LifeType v1.2 Web Application Review

LifeType v1.2 Lab Review
Date Published: June 9, 2007
Original Published Article: http://www.codango.com/php/fnc/lab/review/1001/

Synopsis
LifeType (http://www.lifetype.net/) is easy to install, packed with features, offers great support, and is absolutely free. Yet, it remains an underdog mainly due to its lack of exposure. LifeType has everything you’d expect in a blogging application like a WYSIWYG editor and guest comments. It also has some things you wouldn’t expect, such as an image gallery and multi-blog hosting ability. Oh, and if you need assistance with anything from installation to configuration, LifeType offers support in the form of a wiki or forums. Although LifeType’s security is solid, we would have liked to have seen captcha validation as a standard feature throughout the application. When it comes down to it, for the price and what LifeType offers – we think it should be at the top of your list.

Introduction
Admit it, you’ve thought about blogging. If you haven’t thought about it yet, I can bet you’ve read at least a few in the last year. In fact, Technorati is currently tracking nearly 74 million blogs today with 175,000 new blogs being created daily. That’s a serious amount of blogs and bloggers. The competition to become the leading blogging web application is fierce across all programming platforms and although the idea of posting your thoughts or feelings online isn’t new, it has been made easier by advances in technology.

LifeType is an open source blogging web application developed with PHP. It has a price tag of free, so it fits into the college student’s budget of beer and Ramen. Since its first release in 2003 under the name of ‘pLog’, it has made leaps and bounds to become what it is today. There are literally thousands of blogging web applications out on the market right now, so does LifeType have enough to play with the big boys?

Let’s find out…

Installation and Setup (Rated 9.6 out of 10)
Like many PHP applications out there LifeType requires at least PHP4 and MySQL, and can be hosted in either Apache or Microsoft IIS. The first thing that I had to know was how to get LifeType installed. Unfortunately, no documentation was included with the download; however, after pulling my hair out for a few minutes, I was finally able to locate the instructions on their Wiki. The only pre-installation work required was that all files had to be uploaded to the server, and two directories and a file had to be CHMOD. After completing all the pre-installation work, I was excited to finally be able to install the web application.

The installation process called “the wizard” is meant to facilitate trouble-free installation. I was stoked when I saw that the wizard first checks if all the files and configurations are set properly for the installation. This not only saves time, but aspirin as well. I continued on to providing the database information, and upon trying to connect it threw an error. This was both good and bad. The positive I discovered was LifeType includes the ability to create the database through the installation wizard. The negative was that my typing hasn’t improved since kindergarten. Although I was unable to test how well the installation wizard creates the database, (due to the limitations of the shared hosting environment) I thought it was a nice touch that the developers of LifeType added.

The wizard offered some quick configuration for the blog immediately after connecting with the database, including: blog title, language, and template. Although I only speak English, I found that having the option to pick the language right away could be useful for users who don’t speak English or are multi-lingual.

The final step in the installation was to delete some files. Without doing this your blog goes into lock down mode and won’t run. Although I’ve never seen another web application do this, it was a nice security feature because it’s often omitted during the installation process. Leaving these files on your server could allow any user to exploit them and hijack your app. Nice job LifeType!

Features (Rated 8.8 out of 10)
Once the installation was finished, it was time to checkout LifeType’s features. Being familiar with numerous blogging applications, I wanted to see how LifeType measured up. Out of the box, LifeType offers what most blogs do: a WYSIWYG editor, user comments, trackbacks, and entry archive. I was also able to add links and set custom fields easily by going through the administrative side. Custom fields are just a way to pick and choose plug-ins for each specific entry. Although I won’t go in to details, LifeType offers plug-ins for anti-spam, integration, templates, and everything in between.

The integrated album for images was ready to go right away. I have hundreds of digital photos of family members spread across the globe, so the ability to have a photo gallery is very important to me. There were two problems with the album: it didn’t support comments, and the image preview quality was lowered. The ability to view them at normal resolution was possible by following a URL posted above the image. Another interesting feature was the ability to create blog users. The options available when creating a blog user are nothing short of phenomenal. A blog user can have nearly 40 different permission levels set!

At first I was confused as to why I would need blog users, but then realized that with LifeType I have the ability to create blogs, and so do my site’s users. LifeType offers more than just a personal blogging system. It allows you to run your own blog hosting website and permits users to sign up and configure their own blogs. LifeType enables you to offer services like Blogger or Xanga, and I found that to be one of its more advanced features.

Going through LifeType’s site, they mention moblogging as a feature. After a bit of research, it’s only available as a plug-in, but the feature is worth a look. According to Wikipedia, moblogging is just a term for “mobile blogging” such as blogging through a handheld device. Although I’m not into giving myself carpal tunnel, or using abbreviations and Leetspeak to post a message, I found that this really stood out as many blog-addicted users (me included) need to post everything that they find interesting.

The next feature that I found really intriguing was called the bookmarklet. Although LifeType isn’t the only blog to have this feature, there are only a few that do. The bookmarklet allows you to quickly link other sites into your blog without cutting and pasting. In fact, it’s so easy it will have cavemen blogging.

User Interface (Rated 8.3 out of 10)
I can’t lie. The default template made me feel that I’d traveled back in time to when disco balls and bell bottoms ruled the world. I was blasted by a white background, dark blue boxes and links that turned purple when my mouse hovered over them. The great news is that there are templates available on LifeType’s website so you can customize the look… phew!

LifeType has a built in calendar which keeps track of the days you posted so users can easily find specific entries. This is a much more efficient way to let users search rather than digging through the archives. On the administration side blog entries are done with a WYSIWYG editor that works in both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Navigation through the backend was complicated at first. The links were aligned on the top and after clicking one of them, a new page loads with a row of tabs holding more links. The content in these tabs is the same as that of the drop down menus. I found it much easier to navigate around the backend using the drop down menus although they’re turned off by default. Once you turn these on the user interface was much easier to navigate, pleasant on your eyes, and offers nice use of both graphics and colors (as long as you change that default template).

Integration & Customization (Rated 9.7 out of 10)
Although LifeType is out-of-the-box ready, it is an open source web application, so the source code is available and users are encouraged to add, modify, and update it. LifeType relies entirely on CSS and XHTML for its design and layout on both the front and back ends. This makes the entire website easily customizable if you are proficient in CSS.

I admit it, I’m a neophyte when it comes to CSS but I was able to quickly change the interface by just tweaking the code. However, I was unable to edit the templates from a web based user interface and the opportunity doesn’t exist unless you download a plug-in. LifeType was built on top of the Smarty Template Engine, which allows you to edit the entire layout of LifeType. This includes the navigation, headers/footers, and the content.

The only limit I found in customizing the appearance was the user’s familiarity with editing or creating CSS. LifeType allows quite a bit of customization from a web-based user interface. I was able to change main options such as the name of the blog, disable or enable comments, upload files, and email configurations. There are dozens of plug-ins listed on LifeType’s wiki to help customize your experience.

If you’ve ever integrated an existing web framework into another, you know how difficult it can be. The developers of LifeType know this and have decided to include the API at no cost. Essentially everything you need to integrate LifeType with another web application is provided including modules, classes, and struts. If all that seems overwhelming, you have no need to worry. There is documentation that shows you what everything does, how it’s used, and examples on how to use it. In fact, the developers went as far as providing classes to integrate third-party user systems as well as some of the most popular web applications today, like: PostNuke, Joomla, phpBB and vBulletin.

The code in the API is very user friendly. It’s properly indented and commented throughout so not only is it easy on the eyes, it’s easy to follow. Overall I think you’ll find the API much like the secret sauce you might find on your favorite hot wings – too good to be true.

Security (Rated 9.0 out of 10)
Security is of paramount importance for any web application and LifeType’s doesn’t disappoint. We found it isn’t vulnerable to SQL injections and even if a user were to gain access, it provides strong database security, including password encryption and tracking the time and date of user logins.

LifeType has captcha validation for user signups, but not for blog comments. As we all know, this can leave you vulnerable to spam comments, so you’re in luck if you are refinancing. Additionally LifeType offers email validation for new user signups. To my surprise, both the signup captcha and email validation were disabled by default. In my opinion they should have been enabled for optimal security.

LifeType includes another spam fighting feature called “Bayesian Filter” that uses a mathematical equation based on the amount of words in a non-spam versus how many you would find in spam. The only downfall I found with the Bayesian Filter is that there is no pre-made filter which means you have to build it.

Support (Rated 9.1 out of 10)
LifeType offers great support for an OSS web application. Their support arsenal includes: an FAQ, a wiki, and a forum with support in 6 different languages. I’m a pro when it comes to breaking things, usually on a daily basis, so there’s a lot of comfort knowing that if I do something catastrophic they are there to help.

To test the support I decided to search their extensive FAQ and post a message on the forum. To evaluate the FAQ, I searched their database because I wasn’t able to change the URL format without breaking the entire website. This was evidently a common problem. Unfortunately this issue was server related and fixing it would have been outside the scope of what a normal user could change in a shared hosting environment. To test the forum question response time, I posted a query to find certain files for editing. The good news is that I wasn’t waiting long, roughly 23 hours. This is an impressive turnaround time considering support is free and all assistance is provided on a volunteer basis.

In Summary
When it comes down to it, LifeType is easy enough for anyone to install… even our marketing guy. It is packed with features that are not only expected in blogging applications but also with a few features that add a nice touch. LifeType’s CSS driven interface can easily be tweaked by novices and should please web standard junkies as well. Running the CSS and Markup through the W3C Validation passed with no errors. Despite LifeType being free, they offer plenty of self-service support options at no charge. Digging through their wiki, it’s apparent that they’ve tried their best to help users in need. The forums are regularly monitored, and questions are usually answered in a day’s time.

LifeType’s security is nothing short of solid. However, captcha for form validation leaves the site prone to comment spammers (you know; the kind that try to sell you male enhancers and anti-balding meds like they’re going out of style).

The bottom line is: LifeType is definitely worth a look whether you’re just getting into the blogging world, or if you’re an experienced blogger. For the price (free) and everything it offers, I think you’re going to love what you find.