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kickass
08-06-2005, 05:05 PM
I've already talked about the Regionalization thing, I think this would put PHP Link Directory head and shoulders above the rest of the scripts out there. And yes, I know it's a lotta work.

There's a few other things that you might look at and think about working toward, and yes, I know this is a way future wish list--

One of the strengths of the WordPress blogging script is the way it is customizable and extensible through the use of Plug-Ins. These can be installed/uninstalled through the admin area and offer additional functionality to an installed script, so that wordpress users can almost infinitely customize their installation. There are many types of plugins, from ones that order categories differently, to ones that offer a style-switcher, to ones that offer comment spam protection. The PHP Link Directory is an awesome script. If in future you look at mods as possible plugins and develop a mechanism through which they can be handled, I feel that this will make this directory script the most versatile directory script out there. It also allows independent OS developers to write the plugins separate from the script itself, which, in my mind, is a good thing, since, when the main core script is updated, the mods/plugins won't be overwritten, so people who use these customizations won't lose everything (though it's understood that some plugins will need to be updated when the main script is!) Yes, I know this one will most likely be a LARGE change, but I think that ultimately it will make a bunch of things easier into the future.

Another thing I'd love to see is the ability to add, through the admin interface, non-directory "pages" to the directory, for instance an "about" page, or any other informational page. you'll see that the coding mechanism for doing this has already been written (Thanks, Ap0s7le!!) it just needs to be added to the admin in some fashion, maybe with an editor that plops the information in? If these "page" titles could be handled under a separate category as subcats, that would be way cool.

I'm also wondering if there is a mechanism to say "This category is number ONE"- I don't much care about ordering the other cats, but if I could specify which one I want first, that would be a great thing.

The last thing (for now!) is for one of you code wizards to write a template switcher. I'm developing a few templates for the community and it would be nice to be able to display them on a template switcher. If you wanna see what I mean, just check out my devblog here, and scroll down to the themeswitcher links and give it a whirl:
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This is basically what I wanna do with php link directory templates, so people looking for templates can testdrive them on a switcher.

f1gm3nt
08-06-2005, 06:12 PM
plun-ins would be a great advantage to this thing. One day it will be here. I just to use PHP-Nuke and loved the plug-ins I could get for it. I even made a few of my own.

David
08-06-2005, 09:06 PM
Yes, plugins require a little bit more of a solid colde base. Once we have a Final Release, we might be able to explore this option.

The regionalization "plugin" is going to take in excess of 80 hours of programming, so it will may have to be put on hold. I really need for us to get to a Final Release first.

Today, we just released Revision 63 in the WebSVN, and we are back on track to make more revisions in the coming days. One important addition will will be the Pagination mod, so that categories can, for example, show 20 links per page (configurable in admin). It is also compatible with mod rewrite. Hopefully, after this and a couple of other small things are completed, we can go final. It is very important we get all important bugs or missing features (that would be hard to do without) completed first and foremost.

Adding a field to the categories for sort order is very easy. We may be able to include this in the final release.

With regard to the template switcher, I was considering creating a section of this site similar to the "styles" used in phpbb's site. I'm pretty sure it would be pretty easy to use multiple template folders. The only issue might be temp/templates.

kickass
08-06-2005, 10:14 PM
Thanks, David! I do understand the list of priority. I hope that getting the xhtml/css code to validate is also right up there for the Final Release. I'm trying to find you some help with that- I've made a plea on bended knee to a guy who is a whiz with php (hey, that rhymes!) and is also one of the gurus of the CSS community. Hopefully he has a few minutes to look it over and come up with a couple suggestions on that. There will be many other eyes looking this way soon, since I have a big e-mouth :wink: