Blogs-R-Us
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1. Introduction

A simple PHP script for creating, maintaining and aggregating a blog list.

No database is required as XML is used as the data storage:
- OPML (http://www.opml.org) for the blog list;
- RSS 1.0 (http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/) for the aggregated feed.

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2. Requirements

- Linux/UNIX
- PHP 4 or above.
- DOMIT! 0.94 or above
  I've found and corrected a small bug (incorrect encoding of single quote)
  in DOMIT! 0.94. So you may like to use my modified version instead, until
  a fixed version is released.

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3. Preparations

- A CSV (Comma Separated Values) file with blog owners' UNIX usernames
  and real names, e.g.:
hwchun,CHUN Hon Wai
martin,Martin NG
- A directory with read and write access for PHP (i.e. chmod 646)

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4. Getting Started

Unpack the archive files brus-0.1.zip and domit-0.94.zip into a directory.
You should now have 2 directories /brus and /domit.

To use the blog list and aggregator, you need to instantiate BrusManager
and BrusAggregator respectively.

A testing page is set up at /brus/test. The test page is demonstrating a site
that manages 2 blog lists and 2 aggregated feed.

But before viewing that page, make sure the settings are correct.
You can change them by editing /brus/conf.php. Blog list and aggregator
are used in /brus/list.php and /brus/feed.php respectively.

Besides the paths, filenames, and username, also make sure that PHP is able to
read and/or write to the database directory and the XML files used.
i.e. chmod 646

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5. Test-Run

To test the script, view /brus/test/. Then go to "Blog Listing".
Since we haven't create the blog list yet, it will try to generate the OPML
from CSV file. If any error occurs, please check the settings in /brus/conf.php.

Once the OPML is created, "Blog Listing" will display a list of names.
The corresponsing UNIX users can then modify their blog entries. As an
administrator, you can modify any of the blog entries.

To see the aggregated feed of the blogs, go to "Blog Aggregating". It will take
some time, according many factors, e.g. number of feeds, network condition, etc.
At the end it will display the aggregated feed of all the available blogs.
The aggregated feed will be updated again automatically by viewing the page
when the feed aged, where the aging time (interval) is adjustable in
/brus/conf.php.

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6. Customizations

Beside giving different parameters when instantiating the objects, you can also
customize the look and feel by editing /brus/brus.css and the php files inside
/brus/xhtml.

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