# Blosxom Plugin: sideblog
# Author: infozo <infozo@infozo.info> http://infozo.info
# Version: 20030708
# License: caveat emptor
# Purpose: to read the first handful of lines from a sideblog file containing
# not-quite-ready-for-prime-time blog material (be it uncommented links,
# simple verbal quips, or unformulated thoughts) into a variable made available
# to the head/foot files.

# Things to work on (in addition to the fact that sideblog might very
# well go against everything that blosxom stands for...):
# 1. sideblog should check the date of the sideblog file and compare it against
# the date of its last cache; it should only bother with the big ol' file
# if it's newer. Did I mention it should have a cache? Like maybe based on 
# the first x lines or so of the real file...
# 2. sideblog should make sure that the last thing it grabs is a complete entry
# 3. structure of the sideblog file itself; perhaps use something more creative 
# than four hyphens between items?
# Currently, the source file must be highly structured to ensure sideblog works.
# No breaklines within lines are allowed at this point.
# line 1: link
# line 2: source link (how I found it)
# line 3: entry title (text gets linked)
# line 4: comments
# line 5: ---- (entry separator)
# 4. some type of either archiving system or incorporation of datestamps for 
# individual sideblog entries
# 5. rss syndication of sideblog
# 6. oooh. I could do subject-specific sideblogs. Save 'em as separate files
# and include only the sideblog files corresponding to current and child 
# topic directories... but that would mean having to open more files
# when I post, and deciding where crap belongs, which are some of the
# things I wanted to avoid in the first place...

package sideblog;

# --- Configurable variables -----
# create your sideblog data file and point to its full path location
my $sideblog_file = "$blosxom::plugin_state_dir/sideblog";

# how many entries would you like to be displayed in the sideblog? 
my $number_entries = 25;
# --------------------------------

my $sideblog_data;

sub start {
	# get the first 25 lines (5 entries) from the sideblog file
	open(SIDEBLOG, "$sideblog_file") || die "Can't open $sideblog_file: $!";
	$. = 0;
	do {$sideblog_data .= <SIDEBLOG>} until $. == $number_entries*5 || eof;
	close(SIDEBLOG);
	chomp($sideblog_data);
	my @sb_entries = split /----\n/, $sideblog_data;
	$sideblog = "<ul class=\"sideblog\">\n";
	foreach my $sb_entry (@sb_entries) {
		(my $sb_link, my $sb_source, my $sb_title, my $sb_comment) = split /\n/, $sb_entry;
		$sideblog .= "<li class=\"sideblog\">";
		if ($sb_link && $sb_link ne "#") {
			$sideblog .= "<a href=\"$sb_link\"><span class=\"sideblog_title\">$sb_title</span></a>\n";
		} else {
			$sideblog .= "<span class=\"sideblog_title\">$sb_title</span>\n";
		}
		if ($sb_source && $sb_source ne "#") {
			$sideblog .= "<span class=\"sideblog_source\"> [<a href=\"$sb_source\">s</a>]</span>\n";
		}
		$sideblog .= "<br /><span class=\"sideblog_comment\">$sb_comment</span></li>\n";
	}
	$sideblog .= "</ul>";
	1;
}
1;