The team is proud to announce the release of BlogEngine.NET version 1.6.  With several new features and numerous improvements and bug fixes, this is a must upgrade version for current BlogEngine.NET users and those interested in entering the blog scene.

For those who receive a steady dose of comment spam (and who doesn't!), a new powerful Comment Management and Comment Spam Filtering infrastruture has been added in version 1.6.  Comments across all posts can be viewed, edited, deleted or approved in one convenient area.  Comments can still be manually moderated, but now moderation can be automated by running comments thru remote or local comment spam validation services.  Anyone can easily build new comment spam filters and plug them into BlogEngine.NET.  It's just as simple as adding custom Extensions and Widgets is.

The other notable feature in version 1.6 is support for multiple widget zones.  You can now place widgets anywhere on your site, and even move widgets from one zone to another.

A complete list of new features can be found here.

If you're upgrading from BlogEngine.NET version 1.5 or earlier, please take a minute to read these upgrade instructions.

There have been quite a few additions to resource file for upcoming BlogEngine.NET 1.6 release. These changes are finalized as change-set 1.5.1.39 at CodePlex - unless you come up with really good reason for improvement, which is always welcome. If you are maintaining a language pack, this is a good time to get it up to date. Please submit your translations as a patch at CodePlex or upload it here.

Thank you for your help!

We are very happy to make available a release candidate for BlogEngine.NET 1.5 today. Version 1.5 has been in the works for a long time and we decided to make a release candidate available before me make the final release this time around.  You can get it here.

BlogEngine.NET 1.5 includes:

Improved Metaweblog API: This version of BlogEngine has improved our capabilities yet again.  We now support tagging calls (as used in the latest version of Windows Live Writer) and updated some issues with dates and images.

For those who prefer to use the web to update their posts, we have a TinyMCE update.

BlogEngine.NET 1.5 now supports nested comments.

Various performance improvements, bug fixes and much more as well.

I just saw that the Web Deployment Tool for IIS 7 was demoed using BlogEngine.NET 1.4.5. There is a great video of it right here http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/ES15/.

The Web Deployment Tool is something that we will make sure to support. It will make installing much easier - especially for shared hosting environments.

In October, Al Nyveldt and Mads Kristensen met in New York City to talk about the future of BlogEngine.NET. It was also the first time that they have met face-to-face in the physical world and it was after 1½ years of collaboration on the project.

In the near future we will plan the roadmap for BlogEngine.NET 1.5 and get working on it.

Earlier today, Daniel Frost posted a way to do multiblogging with BlogEngine.NET using the IIS 7 API. It looks really simple and easy to use and it all happens within your blog installation - no fiddling with the server each time a new blog should be created. The best part is that it looks so easy and require almost no code and no changes to BlogEngine.NET is required.

I know this is a feature that a lot of people want in BlogEngine.NET, but for now I would recommend you take a look at Daniel's solution.

Only a month after 1.4 was released, we are making an update.  Today, we have published BlogEngine.NET 1.4.5 which has a bunch of fixes, improvements, and new features.

If the fixes and performance improvements aren’t enough to get you to upgrade maybe some of these features we’ll encourage you.

Filter by APML - You can now filter the posts of a blog by your own APML file. An APML file is a prioritized list of your own interests represented in XML. All BlogEngine.NET 1.4.5 users have such a file auto generated and it’s called apml.axd. You only have to enter your blog URL and BlogEngine.NET will then find your APML using auto-discovery like the browser does for RSS feeds.

Enhanced Metaweblog API – In this release, we added the ability for administrator users to publish blog post for any of the users of the blog though Live Writer.  In addition, we added support for SSL connections with Metaweblog API.  If you have it, you can now force it.

Database support out of the box – While 1.4 made it possible to use most any database as a backend for your blog, we didn’t include more than SQL Server script in the download.  This time around, we’re doing our best to make it easier than ever to get started with a database backend.  In the setup folder, we have instructions and scripts to get started with SQL Server, MySQL, SQLite, and VistaDB Express.

File Upload improvements – Files and images uploaded will now be placed in new folders that are named by the year and month. This could be /files/2008/07/example.doc.

HTML Editor defaults – Some people don’t like the TinyMCE editor or any other editor and prefer to enter their own HTML. Now there is a switch that remembers your preferences and allows you to write your own HTML.

We encourage you to check the latest and greatest ever of BlogEngine.NET.  You can download it here.

Happy writing,

The BlogEngine.NET Team

It's been a while since the last release, but now the wait is over. We present to you the 5th and best version of BlogEngine.NET. Go download it.

New features in BlogEngine.NET 1.4

New database provider
BlogEngine.NET now works with most commercial and open source databases such as MySQL, SQL Server, VistaDB and many others. This allow you to use practically any database supported by your hosting provider. You can still use XML files if you don't want to use a database.

Drag 'n drop widgets
Widgets are the pieces of content most often located at the sidebar. It could be a list of recent posts, latest tweets from Twitter or anything else. You can drag and drop the widgets around in your sidebar and modify the content of them directly on the front-page. The widget works independently of the theme you are using as long as it is implemented in the theme. In BlogEngine.NET it is implemented in the Standard and Indigo themes and many more themes with widgets will be available for download very soon at the BlogEngine.NET website.

Extension settings
The new settings model for extensions have been upgraded to give you a much better experience using third-party extensions. For extension developers, it has never been easier to store your settings and let the user change them from the admin section. The same settings model is used by the widgets as well.

Web 3.0 improvements
BlogEngine.NET 1.4 makes full use of many semantic formats and technologies such as FOAF, SIOC and APML. It means that the content stored in your BlogEngine.NET installation will be fully portable and auto-discoverable. It is possible to filter the RSS feeds based on the visitor's interest defined in her APML file or do a site search with it as well. Read more the APML filtering in BlogEngine.NET.

Author profiles
By utilizing the ASP.NET profile provider it is now possible to let all authors maintain their own profile. This is used in the FOAF document and widget/extension developers can take full advantage of the profiles to provide new exciting visualizations and functionality.

Other new features
We've listened to what you - the user - wanted in BlogEngine.NET 1.4 and here is a list of some of those features that made it.

• Tag selector when adding new posts
• Subcategories
• Password encryption
• Improved live comment preview
• Hierarchical pages in the control panel
• Smarter comment spam protection
• Link collection widget
• Various performance improvements
• and much more...

Good luck and happy writing.

The BlogEngine.NET team

Over the weekend, we were alerted to a security flaw in BlogEngine.NET 1.3.0.0.   We have created a new release 1.3.1.0 which corrects this issue and are making a patch available here for users running 1.3.0.0.  For those people running development version of BlogEngine.NET (from the source tab on CodePlex), please note that the latest release 1.3.0.29 has the security fix as well.

The security flaw makes it possible to access BlogEngine.NET user passwords (and other data that you normally would see with a password).  The flaw has been in the system since version 1.2.0.23 and we strongly encourage all BlogEngine.NET users to update to 1.3.1 as soon as possible.  If you see a fellow blogger running something prior to 1.3.0.29 or 1.3.1.0, please let them know to update their site as soon as possible.  In addition, we encourage you to update your BlogEngine.NET password(s) as a security measure after you update.

The BlogEngine.NET team takes security very seriously and we regret that this security issue was introduced into the system.   We hope that no one was seriously effected by the issue and have not heard reports of any to date.  Please update your software as soon as you can.  We are truly sorry for the inconvenience.

It is unfortunate that the issue could not have been handled more discretely.  If you are blogger writing about the issue, we'd hope that you could refrain for spelling out exactly how to attack sites that haven't been updated yet.  (Yes, we do want people to know there is a problem that needs patched, but we'd prefer if were weren't tempting casual hackers to try out the hack on a unpatched site by giving them a step by step guide.)

Again, we are sorry for the inconvenience and any trouble this may have caused you.  If you know of other BlogEngine.NET users, please pass this information along.

Download Full Release: BlogEngine.NET 1.3.1.0

Download Patch for BlogEngine.NET 1.3.0.0

Jesse Foster has portet a really cool theme to BlogEngine.NET. It's a dark theme that looks really stylish and clean.

You can see and download the theme here.

Thanks Jesse - good work (and sorry for getting your name wrong the first time around. )