Today I worked on building a dynamic news directory tool for my WordPress site — a way to showcase lots of news websites, filter them by country, and browse through pages easily.
What I built:
- A WordPress plugin that shows a list of news websites with AJAX-powered filtering by country and pagination. This means visitors can pick a country and see matching news sites instantly without reloading the page.
- A Python script to scrape Canadian news websites from a popular online list. It grabs each site’s name, URL, and description to help me fill the directory with real data.
- Another Python script that visits each news site and finds their favicon (the small icon shown in browser tabs) by checking HTML tags or default locations. This lets me show site logos next to each news listing for a nicer look.
How it looks:
The directory displays news sites in neat cards showing the site name, description, country, and upvotes. The favicon appears next to each site, making it visually easy to scan through the list. The filter dropdown and pagination links update the list instantly, giving a smooth browsing experience.
Why this matters:
This setup helps me organize and display news sources in a user-friendly way, especially for Canadian news. It also automates gathering site info and favicons, so the directory stays fresh and visually appealing. It’s a great way to give visitors quick access to trusted news outlets without overwhelming them.
If you want, I can help turn this into a step-by-step tutorial or add features like top articles or automatic daily updates!