Improvements on the news app. It's not nearly done yet, don't bother playing with it for a while unless you're really curious and want to see ugly, un-refined code :)

apps/news/urls.py

@@ -2,5 +2,7 @@ from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
 
 urlpatterns = patterns('apps.news.views',
     (r'^show/(?P<entry_id>\d+)/$', 'show_news'),
-#    (r'^news/categories/list/$', 'recent_kills'),
+    (r'^archive/$', 'news_archive'),
+    (r'^search/$', 'search_form'),
+    (r'^search/results/$', 'search_results'),
 )

apps/news/views.py

@@ -3,11 +3,29 @@
 #
 from django.shortcuts import render_to_response, get_object_or_404
 from django.template import RequestContext
-import django.views.generic.list_detail as list_detail
+import django.views.generic.list_detail as gv_list_detail
+from django.http import HttpResponseRedirect
 from django.contrib.auth.models import User
+from django import newforms as forms
 
 from apps.news.models import NewsTopic, NewsEntry
 
+# The sidebar text to be included as a variable on each page. There's got to
+# be a better, cleaner way to include this on every page.
+sidebar = """
+   <p class='doNotDisplay doNotPrint'>This page&rsquo;s menu:</p>
+   <ul id='side-bar'>
+     <li><a href='/news/archive'>News Archive</a></li>
+     <li><a href='/tbi'>Search News</a></li>
+   </ul>
+"""
+
+class SearchForm(forms.Form):
+   """
+   Class to represent a news search form under Django's newforms.
+   """
+   search_terms = forms.CharField(max_length=100, min_length=3, required=True)
+
 def show_news(request, entry_id):
    """
    Show an individual news entry.
@@ -16,8 +34,70 @@ def show_news(request, entry_id):
 
    pagevars = {
       "page_title": "News Entry",
-      "news_entry": news_entry
+      "news_entry": news_entry,
+      "sidebar": sidebar
    }
 
    context_instance = RequestContext(request)
    return render_to_response('news/show_entry.html', pagevars, context_instance)
+
+def news_archive(request):
+   """
+   Shows an archive of news entries.
+   """
+   news_entries = NewsEntry.objects.all().order_by('-date_posted')
+   # TODO: Move this to either settings.py or the SQL configuration.
+   entries_per_page = 15
+
+   pagevars = {
+      "page_title": "News Archive",
+      "sidebar": sidebar
+   }
+   
+   return gv_list_detail.object_list(request, news_entries, template_name='news/archive.html', extra_context=pagevars, paginate_by=entries_per_page)
+
+def search_form(request):
+   """
+   Render the news search form.
+   """
+   debug =""
+
+   if request.method == 'GET':
+      debug = "GET"
+      search_form = SearchForm(request.GET)
+      if search_form.is_valid():
+         return HttpResponseRedirect('/news/search/results/?search_terms='+ search_form.cleaned_data['search_terms'])
+   else:
+      debug = "NOTHING"
+      search_form = SearchForm()
+
+   pagevars = {
+      "page_title": "Search News",
+      "search_form": search_form,
+      "debug": debug,
+      "sidebar": sidebar
+   }
+
+   context_instance = RequestContext(request)
+   return render_to_response('news/search_form.html', pagevars, context_instance)
+
+def search_results(request):
+   """
+   Shows an archive of news entries.
+   """
+   # TODO: Move this to either settings.py or the SQL configuration.
+   entries_per_page = 15
+
+   search_form = SearchForm(request.GET)
+   valid_search = search_form.is_valid()
+   cleaned_get = search_form.cleaned_data
+
+   news_entries = NewsEntry.objects.filter(title__contains=cleaned_get['search_terms'])
+
+   pagevars = {
+      "page_title": "Search Results",
+      "searchtext": "search_terms="+ cleaned_get['search_terms'],
+      "sidebar": sidebar
+   }
+   
+   return gv_list_detail.object_list(request, news_entries, template_name='news/archive.html', extra_context=pagevars, paginate_by=entries_per_page)

apps/website/views.py

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ def page_index(request):
    Main root page.
    """
    # Some misc. configurable stuff.
+   # TODO: Move this to either SQL or settings.py based configuration.
    fpage_player_limit = 4   
    fpage_news_entries = 2