Need a PHP script for managing links on a web site

June 28, 2007 12:16 PM

I need a good PHP script or some other solution for managing a large number of external links on a web page.

I'm creating a "How to" web site that will probably have at least one "Link Page" that may have quite a few links to other web sites.

The links will be organized in various categories and each link will probably have a short description or review. Having a way to rate the usefulness or popularity of a link would be nice, but it's not really a necessity.

I once had quite a bit of experience with running a web site during the earlier days of the net. I have some knowledge and ability to work with PHP, MySQL, HTML and some other languages. But it has been awhile since I've used those skills, I'm not really a coder, and I don't want to get bogged down for days or weeks setting up and customizing a script.

The site will probably be built using Joomla/Mambo, Drupal or Wordpress. I haven't decided yet.

I really want something that creates pages that are clean, simple, professional looking, fast loading, and mostly importantly -- easy to read and navigate.

I have some money to spend on a script, but it is not much. I would prefer a free or open source solution.

I need some way to detect bad or changed links.

I do not need to allow visitors to submit their own links. Also, the links probably won't change very frequently.

So far I haven't really found anything that meets my needs or gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. I would really appreciate your help.

posted by 14580 to computers & internet (2 comments total)

Enhanced links widget for Wordpress?
posted by jbickers at 12:30 PM on June 28, 2007

I think you haven't received too many replies because you haven't narrowed down your platform and specs. For instance, do you want the link checking to happen automatically? Or are you willing to run a script that reports back broken links (and removes them?)

If you choose a CMS, you'll want to scour the modules/add-ons and see if any of them do what you want. If you want a stand alone php app or script that integrates with your site, you're unlikely to find something that meets all your requirements. However, a basic version of what you want to do could be written in a few hours in PHP, and your mysql and HTML skills are all you need.
posted by miniape at 6:44 AM on June 29, 2007