Newspaper-style blog/CMS software (A new project!)

bobthecockroach · 05-19-2007, 02:22 AM

Alright, I've alluded to this in several threads, but I think it deserves its own after the great response I got on my calendar thread. My next project is going to be blog/CMS software with a newspaper/e-paper style. (Don't worry, I do plan to keep developing the calendar as well.)

Basically, it'll work like this.

The foundation is articles. Articles are the equivalent of blog posts. Articles have a title, content, date, and optionally an abstract, a short version or excerpt of the article. They can also have labels/tags/categories (whatever terms fits best with the newspaper theme

).

Then you have issues. Issues are groupings of articles. These will be ordinarily based on time (daily, weekly, monthly, etc) and automatically created, but there will also be the possibility of creating "special issues" based on the tags/categories (and perhaps also restricted to certain dates).

The layout of an issue should eventually be customizable, but right now I'm looking at a two-column layout. The full width of a blog isn't needed, since whenever an article is long, an abstract should be provided which will be displayed on the issue page with a link to the full article. Short articles (articles without abstracts) will simply be displayed in their entirety.

It will also be possible to have multiple users with multiple permissions (owner, admin, editor, and member are currently planned).

Furthermore, in addition to viewing a single issue, you'll be able to view a list of previous issues (and eventually search and what not).

You can view the prototype here:
http://www.loyno.edu/~dbstraig/newspaper/index.php

So... what do you think?

bobthecockroach · 05-22-2007, 02:25 AM

Well, it's time for a progress report.

Install and uninstall work.

Control panel works for adding and modifying articles (depending on permissions) and inviting new members (which is accomplished through emailing them a code which will allow registration and only work once). Control panel should be finished after a few tweaks and after making it work to change global settings.

Then, I'll get to work on the content pages, which will be infinitely simpler since I have the prototype.

LefseRae · 05-22-2007, 02:43 PM

'Tis cool.

However, I don't like those stripes, but I'm not sure why.

bobthecockroach · 05-22-2007, 02:45 PM

Well, ideally you'll be able to do templates like with other blogging software.

**Gustin** · 05-22-2007, 10:13 PM

Hm.. Seems like an interesting concept. I like the magazine/newspaper type of idea.

*subscribes*

bobthecockroach · 05-23-2007, 12:30 AM

The control panel is 95% complete. The only thing you can't do at the moment is delete articles.

bobthecockroach · 05-23-2007, 04:29 PM

Alright, guys. I have launched a beta version on my OWN domain name. Woooooooo. I also need a name. Newsprint Blog is (1) not very exciting and (2) probably being used for something else. So it goes.

If you want me to add you as a user so you can try posting stuff and seeing how it works, PM me with your email address. (Incidentally, that's also the only way you'll be able to check out the control panel, so...

) I'm not planning to distribute yet, so you can't get your own, but if you help me test it, I'll move toward distribution faster.

http://www.themagicalinterweb.com/ne...blog/index.php

PS - You still can't delete articles, but you wouldn't be able to anyway unless I added you as an editor or admin. Tags also don't do anything yet. You can add them, and they get stored, they just don't do anything.

PPS - Oh, an interesting feature I haven't mentioned yet. There's an option called "prepublish." If prepublish is turned on, then articles will show up as they are posted and a new issue will be generated automatically with the first article in the new issue's time slot. If prepublish is turned off, new issues will only be generated after the completion of an issue's time slot. Thus, new issues will not show up until they are complete and full, and a full issue will always be available (the exception is that the first issue will always be displayed while it's in progress of being written).

bobthecockroach · 05-26-2007, 12:54 AM

Well um, the script breaks down if there are no articles for a current issue, and I have no idea how to fix it. Well, I know how to fix it, but for whatever version of PHP and server settings I was originally testing on. On HostGator, PHP seems to refuse to even automatically cast variables. It insists is_nan requires a double, not a string. I guess I need to find another way to test if something is a number...

PatrickStar4491 · 05-26-2007, 09:16 AM

The is_numeric() function will accept anything, and returns TRUE for a valid number or numeric string.

bobthecockroach · 05-26-2007, 01:36 PM

Alright, thanks. It's working now. However, I need to figure out how to make it skip empty issues.

bobthecockroach · 06-03-2007, 10:00 PM

Well, I figured out how to skip empty issues. It also makes the loop for the back issues page a whole lot neater. However, now I have a dilemma.

http://www.themagicalinterweb.com/ne...backissues.php

The numbering still leaves gaps. That leaves me with two options. I can either try to fix it, or I can call it a feature and leave it alone. I'm torn between the two.

The problem with fixing it is that the timestamps used to check if an article belongs to an issue are based on the issue number. The starting issue number is calculated from the current time. I then work backwards to the first issue. Because of all this, it's impossible to know how many issues there will be in advance. I would have to work the other way, store the information in an array, and then output it in reverse order.

Jay Tea · 06-06-2007, 07:17 AM

Rather than skipping empty issues, why not post the header for the issue, and presumably the date is still available, and just not post any links for the articles?

bobthecockroach · 06-06-2007, 11:50 AM

Because that looks extraordinarily silly if there are a lot of empty issues.

Issue 12
[Jun 3rd, 2007]

* One problem solved

Issue 11
[Jun 2nd, 2007]

Issue 10
[Jun 1st, 2007]

Issue 9
[May 31st, 2007]

Issue 8
[May 30th, 2007]

Issue 7
[May 29th, 2007]

Issue 6
[May 28th, 2007]

Issue 5
[May 27th, 2007]

Issue 4
[May 26th, 2007]

* A few more problems

Issue 3
[May 25th, 2007]

Issue 2
[May 24th, 2007]

* Layout
* First article of the second day

Issue 1
[May 23rd, 2007]

* Testing
* Greetings!
* Showing off abstracts
* Newsprint Blog Beta!

Jay Tea · 06-09-2007, 09:47 PM

Well, that really depends on how representative your test data is of what might be "actual" data

bobthecockroach · 06-09-2007, 10:17 PM

Well, ideally, it should work well regardless how lazy the user is.