Require(News) is being written for web site developers that do not want to re-skin a standard blogging system to fit an extant look and feel. With this system, developers need only set some configuration values, assign an admin password, and add '<?php require("path/to/news/directory/main.php"); ?>' where they want the blog to appear.
A PHP-enabled site is required. Data is stored in MySQL tables, which are chosen in the configuration process; table and database names are stored as variables, so that data for the system can be added to an existing database without confusion. All of the display elements are controlled with CSS. Whether comments are displayed is controlled by user-clickable JavaScript elements, and display of archives and specific categories is done with query strings.
Other than the page for content display (above titled .main.php.), there will be another page for user registration (optional) and one for blog, news, and comment administration, both of which (again) can be included as content inside of an existing page, or run in a stand-alone mode.
The default CSS configuration will specify only relative font weights, font sizes, and element visibility. This CSS file will be heavily commented so that developers can easily understand how to modify it. Alternate, fancier CSS configurations will also be provided, and the SourceForge site will host user contributions for look and feel.
The content will be accessible in multiple RSS formats for easy syndication, the content and quantity of which will be configurable.
Simply put, when this project reaches maturity, developers will need to follow only a few simple steps to integrate a fully-capable blogging system into current web sites.
The first file release is planned for mid- to late-August, 2005.
This project is still in early alpha stages. You can view the current user-based capabilities
of Require(News) at http://tgmayfield.com/. A direct look
at the unformatted output is available at http://tgmayfield.com/news/main.php.
Keep in mind that the unformatted output is just that. Viewing the source of the output will probably give the best
idea of how stuff works.
The original web host for the testing of this project went down and took a lot of code with it. I am currently debating rewriting from scratch, but if I do, I'd like to get input on what features people want and how they think the system should work. Rather than this being a one-off tool for my own needs that might be applicable to others, I no longer have much need, and would like to write it to fit others' purposes. Feel free to email me at hulett@users.sourceforge.net, join the require-news-devel list, or submit to Feature Requests Tracker on SourceForge. The list or tracker are preferred, as they will be visible to everyone else, which will avoid duplication and help ideas build on one another. For data stability, future development will take place on this site, rather than on my personal site.