[SLUG] Geeklog.

[Ian Eade at IGM]

Paul

A good example of how things could go, if the Geeklog had just 1 column
and was stripped of its name (call the directory content or foo or
something arbitary) then we would have the benefits of a cms without the
(inherently percieved) stigma. Whilst building our own cms may seem like
a thrilling prospect we would only be covering old ground, after all the
geeklog can provide:

* user management (if required)
* categorised article submissions, with or without logging in and with
or without filtering etc
* good calendar functions (database driven so functions can be used
around the site to show events etc)
* good polling functions
* good module plugins (download manager etc)
* section managers, enabling you to spread the load (polls, calendar
etc)

Personally I would prefer to hack geeklog into what we want and benefit
from the work that its authors have done, rather than have (many?)
people spend (much) time and effort in developing a system which is
basically a shadow of geeklog without its benefits and potential
scalability possibilities. Maybe a demo of how geeklog could be hacked
is required?

Having had a look round other lug sites I notice that Preston and
Lancashire uses a Cold Fusion driven cms, anyone for Cold Fusion?  :)



Ian







> -----Original Message-----
> From: scarborough-admin at mailman.lug.org.uk 
> [mailto:scarborough-admin at mailman.lug.org.uk] On Behalf Of 
> Paul Teasdale
> Sent: 05 May 2003 17:36
> To: scarborough at mailman.lug.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [SLUG] Geeklog.
> 
> 
> On Friday 02 May 2003 12:28, Al Girling wrote:
> > On Thu, 1 May 2003 19:43:56 +0100
> >
> > Ian Eade @ IGM Web Design wrote:
> > > Some good points Al regarding the Geeklog CMS, bear with 
> me whilst I 
> > > through my shiny spanner into the opensource works (coffee at the 
> > > ready):
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > > Very much the reverse Al, standing up and voicing your 
> opinions is 
> > > positive and helps everybody. What we need to do is 
> decide exactly 
> > > what we want and how we can use what Jamie has provided as a 
> > > foundation to get there. For now I can't see any point in 
> continuing 
> > > any further work on Geeklog and will leave things as is.
> > >
> > > Ian
> > >
> > > ps
> > > As it has taken a day or two to compile this lot a few more posts 
> > > have been raised, so bear this in mind when reading this
> >
> > Lots of good points Ian, and I'm sorry that my comments 
> have stopped 
> > the development of the Slug Geeklog site.
> >
> > As you say a few new posts have been made regarding this 
> subject and 
> > need to born in mind.  On Wednesday's IRC meet, Paul suggested a 
> > possible alternative to Geeklog which I think should be 
> investigated.
> >
> ><snip>
> >
> > Looking forward to the future.
> >
> > Al
> 
> I have had a little bit of time to spare this weekend so I 
> have knocked up a 
> really quick example of how web pages can be kept dynamic 
> without the need to 
> upload each new change to the SLUG web space. It's based on 
> my past post 
> whereby I gave the example of keeping the meeting date 
> up-to-date, via a web 
> browser, using a passworded admin area.
> 
> Firstly goto http://www.ryedalebusiness.co.uk/slug and you 
> will see slightly 
> redesigned SLUG website. I have altered Jamies design 
> slightly so it fits 
> better with my favourite template engine, that being 
> patTemplate, and is 
> otherwise no critism what-so-ever of Jamies original design. 
> Down the left 
> you will see the mock up next meeting date; so far so good. 
> (BTW if anyone 
> wants an explanation of why I believe template engines are a 
> "good thing" 
> then I will be only to happy to answer at a meeting or in 
> another post.)
> 
> Now go to http://www.ryedalebusiness.co.uk/slug/admin that 
> being our "secret" 
> passworded admin area that normal browsing users do not know 
> about (except in 
> this case it's no longer secret and it's not passworded). 
> Change the meeting 
> date as you wish. As soon as you press 'Set Date' your 
> selected date will be 
> written to MySQL and you will be redirected back to 
> http://www.ryedalebusiness.co.uk/slug. Now look down the left 
> and you will 
> see the new meeting date that you have just set. Note that 
> you may need to 
> refresh your browser to pick up the new date you have just 
> set as I have not 
> put in any page expiry stuff thus there is nothing to force 
> your browser 
> to automatically refresh (although it usually does depending 
> on your caching 
> policy).
> 
> Obviously this is noddy stuff but goes to prove the point we 
> could, with a 
> little amount of effort and some time, write our own 
> tailor-made CMS. Again I 
> am NOT saying Geeklog is a bad thing (I like it personally) 
> but would like to 
> fit in with everybodies general idea of what's required and, 
> so far, there's 
> excellent points been made by both sides.
> 
> To sum up I have tried to point out the main advantages and 
> disadvantages of 
> developing our own CMS.
> 
> Advantages of writing our own CMS:
> 	Tailor-made to our exact requirement.
> 	The fun of learning and doing.
> 	Common look through-out.
> 	Unique look through-out.
> 
> Disadvantages of writing our own CMS:
> 	Time.
> 	Effort. 
> 	Re-inventing the wheel.
> 	Bugs & security (probably not such a big deal in our case).
> 	Organisation of work (assuming more than one person is 
> working on it).
> 
> With the above in mind it would be nice to sort out the exact 
> website roadmap 
> at the next meeting.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Paul.
>