pro news posts help

im curious how you get that professional looking new postings on websites.. for instance.. http://www.penny-arcade.com/ it tells when they posted that news post. who posted it and what they typed. now how do i go around doing that to my website so certain multiple people can post msg's on the main page without having to actually EDIT the html page. thanks!

 

hey Sojourn,

the key here is the use of php and sql - although i'm sure you could use other methods. If you don't know what these are, essentially SQL is a database program, while php is a dynamic coding system that can interface between the web and the database software. this way you can edit and write articles and posts from the website without actually typing up any code.

This webforum uses php and i would assume some for of sql as well. They're actually pretty fun and i've been beginning to read up on them.

Now you don't have to be an expert to do this, you'll find that there are quite a few opensource templates out there that you can download to your webserver and use - with instructions on how to setup your database and php website. What i think you're looking for would be a simple news posting program, or if you really want to go all out, look up some webportal programs - phpNuke is a popular opensource one.

ciao!
o Draith

 

thanks! i have played with php but not MYsql (which my server hosts) so what exactly should i search for to get that nifty setup?

 

hrm...

well i don't know any exact php scripts for solely posting articles or news. You might try doing searches with the words: opensource php "article posting" "news posting"

or failing these, you could download one of the more popular webportal scripts such as phpnuke or e107 (did i get that name right?) and find the code in there for posting.

Or you might find it easier to install a full webportal which would give you what you may currently have on your website, but more dynamic and with additional features. personally I'm looking into forming a site using phpnuke and hacking out my own version of a webforum through a combination of scripts (i don't quite like the feel and look of the forums that come with the nuke package). A good friend of mine highly recommends the e107, however. but this package is specifically designed for use with MySQL (which my sysop doesn't have running) and I don't know enough about database yet to decide if the package would still work with postgresql. However you're using MySQL, so maybe it would work for you. it certainly does look nice.

ciao!
o Draith

 

news break! (pun?)

hey sojourn!

While reading the README in phpnuke, I came across a php-written, sql-database using news program that the author of phpnuke had worked off of in creating his webportal program. I'm looking over the site with this package now and it looks pretty good.

the package is called "thatware" and can be found at the site:
atthat.com
the site also lists other news programs that are out there, these include:
Slash, Squishdot, PHPSlash, NewsForum, cog and Midgard
and the site has links to all of these programs' sites from its faq page.

I hope you find this information useful, i know it seems like a lot of fun actually, maybe i'll incorporate these into my site

oh, btw, according to the readme for phpnuke, this is what the author had to say about slash:
"It's good but you realy need to know Perl to modify it, need too many modules, need to load a damn daemon that sucks all your CPU power. My Pentium III just appears to be a 386 each minute the daemon make its work."
I don't know how dated this comment is, but i would take it into consideration.

ciao!
o Draith