Kivanc Ozuolmez

• BlogML import/export
• Extension model
• Code syntax highlighting
• ASP.NET SiteMap provider for static pages
• Support for a static page to be the front page
• Full comment RSS/ATOM feed
• Intelligent error 404 page
• E-mail notifications for future comments
• Role provider
• Extended in-site search capabilities
• SLUG – the URL doesn’t change with the title
• User control injection
• Attachments on the contact page
• Comment moderation
• Much better Mono support

So I downloaded and give it a try to import my old data from dasDlog. Here are my steps that resulted %100 successful:

1. Setup BlogEngine on my local pc, just an easy pointing from IIS to the folder.
   
2. Export dasBlog data to BlogML, hence dasBlog doesn’t have a BlogML export utility and has its own data model, I was planning to write some code for that conversion. But –for sure- it was already written by Paul and downloadable on this link.
   With this nice tool it was so easy to convert my dasBlog content to BlogML.
   
3. My images from old posts were in content/binary/ folder in the dasBlog. I left them as they were on the server. So I didn’t change any links or mapping in my posts.
   
4. I had some improvements and additions on widgets and comment mail sender extender, I will post these changes soon.
   
5. I did all configuration, styling, tracking scripts and all other settings locally.
   
6. I deleted everything except content\binary folder on my hosting server and uploaded my new BlogEngine codes and contents.
   
7. After a small setup on permissions (write permission to App_Data folder) my new blog was up and running.
   

It's been quite a long time with not even an update in my blog.Shame on me!

It was not only my laziness but also the problems with my old and faithful blog. As you know, it was an outdated version of DasBlog. It was quite ok for publishing posts but missing many points on SEO (Search Engine Optimization), tag clouds, widgets, etc...

Luckily I had some time and motivation to setup a new blog application (thanks BlogEngine) and successfully migrated my old content from DasBlog to BlogEngine via BlogML. Check the tool on Paul’s site. I’m planning to write my migration steps in the next posts.  

I’ve many other news and planned posts and will try to type them soon.