Things have been busy on the article directory script front! I am having fun with the ArticleMS script and I got feed up with the Article Exchange madness.

I had put up two installations of the Article Exchange directory. The developer was hosting the articles on his server but I suspect that he ran into bandwidth problems as the installed base for his package grew. There were a couple of outages and updates to correct the problem. Somehow the first worked, possibly through a change in servers or hosting accounts. The recent update was a change in operating procedure. The files were shipped out to the installations.

When the script was rewritten I only installed it on one of the webspaces that I was using. I was not happy that while I had three spaces to display ads the promoter of the script had 20 or more of his affiliate links on each page. Then the full impact dawned on me. The articles are stored in flat files instead of a database. This makes the installation very easy as no one has to set up a database to which the script can connect.

The down side is that each article adds at least one file to the count on your server. With a CMS and database solution very few additional files are stored on the server. My hosting service is not concerned about file size, but they are concerned about the number of files in an account. They complain that too many files can slow down the server. This article directory script was about to cross the twenty thousand file threshold. Had I set up both installations that would have meant nearly forty thousand files and growing.

I had begun to work with the ArticleMS script and liked the results. I decided that the Article Exchange script had too many negatives so I choose to delete my remaining installation. It took the server several minutes to delete all of those files. I wish that I had put a clock on it, but I played a couple of games of solitaire while I was waiting for the job to finish. I have added a few more instances of the ArticleMS script and still expect my file count to be down by over nineteen thousand when the new numbers come out on Sunday.

I am finding the ArticleMS script to be reasonably easy to work with. My WordPress experience probably helps to some extent, but there are some major differences as well. The admin panel is much more basic than in WordPress, but I have found most of what I need. I have adapted the script to several purposes.

I am using it as wiki software on one site. It has a ‘trusted author’ setting in the privileges section that allows for editing other’s articles. Using that setting can make this very similar to wiki software. Since it has a file uploader I have set it up as a photo sharing section on a couple of sites. I can match the look and feel of my static pages and WordPress blogs to a great extent and can add cross linking between the sections of the sites. I am also using the built in RSS feed to place summaries of the recent articles on the home page of a couple of sites.

All in all this script is a nice addition to the tool chest.

I have fussed with the ArticleMS script a good bit. I am beginning to find my way around without too much difficulty. With some hints from the forum I am making some progress.

I am to the point that I feel I can continue with a few more installations. I would state my position as having reached a plateau but with considerably more to learn before reach a full understanding of what is going on with the script.

On the test installation I have implemented a hack to improve the SEO friendliness of the script. I would have hoped that the code would have been included in the current update cycle as it does improve the SEO of the pages. Applying something that I learned through this exercise I was able to control the display of an ad in the side bar that I only want to appear on the front page of the directory.

I will go apply what I have learned to the two real installations and then will probably install a few more instances on other domains this week. Once these get rolling I can see some potential.

I added real tracking and fake ads to the test install. There is no reason to inflate my ad display numbers while I work on the site.

I considered rebuilding the site without tables, but I probably need to know more about the script and the operation of the directory before I do that. The header section has four cells but I think the main section only uses one primary cell, so that is not too bad. They are using css for most styling, and that is a good thing. If I do rebuild the site without the tables it is just a mater of replacing a few files to update/upgrade the site. The pages are all dynamic so it is just the templates and css that needs to change.

Feel free to check out the test install at my Local Articles site. There is actually a bit more content there than on either of the real sites right now. Tell me what you think either there or here.

I found an open source article directory script while checking search results for a paid script.

I have been using a script on a site and a test site that is offered free, but contains many affiliate links for the developer. In addition the script is all encrypted so little can be done with it. I was able to tweak the css so that it displayed as I wanted it to display and I was able to use a feature to add a limited nav section, but I don’t like the concept of promoting a site so that the developer’s affiliate links will litter the web.

I was looking at a paid script. I saw something about support problems with the one at which I was looking. I went to their support forum to check and found it to be at least inactive if functional at all. If the script works as advertised I may not need support, but the complaints make me wonder. I continued my search and found a link in a forum post to this open source script.

I did a search for complaints about this script and did not find problems. I checked the support forum and there seems to be an active community. The script is also being updated, so is still under active development. There are skins available for the script but I will probably do my own thing as far as that is concerned. I downloaded the latest edition available through a link in the forum and installed it in a test location. I have played with it a bit and it all looks fairly good so far.

I want to replace the one article directory and am also considering using an article directory script for my live sound wiki. A true wiki script may be a better choice, but the one that I tried got spammed to death. This script does have a captcha available to reduce automated spam. There are several of my other sites  where I may consider an install if the script works out.

Making this script work as I wish may require that I learn a bit more about php. That is something that I have wanted to do anyway. I don’t know how much time I want to invest in furthering my education at the present time because I need to do so many things to get the existing sites to preform better. I will play with my test install and see if I can get it into a satisfactory state. If so I may install in a couple of real locations and then dive into the further development as time permits.

I will keep you posted.