In order to install the product you just need to upload the
files to the root directory of your website and follow simple on screen
instructions. You should also create a blank MySQL database and user for the
purpose of installation. I tested the product on a web server running Linux.
However, you can also install the product in Windows servers but for maximum
compatibility the vendor recommends Linux. Moreover, granting of permissions
using FTP clients is not possible in Windows which is required for the
successful installation of the product.
The installation process creates the required tables and a
sample article. I would suggest that you retain the sample article until you
post an original article as the product throws an error message if there is no
article on the database. I would recommend that the vendor modify the
application to display a user friendly message rather than showing a database
specific error. The vendor doesn’t provide any help files with the product, but
if you spend some time inside the Admin Panel, then you will be well versed
with the functions of each link as all of them are self explanatory.
Figure 1: Admin Panel Interface
As you can see, you can manage article, categories, users,
newsletters, and common site settings from the Admin Panel.
Before posting an article, you should create relevant
categories so that you can file each article under them. The categories can be
either under the root or can be nested under an existing category with or
without an image.
Figure 2: Category Creation
With the help of the product, you can create both the Normal and Link Articles depending upon your requirements. You also have an option to post
the article to the featured articles section on the home page of the site by
selecting the relevant option while posting the article. The product ships with
a specially developed powerful rich text box editor.
Figure 3: Article Creation Interface
As you can see from the screenshot, you can insert images,
tables, etc directly from the editor without any need to upload each file
individually. The interface provides an option to keep an article in the
pending stage if you have not finished it completely. In such a case, an
administrator or those users who have special rights have to approve the
articles using the Approve Article link. The articles can be modified at any
time by using the Modify Article link. As your site grows, you will have dozens
of articles posted on the site. The product includes a search function wherein
you can give some keywords to pull relevant articles from the site.
I would suggest that you explore all the functions inside
the Admin Panel as it will help you in the long run. I found the Newsletter
feature very useful as it enables you to deliver emails to all the users (or
authors) registered on the site. You can regularly download a backup copy of
the database to your system by clicking Download SQL Backup link. It will help
you to restore the site easily in case of a database crash.
Glossary keyword is one of the new features of version 1.6,
and it enables you to associate a keyword with a web address (URL). If the
specified keyword is found inside the articles then it will be hyperlinked to
the relevant address as shown in figure shown below. This feature will be
helpful if you need to hyperlink a specific word many times.
Figure 4: Glossary Keyword in Action
I feel that the vendor should modify this feature so that a
balloon like tip will be displayed when a visitor hovers over the keyword. I
would like to see the implementation of CAPTCHA protection for registration and
comments modules and the auto social book marking features such as Digg and
Delicious in the next edition of the product. The vendor has provided a
facility to moderate comments and it will help you to remove unwanted entries
before it's displayed on the site.
