Finally came to be the time to make my weblog software multi-user and multi-dimensional. I've resisted the push for a long time now because I really like having my data in files instead of in a database. One can make a multi-user weblog with  flat files, but it involves quite a bit of replication of resources, and some pretty nasty looking code to walk all the different structures pulling out the desired data. That's why databases exist after all.  It simplifies finding the data at the expense of requiring application-specific tools to maintain it.

For instance, you can't just delete a record with a database manager. Well, you could, but it's asking for trouble. You sorta' need to know how that record ties in with all the other records on the system and make sure you don't leave some orphaned data hanging around somewhere.  In a weblog, articles are linked to comments and attachments and categories for instance. Change one and you've generally gotta' change everything else to keep it all synchronized.

But none of this is rocket science. I've done it all before. So I've started the overhaul in a different space. Got the posting and editing page pretty much complete already. Category management, posts management, yada, yada. Should have most of it working in another day or three - assuming some quality time at the keyboard.

The good part is that most of my existing work translates directly. The post page for instance looks and works exactly the same. Exactly. That's the way it should be.