How to embed a blog without complicated coding...

August 7, 2006 7:14 PM

A way to embed a journal feed on a site (and allow commenting) without using Perl/CGI/Java/ASP/PHP?

I want to start a blog. I need something I can embed in a page with simple HTML, can take comments, and doesn't require me to install CGI scripts/Perl/ASP, none of which I have enough skill to do. (tried with Movable Type, after 5 hours I wanted to toss my laptop out the window)

Is there something simple and functional that I can use without having to know an advanced computer language?

As an aside, I use LJ right now, but while I can embed into a page, I can't seem to get it to allow comments.

Apologies if something like this was posted, I searched and couldn't find anything definitive.

posted by richter_x to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Just use blogger.com. It allows comments and can publish them to your remote site via FTP.
posted by mathowie at 7:20 PM on August 7, 2006

No.

To add comments, you need something to accept the comments in the first place, and something to put the comments on the page so that others can see them. In between, the comments have to live somewhere (a database, a flat file, something) and the thing that accepts the comments has to put them there, and the thing that displays the page has to get them from there.

Static HTML won't do it.

Best bet? find a blog site that's already setup, and register there. (Isn't there crap like LiveBloggers or Yourspace or whatever it's called?) If that won't do, hire someone to set up a COTS package like Movable Type for you.

Or if neither of those suffice, find a usenet group or IRC chat where you can very politely ask very specific questions about how to setup Moveable Type.
posted by orthogonality at 7:20 PM on August 7, 2006

Many web hosts these days offer one-click install of some open-source packages, such as Wordpress. If you're using Dreamhost, they've got it. If you're using any website with "fantastico" (a front-end for installing these packages) they've most likely got it.

Blogger is also a decent option, though to get it to appear on your site, you'll need to configure your blog at Blogger to upload the files to your website.
posted by adamrice at 7:35 PM on August 7, 2006

I'll just reiterate that even with the things ortho said, Blogger can handle comments without any need for active scripting on your server. It does it all via FTP, and comments are done on the blogger site itself, with the resulting comment page FTP'd to your server.
posted by mathowie at 8:37 PM on August 7, 2006

I've checked out Blogger, but my main thing is it allowing someone to comment on the page i've done, not the actual blogger page. Can it do that?
posted by richter_x at 7:26 PM on August 8, 2006