Using Agitprop

Agitprop is capable of scanning your iBlog blog entries and producing a MovableType compatible file. First, however, you need to select which iBlog folder you wish to scan. Pertinent background information on iBlog folder structures is available.

  1. Launch Agitprop
    Application Icon
  2. Specify the blog folder (see discussion elsewhere) that you want to process by selecting "Select Source Folder..." from the "File" menu or by clicking the "Select Source Folder..." button in the user interface. Doing so will display the familiar Mac OS X file-selection dialog. Navigate to and select the Bnnnnnnnnnn folder of your choice, as discussed above.
    PastedGraphic5.jpg

    In the image above, you can see that I've selected my Bnnnnnnnnnn folder that's within my own ~/Documents/iBlogBackup/iBlogCurrent/Blogs/ folder.

    Once you select the folder, Agitprop will scan your blog entries and populate its user interface with summary information on those entries:

    Selecting a blog entry, accomplished by clicking on the corresponding row within the table, will cause Agitprop to display iBlog's abstract for that entry.

    As with most Cocoa-based Mac OS X applications you can manipulate the table display, resize the columns, and sort the table by clicking the column headers.

  3. Now would be a good time to review the various conversion options that you can control. These options become persistent preferences, and are saved across various launches of the application. You can display the options sheet by selecting "Preferences..." from the "Agitprop" menu, or by clicking the "Options..." button in the user interface.

    The settings are discussed below:
    Default Category
    This specifies the category for your posting should Agitprop have difficulty determining the iBlog category you have the posting(s) filed under. Ordinarily this doesn't come into play, but is provided as a fail-safe, just in case, and you should specify the category you'd like such posts to appear filed under. Commonly used values include "General" or "Unfiled".
    Author
    This specifies the author byline that should appear on your postings. Many web-based blogging solutions, such as Wordpress and MovableType have the ability to support several different authors. iBlog has no such provision, and thus you should use this field to specify a value that will be assigned to your entries when the conversion is performed. The field is pre-populated with your current Mac OS X name.
    Publication Status
    This specifies whether the blog entries should be flagged as published or as draft entries. Ordinarily you should leave this set to "Published".
    Allow Pings
    Many web-based blogging solutions, such as Wordpress and MovableType have the ability to support notification pings. iBlog has no such provision, and thus you must specify whether your entries should support pings. Check the box to specify that you'd like pings, or leave it unchecked to disable pings for these posts.
    Allow Comments
    Many web-based blogging solutions, such as Wordpress and MovableType have the ability to support reader comments. iBlog has no such provision, and thus you must specify whether your entries should comments. Check the box to specify that you'd like comments, or leave it unchecked to disable comments for these posts.
    Website image Folder Spec
    Agitprop will groom your iBlog entries for their various pictures, sounds, movies, etc, and copy all the required items to a folder upon blog conversion. This makes it easy to identify and transfer only what's required for your blog entries. However, Agitprop needs to rewrite portions of the <img> tag within your blog entries, particularly the "src" attribute (<img src="blahblahblah.jpg">). As such, you must specify at least a portion of the "src" attribute in the form of either an URL or a path (absolute or relative) on your website, where wish to locate your media files.
    Click the "OK" button to dismiss the settings sheet.
  4. Now you're ready to convert the blog entries. You may do so by selecting "Convert" from the "File" menu, or by clicking the "Convert..." button in the user interface. Doing so will display the familiar Mac OS X file-save dialog. You must specify both a location (folder) and a name for your MovableType compatible file (import.txt is typical).

    Clicking the "Save" button will allow Agitprop to begin the blog conversion, creating the MovableType compatible file that you specified.

    In addition to creating the file using the name you've supplied, Agitprop will also create a folder named "<filename> media folder" which will contain all the referenced images, sounds, movies, etc from within your iBlog entries. Any graphics files that were TIFF (*.tiff) images, such as pasted graphics, will first be converted to JPEG (*.jpg) format before being copied to the media folder. Agitprop is smart enough to detect file name conflicts and will ensure that all of your files are named uniquely. Once the conversion begins, Agitprop displays a spinning progress indicator within the user interface. If you have Growl installed, you'll also see a notification that the conversion process has started.
  5. When the conversion process has completed, Agitprop will present a notification sheet that tells you the name of the file you created, as well as the corresponding media folder; if you have Growl installed "Show Files" button that will reveal the MovableType file in the Finder.
    PastedGraphic8.jpg
    Clicking the "Show Files" button would present you with something similar to this, where the Finder is displaying the folder containing your newly created file and media folder, and the file is already selected:
    PastedGraphic9.jpg
  6. You're done with Agitprop! The resulting MovableType compatible file is a simple text file, and you can view its contents using TextEdit, BBEdit, or any other text editor application. You'll want to copy this file to the appropriate location on your webserver and follow your web-based blogging solutions directions for import. Additionally, you'll also want to move the media folder's contents--not the actual media folder itself--to the appropriate location on your webserver.