts from the aheadWorks blog, go to System → Blog Pro Tools → Import

→ aheadWorks Blog page and click the button. All the posts will be imported.

Note: don’t forget to disable the aheadWorks extension after import. Otherwise, it may

cause errors in the frontend.


Customer Notifications Management

Comment Subscription

When a customer leaves a comment to a post, he/she can subscribe to receiving

notifications of replies or new comments to this post.

To manage subscribed customers, go to the CMS → Blog Pro → Notifications → Comment

Subscription backend page. Here you can view which customers are subscribed to

notifications.


The extension gives you the possibility to change customer statuses or delete subscribers

in bulk.

To change statuses in bulk, check the necessary comments and click the Change Status

option. Then, select a status which you want to set for these subscribers and click Submit.

After submitting, the statuses will be changed:


Notification Sending Queue

Due to this option, you will not lose the information on which customers are notified of

new comments and which are not. All notifications are queued and sent via cron.

Go to the CMS → Blog Pro → Notifications → Sending Queue backend page.

On this page, you can view which notifications were sent successfully, failed or are waiting

for sending.

You can also change the notification status manually or delete it if necessary.


Test Notification

If you want to check how a notification will look like, you can send a test copy to your

email.

For this, check the notification that you want to test and choose Send Test Email in the

Action field. Then, type the email to which the notification will be sent. Click the Submit

button.

The notification is in the Inbox:


The Frontend View

To see the main blog page in the frontend, click the Blog link among top or bottom links.

Note: the placement of the link depends on the configuration on the extension

configuration page in the Top Menu Integration and Footer Menu Integration sections.

On the main page, customers can see blocks containing the information about recent

posts, comments, tags, archive, etc. together with the list of posts.

To view the whole content of a post, click the Read More button below it.


Customers can share the posts they like on different social networks, such as Facebook,

Twitter, Pinterest, and others.


A customer can enlarge an image added to the post by clicking on it:

If your post contains useful information, customers may want to print it. They can do it by

clicking the Print link.


Post Commenting

To leave a comment, a customer should click the Leave a Comment button. This button is

displayed under the post (when full content is visible).

After clicking the button, a form for reviews will appear. The content of the form depends

on whether the user is registered or not.

The form for registered customers:

The form for guests:

When leaving a comment, a customer can subscribe to getting email notifications of replies

or new comments to this post.

Note: This option is checked by default.


To reply to a comment, a customer should click the Reply button.

Archives

A customer can find posts for a specific month by clicking the necessary month in the

Archives block.

After clicking, all the posts for the chosen period appear on the page.


Posts Sorting by Categories and Tags

Customers can sort posts by categories and tags. It will help them to find all the relative

posts with the same topic quicker.

To find posts in a specific category, a customer should click the necessary category in the

Categories block.

All the posts that belong to this category will appear on the screen:


To find posts related to one tag, a customer should click the necessary tag under the post

or in the Tags cloud.

After this, all the posts marked with the chosen tag will be displayed:


Search

Customers can search the posts they need in the Search the Blog block. Even if a customer

enters a word incorrectly, the extension will show the correct results. Besides, it will

suggest the right variant of the word.


RSS Feed

The extension allows customers to integrate the RSS feed of your blog into their websites.

It will allow them to get the information from the blog (the latest posts, comments,

categories), without necessity to visit your store.

Note: to configure RSS, learn this section.

The RSS link is displayed in the upper right corner on the main blog page.

After clicking the link, a browser will suggest a customer to subscribe to this feed.


Uninstall Blog Pro

To delete Blog Pro, remove all the extension files.

`mp_blog_authors`

`mp_blog_categories_store`

`mp_blog_categories`

`mp_blog_comments_notifications`

`mp_blog_comments_subscriptions`

`mp_blog_comments`

`mp_blog_drafts`

`mp_blog_posts_category`

`mp_blog_posts_store`

`mp_blog_posts_tag`

`mp_blog_posts`

`mp_blog_tags`

`mp_blog_views`

Then you need to clear the cache.

Note: don’t forget to make a backup of your store and disable compilation before any

deletion or installation.

Education

Blog Pro 2.0 User Guide