For example, in the entry entitled "The Demo Blog," the URL is http://blog.case.edu/demo/2004/11/18/the_demo_blog.

Sometimes, you might not want that especially if you have a long title like "My Raisenettes are Supercalifragilisticexpialodocious which is not to be Interpreted Onomatopoetically." Or, you would just rather have a different title... for whatever reason. Well, you can do that.

In the form you use to create your post, you should see a text box called "Keywords." If you populate that, the words in there (appropriately lowercased, spaces converted to underscores, and special characters stripped) will be used to create your blog entry's title.

You might have noticed that the title of this blog entry is "Your Blog Entry's URL," but the URL is http://blog.case.edu/demo/2005/01/07/different_url. This is how that was done.

Flickr is an online digital photo management service. And, what better use is there for having digital photos online than putting them on your blog! Luckily, Flickr makes this easy; and it gives you several different ways to do this. This first way uses some HTML and some scripting, but don't let that scare you, it's actually quite easy.

First things first, you're going to need a Flickr account, and you're probably going to want to upload some photos there. I highly recommend using one of Flickr's uploading tools to upload your photos. They are much easier and faster to use than the web forms.

After you are all setup with an account and have uploaded some photos, you are all ready to display them on your blog. Flickr refers to this as a "Flickr Badge" for your blog. You can begin generating your badge by going to Flickr: Make a badge.

On the first page, the default options that are already selected are probably what you want; so just click the blue "Next" button at the bottom and continue on. (If you want to change the options, feel free to do so, though.)

The next screen gives you a preview of how your photos will show up. You can choose the background color here, but I would recommend leaving the default of "No Background." On the bottom, click the blue "Get Code" button. This will generate the necessary HTML to include in your blog that will show your Flickr photos.

And, there you go. On the next screeen, cut and paste that HTML into the template of your blog where you would like your Flickr photos to appear, and you're all done!

A "LinkBlog" is an area of your blog where links are posted that is separate from the main content area. It's a smaller area usually put off to the side where links are posted. Think of it this way, the main content is the "main course" of your blog, and it probably consists of mostly original content and more indepth insight; the LinkBlog side area is for items you were reading and thought "this is interesting, maybe I'll share it." LinkBlogs are quite common, and there are a number of different ways to create them. One of the most interesting ways is to use the del.icio.us bookmark service. The del.icio.us bookmark system is a new and innovative service that stores your bookmarks online and makes them available anywhere you are in the world. Plus, it lets you categorize them, share them with friends, embed them in web pages, and, actually, through syndication technologies, you can embed your del.icio.us bookmarks anywhere (even the my.case.edu portal!).

Setting up a del.icio.us account and creating bookmarks is simple. Integrating the service with your Blog@Case blog takes a bit of effort; it requires editing the HTML templates that create your blog; but we'll step through it.

1. Go to del.icio.us and register for an account (don't worry, it's free).
2. After creating a del.icio.us account, it is recommended you create a "bookmarklet" that allows you to quickly post new links to the account. A "bookmarklet" is a fancy word for a simple bookmark you place in your browser, and when you click on it, will pop up a new window that asks you to create the link automagically. The del.icio.us site explains very simply how to create your magic del.icio.us bookmarklet.
3. Now that you are all setup with your account, go ahead and use your bookmarklet to post some links. After all, you'll want to have some links ready to go when you integrate it with your blog lest the results end up being lackluster.
4. After having posted some preliminary bookmarks, login to your Blog@Case blog, enter your blogs administrative web area, and click on the "Templates" button in the navigational menu on the left.
5. In the "Edit Your Templates" area, click on the "Index" template to add your LinkBlog to the front page of your blog.
6. You're going to have to wade through some HTML, but find the spot where you want your LinkBlog displayed. Once you have found the spot, include the following markup code (insert your del.icio.us account user in the appropriate spot):

   <h3><a title="del.icio.us/YOUR_DELICIOUS_USERNAME" href="http://del.icio.us/YOUR_DELICIOUS_USERNAME">LinkBlog</a> 
   (Powered by <a title="del.icio.us" href="http://del.icio.us/">del.icio.us</a>)</h3>
   
   <MTRSSFeed file="http://del.icio.us/rss/YOUR_DELICIOUS_USERNAME"> 
   <ul>
       <MTRSSFeedItems lastn="7"> 
         <li><a href="<$MTRSSFeedItemLink$>"><$MTRSSFeedItemTitle$></a> 
             <MTRSSFeedItemDescriptionExists> - <$MTRSSFeedItemDescription$></MTRSSFeedItemDescriptionExists>
         </li> 
       </MTRSSFeedItems>
   </ul>
   </MTRSSFeed>

There you go! You are now using the Internet to store your bookmarks, and you are leveraging the power of the del.icio.us service to use your bookmarks ubiquitiously!

For those that noticed above, including the content of your del.icio.us account involved using a markup tag called MTRSSFeed. This is, actually, a very powerful plugin used by the Blog@Case weblog system; and it can be leveraged to include any content available via RSS. So, feel free to play around with it. A more indepth tutorial on the capabilities on MTRSSFeed is available here and here.

In later entries on DemoBlog@Case, we'll cover alternate ways to create LinkBlogs. Stay tuned...