Journals R7 Release in Beta

[Note: Scroll down if you're wondering where that rumbling noise is coming from.]

So, just over two weeks since the Journals R6 Release was installed, the Journals team has pushed Journals release R7 to beta, which means you can play around with it.

Now, depending on what's going on with the other Journals issues we're currently seeing, R7 is scheduled to be installed to production tomorrow, Thursday, June 29, during the early morning install window starting at 4AM ET. [Update, 6/28, 9:34pm: The R7 install is not going to happen Thursday. This means that due to the July 4th holiday moratorium, the earliest we're going to see R7 is next week, after the holiday break. You can still play with all the features in beta, though.]

You can see the R7 features on the Journals Beta right now -- just add beta. to the front of your Journal's address. For example, for my blog, the beta address is  http://beta.journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke)

R7 is a relatively small release that includes a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff -- but that doesn't mean you won't be able to see a bunch of cool features. Here's what's in beta right now that you can play with:

* Object Tags (Allows Embedded Video): I will have to do a more extensive post with step-by-step instructions, but you'll be able to embed video players from our approved list (right now AOL UnCut Video and YouTube) into your Journal entries.

Here's my Memorial Day Rolling Thunder Video hosted on UnCut Video:

Basically, you'll just cut and paste the HTML code that invokes a Flash movie player.

Upcoming versions of the UnCut Video Player will have links back to the video's page (right now, it doesn't) -- also, at a future point, it would make sense for UnCut's "Blog This" link to embed the video player for you, automatically -- right now, it just does the clickable thumbnail.

Also note that right now, the UnCut Video player autoplays on load. This can be kind of annoying -- the mid-July release of the embedded player will have autoplay off.

* User-Friendly Journal Entry URLs: Right now, the URLs (Web addresses) of individual entries are not the most user-friendly things in the world. For example, here's the direct link to my cow-orker entry: http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/1121.

Now, you can't tell what the entry is about just by looking at the URL, since it's just a number.

With R7, we will be getting friendlier entry URLs -- they will automatically incorporate the date of the entry, as well as the title of the entry, into the direct link URL. For my cow-orker entry on beta, the URL is: http://beta.journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/2006/02/13/about-my-cow-orkers/1121

As you can see, the front part of the URL is the same; after "entries", though, you get the date posted, and then the title of the entry (with dashes instead of spaces -- it will truncate after a limit), followed by the entry number. (The entry number was kept at the end so that the tech folks don't have to completely rework the database).

Also, some characters (like question marks, double quotes, etc) will need to be stripped out or URL-encoded in order for the URLs to work.

Old-style entries will redirect to the new ones; also, if you change the title of your entry, it will automatically change the URL, and the old URL will redirect so it won't break (which is nice).

If you don't have a title in your entry, that part of the URL will just be"untitled."

International will also get this change.

* Moblogging: It worked, it didn't work, finally it works again and is ready to go into production. As I've been ready to say several times, moblogging is just short for "Mobile Blogging" -- the ability to post entries (with pictures) to your blog using a mobile device, such as a cell phone, by sending e-mail to a special address. I just tried it out on beta and it works, so I will publish my moblogging instructions entry after the launch.

* Additions to the HTML Whitelist: In addition to the Object tags being added to the allowed list, there will also be enhancements to the HTML Whitelist (which defines the sites you can use Javascript from or IFRAME).

Seeing as how I still haven't been able to yet get to that entry on the earlier whitelist additions (the Technorati embed widget works, some of the others don't, at least when I tried), I will have to get to this.

Anyway, as noted, I owe you step-by-step instructions on the Moblogging and Embedded Video items, though I will probably wait until they've been installed to production -- it's scheduled for tomorrow, and I will let you know if the timeline changes. [Update: As noted above, the install isn't happening until next week at the earliest.]

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: uncut video, moblogging, aol journals, aol journals beta, r7