The News Magazine uses PROPS which
is an open, extensible Internet publishing system
designed specifically for periodicals such as
newspapers and magazines who want to publish online,
either exclusively or as an extension of their
print publication
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Well-documented, robust API
allowing third party developers to create
'plug-ins' to extend base functionality
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Delivery of content to multiple
target platforms (HTML, XML/XSL, WAP/WML,
text, etc)
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Readers may format a story
for printing, or email to a friend
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Pages are presented as static
URLs so that 'spider' type search engines
may crawl and index them
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Strict separation of design
and content - designers control site look
and feel by developing templates using standard
site editing tools such as Dreamweaver, GoLive,
BBEdit, etc., while editors manage site content
via a web interface
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Permissions-based multiuser
site management screens allow a PROPS site
to be maintained by a distributed team of
reporters and editors
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Will support the XML-based
News Industry Text Format
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Will speak various XML dialects
for both import and export, allowing syndication
in both directions, and enabling PROPS sites
to participate in distributed news networks
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Is targeted at mid-sized publishers
serving fewer than one million page views
daily, however will be architected to scale
through deployment of multiple front-end web
servers, separate image servers, etc.
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Readers will be able to access
content in HTML or WAP/WML format. Use of
XML/XSLT will allow delivery in other formats
as standards develop. (Note: we're currently
not using XSLT, but it should not be hard
to adapt the software to use it in the future
if any benefits to doing so become obvious)
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Readers will be able to view
a printable version of all stories, or email
a story to a friend. XSLT will also be used
to generate these versions.
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Readers will be able to perform
advanced keyword searches on archives. Archives
will be free, however if someone wants to
add paid archives capabilities, we'll let
you.
All pages will be presented as static URLs,
so that 'spider' type search engines may crawl
and index stories. This should be a configuration
option, since access to the Apache config
file is required to enable this.
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The content management screens
will have an intuitive and consistent end
user interface. Style guidelines will be written
to ensure that 3rd-party plug-ins are consistent
with the core system's user interface.
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Multiple users will be supported
through ACLs or user/group privileges.
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Editors will have access to
a 'web desk' screen listing new stories from
external feeds, and stories that have been
assigned to them by another editor.
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In addition to editing stories
from the wire, editors will be able to enter
stories into the database using web-based
forms.
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Stories may be scheduled to
publish on a future date.
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Photos will flow into the
web desk from external feeds/interfaces, and
may be assigned to stories.
