K, my mates looking at building a little site like this:

(Home Page)----(His Content)------(User submitted content)

The idea being his extended family can all add info and stuff to the family history. There are like 80 people involved in this...


For me the user submitted stuff is a toughy. I really dont want to mess with owt hardcore, we just need for people to be able to click on a link, submit content (typically text and image) without having to log in. For one reason or another he doesnt want the users to have log in accounts to the sites CMS, instead he wants the process to be [user submits stuff] -> [he approves the content] -> [the content is published].

But he doesnt like the blog format. He wants each submission to have its own unique page and have its link put into an index on the site. He also wants the most recent pages to go into a [most recent] section on the home page.

Ideas?

Code it.

Use a database (like a cms would use) and some php.

User adds text and uploads image (easy to do in php)... its stored in database with a flag of 0 or something.

All items with "flag 0" are displayed on his "admin" page under a section called "awaiting approval"

He approves (simple form and a tick box) sets the flag to 1... or delete pages he doesnt like (he does realise that he will have sh*tloads to sort through because of spambots?)

Home page queries 10 most recent (order by date) entries in Database with flag set to 1.

As for each individual page... use this method..

usercontent.php?id=1234

and it accesses "item" 1234 in the database and displays it appropriately.

Can navigate through items seemlessly, and itll seem like each submission has its own page.

Pretty sure Joomla has options for making search-engine friendly pages, and its easy to produce archives/indexes of content. Also can sort out permissions so that the admin or mods are required to verify content before publication.

But even with this step hes sure to end up getting loads of spam submissions once its on the search engines?

uh, god. How long will it take me to learn php? Do you know any good sites on it?

Ill check Joomla out, ta

Quote from: sdpuh, god. How long will it take me to learn php? Do you know any good sites on it?

Ill check Joomla out, ta

Joomla is _really_ easy.  Its pretty much self install.  You just need to set up a dBase, upload all the files (chmod if required), then point your browser at the install script.  Dead easy.

if it is just a blog family are posting on - wordpress may be better

Just make sure you keep everything updated...dont want some tosser exploiting a security flaw in an old version ><

website baker does what you want pretty simply.

Matt

Problem with a CMS system thats predone... is as zpyder says they are targets for exploits.

Im gonna have a look at php over the weekend, I saw htmlgoodies have a noob guide to it. thankee.

Cool, its relatively easy to do. Really is.

Two issues, what happens if someone posts something that others might not like and what if someone deletes all the hard work?

Much better to have peeps email it in and put it up, or have some form of password entry?

The stuff they submit goes to him, via [something] and it doesnt get published til he checks it aint goatse.

But tubgirl is allowed? Excellent...

Got lots done today, but Im looking at the database bit now and Im getting stuck. How do I get data in and out of a sql db from a website?

I wanna do:

SELECT stuff FROM table WHERE x=1

And put stuff into the website.

Then coming back the other way would be a form; user submits stff and it goes in the db.