The Blog Options interface consists of seven sections and contains numerous settings. Some optional libraries, such as Disqus, have a dedicated section for entering information, such as a personal Disqus Key. In this article, we will cover all of the options of the Blog Options interface.

Table of Contents

Quick Start Options

There are many options in this interface, but if you want to get up and running as soon as possible, we recommend the following:

  1. Install an SSL certificate on your server and check the Use SSL checkbox
  2. If you have a server rewrite rule on the server to remove the index.cfm, check the server rewrite rule checkbox to make your links more concise
  3. Check the Minimize Code and Defer Non-Essential Scripts checkboxes
  4. Uncheck the Disable cache checkbox after you have finished setting up your blog. However, you may want to disable it temporarily after releasing a new post.
  5. Obtaining a BingMaps Key to embed maps into your posts
  6. Leave the other default settings unless you want to use the Disqus commenting system or the Greensock animation library.

We will discuss these options in more detail below.

Main Blog Options

  1. It is suggested that you enable Server Rewrite Rules. Please refer to our article to find out more.

    A 'Server Rewrite Rule' essentially removes the index.cfm from all of your public pages and makes it easier for search engines to digest the content in an SEO-friendly way. The server re-write rules are placed on the server. You may have to involve your server or hosting administrator to get it working on the server. If you have a server rewrite rule on the server, and you're sure that it works, check the box below so that Galaxie Blog can generate the proper links. Be sure that your server-side rewrite rules work before checking this box, as you may not be able to get back into this site unless you have direct access to the database to disable this setting once it is checked.

  2. Defer Non-Essential Scripts

    Deferring the loading of non-essential scripts speeds up the site's loading, making the initial site load faster. It is highly recommended to keep this setting unless you need all scripts to load before rendering the page.

  3. Minimize Code

    Galaxie Blog can minimize Javascript and CSS to load the page quicker. The code is compressed to a dozen lines when reading a single post. This setting should be checked when you are in a production environment to improve page performance. You may want to turn this off if you are trying to debug code, as the code is much easier to read when it is not compressed.

  4. Disable Cache

    Galaxie Blog caches each independent section of the blog page to optimize performance. However, when this setting is not disabled, your changes may not be reflected on the page. It would be best if you kept this off until you finish setting up your site. Also, if you make many changes, you may want to disable the cache. Once you are done with your changes, you can return and enable caching. 

    Disabling the Cache does not eliminate the blog cache; it just temporarily prevents the blog from loading a page from the cache.  

  5. Number of Posts Per Page

    You can adjust how many blog posts appear on the landing page. The default setting is ten (10) posts per page, and it is recommended to keep this setting. However, if you extensively use maps and/or videos, you may want to consider adjusting this to five (5) posts per page, as both maps and videos consume a lot of resources and will increase the page load time. Alternatively, if you are minimal in your media usage or use the <more> tag quite often to break up the content of your posts, you can set this to a max of twenty-five (25) posts. 

jQuery and Kendo UI

These settings are critical for Galaxie Blog to work correctly. Unless you know what you are doing, it is recommended that you leave these settings as they are.

Galaxie Blog uses the Teleriks open-source Kendo Core. However, if you are familiar with Kendo UI, you can implement the professional Kendo UI library if you have a license. You may also change the jQuery version if the library is updated. If you will use the professional edition, please upload the Kendo UI to the same /common/libs/kendo/ file location.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics may be incorporated to determine your page traffic trends. To use Google Analytics, you must first obtain a free Google GTAG string; see https://developers.google.com/tag-platform/gtagjs/install for more information.

To use Google Analytics, enter the GTAG strings below (i.e., G-XXXXXX). If you have more than one GTAG string, separate them with commas. You can enter as many GTAG strings below as you need. You don't need to do anything else other than enter your GTAG string(s). Galaxie Blog will configure Google Analytics if a string is found.

Bing Maps Library

Galaxie Blog can generate static maps and map routes using the Bing API. To generate a static map or route, create or edit a post and click on the Enclosure Editor button. This will bring up an editor, allowing you to generate static maps and map routes quickly using a WYSIWYG interface. You may also embed maps within any post. To add this functionality, you must sign up for a free Bing Maps API key.

For more information, please see our How-to article for incorporating Bing Maps into the Galaxie Blog.

Disqus Library

Disqus is an optional library that you can use to allow users to interact with your site and add comments. Disqus is fully integrated into Galaxie Blog, and it only needs a few free keys provided by Disqus. There are some advantages and disadvantages to consider when using Disqus. It offers numerous tools to analyze your users and can cut down on spam significantly, however, it also requires the users to log into their own social media account to interact with your site. This may limit the number of comments that you receive on your site. It also requires loading additional external libraries that may cause a slight performance hit if you use it. Please see the Disqus site at https://disqus.com/ for more information.

If you want to incorporate Disqus, we have a detailed how-to article at https://www.gregoryalexander.com/blog/2022/4/28/Incorporating-the-optional-Disqus-library-into-Galaxie-Blog

GreenSock Animation Library

Greensock is a popular animation library that you can use in your blog posts. This library does not require a dedicated license, and it is open source; however, it requires advanced Javascript skills and should not be loaded unless you intend to use it. For more information, see https://greensock.com/gsap/