Scot's Blogger Installation
last updated October 22, 2024
Important: You need to be familiar with the Miva Merchant administration and setting up new page templates to get through this installation. If you are brand new to Miva Merchant please ask your developer to install the module for you.
Contact us if you if you'd like us to do the install. Normally it takes about an hour of dev time for a standard installation.
Read This
Following the instructions word for word is important. Do not gloss over or speed read the instructions. Simple but important steps are often missed this way.
1. Create a Customer Account to Use for Publishing
This is your author account and you will do all your content creation using this account.
Menu > Customers > + button
Fill in the shipping first and last name because those names are used as the default author name.
2. Add the ScotsBlogger Module to Store
See this post
Go to:
Menu > Settings > Domain Settings > Modules
On this screen click the blue button near the right top corner that says "Add Module"
3. Install Module In Store
Menu > Settings > Modules
Find Scot's Blogger and click on the +Install button
4. Open Scot's Blogger Administration and Enter License
If the Miva admin does not automatically take you to the Scot's Blogger module go to:
Menu > Utilities + Scot's Blogger and CMS
5. Create a Blog
Click on the Blogs tab to create a new blog.
6. Blog General Settings
After the new blog is saved you'll see a blog settings page with some setting headings in red.
Click on the General Settings heading to open that section.
Global Administrator (Author) : this is the login name you used when you created the customer account in step 1. The administrator login password is the customer login password from step 1. This is optional but makes
it easier to do a quick post.
Image directory: This is where your drag and drop content images will be saved. Keep it simple, blogimages or something similar works well.
Auto-Save: It's recommended to leave this turned on because sometimes your customer account (the account you're using to write posts) will time out during a writing session. More than once blog posts have been lost this way.
Save Backups: This is similar to the history you see when you edit page templates in your store. If you turn this on you'll have a list of backups to choose from. It's easy to delete them once you have published a post.
7. Set WYSIWYG Editor Settings (module version 3.5 and later)
To use grids and other theme framework CSS layouts go to:
Blog > Content Editor Settings
Enter editor settings in the "Content Editing Settings " section (top box.)
Get your settings here: https://www.scotsscripts.com/support/instapages-wysiwyg-editor-settings.html
Note: The link goes to the Instapages editor settings help page, which is OK. The settings are the same for both modules.
Important: The editor settings must be slightly edited for your store's CSS. Do not skip this step. There is more information in the module section where the editor setting are added.
8. Permalinks Settings
After you've updated the settings above move on to the Permalinks settings.
Permalink settings are done in two steps and all the items in this first step are required.
Permalinks Step 1: First select "yes" in the Use Permalinks section.
Permalink URL Base: Enter how the URL for the blog should look. Do not add an extension such as .html - that comes later in permalinks setup.
For example, if I wanted the base url to look like https://www.scotsscripts.com/blog/ then I would enter "blog" for this settings. For systems with multiple blogs, each base url code must be unique.
Blog Page Code: this is the code you will use for your blog page. This can be anything, the public doesn't see it, but make it something easy to remember.
For example, on ScotsScripts.com the Blog Page Code is blog
After entering this information, update the blog and then open Permalinks again.
Permalinks Step 2: Check over the settings and see if you need to change anything.
Blog Home URL: This is the "home page" for your blog.
Blog Home URL Override: Set a custom home page URL for your blog.
Permalink Extension: If your store pages end with .html then your blog pages should also end with .html. Keep URL extensions in your store consistent.
Permalink Feed URL: This is up to you but it's a good idea for SEO.
Create RSS File: Leave this blank unless the permalink feed url doesn't work. Some stores have settings that get in the way of the feed url.
Number of feed entries: 15 is a pretty good number for this.
When you are finished, select yes in the Update/Refresh .htaccess Settings section and update the blog.
Any time you change permalink settings need to update/refresh the the htaccess file.
Update/Refresh .htaccess Settings:
After you have the info above set, then go back to the top of the section
Update/Refresh .htaccess file: select this to make changes live Placement: top is recommended Create top level url rule: Create a URL for your blog page. Optional, depends on your setup and what you want. Use as canonical: Optional but useful for making the top level url be the base blog canonical url. Force https/www: let miva handle this unless there are problems Select the "yes" option if this is the first time you've gone through this or if you've made changes and need to refresh the htaccess settings. 9. Create the Blog Page
Important: The page code you use must be the same as the code you used in the Permalink settings above.
Create the new page: Menu > User Interface > Templates > Add Page
May 2023 Important Pagebuilder Note: The blogger does not use pagebuilder components. Edit the template from the User Interface > Templates
10. Assign Page Item
When the new template comes up, click on the ITEMS tab and assign the SCOTSBLOGGER and CONTENT page items.
At this point you may want to open a new tab and bring up a generic page in your store such as About Us (ABUS) and compare the page items to the ones in the blog page to make sure the blog page has all the page items your store needs in a template.
11. Get Templates
Click on the PAGE tab to add the following template code.
DETAILS TEMPLATE: DETAILS section of the page in the Miva admin.
Use the latest version you see here even if the module version is more recent. The templates don't always need updates when the module is updated.
Version 3.526 (Oct 2024)
Old Versions 3.503 - 3.510
If your theme sets up the page architecture differently than the main page you just downloaded, no problem. Check the ABUS page in your store for reference on how the page is set up.
CONTENT TEMPLATE: CONTENT section and update the page. If you don't see a Content section, go to the ITEMS tab and make sure the Content item is assigned to the page.
Version 3.526 (Oct 2024)
Old Versions 3.503 - 3.510
Click the UPDATE button to save your templates.
Contact us if you need a template for a different CSS framework.
12. Create a Test Post
Now go back into the Scot's Blogger Administration and click on the writing icon
