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Will GeekLog work for me?


Anonymous

Anonymous
I need to know if GeekLog will work with my scenario (if not could someone point me in the right direction?). I need to set up a news site/portal for the non-profit company I work for. It will be updated anywhere from several times a day to once a week by a person(s) that knows little to nothing about HTML, much less anything else programming related (I can teach him enough so that he can add links to his reports). So he needs a web interface to post new news items. No posting privileges will be given to anyone outside the company (i.e. no comments on the news items will be allowed - although an occasional poll/survey may be offered). On the technical side of things, we have a virtual host (so no root access) that runs on Windows and a MSSQL database which is accessed via ASP (VBScript). I know nothing about PHP, but I have been programming professionally in different languages for over 6 years so I know I could learn the basics rather quickly. Basically I need to be able to set up an idiot proof, but immensely scalable system for allowing non-technical employees to post information to the web WITHOUT having to involve me other than the initial setup and occasional administration -- and it would be nice if it ran on Windows and MSSQL (although I could run it on a good UNIX/Linux host if needed). Thanks in advance!
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Anonymous

Anonymous
Aside from moving your site to a unix (doesn't have to be Linix, any box that runs PHP and MySQL will do, personally I prefer FreeBSD) server, you could either port GL to MSSQL / ASP (ugh); port GL to MSSQL and leave the code in PHP (better), or just add PHP and MySQL to your hosting service's plan. Porting even the database is going to take some time, as there are non portable SQL statements littered throughout GL code (as well as most of the open source content management / weblog systems out there). If you wanted to make a MSSQL capable port (I started down this road in GL1.5rc? a long time ago and gave up) you'd have to go through each SQL statement and remove the database dependencies from them. As I recall the big two that exist frequently in the code are the "LIMIT" keyword (MSSQL uses TOP) and "UNIXDATE(date) as ...". There are probably some others. If you want to get something going quickly and inexpensively, a web host account from a Linux/*nix/*bsd provider offering PHP and MySQL can be had so inexpensively these days, just point your users to the site when required. Or switch hosts altogether!
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Anonymous

Anonymous
OK, it sounds like it would save time and money if I just installed GeekLog on some kind of UNIX derivative hosted by a third party. Given that I go with a new provider for this news site, will I be able to all that I mentioned in the original post (i.e. lock out all ability for any one but me to create user names and passwords, have a web interface for non-tech employees to add content, etc.)? Thanks again!
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Status: offline

Tony

Site Admin
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Registered: 12/17/01
Posts: 405
Location:Urbandale, Iowa
Not as hard as you think. Depending on your timeframe, you can port Geeklog to MS SQL Server without too much trouble. We have abstracted the database calls and, current, there are only two areas in the current beta 1.3 CVS tree that are keeping it from being completely DB independent. Of course, this would require you to do some PHP coding to build a mssqlserver.class.php file that can be used but you have the mysql one and, if you want it, I can get you a postgresql version that is current under development.
The reason people blame things on previous generations is that there's only one other choice.
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Anonymous

Anonymous
Unless things have changed in specific SQL statements from 1.3B1 to now, there were at least 11 PHP files containing use of UNIX_TIMESTAMP and a number using the LIMIT keyword. In MSSQL LIMIT-like functionality is supported but using the TOP keyword ( can also select TOP x PERCENT ) or the SET ROWCOUNT statement. There is no equivalent for UNIX_TIMESTAMP. It would be a good thing to take these and any other database specific SQL functions or statements out of the SQL strings and build functions or classes around them. THe ADOdb class for example provides different date formating depending on the database in use, its kinda nice not to have to think about that. cheers
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Status: offline

Tony

Site Admin
Admin
Registered: 12/17/01
Posts: 405
Location:Urbandale, Iowa
IMHO, 11 isn't all that bad. Maybe I'm too close too involved to get a good perspective but given the sheer number of SQL queries that get thrown around that isn't all that bad. Also, I've implemented a function called COM_getUserDateTimeFormat that takes either a time stamp or string date representation (e.g. 2001-02-01) and returns an array. element 0 will hold the date formated per the users display preferences and element 1 returns a timestamp. With that said, it's easy enough to change the SQL to not use UNIX_TIMESTAMP and use that. The limit clause is used sparingly and would take a bit more work to replace but isn't too hard. Finally the biggest problems are the DB_change and DB_copy functions. Those both you "REPLACE INTO" which is, obviously, not very compliant. We plan to fix all this with the first release after 1.3 (probably 1.3.1) along with the postgresql port. --Tony
The reason people blame things on previous generations is that there's only one other choice.
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Anonymous

Anonymous
wouldn't it be easier to give the person or persons a little FTP program and a quick tutorial?.....a few file naming rules, then just upload to a designated folder? Would I be guessing wrong that the contributor would likely be using Word, which will save, not brilliantly, but will save to HTML? I must admit I'm looking at the content management thing myself, but in certain scenarios I can't see anything much simpler than Word and FTP. But maybe I am being stupid! Hugh
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