Blogs made simple example sites

[nhaack]

Hi techpro,

I made some blogs with the content dump plug-in. The approach is a little different. Blog articles are not stored in an extra module but as regular content pages in the regular hierarchy. You then use dedicated templates (or a single more complex one) for creating the required display logic with smarty. Content-Dump delivers the articles you need for that specific page-type.

You can see a working demo at publicdemo [dot] opticalvalve [dot] com.

I made it like that for personal preferences and more easiness with integration of other modules on single articles or page-types. But I think you can achieve the same with the blog made simple module. Also the news module is very popular for creating blogs. You might want to give it a try.

Check the wiki for more info on the single options. There is a comprehensive documentation for the content dump plug-in here.

Just some thoughts.

Best
Nils

[calguy1000]

I'm using blogs made simple on calguy1000.com.... but I'm not happy with it yet.

[keen]

I'm using blogs made simple on calguy1000.com.... but I'm not happy with it yet.

Same here.
I see you have exactly the same problem with main blog page urls.
When 'use_hierarchy' is on in config.php file then the urls of the main pages of blog become ruined.

Any suggestions to fix this?

(I mean pretty urls)

[CWebguy]

Calguy, what don't you like about it?  Just curious.

[calguy1000]

well, here's my short list:
1) Pagination doesn't work
2) the category links don't work
3) I hate the way it formats the times and dates
4) I'd like to have the option for multiple templates of each type.

I think I may just re-fork the news module.... call it CGBlogs, rip out the hierarchy stuff, add in multiple categories
and call it a blog module.

[CWebguy]

sounds good.  Best of luck to you 

[keen]

Blog pagination works fine but only if 'use_hierarchy' in config file is turned 'false'.
So it cannot use pretty url function.

There is something that have to be changed in action.showblog.php or in .htacces or both but I don't know what.

I like blog - it is very simple to administer.

...
Post UPDATE:

Blog pagination works fine with pretty url when using modification suggested by Alexander E. Golovanov (see bugs report).

In three steps:

STEP 1

Code: Select all

File action.showblog.php line 66:
[REPLACE]
array('startpageoffset'=>$p,'numentries'=>$numentries), '', false, false,
'', false, 'Blogs/'.$dbentry["id"].'/'.$returnid);
[WITH]
array('startpageoffset'=>$p,'numentries'=>$numentries), '', false, false,
'', false, 'Blogs/p'.$p.'n'.$numentries.'/'.$returnid);

STEP 2:

Code: Select all

File Blogs.module.php line 93:
[INSERT]
$this->RegisterRoute('/[bB]logs\/p(?P<startpageoffset>[0-9]+)n(?P<numentries>[0-9]+)\/(?P<returnid>[0-9]+)$/',
			 array('action'=>'default'));

STEP 3:

Code: Select all

 File action.showcategorylist.php line 17:
[REPLACE]
$onerow->title=$this->CreateLink($id, 'showcategory', $returnid,
$db_category["title"],
array('catid'=>$db_category["id"]));
[WITH]
$onerow->title=$this->CreateLink($id, 'showcategory', $returnid,
$db_category["title"],
array('catid'=>$db_category["id"]), '', false, false, '', false, 'BlogCategory/'.$db_category["id"].'/'.$returnid.'/'.strtolower(munge_string_to_url($db_category["title"])));

I only modify in last step (munge_string_to_url($db_category["title"])) to this one:
(munge_string_to_url($db_category["id"]))

because my blog titles are so long and inconvenient for urls.

Rgrds

[SideshowBob]

+1 for CGBlogs News fork!

I have a requirement for guest bloggers to be able to submit articles for approval before publishing. News already has this feature so I will be using that but dedicated blog module would be much better.

Bob

[Ziggywigged]

I think I may just re-fork the news module.... call it CGBlogs, rip out the hierarchy stuff, add in multiple categories
and call it a blog module.

Yes, please! That would be awesome and much needed. Maybe integrate comments with approval function.

[calguy1000]

CGBlogs will be a fork of the News module with these changes:

a) rip out the template stuff, and use CGExtensions
    (smaller code base that way)
b) Rip out the categories stuff... and just use flat categories
    (an article can be a member of multiple categories)
c) do some work on the pretty url stuff
    (add some sort of a category view like:
      mysite.com/cgblog//category//category-name-stuff.html

d) change the summary view so you can list one single flat category, or a list of flat categories... but no hierarchical stuff
    (see b)
e) Rip out the fesubmit stuff (whew, that's only 1 file)   
f)  Rip out the expiry stuff (blog articles dont' expire)

Comments etc.  Will be supplied by Comments or CGFeedback
CGFeedback supports akismet, and captcha.

But this is lower on my priority list... have a few things to finish up first.

Speaking of this.... I need a few people to test CGCalendar and CGFeedback for me.
read: test..... not to use in a production environment (yet).

[WebGirl]

Hey CalGuy,

I've just installed Blogs Made Simple on Arecibo V. 1.5.3, and wondered if you'd had any time to think about CGBlog ...

It would be great to have blog capability with Pretty URLs, plus the features mentioned.

You've got my vote!

[glass]

CGBlogs will be a fork of the News module with these changes:

CalGuy, you will be my official cmsms hero ...

If I can be of any help testing CGBlogs, when available, I will be happy to do so.