Pligg CMS Blog

We are about a week in to the new template and already planning the framework for the next template. Instead of writing the next template from scratch we have decided that the best idea would probably be by using a generator to produce a very stable frame for the site and make modifications and addons as needed. There are two template CSS generators that we are testing out right now:

• Option 1: PositionIsEverything.net
• Option 2: Skidoo Too

The new layout will only have one left sidebar starting with the user panel on top, followed by a custom link area, then the navigation area and finally the google ads. I think that I will also design it so that the google ads could optionally be placed in a box above the articles in the main content area, since this was requested by a user in a previous comment. I have always been a fan of verticle ads, but I see why someone might want to lay them out horizontally and I would like to keep everyone happy

AshDigg is also working on figuring out how to make changing templates easier by adding the ability to have multiple layouts in subdirectories and selecting which template you wish to use from the admin panel. This idea is really only in a conceptual stage right now, I don’t believe that he has started working on it just yet. The next template will hopefully also include a revamped administrator menu to make it easier on the eye. One of the areas that I think Pligg really stands out from the original Meneame code is the ability to act as an administrator through a simple interface, and I think we should really focus on making it easier and nicer for admins to access and maintain their data.

Lastly and perhaps most important for some of your aspiring web designers is this fun bit of news. Pligg will be hosting a template design contest for Pligg’s default template. We will feature the template in a future release of Pligg and the top three designers will be given cash prizes. First place will be given $50, second $25 and third $10 via Paypal. I know it’s not much, but we’re still a pretty small project and that pretty much maxes out our Pliggy Bank. The money given away for the prizes is coming from our donations that we have been given over the past few months, and I would like to take a moment to thank those who have donated to Pligg. We have collected about $250 in donations, $100 of which was my own money used to purchase a vbulletin license and domain name. I have recently added a link to the donation page to my signature in the forum to hope that we receive some more money to help pay for competitions like this one. I hope to hold more competitions in the future for things like Pligg mods, templates and integrations.

Back to the template competition… Here are some rules that all authors/artists should follow for the competition:

1. All work submitted must be original (by you alone), or the code/imagery must have written permission by the original author to be used for the Pligg project, acknowledging its use in a competition and for free public distribution. The written permission must also have the original authors and your own contact information including a telephone number and current address. This must be scanned and emailed to me. If you choose to have a partner in this project you must do the same and both of you should sign and scan your information.
2. All work submitted must be copyrighted by the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license. This will allow anyone to use, modify and distribute your work even commercially.
3. Three winners will be selected. The first place winner will receive $50 via Paypal and his/her template design may be used in a future release of Pligg. The second place winner will receive a $25 dollar prize via Paypal and his/her template may be used in a future relase of Pligg. The third place winner will receive a $10 dollar prize via Paypal and his/her template may be used in a future relase of Pligg.
4. All winnings will be distributed via Paypal. This means that you must have a Paypal account to accept the winnings.
5. All designs submitted are giving away their rights of ownership and will stand a chance at being used, or parts of their design being used, in a future release of Pligg.
6. The template should NOT link to your own site anywhere in the template, including the footer. It may however link to pligg.com in the footer and/or the admin panel.
7. We aren’t looking for something that looks just like an existing site. Be original, be creative, make us proud. Please don’t be a copy-cat.
8. You may use CSS generators to assist you in developing a template, but DO NOT copy any CSS from existing sites.
9. You may include Javascript in your templates, but it must be put in the /js directory with the existing Pligg Javascript.
10. You may include any portions of Pligg’s current 6.0 template CSS or image files. This does not include the meneame1.css file.
11. If you need help, ASK! You can contact us either through the forum boards or the IRC channel. Please remember to please try Google first if it’s related to CSS.

AshDigg rolled out an update to Beta 6 to help fix a few bugs and add a few features. This is an essential upgrade because I forgot to include the .htaccess file with the 6.00 release. 6.01 does not include a /libs/dbconnect.php file, so please be sure to grab that from the 6.00 release or if you have a previous install of Pligg you should use your old dbconnect.php file.
Includes

• The .htaccess file :)
• Support for Gravatars (the user profile page needs some formatting done if anyone has some time)
• Support for /category/{categoryname} instead of the category number.
• Tags are split up so you can click on individual tags for searching instead of having to search all.
• Ability to allow HTML tags (you choose which tags) in a story submission
• This feature has been around, but not really mentioned… When an admin clicks on “Admin: Change the status.” there is a link to “Ban this URL”. This will prevent anyone from submitting another story from that domain. Example: Digg doesn’t allow links from Shoutwire.
• Misc bug fixes.

Download 6.01 Here.

Well, it’s finally out there. I’m still not happy with where Beta 6 is when it comes to compatability and features. We are going to start working on a more web standard version of the template with just 2 columns. For now this will help everyone out who wants to get away from the digg layout. There will still be a lot of bugs with this release, after all we are in Beta release still, but they will soon be resolved with yet another template release. I still have to fix the problem form position, enable the magnifying glass image and add the negative vote functionality.
I am also introducing a new pligg.com homepage design. The root page no longer shows Pligg’s demo, instead we feature a nice welcome page with some handy links and news. It will show the latest 3 blog posts, last 3 bug reports, and last 3 forum replies. This will help keep users up to date with the latest information. The main page also links to a FAQ and License page. I will update the FAQ in the future to have tutorials and such.

Man am I getting annoyed of myself. I know I’ve been putting this off longer and longer, but the guys in the IRC room have been some great beta testers. I also have to thank everyone who has left a comment to report bugs. We have most everything working (including sneak) and we are now working on fine tuning the CSS and double-checking as many pages as we can for errors in IE and Firefox. I have to thank podigle for his lending a hand in fixing and checking the template CSS. I am handing out copies of Beta 6 in IRC for testing purposes, but there are still a few areas that need to be finished. I handed Podigle an archive of the files tonight for him to check over and tomorrow morning I plan to wake up, ask AshDigg a few questions, and finally finish this thing assuming that nothing else comes up. I’ve been sleep deprived the past few days, so I look forward to getting a decent amount of sleep tonight and starting the day rejuvinated and ready to Pligg.

I spent a huge amount of time working on the template for Beta 6 today. It turned out that the other author converting it into tables wasn’t such a great idea so I decided to personally finish this wretched thing. I’m at the point where I can no longer tell if it looks good or not because I have been staring at it for so long and it’s lost its freshness. The final design is amazingly close to what I wanted, even better in many ways. This was my first time trying to write my own CSS code and I’m amazed that I was able to pull this off. The code isn’t the neatest or most streamlined out there, but it gets the job done.

I am very glad to say that the template is VERY near finished. I have tested several of the pages in IE and they all come out well. There are some minor differences between the Firefox and IE renders of the site, but nothing bad. Opera doesn’t like the placement of the search bar last time I checked, but I’m sure it’s something that can be fixed by someone who knows some CSS. The release should come by this evening, if I’m able to keep awake. I have been lacking sleep lately and it’s getting tough to keep up and work on Pligg. Right now all that is left to be done are some of the secondary pages, things like register and profile pages. I got about two thirds of the way through with the secondary pages tonight, they usually don’t take long at all to edit. This evening I will finish doing the secondary pages and testing some of the pages for bugs. The good news is that the overdue release will finally come to the end in the next 24 hours… I promise. If it comes down to me releasign it with a couple small bugs left over I will, I’ll just tack the words “preview release” onto it. But hopefully that won’t happen because it looks like it’s pretty clean as is. I definitely think that I could spend another week polishing parts of the template, but I won’t torture everyone with that, it can always come as a template download.

It’s a few minutes after midnight now and I’m sad to say we didn’t make our release date. The template has a lot of IE bugs that need to be sorted out and the designer has a router that keeps cutting of his connection. The release has been postponed another day. The good news is that I have had enough time to redesign Pligg’s welcome page and I’ll release the new page on Pligg.com when I release Beta 6. The bad news is that everyone will have to wait another 24 hours for the release. It seems that this is an act of God…. killing someone’s internet connection. More on this tomorrow as things develop.

Today is the big day that many of you have been waiting for. I handed a copy of Beta 6 out to some of the IRCers 2 days ago and I am under the assumption that I should be getting an updated template file from one of the site members sometime today to post as the final release. Hopefully I will be contacted by this afternoon so I can post the code tonight and we can all be happy, so everyone keep their fingers crossed until you see Part II of the Beta 6 Release Day entry.

The new template is still in the garage being fixed, but that hasn’t stopped us from adding some extra features to surprise everyone with when we release this sucker. Right now I have completed the very basic task of laying out the site and aligning most of the big items where they need to be on the main page. I spent a little over 6 hours today doing this, and it really wore me out. I have very little CSS knowledge, which slowed me down when I first started, but I progressed pretty quickly and I’m now picking up momentum. My girlfriend is a graphic designer and whipped up some simple icons to use for the site. I will be releasing these icons, and the rest of the images used in the new template, in a Photoshop file when I release Beta 6.

Speaking of release dates…
Everyone has been asking “when will Beta 6 be released”? It’s al little to early to really give an accurate date since errors tend to be discovered along the way, but I think right now I will set a target date of February 14, 2006. That’s six days from today! May the countdown begin.

What to expect from Beta 6
Not only will you get a brand new Web 2.0, stylish, not Digg-like template, but you will also see some new features! Some new features to be included with Beta 6 are:

• External Vote Buttons
• Sneak Feature
• Podcast Mod (finally standard)
• 2 Secret Features

We have 2 new features that won’t be mentioned until the release of Pligg Beta 6 because they are small, but exciting items that are still in development. The podcast mod was first mentioned a while back, but it was never included with standard Pligg installations. There are some other features that are still in development that I am not going to mention because they might not be ready in time for the release. Two of the items that may come in a slightly later release of Pligg will be the ability to ping weblogs when submitting stories and threaded comments.

Beta 6 Template To-Do List
I would appreciate some help with the vote bar CSS. If anyone wants to take that on as their own little project let me know. It’s taking me longer than I expected to get the basic layout finished. I spent 6 hours today getting the larger areas arranged and decided to call it a night after finishing that. Here’s what I still have to do:

• Vote/Title bar
• Comment, trackback, tag icons
• Navigation icons/positioning
• User Panel fixes
• Footer placement
• Navbar Placement top center
• Custom Links
• Test in IE/Opera
• Test in different dimensions

I have noticed that Opera and IE place the search bar slightly off. IE also puts a space between the google corner images and is kicking the right sidebar down to the bottom. The sidebar could probably be fixed just by shrinking the left panel width a bit.
The “User Panel” buttons need custom background images for Pligg for stories and Submit news (pretty simple). The User Panel buttons also needs to be moved to the left against the side.
The entire middle section has yet to be worked on, but I’m very worried about the Vote bar.
I would like to add a “Links” panel below the User Panel to place your custom links in. There you could put links to your forum, blog, homepage, whatever. This could easily be added without much effort. I would have accomplished this today if I had thought of it earlier.

Pligg’s Popular
I noticed today that we set a new record for visitors on at the same time on the Pligg Forum. We hit a high of 27 users online at the same time today, I believe the previous record was 24 users that came during the Digg CSS controversy a few weeks back. I was curious why the site had suddenly became so popular and headed over to alexa.com to see if the popularity had increased our number at all. It turns out that our number has really soard from somewhere around 114,000 to 45,149 (lower is better). I was quite stunned to see that Pligg had not only broken onto the top 100,000 sites on the alexa list, but it also broke the top 50,000 sites. This is pretty amazing considering how I have tried not to promote Pligg too much so early on in development.