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Recommendations: Simple news/blog app?

Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2006 8:59 pm
by redmonkey
Not really looking to re-invent the wheel so I'm searching for a simple news posting style script. Features wise, nothing spectacular, the ability to post news (obviously), easily customise the frontend output and that's about it (obviously secure etc.. too). I figure if I can't find a dedicated news app I could use a simple blog app and just disable the features I don't require.

So far, looking around, everything I've looked at is either feature packed (with no simple way of completely disabling those unwanted features) which means it's bloated for my use, or they are very time consuming to rewrite the front end.

So, anybody using anything that might do the trick and is worth raving about?

Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2006 9:06 pm
by feyd
WordPress is quite nice, feature rich, and fairly easy to extend/customize. Loads of plugins are available too

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:59 am
by Maugrim_The_Reaper
Serendipity is what I'm currently using... http://www.s9y.org

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 10:34 am
by waradmin
Me and a small group of people coded a really simple blog script with admin functions and 1 mysql database. it just allows you to add new entries and for people to comment on them.

View it in action at http://www.open-server.org download at http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/54505.html

-steve

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 11:16 am
by nickman013

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:32 pm
by redmonkey
Thanks,

Wordpress, my initial concern with Wordpress is that requests for it show on a regular basis within my server access logs (it's not installed on my server), the query strings are quite clearly attempting to exploit vulnerabilities. It may be realtively secure, they may release updates often enough that it's not a huge problem but there are obviously bots roaming around trying out these exploits.

Serendipity, I looked at this recently, perhaps I was digging around in the wrong sections of the codebase but it seemed quite a large application for my modest needs.

SimpleBlog, after a quick glance at the main index page, I concluded that this was not the system for my needs.

Cutephp, doesn't seem to offer a simple method for customising layout/frontend.

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 3:10 am
by Maugrim_The_Reaper
Serendipity is pretty large - I've found it to be simple enough for my needs though. There's quote a bit of extendibility built in for themes, plugins, etc. As for whether large makes it hard to modify, or adapt to your needs not a clue. Haven't found a pressing need to change it yet - ;)

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 5:49 am
by redmonkey
Not so much modify, but disable features. The obvious quick method would be to simply modify the generated output to not display the bits I don't need/want but then the app itself is still loading and processing these components which is just both pointless and a waste of system resources.

So then the next option/approach is to go through the codebase and disable the unwanted components from loading at all during run time. The only issue with that is that one component/function/feature may be dependant on an other. I haven't looked too closely at Serendipity, I've really just been 'quick scanning' possible apps so far so it may be less effort than first impressions suggest.

Not so much difficult as potentially time consuming hence, the more simplistic the base app is to start with, the (hopefully) less time I'll have to spend on it modifying/disabling it to suit my needs.

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:37 am
by Moocat
http://www.blogger.com

Googles version, you can use their version (on their servers) or you can even let it install it onto your own server (no messy setup).

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:20 am
by redmonkey
I've been 'burned' by the third-party hosted solution before (not by google but still) as a result, I tend to avoid that route at all costs.

I've been looking around again on and off the last few days, perhaps I'm being too picky, I think I will just go re-invent the wheel.

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 8:25 am
by RobertGonzalez
How about myBloggie? It is built on the phpBB framework, uses a system similar to it (templates, themes, etc) and seems to be fairly lightweight. I haven't used it (I much prefer WordPress) but I have downloaded it and the code seems pretty straight forward.