Simon Butcher

Configure S9Y sidebar items per category

Posted
Comments 9

I like Serendipity for blogging, and have no intention to move to WordPress despite constant nagging from fellow bloggers.

The great thing about Serendipity is the ease at which new plug-ins can be created. While their plugin API documentation looks like it's lacking substance, it makes sense once you get going and realise the blanks are fairly obvious.

The bad thing about Serendipity is that most of the useful features are already built into a plug-in somewhere, and all you have to do is find them. This is the lesson I've learnt from the Serendipity Forums.

The whole thing makes sense though, as it seems like everything I feel I need to code is already coded these days. I might suddenly feel like a modern day Charles Duell, if he hadn't been misquoted.

Anyway, if you're still interested, the plug-in, including the patch against Serendipity version 1.1.1 (works with 1.1.2 too), can be downloaded here.


Categories PHP

Comments

  1. I find it a near impossible choice when selecting a CMS. Open-source CMS are just about a dime a dozen these days, and the simple ones - mainly used for blogging even seem to be really becoming quite good. However I've never really been able to make a stable choice. I use Joomla! for the Fire Brigade website, and WordPress for my own blog site, but I feel as though I could do better with both. Modular plugins are important, and I don't think WordPress really succeeds there, and I feel as though Joomla is just a little bit bloated... but that might just be the interface. Maybe I will make the switch to S9Y one day and see how it goes. Although now the pressure seems to be to stay away from PHP based CMS, as PHP now has a name for itself as being insecure. But I don't really think that's fair, seeing as though insecure code isn't the language's fault, it's the coders fault.

  2. (Author)

    It's difficult. I found a website a while ago which is now quite out dated but it helped with my original decision (http://asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm). We're using Serendipity at work now as a sort of "interdepartmental newsletter" providing our sales department with information on products from our purchasing/merchandising department. Ultimately the decision to go with Serendipity there had a lot to do with the fact that we can set up several users with specific security rights (they can only write/edit articles for their own product lines, etc) and it has the ability to be very easy to use. That said, people are often surprised when they find out that I write my HTML by hand rather than relying on WYSIWYG (because quite often what you see ain't what you get). My personal decision to go with Serendipity was that is was simple but still very flexible from a geeky coding sort of perspective, although I'm still yet to really play with it.

  3. Try the Lingua project: http://www.linguaproject.net/ The best place to try before you buy in LAMP FOSS is http://www.opensourcecms.com @steve: PHP is not insecure, unfortunately the bar into php is so low, that their are a lot of bad php programmers out there. PHP5 is much better particularly for OO code. I have interviewed many :(

  4. (Author)

    Hey Scott - long time no see :) I hate the new generation of 'coders' (*cough*). I want to shrivel up and die, or maybe just become a plumber, because of code with obvious buffer exploitation, SQL injection attacks, or just plain old stupid unnecessary reprocessing in loops. I'd probably earn more money as a plumber. Hmm.

  5. Howdy Ho :D Unfortunately, understanding how a computer fundamentally works is no longer a requirement of computer science. Thus the new generation of clueless programmers who go 'Oh.. that code will work.. ' but have no idea why their 5 nested loops rereading the same data 1 million times is slow. Personally, I think *ALL* programmers should learn BRAINF*CK a basic turing machine language. Considering the recent popular trends of software engineers are into AOP programming ( the basic equivalent of COME FROM LINE X ), and the number of STRUTS / J2EE frameworks promoting XML based 'object wiring' the world of software engineering is becoming a sad place indeed. Considering the internet has been described as a series of tubes.. maybe I *AM* a plumber already ;)

  6. (Author)

    Don't get me started on XML. Don't. Seriously, the world is a better place without my XML rage.

  7. Same. I don't mind XML if it is used for what it was designed for: Communication over networks between different systems.

  8. Try Dotclear 2 ...

  9. (Author)

    Hmm, I'll have to look at that...

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