Flock is a web-browser with a host of features.
One of its best features is an integrated blogging tool that supports Blogger, Blogsome, LiveJournal, Typepad, Wordpress, Xanga and Self Hosted blogs - besides other integrated social tools.
Flock browser works perfectly with Wine, meaning you need to install Wine before installing flock. The steps to get Flock working in Debian and with Joomla are as follows.
1) Install Wine: http://www.winehq.org/. I Installed Wine from the Synaptic Package Manager.
2) Download and Install Flock - available on several sites, for ex: http://www.oldapps.com/flock.php. My flock version is 2.6.1.
3) Right-click on the downloaded file: flock-2.6.1.en-US.win32.exe and "Open with Wine". Follow the prompts to install Flock Browser.
4) With Flock browser installed, launch it to open. Accounts and Services should be opened by default. If not, go to the Tools Menu >> Accounts and Services for the various blogging services options.
5) To configure for a self-hosted Joomla blog, click SELF-HOSTED BLOG and use the following settings:
a) I host my blog, or the service I use is not listed: type the URL of your blog; for ex: http://www.nairabytes.net message: please wait while flock attempts to detect your blog's settings.
b) Flock cannot detect Joomla, so on the window with the message "Flock could not find any API....", click NEXT.
c) Blog Connection Configuration: XML-RPC API = pull down and choose MOVABLE TYPE Access Point = add "/xmlrpc/index.php" to the end of your URL, ex: http://www.nairabytes.net/xmlrpc/index.php click NEXT
d) the next screen asks for your username and password
e) If all goes well, you get the Blogging - Setup Complete page Your newly configured blog is now available at the upper left, under Accounts and Services. To compose a new post, click the File Menu >> New Blog Post to open the editor window. Compose a new post and click the Publish button.
Welcome to Flock
Observations / draw-back:
Flock indeed is a great too, however it falls short especially with its inability to allow bloggers to insert / upload images from a local / non-public media source.
To insert images from a website, use the media bar: View Menu >> Mini Bar >> Media Bar. Drag images from websites you visit into the Media Bar and they can be inserted(actially linked) into blog-posts for publishing. Images can also be inserted into posts from services like Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa and Tiny Pic.
A work around to the above is to upload your images first into media sharing sites like and then insert / link to them in posts.
This option isn't too friendly in an environment where one writes tutorials, etc; so I would rather use Flock when I do not need to images in my posts. However, unlike other blog editors in Linux which Ive reviewed, Flock detects categories and can post into categories, so thats a plus.
P.s: I have some images for the above post, but unfortunately, I can't insert them into this post. This post was composed using the Flock Blog Editor.
