for some time now I thought about a cool link directory plugin for serendipity that allows you to easily manage a big (or small) directory of links in different categories and subcategories. Let’s begin with the features.
Each link consists of:
* the Link title
* the Link-URL
* the Description of the link
* (optional) a Banner / logo / image (you can add via the media database)
* the Category of the link
* the ‘date added’
More options:
* display link (yes / no)
Optional features:
* hit counter
* top 10 (or x) links by hits
* the 10 (or x) latest links
* deadlink checker
Options in the admin navigation:
* Edit link (/ category)
* Delete link (/ category)
* Add link (/ category)
* Possibility to sort them alphabetically or by categories
* Display only 30 links per page
More features:
* nice permalink structure of the categories
* easy styling with smarty template engine
* clean css design, parsable by searchengines
I considered on how this plugin could be developed. I think the basic structure of this plugin does not differ so much from the usual news-entries. Basically, one link entry is not much more than a collection of what we call “CustomFields” in the usual news-entries. The “linktitle”, “LinkURL”, “Description of the link”, “Banner” etc. should then be easily accessible by smarty, that we can put them into a template file.
Moreover, we could possibly use the available category structure of the news-entries to sort and organize the link entries. (or how do the developers think about this?) It would be great if we could then structure the link directory with nice permalinks like this:
myblog/links/friends/
myblog/links/recommended-shops/books/
I think I am not able to develop this plugin by myself. But I wanted to post this suggestion to ask what the community thinks about such a plugin and if there are more people demanding for a link directory.
I think, this plugin would be a great enlargement for serendipity, since link exchange is an essential feature to build link popularity. The link directory is something like the ‘heart’ of the social network of each blog. I know too many blogs that have terribly long link lists in the sidebar...
Let me know what you think about it or if you have any suggestions. Let’s see if we can find a developer(team). It would be great if we could call this project to life.
Best Regards,
Robert
P.S.: Finally, this plugin could also be used on the “who is using” site on s9y.org
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
P.P.S.: BTW here some (arbitrary) examples of link directories:
http://www.dexigner.com/directory/cat/R ... ic_Design/
http://www.phpfive.net/links-3-web-development.htm
http://www.kingofurl.com/