PostNuke

The Fiction & Fantasy Network is putting together an online game using the core of Post Nuke 6.3 as the basis, I have currently hacked a lot of the user and admin system to allow the basics of characters to be created.

I'm having problems adding some extra functions and fields which would make things a whole lot more fun and automated.

I know that the new version of PN is going to have some new user module functions, but I don't think it will do what I need.

So any volunteers to help me hack ?

You can see what I'm up to at http://www.fortress.fiction-fantasy.net

regards

Gary Thompson
CEO & President
The Fiction & Fantasy Network

Tickers, NukeBrowser, SiteNews, Multilingual variables, Enhanced News page, Enhanced Blocks system, Enhanced Headlines, NukeSuck, Enhanced Modules Admin, Enhanced Web Links, Modular pntables, Modular Admin Block.
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New Features:

Tickers: Added fullfeatured advanced Tickers system which is an
alternative to blocks. Displays any amount of information in a scrollable
single line. Scroll speed adjustable. This feature is primarily for
headlines services (this one is builtin as RSS News for NukePack) but any
type of other tickers can be added. Rules are exactly same as for PostNuke
advanced blocks.

NukeBrowser: A web browser which displays almost all web pages from around
the web in PostNuke portal. Frames, forms, redirects supported, javascript
disabled.

SiteNews: An automated site news generator scans your site and generates
daily articles containing changes. Modular system so module developers may
add config files for the scanner in the includes/sitenews dir. New backendnp
provides whole sitenews based RSS feeds from your site. Multilingual
variables supported (see below).

NukePack Admin Panel: ALL NukePack features can be enabled/disabled,
customized.

Multilingual variables: Block titles, content, Articles may contain language
dependent variables (i.e. _TOPICS). If ML option active, these variables
will be translated on the fly.

Enhanced features:

Enhanced News page:
Supports multicolumn layout adjustable 1-4 columns. Allows image attachments
to articles to be more attractive. Centerblocks and Multilingual variables
supported (see above).

Enhanced Blocks system: All blocks are scrollable manually or automatically,
can be reloaded in adjustable intervals of 5 sec - 1 hour independently.
Administrator may restrict appearance of any block for all, members only or
guest only. Added center position to allow blocks to appear in the
centerblock of News page too. "File type" phpNuke blocks are also supported
without any modification. Shadeblocks: blocks can be minimized/restored by
members. Multilingual variables supported (see above).

Enhanced Headlines: Admin has been moved to separate module from blocks
admin. Added NukeSuck feature: You may "suck" feeds from any regular news
site even without RSS/RDF service (See example at the end of this file).
Headlines can be used for blocks or tickers. Builtin NukeBrowser support.

Enhanced Modules Admin: Added automatic sql file interpreter. Generates safe php
install/uninstall scripts from any module's sql file. Lazy developer
support: "sucks" license/credit/help information from modules' script
header.

Enhanced Web Links: Builtin NukeBrowser support.

Modular pntables: added custom pntables support in includes/pntables dir.
Allows overrides and new definitions without touching the new core
pntables.php.

Modular Admin Block: waiting contents will be included from
includes/blocks/waitingcont dir so allows module developers to add their own
waiting content options. Displays only nonzero waiting contents.

New Blocks:
oldblocks - phpNuke file type block support
rssnp - NukeSuck and NukeBrows enabled headlines
sitenewsblock - SiteNews Block

Included Oldblocks:
Calculator - for fun
NP FAQ - uses unified blockdump feature
NP Links - uses unified blockdump feature
NP Topics - uses unified blockdump feature
NP Users - uses unified blockdump feature
Nuke Browser - provides URL input field
NukeClock - for fun
Recent Headlines
Recent Links
WhoisOnline - advanced online monitor


New modules:
NS-NP_Config - Admin panel to customize NukePack features
NS-NP_Headlines - NukeSuck enabled headlines admin
NS-NP_Tickers - Similar to Blocks Admin
SiteNews - scans site for changes
NukeBrowser - integrates web into PostNuke portal

Affected core files:
pntables: added modularity
mainfile.php: include_once mf2
mainfile2.php: lang include_once
footer.php: close mysql
article.php and
print.php: image and Multilingual variables support
header.php: modifies themes on the fly for image and Multilingual variables
support and displays tickers
includes/counter.php: iframe support
includes/advblocks.php: completely rewritten
includes/blocks/linklist.php: modular waitingcont
themes/PostNuke/theme.php: full width

Affected modules:
Messages: bug fix
News: added multicolumn, centerblocks, Multilingual variables, image support
NS-AddStory: added Multilingual variables, image support
NS-Blocks: see above
NS-ModulesAdmin: see above
Submit_News: added Multilingual variables, image support
Web_Links: added NukeBrowser support


Install:
Simply copy the content of html folder in place, NO core tables will be
modified, new tables and variables will be created automatically as needed

Original distribution files attached in backup folder

Language template included in langtemplate folder

<a href=http://lophas.phpwebhosting.com>Download

This includes the page itself, the header, the footer - everything.

Each 'block' can have one or more parents, when a parent is displayed it retrieves all it's children so on ad infinitem...

How to implement this? Well although I'm not an expert in OOP (my real job ties me to procedural code), this screams 'classes'.
PN implements a 'block' class, providing all the common methods/functions (admin, register, show GetCssStyle etc) which each new type of block extends, overriding the methods where appropriate and adding new ones if required.

Each block would define a virtual 'grid' (implemented as an html table) with fixed or variable cell sizes, each cell having a unique ID which the child block would use to position itself.
Each block would also be attached to a css style.

I realise this is sort of the approach taken already, but much of the block configuration is code based, with only the positioning (limited to left/right & order) defined by the admin screens.
By evolving (I don't see this as revolutionary!) towards treating every object (dang, it's that word again) as a block you gain a massive anount of flexibility, which I'm sure others more talented than myself will be able to visualize and describe...

Since I was ever a microsoft tech expert (traditional developer), my experience with web programming is almost nothing (in fact negative: MS-Frontpage).

The situation is that I have created a popular (>100,000 downloads) peer2peer mp3 sharing client, and all I implemented in my web was a simple ASP forum.

Now, with an extremely fast growing community, I need to give them much more service and content (>5,000 visitors/day), but I am the only working on this. I designed the peer2peer protocol, developed the client, did the commercial work, and now I'm pulled to creating a portal knowing nothing about web dev. nor PHP.

I'm really happy to have found you. Postnuke is really a very top level commercial software but it's a community-driven development.

As a guru in closed/commercial development, I see clearly that there is one thing that could boost up your project to the mass at the speed of light. The key is to say in a single document (an article, a static HTML anywhere...) what can postnuke do and how can be done. Of course, not all, but the basis, which can be valid for both, newbies and gurus.

I think that postnuke is difficult to describe in a paragraph...(PostNuke is a Weblog / Content Manag...). I'm sure that if there were a place to read -simply- what can be done and how to do it with postnuke, a bunch of new members will grow the community. The key is that this doc will respond to the questions:
- Can postnuke do what I need to do in my site?
- Can postnuke do it the way I need it?

As both answers are YES in ALL cases, success is guaranteed.


Regards,
Pablo.
PH: oh, my program is blubster, www.blubster.com, and I'm trying to implement my own portal in www.blubster.net... liks to documentation and windows2000-IIS how-to for postnuke are welcome! :)

This means for example that if someone submitted an article in German and someone else submitted one in Arabic, I could read it and everything else on the site in English, by just selecting English as my language interface. Like a truely international portal system.

Is this a very unrealistic idea to implement or possible, but very laborious? Are there perhaps PHP libraries that could aid the Post-Nuke developers in reaching this goal?

Anyway just some thoughts to play around with. A big thanks to all you Post-Nuke developers, you've been doing an awesome job! I'm extremely busy right now, but I hope to eventually help as a developer later this year...

Footnote: 1

The reason I am asking this is because I have images for topics/buttons which have text description in it.

Any lead would be very much appreciated.