Advice Needed

milkylufc · #1 Apr 13th, 2007, 16:02

Hey all, i'm new so firtly, apologies if i've posted this in the wrong forum.

I run a couple of sites, one of which is currently just a forum - www.yorkshirefootball.com - but by the start of the 2007/08 season i'm hoping to expand it into a website featuring news and match reviews from all the clubs based in Yorkshire (England)

The news and match reports will all be submitted by fans and members of the forums, so they will be in effect, the sites reporters.

Rather than having to add every bit of news to the site myself on a daily basis, which would be hours and hours of work, i want to make it so they can submit all their news and match reports by RSS - Possibly by emailing it to the feed?

I'm not sure if thats possible, but i need a way that a select number of people can update the site with limited access so they cant alter anthing major, and of course have no access whatsoever to the host.

Please bare in mind that the people in question will have very little or no knowledge of web design, so i need a simple and effective way.

Any ideas?

Thanks Milky

Ryan Fait · #2 Apr 14th, 2007, 02:45

Check out http://hotscripts.com/ for some PHP scripts that might work out for you.

milkylufc · #3 Apr 14th, 2007, 17:57

Cheers for that Ryan. I'll check it out now.

milkylufc · #4 Apr 14th, 2007, 18:09

Found something that would be usable, but i'd have to allow the writers a little too much access to the site.

They'd also need alot more knowledge of script (i think) than they currently have...

Marc · #5 Apr 14th, 2007, 18:52

You coluld always try a Content Management system eg. http://cutephp.com. (CuteNews is extremely easy to set up! and takes less than 5 mins). Give it a try, its free but if you want the little banner down the bottom to be removed i think it is $39. It has got different types of user access, i think, Admin, reporter and commenter. The person adding the news would be a reporter. He/she would write the story up then submit it. You would then check the story and tick the box to give it the all clear to go on the page. Easy peasy!

milkylufc · #6 Apr 14th, 2007, 18:55

That could be just the thing Fraser.

Thanks

Marc · #7 Apr 14th, 2007, 18:56

Your welcome.

milkylufc · #8 Apr 15th, 2007, 07:17

Cheers for the advice above, it got me looking in the right direction.

Found a more advanced news management system that'll cost me around £100 (200usd) for the license, its entirely web based and will allow unlimited writers to log in and add news from anywhere in the world 24/7, and have it on the site instantly, which is exactly what i want.

http://www.xigla.com/absolutenmnet/index.htm

It's got an online demo, which i've had a mess with, and it would seem the writers will need no knowledge of script whatsoever, which is essential.

If anyone uses the above system, please let me know what you think of it, or if anyone knows of anything better.

I have a couple of weeks before i start on this website, so i haven't commited to this software yet.

Marc · #9 Apr 15th, 2007, 08:04

That is the same with cutenews, it is entirely web based with NO databases. Also, the writers only need to know how to type.

milkylufc · #10 Apr 15th, 2007, 08:07

I downloaded that but got a little lost. Do you use it?

There would need to be about 20 users logging in with seperate accounts that would add news to only one page. So it'd be 1 page per team, and the writers would only have access to the news for their teams page.

Thats where i got a little lost with CuteNews. It seemed to be a similar set up, but i couldnt make different catergories... Or at least i dont think i could?

Marc · #11 Apr 15th, 2007, 08:10

The user levels for cutenews are as follows:

Administrator : have full access and privilegies
Editor : can add news and edit others posts
Journalist : can only add news (must be approved)
Commenter : only post comments

You might want to add the people who are writing the match report as a journalist. You can log in as an editor on my site and see what you think. PM me.

It is as easy as pie, once you have your layout sorted out, but that is HTML.

milkylufc · #12 Apr 15th, 2007, 08:14

Any ideas if google is able to read the news using this system?

Marc · #13 Apr 15th, 2007, 08:16

as for your message above, i dont know if you can assign a certain category, but you will be able to ask that on the cutenews fourm. and you should be able to get 20 users to log in.

Marc · #14 Apr 15th, 2007, 08:17

I am not sure, ask that question on the www.cutephp.com forum. and i forgot to mention, users can log in anywhere in the world 24/7 providing your server isnt down!

milkylufc · #15 Apr 15th, 2007, 08:20

Ok Fraser, i will.

On efinal thing, did you use Dreamweaver to build your site? If so where do i find the CHMOD

ie... Now You must CHMOD the the directory cutenews/data/ and all files and folders under the data/ directory must be also chmod'ed to 777.

Marc · #16 Apr 15th, 2007, 08:54

Yeh, i used dreamweaver to build my site but i used core FTP to upload my things

milkylufc · #17 Apr 15th, 2007, 08:55

Yeah, seems like the best idea. I never usually use Dreamweaver to upload, but for some reason have done on this occasion. I'll try with SmartFTP now and see what happens

Marc · #18 Apr 15th, 2007, 09:28

Milky, i have found a mod for cutenews and you will be able to assign a person 1 topic where they can add news: http://cutephp.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4970

Follow the instructions there
Marc.

milkylufc · #19 Apr 15th, 2007, 15:49

Cheers Fraser. You're a star

Marc · #20 Apr 15th, 2007, 18:59

Thanks!

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Advice Needed