[Darth-Apple]

I'm currently about 2,500-3,000 lines of code into my file exchange software. It is designed to be a system for gaming sites, mod databases, etc... where files can be uploaded, each with their own page, images, download counts, file ratings, and comment systems.

What's finished so far

* Development/codebase framework
* File downloads and uploads
* Each upload has its own page
* Each upload has an image
* User registration and login systems
* Category management system
* ACP framework
* User management panel

What's in progress

* File ratings
* File comments
* Full moderation system

What's left to do

* Add approval system for uploads.
* Build a nice theme
* Add better file size and type management controls
* Allow more images per upload.
* Theme comments system
* Test and debug
* Anti spambot features

I still consider the work pre-alpha, largely due to the terrible theming work. I plan on finishing a few more things, then releasing screenshots and pushing updates in the future.

EDIT: A significant amount of coding has been completed since this original post. Scroll down to see the newer development updates.

Looking for the code? Check this post for the latest proof-of-concept release.

[Gmdykfuiygh66476]

This sounds good

[simlink]

That's awesome! If you ever need help with theming, provided you give me a basis to work on I could whip something up for you using Bootsrap. Just let me know and I'll let you know if it can fit in my schedule!

And whenever you need to test it, I'd be more than happy to.

[Darth-Apple]

I'll be keeping you guys updated. The project has been on a bit of a hiatus lately as I've been pretty busy, but I plan on doing a significant amount of coding pretty soon.

[simlink]

Look forward to the progress updates!

[Darth-Apple]

I've officially resumed development, and a few changes are being made.

minor changes:

(1) The fivestar rating system is being converted into a "like" system for now. I plan on rebuilding the fivestar module later, but for time reasons, a "like" system allows me to focus on more important aspects of development for the moment.

(2) Styling comments. Finally, the comments have a style other than an <hr> tag between comments.

Major changes:

Styling... It's gonna get a major refresh soon.


The functionality behind it may be a little more impressive than the look itself...

I've decided to do a new theme entirely, and it will be based on a project called bootstrap from Twitter. I haven't begun the transformation yet, but the goal is to make it look much nicer using a codebase that is already established. My hope is to have the groundwork done within a few days to give some screenshots on the project.

UPDATE

I've already begun the work on ripping apart the frontend interface and replacing it with the bootstrap framework, and much progress has been made. It's still a bit of a mess, but bootstrap will definitely be a huge improvement for the project, especially in terms of the look and feel.

[simlink]

Bootstrap is lovely, especially when customized. My site is getting a makeover with help from Bootstrap. It doesn't look like the default bootstrap look, largely because I took elements (such as wells) and redid the styling on them and created a new div. One, for example, changed the well background from gray to white. Since I still need wells, I created a new well-inspired div in my CSS called "forumback." It's really a wonderful thing to use. So I look forward to seeing how your software turns out.

[Darth-Apple]

The old frontend is pretty much replaced for both the main theme and the ACP theme, but I still have a great deal of customization to do. The way that it is designed makes it so that only two pages have to be modified though. Index.php (about 250 lines of code, mostly a bootstrap loader/rough template that defers to other files) and the index.php file for the ACP have to be modofied. They total about 600 lines of code, and trying to get all of the divs nested properly in a file that is more than just a template has proved to be challenging. thankfully it already looks much better than the original them.

I'll have to look into wells. It sounds like something that could help as well.

[simlink]

If you need help, Bootstrap has a guide on github. http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/index.html
Select Scaffolding (layouts, containers), Base CSS (Basic CSS functions), components (menus, etc.) and JS (all JS-based components). It could work really well.

[Darth-Apple]

I've already used the scaffolding documentation to get the basic page layout to work. I plan on working through some of the other components pretty soon. It looks like it will shape up pretty nicely when complete, and I hope to have some screenshots by tomorrow.

EDIT: Actually, I'm reading through more documentation now, and I'm quite impressed. I don't regret using the bootstrap framework. That's for sure. I'm working on theming the ACP too, so hopefully it will look nice as well. I have to theme two different files for that to work, so it adds some time to the process, but the ACP needs plenty of work as well, so I might as well go ahead and strike out two birds with one stone.

[simlink]

I look forward to them! I love bootstrap and your software is looking really cool. I'll admit to trying to remember where it's located from back when you had me test something. But best of luck - it's looking really cool.

[Darth-Apple]

It's still on the HWG server. I would like to move it to this server pretty soon for performance reasons, but certain elements of the software aren't currently compatible with nginx. It's still in the pre-alpha stage and a lot is being restructured, so I should be able to get it to be nginx compatible pretty soon.

Right before the project went on a long hiatus while I got other stuff finished, I restructured the internal framework for the software to be much more flexible. It's my first major coding project that I'm doing entirely from scratch, so it's definitely interesting trying to figure it all out. I've designed other projects since and done them using a very similar framework, so at least the internal structure is for the most part complete. It's allowing me to focus on the theme, and after that will be all of the cool features.

[simlink]

That's awesome. I actually like the "like" system over 5 star ratings. Star ratings were really badly abused in the The Sims 2 official community, so they changed to a like system on the TS3 official site, something I actually prefer.

[Darth-Apple]

The goal is to develop both a fivestar and a like system for the final release. As it stands now, the database is still designed for a fivestar system, but the frontend for fivestar never was completed, so I'll have to create some new tables for the like system, but that's already in progress. I plan on leaving the "like" system as the primary form of file ratings all the way up to an official beta.

[Darth-Apple]

It's definitely still a work in progress, but this is how the new frontend look is shaping up so far.

[simlink]

Looking good. I think the navbar should be above the sidebar, but that's just my opinion.

[Darth-Apple]

I agree. The whole area around the navbar/sidebar is a bit of a mess at the moment. I'm still learning the bootstrap framework, so I think I'll be able to get that fixed pretty soon.

My goal today is going to be to get back to programming backend functionality. The file exchange (minus the like system for file ratings) is fully functional at this point, but there aren't very many advanced features yet, so my goal will be to program new stuff in and gradually work on the theme with that.

The admin CP also needs quite a bit of work. I haven't really showed any screenshots of it yet, but it still looks pretty rough. It contains a basic settings page, a user management system, and a category management system, so really only the absolute basics are covered so far. I'll keep you guys updated.

[Darth-Apple]

Slowly working on the details. Some additional behind the scenes work is also in place. The biggest things I have been working on over the last few hours are the success/error messages and the admin control panel (which still needs significant work. ) Once the admin control panel is somewhat decent I will try to post some screenshots of the backend.