PHP-Nuke: Management and Programming
Claudio Erba
Webmaster
www.spaghettibrain.com
Chris Karakas - Conversion from LyX to DocBook SGML, Index generation
Andre Purfield - Translation from italian and translation project
coordination
Fortunato Matarazzo - Translation from italian: chapters 7, 8 and 9
Chris Karakas - Translation from italian: chapters 1-6, 10-11
Revision History
Revision 1.2 2003-05-29 Revised by: CK
New logo, CSS stylesheet, HTML validation, footer icons. Incorporated LDP
reviewer's comments. Created Aknowledgements and Availability of sources
sections.
Revision 1.1 2003-02-13 Revised by: AP
Cleaned up the wording and a few typos.
Revision 1.0 2003-01-09 Revised by: CK
First complete version.
[logo1]
[logo2]
There has always been the necessity to have a definitive guide on PHP-Nuke.
This tutorial describes the installation and structure of PHP-Nuke and the
details of customizing the front end to suit the users' needs. The
architecture of PHP-Nuke, with its modules, blocks, topics and themes is
presented in detail, as well as the interplay of PHP and MySQL for the
creation of a mighty content management system (CMS).It also delves into more
advanced issues, like the programming of PHP-Nuke blocks and modules.
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Table of Contents
1. Terms of distribution
1.1. Disclaimer
1.2. Formats
1.3. Licence
1.4. Availability of sources
1.5. Aknowledgements
2. Introduction to PHP-Nuke
2.1. Purpose
2.2. What Is PHP-Nuke
2.3. Short history of PHP-Nuke
2.4. The Nuke Communities
2.5. Why use PHP-Nuke and not static HTML pages
3. Front end structure: user view
3.1. The preinstalled modules
3.2. Other non-installed modules
3.3. The preinstalled blocks
4. Back end structure: administrator view
4.1. The administration functions
4.2. The Preferences Page
5. How to install PHP-Nuke
5.1. Installation process
5.2. How to install PHP-Nuke through PHPMyadmin
6. Architecture and structure
6.1. Directory structure
6.2. Main page management
6.3. Module management
6.4. Administration management
7. Customising PHP-Nuke themes
7.1. Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
7.2. Modifying the HTML template
7.3. Theme construction: the rules to follow
8. Creating blocks
8.1. The characteristics of the various types of blocks
8.2. How to create a new block
9. Creating modules
9.1. Module structure
9.2. Creating fully compatible modules: the rules to follow
9.3. Module creation, the public part
9.4. Module creation, administrator part
10. Some security precautions
10.1. The permissions on the folders and files
10.2. Cookies - timeout and configuration
11. Programmer's tools
11.1. The database tables
11.2. The syntax of SQL code
11.3. PHPMyadmin, administering MySQL via web
11.4. MySQL Front, how to administer a MySQL DB from Windows
11.5. Foxserv, making PHP-Nuke work on Windows Systems
Index
List of Figures
3-1. PHP-Nuke Homepage
3-2. Classifying articles
3-3. Downloads module
3-4. Private messages
3-5. Search module
3-6. Statistics module
3-7. Your account
3-8. Forum
4-1. Administration panel
4-2. Articles
5-1. PHP-Nuke 6.0 file structure
5-2. PHPMyAdmin start screen
5-3. PHPMyAdmin table selection
5-4. PHPMyAdmin: SQL query
5-5. PHPMyAdmin: table data
5-6. PHPMyAdmin: database dump
8-1. Block example
9-1. PHPMyAdmin: inserting values
9-2. Example module
11-1. PHPMyAdmin start screen
11-2. PHPMyAdmin: table forum_topics
11-3. MySQL Front: Connection
11-4. MySQL Front: export tables
11-5. MySQL Front: SQL Query
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Chapter 1. Terms of distribution
1.1. Disclaimer
No liability for the contents of this documents can be accepted. Use the
concepts, examples and other content at your own risk. As this is a new
edition of this document, there may be errors and inaccuracies, that may of
course be damaging to your system. Proceed with caution, and although this is
highly unlikely, the author does not take any responsibility for that.
All copyrights are held by their respective owners, unless specifically noted
otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as affecting
the validity of any trademark or service mark.
Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.
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1.2. Formats
This document is available in the following formats:
* [./book1.html] HTML (HyperText Markup Language), many HTML files (one for
every section)
* [./EN-Book.html] HTML (HyperText Markup Language), one big HTML file
* [./EN-Book.txt] TXT (ASCII Text)
* [./EN-Book.rtf] RTF (Rich Text Format)
* [./EN-Book.pdf] PDF (Portable Document Format)
* [./EN-Book.ps.gz] PS.GZ (Compressed Postscript)
* [./EN-Book.sgml] SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language)
* [./EN-Book.lyx] LYX (LaTeX frontend LyX)
Important IMPORTANT: Downloads for offline reading!
If you want to download the HTML or RTF formats for offline
reading, you will need to download the images as well - PNG for
HTML and BMP for RTF, including the callouts! To save you the
hassle, I have compiled the following zipped tar archives for
offline reading:
* [./EN-Book-html.tar.gz] TAR.GZ (Compressed TAR Archive), many HTML files
with images
* [./EN-Book-onehtml.tar.gz] TAR.GZ (Compressed TAR Archive), one big HTML
file with images
* [./EN-Book-sgml.tar.gz] TAR.GZ (Compressed TAR Archive), SGML file with
images
* [./EN-Book-rtf.tar.gz] TAR.GZ (Compressed TAR Archive), RTF file with
images
A tarball containing all the above formats, including images, is also
available:
* [./EN-Book.tar.gz] TAR.GZ (Compressed TAR Archive), All files
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1.3. Licence
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under
the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later
version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of
the license can be found at the [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html] GNU
Free Documentation License .
"Original version of Claudio Erba (webmaster@spaghettibrain.com),
[www.spaghettibrain.com ] spaghettibrain, PHP-Nuke italian Mirror, 2002. This
book, in all its versions (also those modified from third parties in Italian
or whichever), for will of the author, may be reproduced also integrally
without violating any law in asmuch as this book is released under [http://
www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html] GNU Free Documentation License
This book:
* May be modified partially or integrally creating manuals for companies,
agencies or persons who deal with formatting changing either the diagram
or the contents or the pagination.
* May be distributed either in its original or in modified form, or either
in electronic or in paper format from either field periodicals or not,
Internet sites and whichever other medium.
* May be used as internal manual by companies, public or private agencies,
or universities .
* May be used distributed by universities as a hand-out.
* May even be resold without having to recognize any type of royalty to the
author or authors on the condition that the purchasers be granted the
freedom of making even integral copies, redistribute or resell them.
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1.4. Availability of sources
The modifiable sources of the original book (in italian), the images and
example files are available in sxi format (OpenOffice Impress) on
[www.spaghettibrain.com] spaghettibrain. Openoffice is an office suite
completely free, downloadable from [openoffice] www.openoffice.org.
See Section 1.2 for the modifiable sources of this document. These are the
official versions. We (the translators and current maintainers) plan to
continue work on this document and add new chapters and enhancements. If you
want to see the version we are currently working on (the "bleeding edge"
version), check [http://www.karakas-online.de/EN-Book/] http://
www.karakas-online.de/EN-Book/ from time to time.
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1.5. Aknowledgements
Since I am still at the very start of this work here, I cannot claim to have
carried out this operation to its end, but, as the saying says, those who
have started, are already halfways
The following people contribute, directly or indirectly to this project and
their help is hereby kindly aknowledged:
* Francisco Burzi with all the introductory scripts, found in the files of
installation of PHP-Nuke
* Vasco Clergy and his daughter Valentina of Lug Rieti for the translations
of the modules of the handbook
* Micaela bechini, for the daily translations of [http://phpnuke.oeg]
phpnuke.org from English.
* The communities of [http://www.splatt.it] Splatt.it, [http://
www.nukeitalia.com] Nukeitalia.com, [http://www.phpnuke.it] PHPnuke.it
(and its Mailing List), [http://www.postnuke.it] Postnuke.it, [http://
www.envolution.it] envolution.it, [http://www.xoops.it] xoops.it and
obviously the 1500 registered users of [www.spaghettibrain.com]
spaghettibrain.
* Aemmenet, in the person of Mark Atzori that has granted us free use of
the server on which [www.spaghettibrain.com] spaghettibrain is
accommodated.
* Roberto Scano of IWA Italy and Patrizia Bertini of [http://
www.webaccessibile.org] Webaccessibile.org for the contributions on
usability, accessibility and [http://www.w3c.org] W3C validation.
* Marcello Tansini of [http://www.webmasterpoint.org] webmasterpoint.org
for the support given to the project in terms of visibility.
* Andrea Birgahi, the best PHP-Nuke Theme Maker of the world for the
diagram of [www.spaghettibrain.com] spaghettibrain, for the logo of the
book and a lot more.
* My girl Sara for all...
* My mother Lella, my sister Cora, my dog Grey and the newly arrived baby
dog Maya.
This book I dedicate it to my Papà Antonio. Hello Pà.
Some quotes have been taken from the installation files of [http://
phpnuke.oeg] phpnuke.org.
The translators would like to thank the [http://www.tldp.org] Linux
Documentation Project (TLDP) and its reviewers, especially Tabatha Marshall
and Greg Ferguson for their comments and efforts to make this document
available from TLDP's plattform to a wider audience.
We are in search of available volunteers to translate this script in as many
languages as possible. In the case you are interested in translating this
book, write to [mailto:webmaster@spaghettibrain.com]
webmaster@spaghettibrain.com, [mailto:chris@karakas-online.de]
chris@karakas-online.de or visit the site that will have a classified section
dedicated to this argument.
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Chapter 2. Introduction to PHP-Nuke
2.1. Purpose
This book is born as a "thank you" to all the users who visit
[www.spaghettibrain.com] spaghettibrain. There has always been the necessity
to have a definitive guide on PHP-Nuke, possibly in Italian language. Due to
time constraints, nobody has ever had the will to carry out this operation.
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2.2. What Is PHP-Nuke
PHP-Nuke is free software, released under the [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/
licenses.html] GNU License.
It is a CMS (Content Managment System) that integrates in its inside all the
instruments that are used to create a site/portal of information (meant in
broad sense). Given the immense number of present functions in the
installation and in an even greater quantity of modules developed from third
parties, the system is also adept to the management of
* Intranet business,
* e-commerce systems,
* corporate portals ,
* public agencies,
* news agencies,
* online companies,
* information sites,
* e-learning systems
* and so on...
PHP-Nuke utilizes as hinge of its own structure the duo [http://www.php.net]
PHP+ [http://www.mysql.org] MySQL, very often being accompanied by the [http:
//www.apache.org] Apache web server. Many modules have integrated many other
languages, such as Javascript, Java, Flash and also even systems that serve,
through the portal, sounds and films in streaming mode(Online Radio, TV
Online, Images, Files...)
PHP-Nuke is developed with a particular eye to the suggestions of the [http:/
/www.w3c.org] W3C, in its origin, the code is in fact W3C compliant and one
has validated both the code and the style sheets. It is then up to the user
who intends to create a portal to adhere to these standards during the
modification of the graphics or the intrinsic characteristics of the system.
The personalisation either of the graphical, or of the programming part has
only a single limit, the fantasy and capability of the programer and web
designer.The presence of many PHP-Nuke sites similar to each other is due
mainly to the lack of time of those who created them or the fear that the
phase of personalisation is too difficult on a technical level. In fact, it
suffices to let oneself be inspired by the available themes, in order to
realize how easy it is to sew a new dress to onIt is s portal.
Francisco Burzi, father and mother of PHP-Nuke, describes his creation as
follows:
PHP-Nuke is a Web Portal System, storytelling software, News system,
online community or whatever you want to call it. The goal of PHP-Nuke is
to have an automated web site to distribute news and articles with users
system. Each user can submit comments to discuss the articles, just
similar to Slashdot and many others.
Main features include: web based admin, surveys, top page, access stats
page with counter, user customizable box, themes manager for registered
users, friendly administration GUI with graphic topic manager, option to
edit or delete stories, option to delete comments, moderation system,
Referers page to know who link us, sections manager, customizable HTML
blocks, user and authors edit, an integrated Banners Ads system, search
engine, backend/headlines generation (RSS/RDF format), and many, many
more friendly functions.
PHP-Nuke is written 100% in PHP and requires Apache Web server, PHP and a
SQL (MySQL, mSQL, PostgreSQL, ODBC, ODBC_Adabas, Sybase or Interbase).
Support for 25 languages, Yahoo like search engine, Comments option in
Polls, lot of themes, Ephemerids manager, File Manager, Headlines,
download manager, faq manager, advanced blocks systems, reviews system,
newsletter, categorized articles, multilanguage content management and a
lot more.
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2.3. Short history of PHP-Nuke
Francisco Burzi, describes the history of PHP-Nuke as follows:
PHP-Nuke is a free software, released under the [http://www.gnu.org/
licenses/licenses.html] GNU GPL License, version 2.0. PHP-Nuke is the
result of many years administrating a news site called [http://
linuxpreview.org] Linux Preview. First, around August 1998, I wrote my
own code in Perl called NUKE and used it for about 1 year, then my site
grew big, so I needed a more powerfull system and decided to use Slash,
the same used in the [http://www.slashdot.org] Slashdot site. It's good,
but you realy need to know Perl to modify it, need too many modules, need
to load a damn daemon that sucks all your CPU power. My Pentium III just
appears to be a 386 each minute the daemon make its work.
Well, then I discovered Thatware, a good project to have a news site
under PHP. I learned PHP in less than a week and began modifying it.
There are too many mods to mention, it was practicaly a rewrite. I added
some cool stuff, deleted some others and after more than 380 hours of
hard work in 3 weeks! PHP-Nuke was born.
On August 17, 2000 I sold LinuxPreview.org to LinuxAlianza.com and now I
have all the time to dedicate to the development of PHP-Nuke.
From January 2001 to January 2002, PHP-Nuke has been financially
supported by MandrakeSoft, the folks that made Mandrake Linux. This gave
me and PHP-Nuke a lot of oxygen and made possible a lot of stuff.
Now, I'm alone with this killer project. There is a lot of help from the
people that use and develop modules and themes. Now, [http://phpnuke.oeg]
phpnuke.org is a big site with a lot of users and helpful information for
any user around the world. There are also strong users community sites in
almost any language you can imagine. Just go to [http://phpnuke.oeg]
phpnuke.org and enjoy this great community!
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2.4. The Nuke Communities
A careful look is due to the true value of PHP-Nuke, that is the communities
that you will find all around. Thanks to the voluntary job of these persons,
of these sites, PHP-Nuke has become a well-known system and it is always
thanks to them that PHP-Nuke is a multilanguage system that supports more
than 25 languages.
Even the modules have been created mostly from developers in external
communities and have, in second round, been included in new distributions of
PHP-Nuke.
There are communities out there who are solely devoted to the creation of new
graphical themes of PHP-Nuke, to technical support, file mirroring as well as
a real lot of multilingual communities that take care of their members
informing them in their local language, thus creating new personal ties and
more focused projects.
* [http://www.nukeforums.com] Nukeforums.com: Technical support to PHP-Nuke
* [http://www.nukedownloads.com] Nukedownloads.com: File mirror for
downloads
* [http://www.somara.com] Somara.com: Themes and graphics
* [http://www.nukethemes.com] Nukethemes.com: Themes and graphics
* [http://www.ecomjunk.com] Ecomjunk.com: Addons and modules
* [http://www.nukeaddn.com] Nukeaddn.com: Addons and modules
Communities in Italian language:
* [http://www.spaghettibrain.com] Spaghettibrain.com
* [http://www.phpnuke.it] PHPnuke.it
* [http://www.splatt.it] Splatt.it
* [http://www.nukeitalia.com] Nukeitalia.com
Thanks to the work of these portals and single persons we have more than 500
different modules that may be used to personalize our portal, from the
weather one to the e-commerce, the gallery of images to the chat realized in
flash to the videogames in Java included in the layout of PHP-Nuke. Projects
of particular interest are: [http://www.splatt.it] Splatt.it (Forum for
PHP-Nuke), PHP Proxima[http://www.phpproxima.it] PHP Proxima (visual
management of the layout of PHP-Nuke).
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2.5. Why use PHP-Nuke and not static HTML pages
* Because managing large sites with only static HTML pages is dangerous for
your health.
* Because through the dynamic pages, users can interact (Forum, chat)
* Because through the dynamic pages we can offer value added services
(restricted areas, various services based on user classification...)
* Because the information is more easily catalogued.
* Because with a few PHP pages we recall a lot of information.
* Because keeping the contents up-to-date does not demand particular
technical expertise and can be managed by anyone (by Davis Batistes).
* It is the simplest way to to pull over a complete portal, thanks to its
open source engine, it allows anyone to implement new modules or to
modify and to personalize existing modules. (by Micione, [http://
www.vizzani.net] www.vizzani.net)
* It is very intuitive and easy to learn (by Anonymous)
* It is easy to modify by those who intend to personalize the program (By
Arus)
* It is easy to use by the lesser experts among us.
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Chapter 3. Front end structure: user view
In this chapter we will occupy ourselves, in detail, with all the
functionalities implemented in PHP-Nuke, that is what our portal system can
do and how. We will do this from the part of the visitor, imagining that we
are the one who visits our site and uses its functionality.
We will analyze all the preinstalled modules in the PHP-Nuke distribution and
will give a look also at some very interesting modules that still have not
been included in the official distribution.
Before starting, we should spend two words on how PHP-Nuke is structured;
this system is structured as a 3 column portal, the two lateral ones
including the blocks, the central one displaying the function modules. This
does not mean to say that the structure of our site cannot be modified
completely. The initial skeleton is, favorably, the one to start from in
order to create a super personalized portal. Beyond the 3 columns mentioned
we have also a header (top of page) and a footer (bottom of page).
Blocks:
they are present in the left/right columns of our portal[1] and deliver
functions that are repeated in all pages of the site (e.g. the menu,
banner and login blocks).
Modules:
They are the heart of the page, they appear in the center column and each
one has its own function. For example the news module delivers the
articles, the search module makes an internal search of our site - they
should be imagined as independent pages. They are the "heart" of the page
that we visit (see Figure 3-1).
Figure 3-1. PHP-Nuke Homepage
[homepage]
PHP-Nuke Homepage
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3.1. The preinstalled modules
news:
Born as the heart of PHP-Nuke, it was the obligatory Home Page in
previous versions. In the last versions it is instead possible to define
which modules should appear as the default page. The News module expands
its branches on more pages. The first one we see is a collection of the
latest News published (it is possible , from the configuration panel
[admin->preferences] to choose the number of latest news to be displayed,
say 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30). In the main page only a small initial text of
the news article is published. If the text is too large, it will be
possible to read it whole by pressing the link "Read more". The article
module has many elements that distinguish it from other ones. In the
first place, the title, the topic, that is the main category and is
usually characterized by an image that, if clicked, brings up a selection
of the articles that belong to this topic. We have a second way to
classify the articles, which is to assign them a category they are
supposed to belong (see Figure 3-2)
Figure 3-2. Classifying articles
[category]
Classifying articles
Important IMPORTANT
This category is NOT a subcategory of topics, but rather a
cross-sectional category that is completely independent from
topics. Probably its most important function is to distinguish
between "articles" and other admin-defined classes of news for
which it will be possible to NOT be automatically published on the
start page. "Articles" will always appear on the start news page.
For example, imagine a portal that talks about soccer and it has 3 topics:
* League A
* League B
* League C
We could think of cross-sectional categories like:
* Championship
* Champions League
* Soccer player market
We can have an article that talks about League A/Championship, or of the
Soccer player market League B. Clicking o topic, say League A, we will have a
selection of all the articles that talk about League A, clicking on the
category, Soccer player market, will have a selection of the articles that
independently talk about soccer market that independently of the League being
A, B or C.
At the bottom of the article we find more information about the article: who
inserted it, when & how many times it has been read etc.
Important The counter is incremented only if the "Read more" link has been
clicked. The counter does not increment unless the user clicks
"Read more".
It displays how many more bytes are still to be read, if there have been any
comments on the article and what score has been given to the article by the
readers. It is also possible to print the article in a printer-friendly
format or you can send the link via e-mail to a friend.
Clicking on " Read all " brings us to the page that contains the entire
article and the comments pertaining to it. In this page the user can read the
entire article and interact with it through a multitude of operations.
He/She can cast a vote for the article, thus expressing a judgement on its
validity, can comment on the article or answer to comments inserted from
other users, can follow the links associated with this article, display it in
a printer-friendly format and send the link via e-mail to a friend. You can
also attach a survey to the article.
AvantGO:
It is a very simplified version of the news archive, cretated mainly from
the need to visit the page via a Palm Pilot. AvantGO is a system for
archiving and visualizing the pages on palmtop screens due to the fact
the Palm Pilot has a very small screen and has a low resolution (and even
a low bandwidth connection) so they require simplified pages.
Downloads Module:
This module is deeply branched and manages a file archive (present on our
own or a third party site) offering the user various modes of interaction
(see Figure 3-3).
Figure 3-3. Downloads module
[downloads]
Downloads module
In the main page it is possible to use an internal search engine that
searches for keywords among all the files cataloged. There is also the
possibility to add external links to a file (these files will not be added
immediately, but put in a waiting list until an administrator will approve
them and they become visible). We can also base our selection on which files
were downloaded most, or which ones obtained the highest score. On this page
we can have a list of categories that accompany the files (there may exist
subcategories but in Figure 3-3 there is only 1 category, "Linux Downloads"),
the user is recognized when he/she views the downloads section after their
first visit so if new downloads have been added since the last visit, the
corresponding category will be have a "new" icon beside it.
Once we have entered the desired section, we can download the files that
interest us, cast a judgment vote, report a nonexistent link to the
administrator or see more information regarding the author of the file.
The file list may be ordered by insertion date, judgment or popularityy
(files downloaded most).
Feedback:
Allows the user to send feedback and contact the webmaster of the site.
The user just fills in the appropriate fields which are "Name", "E-Mail"
and then the "Message Text". The system will then format an e-mail
message that will arrive to the webmaster of the site.
Member List:
It displays all the users registered on the site. It is possible to
select the users on the basis of their basic information fields (name,
nickname, personal homepage and e-mail address). It is also possible to
obtain a complete list of all the users and to order it by real name,
e-mail address or homepage.
Private messages:
All the registered users have access to an internal messaging system,
thus being able to exchange messages with each other. In the login box of
each user the number of messages that are archived for this user will be
displayed, and there is a management functionality allowing for replies
or deletions (see Figure 3-4).
Figure 3-4. Private messages
[private_messages]
Private messages
The message that we compose has various parts:
* The Recipient
* The Subject
* The animated icon that will accompany the subject of the message
* The text that can be equipped with emoticons (emotional icons) and an aid
for formatting the message in HTML adding Hyperlinks, emphasized words,
bullet lists etc...
Recommend Us:
This module is so you can send an e-mail to a friend recommending
visiting our PHP-Nuke site. The message that will be sent to the friend
must be configured by the administrator.
Book Reviews:
This module serves as an archive of product/services/site reviews. The
book review must be inserted by the administrator but also from a user (a
book review will need , in this case, be accepted by the administrator)
who, after inserting a short description of the product then may express
his judgment assigning a score to it. It is also possible to insert a
descriptive image. The book reviews are cataloged in alphabetical order
and the selection can be made based on starting letter.
Search Module:
It is the main search engine for PHP-Nuke, it does full text searches on
articles, comments, sections, users and book reviews (see Figure 3-5). It
is possible to make multiple searches (e.g.. an article of a certain
category written by a certain author).
Figure 3-5. Search module
[search]
Search module
Sections:
This module is a classification system like the topics. The articles
inserted in this module do not appear in the news module, they can be
displayed on more than one page and for this reason they are able to
accommodate articles which are big in size. Every section can be
associated with a different image. The article even provides a display
system for printable pages.
Statistics:
The statistics module provides basic statistical information regarding
use of the site. The information varies from the total number of
displayed pages , to the type of browser and operating system used, up to
the number of users that are registered, the version of PHP-Nuke used
etc...(see Figure 3-6)
Figure 3-6. Statistics module
[stats]
Statistics module
Stories archive:
Archives all the articles by month enabling a chronological consultation.
After having chosen the month, the corresponding articles are displayed
with small flags besides them, visualizing the language they were
written. Also in this plane it is possible to see the article in
printable format and to send it to a friend. An inner search engine is
also comprised as well as the display of details regarding the article,
such as:
* number of comments
* number of readings
* score
Submit news:
The users or the simple visitors of the site can propose to the
administrator an article that will then be examined and, if approved,
published. The users do not have all the possibility of classification
that the administrator does, in fact they can only decide the article's
title, the topic, the language and the text. They cannot classify it or
choose if it should appear in the Home Page or not. And they can neither
decide to publish it on a temporary basis.
Surveys:
Enables the administrator to create a survey that will later appear in a
block or in the survey list. The users can vote on this survey (not more
than once in 24 hours), and eventually comment. Moreover it is possible
to display the list of the previous surveys and to consult their final
results.
Top10:
It lists the top 10 active ones of all our portal.
* 10 most read articles
* 10 most commented articles
* 10 most active categories
* 10 most read articles in the special sections
* 10 most voted surveys
* 10 most active authors
* 10 most read book reviews
* 10most downloaded files
* 10 most read pages
Topics:
Lists the main categories of PHP-Nuke. Once we have entered this module,
we will be able, by clicking on the corresponding icon of the topic we
are interested in, to carry out a selection of articles and in automatic
mode, to see all the articles corresponding to this topic. We are also
presented with a small search interface to finish our search in the
chosen context.
WebLinks:
It is a collection of web links. This module has the exact same
functionality as the Download module so there is no need to explain it
any more.
Your Account:
It's the administration console for your "User Profile" (It only works
for registered users), the implemented functions are (see Figure 3-7):
* It changes your info: enables management of your profile by changing your
E-mail, Where you're from, AIM, ICQ, Avatar & Fake E-mail etc...
* It changes your Home: It creates a personalized menu (as a block) for
navigation, the user can put in there whatever he wants (tests, links,
images).
* Setup comments: Configures the display of comments, assigning display
criteria .
* Theme selection: Changes the theme of the site, allowing you to choose
between all available themes.
* Logout/Exit: It lets us exit from our current user profile, cancelling
the cookie.
Figure 3-7. Your account
[your_account]
Your account
We then have a main menu that informs us of how many and which comments we
have inserted and how many stories we have published.
Content:
It is a module that lists all the categories (cross-sectional arguments
to the topics, do you remember?), that lists, in the first instance all
the present categories and once the category is selected, it lists all
enclosed articles emphasizing the publication language.
Encyclopedia:
It is a system for creating one or more word dictionaries. In the first
selection scheme it requires you to enter the dictionary (displaying even
a small flag that indicates the language), after the click we are invited
to choose the letter that corresponds to the searched word or to use the
inner search engine of the encyclopedia, once found it's enough to click
on the word to discover its meaning.
FAQ:
It is an archive of Questions/Answers divided by category that can be
consulted by the user as a first solution to his problems. He can divide
the Questions/Answers by category in order to facilitate the
consultation.
FORUM:
In version 5,6 - 6.0 of PHP-Nuke the Splatt forum is present. We still do
not know if it will be integrated in successive versions to Nuke. I
suggest to use it anyway, since it is a mature application and has an
italian support comunity. The functionality implemented in this forum (on
the user side) are many (see Figure 3-8), the forums are divided by
category, have a dedicated inner search engine, users can associate to
every post (participation in the forum) icons relating to the argument,
cast a vote on a discussion, see various icons according to the degree of
attention degree that a specific discussion has generated, see how many
questions and answers a certain thread has received, see the profile of
that user and many other functions...
Figure 3-8. Forum
[snapshot8]
Forum
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.2. Other non-installed modules
Indy News:
very interesting module that manages the "Attach->File or Image" "
function in every article. In fact, during the phase of an article
insertion, it is possible to enclose the following:
* Image: In this case, inserting a GIF or a JPEG will result in a preview
in the Homepage (the module will display it on the left, on the right
there will be the topics icon), then, by clicking on "read all" (only if
other text is present), or the image itself, it will appear in its
original size.
* Other files: besides images it is possible to enclose also other files
(for well-known filetypes, the corresponding icon wil appear in "read
all", for others there will be a default icon). It is important to
remember, for the attached files, to add a text in the extende text
section, otherwise it will be impossible to display the link link "read
all" that displays in the footer of the article the icon with the file
and download info. The system was originally an adaptation of the
IndyNews module for PHP-Nuke, has been created by the webmaster of [http:
//www.bergamoblog.it] bergamoblog.it for version 5,5, for the version 5.6
of PHP-Nuke the adaptation was done by [http://www.spaghettibrain.com]
Spaghettibrain.com.
Guestbook:
Allows the users to insert greeting messages (like a real guestbook),
archiving their history in a way that, besides inserting new messages, it
is possible to read all the messages of the other users too. Do not
confuse it with the forum!
Chat:
There is a flash chat module that manages user's chatting in real time
without the page refreshing. It is very interesting in that it comes with
skins of various colors, thus giving the administrator the possibility to
choose the one that is most suitable for the site.
Dmoz/ODP:
Integrates the Open Source search engine Dmoz/Open Directory Project to
the inside the PHP-Nuke portal . It is like having an integrated powerful
motor like yahoo in your own graphics and pages.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.3. The preinstalled blocks
Advertising Block:
From this release on we have the possibility to insert our banners also
in the blocks (buttons various of dimensions) being managed as if it were
our own circuiting banner, counting clicks, impressions etc...
Content:
Displays the most active content.
Encyclopedia:
lists all active encyclopedias, clicking the link will bring us directly
inside the list of terms of the chosen encyclopedia.
Forums:
The forums block lists the last 10 posted messages and a search engine
that executes a query on all the posts of the forum.
Last 5 articles:
It lists the last 5 published articles offering information on how many
readings and how many comments have been made.
Last 10 referers:
It lists the sites from which the last 10 visits have arrived.
Ephemerids:
It is a block that manages the recurrent events. It lists the events
happened on the same date but in the previous years.
Reviews:
It lists in a block the book reviews of the day.
Sections Articles:
lists the active sections. Clicking one we will get to the corresponding
article list.
Top 10 Downloads:
It lists the 10 most downloaded files.
Top 10 Links:
It lists the 10 most clicked links in the archives.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 4. Back end structure: administrator view
The administration page is reached by calling the page admin.php
(www.yoursite.com/admin.php) and carrying out the login procedure inserting
your user and password. (Remember that the normal users should not login from
the page admin.php but from the appropriate module).
Once logged in, the administrator finds an interface that lists all the areas
which can be acted upon (see Figure 4-1). If the administrator is a
superadmin, he may work on all the areas of the site, if instead he is an
administrator with limited powers he will see the links relative to the areas
on which he is allowed to work. Through the preferences configuration we will
be able to decide whether to display icons or just a textual interface.
According to our choice either a textual or an icon administration interface
will appear. Figure 4-1 shows the interface with the icons, as you can see.
Figure 4-1. Administration panel
[snapshot9]
Administration panel
Remember that when you write new administration modules you must also create
the corresponding icon, otherwise, when in visual administration mode, only
the textual link corresponding to your module will appear and you won't be
able to click it.
In order to set up the graphical administration mode you must go to the
preferences section and set up in "graphical options" the "graphical menu in
administration" option to "yes".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.1. The administration functions
Function "add article":
It is the function that adds a new article to the News module. The
options offered are many and will be analyzed here for one (see Figure
4-2):
* Title: inserts the news title.
* Topic: Determines which Topic will be associated with the article.
* Category:Determines which Category will be associated with the article.
* Publish in the Homepage: if this option is not selected, then the article
will be displayed only in the topics or the relative categories and not
in the main page of the news module .
* Activate comments: If it's not activated the users cannot comment on the
article.
* Language: If in the preferences we have activated the multilingual
option, we will be asked in which language we will publish the article.
(e.g. if I publish an article in english, I will see it displayed only if
I click on the small english flag in the languages block and so on...).
* Story Text: It is the text that appears in the preview.
* Extended Text: It is the text that appears when we click on "read all".
* Programmed article: The administrator is given the ability to choose when
the article should be published, deciding on the publishing date and
hour. It is not a neccesary function but it is very useful.
* Preview or send: Depending on the choice made here determines whether the
article will be displayed in preview mode or directly published.
* Survey: It is possible to attach a survey to a specific article. In the
case that this option is activated, when the reader clicks on "read all",
a survey block like the one shown in the screenshot will appear.
Figure 4-2. Articles
[snapshot11]
Articles
Function "Backup DB":
It is the function that allows us to create a backup file that contains
both structure and content of the PHP-Nuke database. This is very useful
in case our data gets lost. Once we click on "Backup DB", we will have to
wait for the server to create the file. Waiting time varies from a few
seconds to some minutes in the case of a large database. Once created, we
will be asked to download the file. Remember to keep your backup in a
safe place!
Function "Blocks":
It's a very important function because it allows us to control the left
and right columns of our portal. The scheme is presented with a list of
the blocks that we have created, we can then activate, deactivate or edit
them changing their position and order and assigning them permissions. We
can in fact decide if a block should be visible by all, only by the
registered users, or only the administrator. We can also make the block
visible only in a specific language.
Note Please note
This info is also present in Chapter 8
The PHP-Nuke blocks can be of 3 different types:
* RSS/RDF: They are blocks that capture news from other sites that are put
at our disposal, the files are in a standard format suitable for reading
the text contained in them. (For example the site [http://
www.spaghettibrain.com] Spaghettibrain.com gives news to other sites).
* Blocks of content: They are blocks which we insert simple HTML or text
that will be displayed inside the block (see the following example)
* Blocks of files: They are PHP scripts that execute predetermined commands
(see the following paragraph)
In order to create a new block that will be added to the list of available
blocks, we must scroll down the page and position ourselves on "add block".
The title field is a common element for all and will be compiled in.
* If we want to create a RSS/RDF block we must choose the news source from
the available list or add one by clicking on ??setup??. In this case we
will supply the address of the file to read (this info generally will be
supplied by the webmaster of the site from which we capture the news, or,
if it is a site created with PHP-Nuke, simply by asking for the file
backend.php of that site). The other fields will all be compiled in with
the exception of ??filename?? and ??Content??.
* If we want to create a block of simple text instead, we will omit the
field ??RSS/RDF file URL?? and will complete ??Content?? instead
(Omitting ??filename??).
* If instead we want to include the PHP files that interface with a
database or perform particular functions, then we will omit ??Content??
and ??RSS/RDF?? and will choose between the available files the one that
will create our block. (If you want more info on how to create blocks,
see Chapter 8).
Remember that before publishing a block a preview will be shown to us.
Content Manager:
This function allowes us to add new categories and new content inside the
content section. It is very similar to the articles but with less
functions. A noteworthy feature is the possibility to add the tag
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
in order to create a multipage article.
Downloads:
It creates categories, subcategories and adds files to the download area.
For security reasons, the system does not allow file uploads via HTTP,
only their linking through their HTTP address. If for example the file
files.zip is found in the directory files of our site, we would have to
link it as www.oursite.com/files/file.zip. This allows us to link
external resources also.
Edit Administrators:
Enables us to add new administrators, defining their access levels.
Besides having a super administrator it is in fact possible to activate
only partial functions for the various administrators.
Edit Users:
From here it is possible to manually add new users and to modify existing
ones, choosing their profile by typing the nickname in the appropriate
form.
Encyclopedia:
Allows the creation of multiple word lists (choosing also the language),
after having created an encyclopedia we can proceed to the insertion of
terms.
Ephemerids:
Allows the insertion of recurrent events choosing the date and inserting
a description.
FAQ:
Allows the creation of the main FAQ categories and all related questions/
answers.
Splatt Forum:
The management of the forum is divided in 4 areas:
* Preferences: It manages the characteristics of the forum (For security
reasons it's advisable to deactivate the option to mail in HTML).
* Categories and forum: defines the categories, the forums included in
them, the moderators of every forum, levels of access etc... For a forum
to be visible, you MUST activate at least one moderator otherwise the
forum won't show up!
* Ranks: defines the attention thresholds for the forum. Upon reception of
the nth post, aproppriate images will be attached to attract proper
attention of the visitors.
* Users: moderator management through a complete list of the registered
users.
HTTP Referrers:
It displays the origin of the last accesses to the site.
Messages:
It creates a central block in the Home Page in order to send selective
messages to the users. The messages can be sent to only registered users,
to non-registered users, to the administrator or one may carry out a
selection by language.
Modules:
Allows the management of the modules installed. The modules can be
activated, deactivated or be assigned read permissions. A module can be
world-readable, readable only by the registered users, or only the
administrator.
Newsletter:
the PHP-Nuke administrator can send a newsletter to the registered users
who have consented to receive them or send them to all the registered
users. Attention to spam!
Optimize DB:
Optimizes the data increasing database speed.
Preferences:
This subject will be treated in Section 4.2.
Book Reviews:
It allows us to insert book reviews. In every book review it is possible
to cast a vote, a link relative to the subject and finally an image that
represents the content.
Section Manager:
it manages the sections and contents thereof. It is possible to associate
an image to the section subject, just as it is in the topics. It is
possible to add articles to the sections selecting the aproppriate
category through a radio button, to divide long texts using the tag and to edit or cancel already added sections.
Articles:
Manages articles inserted by third parties. It is the moderation area of
the News module that we have already analyzed in this section.
Survey/Polls:
Creates a new survey for the site, edits or cancels old ones. It is
possible to insert up to 10 different answers to every survey. In the
context of the creation of the survey it is possible, on the same page,
to publish a news article that announces its creation.
Topics:
Allows you to create new topics and the association, through a pop-up
menu, of corresponding images.
Links:
Allows us to edit links published by others, create categories for
archiving the links, eliminate links, see user messages informing us of
any broken links through an interface very similar to the downloads
section and add new links.
Logout/Exit:
Exits from the administration area rendering the cookie invalid. It is
good practice to login logout after having finished working with
PHP-Nuke. For security reasons.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.2. The Preferences Page
Here are the parameters needed for the configuration of the config.php file
through the admin/preferences area:
* Site name: It corresponds to the [http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/
global.html#adef-title] title tag, it is what appears up in the right bar
of the browser. It is very important for the [http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/
appendix/notes.html#h-B.4] search engines.
* Site URL: It is the internet address of your site.
* Logo: It is the logo of your site. In standard themes and themes not
modified much it is the Logo that appears up on the left.
* Slogan: It is equivalent to the [http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/
global.html#edef-META] description tag, it's also very important for the
[http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/appendix/notes.html#h-B.4] search engines.
* Beginning date of the site: It's the date that appears in the statistics
module.
* Administrator e-mail : it is the e-mail which will receive the
notifications for article insertions by third parties and the mails from
the "contact us" module.
* Articles in Top Page: Specifies the number of news articles that can be
displayed in the main page of the news module.
* Articles in Home: Specifies the number of news articles that can be
displayed in the home page of the site (if the news module is the main
one).
* Stories in old articles box: Specifies the number of news articles that
can be displayed in the old articles box.
* Activate ultramode: specifies if other sites can take news titles from
our site.
* Allow anonymous to post : Specifies whether anonymous users can write
comments.
* Default theme: defines the default theme of the site.
* Select language: defines the default language of the site.
* local time format: defines the format of the local time (Depends on the
server, if it is running linux, this is controlled in [http://
www.debian.org/doc/manuals/intro-i18n/ch-locale.en.html] /usr/share/
locale)
* activate the multilanguage characteristics: choose whether the site
should support a multilingual functionality or not
* display the small flags in place of the list: if the multilingual option
is activated then this decides whether the block should display the small
state flags in place of a list of language names.
* activate banners : sets up the option to use banner rotation on the site.
* For the footer of the page, imagine we have to insert 3 texts in a table
that is 100% wide and positioned centrally:
+ Page Footer Line 1: first text to insert
+ Page Footer Line 2: second text to insert
+ Page Footer Line 3: third text to insert
* Backend title: The title that will appear in the file from which other
sites get our newsfeed.
* Backend language: language for the newsfeed file.
* Notify new insertions via e-mail: It defines whether the administrator
gets an e-mail when a user inserts a news article.
* E-mail address to send the message: e-mail to which the notification
message will be sent.
* E-mail subject:
* E-mail message: notification text (e.g. "you have received a new
article").
* E-mail account (From): who has sent the message.
* Moderation type: chooses whether a moderation should be set up for the
comments or not.
* Comment limits in Bytes: sets up the maximum size for the comments.
* Default anonymous user name: assigns a name to the persons who chose to
remain unregistered.
* Graphical administration menu: sets up whether to have icons or text in
the administration area.
* Minimal length for the user's password: for security reasons it is
advisable to set up a rather long password.
* Activate referring HTTP: whether statistics regarding the origin of the
visits should be gathered.
* How many referrers you want maximally: the maximum number of statistics
pertaining to the origin of the visits (max 2000).
* Activate comments in surveys: Whether comments are allowed in the surveys
or not.
* Activate comments in articles: Whether comments are allowed in the
articles or not.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 5. How to install PHP-Nuke
The screenshots regarding the installation procedure, contrary to those of
the other chapters, refer to the Windows platform. This is so in an effort to
reduce the number of misunderstandings and ulterior help requests from the
Windows community. (Judging from the feedback we receive, the Linux and
FreeBSD community seem to be more able to deal with installation problems in
this respect).
For the installation of [http://www.php.net] PHP+ [http://www.mysql.org]
MySQL+ [http://www.apache.org] Apache, [http://www.phpmyadmin.net/]
PHPMyAdmin etc. refer to Chapter 11 where you will find notes and links to
useful tools in order to emulate PHP-Nuke on your client.
These instructions are valid for all PHP-Nuke versions up to 5,6, from 6
onwards the installation procedure will be much simpler.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1. Installation process
5.1.1. Download
Well... there is little to say here, it suffices to go to a site that holds
the files and download them. There is only a small remark to make: if you use
Windows and download a version comprised of a file with the ending tar.gz, do
not worry, your [http://www.winzip.com] Winzip supports it without problems.
Once downloaded, extract it and "throw" all its contents in a folder you
created for this purpose and you call "Nuke5" or whatever ( sites from which
you can download PHP-Nuke are: [http://phpnuke.org] phpnuke.org, [http://
www.spaghettibrain.com] www.spaghettibrain.com etc.).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1.2. Upload through FTP
Well, now what remains is just to upload the files to the interior of our
main server directory that resides on our provider.
Caution Attention!
It is highly recommended, prior to any installation steps, to verify
that your provider supports [http://www.php.net] PHP and [http://
www.mysql.org] MySQL.
Tip Tip
Don't upload all extracted files. After extraction, you will find a
structure similar to the one depicted in Figure 5-1.
Figure 5-1. PHP-Nuke 6.0 file structure
[snapshot12]
PHP-Nuke 6.0 file structure
You don't need to upload all the files from the folder, in the main
directory of your web presence you will only need to upload the contents
of the html folder (so just do a doubleclick on the html folder and
upload everything that is inside it).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1.3. Formulation of the file permissions
Important Important
This process only really applies if your PHP-Nuke will be installed
on a Linux/Unix server, if instead you will install it on Windows
operating systems you don't have to do anything.
Setting up permissions on files serves the purpose of having them execute
only certain operations (write, execute etc.) when called. Setting them up
correctly is important for PHP-Nuke to operate in its full functionality.
The permissions to give are the following (for the base permissions, see
Section 10.1 in the context of security):
* Files: 666
* Directories: 777
With [http://www.ftpplanet.com/ftpresources/ftpmain.htm] WS_FTP you must
select the files or folders on which you want to impose the permissions and,
with the right mouse key, to select the option CHMOD.
Once you set up the permissions on all folders and all files, this procedure
will cost you some time, but it is very important to carry out. Moreover, you
will have to do it every time you insert a new file or module to your
PHP-Nuke.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2. How to install PHP-Nuke through PHPMyadmin
5.2.1. What Is PHPMyadmin
[http://www.phpmyadmin.net/] PHPMyAdmin is an visual system for the
management of a [http://www.mysql.org] MySQL database (see Figure 5-2). It is
written in [http://www.php.net] PHP and serves to display the contents of the
databases on the server (or client) on which MySQL is installed. Through this
interface you can create new databases, modify existing ones and modify the
contents of single fields.
Figure 5-2. PHPMyAdmin start screen
[myadmin1]
PHPMyAdmin start screen
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2.2. How to install the DB of PHP-Nuke with PHPMyadmin
Clicking on the left bar, depending on the database you selected, you will
see a list menu coming up, showing the structure of the database (and, on the
same time, the central page will show the enlarged structure of the
database), with a series of options, all of them in the bottom of the page
(see Figure 5-3). It is these options we are interested in when installing
PHP-Nuke.
Figure 5-3. PHPMyAdmin table selection
[myadmin2]
PHPMyAdmin table selection
What you have to do now, is to click on "browse" and go search for the .sql
file that contains the instructions that build the structure of the PHP-Nuke
database (see Figure 5-4). Once found, it suffices to click on "Go" and the
database will be installed. Of course, if there are errors, they will be
reported at the end of the installation procedure. And of course, the same
holds for the message "operation succeeded".
Figure 5-4. PHPMyAdmin: SQL query
[myadmin3]
PHPMyAdmin: SQL query
Tip Tip
Other options of PHPMyAdmin that are not relative to the installation of
PHP-Nuke can be found in the [http://www.spaghettibrain.com/modules.php?
name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=1] tutorial published on
www.spaghettibrain.com and in Section 11.3.
Figure 5-5. PHPMyAdmin: table data
[myadmin4]
PHPMyAdmin: table data
Figure 5-6. PHPMyAdmin: database dump
[myadmin5]
PHPMyAdmin: database dump
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2.3. The config.php file
Ok, the last thing that remains to do before starting with the management of
your site, is to configure the file config.php This is important because it
sets up a connection between the PHP files of PHP-Nuke and the MySQL database
that manages it.
There is only a few parameters to configure. When you open the file
"config.php" you will see the following near the top:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|$dbhost = "localhost"; (1) |
|$dbuname = "root"; (2) |
|$dbpass = ""; (3) |
|$dbname = "nuke"; (4) |
|$system = "1"; (5) |
|$prefix = "nuke"; (6) |
|$user_prefix = "nuke"; |
|$dbtype = "MySQL"; |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
(1) In place of "localhost" you will have to put the host/server that the
database is installed on.
(2) In place of "root" you must put your username.
(3) You will have to insert your password here.
(4) In place of "nuke" you will have to insert the name of your database
here.
(5) Leave it to 0 if on Linux/Unix systems, put 1 if on a Windows server)
(6) I recommend this to be left to its default value, "nuke", is the prefix
that goes in front of the name of every database table.
Let's do an example:
* Host DB: 212.110.12.297
* User DB: Pippo
* Password DB: Topolino
* Database Name: Orazio
* Operating System Used: Linux (what else!!! :-) )
The file config.php should then look like:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|$dbhost = "212.110.12.297"; |
|$dbuname = "Pippo"; |
|$dbpass = "Topolino"; |
|$dbname = "Orazio"; |
|$system = 0; |
|$prefix = "nuke"; |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Caution Attention!
This is case sensitive! Remember to use The Capital Letters!!! On
Linux systems, if you write a user name or a password without taking
care of letter case, the system will not allow you to log in.
Ok, we are done, the only thing that remains to do is to enter the
administration section (www.yoursite.com/admin.php). The very first time you
will log in using ??God?? as username and ??Password?? as password. I
recommend you to change these as soon as possible.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2.4. Resources
If you are looking for PHP-Nuke hosting, [http://www.spaghettibrain.com]
Spaghettibrain.com has custom offers for you... give us a visit! [http://
www.spaghettibrain.com] Spaghettibrain.com is the italian support site for
PHP-Nuke, there you will find modules, security patches, support forums and a
lot more. Come for a tour soon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 6. Architecture and structure
The structure of PHP-Nuke is organized in to modules, all the files are
managed by other files that are located in the PHP-Nuke root directory and
include, according to the parameters passed to them, the intended module.
These tasks are carried out from only 3 pages:
* index.php : In order to display the main page
* modules.php : In order to include the internal modules.
* admin.php : In order to include the administration interface.
It's not possible to call a module by calling a direct path to it. This is so
in order to make installation easier, render the graphics management more
independent (otherwise we would have to change the path of the images each
time we position ourselves in an internal directory), have only a few files
in the root directory and render the system more secure.
Everything is being called, as I said, through parameters (strings) passed to
the "modules.php" file which specify which files are to be included. If for
example we want to call the Topics module, the string to be passed should be
[http://www.yoursite.com/modules.php?name=Topics] http://www.yoursite.com/
modules.php?name=Topics
The command that is sent this way is "includes in the page created by
modules.php the output of the file index.php that is found in the folder
modules/Topics/".
The other files present in the PHP-Nuke root directory are:
* auth.php: Manages authentication through the cookies.
* mainfile.php: Contains all the necessary functions for the management of
PHP-Nuke
* header.php: manages the variables that are related to the header
(inclusion of metatags, Javascript...)
* footer.php: variables related to the footer.
* backend.php: manages the output of the news that can be captured from
other sites
* ultramode.txt: ditto
* robots.txt: contains instructions for the search engines informing them
which folders not to index
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.1. Directory structure
Admin:
Contains 4 subdirectories (links, language, case, modules) that manage
the various administration modules. The folder that accommodates the
operating files is modules/admin/ .
Blocks:
Contains all the block files for all of our available blocks.
Images:
Contains all the images relating to PHP-Nuke, for example in the folder
"topics" we will find archived the images of the topics that will appear
in the news, in "banners" all banners in rotation etc...
In includes
are all the files that are necessary to particular management situations,
these files do not work independently but are included in other files,
mainly in mainfile.php and header.php. The files are:
* counter.php : serves to identify the users based on the operating system
used, the browser, the page of origin, date of the visit...
* javascript.php : includes all necessary Javascript (if you need
particular Javascript code, include it in this file).
* meta.php : manages the keywords to pass to the search engines and other
parameters of the header. It is an optimal system for learning how to
create keywords and position the site with a good ranking in the search
engines.
* my_header.php : manages the disclaimer message in the homepage.
* sql_layer.php : serves to manage the database abstraction layer.
Transforms SQL instructions to the language of the chosen database.
Remember that PHP-Nuke can manage various databases.
Language:
contains translation files for the basic PHP-Nuke module. The language
file naming convention is lang-english.php.
Caution Attention!
The translation of the modules must be inserted in the appropriate
folders (modules/languange) and not appended to these files, as it
was done till now.
Modules:
The modules of PHP-Nuke comprise all the functionality that one can add
to it.. In the Modules folder we insert the folders of every new module.
Themes:
Here we add the graphical interfaces known as "Themes", every folder has
the name of the corresponding theme and contains a main file called
theme.php and all other support files.
Upgrades:
contains only the files that serve to upgrade the system from a previous
version to a newer one..
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.2. Main page management
The file "index.php" is very simple one, it has the task to load the main
PHP-Nuke page the module that was chosen as the default one to appear in the
main page of our site.
Here in detail is what happens when the page "index.php" gets loaded:
* the mainfile.php is included,
* a database query is made in order to see which module was set up as the
default one,
* the origin of the visitor is checked (if he comes from a site that links
us, this fact will be inserted in a table in the database).
Various checks are also made and error messages are defined in case the
connection to the database fails. This avoids (in part) the error messages
from the PHP preprocessor. Even if problems come up, the page will be
presented in a standard design and the error message will be definable from
the inside.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.3. Module management
For reasons of order, the modules are managed through the files present in
the subdirectories that contain them, every module has its own folder in the
interior of the folder "modules".
In order to be loaded, the module files get included in the modules.php file
by passing it the aproppriate parameters. The main page of each module must
be called index.php, the other possibly pages possibly present in the module
will have an additional variable in the inside of parameter strings by which
they are called..
For example in the AvantGo module (see ) in order to load the index.php file,
it is enough to pass the module name to the parameter string (by default, the
file that will be searched for is index.php):
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|modules.php?name=AvantGo |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
If we instead wanted to call a page other than the default index.php (say,
print.php), the string we will have to pass is :
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|modules.php?name=AvantGo&file=print |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
that is the file variable with a value (print) that corresponds to the name
of the file we want to load without the .php extension.
Inside the folder modules/nameofmodule there is also a subfolder called
"language". In this fashion we manage in a simple and immediate way the
multilanguage functionality inside the modules.
The modules.php file works this way:
* Includes mainfile.php
* Verifies whether the module is active or not
* Verifies whether the string passes a file name different from index.php
* Verifies the permissions of the module (whether everybody can see it, or
only registered users, or only the administrator).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.4. Administration management
Admin:
contains 4 subfolders (links, language, case, modules) that manage the
various administration modules. The folder that contains the operating
files is admin/modules, here we have the files that execute the different
admin operations.
The folder admin/links instead says which admin module has to be called and
puts a link in the admin area for that module.
Example (administration module for the FAQ):
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|if (($radminsuper==1) OR ($radminfaq==1)) { |
|adminmenu("admin.php?op=FaqAdmin ", "" _FAQ." ", "faq.gif"); |
|} |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
This module:
* Verifies that administration rights are present (this module may be
managed by either the superadmin or an administrator that has been
qualified to do so on the FAQ level),
* passes a case (op=FaqAdmin) that says to the admin.php file (that
includes all the admin modules) which module to load, associates a value
in order to translate the term "faq" and associates an icon for the
visual administration (faq.gif).
The folder admin/case instead serves to define which module to use in certain
cases. This is important when, using the same admin file, one needs to carry
out different operations according to the case passed:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Case1 = insert |
|Case2 = cancel |
|etc... |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
In fact it says which module to load on verification of a case. For example,
in the module faq the cases are many, let's consider only the last 2:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|case "FaqAdmin": |
|case "FaqCatGo": |
|include ("admin/modules/adminfaq.php"); |
|break; |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Both cases load the file adminfaq.php but they make it carry out different
operations. The first one loads the file in the default scheme, the second
one instead gives the O.K. for the insertion of a new category. This happens
through a string like
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|admin.php?op=FaqAdmin |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
in the first case and
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|admin.php?op=FaqCatGo |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
in the second.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 7. Customising PHP-Nuke themes
7.1. Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
Making your own personal graphical theme for your site is very important so
that you don't have another PHP-Nuke clone, if your site looks the same as
other sites it dosn't make you, the Webmaster look very professional.
Personalising the portal starts from the graphical side of things. Knowing
how to put your hands on a PHP-Nuke theme means being able to play with all
of the graphical elements that we can use. The example theme we will use in
this chapter is the NukeNews theme, made by Francisco Burzi for PHP-Nuke.
It's a theme composed of alot of HTML files included in theme.php. This is a
very good solution that permits you to manage the graphical part of the theme
through an editor like DreamWeaver using the least amount of PHP code.
The NukeNews theme is structured in this way:
* theme.php: It manages the main functions of the variables for the
background colors.
* tables.php: it manages the functions opentable(); and closetable();
* header.html: It manages the header for your site
* footer.html It manages the footer for your site
* blocks.html It manages the blocks
* center_right.html Manages the outlay of the page.
* center_left.htmlManages the layout of the page.
* story_home.htmlManages the layout of the page.
* story_page.htmlManages the layout of the page.
These files are included in the functions specified in theme.php We then have
a style sheet called style.css (style/style.css) included in the header.html
file in our theme folder. For convention, the style sheet must always be
called style.css and must always be contained in one folder called "style"
inside of our theme folder. The images generally are grouped in a folder
called "images" that is always found in our themes folder.
The folder structure of the NukeNews topic will be :
* themes/NukeNews
* themes/NukeNews/style/
* themes/NukeNews/images/
Always remember that case is important, you must respect the difference
between UPPERCASE and lowercase for compatibility with any Unix systems.
The theme.php file is the heart of all PHP-Nuke's graphical management.
The HTML file inclusion does not happen in all kind's of themes, some
programmers include all the HTML in the theme.php file, but including it
separately, solves many problems such as HTML formatting, that would
otherwise be included in the PHP code. It also gives us the possibility of
editing all with a visual editor (WYSIWYG).
The theme.php is the file that creates the managing functions of all of
PHP-Nuke's components (header, footer, central parts, block...).
The themeheader() function manages the site header. It is composed of various
tables that form the heading, and sometimes also defines some elements of the
body tag that are not included in the style sheet and the variables that are
placed inside the included html files.
Example:
The variable $theuser is defined inside of the themeheader() function and
is then recalled in the header.html file in a table:
Code in theme.php (that defines the $theuser variable)
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|if ($username == "Anonymous") { |
|$theuser = " Create an account"; |
|} else { |
|$theuser = " Welcome $username!"; |
|} |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Code in header.html (that visualises the $theuser variable)
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|| < font class="content" color="#363636 " > |
| $theuser | |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The themefooter(); function manages the footer of our site.
It has some interesting elements we have to analyse:
First of all, it identifies if the visualised page has got the $index
variable set equal to 1, in this case we will also insert the right blocks on
our page, but if instead $index==0 then the right blocks will not appear on
our page.
It then defines the footer messages (which are captured from config.php) and
inserts all them in a variable that is recalled from the footer.html file.
The function themeindex() manages the news in Home Page and formats them
adding elements according to various cases using the function "if". It also
includes the story_home.htm file.
The function themearticle() instead manages the internal news page (that we
can see by pushing on "Read more..."; remember that the layout part in this
case is managed including the story_page.htm file, but the blocks that must
be included (i.e. the article's survey, correlated links etc.) are defined by
the news module.
The function themesidebox() instead manages the layout of the box that we
create or that we find already made (see Chapter 8), it too includes a file
called blocks.htm that defines the style and the layout.
We have ignored an element of the file theme.php. These are the variables
that format the text, some of them are inserted in css (the style sheet) but
others are instead defined at the beginning of the theme.php file.
Let's see the variables from the NukeNews theme:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|$bgcolor1 = "# efefef"; |
|$bgcolor2 = "# cfcfbb"; |
|$bgcolor3 = "# efefef"; |
|$bgcolor4 = "# cfcfbb"; |
|$textcolor1 = "# 000000"; |
|$textcolor2 = "# 000000"; |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
As you see the expression values of these variables are in decimal format.
Define your site colours - $bgcolor2 is generally used for table edges as you
can see in the function opentable(), $bgcolor1 is used for table background.
The others two background variables use the same criteria. $textcolor1 and
$textcolor2 are used to format the text colour.
Now we have to examine what is included in the tables.php file. This file
creates 4 functions (opentable(); closetable(); opentable2(); closetable2();)
that include HTML tags that open and close tables in a predefined way.
It is very easy to use when creating modules (see Chapter 9) , you don't have
to rewrite the HTML every time you want to create a table but it's enough
with the following syntax:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|opentable(); |
|echo "Content of the table"; |
|closetable(); |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
In this way you've created a table in a fast and effective way. But how is
this function structured? We will examine first opentable(); then closetable
();
Note Please note
These are php functions so you have to respect the HTML syntax inside
php adding / before every " (ie align="left" must be written as align=\
"left\")
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|function OpenTable() { |
|global $bgcolor1, $bgcolor2; |
|echo "< tr >< td > \n "; |
|echo "< table width=\"100% \" border=\"0 \ "cellspacing=\"1 \" cellpadding=\"8 \ "bgcolor=\"$bgcolor1 \" >< tr >< td > \n "; |
|} |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The syntax is very simple, isn't it?
* The function is opened
* Necessary variables are called ($bgcolor1, $bgcolor2)
* We open a table 100% wide and we define the background colours for it
* Open Line, Open Column
* We insert a new table 100% wide (for the edges)
* The width and height characteristics are defined.
* line column
We stop on the column because it's here we will insert the table content (In
fact opentable is where we start from to close this table!)
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|function CloseTable() { |
|echo "
\n"; |
|} |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
In fact...
* The function is opened
* You close Column, You close Line
* You close Inner Table
* You close Column, You close Line
* You close External Table
Its easy to construct HTML functions with PHP, isnt it?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.2. Modifying the HTML template
7.2.1. Example creation of HTML file to include in the theme
We will not analyse the HTML syntax of all the files, I think it's better
that you understand the principles that are used and that you learn a few
tricks that allow you to use a visual editor such as DreamWeaver.
Example:
The block is created in this way:
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
|< td align="left" > |
| $$title |
|
|
|
| |
|< br > |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
As you see, we create a table of fixed width (in our case 150) and we assign
it some colours (for the background etc...). We also assign two variables
($title and $content) that will, once included in theme.php, load the title
and the content of the block. It would have been useful, for a code cleaning
reason, to define background values in the css tables instead.
To have all the necessary cases to get the conclusions of this chapter and to
write a pair of rules, we have to analyse a very simple module that includes
a case we have still not mentioned, the images management:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The analysed code is a spacer that adds a space of 15 pixels, but where do we
go to recover the image? Which path do we have to assign it? Remember that
the theme.php file is included in root, so the image path must start from
root to the indicated theme. The path to the image "pixel.gif" is "themes/
NukeNews/images/pixel.gif"
Caution Attention!
When you add images in an automatic way by using a visual editor, the
path will be only images/image.gif, and you will have to correct it
by hand adding the correct path.
Another device is to assign, in theme.php, is a variable to the name of the
theme to make it independent from eventual changes of the folder name. So for
variable $nameoftheme = " the NukeNews " the image route syntax will be:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.3. Theme construction: the rules to follow
Considering that the example is always on NukeNews, I suggest you always use
this theme as an example, by using the HTML template without directly
inserting too many tags in the PHP code, you save time and increase the sites
stylistic effect by easily making changes across your site.
1. When you add images in an automatic way by using a visual editor, the
path will be only images/image.gif, and you have to correct it by hand
with the right path.
2. You can insert variables in the HTML that will then be called by PHP - it
is important that they are inserted in the global part of the function
that will include the file.
3. The visual editor has the defect to open and close the tables, correcting
what it thinks is an error. Pay attention because sometimes, in the html
files we use, a table is not closed because it will be closed by the
successive html file. For example, as often happened, DreamWeaver would
close a header by making a mistake in the tables. The header must be
closed in the following way:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| | |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
Where this table is that one that includes the right blocks.
4. Try to validate the code as much as possible and to use the style sheets
as much you can. In this way you will save a lot of time when you will
modify colors, fonts etc... In order to validate the code go to
[www.w3c.org] www.w3c.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 8. Creating blocks
8.1. The characteristics of the various types of blocks
There are 3 different types of PHP-Nuke blocks:
* RSS/RDF: They capture news that's available from other sites in standard
reading format, i.e. text (For example the site [www.spaghettibrain.com]
spaghettibrain has a lot of news that are at other sites' disposal).
* Blocks of contents: blocks in which we insert simple text or HTML text
that will be then displayed inside the block (See following example)
* Blocks of files: They are PHP scripts that execute fixed commands (see
Section 8.2)
In this paragraph we will see a simple example of how to insert the links and
the text in a text block. If you already know a little HTML there is no point
in following this example.
We suppose you want to insert a block with text and a link to 3 different
sites:
The Webmaster who wrote this book manages the following sites:
* [http://www.spaghettibrain.com] spaghettibrain.com
* [http://www.spaghettiopen.com] spaghettiopen.com
* [http://www.spaghettipython.com] spaghettipython.com
The text will be formatted in this way in order to be inserted in the block
(see Figure 8-1):
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| webmaster who writes this book manages the following sites:
|
|spaghettibrain.com |
|claudioerba.com |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Figure 8-1. Block example
[snapshot15]
Block example
Some Small HTML lessons:
It is for bold text, it opens a tag. All words that we write after this
tag will be bold until (which closes the tag).
It is for a page break, it does not need to be closed.
SiteName
is used to open the http://siteyouwant.com.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2. How to create a new block
To create a block of the third type, i.e. a php script that interfaces with
the database and extrapolates the data, first of all we have to understand
how these blocks are structured. They are contained in a folder called
blocks, the name of the block must be block-blockname.php. It is very
important all blocks start with "block-" . Every block in which the name will
start with block- will be included in the screen of the blocks that can be
activated. We will find in the blocks administration menu all the available
blocks in the file_name drop-down list. If not assigned by the administrator,
the name will be the same that follows block- We can't use break spaces in a
block name, they must be replaced by using underscore _ . All the blocks that
will respect these rules will be inserted in the blocks admin menu.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.1. How to create a block, theoretical approach:
You have to follow these rules when creating a block:
* In every block you create you have to insert the following code at the
beginning:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|if (eregi("block-Name_of_Block.php", $PHP_SELF)) { |
|Header("Location: index.php"); |
|die(); |
|} |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
By using this code you protect the file avoiding users approaching it
directly from the blocks folder, and the block will be displayed only
when selected from your site.
* In the blocks you can include everything you want, Perl, java, php, flash
etc...
* All the block output must have a value that can be obtained from the
variable $content.
Remember that you have a limited amount of space in the block, pay special
attention to the layout!
Warning Warning
In order to have W3C standard compatible blocks, Francisco Burzi
says:
"To respect the W3c standards for HTML 4.01 Transitional, it is
very important that you replace all "instances of &" in the URL
by the tag "& "
For example the URL:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
must be written:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
and don't use, for example, the tag "li" (used to create a list), but
leave that in the style sheet (CSS) which will make it for you.
The background for the tables and font etc., are better left to the style
sheet (CSS).
We will now see how to construct a block starting from the beginning.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.2. How to create a block, a practical example
We will make a very simple block that shows the pages visited in our site the
day before. We'll have a single query and a single value, in order to make
things easier. Our block is called "hits", so the complete name of the block
will be block-hits.php
First of all, we open the php tag
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Our complete script will be :
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 9. Creating modules
9.1. Module structure
The PHP-Nuke modules are PHP-written applications that manage the central
part of the site. For example, the "News", "Forum", "Members List" etc. are
all modules. Each module, based on it's complexity, is structured using one
part for the user's and another for the administrator, in this case there are
some contents we have to modify. It's all managed from the modules.php file
which alone, carries out the job of authentication and management of the
access rights on that module. The modules.php file checks and verifies if the
module was activated or not, and verifies the access rights. This saves us a
lot of work because we don't have to insert these controls in every module we
create.
We refer you to what is written in Section 6.3 to be more exhaustive.
For example in the avantgo module, in order to load the index.php file, it's
enough to pass the module name to the parameter string, the file that will be
searched for is index.php.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|modules.php?name=AvantGo |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
If instead we wanted to call a page different from the default index.php
(say, print.php), the string we will have to pass is :
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|modules.php?name=AvantGo & file=print |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
That is the file variable with a value (print) that corresponds to the name
of the file we want to load without the .php extension.
Inside of the folder modules/nameofmodule there is also a subfolder called
"language". In this fashion we manage in a simple and immediate way the
multilanguage functionality inside the modules.
The rows modules.php work in this way:
* It includes the mainfile.php
* Verifies if the module is active
* Verifies whether the string passes a file name different from index.php
* Verifies the permissions of the module (whether everybody can see it, or
only registered users, or only the administrator).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.2. Creating fully compatible modules: the rules to follow
For people who have a base knowledge of the PHP language it is very simple to
construct a module. Generally to create a PHP-Nuke module means:
* To create PHP files for the users, ie the public part of the site
* To create an administrator interface
* To verify that everything we have created is in keeping with the PHP-Nuke
development rules.
But what about the development rules?
It is a good idea to stop on this point before continuing on to the
programming part.
1. Rule: the modules must be included in the folder modules/namemodule in
the public part and the folder admin/modules in the administration part
2. Rule: the main file of the module included in modules/nameofmodule must
be called index.php
3. Rule: the tables in the php syntax are indicated by prefix. For example
Nuke pages will be indicated with "$prefix."_pages, where $prefix takes
the value from the config.php file which is nuke by default.
4. Rule: the location of the images or links must start from the root of
your html directory and not from the folder modules/nameofmodule because
the files contained in it are included in a file placed in html's root
directory that's called modules.php
5. Rule: to manage the multilanguage function in an optimal way we have to
create some text abstractions that we will insert in the files by making
a folder called "language" inside the folder of the module. Everything
will then be automatically recalled. For example, if we need to create a
module that we call Topolino (the Italian name of Mickey Mouse) we must
give the possibility to those who use the Italian interface to read
"Topolino" and to those who use the English one to read "Mickey Mouse" ;
-).
How do we do it?
First of all we create the folder "language" inside the folder modules/
topolino We insert in this folder two php files that we will call
lang-italian.php and lang-english.php We create an abstraction for topolino,
in the lang-italian.php it will be:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|define("_TOPO", "Topolino"); |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
And in English it will be:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|define("_TOPO", "Mickey Mouse"); |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
In this way inserting in the module the abstraction "_TOPO" this will be
automatically replaced by Topolino in the Italian interface and by Mickey
Mouse in the English interface.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.3. Module creation, the public part
We continue using the example of Topolino from Section 9.2 and create a very
simple module that displays a GIF of Topolino with a list of 3 predefined
names that are editable by the users. This is a nonsense module but it's
simple enough to be understood by everybody. The DB we will use is MySQL, but
the example, by changing some detail, works with all DB's. First of all let's
see the skeleton of every module that we will construct:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Important Before making anything it's necessary to create a folder called
"modules/Topolino", the file we have just created (with the other
contents) must be called index.php and must stay in that folder.
We create a table in the database called nuke_topolino that is structured in
this way:
* idperson: It is a cell that contains the id of person (int 11, primary)
* nameperson: It is a cell that contains the names of the people (varchar
60)
And we manually insert (by using PHPMyAdmin - see Section 11.3 - or an
equivalent interface) the names of the 3 people we are interested in, see
Figure 9-1 (the module, for simplicity reasons doesn't allow you to add or to
cancel people but only editing those that already exist).
* Id 1: Topolino
* Id 2: Minnie
* Id 3: Pluto
Figure 9-1. PHPMyAdmin: inserting values
[snapshot16]
PHPMyAdmin: inserting values
Note It's possible to include the footer at the end of every function. It's a
solution that is a bit more complex because we must write more lines,
but I have to stress how much alot of modules use it.
Once that the table of the DB is ready we can begin to enjoy creating the
code that will give us back our output. Our output will be one simple query
with a cycle that will give back the values inserted in the database (the
simplest thing in the world, Gosh!).
Caution Attention!!!
To maintain the abstraction of the DB so that it can work on various
database's in an independent way, we cannot use classic PHP syntax
that is generally used by the MySQL addicted ; -), instead we must
use the syntax illustrated in the file include/sql_layer.php
The query that we will compile will be structured in the following way:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|$resultpersons = sql_query("SELECT idperson, nameperson FROM "$prefix."_topolino", $dbi); |
|for ($m=0; $m < sql_num_rows($resultpersons, $dbi); $m++) |
|{ |
|list($idperson, $nameperson) = sql_fetch_row($resultpersons, $dbi); |
|echo "$idperson - $nameperson < br >"; |
|} |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Very simple, isn't it? OK!, before passing to the administrator's interface
for this module, we will start to modify it with the intention of giving it a
minimum style dignity.
I would propose:
* to insert the results in a table
* to put a title to it and a description for the module.
We can do this by rendering all of the module's compatible with the
multilanguage system of PHP-Nuke: We define the abstractions that will
compose the two phrases we need, in the file lang-english.php we have to
insert:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Remember to insert a file called index.htm in our language folder! We need it
to protect the inside of that folder from undesired navigations. We are
nearly at the end of the frontend part, now we have to insert the stylistic
part in the code that we have created and to assemble everything. We take two
code pieces previously constructed (The initial one and the one created by
us) and we join the stylistic modification:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|"; |
|echo""._BENVETOPOMOD.""; |
|echo "
"; |
|opentable(); |
|echo "
"; |
|echo""._DESCRITOPOMOD.""; |
|echo "
"; |
|$resultpersons = sql_query("SELECT idperson, nameperson FROM ".$prefix."_topolino", $dbi); |
|for ($m=0; $m < sql_num_rows($resultpersons, $dbi); |
|$m++) { list($idperson, $nameperson) = sql_fetch_row($resultpersons, $dbi); echo "$idperson - $nameperson
"; |
|} |
|closetable(); |
|include("footer.php"); |
|?> |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
We have only added text, some breaks for the headers and an "Opentable();"
and a "Closetable();" to include the text. The result can be seen in Figure
9-2
Figure 9-2. Example module
[snapshot17]
Example module
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.4. Module creation, administrator part
It's time to create the administration part of the module. In this very
simple module the only function that will work on the DB will be the one in
which we can modify the text of one of the three languages that we have
created. First of all, we have to create the files to insert in the folders:
* admin/case
* admin/links
* admin/modules
It's important to remember how much we have just said in Section 6.1:
Admin:
contains 4 subdirectories (links, language, case, modules) that manage
the various administration modules. The folder that holds the files is
modules/admin/ .
The folder admin/links instead says that the admin module must recall and
position one language in admin for that determined module.
Example (Administration for the FAQ module):
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|if (($radminsuper==1) OR ($radminfaq==1)) { |
|adminmenu("admin.php?op=FaqAdmin ", "" _FAQ." ", "faq.gif"); |
|} |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
This module:
* Verifies the administration rights (This module can be set up so it can
be viewed by the superadmin or an admin)
* It passes a "CASE" (op=FaqAdmin) that indicates to the admin.php file
(that includes all the admin modules) the module to call, associates a
value in order to translate the term "FAQ" and associates an image for
the visual administration (faq.gif).
The folder admin/case instead serves to define the module to be used in each
specified case . This is important when, using the same admin file, we need
to perform more operations using a CASE statement:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|case1 = insert |
|case2 = cancel |
|etc... |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
In fact it says which module to call in order to verify the CASE condition.
For example, in the FAQ module there are lots of cases, here are the last 2:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|case "FaqAdmin": |
|case "FaqCatGo": |
|include ("admin/modules/adminfaq.php"); |
|break; |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Both of the CASE statements call the adminfaq.php file, but they are used for
different operations. The first one calls the file with the default scheme,
the second, on the other hand, gives its O:K. to insert a new category.
This happens through a string like "admin.php?op=FaqAdmin" in the first case
and "admin.php?op=FaqCatGo" in the second.
We will now create, in the following order, the files:
* admin/modules/topolino.php
* admin/case/case.topolino.php
* admin/links/links.topolino.php
In order to create the file inside the modules folder (modules/topolino.php)
we must have a structure of this type:
* Starting part of the file (Similar for all the modules)
* Definition of the necessary functions.
* Definition of the necessary cases in order to call the various functions
for the admin module.
* Final part of the file.
The syntax for the starting part of the file is the following:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
All that we find in the middle, are the management functions and the cases
that must be checked, which we will now go on to construct. There are a
couple of rules to follow in order to construct the admin functions:
* We must include a header at the beginning of the function and a footer at
the end:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|include("header.php"); |
|include("footer.php"); |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
We have to include the GraphicAdmin(); function immediately after the header.
It will display the navigation panel that leads to all the other admin links.
The functions we'll now go to create are:
* Display of the database records
* Selection of the record and its insertion in a modifiable text field
* Modification of the record through insertion in the database of the value
modified in the text field.
Here is the code of the function which accomplishes the record selection:
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|function mousedisplay() { |
|global $admin, $bgcolor2, $prefix, $dbi, $multilingual; |
|include ("header.php"); |
|GraphicAdmin(); |
|Opentable(); |
|$resultpersons = sql_query("SELECT idperson, nameperson FROM ".$prefix."_topolino", $dbi); |
|for ($m=0; $m < sql_num_rows($resultpersons, $dbi); $m++) |
|{ |
|list($idperson, $nameperson) = sql_fetch_row($resultpersons, $dbi); |
|echo "$idperson - $nameperson < to href=\"admin.php=mouseselect & idtopo=$idperson \" > Select mouse < br > "; |
|} |
|closetable(); |
|include("footer.php"); |
|} |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The next function to implement is the one that corresponds to the selection
of one of the three records:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|function mouseselect() { |
|global $admin, $bgcolor2, $prefix, $dbi, $multilingual, $idtopo; |
|include ("header.php"); |
|GraphicAdmin(); |
|Opentable(); |
|$resultpersons = sql_query("SELECT idperson, nameperson FROM "$prefix."_topolino to where idperson=' $idtopo '", $dbi); |
|for ($m=0; $m < sql_num_rows($resultpersons, $dbi); $m++) |
|{ |
|list($idperson, $nameperson) = sql_fetch_row($resultpersons, $dbi); |
|echo "< form action=\"admin.php\" method=\"post\">"; |
|echo "< input type=\"text\" name=\"nameperson \ "size=\"20\" maxlength=\"20 \ "value=\"$personname \" >< br >< br > "; |
|echo "< input type=\"hidden\" name=\"idperson\"value=\"$idtopo\" > "; |
|echo "< input type=\"hidden\" name=\"op \ "value=\"mousemodify\" > "; |
|echo "< input type=\"submit\" value=\""._ADDTOPO."\" > "; |
|echo ""; |
|} |
|closetable(); |
|include("footer.php"); |
|} |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
It is very important to take note of some things:
1. The variables that we insert will be checked, in fact you can see the
variable "$idtopo" was inserted between the used variables.
2. The value checked in the CASE statements is passed to us through a hidden
form field
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|(< input type=\"hidden\"name=\"op\"value=\"mousemodify\">). |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The last function we consider is the one that corresponds to the update of
the values in the database (Here too we added the two variables that we were
interested in ($nameperson, $idperson):
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|function mousemodify() { |
|global $admin, $bgcolor2, $prefix, $dbi, $multilingual, $idtopo, $nameperson, $idperson; |
|include ("header.php"); |
|GraphicAdmin(); |
|Opentable(); |
|sql_query("update "$prefix."_topolino set nameperson=' $nameperson' where idperson=$idperson", $dbi); |
|echo"OK "; |
|die(mysql_error()); |
|closetable(); |
|include("footer.php"); |
|} |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The last two elements to insert are the definitions for the CASE statements
(that is, which function to call according to the variable passed to the
module) and the closing of the file.
Definition of the cases:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|switch($op) { |
|case "": |
|mousedisplay(); |
|break; |
|case "topolino": |
|mousedisplay(); |
|break; |
|case "mouseselect": |
|mouseselect(); |
|break; |
|case "mousemodify": |
|mousemodification(); |
|break; |
|} |
|Closing of the file: |
|} else { |
|echo "Access Denied"; |
|} |
|> |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The cases definition page is very easy to construct, it gathers the cases
that are included in the file admin/modules/topolino.php and puts them in the
file admin/case/case.topolino.php
This is the syntax:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The last two things we have to make are the compilation of the file admin/
links/link.topolino.php and the creation of a language module: Compilation of
the file link.topolino.php
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Where: admin.php?op=topolino defines which module must be called, "
_EDITTOPOLINO" is the term to translate (it must be compiled in admin/
language). For the modification of the language module I refer you to the
previous paragraph with one single note. The language file of the admin
section is common for all (admin/language), the relative languages must be
added to the end of those that already exist. Just another thing, the syntax
of this example is not perfect, its beyond the scope of this to make it work
perfectly but it does illustrate the operation of the module (Which you will
find available for download at [http://www.spaghettibrain.com]
www.spaghettibrain.com so you will be able to study it).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 10. Some security precautions
10.1. The permissions on the folders and files
This section is of importance only to those who use PHP-Nuke under Linux/Unix
(this is true for the greater part of PHP-Nuke sites that are hosted by
providers, and often also those who test locally use Linux).
Burzi says that the directories should be assigned a mode of 777, the files a
mode of 666, but we may calmly let our PHP-Nuke do its work under more
restrictive permissions, as illustrated below:
* config.php (666)
* backend.php (666)
* ultramode.txt (666)
* All directories (755)
* Other files (644)
The files config.php, backend.php, ultramode.txt must have the write
permissions because :
* For config.php editing the preferences we will write this file modifying
the text.
* For the backend and ultramode on the other side, we will write them (in
an automatic way) modifying the titles and abstracts of the news.
There is however something particular we have to take into account: if we use
modules that upload files in some directories, their permissions wil have to
be raised. As an example, consider the IndyNews module, a non standard module
that makes it possible to enclose files and images in articles. The structure
of the module is the following:
* modules/indynews/media
In the inside of the "indynews" folder the permissions of the folder "media"
would have to be 777, due to an override problem, the 777 permissions will
have to be imposed on everything that is below "modules". For this reason,
everything that resides in "modules" will be in 777 mode and this could cause
a vulnerability. A solution is to move the folder that will have to
accommodate the uploaded files to the outside of the modules folder, even to
the document root, changing inside the module all the references to it.
Doing so will leave one single folder in root with permissions set to 777.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.2. Cookies - timeout and configuration
PHP-Nuke makes heavy use of cookies, be it for user authentication, or admin
authentication. The cookies are text files that are saved on our computers
and contain various information that is read when we enter a certain site. In
the case of PHP-Nuke the information saved there pertains to the user, the
chosen theme and the language used.
The cookie is also the instrument that enables us not to have to retype the
password each time we log in. This way, each time we access a PHP-Nuke site,
the cookie works for us by managing the login operation.
The problem is that if the cookie does not have an expiry date low enough,
someone can to steal it from us and be able to access the site as a user or
administrator. This is possible for a series of reasons:
1. the cookie of PHP-Nuke has a life duration close to infinite (31536000
seconds)
2. Explorer (most used browser, unfortunately) has vulnerabilities that
allow the execution of malicious scripts on the client that "steal" the
cookie from the user and send it to the "burglar".
3. PHP-Nuke does not succeed in filtering all the malicious scripts (or, to
put it better, Internet Explorer is so stupid that corrects inserted
scripts with the wrong syntax in order not to be recognized).
Let's show a concrete example of how a script kiddie (those who hold
themselves for hackers, but they are not...) can try to obtain administrator
rights on our site:
1. The script kiddie inserts a script that supposedly contains news:
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
|< vb script give the cookie to me and send it to the server xyz>|
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
that is not filtered by the function check_words() of PHP-Nuke.
2. The administrator of PHP-Nuke opens the page up with Internet Explorer!!!
(This hack does not work if you're using Mozilla, or better yet any Linux
browser). The list of the news waiting to be approved for publishing is
seen by the administrator. When he goes to look at the Submissions,
Internet Explorer (stupidly) corrects the vbscript in this way:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|(script kiddies commands go here) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
succeeding to interpret the wrong syntax in the correct way (!!!), taking
the cookie and sending it to the script kiddie.
3. The script kiddie puts the cookie among the other ones of his own,
connects to the site and... is recognized as being the administartor!!!
But how is it possible to protect ourselves from this type of hack?
There are some solutions that should increase much of the security for our
administration area:
1. First of all STOP using Internet Explorer as a browser and pass the seat
to [http://www.mozilla.org] Mozilla. Mozilla is a browser that supports
all sites in an optimal way and is not plagued by all the vulnerabilities
of Microsoft. If you use Linux instead you won't encounter any problems
of this sort...
a. In case you want to continue to use the Explorer, you should at least
download the patches from [http://www.microsoft.com] Microsoft.
2. Disable, where possible, the insertion of HTML tags (for example in the
forum of Splatt.it)
3. Narrow down the life of cookies. If for example we set up the life of the
cookie to two hours, the script kiddie will be forced to use the cookie
within that period, this limits much of their ability to act in time.
If instead we leave the life of the cookie to its preset value, the
script kiddie may use our cookie even for 1 month after it was stolen.
How to set up the duration of the administartor cookie? The cookie is set
up in the file includes/auth.php and the function to modify it is the
following:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|if ((isset($aid)) && (isset($pwd)) && ($op == "login")) { |
| if($aid! = "" AND $pwd!="") { |
| $pwd = md5($pwd); |
| $result=sql_query("select pwd, admlanguage from "$prefix."_authors where aid='$aid'", $dbi); |
| list($pass, $admlanguage)=sql_fetch_row($result, $dbi); |
| if($pass == $pwd) { |
| $admin = base64_encode("$aid:$pwd:$admlanguage"); |
| setcookie("admin", "$admin",time()+7200); |
| unset($op); |
| } |
| } |
|} |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
As you see we have modified the life duration of the second cookie from
2592000 (a month) to 7200 seconds (two hours). As you can easily see, we
have reduced the action radius of the script kiddie down from one month
to two hours.
4. A much more effective tag filter is in the study phase, although for the
moment, the proposed solutions did give a definitive answer to the
problem. The admissible tags are defined in in the file config.php in the
variable $AllowableHTML, these are valid for the comments and the
insertion of news in the function check_html() which for the moment lets
some tags pass through.
All these actions and a correct configuration of the permissions as
illustrated in Section 10.1 should guarantee us a good security for our site.
It is also important to closely follow the security warnings for PHP-Nuke
that are brought up on [http://neworder.box.sk/] http://neworder.box.sk/.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 11. Programmer's tools
11.1. The database tables
Here are the tables that comprise the PHP-Nuke database and what they serve
for:
nuke_access:
Defines various users profiles.
nuke_authors:
Defines the administrators and their access levels.
nuke_autonews:
Manages automatic news.
nuke_banlist:
Manages banned users (those excluded from viewing the site).
nuke_banner:
Manages banner campaigns, impressions and clicks.
nuke_bannerclient:
Manages the banner campaign clients.
nuke_bbtopics:
Manages the BBCode.
nuke_blocks:
List of created blocks.
nuke_catagories:
List of the categories.
nuke_comments:
Manages comments and answers.
nuke_config:
Manages some configurations like the possibility to mail in HTML etc.
nuke_counter:
Manages statistics.
nuke_disallow:
Blocks a user.
nuke_downloads_categories:
Manages categories and subcategories for the download area.
nuke_downloads_downloads:
Manages the files present in the download area.
nuke_downloads_editorials:
Manages the comments on the files.
nuke_downloads_modrequest:
Manages the reporting of broken links.
nuke_downloads_newdownload:
Manages the insertion of files from third parties.
nuke_downloads_moddata:
Manages voting on files.
nuke_encyclopedya:
Lists the various encyclopedias.
nuke_encyclopedia_text:
Lists encyclopedia entries.
nuke_ephem
Manages recurrent events.
nuke_faqanswer:
Archives the FAQ answers.
nuke_faqcategories:
Manages the categories in which the FAQ are subdivided.
nuke_forum_access:
Records the last access of the users.
nuke_forum_mods:
Defines moderators of the forums.
nuke_forums:
Defines the active forums.
nuke_forumtopics:
Defines forum topics.
nuke_headlines:
Defines the sources from which to take news with the blocks.
nuke_links_categories:
Defines the categories in which the links are subdivided.
nuke_links_editorials:
Manages the judgments on the links.
nuke_links_links:
Archives the links.
nuke_links_modrequest:
Archives the messages related to the link (broken link etc.).
nuke_links_newlink:
Archives links suggested for insertion.
nuke_links_votedata:
Archives link votes.
nuke_main:
Defines which is the main module that must be included in index.php.
nuke_message:
Manages the home page messages.
nuke_modules:
Lists and manages the installed modules.
nuke_pages:
nuke_pages_categories:
nuke_poll_check:
List of the IP addresses that have voted in last 24 hours.
nuke_poll_data:
List of survey answers.
nuke_poll_desc:
List of present and past surveys.
nuke_pollcomments:
Comment to the survey.
nuke_posts:
Main titles of forum posts
nuke_posts_text:
nuke_priv_msgs:
Manages the module private messages.
nuke_queue:
Lists the texts waiting for publication
nuke_quotes:
nuke_ranks:
Registers the votes for the news
nuke_referer:
Lists where the last x rows come from
nuke_related:
Associates eventual links to the topics.
nuke_reviews:
nuke_reviews_add:
nuke_reviews_comments:
Comments to the reviews.
nuke_reviews_main:
main table of the reviews.
nuke_seccont:
Lists the section texts.
nuke_sections:
Lists the active sections.
nuke_session:
Lists the active sessions.
nuke_smiles:
Lists the supported emoticons.
nuke_stats_date:
Statistics module.
nuke_stats_hour:
Statistics module...
nuke_stats_month:
Statistics module.
nuke_stats_year:
Statistics module.
nuke_stories:
Texts of the news.
nuke_stories_cat:
Categories of the news.
nuke_topics:
List of topics.
nuke_users:
List of users.
nuke_words:
Words to censure.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.2. The syntax of SQL code
Aiming at making PHP-Nuke compatible with more databases, the SQL syntax has
been transformed to functions, in order to achieve a standard syntax that is
independent of the database used. For convenience, let us recall the file
sql_layer.php in a somewhat cleaned-up version:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|sql_connect($host, $user, $password, $db) (1) |
|sql_logout($id) (2) |
|sql_query($query, $id) (3) |
|sql_num_rows($res) (4) |
|sql_fetch_row(&$res, $nr) (5) |
|sql_fetch_array(&$res, $nr) (6) |
|sql_fetch_object(&$res, $nr) (7) |
|sql_free_result($res) (8) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
(1) Log into the DB.
(2) Disconnect from the DB.
(3) Query.
(4) Number of Rows.
(5) Fetch Rows.
(6) Fetch Array.
(7) Fetch Object.
(8) Free Result.
With this syntax you will be able to render all the modifications, blocks or
modules you create compatible to all the databases supported by PHP-Nuke,
which are:
* MySQL
* mSQL
* PostgreSQL
* PostgreSQL_local
* ODBC
* ODBC_Adabas
* Interbase
* Sybase
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.3. PHPMyadmin, administering MySQL via web
11.3.1. What is PHPMyadmin
[http://www.phpmyadmin.net/] PHPMyAdmin is n visual system for the management
of a [http://www.mysql.org] MySQL database. It is written in [http://
www.php.net] PHP and serves to display the contents of the databases on the
server (or client) on which MySQL is installed. Through this interface you
can create new databases, modify existing ones and modify the contents of
single fields (see Figure 11-1).
Figure 11-1. PHPMyAdmin start screen
[myadmin1]
PHPMyAdmin start screen
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.3.2. How to install the PHP-Nuke DB with PHPMyadmin
Please read first Section 5.2.2 for the basic installation procedure of the
PHP-Nuke MySQL database through PHPMyAdmin. In this section we will discuss
some more advanced PHPMyAdmin topics:
PHPMyAdmin gives you also the possibility to do a backup of the data in your
database (or only of the structure). If you choose "Structure Only and the
"Send" option, you will save on your PC the database structure without the
data. Choosing "Structure and Data" instead, you will be sent a real whole
backup of your DB.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.3.2.1. Other options of PHPMyAdmin
Yet another couple of instructions: In order to see the structure of a table,
you only need to click on the one that is marked in the left bar and you will
see all its fields and modification options appear in the central part (
Figure 11-2).
Figure 11-2. PHPMyAdmin: table forum_topics
[snapshot19]
PHPMyAdmin: table forum_topics
Caution ATTENTION!
The DROP command eliminates all the contents of the DB, the table or
the single field, use it with caution.
Generally, the management interface of PHPMyAdmin is supplied by the provider
who sells you the hosting or, if you install it on Windows in order to work
locally, does not need any particular tweaking in its configuration.
In case you want to install it on Windows in order to read databases that are
online or to install it on your webspace because your hosting supplier does
not include it in your tools, you can configure everything by editing the
config.inc.php file as follows:
Supposing that:
* IP DB Server: 156.123.22.34
* User: Pippo
* Password: Topolino
* Database Name: Minnie
Then:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|$cfgServers[1]["host"] = "156.123.22.34"; // MySQL hostname |
|$cfgServers[1]["port"] = ""; // MySQL port - leave blank for default port |
|$cfgServers[1]["adv_auth"] = false; // Use advanced authentication? |
|$cfgServers[1]["stduser"] = ""; // MySQL standard user (only needed with advanced auth) |
|$cfgServers[1]["stdpass"] = ""; // MySQL standard password (only needed with advanced auth) |
|$cfgServers[1]["user"] = "Pippo"; // MySQL user (only needed with basic auth) |
|$cfgServers[1]["password"] = "Topolino"; // MySQL password (only needed with basic auth) |
|$cfgServers[1]["only_db"] = "Minnie"; // If set to a db-name, only this db is accessible |
|$cfgServers[1]["verbose"] = ""; // Verbose name for this host - leave blank to show the hostname |
|$cfgServers[1]["bookmarkdb"] = ""; // Bookmark db - leave blank for no bookmark support |
|$cfgServers[1]["bookmarktable"] = ""; // Bookmark table - leave blank for no bookmark support |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
In the config.inc.php you will find more configuration parameters that are
repeated. They serve to manage DBs in various hosts with the same interface.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.4. MySQL Front, how to administer a MySQL DB from Windows
Mysql Front is a client for Windows that allows for the management to manage
a local or remote DB through a client interface. Since we consider PHP-Nuke
to be more aproppriate and flexible tool for this task, we would like to
focus our attention a little on a functionality of MySQLFront that on
PHPMyAdmin has shown itself to be little reliable. That is the ability to
load, import and export DBs of great dimensions without losing data or
getting errors.
In this section we will limit ourselves in analyzing the connection phase,
the import and upload.
Connection (Figure 11-3): Clicking on File->Connection, we will get an
interface in which we are asked to enter the host, user and password. If we
have to use MySQLFront locally, we will leave the localhost entry untouched.
Figure 11-3. MySQL Front: Connection
[snapshot20]
MySQL Front: Connection
Download (or copy) of an existing DB: choose the database you wish to be
exported and then click on "Export Tables" (fifth from the right, Figure 11-4
). Then choose a destination path for the database dump. As you may notice,
the system, through the use of flags, gives us even the possibility to choose
individually those tables we want to import.
Figure 11-4. MySQL Front: export tables
[snapshot21]
MySQL Front: export tables
Upload of a DB: clicking on the SQL Query button (Figure 11-5), an interface
appears that allows us to carry out the upload of an existing database. It
suffices to click on the symbol of the open folder, choose the database dump
and click on the button that looks"Play"-like button. Before starting this
operation will have to select the destination database.
Figure 11-5. MySQL Front: SQL Query
[snapshot22]
MySQL Front: SQL Query
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.5. Foxserv, making PHP-Nuke work on Windows Systems
There exists an application that installs PHP + MySQL + Apache in a simple
and fast way, configuring your operating system to emulate a local Web
server. This is very useful, as it allows us to experiment with PHP-Nuke and
our modifications locally.
The software is called Foxserv, has reached version 3.0, but I recommend
using version 2.0 which is much easier to use.
The installation is very simple, it is enough to launch the
FoxServ-2.0core.exe file, proceed with the installation inserting any data
(nothing is needed besides user and password of the DB) and then start using
it!
When launching the foxserv control panel, you will have to activate apache
and mysql, type in your browser the address http://localhost/and the web page
will appear as if it were on any Internet server.
Suppose that you have installed everything in c:\foxserv. The PHP folders
have to be inserted under the folder www. For example if we want to insert a
nuke56 installation, we create the folder c:\foxserv\www\nuke56\ and load
there all the content of the HTML folder of our PHP-Nuke (in the config.php
of PHP-Nuke we will leave "localhost" as our host, "root" as user and nothing
as password).
In order to reach PHPMyAdmin (even this is preinstalled), the address will be
http://localhost/phpmyadmin/.
Important Important note
The file php.ini (which is located, depending on the operating
system, in c:\windows, c:\windows\system, c:\winnt or c:\winnt\
system\) contains paths to a disc f:
The only modification that you will have to make consists in:
* create a folder c:\temp
* modify the parameter: session.save_path = c:\temp. It must be c:\temp and
not f:\foxserv etc.
Caution Attention
The folder "php" contains also a php.ini, but it is not the file that
interests us.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Index
Symbols
$AllowableHTML, Cookies - timeout and configuration
$content, How to create a block, a practical example
GNU Free Documentation License, Licence
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A
Activate, The administration functions
Admin, Directory structure , Administration management , Module creation,
administrator part
admin.php, Back end structure: administrator view, Architecture and structure
admin/case, Module creation, administrator part
admin/case folder, Administration management
admin/links, Module creation, administrator part
admin/links folder, Administration management
Advertising Block, The preinstalled blocks
anonymous, The Preferences Page
Apache, What Is PHP-Nuke
Argument, The administration functions
Articles, The administration functions
auth.php, Architecture and structure
authentication, Cookies - timeout and configuration
AvantGO, The preinstalled modules
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
B
backend, The Preferences Page
backend.php, Architecture and structure , The permissions on the folders and
files
backup, How to install the PHP-Nuke DB with PHPMyadmin
Backup DB, The administration functions
banners, The Preferences Page
block creation, The characteristics of the various types of blocks
Blocks, The administration functions, Directory structure
blocks.html, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
Books reviews, The preinstalled modules, The administration functions
Burzi, Francisco, Short history of PHP-Nuke, The permissions on the folders
and files
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C
case, Module creation, administrator part
CASE statement, Module creation, administrator part
Category, The administration functions
center_left.html, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
center_right.html, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
Chat, Other non-installed modules
check_html, Cookies - timeout and configuration
Closetable, Module creation, the public part
CMS (Content Managment System), What Is PHP-Nuke
colours, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
comments, The Preferences Page
communities, The Nuke Communities
config.php, The config.php file, The permissions on the folders and files
Content, The preinstalled modules, The preinstalled blocks
Content Manager, The administration functions
cookies, Cookies - timeout and configuration
counter.php, Directory structure
css, Example creation of HTML file to include in the theme
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
D
DMOZ/ODP, Other non-installed modules
download, Download
Downloads, The administration functions
Downloads Module, The preinstalled modules
DreamWeaver, Example creation of HTML file to include in the theme
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
E
e-commerce, What Is PHP-Nuke
Edit Administrators, The administration functions
Edit Users, The administration functions
Encyclopedia, The preinstalled modules, The preinstalled blocks, The
administration functions
Ephemerids, The preinstalled blocks, The administration functions
Exit, The administration functions
expiration, Cookies - timeout and configuration
Explorer, Cookies - timeout and configuration
Extensive Text, The administration functions
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F
FAQ, The preinstalled modules, The administration functions, Module creation,
administrator part
Feedback, The preinstalled modules
filtering, Cookies - timeout and configuration
flash, How to create a block, theoretical approach:
Footer, The Preferences Page , Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
footer.html, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
footer.php, Architecture and structure
FORUM, The preinstalled modules
Forums, The preinstalled blocks
Foxserv, Foxserv, making PHP-Nuke work on Windows Systems
Free Software Foundation, Licence
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
G
Guestbook, Other non-installed modules
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
H
hackers, Cookies - timeout and configuration
header, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
header.html, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
header.php, Architecture and structure
HTML (HyperText Markup Language), Formats
HTML standards, How to create a block, theoretical approach:
HTML tags (security), Cookies - timeout and configuration
HTTP Referrers, The administration functions
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I
Images, Directory structure
includes, Directory structure
index.php, Architecture and structure
Indy News, Other non-installed modules
insert, in a table, Module creation, the public part
installation, How to install PHP-Nuke
Intranet, What Is PHP-Nuke
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J
java, How to create a block, theoretical approach:
javascript.php, Directory structure
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
L
lang-xxx.php, Creating fully compatible modules: the rules to follow
Language, The administration functions, Directory structure
language abstraction, Creating fully compatible modules: the rules to follow
Last 10 referers, The preinstalled blocks
Last 5 articles, The preinstalled blocks
liability, Disclaimer
Links, The administration functions
local time, The Preferences Page
login, Cookies - timeout and configuration
logo, The Preferences Page
Logout, The administration functions
LYX (LaTeX frontend LyX), Formats
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
M
mainfile.php, Architecture and structure
malicious scripts, Cookies - timeout and configuration
Member List, The preinstalled modules
Messages, The administration functions
meta.php, Directory structure
moderation, The Preferences Page
module creation, Module structure , Module creation, administrator part
module creation: rules, Creating fully compatible modules: the rules to
follow
Modules, The administration functions, Directory structure
modules.php, Architecture and structure , Module management
Mozilla, Cookies - timeout and configuration
multilanguage, The Preferences Page
MySQL Front, MySQL Front, how to administer a MySQL DB from Windows
my_header.php, Directory structure
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N
news, The preinstalled modules
Newsletter, The administration functions
nuke_accessi, The database tables
nuke_authors, The database tables
nuke_autonews, The database tables
nuke_banlist, The database tables
nuke_banner, The database tables
nuke_bannerclient, The database tables
nuke_bbtopics, The database tables
nuke_blocks, The database tables
nuke_catagories, The database tables
nuke_comments, The database tables
nuke_config, The database tables
nuke_counter, The database tables
nuke_disallow, The database tables
nuke_downloads_categories, The database tables
nuke_downloads_downloads, The database tables
nuke_downloads_editorials, The database tables
nuke_downloads_moddata, The database tables
nuke_downloads_modrequest, The database tables
nuke_downloads_newdownload, The database tables
nuke_encyclopedia_text, The database tables
nuke_encyclopedya, The database tables
nuke_ephem, The database tables
nuke_faqanswer, The database tables
nuke_faqcategories, The database tables
nuke_forums, The database tables
nuke_forumtopics, The database tables
nuke_forum_access, The database tables
nuke_forum_mods, The database tables
nuke_headlines, The database tables
nuke_links_categories, The database tables
nuke_links_editorials, The database tables
nuke_links_links, The database tables
nuke_links_modrequest, The database tables
nuke_links_newlink, The database tables
nuke_links_votedata, The database tables
nuke_main, The database tables
nuke_message, The database tables
nuke_modules, The database tables
nuke_pages, The database tables
nuke_pages_categories, The database tables
nuke_pollcomments, The database tables
nuke_poll_check, The database tables
nuke_poll_data, The database tables
nuke_poll_desc, The database tables
nuke_posts, The database tables
nuke_posts_text, The database tables
nuke_priv_msgs, The database tables
nuke_queue, The database tables
nuke_quotes, The database tables
nuke_ranks, The database tables
nuke_referer, The database tables
nuke_related, The database tables
nuke_reviews, The database tables
nuke_reviews_add, The database tables
nuke_reviews_comments, The database tables
nuke_reviews_main, The database tables
nuke_seccont, The database tables
nuke_sections, The database tables
nuke_session, The database tables
nuke_smiles, The database tables
nuke_stats_date, The database tables
nuke_stats_hour, The database tables
nuke_stats_month, The database tables
nuke_stats_year, The database tables
nuke_stories, The database tables
nuke_stories_cat, The database tables
nuke_topics, The database tables
nuke_users, The database tables
nuke_words, The database tables
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O
op=FaqAdmin, Administration management
Opentable, Module creation, the public part
Optimize DB, The administration functions
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
P
PDF (Portable Document Format), Formats
Perl, How to create a block, theoretical approach:
permissions, Formulation of the file permissions, The permissions on the
folders and files
permissions mode, The permissions on the folders and files
PHP, What Is PHP-Nuke
PHPMyAdmin, What Is PHPMyadmin, Module creation, the public part, What is
PHPMyadmin
PHPNuke, What Is PHP-Nuke, Front end structure: user view
portals, What Is PHP-Nuke
Preferences, The administration functions
Preview, The administration functions
Private messages, The preinstalled modules
Programmed article, The administration functions
PS.GZ (Compressed Postscript), Formats
Publish, The administration functions
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q
query, Module creation, the public part
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
R
RDF, The administration functions
Recommend us, The preinstalled modules
Reviews, The preinstalled blocks
robots.txt, Architecture and structure
RSS, The administration functions
RTF (Rich Text Format), Formats
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
S
script kiddie, Cookies - timeout and configuration
Search module, The preinstalled modules
Section Manager, The administration functions
Sections, The preinstalled modules
Sections Articles, The preinstalled blocks
SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), Formats
Short Text, The administration functions
Slashdot, Short history of PHP-Nuke
slogan, The Preferences Page
Splatt Forum, The administration functions
sql_layer.php, Directory structure , Module creation, the public part
Statistics, The preinstalled modules
Stories archive, The preinstalled modules
story_home.html, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
story_page.html, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
style sheets, Theme construction: the rules to follow
Submit news, The preinstalled modules
Survey, The administration functions
Surveys, The preinstalled modules
syntax, SQL, The syntax of SQL code
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
T
tables, The database tables
tables.php, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
TAR.GZ (Compressed TAR Archive), Formats
theme, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
theme.php, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
themearticle, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
themefooter, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
themeheader, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
themeindex, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
Themes, Directory structure
themes/NukeNews, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
themes/NukeNews/images, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
themes/NukeNews/style, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
themesidebox, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
Title, The administration functions
Top 10 Downloads, The preinstalled blocks
Top 10 Links, The preinstalled blocks
Top10, The preinstalled modules
Topics, The preinstalled modules, The administration functions
TXT (ASCII Text), Formats
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
U
ultramode, The Preferences Page
ultramode.txt, Architecture and structure , The permissions on the folders
and files
UPDATE, Module creation, administrator part
Upgrades, Directory structure
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
W
W3C, What Is PHP-Nuke
WebLinks, The preinstalled modules
Windows, MySQL Front, how to administer a MySQL DB from Windows
WYSIWYG, Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Y
Your Account, The preinstalled modules
Notes
[1] In fact, a way exists to personalize the visualization of the blocks
based on the page in which they are displayed to us, for example, in
module news we see both the left and the right block, in module search
instead, we see only the blocks on the left.
|