Friday Sep 1, 2006
New reviews site with my own CMS
Posted at 08:14:07 pm by hari under Site management (195 views)
I've converted harishankar.org into a general reviews website using my own simple content management system written in PHP. Actually it's nothing more than an articles manager. A very basic tool, but the advantage is that it's extremely lightweight, doesn't use MySQL and is very easy to update without any need for an admin control panel.
The reason I dumped WordPress for my reviews blog is that I wasn't really updating it that often and of course, the blog format is not ideal for a content-rich site. Nevertheless, I've probably saved a lot of disk space and an extra MySQL database and I have the pride of having creating my own solution for my needs. 
I don't plan on extending this CMS into anything bigger as there are other tools that already do a great job of providing sophisticated systems. Mine is meant to be a simple articles manager and nothing more.
Hope you like it. Feel free to leave your comments on it here. And of course, if you need the source code, I'd be glad to share it with any of you. Just ask!
13 comments
Great job - I like it!
Do you store the reviews in text files? I coded a conference room app a while back which used text files to store the chat text, but the input was broken whenever there was a newline... I never figured out why. I'd love to see the code - if just out of interest
My email address is: linuxsecmail [SPLAT] gmail [d0t] com
It's simple, clean, and looks good. Job well done
Do you store the reviews in text files? I coded a conference room app a while back which used text files to store the chat text, but the input was broken whenever there was a newline... I never figured out why. I'd love to see the code - if just out of interest
My email address is: linuxsecmail [SPLAT] gmail [d0t] comIt's simple, clean, and looks good. Job well done
Friday Sep 1, 2006 @ 20:21
Yes, I'm using text files for the actual reviews and directories to store the categories. As I said, to update the site all I need to do is upload a new text file into the proper folder and it gets updated.
No need for admin panels and it's very secure since there's no database and obviously no commenting system. I'll send you the code as soon as I get a few minor tweaks in.
Since I developed it using PHP 5 on my localhost, there was one function which gave me trouble, but I easily bypassed it and now it works with PHP 4 as well.
No need for admin panels and it's very secure since there's no database and obviously no commenting system. I'll send you the code as soon as I get a few minor tweaks in.
Since I developed it using PHP 5 on my localhost, there was one function which gave me trouble, but I easily bypassed it and now it works with PHP 4 as well.
Friday Sep 1, 2006 @ 20:33
KLooks good Hari! That's not article script is it? If it is, you did a good job with it. Keep it up!
Saturday Sep 2, 2006 @ 15:58
Brad, I didn't understand your last question. I assume you want to know what script I used?
I developed the script using PHP myself. Didn't use any third party tool. It's not plain HTML files.
I developed the script using PHP myself. Didn't use any third party tool. It's not plain HTML files.
Saturday Sep 2, 2006 @ 16:07
I like the look Harim it makes the reviews much easier to find. Are you planning to add a search field? That would really add to the site - as would links to Amazon or at least the ISBN number. Or am I going too far?
Saturday Sep 2, 2006 @ 23:18
Adding links to amazon is no problem. But creating a search field would be a bit more involved.
Of course there are third party search tools that one can add to a site, so I might add one if I can find something suitable.
As for ISBN numbers, does every edition of a book have a different or unique code? If so, it might not be a practical idea since some books come in several editions and I don't believe locally published books carry this code.
Of course there are third party search tools that one can add to a site, so I might add one if I can find something suitable.
As for ISBN numbers, does every edition of a book have a different or unique code? If so, it might not be a practical idea since some books come in several editions and I don't believe locally published books carry this code.
Sunday Sep 3, 2006 @ 09:50
If an Amazon link is the easiest way to go, that sounds good. I think all books have an ISBN number - but I don't know for sure.
Sunday Sep 3, 2006 @ 14:09
I think I won't have the Amazon.com links for a couple of reasons.
a. It's a nuisance to maintain an amazon link for each and every review.
b. Amazon.com doesn't need any more back-links from the likes of me, particularly when it's a very simple search to get to the Amazon page of any product.
I'll still post amazon links in my reviews at LiteraryForums.org but out here in my reviews page I'll leave it out.
Also I think a search box is a great idea provided I can find any easy to use third-party site-specific search engine that works with PHP and Apache.
a. It's a nuisance to maintain an amazon link for each and every review.
b. Amazon.com doesn't need any more back-links from the likes of me, particularly when it's a very simple search to get to the Amazon page of any product.
I'll still post amazon links in my reviews at LiteraryForums.org but out here in my reviews page I'll leave it out.
Also I think a search box is a great idea provided I can find any easy to use third-party site-specific search engine that works with PHP and Apache.
Sunday Sep 3, 2006 @ 15:31
I've made a lot of nice changes to CMS - mostly minor improvements, error checking and cosmetic corrections in the CSS which makes it render well in IE as well as Opera, Mozilla/Gecko based browsers and Konqueror as well.
Sunday Sep 3, 2006 @ 19:48
Great job, Hari! I've looked through the code, and it's all sparkling... Well, I only noticed minor things, such as using {span} where {h1} would be more appropriate, and things like that. Other than that, it's very good!
// I've put braces instead of -lt and -gt signs in case Wordpress fails to parse them properly and chops off the rest of my comment
// I've put braces instead of -lt and -gt signs in case Wordpress fails to parse them properly and chops off the rest of my comment
Monday Sep 4, 2006 @ 19:15
J_K9, could you tell me which part of the code uses {span} instead of {h1} in the code? I'll be glad to correct it if necessary.
Monday Sep 4, 2006 @ 19:35
For example, in index.php, you have:
And the line below that. Those could use 'h1' and 'h2' respectively instead of spans, as it would make more 'sense' (especially if the user is visiting your site with a CLI browser, in which case the CSS will not be rendered). Just small things like that
I can take another look through it and jot down things like that, if you want, and then send the list to you?
<span class="headingtext"><a href="<?php echo $GLOBALS['site_url'];?>"><?php echo $GLOBALS['site_title']; ?></a></span>And the line below that. Those could use 'h1' and 'h2' respectively instead of spans, as it would make more 'sense' (especially if the user is visiting your site with a CLI browser, in which case the CSS will not be rendered). Just small things like that
I can take another look through it and jot down things like that, if you want, and then send the list to you?
Tuesday Sep 5, 2006 @ 17:14
Ah, I see your issue now. The reason I didn't give it a "heading" style is simply because I felt that the site "title" as displayed in the header band is not a document heading level. There simply is no HTML equivalent of a "Document Title" (except of course the title tag that appears in the browser bar).
Giving the heading 1 tag to the overall document title and heading 2 to the subtitle/description simply doesn't make any structural sense in my opinion. Only the actual document content should have heading levels and not a "header band" which gives the generic site title.
Do send me the list of things and I'll go through them and make corrections as necessary.
Giving the heading 1 tag to the overall document title and heading 2 to the subtitle/description simply doesn't make any structural sense in my opinion. Only the actual document content should have heading levels and not a "header band" which gives the generic site title.
Do send me the list of things and I'll go through them and make corrections as necessary.
Tuesday Sep 5, 2006 @ 17:35
Leave a comment
Search
Poll
Pages
Categories
- Bits and Bytes
- Cartoons and Art
- Humour and Nonsense
- Internet and Blogging
- Life and Leisure
- My software
- People and society
- Site management
- Software and Technology
- Tutorials and HOWTOs
Links
Personal
Communities
Blogs
- Brads Blog
- Corey Thompson
- Creative Hedgehog
- eJabs
- eNidhi
- François Planque
- Human Psyche
- LinuxLala's Temple of Wisdom
- LoggyRhythm
- Loggyvazhi
- OneAndOneIs2
- Person Without a Clue
- Ramshankar's Realm
- Ray's Place of Stuff
- Redneck Bar & Grill
- Son of Bosey
- Sudipta's Life
- Trickykid
- Untwisted Vortex
XML Feeds
User tools
Misc
Credits
