ATTN: CLEO or anyone else that can help....

[krossfyter]

If I want to put a journal up on my site whats a good one to do it with? Good scripts or programs or whatever. The one I tried to use last time was heavy on the jargon and not much on the ease. They must be free if possible. I know a lot of personal sites that have journals and they seem to be pretty flexible and are able to be created to fit the layout and style of the site or what not. Im thinking of like a scrollable window or frame... not iframe...thats multibrowser if possible and has left and right scroll buttons on the bottom to view other journal dates.... so the scollable window changed text content but not the whole borwser window its in... ya know. i hope its not too confusing. or something like this....
http://www.moby.com/index2.html

is fine too...

how does one do this?

 

[cleo]

My name in big letters... I've always dreamed of that.

OK. Most blogs use a content management system (CMS), the most popular being Blogger and Moveable Type. From what I've seen, MT is the most flexible and expandable of the two.

I assume that because you asked me, you want something kinda like what I've got going on over at dalqe.com (shameless plug ). My site is actually hand-coded using PHP and MySQL. It's based loosely on Kishba's blog and code. IMO it's better to "roll your own" blog system, but that's prolly just because I put so much time into mine. It does allow you to do some cool things (like adding categories, etc), but requires some effort to get it going. I just checked out the MT site (moveabletype.org) and it looks pretty slick - they have an iCal-to-blog module that is very seductive.

I guess it depends on: 1) what features you want/need (and don't), 2) what your server can support, 3) how much time/energy you want to put into getting it running.

Based on what you've said you want, I'd recommend going with a PHP/MySQL solution just 'cause it gives you exact control... but that's just me.

Do you already have your site designed? If not... PM me. I'm starting a little design business, and maybe we could work something out...

 

[krossfyter]

what features are options here? im willing to spend some time to make it work.

also whats PHP/MySQL ? i have no idea what that is so i need some explaination i guess. i have already designed my site and and now i just need to add a journal.... if i can.



thanks cleo.

 

[cleo]

PHP (www.php.net) is a server language and MySQL (www.mysql.com) is a database system. Basically, you write code that allows you to 1) input data into a database and 2) pull the data out dynamically and format it in just about any conceivable way.

PHP isn't terribly difficult to learn, and I'd be happy to let you use my code as a learning tool. The one thing that MT seems to excel at is images, so if you're planning on including tons of pictures, it might be your best bet. However, if you want a basic, text-based journal, I think something like MT might be overkill.

 

[krossfyter]

okay cool. well i think PHP might be the way to go. im not too sure what "MT" is... is that the same as PHP? I think my server will work with that one... im not sure but i will make sure. also im not intrested in placing images just text. also... how easy is it to transfer a working journal etc. to another server if need be?

 

[Gaz]

Hi dude,

I'll see if I can help. I'm going to assume you don't know much, so sorry if I sound like I'm talking down at you.

Ok with websites there are essentially 2 types of sites; static and dynamic.

This is the steps that happen when a browser calls a webpage i.e. http://www.somepage.com

- The browser sends this request to the host.
- The host then finds the file and sends it to the client.

Now the difference between static and dynamic occurs at the point the host finds the file and sends it back.

In the static model the host just sends this file to the browser and then waits for the next request.

In the dynamic model the host actually reads the file and performs some processing to create the file to send to the browser.

- Now this processing is performed by script (i.e. it is not compiled code and must be interpreted everytime the page is called). This script can be in many different languages and one example is php, I believe it reads v similar to c but I'm probably wrong as I personally don't use it.

- When the processing occurs it is used to build content on the fly, for example a news item is extracted from a database and placed on a page. Once the page has been processed it is send to the browser. In reference to your question mySQL is just a database.


There are many resources online that allow you to download scripts and use them for your own use. What you need to beware of is if your host allows dynamic content. Most don't for free as there are huge sercuity problems with allowing people to write their own scripts. That you can do is link to stuff that is hosted else where and just provide a link from your site (not great but free).

What I would suggest while you are new to this is used make updates by hand. It's easy to jump in too deep and suddenly find yourself out of your depth.

I highly recommend you take things a step at a time and get all the (I don't want to use the word basics) fundementals right. Far too many people don't understand what they are doing and the site suffers. If you want any help or just a review of your site don't hesitate to contact me. I always try to be constructive.

Gaz

 

[Gaz]

Originally posted by krossfyter
..how easy is it to transfer a working journal etc. to another server if need be?

That's an interesting question.

Technically the journal is really just the database (which can easily be copied and moved using straight forward SQL commands).

The php page only really formats the page but normally with a little skill scripts can easily be reused but obviously if a site requires different layout or formating you need to change the file.

Does this help?

 

[cleo]

Originally posted by krossfyter
okay cool. well i think PHP might be the way to go. im not too sure what "MT" is... is that the same as PHP? I think my server will work with that one... im not sure but i will make sure. also im not intrested in placing images just text. also... how easy is it to transfer a working journal etc. to another server if need be?

MT = Moveable Type, the content management system mentioned above.

The first thing to do is to see if your host offers PHP and MySQL. Then we can go from there.

If you start coding with a bit of foresight, it's quite easy to move from one host to another. I've changed hosts twice in the past month with minimal difficulty.

 

[Gaz]

Another perhaps simpler way would be to just pull your info from a text file.

That way you negate all the issues having to understand the database and can just work with the text file. If you use a CSV, comma separated or tab separated file this would provide exactly the same functionality with less complications.

You could even use something like Excel or Filemaker to store the content and just output the contents to a text file. Once this file is created/updated when you just upload it and everything runs nice and easy.

If you do this DO NOT pass the name or build the name of the text file from a URL. This provides an easy way to hack a system and you don't want that!!

The more I think about it this solution is probably the best but using a database can give you power to control the content better - sorry I'm too tired to explain that comment and I'm sure you understand.