I am going to create a blog-like application for a University. I have been given access to their server, but I was not granted access to their databases. The server has PHP installed, so I plan on utilizing that.
At the very least, I would like to give the user the ability to post a blog. Though this is not a strict requirement, the ability to comment on each blog post would be nice.
If I were to keep the application very simple, I could just use flat files to store the blog posts. Using flat files would be fairly unwieldy when incorporating comments, however. Another option would be to use SQLite, though I have not confirmed whether or not that is installed on the host.
Neither of the above options are ideal. I have also been looking at Google's Blogger API. This seems like a good option, but the limitations are fairly, well, limited (maximum of 100 posts, 1MB per post, etc). Are there any other sites out there that provide blogging web-services? I am certainly not looking for stuff like Wordpress.com or Blog.com, as I want to write custom software. I am strictly looking for a way to store and organize the information, for free. Google Storage also sounds like an option, but I don't want to start paying if the site gets too much traffic (although it will be a pretty low-traffic site).
Thanks for any ideas!
EDIT: Looking for a FREE solution!
I decided to go with Google's Blogger API (https://developers.google.com/blogger/). In my question, I mentioned that the limitations include a maximum of 100 posts. I was incorrect; it actually has a limitation of 100 blogs per account (that's a bunch!), and each blog can have an unlimited number of posts and comments. I think this option is great for anybody looking for free storage for a blog, as long as you are willing to conform to their data model.
For anybody that might come across this question, the Blogger API allows you to perform CRUD operations on a blog using a RESTful interface. Google stores all of the data for you. If you don't mind your application making a request out to the series of tubes that is the internet, then the Blogger API will do the trick.