well, all of your help has worked out just fine! you mentioned in your email that v 2.0 will let me add in fields like the location field you put in for me. will it have any other nifty features not included in v 1.6?
Will 2.0 have features not in 1.6? Oh yes.
Here’s a small summary of most (not all) of the new features:
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better admin panel: more powerful entry manager, better designed dialogs, etc. Sleeker, more flexible database and file formats leave lots of room for expansion and hacking. ‘Entry prompts’ will allow you to add boxes alongside ‘title’ which change on a day-to-day basis (what’s playing, where am I, etc.).
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modularity: although the script will probably come packaged in the familiar admin.cgi and journal.cgi formats, it will also be available in a split format for those who want to hack. The split format has several files that perform different functions, such as database access, file access, common routines, etc. I intend to write a second version that will perform file reads and writes over FTP, since the #1 problem seems to be that the script doesn’t have permission to write files to the server.
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built-in security: you will have the option of using the admin script’s built-in security measures, if you don’t have the ability to password-protect your admin script. It uses cookies, and you can tell it to remember your username and password, or authenticate on a per-session basis only.
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reader script improvements: in addition to colored parentheses, the reader script will be able to turn quotes into smart quotes, and will support ubb-style smilies (and maybe hyperlinks / automatic urls).
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scripting language: the [variable] infrastucture has been replaced with an identical-in-operation mini scripting language which can be used to do any number of things, such as list all entries between two dates, display messages depending on the time of day, or get information about the reader (such as IP address or browser type). This ties into:
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plugin support: it will be very easy to add functionality to the scripting language by using plugins. Plugins can also be used extend the journaling script into other realms (I envision an online game using the script and a plugin).
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multiple chains: 1.6 supports one ‘chain’ of entries, which is the chronological ordering of entries in the journal. 2.0 will support multiple chains of entries, so that if you feel the need to go off on a tangent that isn’t strictly part of your journal (such as your trip to Las Vegas or whatever) you can do that without interrupting the ‘flow’ of your day-to-day entries. This also allows for ‘drafts’, a special chain that holds entries not yet ready for public viewing, and ‘trash’, which holds entries you’ve deleted in case you want to get them back.
Something tells me I’m forgetting things. Suffice it to say that 2.0 makes 1.6 look like a child’s toy. Now I just have to finish the damn thing.
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Stephen.
::duly impressed::
i’ve signed up for your mailing list, stephen, so i expect to hear when this script is released. and i wouldn’t mind beta-testing for you, either.