Posted on: 11/03/01 08:36pm
By: saltlakejohn
I intend to open a new site soon for short stories -- uploads of 3,000 to ten thousand words. Authors should be able to upload large plaintext or html format files. Commentary and discussion would take place in the replies. I'm only minimally familiar with php and MySQL. I am learning them, but at present I shouldn't be hacking around inside a meg or two of professional code.
Will GeekLog handle such traffic? Are the articles themselves stored in the MySQL database? Is GeekLog the tool I need?
Am I going in the right direction with GeekLog 1.3, or should I be looking in some other direction altogether?
Thanks for any insight you can give me.
Upload class
Posted on: 11/05/01 01:46am
By: Tane
For Geeklog 1.3, there will most likely be an uploading facility for things such as image and zip files to attach to stories.
The idea of a text file parser though is interesting. It would allow the user to write the story offline in plain text or GLML (HTML will be disabled in the next version - for a good reason) and then upload it, and geeklog would automatically generate a story from this text, say grab the first 250 words, or first paragraph and make it the intro text.
Definetly something to think about, but maybe for a 1.3.1 release (1.3 is starting to get feature creep!)
Articles
Posted on: 11/05/01 08:48am
By: Tony
Yes, they are stored in the database. Yes, I think it would be a cool feature to allow file-based articles for inordinately large files to be uploaded complete with images.
However, I agree with Tane that it would have to be a post 1.3 release.
Whether or not you want to use Geeklog would depend on the DBMS you will use. Currently we only gaurantee mysql support though we have someone implementing postgresql support and it would be easy to port to bigger, more robust DBMS's (ala SQL Server or Oracle).
If they can handle large text fields OK then I think you'd be fine. My hunch is MySQL will work ok for you for quite a while until your site gets a lot of traffic.
Upload class
Posted on: 11/05/01 04:07pm
By: Anonymous (Anonymous)
Great article
Upload class
Posted on: 11/06/01 06:31pm
By: Jason
With GLML some thought should be given to what is a intro. Is it a paragraph? A fixed limit of charactors? A [intro] tag? Or does it remain seperate blocks?
Blurbs and an Upload class
Posted on: 11/07/01 09:53am
By: saltlakejohn
One idea about the intro or 'teaser' paragraph...
If it were a short story scenario like I described,
then it would be champion if an editor
(moderator) could construct the blurb. Maybe it
would be an excerpt from the body of a story, or a
chunk of 'about the author' text. Does it always
have to be the first X number of words from the
article itself?
Regarding an upload class, that could be a nasty
exercise couldn't it? Wouldn't someone upload a
word processing document formatted with who
know what? There's a queue in GeekLog isn't
there, that traps posts so an editor can massage
it before publication?
Articles
Posted on: 11/07/01 11:03am
By: saltlakejohn
Maybe I'm mis-stating this, but are the articles
poked into MySQL with a construct like BLOB or
TEXT which have a size limit if I'm not mistaken.
Isn't that why tere's TINY, MEDIUM, and LONG
variants -- to tweak the column size.
Articles
Posted on: 11/07/01 03:12pm
By: Tony
Geeklog's uses MySQL text object. See
MySQL's Website[*1]
to get specific information on data types
and their sizes.
Blurbs and an Upload class
Posted on: 11/08/01 04:33am
By: Tane
Yes, there is a moderation queue that stops posts getting onto the site without the moderators approval.
As for people uploading word documents, either you have to build a .DOC parser, or make it VERY clear on your site you only accept text or GLML formatted posts (see the stuff about GLML to find out).