How to create and run a site like digg.com

You can have your own digg-like site running on your hosting space by installing pligg. Here I walk you through the steps to install pligg.

Version: Pligg beta 7 using Mollio-Beat Template 1.3

A screenshot is: 

1. Download

2. Ensure that you have a MySQL DB, DB user and pass, host name handy.

3. Modify config.php file by changing:

$trackbackURL = “pligg.com”;

//see http://www.pligg.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4143.

define(’my_base_url’, ‘http://localhost’); // the base url to your site. DO NOT put a “/” at the end.

Ex.: If I were to install at http://www.teluguvaariki.com/sri-addons/scripts/pligg, my_base_url would be http://www.teluguvaariki.com

define(’my_pligg_base’, ‘/pligg’); // if installed in a subfolder. leave blank if installed in root.

Ex.: If I were to install at http://www.teluguvaariki.com/sri-addons/scripts/pligg, my_pligg_base would be /sri-addons/scripts/pligg

- any other config parameters you may want to. By default gravatars are set to be displayed and I find that broken images appear on the site because of that. So you may want to change this line: define(’Enable_Gravatar’, true);

4. To change the site name which reads ‘Pligg Beta 7' by default, open libs\lang.conf and change this line: PLIGG_Visual_Name = ‘Pligg Beta 7'.

5. Upload the files to where you want pligg installed.

6. chmod 777 /templates, /templates_c, config.php, /libs/dbconnect.php and /libs/options.php.

7. Open /install/install.php in your web browser. Fill in Database name, Database Username, Database Password and Database Server and proceed.

8. Delete your /install folder.

9. chmod 655 libs/dbconnect.php

10. Log into the god account. Login: god - Password: 12345. Go into “god profile”, “modify personal information” and change your password.

Usage:

·         If you want to change the admin username from ‘god’ to something else like ‘admin’, you can do so by using phpmyadmin and modifying the record in ‘users’ table of the DB.

·         Go to admin panel and add categories and then you can start posting links. While adding a category, make sure you hit the ‘insert’ button and not just the return key.

·         Once a new story is submitted, it will be in queued status by default. To publish it, click on the small ‘admin links’ link and Admin: Change the status..

·         Note that a blank category (that has no stories under it) doesn’t appear in the site.

Thanks to Ash and http://www.sridhareena.com/2006/05/31/how-to-run-a-digg-like-site/ for creating pligg and beatniak for the template and also for this how-to.

And you are done!!