pkBlog - a simple MODx blog v.1.4.2 (12 Oct 09)

PubKitBlog (pkBlog) is designed for the publication of blog or news items. It is a cut-down version of a snippet I’m still working on, called PubKit, which can handle a wider variety of item categories, including event calendars and custom database tables. Details of the full PubKit setup will follow "real soon now".

Together with Ditto and Jot, you can easily create a blog in MODx with pkBlog.
Features include
* Creation of items in front end using web form
* Tagging using template variable
* Custom manual date field if required
* Rich-text input for main content (and summary if required)
* Optional preview before publication
* Items can be re-edited after publication
* Control panel gives overview and control of sets of items

Components of PubKitBlog
* Simplified version of PubKit snippet (full version could also be used)
* Form for web-user updating (chunk or file)
* DocManager class for creation, update, deletion of documents
* Function and class files shared with PubKit full snippet
* Template variables for rich text, tags, manual date and preview flag
* Ditto to generate front-end control panel, preview and blog page
* Site template for full blog posts (optionally, with Jot for comments)
* WebLogin snippet for simple login facility

Full details are now on my Pogwatch site, where I use the snippet for my own blog. Current version (v1.4.2, 12 Oct 09, uploaded 11 Nov) of the relevant files is attached here as a Zip file.

Try. Enjoy. KP

sounds great - thanks for sharing!

Congrats and thanks Keith! I’ll try find some time to test this.

cheers/k

Thanks Keith,

Seems like it’s just in time for me. Are there any bugs or things you wish were different in this version?

Chuck

This is great stuff.

I need to try it... sooner!

Thanks!

Thanks for all the encouragement. I’m going to be away for a few days, but I hope to pick up on things next week.

@ChuckTrukk: the original PubKit had no blog, this is an adaptation of the original news item editor. The ’post’ management screen in the original is much more sophisticated, with publish/depublish dates, colour-coded status etc. I’ll probably retrofit that to the blog as the next step. The item format is coloured by my experience as an online news editor; I’d be interested in other views on essential structure and functionality of blog posts.

My main aims are to build up the code for PubKit keeping it modular, robust and adaptable, and to keep the target end-users in view (people who are frightened of computers but need to use them to communicate). That may mean using Ditto-style extenders around the main parameter-gathering/document modifying/command parsing/form generation core.

I’ll probably move on to the events diary as the next feature, as it’s an area that is not well served by existing snippets (not in the formats I want, anyway), and it presents some big development challenges in passing and processing a heap of date-based parameters.

KP
(Screenshots are from the site that kicked this all off for me)

Keith,

Those are nice shots.

Enjoy your "away" days

cheers/k

Btw, can this do archiving a la WP, Reflect snippet, etc? Haven’t had time to play with it yet

cheers/k

I’ve updated pkBlog to implement the &showinmenu parameter and to add WordPress-style permalinks as aliases in place of plain document ID numbers to items.

&showinmenu was listed at the top of the snippet, but there was no code for it - it was a leftover from NewsPublisher, I think. Now you can control the hidemenu variable by parameter, and override it from the front end if you wish. I’ve added a checkbox to the editing form for this.

Adding the permalink aliases turned out to be a lot simpler than implementing &showinmenu. They are sanitized versions of the title field made by removing non-alphanumeric characters and substituting hyphens for spaces. The document ID is still there as a prefix to guarantee unique strings, and the alias is only set on first creating an item, in case it’s been bookmarked or indexed somewhere when you come to update it.

Pogwatch pkBlog pages and original post have been updated, including Zip file. (The Zip now includes my forms.css file).

@kongdondo: Reflect? Maybe later, pkBlog and PubKit are more to do with creating items than presenting them, and they’re my priority for now. I’ve not looked into Reflect much. It could do with some better documentation -- most of the Ditto site and comments in files refer to Ditto rather than Reflect.

KP

Keith,

Thx for the update and the clarification. I feel guilty that I haven’t had time to test pkBlog yet! So many things ,so little time.....I must do this soon! Time, o, time.....

cheers/k