Link Directory Management Software?

#1

Hi, I don’t know if anyone else here has experience with server-side link-management software, but I thought I’d give it a shot.

Problem: I’m not rich, and I’m having trouble finding software that does everything I need and isn’t a bear to configure. My requirements are:
-generally Yahoo-style (like most are)
-users can suggest links and categories to be approved by a moderator
-text description of the links
-flexible layout of produced pages
-a link checker
-referenced categories (sub-categories that show up in two places, that is)
-not a massive pain to install/configure/manage (I’ve got the talent, but not the time or patience)
-and (this is the hard one): writes out static HTML from a database, rather than generating pages on the fly. That’s essentially a must, due to the potential of huge MySQL Conuery loads and just speed of operation (I don’t expect or want lots of realtime updates, so it makes more sense to just serve HTML).

Unlike with bulletin board software, of which there are several very good (and free) choices, I’ve only come up with a few free/near free options:

The best bet seems to be Links 2.0; free for personal use and if absolutely necessary I think I can come up with the cash for the paid version. Problem is mainly the threat of money, and that it doesn’t use a MySQL database for the backend… does it scale well with thousands of links, or is it going to choke eventually. Worse, their $500 SQL based version (if I could ever afford that) doesn’t seem to do static HTML, which is a no-no.

Other options are:
Cascade, but that seems to be hard to set up, and apparently the MySQL version (which I would want to use) is broken with the current beta, which isn’t under rapid development. It also might not scale well.

MyThreads-Links, but that doesn’t seem to write out HTML.

phpmyannu, except everything’s in French…

and ssLinks, which is highly recommended but seems to be dead (though I got a copy of it), and also doesn’t seem to write out HTML.

…anyway, that’s what I’ve got. Am I missing any inexpensive options here, and/or does anybody have any suggestions based on their own experience?

#2

Links 2.0 would get my vote. I’ve used it on several sites, and am pretty happy with it. It has a very large user base and a ton of user-authored modifications available, so you can customize it pretty much any way you want even if you’re not much of a programmer. It does keep the data in a flat text file rather than a database, but considering that it only has to access it when you build pages (given that it generates HTML, as you requested), that’s not much of a problem.

I have, however, with one of my sites, been contemplating transferring the Links directory over to Postnuke - the only things stopping me are not being sure if or how I can replicate the modifications I’ve made to that installation of Links in Postnuke’s web links module (a PHP goddess I’m not), and the problem you mentioned about possibly having a large load of conueries. But the site in question isn’t that high-traffic, so that’s really a secondary concern. The mods are the primary issue.

Lynna

Business: http://www.spidersilk.net
Personal: http://www.wildideas.net

#3

Hi

[/quote]

You obviously missed LinksSQL then :slight_smile: Try the following URL:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/scripts/links-sql/index.htm

It’s a little more expensive but so powerful - it answers all your needs that you stated in your post. However, I would recommend you running this on a dedicated dreamhost web server as you’d probably want to install it under mod_perl for performance reasons.

Wil

Web Developer
http://www.fbagroup.co.uk/

#4

[/quote]

Nope, I did see it–the next comment I made was that I wasn’t sure if the SQL version write static HTML, which I now realize it can. But it’s a moot point anyway, since there’s no way I can afford $450 for that.

Looks like I’ll just have to hope the flat file version of Links 2.0 can handle things smoothly enough; as long as it’s just individual link additions (I don’t need any of the rating business) I don’t see it being a problem, but I tend to worry, especially after the YaBB issues that cropped up.

#5

Nah, the flat file version can handle a large number of links and a lot more traffic as it doesn’t serve up dynamic pages all the time.

Because you can’t get mod_perl installed on a shared server at Dreamhost [ :wink: ] your best bet is to ask nicely if they will install SpeedyCGI => http://daemoninc.com/speedycgi/ <= for you. This seems to work wonders for dynamic scripts. I’ve seen a performance boost of around 30% (not on DH servers, I might add - on an old site).

Hope this helps.

Wil

Web Developer
http://www.fbagroup.co.uk/

#6