iStrip

The automated webcomic publishing system

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What is iStrip?
iStrip is am automated publishing system for webcomics. It is designed with a high degree of customizibility in mind and makes use of a powerful template system to give you complete control over the layout of your site. It also features web administration of your site, allowing you to add strips and news items, edit them, remove them and reconfigure iStrip all from the comfort of yoru web browser. iStrip is an open source project and is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Features of iStrip
  • Features for visitors
    • Fast page generation: iStrip uses the Smarty template engine. This means that pages are generated once and only once. Once a page is generated the first time it is "compiled" into PHP code. This means that pages are generated more rapidly
    • Comprehensive strip navigation features: Next, previous, first and last comic links, random comic display, archive lists and Javascript menus are all possible with iStrip
    • News items: Readers can keep up to date with the news item feature. When a strip is viewed the most recent news item prior to the upload date of the strip is displayed.
    • Additional site pages: iStrip can be used to generate all kinds of additional pages for your visitors such as cast pages, FAQ pages, links pages, or any other kind of page you may want. All these pages can make use of iStrip features such as Javascript navigation menus.
  • Features for designers
    • Templates: iStrip uses the Smarty template engine. You can easily customize the look of your site with HTML templates with a rich set of template variables, support for conditional HTML, support for looping sections and so on.
    • Themes: iStrip templates are organized into themes that can be switched between at will from the web configuration page. This allows you to switch between themes with ease. Two themes are provided with iStrip to get you started.
    • Componant library: A library of code for use in your own template files is included to help you make your site your own.
    • E-mail address obfsucating: The template engine iStrip utilizes includes functionality for mangling e-mail address into a format that cannot be read by e-mail address harvesting bots, so you get more mail from fans and less from porn sites. :-)
    • Language packs: iStrip was designed with the ability to translate it into languages other than English with relitive ease in mind. The default iStrip language can be changed just by updating a handful of files.
    • Randomized banners: Just toss some images in a directory and iStrip will select one at random for display. You can use this to make your site display one of several different banner designs, for example.
  • Features for site admin
    • Strip index backup - NEW: You can quickly and easily download the vital strip index file via the web interface
    • Site migration tool: A PHP script is included to allow you to transfer a webcomic site over to iStrip if you have been running one under a different system up till now. This script can scan a directory on your server for images and generate the the files iStrip needs to maintain its strip archive. Switching to iStrip has never been easier.
    • File based database: No need for an SQL server
    • Web-based interface: No need to manually edit files or upload strips via FTP. Most administrative chores can be done through the web interface.
    • Automated updating: Just pick the strip file on your hard drive and go. No messing around with FTP or HTML files
    • Strip management: Add new strips, change titles, change strip files or delete strips from the web control panel
    • News management: Add news item to a strip, change news item contents, change news item title or delete news items from the web control panel
    • News item HTML editor: JavaScript based editing built in to ease in the editing of news items
    • Web configuration: Configure all kinds of iStrip parameters from the web control panel
    • Status reports: Full status reports on all action displayed so you can see how successful the last operation was
    • Filesystem audit: Generates a report on the status of the iStrip filesystem. Searches for missing files and orphaned files that aren't referenced in the strip index.

iStrip documentation
iStrip comes with 2 sets of documentation. The instruction manual contains information on setting up or upgrading iStrip installations and making use of it's features such as it's template engine. The online help is intended to intergrate with the administration pages and can be accessed from the help buttons provided there. It can also be browsed as a stand-alone document if desired.

Admin interface demo
I write iStrip to support the publishing of my own web comic, entitled "offline". The site also serves to demonstrate what can be done with the iStrip engine. The only difference between my site and the one iStrip provides out of the box is the page templates. Visit offline

A demonstration of the admin control panels is available online. This demo isn't live, it doesn't change any files anywhere or process uploads or any of the other functions the real admin control panels support, other than the client side scripts. They are provided entirely for demonstration purposes. View the demo administration pages

Support
You can read the latest iStrip news in the iStrip news archives on Sourceforge News archive
You can make a bug report or view previous bug reports via the SourceForge bug tracker Bug tracker
You can request a new feature or view previous feature requests via the Sourceforge feature request tracker Feature request tracker
You can discuss iStrip in the Sourceforge forums iStrip forums

Download iStrip
istrip 1.5.1 download
Language pack: English 1.5.1 download
Demo banners n/a download
Other links iStrip sourceforge project page
Offline (My comic)
Foxhole Productions (My home page)

If you like our script, please rate it!

© 2002, 2003 Gordon McVey

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