What should I include?

[petesmc]

Hi,

Currently if you visit my site: http://www.codingclick.com you can see that there is a section called: "Scripts" - http://scripts.codingclick.com . As you can also see, there is almost nothing there at the moment.

At the moment you can also see there that I said that I'm working on some script and I need help. Well, this is where I need you help. I'm firstly making a news script and I want it to be easy to install, have heaps of functions and look great.

Exact Help I Need:

• What Features Do you think there should be?
• What Advanced Features Should there be?
• Should I spend allot of time making this script fast loading and easy to install
• Should I use MySQL? *YES*
• Should There be a customizable Admin Area?
• Should there be a very detailed easy to use admin area?
• Should I give the option to not connect to the database?

Example:

include("config.inc");
if($connect=0) { 
continue;
} elseif($connect=1) {
mysql_connect($host,$user,$password);
} else {
mysql_pconnect($host,$user, $password);
} 

Are there any more things that you think should be in this really cool script that I plan spending allot of time on?

Question: If this script get downloaded more than I expect, should I charge like $1 for it so I make something out of this?

Question: Have you got any ideas for other SIMPLE scripts that I could make while making this one and could you also specifiy some details like MySQL or Not, Admin areas, etc.

I'd like to thank you in advance for any replies I get to this. If no one does reply then I thank you for spending money and time on reading this thread.

Peter McNulty
http://www.codingclick.com

[Justin Sampson]

1. Depends on the script.

2. Same as above

3.Yup. Make it easy to install and well coded you'll get a reputation. Thus, you'll get recomended a lot

4. Mmmm... Deepends on the script. If it's simple maybe you could make a mySQL version and a textfile version.

5. I don't think that I would spend time on making it customizable. I'd spend time on making it look and work good.

6. Yup

7. I don't know why you wouldn't want to conect to the database, if you mean to have textfile option or mySQL option then, yes.


If your going to charge for it you might as well charge more then a dollar Even if a script cost 50 cents I would rather make my own then go throught the hassle of paying, it's the hole idea of paying that would keep me from using it.

[TWTCommish]

All I have to say is that if you're writing your own script and plan to sell it, it'll have t obe highly efficient and highly easy to use - now, I don't know what your skill level is at, and I don't want to insult anyone, but there's a large number of people writing low-quality scripts right now - so make sure you're ready.

[Skunk]

Release it as open source. That way you'll get lots of tips / ideas on improving the script and everyone will love you

As far as features go by FAR the most important for any news script is that the output HTML is completely template driven. It has to be exceedingly easy for user's to change the format of the news to fit their site.

Feature wise the following should do the trick:

• Multiple Users / Permission levels
• Full control over how the news is output via templates
• Configuration file saying stuff like how many stories to display
• News Archive, with options as to how the pages are split up
• Search function for the archive
• User comments (registered or anonymous, personally I prefer anonymous)
• An image upload section in the admin tools

[petesmc]

Hi,

Using PHP and MySQL, on the main news page, how many queries maximum should there be?

At the moment I can get it at two queries including the comment system.

Thanx for all the replies

Peter