Advanced News System
Permalink
With the help of many (Mnkras,Aaghouseh Jshannon & a few others in IRC) I managed to modify a version of Easy News into my own more advanced news system. Now that I've got a working product, I'm looking at rebuilding it from the ground up with a little more perzazz to the system.
I'm going to list of a load of functional requirements and how I think best to implement them, I'd appreciate it if some of you die hard C5 developers would have a look through what I have planned and critique it to the stars and back .
I'm looking at releasing this on the Marketplace when its finished so I want it to be right - and usable for most people, the system I have at current is very much specific to how we need it to work.
Anyway, down to the nitty-gritty.
I'm after a news system that has multiple categories, an article can be placed in as many categories as required - while only having one centralized point of editting.
Categories will be defined by a boolean page attribute: if it has the attribute, its a category for news. Because of there being multiple categories, all pages must be under 1 parent page and then category pages having a newslist block or similar (I plan to make one simiplar to page list, and then a template or two to implement sliders and such).
Individual pages will have a multi-select attribute to store which categories they're in, the newslist block will then query this attribute to determine what categories articles are in.
The system will have the following optional integration options:
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Smugmug (Popular photo-sharing/gallery site)
New articles will have the following entities: Title, Description, Publish Date (when it becomes visible, allowing forward dating), Thumbnail, Content.
Should I force my own page type or use my own? My using my own it allows a little more indepth customisation of the displaying, but then forces the user design it to fit in with the rest of their website.
By adding it as an option, it means that the user needs to have "Main" block, and with that I can't think of a way to add other blocks to that page (eg the smugmug integration would have an on-page photo gallery block).
Specific questions (feel free to answer any or all):
Usability:
1. Would not having the ability to place articles under their category pages annoy you? Because of multi-categories, all articles need to be under 1 parent to avoid content duplication.
2. Would you expect any further integration into external systems? I've only listed what I specifically need, not everything I can think of, I don't know what will and what wont be useful.
Technical:
1. When a user adds the attribute which specifies that a page is a category, how could I then detect this, and update the mutli-select attribute so that that category becomes a selectable attrbiute?
2. How could I add a button on the toolbar next to dashboard that would say "Write News" or something similar (like ChadStat does on his demo site).
3. Is there a way to make blocks that my package will install only usable by my script. As in I only want it placed where my code says place it, not where the user tries to add it to any random old page.
Please throw any thoughts at all my way, if I'm going to spend a load of time developing an AIO news system, I want it to work for everybody.
Thanks!
I'm going to list of a load of functional requirements and how I think best to implement them, I'd appreciate it if some of you die hard C5 developers would have a look through what I have planned and critique it to the stars and back .
I'm looking at releasing this on the Marketplace when its finished so I want it to be right - and usable for most people, the system I have at current is very much specific to how we need it to work.
Anyway, down to the nitty-gritty.
I'm after a news system that has multiple categories, an article can be placed in as many categories as required - while only having one centralized point of editting.
Categories will be defined by a boolean page attribute: if it has the attribute, its a category for news. Because of there being multiple categories, all pages must be under 1 parent page and then category pages having a newslist block or similar (I plan to make one simiplar to page list, and then a template or two to implement sliders and such).
Individual pages will have a multi-select attribute to store which categories they're in, the newslist block will then query this attribute to determine what categories articles are in.
The system will have the following optional integration options:
- Smugmug (Popular photo-sharing/gallery site)
New articles will have the following entities: Title, Description, Publish Date (when it becomes visible, allowing forward dating), Thumbnail, Content.
Should I force my own page type or use my own? My using my own it allows a little more indepth customisation of the displaying, but then forces the user design it to fit in with the rest of their website.
By adding it as an option, it means that the user needs to have "Main" block, and with that I can't think of a way to add other blocks to that page (eg the smugmug integration would have an on-page photo gallery block).
Specific questions (feel free to answer any or all):
Usability:
1. Would not having the ability to place articles under their category pages annoy you? Because of multi-categories, all articles need to be under 1 parent to avoid content duplication.
2. Would you expect any further integration into external systems? I've only listed what I specifically need, not everything I can think of, I don't know what will and what wont be useful.
Technical:
1. When a user adds the attribute which specifies that a page is a category, how could I then detect this, and update the mutli-select attribute so that that category becomes a selectable attrbiute?
2. How could I add a button on the toolbar next to dashboard that would say "Write News" or something similar (like ChadStat does on his demo site).
3. Is there a way to make blocks that my package will install only usable by my script. As in I only want it placed where my code says place it, not where the user tries to add it to any random old page.
Please throw any thoughts at all my way, if I'm going to spend a load of time developing an AIO news system, I want it to work for everybody.
Thanks!
