[Support request] Drudge Like News Aggregator Theme?

[Richard]

Dear GPers,
This might be off topic, but besides my GP sites (RedwoodCoastParks.com and StengerMedia.com), I run a Drudge Report clone (PressCalifornia.com) with a one-off theme that’s pretty much at the end of its life. Been looking for possible GP options, but nothing in the library seems suitable. The main advantages of the current theme now are 1) it can serve up images from outside sources 2) it has three independent columns and 3) it easily goes to outbound links.
I scour the Internet for options, but the info overload is crushing and nothing seems suitable. Does anyone (Tom, GP users) have any suggestions? Any feedback most appreciated.
Yours,
Richard

[Tom]

Hi there,

You’ll likely need a few plugins to accomplish something like that.

The columns with 3 independent post lists can be achieved using a plugin like WP Show Posts along with Gutenberg columns.

I’m not sure about external featured images/post redirects, but there should be a handful of plugins out there that can accomplish this. Your current site has wpd_redirect in the URLs – that looks like a plugin handling the redirections?

[Richard]

Thanks, Tom. Is there a particular GP site you suggest to develop into a site a la Drudge, that is, three basic post links columns with a featured image & headline at the top?

[Tom]

That really depends on the look you’re going for. Any of those sites can be re-worked to have three columns of posts on the homepage.

None of the sites currently have that exact layout by default.

[Sebastian]

Hey guys, I´m also interested on how to create a aggregator style website using the GP framework.

Any updates regarding this topic? Is it difficult to make a 3 columns homepage with a list of small post headlines, and each maybe with a preview thumbnail? No RSS Plugin, just regular post entries.

[Elvin]

Hi Sebastian,

For the layouts specifically:

Assuming you’re using the home page as a blog index page, you can use Block Element – Content template to modify the post item layout:

As for its columns count, it can be set through Appearance > Customize > Layout > Blog.

Alternatively, if you’re NOT using the home page as a blog index page, consider getting a post grid plugin that is layout customizable so you can control the number of columns for the post entries AND how it looks like.

[Sebastian]

Thanks Elvin. I´ve found a tutorial on how to create a generatepress news website, using PostX block plugin.

https://targettrend.com/how-to-create-a-news-or-magazine-website-with-generatepress/

Here some ready page examples:
https://ultp.wpxpo.com/starter-packs/

Block samples:
https://ultp.wpxpo.com/readymade-blocks/

It´s maybe the way to go for someone without coding knowledge.

I will try them out, and let you know the google page speed score 😉

[Elvin]

I will try them out, and let you know the google page speed score

Ah yes for this one you’ll need an optimization as well. And I suggest reading articles about configuring optimizations as it can be tricky.

Tricky in a sense where some features, if enabled, are actually detrimental so you must really know what to set. 😀

[Sebastian]

Sooo..first google speed tests went pretty well with postX blocks enabled: 78/92 (mobile/desktop). But with “Fifu external image links” plugin enabled, it jumped to 91/96, so pretty awesome for the start. I´ve got a load of custom blocks added, similar to this layout

https://ultp.wpxpo.com/template/news-4/

But if using the Fifu plugin, you´re not in control over the image sizes, the external source provides. So small thumbs can sometimes load pretty big images, which can slow down loading times. On the other side, all images are hosted not locally, preventing copyright issues, when running a news aggregator for example.

BTW: your signature is much thoughtful 😀

[Elvin]

For the image sizes:

I’m not exactly sure how Fifu plugin takes in the image and re-serves it through CDN.

If it doesn’t include the srcset, you may want to as Fifu’s support if they have an option to do so. 🙂

Else, you may want to consider using other plugins w/ extra capabilities for this one specifically. 😀

[Author]

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