Weblog on Sunday May 16, 2004

Generic Website Publishing System

Back in january, when trying to find an alternative to writing my blog entries directly into the HTML pages, I’ve look to different alternatives. I did not get so impressed by what I could find at the time (MT, Blosxom, WordPress). So I decided to roll out my own PHP-based system.

The first version of my web publishing system (currently powering up my site) works quite well, but it’s not so good and not to my taste. I’m currently building a new one. Here is what is planned:

Filesystem “database”, Blosxom style but with unlimited meta-data per entry. The architecture could eventually support a real database system (like MySQL) if someone bother to write a compatible PHP interface to it.
Flexible structure, meaning you decide where is kept each piece of data in the database.
Template driven, MovableType style, with or without static page generation.
Scripts! The behaviour of your site is all up to you.

The information flow could be described like this:

Information is stored in the disk database.
Information is gathered from the database and displayed by templates.
Posted information is stored to the right place in the database by one or more scripts.

Now, what I just described is not really a blog system, but more like a generic database display and posting system for website. To make it a working blog system it’s still missing corresponding templates and scripts. The point being that there will be default scripts and templates for a blog, but these templates could easily be changed, extended, or replaced. Note that the administrative pages would be template based too, meaning that a web designer could build a custom website solution without too much hassle.

Here is a template example (and it currently works):

<PS:EntryBody filter="markdown+smartypants+cosmos"/>

<PS:EntryList path="fr/journal/*">
    <h2><PS:EntryTitle filter="smartypants+cosmos"/></h2>
    <PS:EntryBody heading="2" filter="markdown+smartypants+cosmos"/>

    <p><PS:EntryField name="date"/></p>
</PS:EntryList>

This project sound good, dosen’t it? But it’s still only half done. The template system is working wonderfully, same for the file database system. I hope to have a beta ready during the summer.

I’m still searching for a good name. Any idea?

Discussion & Comments

jm Thursday May 20, 2004 at 20:49: Yet Another Mini Content Management System = YAMCMS = Yam Simiss
Un Outil de Publication Facile de Plus = OPuF ][*
GWP= generic website publisher = GiWiPi = GaWaPa / GuWuPu / GeWePu
jm Thursday May 20, 2004 at 20:50: Yet Another Mini Content Management System = YAMCMS = Yam Simiss
Un Outil de Publication Facile de Plus = OPuF ][*
GWP= generic website publisher = GiWiPi = GaWaPa / GuWuPu / GeWePu
Patrick Taylor Monday June 7, 2004 at 12:36: How about Chronolog?
Michel Fortin Friday June 25, 2004 at 14:22: I believe that I’ve found the right name for it… I’m keeping it under wrap for now. Thanks for your input.
Mary Tuesday October 5, 2004 at 20:50: I’m impressed. I’m currently working on my own too (for the same reasons too). Could I convince you to feel like sharing any bits of wisdom (I like how your current one looks)?
David Herren Sunday October 24, 2004 at 10:41: I like how your site looks, and I love your work on phpmarkdown, but why not work to improve one of the existing systems? I’m currently using Wordpress, and it’s not without its problems, but someone with your talent could help them to improve it considerably, no?

Also see the French discussion about this entry.

Discussion is now closed for this entry. Feel free to contact me if you have something interesting to say.