What is it?

One of the XOOPS sites I run with a friend had a need for a competent Article Management System, and we felt that none of the Article modules currently available to the XOOPS community fully fitted our needs. With this in mind we've hired a developer to create our own .

What does it have to offer?

Probably the easiest way to describe it is a module that bridges the gap between the Articles module and Wf-Section. I feel both these modules are great, and definitely have their place, but neither fitted what we were after. I felt the articles module was a bit too light on features in it's present state to be considered, and on the other hand I felt that WF-Section V2 was perhaps trying to do a bit too much. So here we go, a brief outline of the major features of the first version.


Based on code from News 1.2

The fact this module is being developed using the News 1.2 module as it's base means that development time is greatly reduced, and stability is already there. It also means the permissions system incorporated into News 1.2 will be in use in this module, as well as the search engine friendly title naming.

Article Versioning System

One thing core to a more advanced article management system is being able to have multiple versions of an article. Only one of these versions is active at any one time, but you can set any version to being the active one at anytime with a few clicks of the mouse button, as can all the version management options. I am very happy with the way this has turned out as it is both very effective, and very simple to use.

Banner System

Advertising is sometimes a necessary evil, especially for the larger sites. This module has a nifty banner system that allows you to enter code (html etc) to display your banners at the top of each topic and each article. What's more, it even has an inheritance system where with a tick of a box a topic will automatically display the banner that has been set for its parent topic. This makes it much easier to manage what banners are displayed on which categories. If no banner is set either directly, or through inheritance, then no banner is displayed.

Searchable Article ID System

Each Article is given an ID which is displayed at the top of each Article, and is fully searchable via the XOOPS search engine for quick and easy Article access.

Article Links Management

Quite often you'll want to link your articles with others, both on your site and elsewhere. This module has a prerequisites links section where you place links to be displayed at the top of you article (for reading prior to the displayed article), a recommended reading section where you place links to be displayed at the bottom of your article (for reading after the displayed article), and finally a link to forum option where you can link an article for discussion to a particular NewBB 2 forum. Not only this, but each link has a hit counter, so if you are admin you'll be able to see which links are performing the best.

Article layout and information blocks

This one is a bit hard to explain without pictures, as it is a visual change. Basically all the acticle info such as author, audience (see below), published date, article ID, version and the number of reads are all displayed in a block at the top of each article. There are also a number of information blocks including top articles in order of ranking, and reads. Also informational blocks on authors in order of ranking, most articles published, and top read author.

Audience

This is something completely new as far as I am aware to any Articles module for Xoops. This was included as we intend to create a large amount of technical procedure documents, and we needed some way of identifying who the intended audience was. Not only that but the audience feature is linked to a permissions system that applies to the extended/main text area of an article, where a user has to be a member of a group with permissions to view it. Without the appropriate audience permissions all a user will be able to see is the scoop (the article description area) and the banners.

For instance, you could set it so that only members of the registered members group have access to your articles, meaning that if a person wanted to be able to view them they would have to register on your site first. This could be taken much further too, as the donation modules become more advanced and features such as adding a user to a group upon a donation being received you could use the audience feature of this module to create a pay for view articles system. Best thing is that you can have as many difference audience groups as you like, and they are completely user definable. The audience permissions are set on a per topic level.

Article Management

Last, but certainly not least. This module has a totally different article management system than the News 1.2 module. Infact it is more like the document management section included in WF-Section V2. Once you get a number of articles on your site it can be a nightmare trying to track them down. This section allows you to search on article titles (partial or complete), and allows you to specify filters such as topic, author and also wether or not the article is expired, publish, or either of the two. Not only that but it then allows you to sort these results in ascending or descending order based on Article ID, title, published date, hits and rating.



So what is this thread all about then

Initially we were concentrating on what we needed out of an articles module, and gave pretty much nil thought about how this module could be used by the general XOOPS community as we had no intentions to release it. As it's shaping up I think it will have huge potential for the entire XOOPS community if released.

The good news is that this module is already well under way as far as development is concerned, and infact all of the functionality outlined above has been implemented and we are now entering the testing phase. The bad news is that this module has cost a hell of a lot of money and time (not saying others don't), and if we are to release the fruits of our labour, and more importantly our money (we have bills too), then we will need to recoup a good deal of that cost. Especially as if released there will be some expectation of support, and ongoing updates.

What I purpose is that those interested in using this module make a pledge to us (us being my friend and myself who have bankrolled the development thus far, and of course our developer) of an amount of money. In return (providing enough money is rasied to warrant releasing the module) you will recieve;

- priority support on a private forum (not on XOOPS site)
- access to the module 3 months (minimum) before it is released to the general XOOPS community.
- Patches/bugfixes

For pledges at or above $30US you will also recieve any significant future updates destined for general release for free, and again will recieve these updates 3 months before the general XOOPS community.

The only clause is that if you make a pledge, receieve the module, then turn around and offer the module for download prior to our scheduled release, then your pledge will become void. This meaning that even though you have contributed to the development cost, your priviledges of priority support and access to patches and bugfixes will be revoked.

I realise that paying for modules goes against the grain of what many have come to think and expect of GPL software, and I can fully appreciate that view point. We are not saying you MUST pledge money to this module, we are simply asking that if you want to use this module, and would like it to be released to the general XOOPS public that you help contribute to the substaintial cost involved in making it happen. Donating time I don't have a problem with, but as this module has cost both my friend and myself several hundred US dollars each, I think it only fair that the cost is shared if this module is to be used by every one.

Please Take Note:

- No pledges will be collected on until we have exceeded our target by a safe margin (accounting for pledge skippers)

- Pledges will be payable via a Paypal account to be provided

- Please only pledge what you can actually afford

- If you don't wish to post your pledge here, please PM me

- Please keep this thread to pledges only. If you have questions, or would like to have any other discussions regarding this module, please start another thread.

- We do not intend to make money out of this, just cover (or at least offset) the cost of development to date, and of that in the future.

- In the event that we raise more than enough money to cover present and future development cost, all excess will be donated to the XOOPS cause.

- If you have a use for an article management system, please pledge! I've been using XOOPS for a long time now, and I really think this has the potential to be one of the stand out modules.

[size=xx-large]Current Pledge-0-Metter = [/size][size=xx-large]$50[/size]

Hi Brash

Sounds great, XOOPS needs a finalised article module soooo badly. Kudos for taking matters into your own hands and doing something about it.

I am willing to contribute $20 to the cause. If it turns out well I may throw in some more later - I want to see it working first !

Phew! Someone actually pledged . Looking on what I posted now I think I went on with far too much waffle for a thread aimed at measuring initial interest in such a module .

You are right too MadFish, I think there is a lot of room for a fast and stable articles modules with a well rounded feature set. Hopefully we should have an installable version before too long. Once we do have it to a beta level, I'll create a demo site so people can see with their own eyes .

I am interested in this module. What is the staus? Please PM me if it is available?

Still cooking, I expect it to be ready for RC within a couple of weeks tops as it's about 99% complete. I will be making a more formal announcement within the next week all things going well

Hi any update on this module looks similiar to my needs

I want a way people can write an article, publish the article with a date and time stamp, Have a unique number assigned to it, allow the upload of graphics etc and then receive donations via paypal if people use the article.

I was also hoping to lock the article so the author could not change the original but could publish a later version with a new time and date stamp,