A friend of mine was asked to build & manage a website where a secretary (as computer literate as a secretary can be) will post news about different topics in different sections. I remember a thread about this was already posted (about SilentAce's website, IIRC), and there was a lot of talking about PHPNuke & PostNuke.

My question is: are these systems idiot-proof? And will my friend be able to install them without wasting time configuring stuff? They both require Apache + PHP, Apache doesn't need much to work, but I've never used PHP... it would rock if it worked out-of-the-archive, but does it? And what about PHPNuke and PostNuke?

Also, are there simpler softwares to achieve the same task? Something in the line of "website news for dummies" would do the job.

Finally, please post some links to simple tutorials. My friend would be happy to set up a newssite without wasting more than half a day, I told him not to be too optimistic about that, but I hope you can prove me wrong.

Thanks.

woohoo

I once had to train a secretary on how to upload word documents containing the minutes of various meetings, etc.

There were three seperate directories that she was to upload the files to, as they became available.

I downloaded an FTP program and showed her how to do it. I came back in a month, and there was shit everywhere. Files deleted, multiple copies, shit there that I had NEVER seen before.

I don't know if that's a knock against my teaching skills, or that women should never use computers.

I dunno.

You won't have to dabble with a lot of PHP, but... you *will* have to configure it a lot in order to get exactly what you want (going through all the menu options, testing different layouts, etc).

No system is idiot-proof. Where I work we set up a PHP application to have people type their press releases (similar to what you're doing), and somebody called us claiming that the stuff entered was all deleted. After looking at the issue it turned out the person was pushing "no" everytime the browser asked for confirmation for submission!

I like postNuke over phpNuke because the skins of the former are easier to hack. There's even a couple of "simplified" skins with the bare minimum so that you can easily get the layout you want, without too much PHP knowledge. On the other hand, phpNuke seems to have more extensions ("modules") available. In both cases, you will have to spend time laying out the site and configuring it. It would be too confusing to a newbie if you leave the thing running out of the box (well, the tarball, or zipfile).

The downsides of php/postNuke is that none of them allow to easily upload images, at least to my knowledge. So if they want to have articles with an image on it, it could be an issue. Other than that, they could be a bit of overkill if you *only* need to post news.

I hope this helps... ask away if you have more specific questions.

Edit: by "configuring", I mean web-based configuration, assuming the server is already set up.





[download a life]

> You won't have to dabble with a lot of PHP, but... you *will* have to configure
> it a lot in order to get exactly what you want (going through all the menu
> options, testing different layouts, etc).
>
> No system is idiot-proof. Where I work we set up a PHP application to have
> people type their press releases (similar to what you're doing), and somebody
> called us claiming that the stuff entered was all deleted. After looking at the
> issue it turned out the person was pushing "no" everytime the browser asked for
> confirmation for submission!
>
> I like postNuke over phpNuke because the skins of the former are easier to hack.
> There's even a couple of "simplified" skins with the bare minimum so that you
> can easily get the layout you want, without too much PHP knowledge. On the other
> hand, phpNuke seems to have more extensions ("modules") available. In both
> cases, you will have to spend time laying out the site and configuring it. It
> would be too confusing to a newbie if you leave the thing running out of the box
> (well, the tarball, or zipfile).
>
> The downsides of php/postNuke is that none of them allow to easily upload
> images, at least to my knowledge. So if they want to have articles with an image
> on it, it could be an issue. Other than that, they could be a bit of overkill if
> you *only* need to post news.
>
> I hope this helps... ask away if you have more specific questions.
>
> Edit: by "configuring", I mean web-based configuration, assuming the server is
> already set up.
>
>
>
>
>
> [download a life]
>

> I once had to train a secretary on how to upload word documents containing the
> minutes of various meetings, etc.
>
> There were three seperate directories that she was to upload the files to, as
> they became available.
>
> I downloaded an FTP program and showed her how to do it. I came back in a
> month, and there was shit everywhere. Files deleted, multiple copies, shit
> there that I had NEVER seen before.
>
> I don't know if that's a knock against my teaching skills, or that women should
> never use computers.
>
> I dunno.
>
>
>

postnuke is pretty unsecure, it has MANY huge securit lags.

you could try NewsPro (google for it), but it is Perl based. The installation is pretty simple, if you follow the intruduction you cant make anything worng. creating a design for that system is very simple.

> A friend of mine was asked to build & manage a website where a secretary (as
> computer literate as a secretary can be) will post news about different topics
> in different sections. I remember a thread about this was already posted (about
> SilentAce's website, IIRC), and there was a lot of talking about PHPNuke &
> PostNuke.
>
> My question is: are these systems idiot-proof? And will my friend be able to
> install them without wasting time configuring stuff? They both require Apache +
> PHP, Apache doesn't need much to work, but I've never used PHP... it would rock
> if it worked out-of-the-archive, but does it? And what about PHPNuke and
> PostNuke?
>
> Also, are there simpler softwares to achieve the same task? Something in the
> line of "website news for dummies" would do the job.
>
> Finally, please post some links to simple tutorials. My friend would be happy to
> set up a newssite without wasting more than half a day, I told him not to be too
> optimistic about that, but I hope you can prove me wrong.
>
> Thanks.
>
>


'I love it when a plan comes together!'

> Finally, please post some links to simple tutorials. My friend would be happy to
> set up a newssite without wasting more than half a day, I told him not to be too
> optimistic about that, but I hope you can prove me wrong.
>
> Thanks.
>
>

btw. are you pipgen in icq?

if you really need something PHP based :
http://www.ppopn.net/work/ppopn/index.php?view=php&sub=p-news
the link is in german, dont wonder ;)

it is REALLY REALLY REALLY (really) easy to install it takes for an unexpirienced person maybe 20 mins. if you havent found something else i can translate the installing intruductions (the menus are pretty self explaining i think) or i can install it for you....it takes 5 mins or so...


'I love it when a plan comes together!'

higher learning.