I recently wrote a blog post indicating that I’d look into the new Sweetcron web app. So, over the weekend I dived in and explored its potential.
What is Sweetcron?
A Sweetcron is a free and open source solution for creating a self-hosted Lifestream; a blog-like website that shows your activity across the various websites.
A Sweetcron is very much like a blog that aggregates all your data feeds from your various websites into one site – a website I call my Social Portal. The real beauty of a Sweetcron is the ability to view and comment on individual data-feed inline (no need to wonder off to other websites). A Sweetcron uses the idea of a timeline and gives it the human feel of time progression. Much like the Meghan’s Lifecast where the time is represented horizontally, the Sweetcron uses individual blocks of activity down a mainly vertical axis (is fully customiseable too).Why do a Sweetcron?
Because like all new technologies it’s important to discover potential solutions. It may not be the perfect type of web app, but with a bit of imagination and business vision solutions will inevitably ‘appear’. This portential is echoed by Web Designer Chris Coyier in his Sweetcron post on Nettuts:
Sweetcron is a relatively new software, but its ease of use, great user interface and extensibility are surely going to be help it take off. I could see it amassing a huge user base and even stealing a little market share away from blogging giants like WordPress.
What you need to setup a Sweetcron?
Unlike many web 2.0-flavoured hosted solutions (WordPress, Blogger etc) Sweetcron relies on you to provide the server platform and setup skills. The hardware/software and skills needed include:
- Web access – get onto the web
- Sweetcron signup and email address – download the files
- FTP access – get the files across to your server
- PHP Server – runs/understands the installed Sweetcron files
- MySQL database – a place to store and sort the generated content
- Text editor – edit the PHP files for configuration
- Image editing software – amend graphics to personalise it
- Follow and understand the technical instructions
- Commenting app (optional) – I used Disqus
Benefits of a Sweetcron?
- Free
- Relatively easy to instal and configure
- Good looking
- User-generate content in the form of comments
- Easily customisable
- Self-hosted
- Open source and some…
References:
Files and Installation: http://sweetcron.com/
Google code: http://code.google.com/p/sweetcron/
Thanks for referencing mine, glad you like it!