For years now, blogging has been a popular application and CMSs have struggled to provide simple and non-technical ways to integrate user blogs. Also, competing CMS solutions have blogging functionality built in and Joomla needs this out-of-the-box to remain on par. The ease of setup cannot be stressed enough. It must be just as easy (or easier) to set up than MT or WP.
2. SCOPE
The Multi-Blog component should be simple and ready go upon enabling. With simplicity and ease of use first and foremost, there are four primary sections and a Home page.
1) Home: This is the control panel where the user would jump to the four other sections.
2) Post a New Entry:
- Page for posting a new entry would contain the following elements:
a) Posting Title
b) Posting Body- With Joomla HTML editor chosen in config (Add/upload photo through editor), Excerpt & Read More divider (a la Articles in J1.5)
c) Choose Categories
d) Default date/Change Date mini-calendar chooser
e) Allow/Disable Comments for this post checkbox
- Page for Moderating Comments would contain the following elements:
a) Comments Moderation Queue/Edit/Delete, Requirements to post
b) Ban IP/Username/Email, Blacklist
- Admin page for this specific blog would contain the following elements:
a) Blog Title & Tagline, # of posts/page
b) Posts Edit/Delete
c) Categories New/Edit/Delete/Make Default
d) Tags
e) Pingbacks/Trackbacks
f) Timezone
g) Blog template
- The Global Admin page would give global control over all live blogs:
a) Disable/enable blog(s)
b) Override blog template
c) Enable/Disable RSS (each blog has its own)
d) Global disable comments
e) Create blog/Assign authors
f) Enable/Disable integrated site search
Also, blog "owners" need to post from the front end, preferably using a shortcut or hidden menu item which takes them to the Post a New Entry page. It's possible that a separate module would be useful showing this link as well as other status items like comments awaiting moderation, etc.
It would be great if bloggers could have their own custom URL like "joe.mydomain.com" or "www.mydomain.com/joe"
3. TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION
I think this is open to discussion. The obvious method would to use a Section as a Blog, Categories as Categories within that Blog, and Articles as Posts. Separate tables would be needed for the config, user management & possibly comments.
4. IMPACTS
Unknown.
5. DEPENDENCIES
Due to core changes, this component will likely only work with 1.5+
6. REFERENCES
Any WordPress or MovableType installation is a good point of reference.