User Manual
This is the user manual for StupidZombie. Here you will find information about how to run the program, setting it up and dealing with common problems.
How to install
Please choose an installation method below.
Required software
You need Java 6 or better to run StupidZombie. You can download it from here: http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp
Webstart
- Just click the following link and follow the instructions: http://kenai.com/projects/stupidzombie/downloads/download/StupidZombie.jnlp
- Be sure to give ll permissions to StupidZombie. It needs your trust in order to save and import preferences from your hard drive
OSX Installer
You need to do several things:
- make sure you have enough privileges to install software on your computer
- Download the OSX package
- Double-click on the OSX package file for StupidZombie and follow the instructions
- Success!
Plain JAR
Download the jar from <a href=http://kenai.com/projects/stupidzombie/downloads/download/StupidZombie.jar">this project's download page</a> and then run like this:
java -jar StupidZombie.jar
Initial setup
Normally you only need to put the name of your blog and the blog URL in order to notify the directories. Pinging those directories will only work if you are a registered user so make sure that is the case before you ping them!
Extra settings
Some directories require extra information before you can ping them. Please fill the empty textboxes that apply to your blog and then click save.
From now on this settings will be saved on the computer you are running StupidZombie on.
Note: These actions can also be performed from the 'File menu' on the GUI
Preparing for the worst: exporting your settings
If you want to make sure your settings are preserved or you want to share them across computers then do this:
- Click the export button and then save your settings into a file
- Copy the settings to a safe location (like USB drive, CDROM, other computer)
- Success!
Recovering from a disaster: Importing your settings back
- Click the import button and choose your previously saved file
- You're all set
How to ping directories
After you setup your blog settings in the previous step, select each one of the directories you want to notify about your update (By selecting the check mark on the Ping column) and then click the button that says "Ping directories". Once StupidZombie is done pinging directories it will enable the ping button again,
Be aware that if you try to ping one directory more than once on a very short amount of time you will get errors on the message column.
Note: Some directories like Veneblogs doesn't return a proper status after pinging the blog on the message coumn. The best way to deal with this is to check the directory itself to make sure the ping status worked.
There is a way to add a new directory by hand?
Not at this point, but you can post a request on the user forums
Schedule ping with cron
You can tell StupidZombie to ping your favorite directories on a schedule basis. Instead of calling the GUI you call the ping controller directory (the following script is available from the download page and on the Subversion repository: http://kenai.com/projects/stupidzombie/downloads/download/Scripts/stupidzombie-cli.sh).
For example, to ping your directories every Monday (to learn more about cron do 'man 5 cron' on the Linux / OSX command line):
# use /bin/bash to run commands, overriding the default set by cron SHELL=/bin/bash # mail any output to 'undead' MAILTO=undead # run five minutes after midnight, every day 5 0 * * * export STUPIDZOMBIE_HOME=$HOME/stupidzombie && $STUPIDZOMBIE_HOME/stupidzombie-cli.sh technorati,bitacorascom,pingomatic >> $STUPIDZOMBIE_HOME/logs/stupidzombiecron.log 2>&1
Note how we setup the STUPIDZOMBIE_HOME variable before calling the script.
Helping search engines to find your blog, with Tags
For a quick introduction to tags, please refer to this document: http://support.technorati.com/support/siteguide/tags
It is very easy:
- just type your tags, separated by a ',' and then click on the button that says 'Generate tags'
- Copy and paste on your blog editor window
How do I generate tags for other directories?
Please submit a request on the user forums and I will add it to the GUI. Right now there is no mechanism to support custom directory tags.
Reporting problems, interact with other users
- Interact with others. Please visit and become friends of Blockhead on Facebook, and follow us!
- Did you knew that Blockhead likes twitter? http://twitter.com/stupidzombie
- The best place to post questions and interact with other users is the forum: http://kenai.com/projects/stupidzombie/forums/support.
Common problems
I ping a directory 'X' but I see no updates. What is wrong?
StupidZombie will tell you if something is wrong on the main ping window (message colum), this is the first place to look for problems.
- Make sure you registered your blog with the directory you are trying to ping
- Is the blog directory reachable from your computer?
- Check the URL of your blog (name is not that important but make sure it matches the case of how you entered it on the Blog directory)
- Post your error on thethis project's forums and you will get help
Test the ping GUI
This feature is mostly useful to developers who are making changes on the GUI or the ping code and don't want to ping the real directories.
From the command line:
java -Dusemockping=true -jar StupidZombie.jar
You will get something like this:
Enable advance monitoring with JMX
StupidZombie supports MBeans that can help you to diagnose issues or report issues better. To run with the extensions enabled:
auyan:dist josevnz$ java -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote -jar StupidZombie.jar & Jun 6, 2009 9:21:41 PM com.stupidzombie.gui.StupidZombieGui main INFO: Starting... auyan:dist josevnz$ jconsole &
This will start StupidZombie with JMX and JConsole. Now just connect to the StupidZombie process and go to the MBeans tab. It would look like this
Note: This feature is experimental and probably needs refinement.
