PHP-Nuke: Management and Programming
Chris Karakas
www.karakas—online.de
Claudio Erba
www.spaghettibrain.com
Chris Karakas -Conversion from LyX to DocBook SGML, Index, document generation,
PHP-Nuke module, see Credits
Andre Purfield -Translation from italian (v.1.0) and translation project
coordination, see Credits
Fortunato Matarazzo -Translation from italian (v.1.0), see Credits
Chris Karakas -Translation from italian (v.1.0), see Credits
Revision History
Revision 2.1 04.08.2005 Revised by: CK
Security bugfix and maintainance release. Fixed typos, made some
improvements, closed a security hole in the section on How to include a HTML
file and its links (thanks to waraxe for this, see http://www.waraxe.us),
closed the same security hole in the PHP-Nuke module version of this
document, added code for keycaps, applications, acronyms and product names in
the CSS and some enhancements in jadetex.cfg.
Revision 2.0 16.02.2004 Revised by: CK
Added more than 400 pages of additional material. See Credits section for the
exact details.
Revision 1.2.1 22.08.2003 Revised by: CK
Now available as PHP-Nuke module too. Link to the module source in the
Formats section. Smaller logo.
Revision 1.2 29.05.2003 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 13.02.2003 Revised by: AP
Cleaned up the wording and a few typos.
Revision 1.0 09.01.2003 Revised by: CK
First complete version.
There has always been the necessity to have a definitive guide on PHP-Nuke.
This guide 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, security, acceleration, and
optimization. Day-to-day operations and miscellaneous topics are also covered.
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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. Credits
1.6. Aknowledgements
1.7. Conventions
1.8. The_book_behind_the_book
1.9. How_to_translate_this_HOWTO
2. Introduction_to_PHP-Nuke
2.1. Purpose
2.2. What_Is_PHP-Nuke
2.3. Short_history_of_PHP-Nuke
2.4. The_PHP-Nuke_Communities
2.5. Why_use_PHP-Nuke_and_not_static_HTML_pages
2.6. The_PHP-Nuke_forks
3. How_to_install_PHP-Nuke
3.1. Prerequisites
3.2. Installation_process
3.3. How_to_install_PHP-Nuke_through_phpMyAdmin
3.4. phpMyAdmin:_How_to_administer_MySQL_via_Web
3.5. How_to_install_PHP-Nuke_using_nukesql.php
3.6. How_to_install_PHP-Nuke_locally
3.7. The_config.php_file
3.8. Resources
3.9. Common_installation_problems
3.10. Common_miscellaneous_errors
4. How_to_upgrade_PHP-Nuke
4.1. From_6.0_to_6.5
4.2. From_phpBB_to_PHP-Nuke
4.3. PHP-Nuke_upgrade_scripts
5. How_to_move_PHP-Nuke
5.1. Transferring_a_local_installation_to_the_Web
5.2. Changing_Web_hoster
6. Front_end_structure:_user_view
6.1. The_preinstalled_modules
6.2. Non-installed_modules
6.3. The_preinstalled_blocks
7. Back_end_structure:_administrator_view
7.1. The_administration_functions
7.2. The_Preferences_Page
8. PHP-Nuke_add-ons
8.1. Add-on_themes
8.2. Add-on_blocks
8.3. Add-on_modules
9. Architecture_and_structure
9.1. Directory_structure
9.2. Main_page_management
9.3. Module_management
9.4. Administration_management
10. Session_management
10.1. How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
10.2. How_to_eliminate_session_checks
11. Editing_PHP_(-Nuke)_files
11.1. vi
11.2. Emacs
11.3. Bluefish
11.4. UltraEdit
11.5. WinSyntax
11.6. HTMLKit
11.7. Crimson_Editor
11.8. PHPEd
12. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_database
12.1. More_than_255_characters_of_user_extra_information
13. Modifying_PHP-Nuke_texts
13.1. General_PHP-Nuke_texts
13.2. PHP-Nuke_module_texts
13.3. PHP-Nuke_module_and_block_titles
14. Customising_PHP-Nuke_themes
14.1. Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme
14.2. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_HTML_template
14.3. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_header
14.4. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_body
14.5. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_index
14.6. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_footer
14.7. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_icons
14.8. Theme_construction:_the_rules_to_follow
14.9. How_to_change_a_buggy_PHP-Nuke_theme
14.10. How_to_prevent_users_from_changing_the_theme_in_PHP-Nuke
14.11. How_to_change_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_depending_on_the_module
14.12. How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke
15. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_HTML_header
15.1. How_to_implement_a_favourites_icon_(favicon.ico)
15.2. How_to_prevent_the_statistics_module_from_gathering_hits_from
certain_hosts
16. Modifying_mainfile.php
16.1. How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags
16.2. How_to_change_the_order_of_messages
16.3. How_to_change_the_duration_of_a_public_broadcast_message
17. Modifying_PHP-Nuke_blocks
17.1. How_to_change_a_buggy_block
17.2. How_to_build_custom_module_blocks
17.3. How_to_build_RSS_blocks_with_variable_number_of_news_items
17.4. How_to_get_scrolling_headlines_in_blocks
18. Modifying_PHP-Nuke_modules
18.1. Modifying_any_PHP-Nuke_module
18.2. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Homepage
18.3. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module
18.4. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Reviews_module
18.5. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Web_Links_module
18.6. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Your_Account_module
18.7. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_News_module
18.8. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Submit_News_module
18.9. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Sections_module
18.10. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Downloads_module
18.11. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Stories_Archive_module
19. Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_administration_panel
19.1. How_to_set_an_arbitrary_"Stories_Number_in_Home"
19.2. How_to_allow_HTML_in_the_Newsletter
20. Creating_PHP-Nuke_blocks
20.1. The_characteristics_of_the_various_types_of_blocks
20.2. How_to_create_a_new_block
20.3. Simple_Content_block
20.4. How_to_include_PHP/HTML_files_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block
20.5. How_to_use_Javascript_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
20.6. How_to_display_Flash_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
20.7. How_to_show_advertisements_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
20.8. How_to_display_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
20.9. How_to_display_HTML_forms_in_a_block:_Paypal
21. Creating_modules
21.1. Module_structure
21.2. Creating_fully_compatible_modules:_the_rules_to_follow
21.3. Module_creation,_the_public_part
21.4. Module_creation,_administrator_part
21.5. How_to_include_a_HTML_file_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module
21.6. How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module
21.7. How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_using_an_iframe_in_a
PHP-Nuke_module
21.8. How_to_include_a_plain_text_file_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module
21.9. How_to_use_Javascript_in_PHP-Nuke_modules
21.10. How_to_create_a_Logout_module
21.11. How_to_show_advertisements_in_PHP-Nuke_modules
21.12. How_to_display_HTML_forms_in_a_module
22. Duplicating_PHP-Nuke_modules
22.1. Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module
23. Security
23.1. How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?
23.2. The_impact_of_bad_security_record_on_software_popularity
23.3. Common_PHP-Nuke_security_vulnerabilities
23.4. How_to_guard_against_security_vulnerabilities_in_PHP-Nuke
23.5. How_to_ban_IP_addresses
23.6. Hacked_-_now_what?
24. Accelerating_PHP-Nuke
24.1. Caching_PHP-Nuke
25. Optimizing_PHP-Nuke
25.1. Search_engines_and_dynamic_URLs
25.2. mod_rewrite
25.3. Regular_expressions
25.4. The_.htaccess_file
25.5. How_to_make_PHP-Nuke_search_engine_friendly
25.6. How_to_make_PHP-Nuke_hot_link_stealth
25.7. How_to_make_a_dynamic_CSS
25.8. How_to_proceed_when_MySQL_is_slow
26. How_to_solve_common_probems_with_PHP-Nuke
26.1. How_to_repair_a_corrupt_table
26.2. How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup
26.3. How_to_install_new_modules
26.4. How_to_install_patches_and_correct_errors
26.5. How_to_find_all_registration_links
26.6. How_to_allow_anonymous_web_link_submissions
26.7. How_to_disable_DEBUG_mode
27. Miscellaneous
27.1. How_to_change_the_Home_module
27.2. How_to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL
27.3. How_to_change_PHP_parameters_when_you_don't_have_access_to
php.ini
27.4. How_to_display_HTML_code_in_a_FAQ
27.5. How_to_enter_thousands_of_web_links
27.6. How_to_enter_thousands_of_download_links
27.7. How_to_check_the_validity_of_thousands_of_web_links
27.8. How_to_enter_thousands_of_ephemerids
27.9. How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia_international
27.10. How_to_find_the_user_name_in_a_module
27.11. How_to_correct_thousands_of_users_fields
27.12. How_to_size_the_select_boxes_in_a_module
27.13. How_to_deal_with_date_and_time
27.14. How_to_deal_with_quotes_in_the_site's_name
27.15. How_to_embed_a_Flash_object_in_PHP-Nuke_News
27.16. How_to_backup_your_MySQL_database_using_only_the_browser
28. Programmer's_tools
28.1. The_database_tables
28.2. The_syntax_of_HTML_code
28.3. The_syntax_of_CSS
28.4. The_syntax_of_PHP_code
28.5. The_syntax_of_SQL_code
28.6. MySQL_Front,_how_to_administer_a_MySQL_DB_from_Windows
28.7. Foxserv,_making_PHP-Nuke_work_on_Windows_Systems
A. Appendix
A.1. The_GNU_Free_Documentation_Licence
Index
List of Tables
6-1. Classification_with_topics_and_sections
14-1. <body>_tags_in_theme.php_of_various_themes
16-1. Calls_to_filter_text_from_PHP-Nuke_modules_(v.6.8)
16-2. Calls_to_check_html_from_PHP-Nuke_modules_(v.6.8)
20-1. Help_Center_Live:_setcookie()_calls
21-1. Changing_HTML_links_for_use_in_a_custom_PHP-Nuke_module
21-2. Alternative_way_of_changing_HTML_links_for_use_in_a_custom_PHP-Nuke
module
23-1. List_of_PHP-Nuke_security_vulnerabilities
25-1. URL_replacement_with_replace_for_mod_rewrite():_dynamic_to_static.
List of Figures
2-1. phpnuke.org,_the_official_PHP-Nuke_site.
3-1. WS_FTP:_General_connection_parameters.
3-2. WS_FTP:_Main_screen_with_local_and_remote_windows.
3-3. PHP-Nuke_6.0_file_structure
3-4. WS_FTP_context_menu_on_right_mouse_click:_chmod_(UNIX)
3-5. WS_FTP_Remote_file_permissions_window
3-6. PHPMyAdmin_start_screen.
3-7. phpMyAdmin:_Select_database.
3-8. phpMyAdmin:_Navigation_bar.
3-9. phpMyAdmin:_field_functions.
3-10. phpMyAdmin:_SQL_function.
3-11. phpMyAdmin:_database_dump.
3-12. phpMyAdmin:_table_forum_topics.
3-13. phpMyAdmin:_Create_database.
3-14. phpMyAdmin:_table_structure_and_selection.
3-15. phpMyAdmin:_SQL_query.
3-16. phpMyAdmin:_table_data.
3-17. easyPHP:_Installation_screen.
3-18. easyPHP_icon_in_the_bottom_bar.
3-19. phpinfo:_PHP_screen_for_a_Windows_system.
3-20. RPMdrake:_selecting_the_Apache_package(s)_for_installation.
3-21. Mandrake_Control_Center.
3-22. Red_Hat_Menu:_Packages.
3-23. Red_Hat:_Package_Sections.
3-24. Red_Hat:_Service_Configuration_Panel.
3-25. analyze.php:_MySQL_connection_transcript.
3-26. analyze.php:_MySQL_security_warning.
3-27. Modules_administration_panel.
3-28. Security_code_in_the_User_Login_screen.
3-29. phpinfo():_GD_library_information.
3-30. analyze.php:_GD_library_information.
3-31. User_Login_screen.
3-32. Administration_panel:_Forums.
3-33. Administration_panel:_Forums.
3-34. Administration_panel:_Edit_Admins.
3-35. Administration_panel:_Edit_Admins.
3-36. phpMyAdmin:_field_functions.
3-37. Gzip_compression_in_the_Admin_Panel_of_the_Forums_module.
3-38. Administration_panel:_Modules.
3-39. Missing_blocks.
6-1. PHP-Nuke_Homepage
6-2. Classifying_articles
6-3. Downloads_module
6-4. Private_messages
6-5. Search_module
6-6. Statistics_module
6-7. Your_account
6-8. Splatt_Forum.
6-9. phpBB_Forum.
6-10. The_standard_Modules_block
6-11. Waiting_Content_block.
6-12. Who_Is_Online_block.
6-13. Languages_block.
6-14. Surveys_block.
6-15. Login_block.
7-1. Administration_panel.
7-2. Administration_panel:_Add_story.
7-3. Attaching_a_poll_to_an_article_awaiting_admission.
7-4. Article_Poll_block.
7-5. Administration_panel:_Backup_DB.
7-6. Administration_panel:_Banners.
7-7. Administration_panel:_Blocks.
7-8. Administration_panel:_Content.
7-9. Administration_panel:_Downloads.
7-10. Administration_panel:_Edit_Admins.
7-11. Administration_panel:_Edit_Users.
7-12. Administration_panel:_Encyclopedia.
7-13. Administration_panel:_Ephemerids.
7-14. Administration_panel:_FAQ.
7-15. Administration_panel:_Forums.
7-16. Administration_panel:_HTTP_Referers.
7-17. Administration_panel:_Messages.
7-18. Administration_panel:_Modules.
7-19. Modules_administration_panel.
7-20. Administration_panel:_Newsletter.
7-21. Administration_panel:_Optimize_DB.
7-22. Administration_panel:_Preferences.
7-23. Administration_panel:_Reviews.
7-24. Administration_panel:_Sections.
7-25. Administration_panel:_Submissions.
7-26. Administration_panel:_Surveys.
7-27. Administration_panel:_Topics.
7-28. Administration_panel:_Add_a_new_topic.
7-29. Administration_panel:_Web_Links.
7-30. Administration_panel:_Logout.
7-31. Administration_panel:_Forums.
7-32. Administration_panel:_Preferences.
7-33. General_site_info_in_the_Preferences_page.
7-34. Icons_in_the_footer.
7-35. WebMail_service_options_in_the_Preferences_page.
8-1. Moon,_Moon_&_Sun_and_Sun_blocks.
8-2. Meteosat_block.
8-3. Menu_block_with_Menu_Builder.
8-4. Treemenu_block_with_PHP.
8-5. Treemenu_block_with_Javascript.
8-6. Modules_block._created_with_Sommaire_Paramétrable.
8-7. Random_Quotes_block.
8-8. Event_Calendar
8-9. Calendar1_Block
8-10. Calendar2_Block
8-11. Calendar3_Block
8-12. Calendar4_Block
8-13. Calendar5_Block
8-14. Extra_options_for_user_management_in_the_NSN_Your_Account_Tweak_module.
8-15. Pending_applications_in_the_Approve_Membership_module.
8-16. Approval_message_in_the_Approve_Membership_module.
8-17. E-mail_management_in_the_Approve_Membership_module,_part_I.
8-18. E-mail_management_in_the_Approve_Membership_module,_part_II.
8-19. Gallery_module.
8-20. Gallery_related_files_at_nukedgallery.
8-21. IP_Tracking_module:_IP_Tracking_Info.
8-22. IP_Tracking_module:_Page_View_Info.
8-23. camPortal_block.
8-24. camPortal_module.
8-25. ConquerCam:_main_window_with_the_Options_dialog_opened_up.
8-26. MyHeadlines_Box_containing_syndicated_content.
8-27. MyHeadlines:_Subscribing_to_News_sources.
8-28. PHP-Nuke_Tools_block
8-29. PHP-Nuke_Tools_module:_Module_Creator.
8-30. Upload_module.
8-31. ODP_module.
8-32. Calloways_Cart_module:_Add_Product_screen.
8-33. Administration_panel:_WorkBoard.
8-34. WorkBoard_module:_Administration_panel.
9-1. PHP-Nuke_directory_structure.
12-1. Extra_Info_field_of_User_Personal_Information_(Your_Info)
14-1. Structure_of_the_NukeNews_theme.
14-2. Structure_of_other_themes,_without_HTML_templates.
14-3. Top_navigation_bar_in_the_NukeNews_theme.
14-4. News_article:_“posted_byâ€_does_not_mean_“submitted_byâ€.
16-1. Administration_panel:_Messages.
17-1. The_standard_Modules_block
17-2. The_standard_Modules_block.
17-3. Treemenu_Block.
17-4. Treemenu_Block_with_“Linksâ€_expanded.
17-5. Treemenu_Block_with_“My_workâ€_expanded.
17-6. Treemenu_Block_with_“Linuxâ€_expanded.
18-1. Administration_panel:_Modules.
18-2. Administration_panel:_FAQ.
18-3. Administration_panel:_Reviews.
18-4. Administration_panel:_Web_Links.
18-5. Your_Info_link_in_the_User_Preferences_panel.
18-6. Forum_Profile_link_in_the_Forums_module.
18-7. User_profile_in_Your_Info.
18-8. User_profile_in_the_Forums.
18-9. Administration_panel:_Add_story.
18-10. Administration_panel:_Submissions.
18-11. Waiting_Content_block.
18-12. Administration_panel:_Sections.
18-13. Administration_panel:_Downloads.
18-14. Administration_panel:_Add_story.
19-1. Administration_panel.
19-2. Administration_panel:_Preferences.
19-3. Administration_panel:_Newsletter.
20-1. Administration_panel:_Blocks.
20-2. Block_example
20-3. Administration_panel:_Content.
20-4. Hello_World_block_with_Javascript.
20-5. Help_Center_Live:_Main_screen.
20-6. Help_Center_Live_block:_Live_Support_is_Offline.
20-7. Help_Center_Live_block:_Creating_a_trouble_ticket.
20-8. Help_Center_Live_block:_Live_Support_is_Online.
20-9. Help_Center_Live_block:_Request_monitor_for_the_operator.
20-10. Help_Center_Live_block:_User_notification_of_the_operator's_chat
request.
20-11. Help_Center_Live_block:_User_chat_request.
20-12. PayPal_donation_button
20-13. PayPal_donation_block.
21-1. PHPMyAdmin:_inserting_values
21-2. Example_module.
21-3. PHP-Nuke_HOWTO_included_in_a_module_with_the_help_of_an_iframe.
21-4. Logout_link_in_the_Modules_block.
23-1. PHP_security_warning_from_analyze.php.
23-2. Site_key_security_warning_from_analyze.php.
23-3. WebMail_security_warning_from_analyze.php.
24-1. Accelerating_PHP-Nuke.
24-2. Optimizing_PHP_code_execution.
24-3. Powered_by_jpcache.
24-4. Cache-Lite_is_powered_by_PEAR.
24-5. Turck_MMCache.
25-1. Apache_section_of_the_phpinfo()_output:_mod_rewrite_is_loaded.
25-2. mod_rewrite:_The_control_flow_through_the_rewriting_ruleset
25-3. mod_rewrite:_The_back-reference_flow_through_a_rule.
25-4. Pattern_matching_with_a_regular_expression.
26-1. Administration_panel:_Backup_DB.
26-2. Administration_panel:_Backup_DB.
26-3. phpMyAdmin:_SQL_query.
26-4. Administration_panel:_Modules.
26-5. Administration_panel:_Web_Links.
27-1. Administration_panel:_Modules.
27-2. Modules_administration_panel.
27-3. Administration_panel:_FAQ.
27-4. Administration_panel:_Web_Links.
27-5. Administration_panel:_Downloads.
27-6. Administration_panel:_Web_Links.
27-7. Administration_panel:_Ephemerids.
27-8. Administration_panel:_Encyclopedia.
27-9. Administration_panel:_Downloads.
27-10. Downloads:_Add_download.
27-11. Downloads:_Add_download.
27-12. Downloads:_Main_categories_with_last_download_date.
27-13. Your_Info_profile:_Timezone_and_Date_settings.
28-1. CSS_page_area_model.
28-2. MySQL_Front:_Connection
28-3. MySQL_Front:_export_tables
28-4. 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.2. Formats
Tip Include the PHP-Nuke HOWTO as a module in your PHP-Nuke site!
You can include the PHP-Nuke_HOWTO in your PHP-Nuke site as a module
using either the method of Section_21.6 or the method of Section_21.7!
To use the method of Section_21.6, download the PHP-Nuke_module_version
of_the_PHP-Nuke_HOWTO and install it according to the instruction in the
 accompanying INSTALL file.
To use the method of Section_21.7, just make a module with an index.php
file exactly as in the example shown there. It will show the starting
page of the PHP-HOWTO in an iframe (Figure_21-3) and you will be able to
navigate its pages without installing anything locally. You have Chris'
explicit permission for this.
This document is available in the following formats:
* HTML_(HyperText_Markup_Language), many HTML files (one for every section),
for viewing with any_browser
* HTML_(HyperText_Markup_Language), one big HTML file
* PHP-Nuke_Module
* TXT_(ASCII_Text)
* RTF_(Rich_Text_Format)
* PDF_(Portable_Document_Format)
* PS.GZ_(Compressed_Postscript)
* SGML_(Standard_Generalized_Markup_Language), (with the Appendix)
* LYX_(LaTeX_frontend_LyX), (with the Appendix)
Note RTF: Page numbers
In order to get correct page numbers in Microsoft Word, type the
following after opening the document:
1. CTRL-END
2. CTRL-A
3. F9
In Word Viewer 97, you must instead do:
Â
1. CTRL-END
2. ALT
3. V
4. N
5. ALT
6. V
7. P
See The_OpenJade_RTF_backend for more details.
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:
* TAR.GZ_(Compressed_TAR_Archive),_many_HTML_files_with_images
* TAR.GZ_(Compressed_TAR_Archive),_one_big_HTML_file_with_images
* TAR.GZ_(Compressed_TAR_Archive),_SGML_file_with_images
* TAR.GZ_(Compressed_TAR_Archive),_RTF_file_with_images
A tarball containing all the above formats, including images, is also
available:
* TAR.GZ_(Compressed_TAR_Archive),_All_files
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.3. Licence
Copyright © version 1.0 2002 by Claudio_Erba. Copyright © version 2.0 2004 by
Chris_Karakas and Claudio_Erba. Copyright © version 2.1 2005 by Chris_Karakas
and Claudio_Erba. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 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 in Section_A.1, as well as at the GNU_Free
Documentation_License.
Original version 1.0 by Claudio_Erba, webmaster of spaghettibrain, PHP-Nuke
italian Mirror, 2002. Second, revised and expanded, version 2.0 2004 by Chris
Karakas and Claudio_Erba (see Section_1.5 for details). Corrected 2.1 version
2005 by Chris_Karakas and Claudio_Erba (see Revision History for details).
This book, in all its versions (also those modified from third parties in
italian, english or whichever other language), for will of the authors, may be
reproduced also integrally without violating any law in asmuch as this book is
released under the GNU_Free_Documentation_License, see Section_A.1.
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
authors on the condition that the purchasers be granted the freedom of making
even integral copies, redistribute or resell them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.4. Availability of sources
See Section_1.2 for the modifiable sources of this document. These are the
official versions. We (the authors, 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 edgeâ€
version), check PHP-Nuke:_Management_and_Programming from time to time.
The modifiable sources of Claudio's text (in italian), the images and example
files are available in sxi format (OpenOffice Impress)[1] on Downloads_Area
PHPNuke_BOOK_-_LIBRO_on_spaghettibrain.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.5. Credits
This section documents the efforts that have been invested into this document
by its authors, contributors and the community. We tried hard to give credit
where credit is due. However, this does not mean that we used only the sources
mentioned explicitly here, in this section. Numerous other sources of
information have been used, mainly Forums, such as:
* PHP-Nuke_Forum of Chris_Karakas.
* spaghettibrain of Claudio_Erba.
* nukeforums
* nukecops
Whenever a source has been used, we have included a link to it. Thus, depending
on the context, you should interpret the links in this document not only as a
source of further information on a subject, but also as Credit and a “Thank
you†for the idea, the explanation, the discussion or the piece of code it
offers. If you feel we have ovelooked something, please feel free to contact
us.
We do not offer a Bibliography, as strict academic criteria would require, but
this may change in the future, as Chris is working on a solution_to_the
Bibliography_problem in the context of LyX_and_SGML.
Tip How to enter hundreds of references in LyX
If you look in the following Section_1.5.1, Section_1.5.2 and especially
Section_1.5.3, you will notice the exceptionally large number of cross-
references that had to be entered. Although a single cross-reference is
inserted very easily in LyX (just choose Insert->Cross-reference from the
menu, then choose the label of the reference you want), it becomes a real
pain if you have to enter hundreds of them, as in our case.
 Chris' solution to this was to write a script that reads a LyX file and
outputs another LyX file that contains references to all labels of the
first one. It was easier to copy the references from the file thus
created, paste them in Section_1.5.3(which deals with version 2.0), then
delete references to parts that already existed in version 1.0, than try
to insert references to all new parts of version 2.0 by using the menu.
You can read about Chris' script in Mass_insertion_of_cross-references_in
LyX.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.5.1. Version 1.0
This book started in version 1.0 as a document in italian language, written by
Claudio_Erba. It contained:
* Chapter_1, consisting of Section_1.1, Section_1.2, Section_1.3, Section_1.4
and Section_1.6. This was Chapter 1 of version 1.0.
* Chapter_2, consisting of Section_2.1, Section_2.2, Section_2.3, Section_2.4,
and Section_2.5. This was Chapter 2 of version 1.0.
* Chapter_6, consisting of Section_6.1, a section on AvantGO, now removed,
Section_6.2 and Section_6.3. This was Chapter 3 of version 1.0.
* Chapter_7, consisting of Section_7.1 and Section_7.2. This was Chapter 4 of
version 1.0.
* Chapter_3 consisting of Section_3.2, Section_3.2.1, Section_3.2.2, Section
3.2.3, Section_3.3, Section_3.3.1, Section_3.4.5, Section_3.7 and Section
3.8. This was Chapter 5 of version 1.0.
* Chapter_9, consisting of Section_9.1, Section_9.2, Section_9.3, and Section
9.4. This was Chapter 6 of version 1.0.
* Chapter_14, consisting of Section_14.1, Section_14.2, Section_14.2.1 and
Section_14.8. This was Chapter 7 of version 1.0.
* Chapter_20, consisting of Section_20.1, Section_20.2, Section_20.2.1, Section
20.2.2. This was Chapter 8 of version 1.0.
* Chapter_21, consisting of Chapter_21, Section_21.1, Section_21.2, Section
21.3 and Section_21.4. This was Chapter 9 of version 1.0.
* Chapter_23, consisting of Section_23.4.4, Section_23.4.5 and Section
23.4.5.1. This was Chapter 10 of version 1.0.
* Chapter_28, consisting of Section_28.1, Section_28.5, Section_3.4, Section
3.3.1, Section_3.3.2, Section_28.6 and Section_28.7. This was Chapter 11 of
version 1.0.
Version 1.0 came with the following figures:
* Figure_6-1, Figure_6-2, Figure_6-3, Figure_6-4, Figure_6-5, Figure_6-6,
Figure_6-7, Figure_6-8, Figure_7-1, a screenshot of the News articles that
has been removed, Figure_3-3, Figure_3-6, Figure_3-14, Figure_3-15, Figure_3-
16, Figure_3-11, Figure_20-2, Figure_21-1, Figure_21-2, Figure_3-12, Figure
28-2, Figure_28-3, Figure_28-4.
Version 1.0 contained no tables.
Andre Purfield of Open_Source_Solutions started the translation project (see
the PHP-Nuke_book_translation_thread at nukeforums) and coordinated the work of
the translators. Fortunato Matarazzo made the transaltion of the version 1.0
Chapters 7, 8 and 9 (see above). Chris_Karakas translated the rest. Andre
imported Fortunato's part into LyX, remade many of the screenshots and also
made corrections to the english text of the whole document. Chris imported his
part in LyX, formatted the whole document, created the Index and processed the
LyX file through his scripts (see Section_1.8, for details) to render all the
versions and files available from Section_1.2.
Chris also made PNG, PDF (encapsulated PDF), EPS (encapsulated Postscript) and
BMP versions of all figures. The PDF and EPS versions are included in the PDF
and PS versions of the document respectively. The PNG and BMP versions are used
by the HTML and RTF versions of the document respectively and are supplied
separately in the images folder.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.5.2. Versions 1.x
In the 1.x versions, various improvements have been made on the document, as
can be seen in the Revision History in the front page:
* Version 1.1: Andre Purfield of Open_Source_Solutions cleaned up the wording
and a few typos.
* Version 1.2: Chris_Karakas made various improvements:
o Added a new logo.
o Added a CSS_stylesheet_for_DocBook.
o Took care of HTML validation (all HTML pages now are validated as
conforming to the HTML 4.01 Transitional standard[2]).
o Added footer icons that have the following property: if you click on them,
they validate, depending on the icon, either the HTML code or the CSS code
of the page being currently viewed.
o Added translation links in the header and footer: in the header of each
page, you will find links to Google's automatic translation of that page
into 5 languages - french, german, italian, portuguese and spanish. In the
footer of each page, on the other hand, you will find links to Alta Vista's
automatic “Babelfish†translation of that page into 8 languages: chinese,
german, japanese, korean, french, italian, portuguese and spanish.
o Incorporated LDP reviewer's comments.
o Created Section_1.4 and Section_1.6.
* Version 1.2.1: Chris created the PHP-Nuke_HOWTO_module_for_PHP-Nuke, a module
that integrates this HOWTO into your PHP-Nuke site (you could install this
module too, tip, tip!). Chris added a link to it in the Formats section
(Section_1.2) and made a smaller logo.
Due to Chris' efforts, starting from version 1.2 this document is an official
HOWTO of the Linux_Documentation_Project.
Also, starting from PHP-Nuke version 6.7 FINAL, this document is included in
the docs folder of the standard PHP-Nuke package, as the official PHP-Nuke
guide.
In all 1.x versions after 1.0, the original italian text has undergone no
changes other than those related to translation. But behind the scenes, Chris
and Claudio were working fervently for the next version 2.0, which was going to
bring dramatic improvements, as you can read in Section_1.5.3.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.5.3. Version 2.0
In version 2.0, Chris_Karakas added the following Chapters and Sections:
* In Chapter_1: Section_1.5, Section_1.5.1, Section_1.5.2, Section_1.5.3,
Section_1.5.5, Section_1.7, Section_1.8, Section_17.2.2.1, Section_1.8.2 and
Section_1.9.
* In Chapter_2: Section_2.6, Section_2.6.1, Section_2.6.2 and Section_2.6.3.
* In Chapter_3: Section_3.1, Section_3.2.4, Section_3.6, Section_3.6.2, Section
3.6.3, Section_3.7.1, Section_3.7.1.1, Section_3.7.1.2, Section_3.9, Section
3.9.1, Section_3.9.1.1, Section_3.9.1.2, Section_3.9.1.3, Section_3.9.2,
Section_3.9.3, Section_3.9.4, Section_3.9.5, Section_3.9.6, Section_3.9.7,
Section_3.9.8, Section_3.9.8.1, Section_3.9.9, Section_3.9.10, Section
3.9.11, Section_3.9.12, Section_3.9.13, Section_3.9.14, Section_3.9.15,
Section_3.9.16, Section_3.9.17, Section_3.9.18, Section_3.9.19, Section
3.9.20, Section_3.9.21, Section_3.9.22, Section_3.9.23, Section_3.10, Section
3.10.1 and Section_3.10.2, Section_3.10.3, Section_3.10.4 and Section_3.10.5.
* In Chapter_4: Section_4.1, Section_4.1.1, Section_4.1.2, Section_4.2.
* In Chapter_5: Section_5.1 and Section_5.2.
* The whole Chapter_8: Section_8.1, Section_8.1.1, Section_8.2, Section_8.2.1,
Section_8.2.2, Section_8.2.3, Section_8.2.4, Section_8.2.5, Section_8.2.6,
Section_8.2.7, Section_8.2.8, Section_8.3, Section_8.3.1, Section_8.3.2,
Section_8.3.3, Section_8.3.4, Section_8.3.5, Section_8.3.6, Section_8.3.7,
Section_8.3.8, Section_8.3.9, Section_8.3.10, Section_8.3.11, Section_8.3.12,
Section_8.3.13, Section_8.3.14 and Section_8.3.15.
* The whole Chapter_10: Section_10.1 and Section_10.2.
* The whole Chapter_11: Section_11.1, Section_11.2, Section_11.3, Section_11.4,
Section_11.5, Section_11.6, Section_11.7, Section_11.8 (FIXME: Well, this may
not be finished by the time version 2.0 is released, but the will to write it
was certainly there! :-) ).
* The whole Chapter_12: Section_12.1.
* The whole Chapter_13: Section_13.1, Section_13.2, and Section_13.3.
* In Chapter_14: Section_14.3, Section_14.3.1, Section_14.3.2, Section_14.3.3,
Section_14.3.4, Section_14.3.5, Section_14.3.6, Section_14.3.7, Table_14-1,
Section_14.3.8, Section_14.3.9, Section_14.4, Section_14.4.1, Section_14.4.2,
Section_14.5, Section_14.6, Section_14.6.1, Section_14.6.2, Section_14.7,
Section_14.9, Section_14.10, Section_14.11 and Section_14.12.
* The whole Chapter_15: Section_15.1 and Section_15.2.
* The whole Chapter_16: Section_16.1, Section_16.2 and Section_16.3.
* The whole Chapter_17: Section_17.1, Section_17.2, Figure_17-1, Section
17.2.1, Section_17.2.2, Figure_17-2, Section_17.2.2.1, Figure_17-3, Figure
17-4, Figure_17-5, Figure_17-6, Section_17.2.2.2, Section_17.3 and Section
17.4.
* The whole Chapter_18: Section_18.1, Section_18.1.1, Section_18.1.2, Section
18.2, Section_18.2.1, Section_18.2.2, Section_18.3, Section_18.3.1, Section
18.4, Section_18.4.1, Section_18.4.2, Section_18.5, Section_18.5.1, Section
18.5.2, Section_18.6, Section_18.6.1, Section_18.6.2, Section_18.6.3, Section
18.6.4, Section_18.6.5, Section_18.6.6, Section_18.6.7, Section_18.6.8,
Section_18.7, Section_18.7.1, Section_18.8, Section_18.8.1, Section_18.8.1.1,
Section_18.9, Section_18.9.1, Section_18.10, Section_18.10.1, Section_18.11
and Section_18.11.1.
* The whole Chapter_19: Section_19.1 and Section_19.2.
* In Chapter_20: Section_20.3, Section_20.4, Section_20.5, Section_20.5.1,
Section_20.5.2, Section_20.5.3, Table_20-1, Section_20.7, Section_20.8,
Section_20.8.1, Section_20.9.
* In Chapter_21: Section_21.5, Section_21.6, Table_21-1, Table_21-2, Section
21.7, Section_21.8, Section_21.9, Section_21.9.1, Section_21.9.2, Section
21.10, Section_21.11, Section_21.11.1, Section_21.11.2, Section_21.12,
* The whole Chapter_22: Section_22.1.
* In Chapter_23: Section_23.1, Section_23.2, Section_23.3, Section_23.3.1,
Section_23.3.2, Section_23.3.3, Section_23.3.4, Section_23.4, Section_23.4.1,
Section_23.4.2, Section_23.4.3, Section_23.4.4 (some changes), Section
23.4.5.2, Section_23.5 and Section_23.6.
* The whole Chapter_24: Section_24.1, Section_24.1.1, Section_24.1.1.1, Section
24.1.1.2, Section_24.1.1.3, Section_24.1.2, Section_24.1.2.1, Section
24.1.2.2, Section_24.1.3, Section_24.1.3.1, Section_24.1.3.1, Section
24.1.3.3 and Section_24.1.4.
* The whole Chapter_25: Section_25.1, Section_25.1.1, Section_25.2, Section
25.2.1, Section_25.2.2, Section_25.2.3, Section_25.2.4, Section_25.3, Section
25.4, Section_25.5, Section_25.5.1, Section_25.5.1.1, Section_25.5.1.2,
Section_25.5.1.3, Table_25-1, Section_25.6 and Section_25.7.
* In Chapter_26: Section_25.8, Section_26.1, Section_26.5, Section_26.6 and
Section_26.7.
* The whole Chapter_27: Section_27.1, Section_27.2, Section_27.3, Section_27.4,
Section_27.5, Section_27.6, Section_27.7, Section_27.8, Section_27.9, Section
27.10, Section_27.11, Section_27.13, Section_27.13.1, Section_27.13.2,
Section_27.13.3, Section_27.14, Section_27.15 and Section_27.16.
In version 2.0, Claudio_Erba added the following Chapters and Sections:
* In Chapter_3: Section_3.4, Section_3.4.1, Section_3.4.2, Section_3.4.3,
Section_3.4.4, Section_3.5, Section_3.6.1, Section_3.6.1.1, Section_3.6.4 and
Section_3.6.5.
* In Chapter_4: The introductory text (Chapter_4) and Section_4.3.
* In Chapter_6: A lot of additions and improvements in the whole chapter:
Section_6.1, Section_6.2, Section_6.3.
* In Chapter_7: A lot of additions and improvements in the whole chapter:
Section_7.1, Section_7.1.1 (which was added in this version) and Section_7.2.
* In Chapter_9: Some changes in Section_9.1 and Section_9.2.
* In Chapter_26: Section_26.2, Section_26.2.1, Section_26.2.2, Section_26.3,
Section_26.3.1, Section_26.3.2, Section_26.3.3 and Section_26.4.
* In Chapter_28: Section_28.2, Section_28.2.1, Section_28.2.2, Section_28.2.3,
Section_28.2.4, Section_28.3, Section_28.4, Section_28.4.1, Section_28.4.2
and Section_28.4.3.
Note Note
As you can see, almost all labels of version 1.0 have been preserved in
 version 2.0 too. More specifically, all labels that give rise to HTML
files have been preserved in the LyX file. That's no coincidence: Cool
labels_don't_change!
Chris translated Claudio's additions from italian and inserted some additions
and many cross-references. On the other hand, some of Claudio's information has
found its way in the sections added by Chris.
We have added the GNU Free Documentation Licence in the Section_A.1.
The following figures have been added in version 2.0:
* Chris added: Figure_3-4, Figure_3-5, Figure_3-25, Figure_3-26, Figure_3-27,
Figure_3-28, Figure_3-29, Figure_3-30, Figure_3-31, Figure_3-32, Figure_3-33,
Figure_3-34, Figure_3-35, Figure_3-37, Figure_3-38, Figure_3-39, Figure_6-9,
Figure_6-10, Figure_6-11, Figure_6-13, Figure_7-2, Figure_7-3, Figure_7-4,
Figure_7-5, Figure_7-6, Figure_7-7, Figure_7-8, Figure_7-9, Figure_7-10,
Figure_7-11, Figure_7-12, Figure_7-13, Figure_7-14, Figure_7-15, Figure_7-16,
Figure_7-17, Figure_7-18, Figure_7-19, Figure_7-20, Figure_7-21, Figure_7-22,
Figure_7-23, Figure_7-24, Figure_7-25, Figure_7-26, Figure_7-27, Figure_7-29,
Figure_7-30, Figure_7-31, Figure_7-32, Figure_7-33, Figure_7-34, Figure_7-35,
Figure_8-1, Figure_8-2, Figure_8-3, Figure_8-4, Figure_8-5, Figure_8-6,
Figure_8-7, Figure_8-8, Figure_8-9, Figure_8-10, Figure_8-11, Figure_8-12,
Figure_8-13, Figure_8-14, Figure_8-15, Figure_8-16, Figure_8-17, Figure_8-18,
Figure_8-19, Figure_8-20, Figure_8-21, Figure_8-22, Figure_8-23, Figure_8-24,
Figure_8-25, Figure_8-26, Figure_8-27, Figure_8-28, Figure_8-29, Figure_8-30,
Figure_8-31, Figure_8-32, Figure_8-33, Figure_8-34, Figure_12-1, Figure_14-3,
Figure_14-4, Figure_16-1, Figure_17-1, Figure_17-2, Figure_17-3, Figure_17-4,
Figure_17-5, Figure_17-6, Figure_18-2, Figure_18-3, Figure_18-4, Figure_18-5,
Figure_18-6, Figure_18-7, Figure_18-8, Figure_18-9, Figure_18-10, Figure_18-
11, Figure_18-12, Figure_18-13, Figure_18-14, Figure_19-1, Figure_19-2,
Figure_19-3, Figure_20-1, Figure_20-3, Figure_20-4, Figure_20-5, Figure_20-6,
Figure_20-7, Figure_20-8, Figure_20-9, Figure_20-10, Figure_20-11, Figure_20-
12, Figure_20-13, Figure_21-3, Figure_21-4, Figure_23-1, Figure_23-2, Figure
23-3, Figure_24-1, Figure_24-2, Figure_24-3, Figure_24-4, Figure_24-5, Figure
25-1, Figure_25-2, Figure_25-3, Figure_25-4, Figure_26-1, Figure_26-3, Figure
26-4, Figure_26-5, Figure_27-1, Figure_27-2, Figure_27-3, Figure_27-4, Figure
27-5, Figure_27-6, Figure_27-7, Figure_27-8, Figure_27-9, Figure_27-10,
Figure_27-11, Figure_27-12, Figure_27-13 and Figure_28-1.
* Claudio added: Figure_2-1, Figure_3-1, Figure_3-2, Figure_3-7, Figure_3-8,
Figure_3-9, Figure_3-10, Figure_3-13, Figure_3-17, Figure_3-18, Figure_3-19,
Figure_3-20, Figure_3-21, Figure_3-22, Figure_3-23, Figure_3-24, Figure_3-36,
Figure_6-12, Figure_6-14, Figure_6-15, Figure_7-28, Figure_9-1, Figure_14-1,
Figure_14-2, Figure_26-2 and Figure_27-2.
Again, as in version 1.0, Chris made PNG, PDF (encapsulated PDF), EPS
(encapsulated Postscript) and BMP versions of all figures to be used in the
various formats of the document.
The following tables have been added in version 2.0:
* Chris added: Table_6-1, Table_14-1, Table_16-1, Table_16-2, Table_20-1, Table
21-1, Table_21-2, Table_23-1 and Table_25-1.
Chris wrote all new material of version 2.0 in LyX, formatted the whole
document, created the Index (semi-automatically this time, through some of his
sed and awk scripts, as described in Document_processing_with_LyX_and_SGML) and
processed the LyX file through his scripts (see Section_1.8, for details) to
render all the versions and files available from Section_1.2.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.5.4. Version 2.1
In version 2.1, Chris_Karakas added the following Chapters and Sections:
* In Section_21.5: how to include two files side-by-side in a module.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.5.5. General
Some quotes have been taken from the installation files of phpnuke.org, as well
as from the MySQL_manual.
In Section_25.3 we use material taken from A_Brief_Introduction_to_Regular
Expressions.
The sections on mod_rewrite: Section_25.2.1, Section_25.2.2, Figure_25-2,
Section_25.2.3 and Section_25.2.4 have been taken from the Apache_Documentation
of_mod_rewrite.
Section_10.1 and part of Section_10.2 were taken from a post of Paul S. Owen,
Development Team Leader of phpBB, in http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/
viewtopic.php?t=69493, as well as in http://www.phpbb.com/kb/
article.php?article_id=54 and are included here with permission.
Figure_28-1 is taken from W3C's working draft CSS3_Paged_Media_Module, version
of Dec. 18th 2003 and is Copyright © 2003 W3C (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), All Rights
Reserved. Used with permission according to W3C_document_licence.
The examples for admonition in the Conventions Section (Section_1.7) were taken
from the Section_on_admonitions_of_the_DocBook_Guide of the Debian_Newbiedoc
Project.
The CSS_file_for_DocBook that is used in this document , ck-style.css, uses
QBullets in links. See Explain_CSS on how to do this. Thanks to Matterform
Media for providing QBullets for free. If you plan to use them on your website,
please observe the QBullets_usage_terms.
The CSS also got important elements from the Newbiedoc_CSS_file_for_DocBook and
Mark Pilgrim's influential dive_into_Accessibility. The CSS font size
controlling code and its explanation are taken from Using_relative_font_sizes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.6. Aknowledgements
Claudio said in the first version (1.x) of this document:
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 phpnuke.org from English.
* The communities of Splatt.it, Nukeitalia.com, PHPnuke.it (and its Mailing
List), Postnuke.it, envolution.it, xoops.it and obviously the 1500 registered
users of spaghettibrain.
* Aemmenet, in the person of Mark Atzori that has granted us free use of the
server on which spaghettibrain is accommodated.
* Roberto Scano of IWA Italy and Patrizia Bertini of Webaccessibile.org for the
contributions on usability, accessibility and W3C validation.
* Marcello Tansini of 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
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 .
For this second version (2.x), Claudio wishes to thank:
* Francisco Burzi, the daddy of PHPNuke, who has chosen this book as the
official PHP-Nuke handbook!
* The translator and the manager team of the PHP-Nuke HOWTO: Chris_Karakas,
Andre_Purfield, Fortunato Matarrazzo.
* Umberto Zaccarini of WMG_Italia.
* Euro Gala of Eticoweb, for the operative and ethical support.
* Florence University, because after reading my book they called me to give a
course of CMS at Multimedia_Master; in particular D.ssa Barbara Iraci, Dott.
Diego Mencarelli and Dott. Del Bimbo. Thanks to every master student, too.
* My team, the Crew Spaghetti, Andrea Biraghi, Federico Campoli, Fabio
Pirovano, Claudio Demarinis and the casual externals Alex Zollia, Micaela
Bechini, VirtualDarkness.
* Michel_"Ziobudda"_Morelli, Fabio Farnesi (programmiamo.net), Giovanni
Tummarello (wup.it), Roberto Scano (IWA Italia), Anna Bruno (fullpress.it),
Alessandro Del Rosso and the De Andreis brothers (punto-informatico.it), for
the mediatic space they give me every time.
* My mother Lella, my sister Cora, my dogs Maia and Grey.
* My Sara for everything.
Chris wishes to thank:
* Francisco_Burzi, for writing PHP-Nuke and publishing it under the GNU_General
Public_License.
* Claudio_Erba for bringing the ball in rolling.
* Andre_Purfield for starting this wonderful project in the PHP-Nuke_book
translation_thread at nukeforums.com.
* All software developers, whose software is used in the preparation of this
document (see Section_1.8):
o LyX,
o TeX,
o LaTeX,
o pdfTeX,
o hyperref,
o openjade,
o pdfjadetex,
o thumbpdf,
o DocBook_DSSSL_stylesheets,
o collateindex,
o sgmltools,
o HTML_tidy,
o HTML_split,
o sed,
o runsed,
o awk,
o dvips,
o and all the standard software used in a GNU/Linux system.
* nukeforums for providing a Forum for the initial stages of this project (see
the PHP-Nuke_book_translation_thread), as well as all its numerous readers
for their questions and answers - who have influenced many solutions
presented in this document. Special thanks go to its most active members
o Humpa,
o Chatserv,
o Chris-au,
for all the useful advice. I've learned a lot from you!
* Paul S. Owen for his contribution in Chapter_10 on session management.
* Mark Pilgrim for writing Dive_into_Accessibility and publishing it under the
GNU_Free_Documentation_License.
* All authors of documentation used in various places (see Section_1.5):
o PHP-Nuke,
o PHP_manual,
o MySQL_manual,
o A_Brief_Introduction_to_Regular_Expressions,
o Apache_Documentation_of_mod_rewrite,
o CSS3_Paged_Media_Module,
o Debian_Newbiedoc_Project.
* Matterform Media for providing QBullets for free.
* Didi for Figure_24-2.
* Martin Kaspar for inspirating discussions on PHP-Nuke documentation.
* All visitors of the Karakas_Online_PHP-Nuke_Forum for their kind remarks and
suggestions for the improvement of the document, especially: nikits72,
* Last, but not least, Gloomy for all the moral support during the hard times.
The translators would like to thank the 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.7. Conventions
admonitions
Admonitions are little pictures used to emphasize something of importance
to the reader. The four types used are:
Note Note
 Using a hammer to put together your computer is bad.
Tip Tip
 Do not hit your thumb with the hammer, it hurts!
Important Important
 Watch where you're swinging that hammer!
Caution Caution
 Hitting your thumb with a hammer may lead to an unwanted trip
to the hospital!
Warning Warning
 Do not, under any circumstances, admit that you hit your own
thumb with a hammer. The ridicule you will face is astounding!
Access keys
Access keys enable navigation through the document, without relying on a
mouse. The following keys have been given special meaning in this
document:
P
Previous page.
N
Next page.
H
Home of the document (Table of Contents).
U
Up (takes you one level up the section hierarchy).
If you also happen to be reading the document from its original location,
then the following access keys can also be used:
S
Start (takes you to the author's start page).
T
The current (“Thisâ€) page, without the Sitemenu on the left.
M
The current page in a frameset, where the left frame contains a
Menu.
To use the access keys, you have to simultaneously press a modifier key, which
may vary from browser to browser. For example in NN6+/Mozilla, the modifier key
is ALT, so you have to use ALT-N to go to the next page, and ALT-P to come
back. In other browsers such as IE6, the access keys just give focus to the
associated link, so the sequence becomes ALT-N Enter . Try it, you'll like it!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.8. The book behind the book
Do you want to create professionally formatted documents? Tired of always
having to change the font settings, to insert or delete pagebreaks, to format
your text for printing, monitor, or web view? Do you find yourself spending
hours of your life into formatting issues that you wish you never had to be
conftonted with? Did you, during your editing efforts, ever get the
uncomforting feeling that you are inventing the wheel for th 39th time?
Well, in fact you are! You can use the power of Open Source tools like LyX and
sgmltools to create the documents you've dreamed of, while, as a nice side
effect, concentrating on what deserves most of your attention: Content, not
Formatting! In Document_processing_with_LyX_and_SGML, Chris_Karakas describes a
method by which all you have to do is to write your document in LyX, then run
the .lyx file through a script that will produce the SGML source and, from it,
the HTML, TXT, RTF, PDF and PS formatted documents (as in Section_1.2),
complete with table of contents, embedded pictures, fonts, thumbnails (for PDF)
and other goodies - just as in the document you are reading right now!
That is, to learn how to produce a book like this one, you have to read the
book_behind_the_book.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.8.1. The general idea
When writing LyX documents, formatting should be the last thing on your mind.
Concentrate on writing a clear and c oncise document. The sgml parser will take
care of the formatting.We've all heard of WYSIWYG. LyX is WYGIWYM. WYGIWYM
stands for "What You Get Is What You Mean". This means if you mean for text to
represent source code you assign it a source code environment (Lyxese for
style), and it formats the way you meant it to. You needn't worry about
formatting during the writing of your document. If you don't like the way it
looks upon finishing and printing it out, you can change the way styles map to
formatting, and those styles will consistently change throughout the document.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.8.2. Line of attack
The method described in Document_processing_with_LyX_and_SGML follows a line of
attack defined by the following:
* We put everything in a shell script. We don't want to bother about anything
else. We want to ponder comfortably upon the meaning of life while drinking
some coffee or tea, watching our computer do the work for us - personally, a
very rewarding experience :-)
* We use sed to correct LyX' SGML output. The more we are able to correct, the
more SGML features we get out of our plain vanilla LyX.
* We use the sgmltools package which hides a lot of details from the end user,
giving nonetheless all the power of the involved tools.[3]
* We will adapt the DocBook_DSSSL_stylesheets to our personal needs and taste..
* The end product shall be a directory ready to upload to our web server with
all files, links, images and formats necessary.
So you got appetite and want to delve into the gory details? Read the book
behind this book: Document_processing_with_LyX_and_SGML!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.9. How to translate this HOWTO
The PHP-Nuke_HOWTO started also as a translation. You can read how it all
started in PHP-Nuke_book_translation_thread at nukeforums.com.
The best way to do the translation would be to install the LyX. Chris still
uses an old version (1.2.0) of it, but you could try the newest one and we will
see if his document_processing_scripts still work.
The process is the following (see, for example, Greek_Translation_of_Php-Nuke
HOWTO and New_language_translation_howto):
1. You take the LyX version of the book from the Formats section (Section
1.2), you do the translation in LyX, then send it to Chris_Karakas (chris
at karakas-online dot de).
2. Chris will use his scripts (Section_1.8) to export the LyX document to
SGML, correct the SGML that comes out of LyX, then produce all other
formats, as in Section_1.2).
The advantage of this method is that you only need to translate the words,
leaving everything else (like "environments", SGML tags etc.) untouched. This
way paragraphs, admonitions (see Section_1.7), callouts (those small numbers in
circles that you see in some code examples, as in Section_3.7), code
environments etc., all remain intact - and you don't need to recreate them.
We are in search of available volunteers to translate this book in as many
languages as possible. In the case you are interested in translating this book,
write to chris at karakas-online dot de, or PHP-Nuke_HOWTO. Be prepared for
months of hard work, as this is 500 pages of printed material!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 2. Introduction to PHP-Nuke
2.1. Purpose
There has always been the necessity to have a definitive guide on PHP-Nuke. Due
to time constraints, nobody has ever had the will to carry out this operation.
Not any more! With this book, PHP-Nuke now posesses the most comprehensive
guide on the subject, suitable for newbies and advanced users alike!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.2. What Is PHP-Nuke
PHP-Nuke is free software, released under the GNU_License.
It is a CMS (Content Managment System) that integrates in its inside all the
instruments that are used to create, in a broad sense, an information portal
(Figure_2-1). 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...
Figure 2-1. phpnuke.org, the official PHP-Nuke site.
phpnuke.org, the official PHP-Nuke site.
PHP-Nuke utilizes as hinge of its own structure the duo PHP+ MySQL, very often
being accompanied by the 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...). From version 6.x onwards, the compatibility has been
extended to include other databases as well, in order to extend the user base
even more vastly.
PHP-Nuke is developed with a particular eye to the suggestions of the 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 programmer 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 one'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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 GNU_GPL_License,
version 2.0. PHP-Nuke is the result of many years administrating a
news site called 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 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
appeared to be a 386 each minute the daemon made 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, 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 phpnuke.org and enjoy
this great community!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4. The PHP-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.
* Nukeforums.com: Technical support to PHP-Nuke.
* Nukecops: Official PHP-Nuke development team.
* Karakas-Online_PHP-Nuke_Forum: Chris' PHP-Nuke Forum.
* Nukedownloads.com: File mirror for downloads.
* nukeresources.com: Downloads
* nukefixes.com: Fixes for PHP-Nuke bugs.
* nukesecurity.com: PHP-Nuke security.
* Somara.com: Themes and graphics.
* Nukethemes.com: Themes and graphics.
* Ecomjunk.com: Addons and modules.
* Nukeaddn.com: Addons and modules.
Communities in Italian language:
* Spaghettibrain.com
* Claudiodemarinis.it
* PHPnuke.it
* Splatt.it
* Nukeitalia.com
Thanks to the work of these portals and single persons we have more than 500
different modules and blocks that may be used to personalize our portal, in
areas varying from the weather (Section_8.2.2) to e-commerce (Section_8.3.14),
from gallery (Section_8.3.5) to chat realized in flash and videogames in Java,
all included in the layout of PHP-Nuke.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 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, 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.6. The PHP-Nuke forks
There are several CMS systems, which are PHPNuke forks; among the most famous,
we can mention Post-Nuke, Envolution, MyPHPNuke and Xoops.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.6.1. PHP-Nuke vs. Post-Nuke
Post-Nuke is another Content Management System (CMS) similar to PHP-Nuke.
Whilst PostNuke is a fork of PHP-Nuke, the entire core of the product has been
replaced, with the aim of making it more secure and stable, and able to work in
high-volume environments with ease.
Some of the highlights of PostNuke are, according to its developers (in Post-
Nuke_Modules):
* Customisation of all aspects of the website's appearance through themes,
including CSS support.
* The ability to specify items as being suitable for either a single or all
languages.
* The best guarantee of displaying your webpages on all browsers due to HTML
4.01 transitional compliance.
* A standard API and extensive documentation to allow for easy creation of
extended functionality through modules and blocks.
The merits of Post-Nuke, as compared to those of PHP-Nuke, have been subject of
controversial discussion among fans of both CMSs. We cannot give an objective
opinion, since we are biased towards PHP-Nuke. However, we will try to give
you an idea:
Even its critics will agree that, for a portal whose purpose is to make
information publicly accessible, PHP-Nuke is a very good solution. In
comparison to Post-Nuke, most people will also find that PHP-Nuke has many more
modules available. However, some will argue that most of them seem geared
toward the average end user and not a business or corporate environment.
On the plus side, PostNuke has a very detailed strict user permissions system
allowing you to limit access to every module and area of your site to a general
group or a specific user. The permissions system allows you to create groups
and users with special permissions. You can add a user to one or many of these
groups to give a variety of complex permissions easily. This is handy if you
need moderators, sub admins, and other people helping manage a commercial site
and wish to limit admin access. This may make PostNuke more appealing to a
professional site - but see the Your Account Tweak module (Section_8.3.3), the
Approve Membership module ( Section_8.3.4), the eCommerce modules (Section
8.3.14) or the Project Management WorkBoard module (Section_8.3.15) before you
draw premature conclusions.
Here are some PostNuke modules that are popular among business end users:
* Xanthia_Theme_Engine
* ContentExpess_Content_management
* Static_Content_Management
* PostCalendar
* FormExpress_Forms_Generator
* pnAddressBook_(Palm_Style)
* LDAP
* NukeOWL
* PNphpBB2
However, PostNuke seems to be caught prisoner of its own development impetus:
it changed so fast, so often, and made code break backward compatibility in
newer versions so often, that it became difficult even for seasoned webmasters
to follow it. Lack of compatibility even between adjacent versions and rumours
on its development being suspended, has robbed the nerve of quite a few people,
who then turned back to PHP-Nuke for its great community, support, continuing,
smooth development and vast collection of modules. The following quote, taken
from History_of_PHP-Nuke_and_Post-Nuke, reflects this situation:
I spent a month trying to customize Post-Nuke for a client, and then
I gave up. It was too hard and the support was non-existent. Although
you'll find many people in the community who want to help you, you'll
find no one who has experience with the particular version you've
got.
Note Is Post-Nuke more secure than PHP-Nuke?
The security argument is often heard in favour of Post-Nuke. However, a
commited cracker will probably not encounter considerably more
difficulties in cracking Post-Nuke, than PHP-Nuke, as the following
testimonial, taken from the discussion in History_of_PHP-Nuke_and_Post-
Nuke, illustrates:
I have a fair few associates who are still hackers, and they
can crack into any Post-Nuke site in 20 seconds flat - I've
 timed them - and they've had full - note: FULL access to the
administration section when they have. The fastest I've seen
them hack the least secure PHP-Nuke over the past year, is 30
seconds approx. (32 seconds to be precise). That doesn't
sound like PHP-Nuke is less secure to me.
The latest version of PHP-Nuke (6.5) prior to it's RC1 with
the new security procedures in it, it took them 5 minutes to
hack into it.
Of course, 5 minutes will not make you sleep any more quiet than with Post-
Nuke, but the Web is a dangerous place by construction and and the point is of
relative, not absolute nature. PHP-Nuke has improved its security even more
since then. For more details on PHP-Nuke security, we refer you to Section
23.1, where we will talk about PHP-Nuke's past security vulnerabilities, its
new security procedures and what you can do to enhance its security even
further.
We cannot go into more details on PostNuke, since they would easily fill
another book. Perhaps the best test is to visit the homepages of both projects,
PHP-Nuke and PostNuke - and decide for yourself which one you like best.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.6.2. PHP-Nuke vs. XOOPS
XOOPS is a dynamic OO (Object Oriented) based open source portal script written
in PHP. According to its developers, XOOPS is the “ideal tool for developing
small to large dynamic community websites, intra-company portals, corporate
portals, weblogs and much more†(see About_XOOPS). The developers also tell the
following about their goals:
The goal of the XOOPS team is to create a Content Management System
(CMS) for users and developers that installs out of the box offering
unparalleled ease of use, support and management. The XOOPS CMS will
be extendable by the use of modules installable through a unified
admin interface. The ultimate goal of the XOOPS team is to take the
best features of current CMS's and roll them into an Open Source CMS
that's easy to use, extendable and unparalleled in the Free/Open
Source Community.
XOOPS is (see XOOPS_Features_List):
* Database-driven: XOOPS uses relational databases (currently MySQL) to store
data required for running a web-based content management system (compare with
Section_2.2).
* Fully Modularized: Modules can be installed/uninstalled/ativated/deactivated
with a click using the XOOPS module administration system (compare with
Section_9.3).
* Personalization: Registered users can edit their profiles, select site
themes, upload custom avatars, and much more (compare with Chapter_6)!
* User Management: The ability to search for users by various criteria, send
email and private messages to users through a template-based messaging system
(compare with Figure_6-4).
* Supported World-wide: The XOOPS community has more than dozen official
support sites around the world for support of non-English speaking users
(compare with Section_2.4).
* Multi-byte Language Support: Fully supports multi-byte languages, including
Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, etc (compare with
Chapter_13).
* Versatile Group Permissions System: Powerful and user-friendly permissions
system which enables administrators to set permissions by group (compare with
Section_8.3.3).
* Theme-based skinnable interface: XOOPS is driven by a powerful theme system.
Both admins and users can change the look of the entire web site with just a
click of a mouse. There are also over 60 themes available for download
(compare with Chapter_14)!
The OO (Object Oriented) approach of XOOPS to Web Content Management is
innovative, but also controversial. Franzisco Burzi writes in History_of_PHP-
Nuke_and_Post-Nuke:
About saying that OOP (Object Oriented Programming) is a good stuff
and makes stuff more stable, modular, or whatever else you want...
False. OOP is good for very big projects, which is not the case of
PHP-Nuke (I mean VERY BIG projects) with a lot of reusable code.
BUT... any good PHP programmer knows that the use (or worse, the
intense use) of objects/classes in a PHP script isn't good. PHP is
not efficient managing objects/classes. At least it's less efficient
than managing custom user created functions. Any decent PHP 4 book
will say this to you: If you can manage to have your software working
without using OOP, there isn't any reason to use objects, because of
performance issues.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.6.3. XOOPS vs. Post-Nuke
We cannot go into the details of a comparison between XOOPS and Post-Nuke, as
this would be rather off-topic here. For a discussion of XOOPS vs. Post-Nuke,
see XOOPS_vs._Post-Nuke. There, among lists of pros and contras, you will read
this:
I'm an architect. My teacher always told me that there are no "bad
tools". There are only "bad craftsmen".
Find your own way to work - it's not a race, not a competition, you
don't need to have the better machine to win. The best sites won't
flash with decorations, tons of blocks and gifs. They are made with
the same basic tools, CLEAR AND WISE IDEA, and lots of custom made
details.
Innovate - not imitate.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 3. 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 PHP+ MySQL+ Apache, PHPMyAdmin etc. refer to Chapter_28
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 from 6.0 onwards.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.1. Prerequisites
In the INSTALL file of PHP-Nuke, we read the following about its requirements:
In order to setup PHP-Nuke the folowing prerequisits are necessary.
* Linux, installed and working properly.
* Apache_Web_Server.
* PHP version 4.1.x or better (mod_php) Apache module.
* MySQL_database_server
...The above doesn't mean it will not work with other configurations,
OS's, DB's, etc, but we only provide INSTALL instructions for the
above configuration. In fact PHP-Nuke works under Windows (all),
FreeBSD, OS/2, MacOS, etc.
Important PHP 4.1.0 or later needed!
From the INSTALL file, we see that you must have at least PHP 4.1.0
 to use PHP-Nuke 6.5 and later. This is an important piece of
information that you should ckeck before proceeding. See Warning:
Invalid_argument_supplied_for_foreach().
You see, it is always a good idea to read the INSTALL file that comes with a
software package.
To see the PHP version you are running and do also a small test on your
configuration, you can run the test.php file as described in Section_3.9.1.1.
Note PHP-Nuke and databases other than MySQL
From PHP-Nuke version 5.3, Francisco added a new SQL abstraction layer.
 It enables PHP-Nuke to support databases other than MySQL, like mSQL,
PostgreSQL, PostgreSQL_local, ODBC, ODBC_Adabas, Sybase and Interbase.
For the Microsoft Internet Informaion Server (IIS), some tests we have done
were positive, some others indicated that a special configuration was needed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.2. Installation process
3.2.1. 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 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 “Nuke6†or whatever ( sites from which you can download PHP-Nuke are:
phpnuke.org, www.spaghettibrain.com etc.).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.2.2. 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 PHP and MySQL.
Your ISP has already given you:
* An FTP user and password: you need these for the file transfers.
* A database user and password, as well as the name of the database server to
connect to: you need them to connect your applications (like PHP-Nuke) to the
database and to be able to access the administration panel of phpMyAdmin
(Section_3.3).
For FTP in the Windows plattform, we recommend using the WS_FTP application. It
is free for personal use and you can download it from download.com by entering
the search key “ws_ftpâ€. For the Linux plattform instead, we recommend GFTP
(free for all and preinstalled in all distributions), which can be run from the
command line by simply typing “gftpâ€.
Figure 3-1. WS_FTP: General connection parameters.
WS_FTP: General connection parameters.
The use of an FTP program is very simple - we will follow the procedure through
4 screens that enable us to:
* Connect (Figure_3-1)
* Transfer files (Figure_3-2)
* Set up the permissions (see also Section_3.2.3)
* (Eventually) edit the uploaded files
Figure_3-1 shows the WS_FTP General Connection Parameters screen. Entering the
right values in the fields of that screen will enable you to conncet to the
server where you want to upload the files.
Caution Attention!
If you are installing PHP-Nuke locally, it is not necessary to use
FTP! In this case, it suffices to copy the files into the right
 directory. In case you are working under Linux, it may be necessary
to set the right file permissions. See Section_3.2.3 on how to do
this.
Figure 3-2. WS_FTP: Main screen with local and remote windows.
WS_FTP: Main screen with local and remote windows.
Once connected, the next operation is to upload the files on the remote server.
With WS_FTP, as well as woth the majority of the other FTP clients, the window
that contains the local files is located to the left, while the remote files
are displayed in a window to the right (Figure_3-2). You have to position your
cursor on the directory that contains the files to be uploaded to the left and
the directory tha has to receive them on the remote host to the right. You can
do this through the graphical interface of WS_FTP.
As you can see in Figure_3-2, there are also some function buttons there: the
two arrows are used to upload / download files to / from the server, the other
two buttons that are functionally important are “MkDirâ€, which creates a new
directory, and “Refreshâ€, which updates the view of data contained in a window.
Don't upload all extracted files. After extraction, you will find a structure
similar to the one depicted in Figure_3-3.
Figure 3-3. PHP-Nuke 6.0 file structure
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). But in order to populate the database with the PHP-Nuke tables,
you will also need to upload the sql folder too. After the database creation
(see Section_3.2.4), you should delete this folder though - for security
reasons.
An operation that may be useful in cases of emergency is “Editâ€, which is
accessible from the context menu after a right click with the mouse on the
desired file. “Edit†will allow a direct modification of the file, without the
intermediate step of downloading it to your computer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.2.3. 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.
Permissions:
Each file or directory[4] has 3 groups of permissions associated with it:
one set of Read, Write or Execute permissions for the owner (also called
“user†in this context), a group and "others" respectively. The owner in
our case should be the user name of your web server. The group is a user
group the web server is a member of. And “others†are just “the restâ€.
File permissions are usually grouped together in groups of three, like this:
(rwx)(rwx)(rwx). The first group are the user permissions, the second one the
group permissions and the third one the permissions for “othersâ€. A good
mnemonic for this grouping is UGO (User, Group, Others). Inside each
permissions group, a certain permission may or may not be present. Thus, the
user (owner) of the file will usually have read and write permissions (and
execute permission too, if the file is executable), but the group permissions
may only allow read access and “others†may not be allowed to access the file
at all, neither for reading, nor for writing or execution.
If you imagine that the existence of a permission is denoted by a 1, while its
absence by a 0, then you end up with a representation like (111)(111)(111),
where all permissions are present for all, or (000)(000)(000), where they are
absent for all. Of course, any other combination is possible, for example (111)
(110)100), which denotes read, write and execute permissions for the user (all
1s are present in the first grouping: (111)), read and write permissions for
the group (only the first and second 1s are there in the second grouping (110))
and read permission for others (since only the first 1 is there, while the rest
are 0s in the third grouping (100)).
Writing down a sequence of nine 0s and 1s is not very practical, so one came
with the idea to interprete each one of the three groupings as a binary number.
A (111) would thus mean a 7, a (110) a 6, a (100) a 4. Taken together, the
sequence (111)(110)100) of the example above would be represented by the number
764. That's compact and widely used.
Unfortunately, it is also very cryptic, since most people didn't have much
exposure to the binary number system at school, not to mention everyday life.
How is one going to understand instructions like “set file permissions to 644â€
then?
Luckily, there exists an easy mnemonic for this: “4,2,1â€, that is the first 1
counts as a 4, the second as a 2 and the third one as 1 - a 0 is always a 0, by
the way, even in the binary system.
Whenever you see a 1 in the first position of a permissions triple, you add a
4, whenever you see one in the second, you add a 2 and if you see it in the
third, you add 1. You do this for UGO, that is for User, Group and Others and
you end up with a three digit number that represents the permissions of the
file.
Most of the time, however, you will be busy deciphering permissions, rather
than formulating them yourself in this cryptic manner. So how do you go about
interpreting a permissions representation like 764 that was given to you in a
document like the PHP-Nuke_HOWTO?
For this, you will need to develop a “feeling†of how each of the three numbers
(7, 6 and 4 in this example) can be written as a unique sum of 4s, 2s and 1s.
For example 7 is 4+2+1, 6 is 4+2 and 4 is just 4. A 4 in the sum represents a 1
in the leftmost position. If a 4 is not present in the sum, the leftmost
position is a 0. A 2 in the sum reperesents a 1 in the middle position - if
there is no 2 in the sum, you just write a 0 there. Finally, a 1 in the sum
represents a 1 in the rightmost position, while if there is no 1 in the sum,
you write a 0 there.
Now if you remember that the leftmost 1 or 0 in a pattern like (111) denotes a
read permission or the absence or it, a 1 or a 0 in the middle position denotes
a write permission or its absence and a 1 or 0 in the leftmost position denotes
an execute permission or its absence, then you can take a permissions
represenation like 764 above, see that 7=4+2+1 and realize that it means (111),
see that 6=4+2 (or 4+2+0, if you like) and realize that it means (110), finally
see that 4=4 (or 4+0+0) and realize that it stands for (100), and you can see
that 764 is equivalent to (111)(110)(100), meaning read, write and execute
permissions for the user (owner), read and write permissions for the group and
only read permissions for others.
Easy after all, isn't it?
For more information on permissions, see:
* Setting_Unix_Permissions_For_Web_Pages
* An_Introduction_to_Unix_Permissions
* Understanding_UNIX_permissions_and_chmod
* Tutorial:_UNIX_Permissions
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 right permissions for PHP-Nuke are the following (for the base permissions,
see Section_23.4.4 in the context of security):
* Files: 644
* Directories: 755
Only directories that require upload access (like the forum's avatar folder, if
you allow avatar upload) should be set to 777 and files that get data written
to them by the program should be set to 666.
With 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
(UNIX)†(see Figure_3-4).
Figure 3-4. WS_FTP context menu on right mouse click: chmod (UNIX)
WS_FTP context menu on right mouse click: chmod (UNIX)
The window “Remote file permissions†will appear (see Figure_3-5). To change
the permissions on a directory as required to 755, for example, check the boxes
as shown in Figure_3-5 and press “OKâ€.
Figure 3-5. WS_FTP Remote file permissions window
WS_FTP Remote file permissions window
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.2.4. Database creation
Create a database that will contain the PHP-Nuke tables. The name of the
database should be the same name as the one you entered in config.php (see
Section_3.7):
________________________
| |
| mysqladmin create nuke|
|________________________|
To populate the database, you have to run the nuke.sql file “through†mysql.
Change to the sql directory and do from the command line:
_________________________________________________
| |
| mysql -h dbhost -u dbuname -p dbname < nuke.sql|
|_________________________________________________|
where dbhost, dbuname and dbname are the database host, database username and
database name, exactly as entered in config.php. Just as you import nuke.sql,
you can import any other MySQL dump file (see also Section_3.4.2).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.3. How to install PHP-Nuke through phpMyAdmin
To be able to create a database, you must be able to administer it. A perfect
instrument for doing this via a browser is phpMyAdmin.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.3.1. What Is PHPMyadmin
PHPMyAdmin is a visual system for the management of a MySQL database (see
Figure_3-6). It is written in 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.3.2. How to install phpMyAdmin
Local installation under Windows is very simple: you only need to extract the
files from the archive you downloaded from the official_phpBB_site and point
your browser to the address http://localhost/phpmyadmin. You will then see a
screen as in Figure_3-6.
Figure 3-6. PHPMyAdmin start screen.
PHPMyAdmin start screen.
If you are working locally, don't worry about any warnings you might get. In
case you have to install phpMyAdmin on your server, e.g. when your ISP does not
offer a preinstalled administration panel for the database, you must configure
the config.inc.php file that comes with it:
Supposing that your data are:
* IP of the database server: 156.123.22.34
* User: Pippo
* Password: Topolino
* Database name: Minnie
then the necessary entries in config.inc.php look like this:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| $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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.4. phpMyAdmin: How to administer MySQL via Web
Once you have opened your phpMyAdmin (to do this, if you are working locally,
you would have to open http://localhost/phpmyadmin with your browser), you will
get a screen that offers you the possibilities of
* Select a database through a drop-down list.
* Create a new database
as in Figure_3-7.
Figure 3-7. phpMyAdmin: Select database.
phpMyAdmin: Select database.
Once you have chosen the desired operation, you arrive at the administration
interface of your phpMyAdmin. Newer versions contain a navigation bar, located
at the top (Figure_3-8), offering the following options:
* Structure: See the database structure.
* SQL: Execute SQL operations (e.g. load an existing database).
* Export: Make a backup of the database.
* Search: Search for data.
* Query: Display the structure of an SQL query (useful for programmers).
* Drop: Delete a database (be careful!).
Figure 3-8. phpMyAdmin: Navigation bar.
phpMyAdmin: Navigation bar.
As far as we are concerned here, we only need to explain the first 3 items:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.4.1. phpMyAdmin navigation bar: Structure
“Structure†presents a list of the available tables in the database, with the
follwing accompanying options:
* Browse: shows the content of the table.
* Select: is used to make SQL queries to the table.
* Insert: is used to insert new data into the table.
* Properties: displays the structure of the table, ie. its fields, their type,
length etc.
* Drop: deletes the table (be careful!).
* Empty: empties the content of the table, but does not delete the table
itself, it leaves it empty (be careful again!).
The most frequently asked questions in this context are:
How do I delete a single record of the table?
Select the table, click on “Browse†and select “Delete†for the record in
question.
If the password is stored encrypted with MD5, how do I change it?
Select the table, click on “Browseâ€, then on “Edit†and enter, in clear
text, the desired password. Select from the drop-down “Function†menu
besides the field the desired function, in our case “MD5†(see Figure_3-
9). See also Section_3.9.17.
Figure 3-9. phpMyAdmin: field functions.
phpMyAdmin: field functions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.4.2. phpMyAdmin navigation bar: SQL
“SQL†serves the purpose of “loading†whole datasets or already existing
databases with one action. The datasets (or the database) are presumed to be
already available in a MySQL “dump fileâ€. This is a text file containing all
the necessary SQL queries that must be sent to the database server, in order
for the datasets or database to be created. An example of such a dump file is
the nuke.sql file that comes with PHP-Nuke and contains all the database
instructions for the tables to be created during installation (see Section
3.4.5).
The use of this function is very simple: just search your system for the dump
file you want to load, by hitting the “Browse†button (Figure_3-10). MySQL dump
files usually come with the “.sql†ending, but “.sql.phpâ€, “.txt†or even
“.php†are also in use. Whether the file is a MySQL dump file or not, can only
be told by inspection: open it with a decent_text_editor (see Chapter_11) and
if the first lines look like
_____________________________________
| |
| # MySQL dump 6.6 |
| # |
| ... |
| # |
| # Table structure for table 'xxxxx'|
| # |
| CREATE TABLE xxxxx ... |
| ... |
| # |
| # Dumping data for table 'xxxxx' |
| # |
| INSERT INTO xxxxx ... |
|_____________________________________|
i.e. if it contains CREATE and/or INSERT SQL statements, then it is a dump file
(see also Section_3.4.3).
This function is useful when you want to create whole databases and fill them
with data in one step, but it is also very useful when you want to add data to
an existing database. However, this does not mean that it will always succeed:
especially if the dump files are very large, this operation my exceed the PHP
CPU limit (usually set to 30 sec. by the ISPs). (see, for example, Section
27.16)
Figure 3-10. phpMyAdmin: SQL function.
phpMyAdmin: SQL function.
Caution Beware of long .sql files!
You can of course use phpMyAdmin to comfortably import any MySQL dump
file, i.e. from a previous backup of an existing installation with
thousands of forums posts. In this case, the import may take longer
than the limit on the execution time of PHP scripts that most ISPs
set (usually 30 sec.). You will end up with a half-filled database!
In this case, either cut the file up into smaller chucks and use
 phpMyAdmin to load the smaller files, or insert the text piecewise
for execution in the text area field of phpMyAdmin that is there for
this purpose, or, as a last resort, do it from the command line, as
shown in Section_3.2.4.
See also how_to_import_a_'.sql'_(>3M)_file_to_mysql_database_with
phpmyadmin?, Importing_.sql_files_into_an_existing_database_in
phpmyadmin.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.4.3. phpMyAdmin navigation bar: Export
Figure 3-11. phpMyAdmin: database dump.
phpMyAdmin: database dump.
The “Export†function is useful for obtaining backups of our database (we
recall that this is also possible to do from the administration panel of PHP-
Nuke, see Section_7.1). The management console we get for this function is
quite detailed (Figure_3-11):
In the central area, we have a list of the database tables, while to the right
we have the backup options:
* Structure only: backs up the structure of the database (tables, their fields
and their properties), but not the data it contains (i.e. the tables are left
empty).
* Structure and data: will save not only the structure, as above, but the data
in the tables as well.
* Data only: will save only the data, but not the structure.
* XML: saves the database in an XML format.
The options that appear in the lower part of the screen have to do with the
extra features the created backup file should have:
* Add 'Drop Table': Prepends an instruction to destroy any existing table with
that name to the instructions that create that table. For example, if we
already have a table “nuke_authors†in our database, this option will take
care of removing it, before it loads the structure and/or data for a table
with the same name. Otherwise, attempting to import a file that contains
structure and/or data for nuke_authors will result in an error, since the
table will already exist. You should check this option if you are
reinstalling PHP-Nuke over a previous unsuccessful instalation and you think
you might already have some tables there.
* Save as file: will save the backup as a file (which will be compressed
accordingly, with either ZIP or GZIP, if the “zipped†or “gzipped†boxes are
checked - other versions of phpMyAdmin may only offer a “bzip†compression).
If we don't select any table from the table list, phpMyAdmin will deduce that
we want to save all tables. In case you want to select only some of them, just
click on the ones you want with the left mouse button, keeping the CTRL button
pressed.
To export a database from the command-line, without the use of the graphical
tool of phpMyAdmin, you just do:
______________________________________________________
| |
| mysqldump -u dbuser -h dbhost -p dbname > dbdump.sql|
|______________________________________________________|
where dbuser, dbhost and dbname are the database user, host and name
respectively, exactly as entered in config.php (Section_3.7).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.4.4. phpMyAdmin: other commands
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
3-12).
Figure 3-12. phpMyAdmin: table forum_topics.
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.
To learn more about the possibilities that phpMyAdmin offers you in
administering your databases, see Doing_More_With_phpMyAdmin_(Part_1) and Doing
More_With_phpMyAdmin_(Part_2). The first part explains how to obtain the
software, install and configure it for secure access, and use it for tasks such
as managing multiple servers, manipulating user privileges, viewing reports on
server activity, and exporting MySQL records into different formats. The second
part explains the more advanced aspects of the application, including using it
for transformations, maintaining a history of all the SQL queries executed in
the phpMyAdmin session, defining relations between tables to create JOINs
automatically, creating E-R diagrams in PDF format, and bookmarking important
queries for future reference.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.4.5. How to install the DB of PHP-Nuke with PHPMyadmin
Create a database that will contain the PHP-Nuke tables (see Figure_3-13). The
name of the database should be the same name as the one you entered in
config.php (see Section_3.7).
Figure 3-13. phpMyAdmin: Create database.
phpMyAdmin: Create database.
To populate the database, you have to import the nuke.sql file, exactly as we
showed in Section_3.4.2 for general database dump files. 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_3-14). It is these
options we are interested in when installing PHP-Nuke.
Figure 3-14. phpMyAdmin: table structure and selection.
phpMyAdmin: table structure and 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_3-15). 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 succeededâ€.
Caution Don't delete the whole database on the ISP!
If you have bought some hosting space on your ISP's servers, you may
not be able to create databases at your will, but be constrained to
 use only the one that your ISP created for you. In this case, you can
create, delete and modify its tables and their contents, but not the
database itself! Don't drop the whole database, as you may not be
allowed to recreate it!
Figure 3-15. phpMyAdmin: SQL query.
phpMyAdmin: SQL query.
You can verify that the tables were populated with data by browsing their
contents (Figure_3-16) - click on the small icons besides their names in the
left frame for this (if you click on their names, you will only see their
structure).
Figure 3-16. phpMyAdmin: table data.
phpMyAdmin: table data.
Other options of PHPMyAdmin that are not relative to the installation of PHP-
Nuke, but still useful for the administration of the database, can be found in
Section_3.3.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.5. How to install PHP-Nuke using nukesql.php
If fiddling with the database from the MySQL command line does not make you
feel comfortable, you can use one of the Web_Installers_for_PHP-Nuke available
for your version, in the form of the nukesql.php script. This file will install
all required database tables for a fresh installation of PHP-Nuke. It works a
follows:
Simply enter your database login information in config.php (see Section_3.7),
upload all PHP-Nuke files (Section_3.2.2), then upload this file to PHP-Nuke's
root directory and point your browser to it (e.g. http://yoursite.com/
nukesql.php).
nukesql.php proceeds in an interactive way to populate the database tables and
test your settings in config.php.
Some of its features:
* Checks that you are not using the default $sitekey (Figure_23-2).
* Lists existing database tables if any.
* Installs tables on a empty database.
* Replaces existing tables with new ones.
* Creates duplicate tables for a second nuke site using one database by using a
different prefix in config.php (see also Section_3.7.1).
* Will help you troubleshoot installation by testing connection to the MySQL
server and selection of database (see also Section_3.9.1).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.6. How to install PHP-Nuke locally
A PHP-Nuke installation on your own computer will give you the opportunity to
test the whole spectrum of functionalities offered, as if you were online and
your system were hosted in your ISP. But in order to start working on PHP-Nuke
locally, you must have a web server installed on your box. In this section we
will cover the necessary steps towards a working PHP-Nuke environment (Apache +
PHP + MySQL ) under Windows and Linux.
For Windows, there are various packages you can choose from - they will install
Apache, PHP and even MySQL for you and will provide a ready-to-use environment
for the installation of PHP-Nuke. Among them, there are easyPHP (Section
3.6.1), XAMPP (Section_3.6.2) and Apache2Triad (Section_3.6.3).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.6.1. easyPHP
After the download_of_easyPHP (version 1.6 or later), istallation is really
easy: just click the setup icon to start it. You will be asked a few questions
in the processes and that's all. The first screen is a welcome message and you
only have to click on “next†(“suivantâ€). You will then be presented with
screens like licence etc. and you can continue clicking on “next†(“suivantâ€),
until you reach the screen that asks you where you want to install easyPHP
(Figure_3-17), in which case you just choose the right path (if you have doubts
about the right path, you can leave it to the default just as well).
Figure 3-17. easyPHP: Installation screen.
easyPHP: Installation screen.
Continue clicking on “suivant†until the end of the installation, when you have
to click on “terminer†to end it. easyPHP is now installed.
But where should you install PHP-Nuke in a system with easyPHP installed?
Suppose you installed easyPHP in a folder like c:\easyphp. Open that folder and
you will find various subdirectories. The one that is important is www. It is
under the www folder that the local copy of Apache will expect the files to
process - and it is exactly there where you should install PHP-NukeI in the c:
\easyphp\www folder.
We must still explain a couple of elements of easyPHP's functioning. Once you
start the easyPHP application, you will find an icon in the bottom bar, to the
right of your screen, that resembles an “e†with a small red point (Figure_3-
18). If the red point is lighting, the server is active, if it is dimmed out,
the server is shut down.
Figure 3-18. easyPHP icon in the bottom bar.
easyPHP icon in the bottom bar.
To administrate easyPHP, you only have to click on that black “eâ€. A right
click with the mouse will offer a menu with all commands available for the
server administration, a double click with the left mouse button will instead
offer an information screen.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.6.1.1. How to check a successful installation
To make sure that Apache and PHP have been installed correctly on our system,
we will use the phpinfo() function of PHP, which asks the server to give
information about the PHP configuration. If we get a screen like the one of
Figure_3-19, then everything is working correctly.
Figure 3-19. phpinfo: PHP screen for a Windows system.
phpinfo: PHP screen for a Windows system.
To construct a file that uses the phpinfo() function, you can either use the
text.php script of Section_3.9.1.1, or, even more simply, create a text file
(with a decent_text_editor, see also Chapter_11) that contains only the line
__________________
| |
| <? phpinfo(); ?>|
|__________________|
Save the file under the name, say, info.php and move it to the www folder of
the easyPHP directory (we talked about it above). Then enter the URL
___________________________
| |
| http://localhost/info.php|
|___________________________|
in the address bar of your browser and you should get (among other information)
the screen of Figure_3-19.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.6.2. XAMPP
XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl.
XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use - just download, extract and
start.
The distribution for Linux system (tested for SuSE, RedHat, Mandrake and
Debian) contains: Apache, MySQL, PHP & PEAR, Perl, ProFTPD, phpMyAdmin,
OpenSSL, GD, Freetype2, libjpeg, libpng, gdbm, zlib, expat, Sablotron, libxml,
Ming, Webalizer, pdf class, ncurses, mod_perl, FreeTDS, gettext, mcrypt, mhash,
Turck MMCache, SQLite and IMAP C-Client.
The distribution for Windows 98, NT, 2000 and XP contains: Apache, MySQL, PHP +
PEAR, Perl, mod_php, mod_perl, mod_ssl, OpenSSL, phpMyAdmin, Webalizer, Mercury
Mail Transport System for Win32 and NetWare Systems v3.32, JpGraph, FileZilla
FTP Server, mcrypt, Turck MMCache, SQLite, and WEB-DAV + mod_auth_mysql. The
versions of the programs included in the latest version for Windows are:
* Apache 2.0.48
* MySQL 4.0.16
* PHP 4.3.4
* Openssl 0.9.7c
* SQLite 2.8.6
* mod_php 4.3.4 + mod_perl 1.99_10 + mod_ssl 2.0.48
To install XAMPP you only need to download and extract XAMPP, that's all. There
are no changes to the Windows registry and it's not necessary to edit any
configuration files. It couldn't be easier!
To check that XAMPP is working some sample programs are included, there is a
small CD collection program (written in PHP using MySQL) and a small guest book
software (written in Perl) and several other utilities.
If you decide that XAMPP isn't needed any more just delete the XAMPP directory
and it's completely removed from your system.
Important On the press: Call for donations
On December 19, 2003, someone applied to the German Patent and
Trademark Office for the rights to the "XAMPP" name. This person
was not one of the XAMPP developers, but someone totally unknown to
them.
The trademark application is a danger for the project's future,
since the applicant could - if no legal measures are taken - forbid
 that the XAMPP developers use that name for their software or do
business taking advantage of the name's popularity.
The XAMPP developers call on the project's website for donations to
help counter this threat with legal means. Whether you are a new
XAMPP user, a friend of Apache Friends, or just someone who would
like to help, please take the time and make_a_donation_to_the_XAMPP
project.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.6.3. Apache2Triad
Apache2Triad offers the following goodies, according to the Description:
Apache 2.0.47 , MySQL 4.0.13 , OpenSSL 0.9.7b PHP 4.3.3 , Perl 5.8.0
, Tcl 8.4.2 , Python 2.2.2 plus PHP-Nuke 6.8 , PHPmyadmin 2.5.2 ,
AWStats 5.7 plus Stunnel 4.04 , SSLCert 1.0 plus Xmail 1.1.6 and
SlimFTPd 3.13 plus UebiMiau 2.7.2 and PHPXmail 0.33 all configured
and easy to install and easy to customize as it has the cleanest
layout and structure there is and is updated for every new release of
the software it contains plus The Apache2triad Control Pannel suite
of tools plus Full documentations plus Unparalelled Installer.
The homepage of the program is Apache2Triad. Apache2Triad is not free for
commercial usage: if your company wants to use Apache2Triad you must purchase
it for 15$, which is certainly worth the money if you only think at the
frustration it saves you by installing all the above packages for you.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.6.4. Apache, PHP and MySQL on Mandrake Linux
We will describe how to get a functioning, local installation of the Apache-
PHP-MySQL trio on a Linux system - we chose Mandrake Linux for this purpose,
but the process is similar with other distributions. We will use visual tools
for our purposes, making the assumption that, whoever is capable of compiling
the binaries from the source code himself, will not need our guidance.
Figure 3-20. RPMdrake: selecting the Apache package(s) for installation.
RPMdrake: selecting the Apache package(s) for installation.
The most simple thing to do to get Apache, PHP and MySQL installed under Linux,
is to install the appropriate packages from the CD. For this, we will use the
software application tool called RPMdrake; upon execution, it will ask for the
root password; after we enter it, we will be presented a screen that asks us
what we want to install. We enter “Apache†in the aproppriate field and in the
sequence we choose the main Apache package (Figure_3-20). RPMdrake will ask us
if we also want to install the packages of the “dependencies†(i.e. packages
which the main package we selected depends on). It is important to answer with
“yes†here.
We then click on “install†and we are asked to insert the CD (or the CDs)
containing the RPM packages. Once Apache has been installed, we open the
Mandrake Control Center and click on “Start†for the httpd service (Figure_3-
21).
Figure 3-21. Mandrake Control Center.
Mandrake Control Center.
The last control step is to open our browser and instruct it to open http://
localhost/. If the browser's response is Apache's Welcome Page, we are done.
We have to repeat the above operations in the same identical way for the PHP
and MySQL packages. In order to make the MySQL database service available, we
have again to go to Mandrake Control Center and click on “Start†for the mysql
service - PHP does not need this step, it is available immediately after
installation.
But where is the folder for the HTML files and our PHP-Nuke? It turns out that
this is under /var/www/html and we should use phpMyAdmin (Section_3.3) to give
this folder the permissions of 777 (for more on file permissions, see Section
3.2.3). This way all users will be able to add, modify and delete files there,
not only root.
To verify that everything has gone well, we use the info.php file of Section
3.6.1.1. If we get a screen similar to that of Figure_3-19, then everything is
fine.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.6.5. Apache, PHP and MySQL on Red Hat Linux
For some obscure reason, Red Hat 8.0 does not connect the PHP package to that
of MySQL and we have to resort to some tricks to make them work together. Thus,
for Red Hat, you have to proceed as follows:
If Apache, PHP and MySQL are not already installed, install the appropriate
packages. For Red Hat 8.0, choose the “Packages†menu entry as shown in Figure
3-22.
Figure 3-22. Red Hat Menu: Packages.
Red Hat Menu: Packages.
Once you have entered the system (as root), you can choose the three necessary
pieces (Apache, PHP and MySQL):
* Apache is found under “Web Serverâ€.
* PHP is found under “Web Serverâ€.
* MySQL is found under “SQL database Serverâ€.
To see what is contained in each section, click on the “Details†link (Figure
3-23).
Figure 3-23. Red Hat: Package Sections.
Red Hat: Package Sections.
After the selection of packages, you must click on “Update†and Red Hat will go
on to install them, after it has checked their dependencies.
Now, Apache, PHP and MySQL are installed, but unfortunately, we are not yet
done: we must ensure that PHP will talk to MySQL. To this end, we must do 2
things:
1. Edit the php.ini file, so that PHP supports also files that start with
“<?†- and not only those that start with “<?phpâ€.
2. Install the mysql.so file.
We recall that, in order to edit a system file, we must be root. We can
nevertheless do our edits without logging out first, if we do the following:
* Open a terminal window (System -> Terminal)
* Login as root (command “suâ€, then enter the password)
* Start our preferred text editor (see Chapter_11). The editor will start with
root privileges, so you can edit the php.ini file, usually located under /
etc, and set the short_open_tag parameter to ON:
_________________________________________________________________
| |
| ; Allow the <? tag. Otherwise, only <?php and <script> tags are|
| recognized. |
| short_open_tag = On |
|_________________________________________________________________|
* For your local experiments, it is comfortable to also set safe_mode to OFF
and register_globals to ON (but see Section_23.4.2 for the security related
point of view on this).
* Save everything and you are done with operation 1 above.
* Operation 2 is simple: just copy the mysql.so file brutally into /usr/lib/
php4/. You should do this with root permissions.
The only thing that remains now, is to restart the services. We can do this
from the command-line of a terminal window and also through a graphical tool.
For the novice user, we will describe the graphical way - again, an advanced
user will know how to do this from the command-line (see GNU/Linux_Command-Line
Tools_Summary for a compact summary of command-line tools in Linux).
Figure 3-24. Red Hat: Service Configuration Panel.
Red Hat: Service Configuration Panel.
The activation or restart of the service we are interested in takes place by
selecting the appropriate entry for that service in the Service Configuration
Panel (httpd is the service for Apache, while mysqld is the service for MySQL),
then click on “activate†or “restart†respectively (Figure_3-24).
Note that in order for our changes in PHP to take effect, we will have to
restart Apache.
Now you can connect to your server by pointing your browser to http://localhost
or to http://127.0.0.1.
Tip Apache and the hosts file
If the Apache service does not start, it may be because it cannot resolve
"localhost" correctly. This name for the local computer is given the IP
address 127.0.0.1 in the hosts file (usually under /etc). You can try to
change
___________________________________________
| |
| 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost|
 |___________________________________________|
in /etc/hosts to:
___________________________________________________
| |
| 127.0.0.1 dhcppc0 localhost.localdomain localhost|
|___________________________________________________|
The folder that is expected to hold the HTML files is again /var/www/html. Note
that, again, in order for the normal user to be able to modify the HTML files,
you will have to change the permissions of that folder to 777 (see Section
3.2.3).
It is also comfortable to create a link to that folder on the client's desktop,
so that he does not have to click his way through the path each time.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.7. The config.php file
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.
Important Important: Use a decent text editor!
Do NOT use Notepad or Wordpad to edit the config.php file! These
"text" editors don't deserve this name - they introduce extra
invisible characters in the file, causing spurious errors with the
PHP interpreter. Everything will look O.K., but you will spend many
hours trying to find out why your PHP tells you there is an error
 there.
Recommended text editors are UltraEdit (excellent, but not
freeware), Crimson_Editor , WinSyntax (both good for PHP and
Freeware, Crimson Editor has some feature more than WinSyntax) and
HTMLkit (free for personal use).
Various text editors and their functionalities for PHP are
discussed in this decent_text_editor thread.
You need to enter a database username and a password in the config.php file.
This user must have administration rights on the PHP-Nuke MySQL database (whose
name you also entered in the config.php file). You configure this user to have
administration rights on the PHP-Nuke database by either phpMyAdmin, or from
the command line:
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| grant all privileges on db.* to dbuser@localhost identified by 'dbpasswd';|
|____________________________________________________________________________|
Note Please note
This is the database user account, on whose behalf everything is done
from the database point of view. That is, no matter which user is doing
something in PHP-Nuke, when he presses [Enter], the command will be
forwarded to the database client, who will connect to the database
 server with that username and password you entered in the config.php. If
that username and password were wrong, or that user did not have "all
privileges" on the PHP-Nuke database (the database whose name you
entered in the config.php), then the client will not be able to connect
and you will get an error (one of these exactly-speaking but nothing-
communicating "...was not a valid resource" errors ).
Let's have a closer look at the configuration process. Compared to the 5.6
version, the config.php file has undergone a radical diet, leaving it with only
a few lines. The rest has been moved to the nuke_config table (Section_28.1).
This has created problems with the Splatt Forum (Section_7.1), which also used
a table with that name. 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) |
| $prefix = "nuke"; (5) |
| $user_prefix = "nuke"; (6) |
| $dbtype = "MySQL"; (7) |
| $sitekey = "SdFk*fa28367-dm56w69.3a2fDS+e9"; (8) |
|____________________________________________________|
_(1)_
In place of "localhost" you will have to put the host/server that the
database is installed on. If this is your own computer, the "localhost"
is O.K., otherwise you will have to ask your ISP.
_(2)_
In place of "root" you must put the username of the database user that
PHP-Nuke will have to use in order to connect to the database and execute
the necessary database operations. This user must have been grented all
privileges to the PHP-Nuke database as discussed above.
_(3)_
You will have to insert the password of the database user here.
_(4)_
In place of "nuke" you will have to insert the name of your database
here.
_(5)_
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.
_(6)_
This is the prefix that goes in front of the name of every database user
table. The idea here is that you can have one prefix, i.e. one PHP-Nuke
database, but many user prefixes, i.e. different user tables for
different sites. The user tables will have a different user_prefix in
their names, but the rest of the tables will still use prefix, thus
sharing the same nuke database among different user bases from different
sites.
_(7)_
Leave this to "MySQL", if you have a MySQL database (which will be true
in most situations). This is case sensitive, so "mysql" or "Mysql" will
not do, it has to be exactly "MySQL".
_(8)_
You should change this key to be a unique key that identifies your site.
Ideally, no two sites should have the same key.The site key is used to
create the random number for the security image (Figure_3-28) in the Your
Account module and the administration section and is an important but
often overlooked security feature of PHP-Nuke. See also Section_23.4.2
for software that can help you create a truly random site key.
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"; |
| $sitekey = "SdFk*jkjbkuuz-dm98769.4b67DS+e4";|
|_______________________________________________|
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.
You must distinguish between the database user (and password), which you enter
in the config.php file, and the administrator "God" account. The database user
is only known to the database. The administrator "God" account (there are also
other administrator levels), on the other side, is created by PHP-Nuke
automatically for you. This account, as well as the users accounts, exist only
in the PHP-Nuke database, not in the MySQL server's configuration.
How is this PHP-Nuke administrator created? If you go to the "Home" link of
PHP-Nuke., you will then see a message telling you the following - just do what
it tells you:
Welcome to PHP-Nuke!
Congratulations! You have now a web portal installed!. You can edit
or change this message from the Administration page.
For security reasons the best idea is to create the Super User right
NOW by clicking HERE
Click on that link and it will create the PHP-Nuke administrator account for
you.
Note A superuser is NOT a registered User
A superuser is an administrator with all admin powers. One should call
it superadmin, because everyone gets confused at first. It is fine (and
 normal) to have a superuser admin and a registered user that have the
same name. Be careful with side effects when you are logged in as both,
see Login_Block_on_Left_doesn't_go_away.
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. Immediately after that, you should take some security
measures, see Section_23.4.2.
The config.php file also defines two arrays, the $AllowableHTML and $CensorList
array. As its name says, $AllowableHTML is an associative array containing
entries for all HTML tags that are to be allowed on your site:
______________________________________
| |
| $AllowableHTML = array("b"=>1, |
| "i"=>1, |
| "a"=>2, |
| "em"=>1, |
| "br"=>1, |
| "strong"=>1, |
| "blockquote"=>1,|
| "tt"=>1, |
| "li"=>1, |
| "ol"=>1, |
| "H1"=>1, |
| "H2"=>1, |
| "H3"=>1, |
| "H4"=>1, |
| "center"=>1, |
| "img"=>2, |
| "alt"=>1, |
| "table"=>2, |
| "tr"=>2, |
| "td"=>2, |
| "p"=>2, |
| "div"=>2, |
| "font"=>2, |
| "p"=>1, |
| "p"=>1, |
| "ul"=>1); |
|______________________________________|
The meaning of "1" and "2" is whether the tag accepts attributes or not. For
example, if you want the <p> tag to NOT accept attributes (i.e. you accept <p>
but you don't accept <p align="center">) the you put "1", otherwise (i.e., if
attributes like "align" etc. are accepted) you put "2". That this is indeed so,
can be seen from the check_html() function of mainfile.php (see also Section
16.1):
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| if ($a = $AllowableHTML[$tag]) |
| if ($reg[1][0] == "/") $tag = "</$tag>"; |
| elseif (($a == 1) || ($reg[2] == "")) $tag = |
| "<$tag>"; |
| else { |
| # Place here the double quote fix function.|
| $attrb_list=delQuotes($reg[2]); |
| // A VER |
| $attrb_list = ereg_replace |
| ("&","&",$attrb_list); |
| $tag = "<$tag" . $attrb_list . ">"; |
| } # Attribs in tag allowed |
| else $tag = ""; |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
The code checks if the associated value to the given tag ($tag) in the
$AllowableHTML array is “1†or empty. If this is the case, the value of $tag is
only “<$tag>â€. Otherwise a set of replacements takes place on the attribute
list:
* The delQuotes() function deletes duplicate space and adds escaped quotes
around each attribute value.
* The ereg_replace() function replaces the ampersand (&) with its HTML entity
“&â€.
If the tag is not in the $AllowableHTML array, the line in the code above shows
that it is replaced by the empty string, i.e. it is not echoed at all. Thus, if
there is an HTML tag that you are missing, you should enter it in the
$AllowableHTML array and take care to enter correctly a “1†or a “2†according
to your needs. See for example Smilies_in_news.
The $CensorList array contains a list of words that you don't want to see in
texts of articles on your site.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.7.1. More than one PHP-Nuke sites
The variables in the config.php file allow for quite some flexibility when it
comes to installing more than one PHP-Nuke sites that have to be related in one
or the other way:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.7.1.1. Different PHP-Nuke sites from the same database
If you have two (or more) PHP-Nuke sites, located in different Web URLs (or
different local directories), that you want to operate from the same database,
you have some handwork to do, but it is not difficult. From the point of view
of the database server, what differentiates one PHP-Nuke site from another, is
the name of the table(s) used. In PHP-Nuke, all tables come with a prefix: the
users table uses the $user_prefix prefix from the config.php file(Section_3.7),
while all other tables use $prefix.
Thus, you don't need a second database to operate a second PHP-Nuke site. A
different database helps keep the installations separate by providing a kind of
“container†to put each installation's tables in, but apart from this, there is
nothing special to it. To use only one database for two PHP-Nuke installations,
proceed as follows:
* Use separate $prefix and $user_prefix values in each site's config.php, e.g.
_________________________
| |
| $prefix = "nuke1"; |
| $user_prefix = "nuke1";|
|_________________________|
in config.php for site 1 and
_________________________
| |
| $prefix = "nuke2"; |
| $user_prefix = "nuke2";|
|_________________________|
in config.php for site 2. All other values should stay identical in the
config.php files of both sites.
* Edit the nuke.sql file (located under the sql directory of the PHP-Nuke
package) for each site. Change every occurence of “nuke_†to “nuke1_†for
site 1 and to “nuke2_†for site 2, then proceed with the installation as
described in Section_3.2.4. If you use nukesql.php (Section_3.5) for the
installation, see the tip at the end of this section.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.7.1.2. Different PHP-Nuke sites with the same user base
There are situations that you might want to share users among your PHP-Nuke
sites. For example, if you have a site about cars and another one about car
insurance, your users will probably be interested in both. But requiring them
to enter two different logins and passwords is not going to make them happy -
that's where $user_prefix comes into play.
The idea behind a separate prefix for the users table in PHP-Nuke is to enable
you to keep all other tables separate, but use the same users table across
different PHP-Nuke installations. By using a different $prefix for each site,
but the same $user_prefix for both, your users will require only one login and
password - and will be recognized by the second site, while logged into the
first one and vice versa.
To use the same user base in two separate PHP-Nuke sites, proceed as follows:
* Use the same database as descibed in Section_3.7.1.1.
* Use separate $prefix values, but the same $user_prefix for both config.php
files, e.g.
_______________________________
| |
| $prefix = "nuke1"; |
| $user_prefix = "nuke-common";|
|_______________________________|
in config.php for site 1 and
_______________________________
| |
| $prefix = "nuke2"; |
| $user_prefix = "nuke-common";|
|_______________________________|
in config.php for site 2. All other values should stay identical in the
config.php files of both sites.
* Edit the nuke.sql file (located under the sql directory of the PHP-Nuke
package) for each site. Change every occurence of “nuke_†to “nuke1_†for
site 1 and to “nuke2_†for site 2, except the ones for the nuke_users table,
which you should change to “nuke-commonâ€. The full name of the users table
should thus be “nuke-common_users†in both nuke.sql files. Then proceed with
the installation as described in Section_3.2.4.
Tip Using nukesql.php
If you use nukesql.php (Section_3.5) for the installation, you should
change the prefixes as above and point your browser to each instance of
 nukesql.php (one for each installation, located in the respective PHP-
Nuke root directory). It will then create the tables with the right
prefixes for you.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.8. Resources
Claudio says: if you are looking for PHP-Nuke hosting, Spaghettibrain.com has
custom offers for you... give us a visit! 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.
Other specialized PHP-Nuke hosters:
* Nukezone
* Raven_Web_Hosting
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9. Common installation problems
Some of the most common installation problems of PHP-Nuke are discussed in the
following subsections. In identifying the most common sources of problems and
frustration, we hope to eliminate a good portion of the Help! posts in the
various forums of the community. Feel free to post your own favourite to Chris'
PHP-Nuke_Forumfor inclusion in the next version of this HOWTO.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.1. Test scripts
Before you start the ambitious undertaking of debugging your PHP-Nuke
installation, you should download and run some tools that may shorten the
search path and save you some headaches:
* test.php
* ConnectTest.php and
* analyze.php
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.1.1. test.php
test.php is a “quick'n dirty†script to help you find out if you could connect
to the database and how your PHP configuration looks like. Put the following
lines in a file, name it test.php, upload it in the same directory where you
have your config.php and tell your browser to open it (see Warning:_Invalid
argument_supplied_for_foreach()):
___________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| include("config.php"); |
| mysql_connect("$dbhost", "$dbuname", "$dbpass"); |
| mysql_select_db("$dbname"); |
| echo mysql_error(); |
| phpinfo(); |
| ?> |
|___________________________________________________|
If everything is right, you will only see the PHP info. Otherwise, you will see
a descriptive message of the error first (in the first line) and also the PHP
info. You can use the output to determine various parameters of your PHP
configuration, like version numbers, libraries, paths and variables. Whenever
you ask yourself if you have feature X enabled, remember to run this small
script and search its output for a string that describes the feature. You will
most probably find the answer there. Conversely, if you don't find the answer
in the output of test.php (i.e. the output of the phpinfo() function), you will
probably not find it easily.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.1.2. ConnectTest.php
The ConnectTest.php script from Humpa is a more elaborate test script that you
can help with database connection problems. Download and save it with a .php
ending (it comes with a .txt ending to prevent the web server from interpreting
the PHP code in it). You should put the ConnectTest.php file in the PHP-Nuke
root directory, i.e. in the same directory where also config.php is located.
Then you just tell your browser to open it.
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if($phpinfo=="phpinfo") { |
| phpinfo(); |
| die(); |
| } |
| require_once("config.php"); |
| $dbcheck = mysql_connect("$dbhost", "$dbuname", "$dbpass"); |
| if (!$dbcheck) { |
| echo mysql_error(); |
| echo "<br><b>The Connection Test Script was unable to connect |
| to the MySQL server!<br>One or more of these variables are wrong in |
| your config.php:</b> <font color=purple><b>\$dbhost=\"<i>$dbhost</i>\", |
| \$dbuname=\"<i>$dbuname</i>\", and/or \$dbpass=\"*<i>hidden</i>*\" |
| </b></font><br>"; |
| echo "<br>Now, please don't say that you <u>are</u> using the |
| correct values - say it to your mysql server, because that is who(what?) |
| is stopping you. : )<br>"; |
| echo "Email your web host and ask them what to use for a mysql |
| username and password.<br>"; |
| echo "PHP Manual, function: |
| <a href=\"http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-connect.php\" |
| target=\"_blank\">mysql_connect</a><br>"; |
| echo "If you are the server, perhaps you just need to create |
| a mysql user instead of using your root user.<br>"; |
| die("<br><a href=\"$_SERVER[PHP_SELF]?phpinfo=phpinfo\"> |
| phpinfo</a>"); |
| }else{ |
| echo "<a href=\"$_SERVER[PHP_SELF]?phpinfo=phpinfo\"> |
| phpinfo</a><br><br>"; |
| echo "<font color=red><b>If everything looks good, but you |
| still have problems, get the "; |
| echo "<a href=\"http://nukecops.com/downloads-cat-7.htm\"> |
| analyzer from NukeCops</a></b></font><br><br>"; |
| echo "<b>Connection Test Script connected to your MySQL server |
| successfully!<br>"; |
| echo "<br>\$dbuname = \"$dbuname\";<br>\$dbtype = \"$dbtype\"; |
| <br>\$prefix = \"$prefix\";<br>\$user_prefix = \"$user_prefix\";<br>"; |
| if (mysql_select_db($dbname)) { |
| echo "<br>Connection to your database \" |
| <font color=purple>$dbname</font>\" was also successful.<br>"; |
| $result = mysql_list_tables($dbname); |
| if (!$result) { |
| print "DB Error, could not list tables\n"; |
| print 'MySQL Error: ' . mysql_error(); |
| die(); |
| } |
| $i=0; |
| $stufftoprint = ""; |
| while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($result)) { |
| $tablename = $row[0]; |
| if($tablename == "".$prefix."_authors") { |
| $result4 = mysql_query("select aid from |
| $tablename"); |
| while(list($admin_name) = mysql_fetch_row |
| ($result4)) { |
| $admin_names .= "$admin_name, "; |
| } |
| } |
| $result3 = mysql_query("select * from $tablename"); |
| $numFields = mysql_num_fields($result3); |
| $numRows = mysql_num_rows($result3); |
| $rows = "rows"; |
| $fields = "fields"; |
| if($numFields == 1) {$fields = "field";} |
| if($numRows == 1) {$rows = "row";} |
| $stufftoprint .= "Table: <font color=purple>$tablename |
| </font> ($numFields $fields / $numRows $rows)\n<br>"; |
| $i++; |
| } |
| if($dbtype != "MySQL" AND eregi("mysql",$dbtype)) { |
| echo "<br><font color=red><b>But, you need to set </b> |
| </font><font color=purple><b> \$dbtype = \"MySQL\"; </b></font>"; |
| echo "<font color=red><b> in your |
| config.php!!!!!!!!</b></font><br>"; |
| } |
| echo "<br>There are <font color=purple>$i tables</font> in your \" |
| <font color=purple>$dbname</font>\" database<br>"; |
| echo "(by default, there are 89 fields in phpnuke 6.5 and 76 fields|
| |
| in phpnuke 6.0)<br>"; |
| if($i<66) { |
| echo "<br><font color=red><b>You don't seem to have all the|
| |
| tables installed.<br>Get the "; |
| echo "<a href=\"http://www.nukeresources.com/ |
| modules.php?name=Downloads |
| &d_op=viewdownload&cid=79\">Web Installer</a> for your version of |
| phpnuke</b></font><br>"; |
| } |
| echo "<br>These are the admin names (aid) in your nuke_authors |
| table: <font color=purple>$admin_names</font><br>"; |
| echo "<br>Now check this list of tables with your nuke.sql file: |
| <br><br>$stufftoprint</b>"; |
| }else { |
| if(mysql_query("CREATE DATABASE $dbname")) { |
| echo "<br>Your database \"$dbname\" did not exist, |
| but this script just created it sucessfully<br>"; |
| echo "Now, you need to get the appropriate |
| <a href=\"http://www.nukeresources.com/modules.php?name=Downloads |
| &d_op=viewdownload&cid=79\">"; |
| echo "Web Installer from nukeresources.com</a>"; |
| die(); |
| } |
| echo "<br>However, the \"$dbname\" database does not exist.|
| |
| If that is not the correct name, then put in the correct "; |
| echo "name for<br><font color=purple> |
| \$dbname =\"$dbname\";</font> (in your config.php) |
| <br>If you have not created the database yet, then "; |
| echo "create it. If you are not the server, then ask your |
| web host to create it for you.<br>"; |
| echo "<br>Then, get the appropriate |
| <a href=\"http://www.nukeresources.com/modules.php?name=Downloads |
| &d_op=viewdownload&cid=79\">"; |
| echo "Web Installer from nukeresources.com</a>"; |
| } |
| } |
| ?> |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.1.3. analyze.php
The analyze.php script from Paul Laudanski (a.k.a. Zhen-Xjell) is the most
elaborate from all the three script presented here. Rename the file to
"analyze.php", transfer it to the same place that your config.php file is found
and call it from your browser. For a preview of what it reports, run
analyze.php_for_the_nukecops_site. The code has been successfully tested for
Nuke versions 6.5B6, 6.5B5, 6.0, 5.6.
Figure 3-25. analyze.php: MySQL connection transcript.
analyze.php: MySQL connection transcript.
The script not only tests your MySQL database connection (see Figure_3-25), but
also displays information on:
* config.php settings
* SMTP (mail server) settings
* GD (graphics) library settings
* Databases
* Modules
* Blocks
* Notices
* Ranks
* Administrators and Moderators
* php,ini settings
* Security code
* Recursive file listing along with resource permissions
Figure 3-26. analyze.php: MySQL security warning.
analyze.php: MySQL security warning.
It also checks for MySQL (see Figure_3-26) and PHP (see Figure_23-1)
vulnerabilities and reports them to you if they need to be patched.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.2. Warning: mysql_fetch_row(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL
result resource
You get this
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Warning: mysql_fetch_row(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result |
| resource in html/includes/sql_layer.php on line 286 |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
This is a very general error. Most of the time it just means that you could not
connect to the database (for whatever reason) and thus the result set you tried
to fetch was not a “valid MySQL result resourceâ€. You should try first to get a
more descriptive error message. For this purpose, you must edit the "case"
lines in the sql_layer.php file.
Example:This is the "case" that starts at line 286 in the nuke 6.5
sql_layer.php (for the line 286 error), at line 300 in the nuke 6.0
sql_layer.php (for the line 301 error message) - or line 285 in nuke 5.6 (for
the line 286 error message):
_______________________________________
| |
| case "MySQL": |
| $row = mysql_fetch_row($res);|
| return $row; |
| break;; |
|_______________________________________|
Edit it like this:
_____________________________________________
| |
| case "MySQL": |
| if ($row = mysql_fetch_row($res)) {|
| return $row; |
| } else { |
| print (mysql_error()); |
| } |
| break;; |
|_____________________________________________|
Note Please note:
 This will NOT fix your problem. But it will give a more descriptive
message as to what the error cause is.
See Warning:_mysql_fetch_row:_supplied_argument_is_not_a_valid_MySQL_result
resource and submit_news_problem.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.3. Call to undefined function: message_die() in db.php line 88
This is the most “popular†error. It basically means that it couldn't connect
to the database. You may get this error even if you did everything right,
depending on the version you are using. The reasons are multiple:
* Are you sure you downloaded *all* the files? Maybe some file is missing.
Perhaps you wanted to save some bandwidth and omitted some crucial file or
directory, or subdirectory.
* You didn't enter "MySQL" as the dbtype in config.php (see Section_3.7). It
must be exactly with a Capital M, a small y, and capital S, Q and L.
* The code tries to select the database, but the database is not there. Create
the database and populate it with tables (see Section_3.2.4).
* You have some error in the config.php file (see Section_3.7). Double check
that the username and password are correct. Don't forget, the " and ; are
important. And DON'T remove the $ in front of the variables! If you used an
editor like Notepad, Wordpad, or some editor that you are not 100% sure that
works correctly, delete the config.php file, get a fresh copy and edit it
with a decent_text_editor (see Chapter_11).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.4. Error: Failed opening 'language/lang-.php' for inclusion
You either
* didn't install the language files lang-xxx.php (like language/lang-
english.php), or
* you cannot connect to the database, so that the value of the default language
could not be set and is empty (and that's why you get an error about
lang-.php, instead of lang-english.php, or lang-french.php etc.). Try the
small test script (see Call_to_undefined_function:_message_die_in_db.php_line
88):
__________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| include("config.php"); |
| mysql_connect("$dbhost", "$dbuname", "$dbpass");|
| mysql_select_db("$dbname"); |
| echo mysql_error(); |
| phpinfo(); |
| ?> |
|__________________________________________________|
(see also Section_3.9.1), or
* your include path information is missing some paths (like ".", the current
directory), see Section_3.9.10.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.5. Fatal error: Failed opening required 'includes/sql_layer.php'
Your web server could not open includes/sql_layer.php. There are many reasons
for this (Fatal_error:_Failed_opening_required_includes/sql_layer.php):
* The file is really not there, something went wrong with the installation -
reinstall (see Chapter_3).
* The file is there but the web server does not have the right to open it -
check permissions (see Section_3.2.3).
* There is a .htaccess file somewhere in the directory hierarchy that denies
access to you.
* There is something wrong with the include path of the PHP interpreter (see
Section_3.9.10).
You might see more information on the cause of your problem if you have access
to the web server access and error logs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.6. Sorry, such file doesn't exist...
Whenever you try to access a module (or simply your site), you ge the error
(see, for example: Humpa_Chess_Install and http://www.karakas-online.de/forum/
viewtopic.php?t=348):
___________________________________
| |
| Sorry, such file doesn't exist...|
|___________________________________|
Of course, following a classic attitude to error handling, it doesn't tell you
which file does not exist... We thus have to search the code to see what is
happening:
The error
___________________________________
| |
| Sorry, such file doesn't exist...|
|___________________________________|
comes from mainfile.php. There are exactly three occurences of it in the code.
In all three the pattern is the same (see Sorry,_such_file_doesn't_exist...):
1. First it is tested if you are a normal user, an administrator, if the
module is active etc., depending on the circumstances.
2. Then, a test is made on the existence of $modpath. Upon its failure, you
get the error above:
________________________________________________
| |
| $modpath .= "modules/$name/$file.php"; |
| if (file_exists($modpath)) { |
| include($modpath); |
| } else { |
| die ("Sorry, such file doesn't exist...");|
| } |
|________________________________________________|
$modpath, in turn, is the path to the module in question. As you can see in the
code snippet yourself, it depends on the value of $name, which is the name of
the module, and $file, which is...well, for this you have to scroll up to the
start of mainfile.php. There, we read
_______________________________________
| |
| if (!isset($file)) { $file="index"; }|
|_______________________________________|
which in plain english says "if the variable $file is NOT set, set it to
'index'".
Putting all the puzzle pieces together, we arrive to the conclusion that the
file
______________________________
| |
| modules/YourModule/index.php|
|______________________________|
is not there.
There are various things you should check and all have to do with trying to
find out why your web server cannot find the index file of the module you are
trying to access:
* Is the index.php file really there in the modules/YourModule folder?
* Did you set up the permissions (Section_3.2.3, Section_23.4.4) correctly?
Does your web server have read access to that folder and file?
* Is there a (hidden) .htaccess file (Section_25.4) somewhere in your document
tree that prevents the web browser from accessing that file?
* Did you install all files? You have to dive in the docs of that module to see
if you are missing anything.
* Check if
______________________________________________________
| |
| http://www.yoursite.com/modules/YourModule/index.php|
|______________________________________________________|
returns an error. Substitute YourModule with the name of the module that is
giving you the headaches.
* If this is a module you downloaded and installed yourself (as opposed to a
preinstalled one, see Section_6.1): Did you really follow the instructions?
Did you download the right file? Did you extract it in the modules folder?
* Did you see the module in the list of modules and did you activate it
(Section_7.1 and Figure_3-27)?
Figure 3-27. Modules administration panel.
Modules administration panel.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.7. Warning: setlocale(): Passing locale category name as string is
deprecated
All of a sudden, you get tons of warnings like this one:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Warning: setlocale(): Passing locale category name as string is deprecated.|
| |
| Use the LC_* -constants instead. |
| in /home/chris/public_html/nuke/mainfile.php on line 565 |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
The problem comes suddenly after your ISP has upgraded to a newer version of
PHP (without telling you, of course!
To fix this, remove the quotes that are around "LC_TIME" in the line/file
mentioned in the error message displayed (see Warning:_setlocale():_Passing
locale_category_name_as_string_is_deprecated and News article: Warning:
setlocale(): Passing locale category name as string is deprecated.).
Caution Attention: repetitious error!
You may get this error again and again. You will have to do the above
 change in *all* occurences of the LC_something constants! I once
counted 17 of them, scattered all around the PHP-Nuke files...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.8. Security code is not showing up
Figure 3-28. Security code in the User Login screen.
Security code in the User Login screen.
You just installed PHP-Nuke for the first time, created a super user, and you
can't log in because the security code graphic (see Figure_3-28) is coming up
as a dead image.
This is a frequent error, but it seems that the reasons (and cures) may be
multiple (see Security_code_graphic_not_showing_up, security_image_stopped
working):
* You changed something in the language files and put comments - remove the
comments.
* You (or your ISP) don't have the GD library loaded. To find out if you have
the GD library loaded, run a test script like test.php (see Section_3.9.1.1),
ConnectTest.php (see Section_3.9.1.2) or analyze.php (see Section_3.9.1.3).
The first two display the output of the PHP phpinfo() function directly
( Figure_3-29), analyze.php will display an only slightly different
information box on GD (Figure_3-30). If you are on Windows 2000, read how_to
install_GD_on_a_Win2K_box.
* The gfx function in admin.php is not always working fine. You could try to
put it in a separate file and change the call from admin.php to the new file.
See Humpa's posting in Admin_Security_login_jpeg_not_showing for an example.
* Activate (or reactivate) the Your Account module. If your Admin's security
code works, but the others don't (showing an read X mark for others), then
you may want to set the Your Account module as viewable by all visitors (see
PhpNuke_6.5_Security_Code_Problem).
Figure 3-29. phpinfo(): GD library information.
phpinfo(): GD library information.
For more thoughts on this problem, read Humpa's_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_on_the_security
code.
If you want to use a PNG or GIF image for the security code, consult the
solution in Using_a_png_or_gif_for_security_code_image. If you want to display
the security code as text, rather than an image, see security_code_in_plain
text_format - but then there is no point to it (the idea is to display an image
that makes automatic number recognition difficult to robots), then you can
disable it just as well.
Figure 3-30. analyze.php: GD library information.
analyze.php: GD library information.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.8.1. How to bypass the security code
Another approach could be to bypass the security code altogether. This is
probably the only option you have (unless you are willing to display it as
plain text - see the links at the end of this section for this), if your ISP
refuses to load the GD library: without GD, no security code image - without
security code image, you cannot enter anything in the security code field, and
you get an “Access denied†error.
Here is how you disable the security code:
Find the 7 occurences of:
________________________
| |
| extension_loaded("gd")|
|________________________|
For the Admin login, there is one in the admin.php, and one in the auth.php.
For Users, there will be five in the modules/Your_Account/index.php (and there
might be one in the block-Login.php, and/or one in the block-User_Info.php, if
they are modified). Replace all of the occurances with this:
_____________________
| |
| $user == "whatever"|
|_____________________|
Follow the above instruction exactly.
Caution Be careful not to introduce syntax errors!
Changes like the last one (bypassing the security code) require
extreme caution on your part. All too big is the risk of introducing
new errors, while trying to correct old ones! If you get an error, it
 does't mean the solution ceased to work for you. Check for syntax
errors that you might have introduced with your editing. Most
probably, you will find something. See syntax_error,_security_images
removed for a real world example.
If you have one of the later versions of PHP-Nuke, you can try a trick: edit
the config.php file and if you find a line there, like this one:
_______________
| |
| $gfx_chk = 7;|
|_______________|
and change it to (see How_to_disable_the_security_code):
_______________
| |
| $gfx_chk = 0;|
|_______________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.9. Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in mainfile.php
You get errors and warnings like:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in ...mainfile.php on line|
| 42 |
| Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in ...mainfile.php on line|
| 57 |
| Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by |
| (output started at ...mainfile.php:42) in ...mainfile.php on line 165 |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
You must have at least PHP v. 4.1.0 to run PHP-Nuke 6.5 and later. See Section
3.1 and Warning:_Invalid_argument_supplied_for_foreach().
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.10. Include path is wrong
If the include path happens to be wrong (you can see your include path in the
output of test.php, see Section_3.9.1), you could try the following:
Suppose your nuke files are in /usr/local/httpd/htdocs/nuke/html (just an
example ). Suppose that this is the directory that contains
the includes directory beneath it. Then create a .htaccess file (Section_25.4)
that contains the line
_____________________________________________________________________
| |
| php_value include_path .:/usr/local/httpd/htdocs/nuke/html/includes|
|_____________________________________________________________________|
(no equal signs, just copy it in the .htaccess file). In most cases the include
path will be correctly configured. In the few ones that it's not, the most
probable cause of errors will be a missing “current directory†(a missing dot
in the include path).
If you have access to the php.ini file, you can do the same there. Find the
line where include_path is defined and add the dot in the list, e.g.:
include_path = “.:/usr/local/httpd/htdocs/nuke/html/includesâ€
See also Warning:_main(/db/db.php):_failed_to_open_stream and Fatal_error:
Failed_opening_required_'includes/sql_layer.php".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.11. Users don't receive any confirmation mails
This is not a PHP-Nuke error. PHP-Nuke uses PHP's mail() function and this, in
turn, uses the mail server that is found on the web server. If that mail server
is configured incorrectly, you will get problems with mail. The best way to
solve them is to talk to your ISP and try to find out which configuration is
used for your case. We have seen cases of ISPs that would configure the mail
server to deliver mail only to local domains, thus making communication between
PHP-Nuke and users of other domains impossible (see E-mail_problems, my_nuke
only_sends_mail_to_my_domain).
Now, what do you do after you have fixed your mail server? Those e-mails with
the activation links have already been sent once, and since they never reached
their destinations... You are losing users because you cannot resend them!
If you ever needed to resend an activation email, or just wanted to delete one
that was awaiting activation, then you will appreciate the Resend_module. It
will help you manage the temp_users table.
If you want users to be registered directly, without confirmation mails, see
Section_18.6.5. If you want to disable registration, see Section_18.6.4. If you
want to approve every user who applied for registration, you can use the
Approve Membership module (see Section_8.3.4 and Authorize_accounts).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.12. Login loop
Figure 3-31. User Login screen.
User Login screen.
You login without problems, but whenever you try to access a function or links
of the PHP-Nuke site, you are returned to the login screen and are asked to
enter your user name and password again - a very annoying procedure!
The first thing you should check, is if you have cookies enabled in your
browser. PHP-Nuke uses cookies to store authentication information on your
computer (in the cookies file, see also Section_23.4.5), in order to be able to
recognize you on your next page request (remember, HTTP is a stateless
protocol, meaning that, whenever the web server serves you a page you
requested, it forgets about it, so the next page request is seen as being
completely unrelated to the previous one). Thus, you must have cookies enabled
to use PHP-Nuke.
If enabling cookies does not make the problem disappear, it might be a
permissions problem (see Section_3.2.3), in which case you should contact the
administrator of the site.
Tip 3rd party cookies
If you are experimenting with frames, you will find out that the cookie
will be set fine, as long as the frame and the parent page are on the
 same site. If the frame is a different site than the parent, then you
will have to allow 3rd party cookies (a lower security setting), see Why
do_users_have_to_put_security_to_"low"_to_be_able_to_log.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.13. You have an error in your SQL syntax near '-------------
When you try to create the database tables with the nuke.sql file (see Section
3.2.4), you get an error:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| -- |
| --------------------------------------------------------- |
| -- |
| -- |
| CREATE TABLE confirm ( |
| confirm_id char(32) NOT NULL default ", |
| session_id char(32) NOT NULL default ", |
| code char(6) NOT NULL default ", |
| PRIMARY KEY (session_id,confirm_id) |
| ) TYPE=MyISAM |
| MySQL said: |
| You have an error in your SQL syntax near '--------------------------------|
| ------------------------- |
| -- |
| -- |
| CREATE TABLE co' at line 2 |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
This is because your nuke.sql file came with nice, useless long lines
containing dashes, like these ones:
___________________________________________________________
| |
| ---------------------------------------------------------|
|___________________________________________________________|
Just use a decent_text_editor (see Chapter_11) and delete that long line, or
put a # in front of it. If that doesn't help, put a # in front of every line
that starts with a dash, making it a comment. SQL accepts “--†as the string
that starts a comment, but it seems that MySQL does not like the rest of the
dashes (after the first two ones) as a comment.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.14. Error: Couldn't update private forum permissions
Figure 3-32. Administration panel: Forums.
Administration panel: Forums.
You get the following error everytime you try to make a particular user (or a
site administrator) a moderator in PHP-Nuke 6.5-7.0:
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Couldn't update private forum permissions |
| DEBUG MODE |
| SQL Error : 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax near ' 1)' at line 2|
| INSERT INTO nuke_bbauth_access (forum_id, group_id, auth_mod) VALUES (3, ,|
| 1) |
| Line : 385 |
| FIle: xxxx/modules/Forums/admin/admin_ug_auth.php |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
This is a bug modules/Forums/admin/admin_ug_auth.php - the INSERT statement is
missing a string value in the VALUES clause. Try this admin_ug_auth.php
instead. See Couldn't_update_private_forum_permissions and Site_Admin_&
Moderator for more details.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.15. Invalid session in forums
Figure 3-33. Administration panel: Forums.
Administration panel: Forums.
You installed the PHP-Nuke Forum (which is the phpBB forum starting v.6.5 of
PHP-Nuke, see Section_7.1.1), but now, when you try to access it you get the
error:
__________________
| |
| Invalid session.|
|__________________|
Solution: In the forum configuration, go to the Cookies section and change the
name of the cookie file from "phpbb2mysql " to something more original or
unique, like "phpbb2mysql2" . You also need to have the right cookie domain,
i.e. if you have installed the forum under http://yoursite.com/nuke/html, the
cookie domain should be http://yoursite.com/nuke/html too.
“What is this session id anyway?â€, you may ask. This is quite a technical
matter and is covered in detail in Chapter_10.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.16. You cannot create the administrator account
Figure 3-34. Administration panel: Edit Admins.
Administration panel: Edit Admins.
Everything looks fine with your newly created PHP-Nuke site, then you are told
by the system that there is no administrator yet and you should create one:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| There are no Administrators Accounts yet, proceeed to create the Super|
| User: |
|________________________________________________________________________|
You do what you are told and create that Super User, but the next time you get
the same message. It seems that you cannot create the administrator account!
The message that asks you to create the Super User is the _NOADMINYET message
whose translation you can find in the various language files (see Section_13.1)
in the admin/language folder. For example, in admin/language/lang-english.php,
we read:
define("_NOADMINYET","There are no Administrators Accounts yet, proceeed to
create the Super User:");
The _NOADMINYET message is output in admin.php:
_____________________________________________________________
| |
| $the_first = $db->sql_numrows($db->sql_query("SELECT * FROM|
| ".$prefix."_authors")); |
| if ($the_first == 0) { |
| if (!$name) { |
| include("header.php"); |
| title("$sitename: "._ADMINISTRATION.""); |
| OpenTable(); |
| echo "<center><b>"._NOADMINYET."</b></center><br><br>" |
|_____________________________________________________________|
From the code we see that it is echoed only if $the_first is 0, meaning no
entries in the $prefix_authors table. Thus, for some reason, the nuke_authors
table (assuming your $prefix is "nuke" in config.php), is not filled. You can
do the following (see I_cant_make_my_Admin_acount_work):
You should check the entries in nuke_authors. You can do this either from the
MySQL prompt with
_________________________________________________
| |
| select aid, name, email, pwd from nuke_authors;|
|_________________________________________________|
or with the "browse" function of phpMyAdmin (Section_3.4).
If your Super Admin is there, then it is weird...
If the Super Admin is not there, then you can't write to the database. To check
this possibility, find the function create_first() in admin.php. There, you
will see two lines with a call to sql_query. They are both identical:
_______________________
| |
| $db->sql_query($sql);|
|_______________________|
Insert the line:
_____________________
| |
| echo mysql_error();|
|_____________________|
after each one. This will echo a more descriptive error message (see Section
3.9.23) and may lead you to the solution. But, as experience shows (see I_cant
make_my_Admin_acount_work), you most probably have set the wrong values in your
config.php (Section_3.7).This is a known issue and a solution is presented in
Section_3.10.1.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.17. You lost the administrator password, or deleted the admin account
Figure 3-35. Administration panel: Edit Admins.
Administration panel: Edit Admins.
You did a Very Big Mistake - you erased your PHP-Nuke Super Admin! Now you
cannot do anything on your website! Your powers are those of a normal member...
How do you get your Admin back?
You can try one of the following two solutions (see I_deleted_my_Super_Admin.
How_do_I_get_him_back?):
1. You can use phpMyAdmin (or a similar DB administration package, see
Section_3.3) and look in (the technical term on the link is “browseâ€) the
nuke_authors table. You can take two approaches:
a. See if your admin is still there, and you can set a new password
(you'll have to choose “MD5†from the dropdown menu on the pass
field, see Figure_3-36). If your admin is not there, then just add a
new row to the table and put in the missing info.
b. Or you can just delete the line with the administrator name and point
your browser to the admin.php file - you will then be prompted to
enter a new admin name and password. You may enter whatever new
values you like there, but you should not create a user with the same
name, even if prompted to.
2. Using phpMyAdmin (or directly in MySQL), go to the nuke_authors table and
make your password dc647eb65e6711e155375218212b3964 - that will make it
Password, then just login and change it. Here we make use of the fact that
the MD5 hash of the word “Password†is dc647eb65e6711e155375218212b3964.
Figure 3-36. phpMyAdmin: field functions.
phpMyAdmin: field functions.
Tip How to compute the MD5 hash of an arbitrary password using only PHP and
your browser
If you are curious about the MD5 hash of a certain password, but do not
have easy access to a function that computes it, you can make use of the
fact that the PHP interpreter of your web server can compute is for you.
Substitute XXXX for the password whose MD5 hash you want to compute in
the following script:
_____________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
 | $pass="XXXX"; |
| $new_password = md5($pass); |
| print("MD5 hash of $pass = $new_password");|
| ?> |
|_____________________________________________|
and upload it somewhere on your web server. Then point your browser to it
and you should see the answer. You can use it to change the password
field of the nuke_authors table directly in MySQL.
See Admin_Password_-_i've_lost_it, Password_help for discussions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.18. You get garbage in some parts of the page
If some parts of your page looks like containing garbage, it may be due to a
compressed output from the server. You could try to disable compression by just
commenting the line (see I_cant_make_my_Admin_acount_work):
___________________________
| |
| ob_start('ob_gzhandler');|
|___________________________|
or setting $do_gzip_compress to FALSE:
____________________________
| |
| $do_gzip_compress = FALSE;|
|____________________________|
in mainfile.php. The part that controls compression in mainfile.php is:
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| $phpver = phpversion(); |
| if ($phpver >= '4.0.4pl1' && strstr($HTTP_USER_AGENT,'compatible')) {|
| if (extension_loaded('zlib')) { |
| ob_end_clean(); |
| ob_start('ob_gzhandler'); |
| } |
| } else if ($phpver > '4.0') { |
| if (strstr($HTTP_SERVER_VARS['HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING'], 'gzip')) { |
| if (extension_loaded('zlib')) { |
| $do_gzip_compress = TRUE; |
| ob_start(); |
| ob_implicit_flush(0); |
| //header('Content-Encoding: gzip'); |
| } |
| } |
| } |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
You might even have to comment it completely (see PhpNuke_wont_show_in_IE_or
Opera).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.19. Compressed output in forums
Figure 3-37. Gzip compression in the Admin Panel of the Forums module.
Gzip compression in the Admin Panel of the Forums module.
You seem to be getting a compressed output in the forums. You are either seeing
garbage, or you can see it in IE, but not in Mozilla. When you press “Refreshâ€,
Mozilla reacts like you want to download something that is “encrypted†or
compressed.
All this is a sign that you may be compressing the page twice. If, for example,
your Apache has been already configured to send compressed output (with
mod_gzip, or some other technique for Web_Content_Compression), then you should
disable gzip compression in the forums administration panel (from “General
Admin, Configurationâ€, as in Figure_3-37).
See also Cannot_see_forum_in_Mozilla_and_see_in_IE.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.20. Warning: Cannot add header information...in forums
You get errors of the form:
_________________________________________________________________
| |
| Warning: Cannot modify header information headers already sent|
|_________________________________________________________________|
when vieweing the forums. There are two solutions (see Warning:_Cannot_add
header_information...in_forums):
1. Near the start of mainfile.php find:
___________________________________________________________________
| |
| 42 = phpversion(); |
| if (42 >= '4.0.4pl1' && strstr(Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0;|
| <productname>Windows</productname> NT 5.1),'compatible')) { |
| if (extension_loaded('zlib')) { |
| ob_end_clean(); |
| ob_start('ob_gzhandler'); |
| } |
| } else if (42 > '4.0') { |
|___________________________________________________________________|
and change it to:
_______________________________
| |
| 42 = phpversion(); |
| if (42 >= '4.0.4pl1') |
| { |
| ob_start('ob_gzhandler');|
| }else if (42 > '4.0') { |
|_______________________________|
2. Add the following line to a .htaccess file (see Section_25.4) placed in
your root PHP-Nuke directory:
______________________________
| |
| PHP_FLAG output_buffering on|
|______________________________|
or if you have access to php.ini, set:
______________________
| |
| output_buffering=on;|
|______________________|
See also Warning:_Cannot_modify_header_information_on_Forums and Cannot_modify
header_information. To learn more about PHP output buffering, see Output
Buffering_with_PHP and PHP_Output_Buffering_tutorial.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.21. In Windows, you get an empty page
You installed Apache, PHP and MySQL in Windows. It seems to work, but when you
try to run PHP-Nuke's index page, the browser starts searching the page without
showing anytihg. How do you get your Admin back?
This is too vague an error to trace down to anything specific with certainty,
but there are indications (see Problems_with_header_function) that it is
related to the header() function of PHP and PHP's_Bug_#16842:_header()_function
doesn`t_work. The bug seems to have been fixed in newer versions of PHP, but it
might still appear, if you had a previous version that you did not uninstall
cleanly (the old problem with DLLs not being correctly managed under Windows,
with old versions still lying around even after an uninstall). If you suspect
this might be the case with you, uninstall PHP cleanly and reinstall.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.22. You get a lot of Notice lines in the output of PHP-Nuke
If you get lots of Notice lines in your PHP-Nuke output like this:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Notice: No prefix specified in import_request_variables() |
| - possible security hazard in |
| c:\program files\apache group\apache\htdocs\html\mainfile.php on line 23 |
| Notice: Constant _ youhave already defined in |
| c:\program files\apache group\apache\htdocs\html\language\lang-english.php |
| on line 158 |
| Notice: Use of undefined constant admin - assumed 'admin' |
| in c:\program files\apache group\apache\htdocs\html\admin.php on line 16 |
| Notice: Use of undefined constant admin - assumed 'admin' |
| in c:\program files\apache group\apache\htdocs\html\mainfile.php on line 88|
| Notice: Constant _yes already defined in |
| c:\program files\apache group\apache\htdocs\html\admin\language\lang- |
| english.php on line 24 |
| Notice: Constant _no already defined in |
| c:\program files\apache group\apache\htdocs\html\admin\language\lang- |
| english.php on line 25 |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
then the error level for the reporting is too high (see A_lot_of_Notice_lines
in_the_output_of_PHP-Nuke). Set display_errors so that PHP will display all
errors, except notices, in your php.ini. Edit php.ini with a decent_text_editor
(see also Chapter_11) as follows - the important line is the last one, which is
the only uncommented one:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; |
| ; Error handling and logging ; |
| ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; |
| ; error_reporting is a bit-field. Or each number up to get desired error |
| ; reporting level |
| ; E_ALL - All errors and warnings |
| ; E_ERROR - fatal run-time errors |
| ; E_WARNING - run-time warnings (non-fatal errors) |
| ; E_PARSE - compile-time parse errors |
| ; E_NOTICE - run-time notices (these are warnings which often |
| result |
| ; from a bug in your code, but it's possible that it |
| was |
| ; intentional (e.g., using an uninitialized variable |
| and |
| ; relying on the fact it's automatically initialized to|
| an |
| ; empty string) |
| ; E_CORE_ERROR - fatal errors that occur during PHP's initial startup |
| ; E_CORE_WARNING - warnings (non-fatal errors) that occur during PHP's |
| ; initial startup |
| ; E_COMPILE_ERROR - fatal compile-time errors |
| ; E_COMPILE_WARNING - compile-time warnings (non-fatal errors) |
| ; E_USER_ERROR - user-generated error message |
| ; E_USER_WARNING - user-generated warning message |
| ; E_USER_NOTICE - user-generated notice message |
| ; |
| ; Examples: |
| ; |
| ; - Show all errors, except for notices |
| ; |
| ;error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE |
| ; |
| ; - Show only errors |
| ; |
| ;error_reporting = E_COMPILE_ERROR|E_ERROR|E_CORE_ERROR |
| ; |
| ; - Show all errors except for notices |
| ; |
| error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9.23. How to get a more descriptive error message
If you get an error, but you have no idea what is happening, you could try to
narrow it down in the code, if you feel comfortable with PHP. Then, after you
found the offending line, you should insert the line
________________________
| |
| print (mysql_error());|
|________________________|
immediately after it. This will give a more descriptive message of the error
and hopefully lead you to a solution. We already used this trick in Section
3.9.2. See also Warning:_mysql_fetch_row:_supplied_argument_is_not_a_valid
MySQL_result_resource and submit_news_problem.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.10. Common miscellaneous errors
Some miscellaneous errors are discussed here.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.10.1. RSS block Error: There is a current problem with the headlines from
this site
If you encounter the error
______________________________________________________________
| |
| There is a current problem with the headlines from this site|
|______________________________________________________________|
after some innocent changes in an RSS block, you are not alone. This is a known
issue and a solution is presented in Section_3.10.1.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.10.2. MySQL errno: 145: Can't open file nuke_XXXX.MYI
If suddenly you get an error like:
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Could not insert new word matches |
| DEBUG MODE |
| SQL Error : 1016 Can't open file: 'nuke_bbsearch_wordmatch.MYI'. (errno:|
| 145) |
| INSERT INTO nuke_bbsearch_wordmatch (post_id, word_id, title_match) |
| SELECT 4467, word_id, 0 FROM nuke_bbsearch_wordlist WHERE word_text IN |
| ('testing') |
| Line : 282 |
| File : /xxxx/xxxx/public_html/nuke/includes/functions_search.php |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
then you will know that your MySQL database has been corrupted. In the above
example, the nuke_bbsearch_wordmatch table is damaged (see MySQL_errno:_145
Can't_open_file_nuke_bbsearch_wordmatch.MYI).
Solution: Enter the MySQL prompt from the shell:
_______________________________________
| |
| mysql -u dbuname -h dbhost -p dbname;|
|_______________________________________|
where dbuname, dbhost and dbname are exactly the same as in your config.php
(Section_3.7) - you will also be prompted for your password, which must also be
the same as in config.php - and try the REPAIR TABLE command:
_______________________________________
| |
| repair table nuke_bbsearch_wordmatch;|
|_______________________________________|
You can also try from the shell command-line the myisamchl utility:
______________________________________
| |
| myisamchk -r nuke_bbsearch_wordmatch|
|______________________________________|
See Section_26.1 on how to repair corrupt tables.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.10.3. Modules do not show up and/or disappear
Figure 3-38. Administration panel: Modules.
Administration panel: Modules.
In PHP-Nuke version 7 alpha, when adding a module to the modules folder it
won't show in admin/modules. When renaming a module, with FTP or similar, the
module also disappears (see Modules_do_not_show_and/or_disappear).
The problem is that in admin/modules/modules.php, of that version, on the line
that inserts the modules in the folder modules, the number of fields is
incorrect. In admin/modules/modules.php, the lines with:
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| if ($mid == "") { |
| sql_query("insert into ".$prefix."_modules |
| values (NULL, '$modlist[$i]', '$modlist[$i]', '0', '0', '1')", $dbi);|
| } |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
should have been:
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| if ($mid == "") { |
| sql_query("insert into ".$prefix."_modules |
| values (NULL, '$modlist[$i]', '$modlist[$i]', '0', '0', '1', '0')", $dbi);|
| } |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
Notice the extra
_______
| |
| ,'0' |
|_______|
before the
___________
| |
| )",$dbi);|
|___________|
This error seems to affect v. 7 alpha and some of the 7.0 FINAL downloads.
You should also be aware that there are some third party modules which alter
the nuke_modules table. All you have to do to determine if this might be a
problem for you, is to view your nuke_modules table through phpMyAdmin (Section
3.3) or a similar tool, count the number of fields and then compare this number
with the code in admin/modules.php:
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| if ($mid == "") { |
| sql_query("insert into ".$prefix."_modules |
| values (NULL, '$modlist[$i]', '$modlist[$i]', '0', '0', '1', '0')", $dbi);|
| } |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
The above gives us 7 fields.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.10.4. Forums Error: Can't create a category without a name
You want to create a category in the Forum (see Section_7.1.1), but you get the
error:
________________________________________
| |
| General Error |
| Can't create a category without a name|
|________________________________________|
Your strategy in coping with error messages, in case your error is not obvious
or not well explained by the message, is to search the whole code tree for the
error text (just as you would search for a link text in Section_26.5). In this
case, it turns out that there is only one occurence, in modules/Forums/admin/
admin_forums.php:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| case 'addcat': |
| // Create a category in the DB |
| if( trim($HTTP_POST_VARS['categoryname']) == '') |
| { |
| message_die(GENERAL_ERROR, "Can't create a category without|
| a name"); |
| } |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
As you can easily see, the error is issued if the category name contains only
"white space"[5] (which is what the PHP_trim_function strips from the beginning
and end of a string), in simple words: if you did not enter any name for the
category. Logical, isn't it?
But what happens if you swear that you did enter a name there? Isn't this error
going to drive you nuts then?
In such situations, you should keep your calmness and try to think further than
the obvious: what could be happenning behind the scenes in PHP-Nuke? Here are
some possibilities (see Can't_create_a_category_without_a_name):
1. You entered an empty name - O.K., you already checked that, but let's
include it, just for the sake of completeness. This means that
$HTTP_POST_VARS['categoryname'], the value of the POST variable that holds
the category name, is empty, or contains at most some white space.
2. Your browser does not send POST variables back to the server, e.g. it does
not support forms. Also quite unlikely.
3. $HTTP_POST_VARS['categoryname'] was not empty when it arrived at PHP-Nuke,
but PHP-Nuke changed it. In fact, PHP-Nuke subjects the POST and GET
variables to some sanity checks (see Section_23.4.3 for details), to see
if they contain malicious code. If your category name contained any
“forbidden†characters, it may be that some check routine in PHP-Nuke
deleted it. Try a name that will not raise suspicions of SQL injection
(Section_23.3.2) and similar attacks.
4. You are logged in as the administrator and as a user. In this case, you
browser has stored two cookies (Section_23.4.5) on your computer and it is
not clear under what ID your action has been evaluated by PHP-Nuke. Try to
avoid such situations. If you must me logged in as both a user and an
administrator at all costs, you might try to use two different browsers
for each ID (not two instances of the same browser, but two different
products). They will store the cookies in different locations and will
(hopefully) not mess them up.
Of course, YMMV.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.10.5. Left and right blocks are missing
Figure 3-39. Missing blocks.
Missing blocks.
If your PHP-Nuke site looks like the one in Figure_3-39, i.e. lacking totally
the left and right columns with all the blocks in them, then maybe your
nuke_blocks table is corrupt (see Missing_blocks_and_modules, as well as My
blocks_are_gone and Blocks_have_disappeared). See Section_26.1 on how to repair
a corrupt table.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 4. How to upgrade PHP-Nuke
The upgrade of your PHP-Nuke system to a new version is done in the following
steps:
* Make a database backup. (See Figure_26-2 and Section_7.1, for PHP-Nuke's own
backup function, Section_3.3 for phpMyAdmin's functionality, which also
includes a very good web interface to database backups and Section_27.16, for
home-made scripts that automate the backup work for you.)
* Verify that your current PHP-Nuke version has not been modified (excluding
the theme, that does not needs an update). In case it has been modified
through the addition of modules that required a change in the original PHP-
Nuke files, or the database, proceed manually as outlined in Section_26.3.3.
* Test the upgrade locally first and not directly on the production site.
* If all looks well, transfer the files and the database to the production
site.
The update to a new version itself, is an operation that consists of two parts,
the update of the database and the overwriting of the old files with the new
ones. The update of the database is done automatically through appropriate
scripts that can be found in the upgrades folder of the PHP-Nuke package. You
have to upload the right upgrade script to your PHP-Nuke root directory on the
server (where also config.php is located), then point your browser to it - this
will update the database. See also How_to_upgrade_PHP-Nuke and PHP-Nuke
upgrade.
If you are upgrading from a version that is more than one version apart from
the version you are aiming at, then you have to apply all patches sequencially,
from the old one, through any intermediate versions, up to the newest one.
Thus, for the passage of 6.6 to 6.8, you must apply both upgrade66-67.php and
upgrade67-68.php.
If you are upgrading from 5.6 to 6.0, you must also overwrite the config.php
file with the new one, then edit it again with the right values (see Section
3.7).
The following sections cover some examples in detail.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.1. From 6.0 to 6.5
See phpNuke_Upgrade_from_6.0_to_6.5.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.1.1. Upgrade instructions for PHP-Nuke 6.0 without Tom's bbtonuke port
1. Make a backup of the database tables and all files.
2. Using your current config.php as a guide configure the new config.php's
settings, PHP-Nuke 6.5's config.php has a new variable: $sitekey, it is
recommended that you change at least some of the letters/numbers in it to
make it unique.
3. Upload all files and folders included in Nuke's html folder so that they
replace your current files.
4. Upload upgrade60-65.php to Nuke's main directory (where config.php is) and
point your browser to it. Delete it once done.
5. If you were using Splatt forum with Nuke 6.0 and wish to transfer its data
into the new bbtonuke forum, use NSN_Move
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.1.2. Upgrade instructions for PHP-Nuke 6.0 with Tom's 2.0.6 bbtonuke port
1. Make a backup of the database tables and all files.
2. Using your current config.php as a guide configure the new config.php's
settings, PHP-Nuke 6.5's config.php has a new variable: $sitekey, it is
recommended that you change at least some of the letters/numbers in it to
make it unique.
3. Upload all files and folders included in Nuke's html folder so that they
replace your current files.
4. Upload nukebbsql.php to Nuke's main directory (where config.php is) and
point your browser to it. Delete it once done.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.2. From phpBB to PHP-Nuke
If you have an existing phpBB Forum and would like to integrate it into one of
the newer PHP-Nuke versions that come with phpBB Forums, you should use the
phpBB_to_PHP-Nuke_Script from the PHP-Nuke UK Forums. To install it, put the
code into a file, edit the variables at the top and save it as transfer.php,
for example. Upload the file to the same directory as your PHP-Nuke config.php
and point your browser to it. See also How_to_integrate_new_PHP-Nuke_with
existing_phpBB_Forum.
Caution Always backup!
 Backup both your PHP-Nuke database and your phpBB database before
running this script.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.3. PHP-Nuke upgrade scripts
What's in an upgrade script? Let's take a few representative examples of code
and explain what they do, so that you get an idea of what is going on in such a
script[6]:
UPDATE (Version number):
the PHP-Nuke version is updated in the nuke_config table through the
UPDATE command:
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| // <application>PHP-Nuke</application> Version Number Update |
| $db->sql_query("UPDATE ".$prefix."_config SET Version_Num='6.7'");|
|____________________________________________________________________|
UPDATEÂ (Forums):
some forum parameters are modified through the UPDATE command.
_____________________________________________________________________
| |
| // <application>PHP-Nuke</application> Forums Update |
| $db->sql_query("UPDATE ".$prefix."_bbconfig SET config_value='.0.4'|
| where |
| config_name='version'"); |
| $db->sql_query("UPDATE ".$prefix."_bbconfig SET config_value='3600'|
| where |
| config_name='session_length'"); |
|_____________________________________________________________________|
INSERT:
some values are inserted into the nuke_bbconfig table through the INSERT
command:
__________________________________________________________
| |
| $db->sql_query("INSERT INTO ".$prefix."_bbconfig VALUES |
| ('config_id','1')"); |
|__________________________________________________________|
DELETE:
a recorde is deleted from the nuke_headlines table through the DELETE
command
_________________________________________________________
| |
| $db->sql_query("DELETE FROM ".$prefix."_headlines WHERE|
| sitename='Linux.com'"); |
|_________________________________________________________|
DROPÂ TABLE:
the whole table nuke_priv_msgs is deleted from the database through the
DROP TABLE command.
_____________________________________________________
| |
| $db->sql_query("DROP TABLE ".$prefix."_priv_msgs");|
|_____________________________________________________|
ALTERÂ TABLE:
the structure of the nuke_users table is modified through the ALTER TABLE
command:
_________________________________________________________________
| |
| $db->sql_query("ALTER TABLE ".$user_prefix."_users CHANGE uname|
| username |
| VARCHAR(25) NOT NULL"); |
|_________________________________________________________________|
CREATEÂ TABLE:
a new table (nuke_bbforum_prune) is created through the CREATE TABLE
command:
_____________________________________________________________________
| |
| $db->sql_query("CREATE TABLE ".$prefix."_bbforum_prune (prune_id |
| mediumint |
| (8) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, forum_id smallint(5) unsigned|
| NOT NULL |
| default '0', prune_days tinyint(4) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', |
| prune_freq tinyint |
| (4) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', PRIMARY KEY (prune_id), KEY |
| forum_id |
| (forum_id))"); |
|_____________________________________________________________________|
See Section_28.5 for the syntax of SQL code.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 5. How to move PHP-Nuke
We discuss how to move PHP-Nuke from your computer to your ISP (Section_5.1),
or from one ISP to another (Section_5.2). This is something that you should
plan carefully. The following sections will show you how.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1. Transferring a local installation to the Web
You may prefer to test PHP-Nuke on your local box and acquaint with its
features at your own pace, without the need to be constantly online. In this
case, when you are done with your evaluation, you will face the problem of
transferring your local installation to your webspace. A fresh installation on
the Web may not be very attractive an option to you, if you did some more or
less heavy customization of the code or preferences.
For the files, simply upload the content of the html folder to your document
root, or wherever you want it to appear under that. For the database, use
mysqldump or phpMyAdmin (see Section_3.4) to do a backup of the database and
import the data into the MySQL of your web presence.
To do a backup from the command line using mysqldump, do:
_________________________________________________________
| |
| mysqldump -h dbhost -u dbuname -p dbname > dbbackup.sql|
|_________________________________________________________|
where dbhost, dbuname and dbname are exactly what you entered in config.php
(see Section_3.7) for these variables. To import the data using mysql from the
command line, do:
_____________________________________________________
| |
| mysql -h dbhost -u dbuname -p dbname < dbbackup.sql|
|_____________________________________________________|
If you change your local files and/or tables regularly, you may choose to
transfer only the files/tables that changed. In this case, you should drop the
affected tables before you reimport them. phpMyAdmin offers a convenient
interface for this (see Section_3.4.2 and Section_26.2.1).
It is a good idea to announce these measures to your community, to avoid
frustration among your users.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2. Changing Web hoster
Sooner or later in the life of any webmaster, the time comes for a project that
most of us wished would never happen: change the hosting company! In this
chapter we will take the dread out of moving your nuked site by simply
outlining all the necessary steps for this operation to succeed. You will see
that, although it may take some planning and foresight, it is a straightforward
procedure after all.
During the whole procedure, it is important to remember that in this case,
unlike the one in Section_5.1, you have your users to take care of. Treat them
with kindness and inform them of the coming changes, so they are prepared if
something does not work as expected.
Here is the step-by-step plan to change web hoster for your PHP-Nuke:
1. Your current hoster X doesn't fit your needs anymore. You have found a
better one, Y, with better conditions. But does the new hoster Y support
all the functionality you need? How about
o Apache (version?) and modules (mod_gzip, GD library, mod_auth,
mod_rewrite and all the other modules you may be using at hoster X)
o PHP (version? how about PHP extensions?)
o MySQL (version? how many databases?)
2. You obtained the new server or webspace at hoster Y. Set the time frame
for your move. A small, amateur site may need only a few days, whereas for
a big, commercial one two weeks may be more appropriate.
3. Ask hoster X to lower the TTL (time to live) of your domain's zone files
to 900 seconds or a similar value. Normally, TTL is set to a much higher
value, since DNS information does not change very often. The new, lower
TTL value will force DNS servers around the world to update their records
about your domain in a much more frequent pace than usually. This way,
changes in your domain's DNS information will propagate much faster
through the Internet.
4. Make sure the basic “software infrastructure†is there on your new server
(or webspace) and is working:
o Firewall with your custom settings (if any).
o E-Mail functionality up and running
o Web server configuration correct and adapted to your needs
o phpMyAdmin installed and working
5. Lock your filesystem on X and move all files from X to Y. You don't move
your database on X yet, but you do move all files, even files that control
access to your site, like .htaccess, hosts.allow, hosts.deny etc . files.
6. Do a first check using the file
____________
| |
| <?php |
| phpinfo();|
| ?> |
|____________|
Put it somewhere on your new webspace, name it test.php and just point
your browser to it. Check that the output (file locations, configuration
etc.) is what you expected.
7. Now it's time to move your PHP-Nuke database. Do an announcement (see
Section_7.1) that you will be dumping the database, then use mysqldump to
dump it:
From the command line, do:
_________________________________________________________
| |
| mysqldump -h dbhost -u dbuname -p dbname > dbbackup.sql|
|_________________________________________________________|
where dbhost, dbuname and dbname are exactly what you entered in
config.php (see Section_3.7) for these variables.
If your database is small, say smaller than 10MB, you could try to use
phpMyAdmin for the backup. But since phpMyAdmin is a PHP script like all
the others, it is also subject to the same CPU time constraints (which you
can see in the output of the test.php file above, if you run it on hoster
X). The limit is usually set to 30 seconds, which is not enough for
backups of large databases. You may end up with no backup or, worse, with
corrupted data. But for a small site, one with a small database that is,
doing the backup with phpMyAdmin is certainly an option. See Section_27.16
for backups through the web and Section_26.1 for instructions on how to
repair a corrupted table or database.
8. Transfer the dbbackup.sql file to your webspace on hoster Y (you may want
to compress it before you do this - compression will reduce file size and
transfer time dramatically). Import the data into MySQL on Y with the
command
_____________________________________________________
| |
| mysql -h dbhost -u dbuname -p dbname < dbbackup.sql|
|_____________________________________________________|
or using phpMyAdmin.
9. Test PHP-Nuke on Y to ensure it is working properly. Since your domain
still points (through the DNS records on hoster X) to the old webspace on
X, you will have to use the IP address in the URL and in the preferences
(see Section_7.2) for the tests of PHP-Nuke on Y.
10. If all looks good on Y, put a .htaccess file (see Section_25.4) in the
document root on your server at X to redirect any requests to the new
server at Y. That is, any requests to your domain will be re-routed to the
IP of the server at Y. The following line in your .htaccess file will do
this for you:
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| redirectPermanent /oldlocation.html http://www.mynewdomain/folder/|
| newlocation.html |
|____________________________________________________________________|
11. Update your domain's DNS records to point to the webspace at host Y. The
lower TTL setting above will take care for a rapid propagation of the new
DNS information throughout the world's name servers. Changes should
propagate in a few hours.
12. Keep your server at X for a couple of days to ensure that all DNS servers
got the updated records, then cancel your services at X at your own
leisure. Once you do so, you will no longer need to access Y with the IP
address.
In case you don't have direct control over the DNS record updates, you will
have to monitor your Y site closely, especially after receipt of the
confirmation mail announcing to you that your application has been approved by
both hosters. You may want to write a small cron job that accesses Y by name
every 5 minutes and sends you an e-mail on success. As soon as your webspace on
Y is accessible by your domain name, you will know that step 11 will be
completed in a few hours or, in case you couldn't change TTL, a day.
The key idea to the above process is that you put a .htaccess file on X,
redirecting from X (still accessed by domain name) to Y (accessed by IP
address), as soon as you transfer the PHP-Nuke database to Y. See also How_to
move_a_PHP-Nuke_site.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 6. 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. We will differentiate between the 6.0
version and its successors, since there have been important changes starting
from version 6.5 - the Splatt_forum, for example, has been replaced by the
phpBB_f.orum, this has created changes in other modules, like Your_Account or
Private_Messages, that are now interoperating with phpBB.
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[7] 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_6-1).
Figure 6-1. PHP-Nuke Homepage
PHP-Nuke Homepage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.1. 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
moreâ€.
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 (starting from
version 6.6, it is possible to assign more than one topics to one
article). We have a second way to classify the articles, which is to
assign them a category they are supposed to belong (see Figure_6-2).
Figure 6-2. Classifying articles
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.
In Section_18.7 we show how to modify the PHP-Nuke News module.
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 is used to manage a file archive
(present on our own or a third party site). It offers various modes of
interaction the user (see Figure_6-3).
Figure 6-3. Downloads module
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_6-3 there is only 1
category, “Linux Downloadsâ€), 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).
Read Section_27.6 if you are looking for a quick way to enter thousands
of Downloads links. Further, in Section_18.10 we show how to modify the
PHP-Nuke Downloads module.
Feedback:
Allows the user to send feedback and contact the webmaster of the site.
The user just fills in the appropriate fields which are “Nameâ€, “E-Mailâ€
and then the “Message Textâ€. 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_6-4).
Figure 6-4. 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...
In case there are private messages waiting for a user, this will be
indicated in the login block.
Starting from version 6.5, the Private Messages module has been changed:
it has been integrated to the private messaging functionality of the
phpBB forum. Sending functionality has not been changed, but there have
been additions in other areas like:
* The list of sent messages.
* The list of drafts (messages that were written, but not have not yet
been sent).
* The remaining space in the box containing the list of messages.
The module has been integrated in a very strict fashion into the phpBB
forum.
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 catalogued in alphabetical order
and the selection can be made based on starting letter.
We discuss how to modify the Reviews module in Section_18.4.
Search:
It is the main search engine for PHP-Nuke, it does full text searches on
articles, comments, sections, users and book reviews (see Figure_6-5). It
is possible to make multiple searches (e.g.. an article of a certain
category written by a certain author).
Figure 6-5. Search module
Search module
Sections:
This module is a classification system parallel to the one of the topics.
The classification of articles in PHP-Nuke does not follow a tree-like
scheme, as in the following example:
* Series A
o Amateur football
o Professional football
o Gossip
* Series B
o Amateur football
o Professional football
o Gossip
Instead, classification is achieved through the use of two transversal
criteria, of which one is the “Section†and the other one the “Topicâ€, as
is better captured by a table, whose two dimensions (rows and columns)
cover the two criteria (see Table_6-1).
Table 6-1. Classification with topics and sections
________________________________________________
|_____________________|Series_A|Series_B|Series_C|
|Amateur_football_____|_____x__|_____x__|________|
|Professional_football|________|_____x__|________|
|Gossip_______________|________|_____x__|_____x__|
We discuss how to modify the Sections module in Section_18.9.
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_6-6).
Figure 6-6. Statistics module
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
We discuss how to modify the Stories Archive module in Section_18.11.
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.
We discuss how to modify the News module in Section_18.7.
Surveys:
Enables the administrator to create a survey that will later appear in a
block (Figure_6-14) or in the survey list. The users can vote on this
survey (not more than once in 24 hours), and possibly leave a 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 elements of 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.
Read Section_27.5 if you are looking for a quick way to enter thousands
of Web links. Further, in Section_18.5 we show how to modify the PHP-Nuke
Web Links module.
Your Account:
It's the administration console for your “User Profile†(It only works
for registered users), the implemented functions are (see Figure_6-7):
* Change your info: enables management of your profile by changing your
E-mail, Where you're from, AIM, ICQ, Avatar & Fake E-mail etc...
* Change your Home: 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.
* Journal: enables you to write your own diary to be published on the
portal. Something like a Weblog in a Weblog, so to say. ;-)
* Webmail: once configured correctly, this mail application allows you to
read all your e-mails from all your e-mail accounts, without the need
for any other mail client.
* Logout/Exit: It lets us exit from our current user profile, cancelling
the cookie.
* My Headlines: Imports into the user's private area those news in RDF/
RSS format that are published by preselected news sources. The user can
thus set up together his own personalized newspaper. An even broader
news functionality is offered by the My Headlines module (Section
8.3.9), whose functionality you can see in action at Chris' News-o-
matic page.
* Broadcast Message: If the subject is aproppriate and the administrator
has allowed it in the Preferences of the administration panel (Chapter
7), we can send messages that will be visible to all users on the home
page of the site. It is also possible to disable the function, so that
we don't see messages broadcast by other users.
* Your private messages: This box displays the user's private messages.
* Last 10 articles: Offers a list of the last 10 articles posted by that
user.
Figure 6-7. 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.
In Section_18.6 we show how to modify the PHP-Nuke Your Account module.
If you are looking for a module that extends the possibilities of the
standard Your Account module, have a look at the Your Account Tweak
module in Section_8.3.3 and the Approve Membership module in Section
8.3.4.
Content:
This is a module that allows you to create your pages just as you prefer:
you can insert HTML code (even one created by those very ugly visual
editors) and it will be incorporated into the look and feel of your theme
when the article is displayed.
The Content module posesses a series of fields. Some are displayed only
in the first page, some others only in the last one. The “Page Headerâ€
field is the principal one, it is possible to separate the content into
subpages, inserting at the aproppriate places in the text the <!--
pagebreak> tag. For example, if you write
_________________________________
| |
| My Homepage is the best website|
| <!--pagebreak> |
| I visit it every day |
|_________________________________|
then the text “I visit it every day†will be on the second page. See also
Section_21.5, Section_21.6 and Section_21.7 for other techniques to
incorporate HTML content in PHP-Nuke.
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.
In Section_27.9, you can read how to internationalize the Encyclopedia
module. You can also use the Random Quotes block (Section_8.2.8) to
create a random encyclopedia.
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.
If you want to display HTML code in a FAQ, have a look at Section_27.4.
See also Section_22.1 if you want to duplicate the FAQ module.
Splatt Forum:
(note: the Splatt forum is included in PHP-Nuke version 6.0, but not in
the successive ones, where it was replaced by the phpBB Forum, to be
described subsequently).
The functionalities implemented in this forum (on the user side) are many
(see Figure_6-8), 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 6-8. Splatt Forum.
Splatt Forum.
phpBBÂ Forum:
This Forum module is installed in PHP-Nuke starting from version 6.5,
replacing the Splatt Forum (Figure_6-9). It offers a series of additional
features, like an optimal search functionality for threads or an optimal
user profile management, where it is now possible to insert alerts to
inform a user via e-mail of the arrival of a response to a posting or
private message of his.
Among the novelties in the forum interface is a list of the users
currently online, an interface for the formatting of the inserted text,
the possibility to attach a survey to every thread etc.
Figure 6-9. phpBB Forum.
phpBB Forum.
XDMP:
Starting from version 6.8 of PHP-Nuke, it is possible to acquire News
from the XDMP_site. The News are available in many categories and will be
automatically published on your site, once you acquire the service. For
this to take place, you will only need to edit the modules/News/xdmp.php
file, inserting the login and password you were assigned on acquisition.
You can set up the news categories and the refresh intervalls from the
interface offered by modules/News/xdmp.php. An even broader news
functionality is offered by the My Headlines module (Section_8.3.9),
whose functionality you can see in action at Chris' News-o-matic page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.2. Non-installed modules
See Section_8.3 for some interesting add-on modules for PHP-Nuke.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.3. The preinstalled blocks
Modules:
Lists all active modules. In case you are the Administrator, it displays
also the inactive modules, as wel as those that are hidden. The Modules
block is very often used for navigation purposes, see for example Section
8.2.4, Section_8.2.5, Section_8.2.6 and Section_17.2. But it is also
possible to use the Content block (see below) to obtain a similar result.
Figure 6-10. The standard Modules block
The standard Modules block
Administration:
Lists the links that lead to the administration area. It is divided into
two blocks, one that lists shortcuts to some administration functions,
and another that lists links to content awaiting approval (Figure_6-11,
or to reports of problems like broken links, broken downloads etc.
Figure 6-11. Waiting Content block.
Waiting Content block.
Who is online:
Lists the number of users that are online at the moment (Figure_6-12).
Figure 6-12. Who Is Online block.
Who Is Online block.
Search:
Search block for the contents of the site.
Languages:
Allows you to change the language of the PHP-Nuke interface. In the
Preferences of the administration panel (Chapter_7), you can select
whether the block shall display flag icons (Figure_6-13) or a drop-down
list for the language selection.
Figure 6-13. Languages block.
Languages block.
Random Headlines:
Displays random phrases in a block. See also the Random Quotes block in
Section_8.2.8.
User's custom box:
A block where the user can have whatever he likes. The contents of the
block will solely be visible to the user who created it.
Categories Menu:
Displays the available categories as links.
Survey:
Displays the current survey in the block (Figure_6-14).
Figure 6-14. Surveys block.
Surveys block.
Login:
A block where the registered user can enter his nickname and password in
order to be recognized as such and be granted access to the services of
the site that are restricted to registered users only (Figure_6-15). See
Section_21.10 for a logout module.
Figure 6-15. Login block.
Login block.
Big Story of Today:
Displays the most read story of today in the block.
Old Articles:
Lists old articles that are not shown in the central News column anymore.
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. See Section
20.7, for advertisements in PHP-Nuke blocks and Section_21.11, for
advertisements in PHP-Nuke modules. For Google ads, you can also use the
Google AdSense block of Section_8.2.7.
Content:
Displays the most active content. See Section_20.3 for instructions on
how to make a simple Content block yourself.
Encyclopedia:
lists all active encyclopedias, clicking the link will bring us directly
inside the list of terms of the chosen encyclopedia.
In Section_27.9, you can read how to internationalize the Encyclopedia
module. You can also use the Random Quotes block (Section_8.2.8) to
create a random 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. Read Section_27.8 if
you are looking for a quick way to enter thousands of ephemerids.
Reviews:
It lists in a block the book reviews of the day. We discuss how to modify
the Reviews module in Section_18.4.
Sections Articles:
lists the active sections. Clicking one we will get to the corresponding
article list. We discuss how to modify the Sections module in Section
18.9.
Top 10 Downloads:
It lists the 10 most downloaded files. Read Section_27.6 if you are
looking for a quick way to enter thousands of Downloads links. Further,
in Section_18.10 we show how to modify the PHP-Nuke Downloads module.
Top 10 Links:
It lists the 10 most clicked links in the archives.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 7. 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). Starting from version 6.5,
one has also to type a security code in an extra field. The security code is
chosen randomly each time and must be the same as the one displayed in a
graphic and is “poisoned†with “noise†to make automatic number recognition by
login scripts impossible (see the Electric_Dice site for more information on
the difficulties of creating truly random numbers and poisoned images).
Once logged in, the administrator finds an interface that lists all the areas
which can be acted upon (see Figure_7-1). 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. Depending on our
choice, either a textual or an icon administration interface will appear.
Figure_7-1 shows the icon interface. Note that the icons of the admin panel are
theme dependent.
Figure 7-1. Administration panel.
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 “yesâ€.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1. The administration functions
Figure 7-2. Administration panel: Add story.
Administration panel: Add story.
Add Story:
It is the function that adds a new article to the News module. (We
discuss how to modify the News module in Section_18.7.) The options
offered are many and will be analyzed here one by one [8]:
* 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 (Figure
7-3).
Figure 7-3. Attaching a poll to an article awaiting admission.
Attaching a poll to an article awaiting admission.
In the case that this option is activated, when the reader clicks on
"read all", a survey block will appear that is different from the
survey block on the home page. We thus have two survey blocks active:
1. The survey block on the home page (Figure_6-14).
2. The survey block attached to the specific article (Figure_7-4).
Figure 7-4. Article Poll block.
Article Poll block.
Figure 7-5. Administration panel: Backup DB.
Administration panel: Backup DB.
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 DBâ€, 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! See
Section_27.16 for other backup solutions.
Figure 7-6. Administration panel: Banners.
Administration panel: Banners.
Banners:
You can manage your advertising strategy with this function: you can add
clients, then add banners images for each client. The banners will be
displayed at the top of the page, before the header (if you want to
change banner placement, see Section_14.3.6). You can control the number
of impressions per banner and you can also gather statistics on the
achieved views and clicks.
See also Section_20.7, for advertisements in PHP-Nuke blocks and Section
21.11, for advertisements in PHP-Nuke modules. For Google ads, you can
also use the Google AdSense block of Section_8.2.7.
Figure 7-7. Administration panel: Blocks.
Administration panel: Blocks.
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_20
The PHP-Nuke blocks can be of 3 different types:
* RSS/RDF: These are blocks that capture news put at our disposal from
other sites. The files are in a standard format, suitable for reading
the text contained in them (for example, the site Spaghettibrain.com is
a site that feeds news to other sites).
RSS is a protocol, an application of XML, that provides an open method
of syndicating and aggregating Web content. Using RSS files, you can
create a data feed that supplies headlines, links, and article
summaries from your Web site. This function is done automatically by
the backend.php file of your PHP-Nuke system, so that other sites that
wish to display (we say “syndicate†in this context) news from your
site, only have to enter the address “http://www.yoursite.com/
backend.php†. For more information on RSS, see this RSS_Workshop.
* 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 “setupâ€. 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 “Contentâ€. There is a
bug that will display a message, saying “There is a current problem
with the headlines from this site.â€, although everything will be set up
right, see Section_17.3.
* 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
â€filenameâ€).
* If instead we want to include the PHP files that interface with a
database or perform particular functions, then we will omit “Contentâ€
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_20). Just choose the block from the drop-down list of
available blocks and set a title for it (or leave the title untouched).
Remember that before publishing a block, we will be shown a preview of
it.
Tip Use custom blocks for building navigation menus
Many users think that the Modules block (Figure_17-1) is the
obligatory way of building a navigation menu. However, it is just
 as possible to create custom blocks containing our HTML code and
images or links - see Section_17.2 for various approaches in this
direction.
Finally, the block can be positioned
* in the left/right column, or
* in the central column, either at the top or at the bottom.
You can change the relative positioning of all the blocks inside a column
by clicking on the up and down arrows in the table that lists all blocks
in the blocks administration panel.
See Section_8.2 for interesting add-on blocks.
Figure 7-8. Administration panel: Content.
Administration panel: Content.
Content Manager:
This function allows us to add new categories and new content inside the
content section. Think of it as a container for creating empty pages. A
noteworthy feature is the possibility to add the tag
_______________________
| |
| <! -- pagebreak -- > |
|_______________________|
in order to create a multipage article. The elements that comprise the
Content module are:
* title,
* subtitle,
* page header text,
* page main text,
* page footer text,
* signature.
The
_______________________
| |
| <! -- pagebreak -- > |
|_______________________|
function is only active in the page main text field.
After you have created the desired categories you can then go to http://
yoursite.com/admin.php?op=content and start adding pages to the
categories.
You can create links that point directly to the pages created by the
Content module and use them in menus or buttons. The links could look as
follows:
____________________________________________
| |
| modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=1|
|____________________________________________|
where pid=1 is the page ID that uniquely identifies the Content page.
An easy way to find out the correct URL to use in links to Content pages,
is to click on the Content link in the modules block, view each page and
copy its URL from the browser's address window. You can then just add
these URLs to a HTML block, maybe like this:
_______________________________________________________
| |
| <b><big>·</big></b> |
| <img src=images/blocks/icon_dot.gif> |
| <a href="modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=1">|
| Page Title 1</a><BR> |
| <b><big>·</big></b> |
| <img src=images/blocks/icon_dot.gif> |
| <a href="modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=2">|
| Page Title 2</a><BR> |
| <b><big>·</big></b> |
| <img src=images/blocks/icon_dot.gif> |
| <a href="modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=3">|
| Page Title 3</a><BR> |
|_______________________________________________________|
and so on. See also Section_21.5, Section_21.6 and Section_21.7 for other
techniques to incorporate HTML content in PHP-Nuke.
Figure 7-9. Administration panel: Downloads.
Administration panel: Downloads.
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. If you have thousands of download links to
enter, consult Section_27.6 for an automated procedure. Further, in
Section_18.10 we show how to modify the PHP-Nuke Downloads module.
Figure 7-10. Administration panel: Edit Admins.
Administration panel: Edit Admins.
Edit Admins:
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. For example, for
an editorial activity, you can create sub-administrators and enable only
the News administration functions for them.
Figure 7-11. Administration panel: Edit Users.
Administration panel: Edit Users.
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. Through the same form it is also possible to delete a user, by
simply changing the drop-down menu selection from “modify†to “deleteâ€.
Figure 7-12. Administration panel: Encyclopedia.
Administration panel: Encyclopedia.
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.
Caution Attention!
 You can only insert terms in an encyclopedia after you have
already entered the encyclopedia's title!
The whole interface is contained in one single screen, so that for
entering the encyclopedia terms you will have to scroll down, then insert
the term, its description and also choose the encyclopedia you want to
have it in. If you have thousands of terms, such an approach is not
practical. You may want to have a look at the techniques presented in
Section_27.5 (for web links) and Section_27.6 (for download links) and
adapt them to the Encyclopedia module.
For internationalization (i18n) issues regarding the Encyclopedia module,
see Section_27.9. You can also use the Random Quotes block (Section
8.2.8) to create a random encyclopedia.
Figure 7-13. Administration panel: Ephemerids.
Administration panel: Ephemerids.
Ephemerids:
Allows the insertion of recurrent events choosing the date and inserting
a description. Given such an event in the Ephemerids table, the
Ephemerids block will display its description on the day that it occured.
More than one events on a given day are possible, of course. To modify
such an event, you have to scroll up to the bottom of the screen, choose
the desired date and then proceed as usual. For a more speedy
alternative, see Section_27.8.
Figure 7-14. Administration panel: FAQ.
Administration panel: FAQ.
FAQ:
Allows the creation of the main FAQ categories and all related questions/
answers. After a category has been entered, you must click on its content
to be able to enter, delete or modify a FAQ.
If you want to display HTML code in a FAQ, have a look at Section_27.4.
See also Section_22.1 if you want to duplicate the FAQ module.
Figure 7-15. Administration panel: Forums.
Administration panel: Forums.
Splatt Forum:
The management of the forum is divided in 4 areas[9]:
* 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.
Figure 7-16. Administration panel: HTTP Referers.
Administration panel: HTTP Referers.
HTTPÂ Referers:
It displays the URL of the site the visitor was on, before coming to our
site. See also the IP Tracking module in Section_8.3.6 and the Protector
module in Section_8.3.7 for a similar, but extended, functionality.
Figure 7-17. Administration panel: Messages.
Administration panel: Messages.
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. They also may carry a expiration date, making it
possible to say, for example, “show this message for 1, 2, 5, 15, 30
days, or for unlimited timeâ€.
Figure 7-18. Administration panel: Modules.
Administration panel: Modules.
Modules:
Allows for 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 (Figure_7-19). Further, you can define the module that will
be “put in Homeâ€, i.e. appear in the index.php page (the “Homepage†of
PHP-Nuke), but see Section_27.1 if this seems to be not working.
Figure 7-19. Modules administration panel.
Modules administration panel.
Figure 7-20. Administration panel: Newsletter.
Administration panel: Newsletter.
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!
See Section_19.2 if you want to allow HTML in your newsletter.
Figure 7-21. Administration panel: Optimize DB.
Administration panel: Optimize DB.
Optimize DB:
Optimizes the data in the database, increasing database speed. Use with
caution. Backup your database before! See Section_27.16 for automated
backups through the browser - and Section_26.2 in case something goes
wrong and you have to restore your database from a backup.
Figure 7-22. Administration panel: Preferences.
Administration panel: Preferences.
Preferences:
This subject will be treated in Section_7.2.
Figure 7-23. Administration panel: Reviews.
Administration panel: Reviews.
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. To insert an image, you must save it in the
images/reviews folder, then enter its filename (without the path, e.g.
pippo.png) in the aproppriate field.
Further, you can set up a title and a description for the reviews main
page.
We discuss how to modify the Reviews module in Section_18.4.
Figure 7-24. Administration panel: Sections.
Administration panel: Sections.
Sections:
here you can manage the sections and their contents. 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 <! -
- pagebreak -- > tag and to edit or cancel already added sections.
Figure 7-25. Administration panel: Submissions.
Administration panel: Submissions.
Submissions:
Here you can manage articles inserted by others. It is the moderation
area of the News module that we have already analyzed in this section.
You can publish, modify or delete submitted articles - there is even a
field for “notes†that allows the webmaster to enter a comment to the
article that will be visually distinguished from the main text by a
cursive font.
Figure 7-26. Administration panel: Surveys.
Administration panel: Surveys.
Surveys/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.
Figure 7-27. Administration panel: Topics.
Administration panel: Topics.
Topics:
Allows you to create new topics and the association, through a pop-up
menu, of corresponding images (Figure_7-28). The images must have been
copied to the images/topics folder previously.
Figure 7-28. Administration panel: Add a new topic.
Administration panel: Add a new topic.
Figure 7-29. Administration panel: Web Links.
Administration panel: Web Links.
Web 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.
If you have many links to enter, an automatic procedure based on
scripting, as discussed in Section_27.5, may be of interest to you.
Further, in Section_18.5 we show how to modify the PHP-Nuke Web Links
module.
Figure 7-30. Administration panel: Logout.
Administration panel: Logout.
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 (see Section_23.4.5).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1.1. phpBB Forum administration
Figure 7-31. Administration panel: Forums.
Administration panel: Forums.
Given the length of the administration interface of the phpBB Forum, we will
traverse its functions following the order of the menu in the left frame.
Admin Index:
Leads back to the administration panel of PHP-Nuke (Section_7.1).
Forum Index:
Leads back to the main Forum page.
Preview Forum:
Offers a preview of the forum, keeping the left frame with the
administration functions in place.
Management:
Here you can create the categories that will form the criteria for
grouping the forums, old and new ones. It is also possible to change
their order inside a category, lock and unlock a forum, and configure the
pruning function for every forum. Pruning is the self-cleaning action
that deletes all threads that did not receive a posting in the last N
days, N being individually set by the administrator.
Pruning:
Another way to reach the pruning function (instead of the Management link
above).
Avatar management:
Deletes unwanted avatars.
Backup database:
Makes a backup copy of the database. Since PHP-Nuke also posesses the
same function, it is recommended to use that one from PHP-Nuke's
administration panel (Section_7.1). For a do-it-yourself solution, see
Section_27.16, but bear in mind that all these methods will fail, if your
database has become so large that PHP is exhausting its CPU time limit
and breaks execution. In such a case, only the MySQL mysqldump command-
line utility can backup your DB.
Configuration:
This is the forum configuration panel. From all the functions present, we
would like to bring the following ones to your attention:
* Flood interval: Minimum number of seconds that must pass between a post
and the next one (by the same person).
* Topics per page: Number of threads per page.
* Posts per page: Number of posts per page.
* Posts for popular threshold: Number of posts required to render a
thread as “popularâ€.
* Allowed HTML tags: The HTML tags that the users are allowed to use in
their text (e.g. links, tables etc.). See Section_16.1 for the same
subject regarding PHP-Nuke in general.
* Allow username changes: Enables changing one's nickname (don't set this
to “yesâ€).
* Enable remote avatars: Enables linking one's avatar to an image from a
remote site (e.g. one's photo).
* E-mail settings: management of e-mail operations (be it mailing actions
or mail notifications).
Mass e-mails:
Allows for mass e-mailing of users or groups through a newsletter. PHP-
Nuke posseses this functionality too.
Restore database:
Reloads a backup file of the database (don't play too much with this).
Smilies:
Allows a personalization of the character sequences that will be mapped
to smiley icons.
Word censor:
Enables censorship of bad words (the ones you enter in the list). PHP-
Nuke posesses a similar bad word list in the config.php file (Section
3.7).
Group/admin management:
Here you can create groups, which can be “openâ€, “closed†or “hiddenâ€. In
an open group, anyone can choose to join. A closed group is viewable, but
only administrators can add members to them. A hidden groups is only
viewable by an administrator.
Tip How to add a user to a group
To add members you don't even need to be in the forum's admin
section: in any normal forum page click on usergroups, you will see
 all available groups depending on your access level, if you have
admin access you will be able to add/remove/approve users from this
page.
Permissions:
You can assign permissions to a group here.
Styles admin:
In the standalone phpBB forum, you can manage the forum themes from here.
However, this function does not have any effect on PHP-Nuke, whose themes
are still managed from the administration panel (Section_7.1). If a theme
does not work with the phpBB forum in PHP-Nuke, you should not try to
activate it through this function, it wil still not work. Try to contact
the designer instead, and ask for a PHP-Nuke conforming theme.
Ban control:
Allows you to ban a username, an e-mail address, or an IP address (or a
group of IP addresses). See Section_8.3.6 and Section_8.3.7 for add-on
modules that pursue the same subject.
Disallow name:
You can enter the usernames you wish to make unavailable to users.
User admin/management:
Allows the administrator to manage user data.
Permissions:
Allows the adminstrator to set user permissions.
Ranks:
You can define user “categories†here, the so-called ranks. A user will
attain a certain rank, after having posted a threshold number X of forum
posts - the rank name, icon and threshold being freely configurable.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.2. The Preferences Page
Figure 7-32. Administration panel: Preferences.
Administration panel: Preferences.
Here are the parameters needed for the configuration of the config.php file
(Section_3.7) through the admin/preferences area:
* General Site Info (Figure_7-33):
o Site name: It corresponds to the title tag, it is what appears up in the
right bar of the browser. It is very important for the search_engines.
o Site URL: It is the internet address of your site.
o 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.
o Slogan: It is equivalent to the description tag, it's also very important
for the search_engines.
o Beginning date of the site: It's the date that appears in the statistics
module.
o 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.
o Articles in Top Page: Specifies the number of news articles that can be
displayed in the main page of the news module.
o 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).
o Stories in old articles box: Specifies the number of news articles that can
be displayed in the old articles box. Note, however, that articles never
get moved anywhere. An archived article, is any article except for the
first 10 articles (or whatever number you have in Preferences for "number
of stories in Home"). The Old Articles block starts with the 11th newest
article, and goes back from there (again, it depends on "stories in Home").
o Activate ultramode: specifies if other sites can take news titles from our
site.
o Allow anonymous to post : Specifies whether anonymous users can write
comments.
o Default theme: defines the default theme of the site.
o Select language: defines the default language of the site.
o local time format: defines the format of the local time (depends on the
server, if it is running linux, this is controlled in /usr/share/locale).
See also Section_27.13.
Figure 7-33. General site info in the Preferences page.
General site info in the Preferences page.
* Multilingual options:
o activate the multilanguage characteristics: choose whether the site should
support a multilingual functionality or not
o 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 (see Figure_6-13).
* Banners options:
o activate banners : sets up the option to use banner rotation on the site.
The banners will be positioned in the header. See Section_14.3.6 on how to
change the banner's position in the header. If you are interested in other
ways of ad placement in PHP-Nuke, see Section_20.7 on how to display ad
banners in PHP-Nuke blocks and Section_21.11 on how to display
advertisements in PHP-Nuke modules.
* Footer messages:
o 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
Example: Suppose you have some "powered by" icons in the images/powered
directory, like powered_by_linux.png, powered_by_apache.png,
powered_by_mysql.png etc. Then you can insert the following HTML code in
one of the above footer lines and the icons will appear in the aproppriate
footer line (Figure_7-34):
____________________________________________________________
| |
| <p align=center> |
| <a href='http://www.linux.org' target='blank'> |
| <img src='images/powered/powered_by_linux.png' border='0' |
| Alt='Linux Operating System' hspace='10'></a> |
| <a href='http://www.apache.org' target='blank'> |
| <img src='images/powered/powered_by_apache.png' border='0'|
| Alt='Apache Web Server' hspace='10'></a> |
| <a href='http://www.mysql.org' target='blank'> |
| <img src='images/powered/powered_by_mysql.png' border='0' |
| Alt='mySQL Database' hspace='10'></a> |
| <a href='http://www.php.net' target='blank'> |
| <img src='images/powered/powered_by_php.png' border='0' |
| Alt='PHP Homepage Preprocessor' hspace='10'></a> |
| <a href='http://phpnuke.org' target='blank'> |
| <img src='images/powered/powered_by_nuke.png' border='0' |
| Alt='PHP-Nuke Content Management System' hspace='10'></a> |
| </p> |
|____________________________________________________________|
Figure 7-34. Icons in the footer.
Icons in the footer.
* Backend configuration:
o Backend title: The title that will appear in the file from which other
sites get our newsfeed.
o Backend language: language for the newsfeed file.
* Mail New Stories to Admin:
o Notify new submissions by e-mail: It defines whether the administrator gets
an e-mail when a user inserts a news article.
o E-mail to send the message: e-mail to which the notification message will
be sent.
o E-mail subject: the text that will be inserted in the subject line of the
message (e.g. “NEWS for my siteâ€)
o E-mail message: notification text (e.g. “Hey! You got a new submission for
your site.â€).
o E-mail account (From): who has sent the message (typically something like
“Webmasterâ€).
* Comments moderation:
o Type of Moderation: chooses whether a moderation should be set up for the
comments or not. The options available are:
# No moderation
# Moderation by Admin
# Moderation by Users
* Comments option:
o Comment limit in Bytes: sets up the maximum size for the comments.
o Anonymous default name: assigns a name to the persons who chose to remain
unregistered.
* Graphics options:
o Graphical administration menu: sets up whether to have icons or text in the
administration area.
* Miscelaneous options:
o Activate HTTP referers: whether statistics regarding the origin of the
visits should be gathered.
o How many referrers you want as maximum: the maximum number of statistics
pertaining to the origin of the visits (max 2000).
o Activate comments in polls: Whether comments are allowed in the surveys or
not.
o Activate comments in articles: Whether comments are allowed in the articles
or not.
* Users options:
o Minimum users password length: for security reasons it is advisable to set
up a rather long password.
* Censure options:
o Here you can choose to censor some words and also set up the criteria for
word matching. The words to be censored have to be included in the
$CensorList array in config.php (Section_3.7).
* WebMail service ptions (Figure_7-35): Here you can
o set up a message to appear in the footer of every e-mail sent by any user
of the site,
o set up the permissions for the e-mail and its attachments. In case you
allow attachments, you can specify the directory that will temporarily hold
them (however, this is not a good idea from the security point of view, see
Section_23.4.2),
o allow for direct viewing of the attachments' content via web,
o specify the directory that will hold the attachments of the received e-
mails,
o specify the maximum number of e-mail accounts that your users will be
allowed to set up with WebMail,
o specify the default POP3 server (i.e. server that will be used for querying
for incoming e-mails),
o specify if the header of the e-mail is going to be visible (recommended).
Figure 7-35. WebMail service options in the Preferences page.
WebMail service options in the Preferences page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 8. PHP-Nuke add-ons
We present some interesting add-on themes (Section_8.1), blocks (Section_8.2)
and modules (Section_8.3) for PHP-Nuke.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.1. Add-on themes
In this section we present some interesting add-on themes for PHP-Nuke:
* AutoTheme (Section_8.1.1).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.1.1. AutoTheme
AutoTheme is an HTML Theme System for PostNuke and PHP-Nuke. The current theme
system usually requires you to be somewhat familiar with PHP and the PostNuke
or PHP-Nuke architecture. AutoTheme removes this complexity.
AutoTheme's primary benefit is providing users the ability to create PHP-Nuke
themes in HTML using their favorite editor , with no use of PHP. In addition,
AutoTheme provides easy customization of every part of your PHP-Nuke site;
including block display, custom templates for the Home Page, User Pages and
Admin Pages and individual modules. The addition of AutoBlocks provides
unlimited locations for your blocks. All AutoTheme settings are easily
configured from a graphical administration interface that is integrated into
PHP-Nuke.
You can get a better idea of AutoTheme's possibilities, if you compare the
standard_layout_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme with the layout_offered_by_AutoTheme.
See also AutoTheme_for_PHP-Nuke, for more details on AutoTheme and Section
14.1, for more details on PHP-Nuke's theme structure.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2. Add-on blocks
In this section we present some interesting add-on blocks for PHP-Nuke:
* Moon & Sun (Section_8.2.1),
* Meteosat (Section_8.2.2),
* Comic (Section_8.2.3),
* Menu Builder (Section_8.2.4),
* Treemenu (PHP) (Section_8.2.5),
* Treemenu (JS) (Section_8.2.6),
* AdSense (Section_8.2.7),
* Random Quotes (Section_8.2.8).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.1. Moon & Sun block
Figure 8-1. Moon, Moon & Sun and Sun blocks.
Moon, Moon & Sun and Sun blocks.
The Moon and Sun blocks are very simple blocks: they show the current Moon or
Sun image, but technically they contain no dynamic components. The blocks
incorporate an image with a fixed URL. It is left to the provider of the image
(the U.S. Naval Observatory and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) to put
whatever image is “current†into the that fixed URL. This simplifies the
programming of the blocks substancially.
The Moon_block shows the daily Lunar Phase. It also shows the Julian Date, and
some Moon info and uses a simple cache to wait x minutes before grabbing the
image again remotely. Stores image in temp cache folder on your site.
The Sun_block grabs an image of the sun that is taken daily, and places it on
your web page. Nice colored Solar Image, includes Sunrise and Sunset info, that
can be customized. Also caches image on your site, and fetches the new image
every x minutes.
The Moon_&_Sun_block combines the two images in a single PHP-Nuke block, but
omits the information and the caching functionality.
Tip Caching
Even if your PHP-Nuke block does not come with a caching mechanism (which
is especially useful in cases where the block's content does not change
on literally every page request), this does not mean you are excluded
 from reaping its benefits! In Chapter_24 we discuss all the caching
options you have in detail. You may want to use one of the standard
solutions presented there, rather than implement a slightly different
caching mechanism with each and every block you install on your site.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.2. Meteosat block
Figure 8-2. Meteosat block.
Meteosat block.
The Meteosat_block will display the most recent Meteosat images of the World
and Europe. It is a good example of a block that contains dynamic images whose
filenames vary according to some date schema (see source_code_of_the_Meteosat
PHP-Nuke_block[10]):
The images are taken from
* http://www.wetter.com/home/img/sat/METEOSAT_vis_c/xl/
* http://www.wetter.com/home/img/sat/METEOSAT-FULL_ir_c/xl/
and are named YYYYMMDDHHMM.jpg, in GMT, so the script has to compute the year,
month, day, hour and minutes in GMT, then round down the minutes to either 00
or 30. Thus, although the date and time variables ($year, $month, $day) are
dynamic, the schema itself is fixed: the filename is always of the form
$year$month$day$hour$minutes.jpg.
Due to delays, the script doesn't try to get the exact latest image, it rather
subtracts a safety intervall of 3600 sec from the current time, before it
starts the calculations. This way it makes sure an image will always be there.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.3. Comic block
This UserFriendly_block will display the daily comic from the well-known User
Friendly_site. It reads the User_Friendly_daily_cartoon_page line by line,
searches for the pattern
___________________________________________________________________
| |
| whatever<IMG ALT="Latest Strip"whateverSRC="imagefile">whatever, |
|___________________________________________________________________|
extracts the location of the image file (imagefile) from it and displays it in
the block. The PHP_code_of_the_User_Friendly_block is a classic example of how
you can do this “scrapping†in PHP (-Nuke) and is discussed in Section_20.8.
Important You must respect copyright law!
Some people argue that, by using PHP to find out the right image filename and
then send HTML code that instructs the client's browser to request that image
from the original site and display it, you don't copy anything yourself, only the
client's browser copies the file in the client's video memory, which would be
necessary anyway. Thus, the argument goes, no copyright is infringed, since no
copies are made by you.
However, even if you don't copy the daily comic directly, you use the original
author's work to produce a page that can be seen as a “derivative workâ€. Even if
you argue that what you do is just the same as what any proxy would do, if it
 where instructed to strip all other content (like advertisements, for example)
from the requested page and serve only the image, it is not sure that the court
will follow you in this interpretation.
To avoid even the remote possibility of breaking copyright law, you are well
advised to ask the authors' permission, before you use any comics blocks on your
site. Some may not agree, in which case you should respect their wish, but some
may do give you permission, perhaps under some easy to accept conditions. For
example, to obtain permission to show the UserFriendly cartoon on his site, Chris
wrote the author, Illiad, who kindly agreed under the condition to reproduce the
ads that come with it on the original UserFriendly page. This way, everybody's
happy!
Note Leges sine moribus vanae[11]
Actually, we shouldn't have to resort to legal arguments for this -
 moral alone should suffice to convince you. Please take a moment to
think about it.
See Section_8.3.1 for a module which displays more than one daily comics.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.4. Menu Builder
Figure 8-3. Menu block with Menu Builder.
Menu block with Menu Builder.
The Language_Menu_Builder generates a block with a menu on-the-fly from the
administration panel. You can write the menu in your own language, choose your
own images for the menu items and have certain options hidden for 'visitors'.
The Menu Builder does not use or change any database items. Thus it wil not
become obsolete when tables change in the database (this is true for the
Treemenu Section_8.2.5 too). See it in action at http://www.sengers-au.com,
where you will find other interesting downloads around blocks and modules too.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.5. Treemenu with PHP
Figure 8-4. Treemenu block with PHP.
Treemenu block with PHP.
The Treemenu_for_PHP-Nuke will read a simple, plain text file that contains the
“nodes†and “leaves†of a menu and will create a block with a Treemenu, as
shown in Figure_8-4. Features include:
* No database changes. You only change a text file.
* Grouping of menu items (“leaves†of the Treemenu) under “nodesâ€.
* Expansion and collapse of the nodes based on the value of an URL parameter.
You can thus let a submenu stay “open†, even after you cliked on a leaf
link.
* Custom images for nodes (open or closed) and leaves. You can make it look
like a window of a file manager.
* More complicated logic possible (e.g. depending on categories etc.), see
Treemenu_block_for_PHPNuke:_Refinements.
This Treemenu is based on a PHP class and therefore does not require any client
scripting (like Javascript). Thus it will still work on clients with Javascript
disabled. On the other side, for every change of the menu, like expansion or
collapse , a new HTTP page request is made to the server. Like PHP itself, the
Treemenu is a server-side technology.
A detailed description of the Treemenu can be found in Treemenu_block_for
PHPNuke. We also discuss it in Section_17.2.2, in the context of modifying
blocks, specifically the Modules block.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.6. Treemenu with Javascript
Figure 8-5. Treemenu block with Javascript.
Treemenu block with Javascript.
If you are looking for a Treemenu based on Javascript, you can see one in
action at Nuke_Turk and download from the PHP-Nuke downloads section there.
Since Javascript is a client-based technology, the menu will be downloaded in
whole once and no further page requests will be necessary to display its nodes
and leaves. This may result in slower downloads for the first time, but faster
response times from the menu in expansions and collapses. But it will not work
for clients with Javascript disabled.
An alternative Menu Block is “Sommaire Paramétrable†[12](see also Neue
Bloecke). You can download it from Customize_Menu. This add-on allows the admin
to set up his own menu for Nuke web sites (replaces the Modules block that
lists all the active & visible modules).
Figure 8-6. Modules block. created with Sommaire Paramétrable.
Modules block. created with Sommaire Paramétrable.
Features of version 2.0 :
* Modules are grouped into categories (sub-menu).
* You can choose the display order of each module and category.
* You can set up a background color for each category.
* You can now add external links in your menu ! (You were restricted to modules
only in v.1.0).
* Multilingual support.
* Categories' names can be centered.
* You can display a FLASH file instead of the category's name.
* You can set images for each module/link.
* You can separate categories with horizontal bars.
* You can hide to visitors the modules for members only.
* You can choose the class (stylesheet css) for the categories' names.
* A 'new mail' icon appears before "Private Messages" if the member has unread
Private Messages.
* The administration console has been improved and is now completely part of
the nuke administration panel. (2 languages included : French and English)
However, it seems that it does not allow subcategories (FIXME: Is this
correct?). The name of the file to download is sommaire_parametrable_v2.zip.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.7. Google AdSense block
If you would like to add Google AdSense ads to your PHP-Nuke based portal with
ease and customization, then this block is for you! Features of v.1.0:
* Choice of showing 1 to 4 ads (no huge skyscrapers unless you want them!)
* Full color customizations
To see it in action and to download (registration not required), visit the
Downloads_section_of_VieDesigns. If you want to do it yourself, or just acquire
the knowhow behind advertisements in PHP-Nuke, read Section_21.11.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2.8. Random Quotes block
The Random_Quotes_block is an unintrusive block for PHP-Nuke 6.0 that takes its
quotes from a "fortune" file of your choice ("fortune" is a humourous quotes
program commonly available on most UNIX/Linux/BSD distributions). It snaps
easily in place and does not break your layout.
Figure 8-7. Random Quotes block.
Random Quotes block.
It is easy to construct a fortune file with the content of your choice, then
let block-Random_Quotes display it. The file type is just like the one for
'fortunes': enter quotes in plain text, separated by a per cent sign (%), see
the fortunes file that comes with the block. There also various ready-to-use
fortune files available on the Net.
There is no restriction on the file's content, so it does not have to be
humourous - it could just as well be religious, political, philosophical, or
just plain marketese. You could for example use it to display random
Encyclopedia terms, see Random_Encyclopedia.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3. Add-on modules
In this section we present some interesting add-on modules for PHP-Nuke:
* Daily Comic (Section_8.3.1),
* Event Calendar (Section_8.3.2),
* Your Account Tweak (Section_8.3.3),
* Approve Membership (Section_8.3.4),
* Gallery (Section_8.3.5),
* IP Tracking (Section_8.3.6),
* Protector (Section_8.3.7),
* Web Cam (Section_8.3.8),
* My Headlines (Section_8.3.9),
* PHP-Nuke Tools (Section_8.3.10),
* Upload (Section_8.3.11),
* Upload add-on for phpBB (Section_8.3.12),
* ODP (Section_8.3.13),
* eCommerce (Section_8.3.14),
* WorkBoard (Section_8.3.15).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.1. Daily Comic module
In contrast to the UserFriendly block (Section_8.2.3), which shows only one
cartoon, the Daily_Comic_module will show a whole series of different daily
comics from various authors. However, instead of getting the images from the
original web pages, it requests them from some third party web page. This way,
the mechanics of achieving this result remain hidden to you - which is not very
good from the educational point of view, even though the result is very
pleasing. See it in action in Coding_Network:_Daily_Comic_module. Please read
the admonition on copyright in Section_8.2.3, before you decide to use this
module!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.2. Event calendar
Based on version 1.5 by Rob Sutton, the Event Calendar (Figure_8-8) found in
http://phpnuke.holbrookau.net is much updated and features many improvements
and add- ons. For example, the adminstration area features configuration via a
graphical interface, posting of events can be mode rated and users even have
the option of adding comments to any event.
Figure 8-8. Event Calendar
Event Calendar
For the installation, it is assumed that the user has some knowledge of MySQL
and is comfortable with running simple queries before starting. It is highly
recommended that you have phpMyAdmin (see Section_3.4) installed on your server
- it will simplify installation and help with error tracking.
Figure 8-9. Calendar1 Block
Calendar1 Block
Figure 8-10. Calendar2 Block
Calendar2 Block
Add new Block(s) using one or more of the 5 available calendar block types:
* Calendar1 (Figure_8-9) shows only events for that day.
* Calendar2 (Figure_8-10) is a month calendar with a daily events list.
* Calendar3 (Figure_8-11) scrolls a list of coming events.
* Calendar4 (Figure_8-12) is the monthly calendar with links and day/month view
selection.
* Calendar5 (Figure_8-13) is an enhanced ( next 10 events) version of the
scrolling calendar block.
Figure 8-11. Calendar3 Block
Calendar3 Block
Figure 8-12. Calendar4 Block
Calendar4 Block
Figure 8-13. Calendar5 Block
Calendar5 Block
For installation instructions, read the readme.txt file that comes in the docs
folder of the unzipped eventcal-xxx.zip file.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.3. NSN Your Account Tweak module
A module that allows the administrator to apply a fine-grained control over
user management is NSN_Your_Account_Tweak_650_3.0.2. According to the
description, it offers the following features (Figure_8-14):
* Provides for servers without mail support.
* Optionally send the admin an email when someone unregisters.
* Optionally send the admin an email when someone registers.
* Admins can allow user self deletion.
* Admins can block user theme changes.
* Admins can block user email changes.
* Blocks usernames with preset strings in them.
* Allows for Required User approval by Admin.
* Admins can suspend users.
* Users can be promoted to Admins by SuperUser ONLY.
* Admins can resend Activation Email.
* Admins can choose to bypass email activation.
* Admins can now view pending user details.
* Admins can now modify pending user details.
* Improved NavBar scripting.
Figure 8-14. Extra options for user management in the NSN Your Account Tweak
module.
Extra options for user management in the NSN Your Account Tweak module.
Caution Download the right NSN Your Account Tweak version!
Be careful with the version you download from this module! The number
650, for example, indicates that it is only for PHP-Nuke 6.5. Use
 only the version that is in accordance with your installed PHP-Nuke
version, otherwise you are guaranteed to mess up your installation
completely.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.4. Approve Membership module
Figure 8-15. Pending applications in the Approve Membership module.
Pending applications in the Approve Membership module.
The Approve_Membership_module allows an administrator to approve membership
applications. The applicant's details are sent to a pending users table and a
notification email is sent to the administrator. A list of pending applicants
is displayed to the administrator, who can delete or approve as he thinks fit
(see Figure_8-15). On approval, the normal email is sent to the applicant with
the activation link. The following options are available:
* Add a customisable message to this email (see Figure_8-16).
* Send a follow up email to an applicant.
* Send an email to a rejected applicant.
* All emails are customizable.
Figure 8-16. Approval message in the Approve Membership module.
Approval message in the Approve Membership module.
See also Authorize_accounts for an in-depth discussion.
The new version_3.0_of_the_Approve_Membership_module_for_PHP-Nuke_6.9 offers
even more facilities, such as:
* The option to include the activation link or not.
* The option to semi-automate the approval process. With this option, the admin
can pre-approve known email addresses (from student lists, club members,
family and friends etc), see Figure_8-17, Figure_8-18.
* If an applicant is on the pre-approved list, his application is automatically
approved without the intervention of admin
* If an applicant is not on the approved list, there are various configurations
for dealing with the application.
* The automated process is configurable from the administration panel (Chapter
7).
Figure 8-17. E-mail management in the Approve Membership module, part I.
E-mail management in the Approve Membership module, part I.
Figure 8-18. E-mail management in the Approve Membership module, part II.
E-mail management in the Approve Membership module, part II.
If you want users to be registered directly, without confirmation mails, see
Section_18.6.5 or the New_User_Auto_Activation_Hack and the Auto_Registration
Activation_For_Nuke_v7.0. If you want to disable registration, see Section
18.6.4.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.5. Gallery module
The Gallery module from Nuked_Gallery is the “nuked†version of the standalone
Gallery package. Gallery comes with a handy web based configuration wizard.
This wizard helps to make sure that your web server and operating system are
set up correctly. It allows you to configure many of Gallery's options while
determining as much as it can from your environment. The wizard will create an
administrator account for you. This is a special account that allows you to
create other user accounts, create albums, and set album permissions.
Figure 8-19. Gallery module.
Gallery module.
A photo or movie is the basic unit of Gallery. Photos and movies are grouped
together into albums (Figure_8-19). Once you have the photos in your album, the
fun begins. Typically an intermediate resized version and a thumbnail of the
image are created for you. You can:
* Add captions
* Edit the thumbnail. Gallery comes with a small Java applet that lets you
select a part of the image as the source for your thumbnail.
* Rotate your photo (in 90 degree increments)
* Highlight a photo (pick a photo to represent the album in the main Gallery)
* Reorder the photos in the album
* Hide photos (so that they're only visible to the owner)
* Delete photos
* Sort your album based on popularity, title, number of comments, and photo
capture date.
* Edit multiple captions at once
Figure 8-20. Gallery related files at nukedgallery.
Gallery related files at nukedgallery.
To download the Gallery module, go to Nuked_Gallery, find the “Related filesâ€
block (Figure_8-20) and click on the link with the most recent stable version.
Other Gallery related resources are
* The_Nuked_Gallery_Demo_Site
* The_Gallery_FAQ
* Gallery_Documentation
* The_Gallery_Wiki_Docs
* The_Gallery_Forums
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.6. IP Tracking module
Figure 8-21. IP Tracking module: IP Tracking Info.
IP Tracking module: IP Tracking Info.
To track your visitors' IP address, you can use the IP tracking module. Get it
at the Downloads_section_of_ierealtor. After installation and activation of the
module, a click on the “IP Tracking†link in the Modules block will display the
“IP Tracking Infoâ€, a list of IP addresses that accessed the site (Figure_8-
21). You can order the list by ascending or descending order of its column
fields, by clicking on the respective up- and down-arrows.
Tip Lazy man's Logfile Inspection
Nothing beats regular inspection of the real web server logfiles - but if
you are lazy, you want a quick info of what is going on, or you cannot do
otherwise, the IP Tracking module will give you a quick solution to your
 logfile inspection problem. In the Page View Info (Figure_8-22), be
attentive to URL parameters that pass Javascript code or SQL queries to
the database - they are a clear indication of cross-scripting (Section
23.3.1) and SQL injection (Section_23.3.2) attempts at your site
respectively.
Figure 8-22. IP Tracking module: Page View Info.
IP Tracking module: Page View Info.
The IP addresses themeselves are links to a detailed view, the “Page View Infoâ€
(Figure_8-22). It lists the pages that were requested by that IP address.
Again, you can order the list by name or date using the arrows on the table
header. Note: administrators won't appear online since they are not entered in
the nuke_session table.
Caution Code corrections necessary for PHP-Nuke v. 6.0 and/or old PHP versions!
If you get the error:
You can't access this file directly...
then you are using an old PHP version that does not understand the _SERVER
superglobal. Edit the index.php file of the module and change:
____________________________________________________
| |
| if (!eregi("modules.php", $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])) {|
|____________________________________________________|
to:
_________________________________________
| |
| if (!eregi("modules.php", $PHP_SELF)) {|
|_________________________________________|
You also have to edit iptracking.php. Change:
_________________________________
| |
| $ip = $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"] ;|
|_________________________________|
to:
__________________________________________
| |
| $ip = $HTTP_SERVER_VARS["REMOTE_ADDR"] ;|
|__________________________________________|
and
________________________________
| |
| $pg = $_SERVER["SCRIPT_NAME"];|
|________________________________|
to:
_________________________________________
| |
| $pg = $HTTP_SERVER_VARS["SCRIPT_NAME"];|
|_________________________________________|
and
__________________________________________________
 | |
| if (($_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"]) != "") |
| { $pg = $pg . "?" . $_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"] ; }|
|__________________________________________________|
to:
___________________________________________________________
| |
| if (($HTTP_SERVER_VARS["QUERY_STRING"]) != "") |
| { $pg = $pg . "?" . $HTTP_SERVER_VARS["QUERY_STRING"] ; }|
|___________________________________________________________|
If you are getting MySQL errors like the one of Section_3.9.2, complaining about
non-valid MySQL result resources, then you are probably using an old PHP-Nuke
version (like 6.0, for example) that uses the field “usernameâ€, instead of “unameâ€
in the nuke_session table. In this case you have to change “uname†to “username†in
the two WHERE clauses of the index.php file of the module. Change:
______________________________________________________
| |
| $res = sql_query("select * from ".$prefix."_session |
| where uname='$username' and host_addr='$ip'", $dbi);|
|______________________________________________________|
to:
_________________________________________________________
| |
| $res = sql_query("select * from ".$prefix."_session |
| where username='$username' and host_addr='$ip'", $dbi);|
|_________________________________________________________|
and
_______________________________________________________
| |
| $res2 = sql_query("select * from ".$prefix."_session |
| where host_addr='$ip' and host_addr=uname", $dbi); |
|_______________________________________________________|
to:
_______________________________________________________
| |
| $res2 = sql_query("select * from ".$prefix."_session |
| where host_addr='$ip' and host_addr=username", $dbi);|
|_______________________________________________________|
If your main motivation for using the IP tracking module is to be able to ban
certain annoying visitors from certain IPs, check also the Protector module
(Section_8.3.7) for a ready-made, full-featured solution to IP banning, as well
as Section_23.5 for a quick, do-it-yourself hack.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.7. Protector module
The Protector_System gives you "high level" logs of session activity on your
PHP-Nuke site. But not only this - it can be effectively used to ban IP
addresses and users:
* Possibility to add a single IP or a whole range.
* Logging of ALL IP(s) that hit your PHP-Nuke site.
* If a member joins the site the logger fetches the username and stores it with
their IP. (Otherwise the IP gets the username Anonymous)
* If a member IP changes the new IP will be stored with their username
* Logging of the real IP not just the proxy IP if that is the case.
* Search function (with wildcards *) after the logged IP and user name. And
sort order.
* Protection of your IP is done when you first install this system. That means
that no one can ban that IP.
* As head admin (GOD) you can add several protected IP(s) in the Admin Panel.
All other admins just see personal settings where they can change total
amount of row they want to display in the banned & locate IP panels.
* Automaticallyupdate the date of a logged IP so that you can see when a
particular IP or user was on your site.
* You can dns/trace/ping and more after you query the IP with the query tool
that I have implemented.
* It is totally themes integrated system.
* Security check so that you can't ban yourself (the IP you currently use when
your in the admin panel) or protected IP.
* Double check so that there is no banning or logging of the same information
twice.
* If a banned member is banned and they change their IP. The system will check
the banned database and compare if the username(s) match. If it does a new
row with the new IP and same username is added in the ban list. So they are
banned again automatically with the new IP.
* Counts on how many times a banned user is trying to reach the site.
* Possibility to instantly ban people from your list with logged IP.
* You can of course un-ban IP numbers.
* Very simple to install, The Ban System will create all needed tables for the
MySQL Database on the first run.
* As Forum admin can you reach the Edit User Function from the "Locate Panel".
Also, a direct link to the public user information is there.
* In the Locate panel there are 4 different images close to the IP number.
1. A Green dot indicates that the IP is just logged.
2. A Red dot indicates that IP is banned.
3. A Star indicates that this IP number is the IP you are currently using.
4. A blinking computer gif indicates if that logged user/IP is online.
* A small stat page where you can see some stats on the Ban Protector System.
* Anti hammering protection system.
* Special Notes to each logged IP is possible.
* Close the site function. Only admins are able to be on the site when active.
* When a user attempts to access the admin page a note is added to their IP to
warn you of potential hackers.
* An auto pruning system to prune logged IP addresses set from the maintenance
panel.
* Grant access to the Ban System for your (admin) users who are not a "super
user".
* Auto Protect your IP if you logon using another pc with your user name and
the old IP will be replaced with the new one until you logon again then your
IP will be replaced again.
* Optimize and repair the tables in the Protector System to reclaim the unused
space and to de-fragment the data file or if you get errors.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.8. WebCam module
Figure 8-23. camPortal block.
camPortal block.
If you are looking for a webcam module, have a look at the camPortal. See it in
action at The_Sceptics_Hour. camPortal's highlights include:
* Advanced Admin panel
* Static or Dynamic webcam image in block (optional, see Figure_8-23)
* Categories
* Vote system (Figure_8-24)
* Comment system
* Hit counter
* Users can report broken cams
* Users can submit their cams
* Languages included: English, Spanish, Dutch, German.
Figure 8-24. camPortal module.
camPortal module.
You must have at least PHP-Nuke 6.5 and a newer PHP version (one that
understands the _SERVER_superglobal, for example) to use this module. The
installation instructions are a bit outdated. In some parts, for example, they
talk about “webcamâ€, when atually it should say “camPortal†- but with
knowledge of the structure of a PHP-Nuke module (see Section_21.1) you will
figure it out.
To grab the images from your webcam, you can use ConquerCam. ConquerCam is a
low-priced (only $10 USD), easy to use webcam manager for grabbing images from
your web cam under Windows, preparing them with various effects and uploading
them to your web site (where you can use camPortal to display them in PHP-
Nuke). Using ConquerCam you are able to setup your computer as a security
system as well, using the advanced motion detection and mail-notification
system included.
Figure 8-25. ConquerCam: main window with the Options dialog opened up.
ConquerCam: main window with the Options dialog opened up.
ConquerCam can be customized in a variety of ways, e.g. by selecting how often
you want to grab and upload images, which overlay effects you want to use (many
of the well-known Adobe PhotoShop effects are available, such as Multiply or
Darken) and unlimited numbers of textual captions to put on your grabbed image
using a bunch of tags. Tags are replaced by dynamic data such as current date/
time, WinAMP title currently playing or the Swatch Internet Time.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.9. My Headlines module
Figure 8-26. MyHeadlines Box containing syndicated content.
MyHeadlines Box containing syndicated content.
MyHeadlines is a personalized syndicated content module. As a user you may
subscribe to many news/content sources from the MyHeadlines database. For each
of your subscriptions this site will gather the latest headlines/stories/
content from the source and present a consolidated view of all of your
interests in one location. The MyHeadlines engine allows you to configure the
layout of this page to suit your needs; It will allow you to place the "Boxes"
containing the syndicated content (Figure_8-26) in any one of three possible
places (Left, Right or Middle) on two rows (Top and Bottom) of the module's
space on the front page.
Figure 8-27. MyHeadlines: Subscribing to News sources.
MyHeadlines: Subscribing to News sources.
There are over 1000 sources in the MyHeadlines database: from special interest
groups, to regional news, to technology sites, to company/corporation specific
news, and more. You can subscribe to the content you want. As an added bonus,
MyHeadlines now sports a Stock Ticker "Box" that will allow you to watch your
favourite Index, Stock, Bond, etc.
Download it from the Downloads_section_of_jmagar.com. See also the MyHeadlines
FAQ. See it in action at jmagar and weenor.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.10. PHP-Nuke-Tools module
Figure 8-28. PHP-Nuke Tools block
PHP-Nuke Tools block
The PHP-Nuke_Tools_module is one of the most helpful modules. Whether you are
developing for PHP-Nuke or want to write a module or block really quickly, or
even if you just want to learn how modules, blocks and the rest works in PHP-
Nuke, you will appreciate its help.. It offers features such as:
* Module Creator (see Figure_8-29),
* Block Creator,
* Help for Module Creator,
* Help for Block Creator,
* HTML to PHP,
* HTML to ASP,
* HTML to JSP,
* HTML to Perl,
* HTML to JavaScript,
* Online HTML Editor,
* Meta Tag Creator,
* Scrollbar Creator,
* Popup Creator,
* Hex Colors
Figure 8-29. PHP-Nuke Tools module: Module Creator.
PHP-Nuke Tools module: Module Creator.
and many others. It comes with an extra block containing links to all functions
(Figure_8-28). See it in action at disipal.net.
Tip Especially recommended for beginners (but not only)!
You are a beginner in PHP(-Nuke), have just started your very first
module or block, but you get errors and don't understand why? Give it a
 try with the PHP-Nuke Tools Module or Block Creator! It will help you see
what you were missing and will also give you a feeling of how code looks
before and after it is "nuked".
For a much more ambitious project on automatic building of PHP-Nuke blocks and
modules (towards a web-based integrated programming environment, IDE, for PHP-
Nuke) ckeck Raven's_Block_Builder. It is currently under development, but very
promising.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.11. Upload module
Figure 8-30. Upload module.
Upload module.
The PHP-Nuke_Upload_module facilitates upload functionality for PHP-Nuke and
has the following features:
* Upload to virtual folders
* Download the files from these folders
* List files in these folders
* Possibly add a comment to each file
* Use the same filename several times in one folder
* Each file is owned by one registered user.
* Each directory is owned by one registered user.
* Only the adminstrator can create new folders and assign them to a registered
user
* The adminstrator can change the ownership a existing file or folder
* The owner of a file can change the permissions on the file
* When uploading to a folder, the uploader (only registered users are allowed
to upload files) may choose the initial permissions on the new file.
* The following permissions exist for owner and registered users: no
permission, read permission, read/write permission. Also a flag is available,
that allows direct download access for anonymous users (but nothing more)
* Full group membership access: Each registered user can be a member of
multiple groups, and each file can belong to one group, which allows no/read/
read+write access (configurable for each file)
* Multiple Language support
* Most links may also include images, to give the module a pretty layout.
* Size display for each file
* Download counter for each file
* Quota support based on group, user and folder quotas.
* Optional thumbnail support for .jpg and .gif files based on the original
files (so this is only a pseudo thumbnail at the moment).
Important PHP-Nuke versions greater than 6.5 and the Upload module
If you are using a version of PHP-Nuke greater than 6.5, you must
do a minimal, but crucial, change in the index.php file of the
Upload file. Otherwise, the SQL queries will use the wrong field
(uid, instead of user_id) for the user in the nuke_users table,
leading to errors. Find the line
______________________________
| |
| if ($Version_Num == "6.5") {|
 |______________________________|
and change it to:
______________________________
| |
| if ($Version_Num >= "6.5") {|
|______________________________|
This will make sure that the right field names are used for all
versions greater or equal to 6.5, not only for the 6.5 version.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.12. Upload add-on for phpBB
If you are interested in an Upload add-on for your phpBB Forums, then you can
check Photo_Album_Addon. This is a phpBB-based photo album/gallery management
system. It is really powerful, stable, efficient, rich in features and highly
customizable. The version 2 was written from the scratch for more security,
performance, etc. It is not really a modification or hack, it is rather a
phpBB-based system.
Features:
* Fully integrated with phpBB2 backend (DB, session, template, multi languages,
etc.)
* Powerful and handy Admin Control Panel
* Auto-generated thumbnail s(requires GD)
* Manual-uploaded thumbnails (for those who don't have the GD library[13])
* Thumbnail cache (for better performance)
* Multi-categories
* Powerful and phpBB-like permissions system
* Moderator Control Panel
* Upload Quotas
* Pictures Description
* Recent pics
* Personal galleries (for member-oriented boards)
* Rate system
* Comment system
* Hot link prevention (can set allowed domains[14])
* Auto-optimization for different GD versions
* Pic view counter
* Admin/Moderator pic approval
* Probably uploadable in PHP Safe Mode
Warning May not work with every PHP-Nuke version!
The Photo Album is an add-on for the standalone phpBB Forums. It has
been ported to PHP-Nuke with the Album module (see the Admin_Panel
 Downloads_Category_of_portedmods). This module was only tested with
PHP-Nuke 6.5RC2 with phpbb module 2.1 and does not work on a site
with the 2.0.6b version of the phpBB module!
For yet another file attachment add-on to the PHP-Nuke phpBB Forums, see the
“Attachment Mod†from the PHP-Nuke_6.5_/_Ported_Mods_/_Extra Downloads section
of portedmods. See File_Attachment_Mod_v2.3.6_for_phpnuke6_with_2.06 for a
complete list of its features. For a discussion thread on Upload modules, see I
cant_find_this_Upload_module.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.13. ODP module
Figure 8-31. ODP module.
ODP module.
The ODP_module displays the popular Open_Directory inside your PHP-Nuke site
(Figure_8-31). It is based on the phpodp_class. The whole functionality is
encapsulated in the phpodp class in odp.php. The PHP-Nuke module practically
only calls the odp.php script.
If you would like to import all links of an ODP category into your Web Links or
Downloads module, have a look in Section_27.5 and Section_27.6 respectively for
some interesting procedures.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.14. eCommerce module
There is certainly a lot going on currently in the area of eCommerce and PHP-
Nuke. However, a ready-to-use PHP-Nuke port of the well-known osCommerce has
yet to hit the streets. Keep an eye on the following promising links:
* osc2Nuke: The international project of merging osCommerce and PHP-Nuke. With
links to national projects worldwide.
* Multishop: “We depart from the CMS PhpNuke and osCommerce to realize a
virtual mall, a central portal where different shop, with all the
funcionalities of a traditional eCommerce site (customer accounts,address
book for different shipping,Order history,..),convergeâ€, the developers say.
* OSCommerce_gets_a_Nuke-Module:_a_new_SourceForge-Projects_starts_now!
Figure 8-32. Calloways Cart module: Add Product screen.
Calloways Cart module: Add Product screen.
For the moment, you could try CallowaysCart, a shopping cart recently released
under the GPL and especially designed for PHP-Nuke (all versions) and Paypal's
payment service (Figure_8-32).
A commercial (but with $35 USD certainly not expensive) eCommerce solution for
PHP-Nuke is Emporium. The following is an incomplete list of its features, but
bear in mind that, since Emporium is under active and rapid development, it
will be outdated by the time you read this:
* Unlimited Products.
* Unlimited Categories.
* Unlimited Brands to associate Products with Modularized Payment/Shipping
methods.
* Unlimited currencies.
* Automated currency conversions (using Yahoo, XE, Oanda services).
* Unlimited Product Options for Products (radio, dropdown, multidropdown,
checkbox, textfield, textarea, inclusive [hidden], etc).
* Unlimited Product Media for Products.
* Tax classing (unlimited class types, associated with particular products...
assign certain locations [states, countries] to tax classing with different
tax structures).
Instead of relying on a feature list, a better idea might be to test Emporium:
you can go to the Emporium_demo_site ([admin: demo, pass: demo]), and have full
access to Emporium and all of its features.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3.15. WorkBoard Module
Figure 8-33. Administration panel: WorkBoard.
Administration panel: WorkBoard.
WorkBoard is a PHP-Nuke module for Project Management, distributed under the
GNU General Public Licence.
To install WorkBoard,
* Extract the archive and upload all files from directory 'html' to your root
PHP-Nuke directory.
* Insert sql/workboard.sql into your database, or
* Copy 'wb_install.php' from directory 'installation' into your root PHP-Nuke
directory, and then run script from your browser. Follow the instructions
presented to you.
Once installed, a click on the WorkBoard icon in the administration panel
(Figure_8-33) leads to the WorkBoard administration panel (Figure_8-34). There,
you can set up
* Projects and project positions.
* Tasks and task statuses and priorities.
* Project members
Figure 8-34. WorkBoard module: Administration panel.
WorkBoard module: Administration panel.
The WorkBoard module is still under rapid development.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 9. Architecture and structure
The structure of PHP-Nuke is organized into 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 we said, through URL 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|
|_________________________________________________|
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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.1. Directory structure
The html folder of PHP-Nuke contains the following directories and files
(Figure_9-1):
Figure 9-1. PHP-Nuke directory structure.
PHP-Nuke 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/.
robots.txt:
Contains instructions for search engines. PHP-Nuke's default robots.txt
file contains the following:
______________________
| |
| User-agent: * |
| Disallow: admin.php |
| Disallow: /admin/ |
| Disallow: /images/ |
| Disallow: /includes/|
| Disallow: /themes/ |
| Disallow: /blocks/ |
| Disallow: /modules/ |
| Disallow: /language/|
|______________________|
This means that if a search engine visits the site, it should not index
the folders mentioned. You can also insert other instructions in the
robots.txt file, for example disallow a certain search engine:
_____________________________
| |
| User-agent: ArchitextSpider|
| Disallow: / |
|_____________________________|
In this example, we forbid Excite's spider from indexing the site.
However, our instructions will have no effect on a spider that does not
honour the robots.txt file. Some aggressive spiders are known for being
notorious and not obeying to our instructions in robots.txt. You could
try to redirect them to an error page through a test on their IP address,
User-agent string or some other criterium using mod_rewrite (see Section
25.2). Please note that the User-agent string can be easily faked.
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...
includes:
Here 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, see also Section
21.9.1).
* meta.php : contains 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.
db:
Starting from version 6.5, PHP-Nuke uses a new SQL abstraction layer,
that of the phpBB forum (see the section “Using the SQL Abstraction
Layer†in the ADDONS-MODULES file that comes with the standard PHP-Nuke
package). The layer functions are the same as the ones of sql_layer.php,
but more extended. Now you can program your modules (Chapter_21) using
either the “old†sql_layer.php (which will continue to be supported in
the future for backward compatibility), or the functions found in the
files of the DB folder.
docs:
Contains this book. Right, this is not only an official HOWTO of the
Linux Documentation Project, but also the official PHP-Nuke guide!
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/language) 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 “Themesâ€, 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 (see Chapter_4).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.2. 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 a client requests the page “index.php†:
* 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.3. 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 “modulesâ€.
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 Chapter_6) 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
“languageâ€. 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).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.4. 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 10. Session management
I am indepted to Paul S. Owen, Development Team Leader of phpBB, the standard
forum for PHP-Nuke starting from the later 6.x versions, for giving permission
to include the following explanation, which can be found in http://
www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=69493, as well as in http://www.phpbb.com/
kb/article.php?article_id=54:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.1. How sessions work in the forums
phpBB uses sessions to "track" users as they move between pages, forums,
topics, etc. A session is made up of a unique 32 character session_id which
identifies the current users. This value is stored in the sessions table and
either a temporary (i.e. it's deleted when the browser window is closed) cookie
on the users machine or if that doesn't seem to be working it's appended to all
URLs.
The problem with using just a session_id is that it becomes very easy to hijack
(takeover) a session. All a user need do is obtain the session_id and add it to
the url as they browse the board. If the id they grab happens to be a logged in
admin or moderator ... well you get the picture.
What we do to help complicate the situation is also tie the session to the
users IP. Using this method someone would need to spoof an IP and obtain the
session_id in order to hijack a session, not incredibly difficult but certainly
harder ... and with this sort of software it's really a case of making
everything harder to do, thus disuading all but the most ardent "hackers" from
bothering to attempt anything.
How do we obtain this IP? We check the availability of two variables,
REMOTE_ADDR and HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR. Firstly we check for HTTP_X_ ..., this is
typically set by "nice" proxies, caches, etc. and contains "an" IP which may be
the users "real" IP or some other IP. If that does not exist or it contains a
private or restricted IP range (several blocks of IPs are reserved by the
international bodies responsible for IP allocation) we instead use the value
contained in REMOTE_ADDR. This variable typically contains the users real IP.
However, problems arise with how some ISPs operate their systems. Instead of
forwarding the users real IP or indeed a different but static IP they simply
make available only the IP of the proxy being browsed. The larger ISPs do not
use a single proxy or cache, the load upon it and data passing through it would
be far too great. Instead they use several systems in a "proxy farm" (I tend to
refer to it as something containing most of those letters ... ). A user
browsing the web may be switched between these machines from one page to
another (to help distribute load), with the IP changing as they go.
Obviously a problem then exists in that phpBB's ability to tie a users session
to a unique id and an IP fails ... because the IP is constantly changing. There
are some "nice" ISPs out there that run these farms within a single "class" or
block of IPs, e.g. 1.2.3.4, 1.2.3.5, 1.2.3.6, etc.
This is why in a previous release of phpBB we introduced a slightly reduced IP
checking system which now checks only the first three "quads" of an IP, i.e.
1.2.3.4 is checked only for 1.2.3 the 4 is discarded. Remember, that an IPv4
address is 32bits wide, this is generally presented in the form of four 8 bit
numbers. By checking just the first three numbers (24bits) we neglect 8 bits or
255 (253 in practice) possible IPs ... that's 253 seperate potential proxies
... IOW enough machines for practically any ISP on the planet. However we can
go further and reduce that checking to just the first "two quads", that ignores
255 * 253 IPs!
The problem is some ISPs don't arrange their IP allocation particularly well,
either for historical or other reasons ... AOL is one significant culprit. So
what happens is that users can jump between completely different Class A (this
is a full 32bit block of IPs) networks, e.g. 100.100.100.100 to 200.100.40.40,
etc. This renders IP validation completely useless for such situations
So you ask, "Okay, but why did 2.0.3 not cause all these Invalid_session
errors?!". The answer is fairly simple. When you first visit phpBB (assuming
you have autologin enabled) it looks to see if you have a session_id (either in
a cookie or the URL). On a new visit you won't have such a session_id and so
phpBB creates a new one. If you have autologin set it checks the relevant data
and if that matches you are logged in with the appropriate user_id. You can
then immediately browse the board, post messages, do admin tasks (if
applicable), etc.
Now let's take a situation where a naughty person creates a bogus form on their
site. You are (for some reason) browsing this form. However, unknown to you
this form contains all the necessary data to delete a pile of topics in a given
forum (you having moderator rights on a certain board). When you submit that
form it will be transmitted to the appropriate website. No session exists so
phpBB, as noted above creates a new one and immediately processes the form data
... all the relevant topics are deleted from the database and you only find out
when the boards "The selected topics have been deleted" message appears ...
To help negate the effectiveness of this we backported some code from phpBB 2.2
and introduced additional code. The admin control panel now appends your
session_id to every url. When you browse within that panel it checks the
session_id in the url with that stored in the sessions table. If they match,
great, if they don't it redirects you back to the ACP index. This will help
prevent users accidently, without their knowledge suffering issues as noted
above.
Similarly the Moderator control panel has the session_id appended to urls and
carries out a check. The difference here is that it throws up an Invalid
session if the ids do not match, note that redirection like the admin panel
wouldn't alter the result here ... if you tried submitting data via the MCP
with an invalid session you'd just be returned to MCP front page ... losing any
data entered previously. Other issues with voting and posting were also
addressed thanks to a concerned user notifying us. Thus similar checks were put
in place there.
The problem is that for users whose session is forever being renewed due to
their IP changing this extra level of checking can cause issues. For many ISPs
the noted changing of 6 to 4 in the IP validation check will be sufficient ...
however AOL crops up (as per usual in nearly all similar situations with all
software ...) as the sore thumb.
"What can you do about it?" you may ask, very little is the response. We could
remove the extra validation but that leaves a gap that frankly I'm not prepared
to leave ... if hadn't addressed this I would make a handsome bet that at some
near future point we would've had users shouting and screaming about how damage
was done to their boards and why didn't we (phpBB) fix it if we knew about it
What else can we do? As I said, very little that won't impact users completely
unaffected by this issue (of which I'm betting there are a great many) ... in
phpBB 2.2 we are introducing a feature to set the level of IP validation by the
ACP, including disabling it completely. However disabling IP validation will,
as noted leave your users open to simplified hijacking. For many people this
may not be a problem and thus could be a solution. To do this in phpBB 2.0 you
need to either remove the validation code from sessions.php or change the 6 to
a 0 (the relevant lines are as noted in this topic). Be aware of what you are
doing though and keep quiet about it ... if people don't know IP validation
isn't operational they may believe it still is. If you have security issues you
can trace to users sessions being hijacked we don't want to know about it
We could introduce a change to sessions whereby what happens when a new session
is created is "weakened". What do I mean by weakened? Well, at present we
generate a new session whenever we cannot validate an existing one. Instead
what we could do is compare the users current session_id (if they have one)
with that in the database. If a match is found and the time differential is
some "small" number we instead continue that session. The problem here is that
it's just as open to hijacking as removing IP validation. Why? Because that
check will ignore the users IP and care only about the session_id ... and thus
isn't something I'm keen on without direct admin control.
We could, as per a new Mod listed elsewhere on the board, ignore IP validation
whenever the users IP is within a given list. While this isn't as bad as
removing validation completely it's not terribly far off. Why? Because instead
of having to go to some trouble to obtain a users current IP you can instead
(given you know a user connects via a given ISP or proxy) just look it up ...
you still need to spoof it but a step has been removed ... and as noted
previously all we can do is make these peoples lives harder. There are
additional issues with the extra processing required (which may or may not be
significant depending on the number of IPs, users browsing, etc.) and of
keeping the list up to date.
We could append a random set of alphanumerics to every single page, changing
the value of it with every page view and storing the new data in the sessions
table. This would add protection because a hijacker would need not only the
session_id but also the current unique identifier. Of all the ideas this is
probably my favourite and may make it into a future release (unless I've missed
something obvious which renders it useless or bad for performance!).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.2. How to eliminate session checks
"Okay, fine but what can we do about it now?!" I hear you say. Well, you can
remove or reduce validation as noted above (being aware of what you are doing),
you could add the Mod noted above (you'll find it presently in another Invalid
session topic ... no doubt it will be moved to one of the Mod forums in time)
or finally you could remove the piece of code (from all affected pages) that
looks like or similar to this:
___________________________________________________
| |
| // session id check |
| if ($sid == " || $sid != $userdata['session_id'])|
| { |
| message_die(GENERAL_ERROR, 'Invalid_session');|
| } |
|___________________________________________________|
This removes the added security of validation so if you do this we aren't
interested in any security related problems that may arise. I highly recommend
that you do not remove the added security from the admin control panel. Let's
clarify a little the modifications that are needed:
You can either edit line 294 in the includes/session.php:
______________________________________________________
| |
| $ip_check_s = substr($userdata['session_ip'], 0, 6);|
| $ip_check_u = substr($user_ip, 0, 6); |
|______________________________________________________|
and change the 6 to a 4, or, as a last resort (not endorsed by the phpBB staff
and quite unsafe for the above reasons), you can delete all occurences of the
code
___________________________________________________
| |
| // session id check |
| if ($sid == " || $sid != $userdata['session_id'])|
| { |
| message_die(GENERAL_ERROR, 'Invalid_session'); |
| } |
|___________________________________________________|
in all files. There are 9 occurences in 6 files:
________________________________________
| |
| includes/usercp_email.php |
| includes/usercp_sendpasswd.php |
| modules/Forums/groupcp.php |
| modules/Forums/login.php |
| modules/Forums/modcp.php |
| modules/Forums/posting.php on line 188|
|________________________________________|
But most of the time, just changing the cookie, as described in Section_3.9.15,
will solve the "invalid session" problem.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 11. Editing PHP (-Nuke) files
PHP-Nuke files are PHP files. PHP files contain plain ASCII text and as such
they can be edited with any decent text editor. By “decent†we do not only mean
an editor that offers a minimum of comfort in editing texts - most of them do.
By “decent†we mean an editor that will not introduce extra (most of the time
invisible) characters in your file, that will destroy the rest of your day with
PHP (amd PHP-Nuke).
We wouldn't stress this point if we hadn't seen enough cases of people getting
errors from the PHP interpreter complaining that their config.php file, for
example, contained an error - were no error was visible. For this reason, a
warning is in place:
Warning O quantum est in rebus inane![15]
Don't even think about editing a PHP (-Nuke) file with Notepad or
Wordpad! You run the risk to introduce invisible characters in your
 text files, causing spurious errors that will be very hard to find
and correct! What may seem to be just blanks or empty space, is going
to drive you insane!
So, if you are not supposed to use Notepad or Wordpad, what are the
alternatives? What decent text editors are out there for editing our PHP and
PHP-Nuke files? In the following sections, we will present a few of them. See
also Decent_Text_Editor.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.1. vi
FIXME
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.2. Emacs
FIXME
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.3. Bluefish
FIXME
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.4. UltraEdit
FIXME
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.5. WinSyntax
FIXME
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.6. HTMLKit
FIXME
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.7. Crimson Editor
FIXME
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.8. PHPEd
FIXME
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 12. Modifying the PHP-Nuke database
12.1. More than 255 characters of user extra information
By clicking on the icon with the title “Your Info†in the user account menu
(see Chapter_6), you arrive at a HTML form where you can enter various pieces
of information about yourself, in addition to your personal preferences. One of
the fields, the “Extra Info†field, gives you the opportunity to tell something
about yourself that other visitors can read when they click on your profile.
However, you will not be able to enter more than 255 characters of extra
information. That's a bit too few, even for moderately turbulent biographies.
To change that, you must find out where that information is stored in the
database.
Figure 12-1. Extra Info field of User Personal Information (Your Info)
Extra Info field of User Personal Information (Your Info)
That extra information is stored in the field "bio" of the nuke_users table
(assuming the table prefix, $prefix, is "nuke" for you, see Section_3.7). Thus,
what you have to do is log in your database and change the length of the bio
field. Currently, it is defined as "tinytext" which gives the limitation of 255
characters (see MySQL_String_Types).
Once logged in the MySQL database, do on the MySQL prompt[16]:
_________________________________________
| |
| alter table nuke_users modify bio text;|
|_________________________________________|
This will give you the next possible (see MySQL_Column_Type_Storage
Requirements) maximum length of 2^16-2. That's a little less than 65KB of text.
That should be enough text for your visitors to write a small story of their
life.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 13. Modifying PHP-Nuke texts
All texts that appear in PHP-Nuke are strings defined in so-called language
files - and are thus fully customizable to your needs:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13.1. General PHP-Nuke texts
General texts are stored in the files under the language folder. The naming of
those language files follows the convention “lang-languagename.phpâ€. Thus,
english texts are held in language/lang-english.php, chinese ones in language/
lang-chinese.php etc. All you have to do to change a text, is edit the
aproppriate file for your language with a decent_text_editor (see also Chapter
11).
For example, to change the text that is displayed besides the Search button
(“Search†for the english language), open language/lang-english.php with a
decent_text_editor and find the line that contains the text:
_____________________________
| |
| define("_SEARCH","Search");|
|_____________________________|
This is a PHP instruction that tells the PHP interpreter to define the constant
_SEARCH as the text string “Searchâ€. Thus, whatever you put in the text string
will be the content of the _SEARCH constant. The developers (at least in an
ideal world) will only use constants (and database-driven, dynamic information)
for their texts, so that you only need to do your changes at one place to be
valid everywhere. To change the search text to “Search my homepageâ€, you thus
need to change the above line to
_________________________________________
| |
| define("_SEARCH","Search my homepage");|
|_________________________________________|
It is in this manner that internationalization of PHP-Nuke takes place, by the
way. People who want to translate PHP-Nuke to their language, get a fresh copy
of language/lang-english.php and start translating the text strings in the
“define†directives, then send the lang-newlanguage.php file to phpnuke.org for
inclusion in the next release.
Tip HTML code in text constants
You are not confined to text, when you change the texts in PHP-Nuke's language
files. This may sound paradoxical, but if you think that the language files are
just usual PHP files that define some constants, then you will see that nothing
really prevents you from “abusing†their purpose and mixing them with...HTML code,
for example.
Thus it is perfectly legal to change:
______________________________
| |
| define("_WRITES","writes"); |
|______________________________|
 to:
____________________________________
| |
| define("_WRITES"," writes"); |
|____________________________________|
In this case, we entered a non-breaking space before the translation of the
_WRITES constant. This is because we noticed that a space was missing before the
"writes" in the “user writes†string that is printed next to an article in the
news. Instead of correcting the code in the News module, we opted for the quick'n
dirty way. It's not recommended, because it mangles user-supplied data with code -
but it is nonetheless possible, see Posting_Articles_or_Story.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13.2. PHP-Nuke module texts
PHP-Nuke module texts are also customizable, but are stored in separate
folders: each module comes with a language folder containing a lang-xxx.php
file with the translation strings for the text constants that are relevant to
only that module. For example, the Forums module contains a language folder,
stored as modules/Forums/language, the Your_Account module (which handles user
logins, registration, authentication and management of the users' info, mail,
messages and personal settings) comes with a language folder stored as modules/
Your_Account/language etc.
To change a module specific text, edit the appropriate language file lang-
xxx.php, exactly as described in Section_13.1 for general PHP-Nuke texts. For
example, to customize the email text sent to a new user after registration,
open the file /modules/Your_Account/language/lang-english.php in a decent_text
editor, find the lines
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| define("_YOUUSEDEMAIL","You or someone else has used your email account");|
| define("_TOREGISTER","to register an account at"); |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
and change them to something more sophisticated, like
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| define("_YOUUSEDEMAIL","Nil sine magno vita labore dedit mortalibus![17]");|
| define("_TOREGISTER","Please register your account at"); |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13.3. PHP-Nuke module and block titles
You can change a module's or block's title from the module or block
administration panel respectively: for a module or active block, click on the
Edit link on the line for that module/block, change and save. The text you
enter in the “Title†field will be the new title to be displayed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 14. Customising PHP-Nuke themes
In this chapter we will talk about themes in PHP-Nuke. We will discuss the
following topics:
* Structure of a PHP-Nuke theme (Section_14.1),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke theme HTML template (Section_14.2),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke theme header (Section_14.3),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke theme body (Section_14.4),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke theme index (Section_14.5),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke theme footer (Section_14.6),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke theme icons (Section_14.7),
* PHP-Nuke theme rules (Section_14.8),
* How to change a buggy PHP-Nuke theme (Section_14.9),
* How to prevent users from changing the theme in PHP-Nuke (Section_14.10),
* How to change the PHP-Nuke theme depending on module (Section_14.11),
* How to change font size in PHP-Nuke (Section_14.12).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.1. 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 a lot of HTML files, all 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.
For a graphical anatomy of a PHP-Nuke theme, please have a look at the
theme.html file. As you can see, each PHP-Nuke page follows the classic 3-
column table layout: in the left and right columns you can position small
blocks, while in the center, wider column, you should position the larger
blocks. It is also the center column where the currently viewed module is
shown.
The NukeNews theme, for example, is structured in the following way (Figure_14-
1):
* theme.php: controls the main functions of the variables for the background
colors.
* tables.php: controls the functions opentable() and closetable().
* header.html: controls the header for your site.
* footer.html: controls the footer for your site.
* blocks.html: controls the blocks.
* center_right.html: controls the layout of the page.
* center_left.html: controls the layout of the page.
* story_home.html: controls the layout of the page.
* story_page.html: controls the layout of the page.
Figure 14-1. Structure of the NukeNews theme.
Structure of the NukeNews theme.
These files are included in the functions specified in theme.php We then have a
style sheet (Section_28.3), 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 theme 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
theme.php is the file that creates the managing functions of all of PHP-Nuke's
components (header, footer, central parts, block...).
The technique of putting HTML code in separate files, that are then included in
theme.php, is not used in all themes (see Figure_14-2). Some programmers
include all the HTML in the theme.php file. However, 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).
Figure 14-2. Structure of other themes, without HTML templates.
Structure of other themes, without HTML templates.
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 shown in the header.html file in a table:
Code in theme.php (that defines the $theuser variable)
_________________________________________________________
| |
| if ($username == "Anonymous") { |
| $theuser = " <a href=\"modules.php |
| ?name=Your_Account &op=new_user\">Create an account";|
| } else { |
| $theuser = " Welcome $username!"; |
| } |
|_________________________________________________________|
Code in header.html (that displays the $theuser variable)
___________________________________________________________________
| |
| <td width="15% "nowrap >< font class="content" color="#363636 " >|
| <b> $theuser </b></font></td> |
|___________________________________________________________________|
It is also in the themeheader() function that the position of the advertisement
banners is hardcoded. If you are not satisfied with the placement of your
banners, look for the lines
___________________________
| |
| if ($banners == 1) { |
| include("banners.php");|
| } |
|___________________________|
These lines are responsible for the output of the banner. By changing their
place in the PHP code, you can achieve a different banner placement.
The themefooter(); function is responsible for the footer of our site.
It has some interesting elements we have to analyse:
First of all, it identifies if the displayed 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
achieved by 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_20), 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_21) , 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, $bgcolor2; |
| echo "<table width=\"100% \" border=\"0 \ "cellspacing=\"1 \" |
| cellpadding=\"0 \ "bgcolor=\"$bgcolor2 \" >< 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 "</td ></tr ></table ></td ></tr ></table > \n";|
| } |
|_______________________________________________________|
In fact...
* The function is opened
* You close the Column; You close the Line
* You close the Inner Table
* You close the Column; You close the Line
* You close the Outer Table
Its easy to construct HTML functions with PHP, isnt it?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.2. Modifying the PHP-Nuke theme HTML template
In this section we will see how to modify the HTML template that is used by the
PHP-Nuke themes to display our page. Topics covered are:
* Example creation of HTML file to include in the theme (Section_14.2.1).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.2.1. Example creation of HTML file to include in the theme
We will not analyse the HTML syntax of all the files, we 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:
_________________________________________________________________
| |
| <table border="0 "cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0 |
| "bgcolor="#000000" width="150 "><tr><td> |
| <table border="0 "cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0 |
| "bgcolor="#dedebb" width="100% "><tr>< td align="left" > |
| <font class="content "color="#363636" ><b> $$title </b ></font>|
| </td></tr></table></td></tr></table> |
| <table border="0 "cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0 |
| "bgcolor="#ffffff" width="150 " > |
| <tr valign="top "><td bgcolor="#ffffff"> |
| $content |
| </td></tr></table> |
| < br > |
|_________________________________________________________________|
As you see, we create a table of fixed width (in our case 150) and we assign it
some colours (for the background etc...). We also assign two variables ($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 clarity reasons, 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:
______________________________________________________
| |
| </td><td><img src="themes/NukeNews/images/pixel.gif |
| "width="15" height="1 "border="0" stop = ""> |
| </td><td valign="top" width="100%"> |
|______________________________________________________|
The image is a spacer that adds a space of 15 pixels, but where do we load the
image from? Which path do we have to assign it? Remember that the theme.php
file is included in the PHP-Nuke root directory , 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 trick is to assign, in theme.php, a variable to the name of the theme,
to make it independent from possible changes of the folder name. So for the
variable $nameoftheme = " NukeNews ", the syntax of the image path will be:
__________________________________________________
| |
| <img src="themes/$nameoftheme/images/pixel.gif">|
|__________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.3. Modifying the PHP-Nuke theme header
The theme header is constructed in the function themeheader() of the theme in
question. You will find this function in the file theme.php, in the folder
themes/YourTheme (where YourTheme is the name of your theme, e.g. themes/
NukeNews).
* Section_14.3.1
* Section_14.3.2
* Section_14.3.3
* Section_14.3.4
* Section_14.3.5
* Section_14.3.6
* Section_14.3.7
* Section_14.3.8
* Section_14.3.9
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.3.1. How to create a top navigation bar as in NukeNews theme
Figure 14-3. Top navigation bar in the NukeNews theme.
Top navigation bar in the NukeNews theme.
Sometimes, like in the case of the NukeNews theme, the themeheader() function
will include the contents of a separate file, written in pure HTML:
_________________________________________________
| |
| $tmpl_file = "themes/NukeNews/header.html";|
| $thefile = implode("", file($tmpl_file)); |
| $thefile = addslashes($thefile); |
| $thefile = "\$r_file=\"".$thefile."\";"; |
| eval($thefile); |
| print $r_file; |
|_________________________________________________|
The header.html file, which is "evaluated" here, contains HTML code that
creates the "top navigation bar", the one with the "Home", "Topics",
"Downloads", "Your Account" etc. links (Figure_14-3):
________________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <tr valign="middle" bgcolor="#dedebb"> |
| <td width="15%" nowrap><font class="content" color="#363636"> |
| <b>$theuser</b></font></td> |
| <td align="center" height="20" width="70%"><font class="content"><B> |
| <A href="index.php">Home</a> |
| · |
| <A href="modules.php?name=Topics">Topics</a> |
| · |
| <A href="modules.php?name=Downloads">Downloads</a> |
| · |
| <A href="modules.php?name=Your_Account">Your Account</a> |
| · |
| <A href="modules.php?name=Submit_News">Submit News</a> |
| · |
| <A href="modules.php?name=Top">Top 10</a> |
| </B></font> |
| </td> |
| <td align="right" width="15%"><font class="content"><b> |
| <script type="text/javascript"> |
| <!-- // Array ofmonth Names |
| var monthNames = new Array( |
| "January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September",|
| "October","November","December"); |
| var now = new Date(); |
| thisYear = now.getYear(); |
| if(thisYear < 1900) {thisYear += 1900}; // corrections if Y2K display problem |
| document.write(monthNames[now.getMonth()] + " " + now.getDate() + ", " + |
| thisYear); |
| // --> |
| </script></b></font></td> |
| <td> </td> |
| </tr> |
|________________________________________________________________________________|
Thus, if you want to delete or change this top navigation bar, you will have to
delete or change the above code to reflect your needs (see How_to_change_the
top_menu_(top_navigation_bar)_of_PHP-Nuke and how_to_remove_the_search_box_from
the_top_menu_of_PHP-Nuke). A similar technique is used in the Odyssey theme,
where one uses the contents of themes/Odyssey/left_center.html, additionally to
themes/Odyssey/header.html.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.3.2. How to insert a Search Box as in SlashOcean theme
The SlashOcean theme contains a Welcome message and a Search box in its header,
as a close inspection of the code in the themeheader() function of themes/
SlashOcean/theme.php reveals:
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| echo "<br> |
| <center> |
| <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 width=99% align=center><tr><td|
| align=left> |
| <a href=$nukeurl><img src=themes/SlashOcean/images/logo.gif Alt=\"Welcome |
| to $sitename\" |
| border=0></a> |
| </td><td align=right width=100%> |
| <form action=modules.php?name=Search&method=post> |
| <font class=content><input type=text name=query width=20 size=20 |
| length=20> |
| </td> |
| <td align=right> <input type=submit |
| value=\""._SEARCH."\"></td> |
| </form>"; |
| echo "</td></tr></table><br>"; |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
You can use this code if you wish to have a search box besides your logo, as in
SlashOcean. You will find similar constructs in the other themes, e.g. Kaput or
Slash.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.3.3. How to change the PHP-Nuke header depending on some global feature
In some cases you may need to change the PHP-Nuke header according to some
globally available information about the current user. For example, you may
want to display a menu that is differently structured if the user's language
is, say, french, leaving the standard menu structure untouched otherwise.
The key to such changes is always to declare the globally available feature as
being “global†in the themeheader() function in theme.php. Then you can use its
value for a simple check that will echo the right HTML incantations if the
check succeeds. Let's take for example the above case, where the globally
available feature is nothing else but the current language setting:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| global $currentlang; |
| if ($currentlang == "french") { |
| echo "<a href=\"/special/link/to/my/services/for/french/users\"><b>"|
| ._MESSERVICES."</b></A>\n"; |
| } |
| else if ($currentlang == "english") { |
| echo "<a href=\"/some/default/link/for/other/users\">" |
| ._DEFAULTLINK."</a>\n"; |
| } |
|________________________________________________________________________|
This code, put in the themeheader() function of theme.php in the aproppriate
place (depending on where exacly you want it to appear), will display a special
menu link if the user's language is french. Instead of the current language,
any user setting that is globally available can be used. The only work you have
to do is to find out which variable stores the global setting you need
($currentlang in the above example).
User information is stored in the userinfo array. This array is filled with a
call to the getusrinfo() function. Thus a simple way to arrive at some
information that is special to the currently logged-in user, is to write
somethink like
__________________________________
| |
| global $user, $userinfo; |
| if(is_user($user)) { |
| getusrinfo($user); |
| } |
|__________________________________|
You have then some user-specific settings at your disposal:
_________________________________________
| |
| $name = $userinfo['uname']; |
| $uid = $userinfo['uid']; |
| $email_real = $userinfo['email']; |
| $email_fake = $userinfo['femail']; |
| $url = $userinfo['url']; |
| $avatar = $userinfo['user_avatar']; |
| $newsletter = $userinfo['newsletter']; |
| $icq = $userinfo['user_icq']; |
| $aim = $userinfo['user_aim']; |
| $yim = $userinfo['user_yim']; |
| $msnm = $userinfo['user_msnm']; |
| $location = $userinfo['user_from']; |
| $occupation = $userinfo['user_occ']; |
| $interests = $userinfo['user_intrest'];|
| $signature = $userinfo['user_sig']; |
| $biography = $userinfo['user_bio']; |
|_________________________________________|
and can use them in the same manner as $currentlang above to build a highly
customized header.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.3.4. How to change the logo in the PHP-Nuke header
One of the first things you will want to change once your PHP-Nuke is up and
running, is the site's logo. For this, you only have to replace the logo.gif
file that came with the theme you are using. Search for themes/YourTheme/
logo.gif. Whatever graphic you put in logo.gif, it will show as the site's logo
in the PHP-Nuke header.
If you want to change the way the logo is displayed, perhaps by setting a width
and height attribute, or specifying a border, you will have to change the HTML
code that displays it in the theme. To do this in a dynamic way, see Section
14.3.5. Here are the relevant code lines for each one of the standard PHP-Nuke
themes:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| ./themes/3D-Fantasy/header.html:<a href="index.php"><img src="themes/3D- |
| Fantasy/images/logo.gif" border="0" |
| alt="Welcome to $sitename" align="left"></a> |
| ./themes/ExtraLite/theme.php: ."<a href=\"index.php\"><img |
| src=\"themes/ExtraLite/images/logo.gif\" |
| alt=\"Welcome to $sitename\" title=\"Welcome to $sitename\" border=\"0\"></|
| a>" |
| ./themes/Kaput/theme.php: ."<a href=\"index.php\"><img src=\"themes/ |
| Kaput/images/logo.gif\" border=\"0\" |
| alt=\""._WELCOMETO." $sitename\" align=\"left\"></a></td>" |
| ./themes/NukeNews/header.html:<a href="index.php"> |
| <img src="themes/NukeNews/images/logo.gif" align="left" |
| alt=""._WELCOMETO." $sitename" border="0" hspace="10"></a></td> |
| ./themes/Odyssey/header.html:<a href="index.php"> |
| <img src="themes/Odyssey/images/logo.gif" |
| alt=""._WELCOMETO." $sitename" border="0"></a> |
| ./themes/Slash/theme.php:<a href=$nukeurl> |
| <img src=themes/Slash/images/logo.gif border=0></a> |
| ./themes/SlashOcean/theme.php:<a href=$nukeurl> |
| <img src=themes/SlashOcean/images/logo.gif |
| Alt=\"Welcome to $sitename\" border=0></a> |
| ./themes/Traditional/theme.php: ."<a href=\"index.php\"> |
| <img src=\"themes/Traditional/images/logo.gif\" |
| alt=\""._WELCOMETO." $sitename\" border=\"0\"></a>" |
| ./themes/Anagram/theme.php: ."<a href=\"index.php\"> |
| <img src=\"themes/Anagram/images/logo.gif\" align=\"left\" |
| alt=\""._WELCOMETO." $sitename\" border=\"0\"></a></td>\n" |
| ./themes/Karate/theme.php: ."<a href=\"index.php\"> |
| <img src=\"themes/Karate/images/logo.gif\" align=\"left\" |
| alt=\""._WELCOMETO." $sitename\" border=\"0\"></a></td>\n" |
| ./themes/Milo/theme.php: ."<a href=\"index.php\"> |
| <img src=\"themes/Milo/images/logo.gif\" align=\"left\" |
| alt=\""._WELCOMETO." $sitename\" border=\"0\"></a></td>\n" |
| ./themes/Sunset/theme.php:echo "<a href=$nuke_url> |
| <img src=themes/Sunset/images/logo.gif |
| Alt=\""._WELCOMETO." $sitename\" border=0></a>\n"; |
| ./themes/DeepBlue/theme.php: ."<table border=0 width=100% cellpadding=0 |
| cellspacing=0><tr><td align=\"left\"><a href=\"index.php\"> |
| <img border=\"0\" src=\"themes/DeepBlue/images/logo.gif\" |
| alt=\"Welcome to OpenMax!\" hspace=\"20\"></a></td><td align=\"right\"> |
| <img border=\"0\" src=\"themes/DeepBlue/images/logo-graphic.gif\" |
| width=\"\"></td></tr></table></td></tr>\n" |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
This is also the place to put your change, if you want a second graphic besides
your logo, or some other logo customization.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.3.5. How to change the logo's dimensions dynamically
If you have designed a logo that can be displayed equally well at many
resolutions and you wish to be able to change its display dimensions
dynamically, according to the display resolution of your visitor's monitor,
then you have to use Javascript. This is because PHP is a server-based
technology and the web server has no means of knowing the monitor resolution of
a client requesting a page. It would have to query that client for the
resolution it uses, get an answer, then create the page with the right logo
dimensions. But HTTP is a stateless protocol, meaning that, when the server
gets an answer, it has no means to relate it to some previous request - not
without cookies, URL parameters, sessions and all that extra stuff. This is
where Javascript comes into play, obviating the need for a query-and-answer
procedure.
Substitute the image logo tag
<img src=themes/YourTheme/images/logo.gif alt=""._WELCOMETO." $sitename"
border="0">
of your theme (see Section_14.3.4) with the following:
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| $mod_log = "images/my_logo.gif"; |
| echo ("<script>\n"); |
| echo ("var swidth='0';\n"); |
| echo ("swidth=screen.width\n"); |
| echo ("if ((swidth<=640)&&(swidth<800)){\n"); |
| echo ("document.write('<img src=$mod_logo width=500 border=0>')");|
| echo ("}\n"); |
| echo ("else\n"); |
| echo ("if ((swidth>799)&&(swidth<1024)){\n"); |
| echo ("document.write('<img src=$mod_logo width=700 border=0>')");|
| echo ("}\n"); |
| echo ("else\n"); |
| echo ("if (swidth>=1024){\n"); |
| echo ("document.write('<img src=$mod_logo width=900 border=0>')");|
| echo ("}\n"); |
| echo ("</script>\n"); |
|____________________________________________________________________|
Change the location of your logo in the $mod_log variable. The code will echo
this Javascript in place of the image tag:
_____________________________________________________________
| |
| <script> |
| var swidth='0'; |
| swidth=screen.width |
| if ((swidth<=640)&&(swidth<800)){ |
| document.write('<img src=$mod_logo width=500 border=0>')");|
| } |
| else |
| if ((swidth>799)&&(swidth<1024)){ |
| document.write('<img src=$mod_logo width=700 border=0>')");|
| } |
| else |
| if (swidth>=1024){ |
| document.write('<img src=$mod_logo width=900 border=0>')");|
| } |
| </script> |
|_____________________________________________________________|
which will be executed on the client's browser (if the client has Javascript
enabled, of course). It will query its resolution (screen width) and write the
HTML image tag, with the correct dimensions for the logo image, into the page's
HTML code. It may not work though, if the client's security settings do not
allow querying the screen's width. See Different_themes_for_different
resolutions and banner_next_to_logo for a discussion of the details.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.3.6. How to change placement of the banner in the PHP-Nuke header
Sometimes the banner will appear at a position that you would feel is
unfavourable for your theme and overall appearence of your site (of course,
only if you enabled the banner functionality in the administration panel, see
Section_7.1). The code that controls whether the banner will appear or not, is
a few lines long:
_________________________
| |
| if ($banners == 1) { |
| include("banners.php");|
| } |
|_________________________|
and is found in the themeheader() function of the theme.php file. You don't
need to bother about the included file, banners.php, that actually does all the
job of selecting and displaying the appropriate banner, keeping banner
statistics up-to-date and all that stuff. All you need is find out where to
place those 3 lines in order to achieve the desired banner placement. As this
is a highly theme dependent topic, there are no general recipes. Just move the
3-liner around in themeheader() to get a feeling of the various elements and
their positions, then experiment a little to find the right one for you. You
might, for example, choose to include it in a table layout and echo it directly
after the HTML <body> line:
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| echo "<body bgcolor=\"#ffffff\" topmargin=\"0\" |
| leftmargin=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\">\n\n" |
| ."<table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" |
| width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" bgcolor=\"#6487dc\"><tr>\n" |
| ."<td bgcolor=\"#6487dc\" align=\"left\" |
| valign=\"top\" width=\"20%\"><br> |
| <a href=\"index.php\"><img src=\"themes/subSilver/images/logo.gif\" |
| align=\"left\" alt=\""._WELCOMETO |
| ." $sitename\" border=\"0\"></a><br></td>\n" |
| ."</td><td bgcolor=\"#6487dc\" align=\"right\">"; |
| if ($banners) { |
| echo "<br>"; |
| include("banners.php"); |
| echo "<br>"; |
| } |
|______________________________________________________________________|
See Banner_placement and banner_next_to_logo for a discussion of banner
placement in PHP-Nuke.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.3.7. How to display a watermark background image
It may sound inconsistent (actually, it is inconsistent!), but in order to
display a static background image (i.e. one that does not scroll down when you
scroll), like a watermark, in PHP-Nuke, you must change the theheader()
function in the theme.php file of your theme.
The code you will need for this nice effect should be placed in the body part
of the page's HTML code (the part delimited by the <body> and </body> HTML
tags). The reason we need this in the body part, is that in the header it will
produce an error (at least in Mozilla):
________________________________________
| |
| Error: document.body has no properties|
|________________________________________|
This is probably because the document body does not exist at the time the
header is loading.
Our code is a small Javascript, so you might think it belongs to the
javascript.php file under the includes folder (see Section_21.9.1).
Unfortunately, whatever is in that javascript.php file, will be included in the
HTML header of the page, i.e. the part of the HTML code delimited by the <head>
and </head> tags (see Chapter_15), so this will not serve our purpose. What we
actually need is a file for code that belongs to the HTML body and comes
preferably immediately after the <body> tag - but such a file does not exist in
PHP-Nuke yet.
Thus, the next best place to insert our Javascript is in the theme.php file of
our theme. This is because the <body> tag is echoed precisely in this file, as
Table_14-1 demonstrates[18].
Table 14-1. <body> tags in theme.php of various themes
_________________________________________________________________________
|theme.php file |PHP code that echoes the <body> tag for the|
|_____________________________|theme______________________________________|
|themes/3D-Fantasy/theme.php |echo "<body bgcolor=\"#ffffff\" |
| |text=\"#000000\" link=\"#363636\" |
| |vlink=\"#363636\" |
|_____________________________|alink=\"#d5ae83\"><br>\n\n\n";_____________|
|themes/Anagram/theme.php |echo "<body bgcolor=\"#ffffff\" |
|_____________________________|text=\"#000000\">\n";______________________|
|themes/DeepBlue/theme.php |echo "<body bgcolor=\"#0E3259\" |
|_____________________________|text=\"#000000\"_link=\"0000ff\">"_________|
|themes/ExtraLite/theme.php |echo "<body text=\"000000\" link=\"0000ff\"|
|_____________________________|vlink=\"0000ff\">"_________________________|
|themes/Kaput/theme.php |echo "<body bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\" |
| |text=\"#000000\" link=\"#363636\" |
|_____________________________|vlink=\"#363636\"_alink=\"#d5ae83\">\n"____|
|themes/Karate/theme.php |echo "<body bgcolor=\"#ffffff\" |
| |text=\"#000000\" link=\"#363636\" |
|_____________________________|vlink=\"#363636\"_alink=\"#d5ae83\">\n"____|
|themes/Milo/theme.php |echo "<body bgcolor=\"#ffffff\" |
| |text=\"#000000\" link=\"#363636\" |
|_____________________________|vlink=\"#363636\"_alink=\"#d5ae83\">\n"____|
|themes/NukeNews/theme.php |echo "<body bgcolor=\"#505050\" |
| |text=\"#000000\" link=\"#363636\" |
|_____________________________|vlink=\"#363636\"_alink=\"#d5ae83\">";_____|
|themes/Odyssey/theme.php |echo "<body bgcolor=\"#004080\" |
| |text=\"#000000\" link=\"#004080\" |
|_____________________________|vlink=\"#004080\"_alink=\"#004080\">";_____|
|themes/Sand_Journey/theme.php|echo_"<body_bgcolor=\"$bgcolor1\">";_______|
|themes/Slash/theme.php |echo "<body bgcolor=DDDDDD text=222222 |
|_____________________________|link=660000_vlink=222222>__________________|
|themes/SlashOcean/theme.php |echo "<body bgcolor=FFFFFF text=000000 |
|_____________________________|link=101070_vlink=101070>__________________|
|themes/Sunset/theme.php |echo "<body bgcolor=\"#FFC53A\" |
| |text=\"#000000\" link=\"#035D8A\" |
|_____________________________|vlink=\"#035D8A\">";_______________________|
|themes/Traditional/theme.php |echo "<body bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\" |
| |text=\"#000000\" link=\"#000000\" |
|_____________________________|vlink=\"#000000\">"________________________|
Find the line that echoes the <body> tag in your theme.php (look for the
themeheader() function or consult Table_14-1) and insert the following lines
after it (if the line does not contain a semicolon at its end, you have of
course to append these lines after the next most close line that contains it,
otherwise you will mess up the code and get errors):
__________________________________________________________________
| |
| echo "\n"; |
| echo "<script language=\"JavaScript1.2\">\n"; |
| echo "<!--\n"; |
| echo "if (document.all||document.getElementById) \n"; |
| echo "document.body.style.background= |
| \"url('http://www.yoursite.com/images/watermark.gif') |
| white center no-repeat fixed\"\n"; |
| echo "//-->\n"; |
| echo "</script> \n"; |
|__________________________________________________________________|
Adapt the URL in the script (http://www.yoursite.com/images/watermark.gif) to
reflect the full URL to your watermark image. That's all, if your theme does
not define any background colours for tables!
In practice, however, your theme will define at least two table background
colours, those in the OpenTable() and OpenTable2() functions, as shown in this
example, taken from the ExtraLite theme:
_______________________________________________________________
| |
| function OpenTable() { |
| global $bgcolor1, $bgcolor2; |
| echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" |
| cellspacing=\"1\" cellpadding=\"0\" |
| bgcolor=\"$bgcolor2\"><tr><td>\n"; |
| echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" |
| cellspacing=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" |
| bgcolor=\"$bgcolor1\"><tr><td>\n"; |
| } |
| function OpenTable2() { |
| global $bgcolor1, $bgcolor2; |
| echo "<table border=\"0\" |
| cellspacing=\"1\" cellpadding=\"0\" |
| bgcolor=\"$bgcolor2\" align=\"center\"><tr><td>\n";|
| echo "<table border=\"0\" |
| cellspacing=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" |
| bgcolor=\"$bgcolor1\"><tr><td>\n"; |
| } |
|_______________________________________________________________|
You must delete those bgcolor attributes completely for this method to work! In
fact, this will not be enough: you will have to delete every other table
bgcolor attribute that appears in your theme.php[19]. Contrary to what is
implied in Static_Background_Image, where this method is described in detail,
deleting only the bgcolor attributes for the above two OpenTable functions will
not be enough.
Tip Alternative solution
An alternative solution would be to add the background and bgproperties
attributes directly in the <body> tags of the lines in Table_14-1, as in this
example for the ExtraLite theme:
_________________________________________________________________________
| |
| echo "<body background=\"images/watermark.gif\" bgproperties=\"fixed\" |
| text=\"000000\" link=\"0000ff\" vlink=\"0000ff\">" |
|_________________________________________________________________________|
Â
bgproperties will also create a "watermark" on the page, a background image
which does not scroll with the rest of the page (see bgproperties_attribute.
The only value it can attain is “fixed†and it must be used in conjunction
with the background attribute. It is an MSIE extension, so use it, but don't
rely on it. You will again have to delete all background colour attributes of
the tables in theme.php. Contrary to the first method, however, there is no
way to specify a no-repeat property, so that if your image does not fill the
whole background space available (which depends on the client's monitor
resolution), it will be repeated horizontally as well as vertically.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.3.8. How to display a Flash object in the PHP-Nuke header
To show Flash in the PHP-Nuke header, you simply have to echo the appropriate
HTML code. Since the HTML code for a Flash object is something like
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <object classid=\"clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000\" |
| codebase=\"http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/ |
| flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0\" width=\"350\" height=\"100\"> |
| <param name=\"movie\" value=\"yourMovie.swf\"> |
| <param name=quality value=high> |
| <embed src=\"yourMovie.swf\" quality=high pluginspage=\"http:// |
| www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/ |
| index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-|
| flash\" |
| width=\"350\" height=\"100\"></embed> |
| </object> |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
the PHP-Nuke header code should contain something like
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| echo "<object classid=\"clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000\" |
| codebase=\"http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/ |
| flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0\" width=\"350\" height=\"100\"> " |
| ."<param name=\"movie\" value=\"yourMovie.swf\"> " |
| ."<param name=quality value=high> " |
| ."<embed src=\"yourMovie.swf\" quality=high pluginspage=\"http:// |
| www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/ |
| index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-|
| flash\" |
| width=\"350\" height=\"100\"></embed>" |
| ."</object>"; |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
You can put the above code in the themes/YourTheme/theme.php file, in the
themeheader() function, after the call to the banners code:
____________________________________
| |
| if ($banners == 1) { |
| include("banners.php"); |
| } |
| ...put Flash code ("echo") here...|
|____________________________________|
The Flash object will be displayed after the banner, if you have one. See
Section_20.6 on how to show Flash in a PHP-Nuke block.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.3.9. How to hide the left blocks
For some esoteric reason, you may want to hide the column with the left blocks,
although it contains some crucial blocks, like the modules block (Figure_17-1),
for example. To accomplish this, you have to edit the themeheader() function in
the theme.php file of your theme (in the themes/YourTheme folder) and replace
the line:
_______________
| |
| blocks(left);|
|_______________|
with
___________________________
| |
| if ($name=='Forums') { |
| /* Don't display it. */|
| } |
| else { |
| blocks(left); |
| } |
|___________________________|
Here, we check if the module is the Forums module and suppress the call to
blocks(left) if it is. This will hide the left column blocks in the Forums. It
is easy to include more modules, as in the following example (see Hide_left
blocks_when_viewing_Forum_or_ANY_module, Como_eliminar_los_bloques_de_la
izquierda, Left_Blocks_on_Index_Page_only):
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| if ($name=='Forums' || $name=='Members_List' || $name=='Private_Messages') |
| { |
| /* Don't display it. */ |
| } else { |
| blocks(left); |
| } |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
Don't forget to add $name to the list of global variables in themeheader():
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| global $user, $banners, $sitename, $slogan, $cookie, $prefix, $dbi, $name;|
|____________________________________________________________________________|
Of course, if you don't find the call to blocks(left), your theme already
suppresses the left column of blocks.
Tip How to hide the right blocks
Most of the time, if you want to hide any blocks, they will be the blocks
 in the right column, not the blocks in the left. See Section_18.1.1 on
how to hide the right blocks.
From a theme design point of view, the above solution does not look
satisfactory: you have to hardcode the names of the modules that should not
display the left blocks into the code of the theme. Since you don't know in
advance which ones these are, you create a dependency relation to all existing
and future modules.
A cleaner, alternative way is to declare the global $hideleft variable in
themeheader() and check its value instead:
___________________________
| |
| global $hideleft; |
| ... |
| if($hideleft == 1){ |
| /* Don't display it. */|
| } else { |
| blocks(left); |
| } |
|___________________________|
Now, for every module that you want to hide the left blocks, insert the lines
___________________
| |
| global $hideleft;|
| $hideleft =1; |
|___________________|
at the beginning of its code. As you see, with this method, the selection of
the modules that hide the left blocks has become the job the modules' authors.
The theme code can work with any module, present or future one, without changes
- as any theme should.
Tip More flexibility with the Block Modificator
With Chris Sengers' Simple_Blocks_Manipulator_for_left_blocks you can put
 any block left or right differently with any module. You can even use
inactive blocks and also change the theme according to the module (we
show how to do this yourself in Section_14.11).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.4. Modifying the PHP-Nuke theme body
In this section we continue our study of PHP-Nuke themes - this time with the
body of a theme! We cover topics like:
* How to get multipage News articles (Section_14.4.1).
* How to change the background colour (Section_14.4.2).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.4.1. How to get multipage News articles
It appears that while Reviews, Section, and Content areas allow multipage
bodies, the general News article does not. Contrary to what one would think, if
you want to add such functionality in the News module, the code under modules/
News/ is not the right place. The right place is the themearticle() in the
theme.php file of your theme!
This is so, because it is the themearticle() function that outputs the article
text, through a call to the FormatStory() function (which is also defined in
theme.php):
_____________________________________________________
| |
| FormatStory($thetext, $notes="", $aid, $informant);|
|_____________________________________________________|
Thus, all we have to do is format $thetext accordingly, before it is passed to
FormatStory. Just add the following code to the begining of the themearticle()
function in theme.php, like this[20] (see Multipage_articles, Pagebreaks_in
articles):
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| function themearticle ($aid, $informant, $datetime, $title, $thetext, |
| $topic, $topicname, $topicimage, $topictext) { |
| global $admin, $sid, $tipath, $page; |
| $contentpages = explode( "<!--pagebreak-->", $thetext ); |
| $pageno = count($contentpages); |
| if ( $page=="" || $page < 1 ) |
| $page = 1; |
| if ( $page > $pageno ) |
| $page = $pageno; |
| $arrayelement = (int)$page; |
| $arrayelement --; |
| if ($pageno > 1) { |
| $thetextNew .= "Page: $page/$pageno<br>"; |
| } |
| $thetextNew .= "<p align=\"justify\">$contentpages[$arrayelement]</p>"; |
| if($page >= $pageno) { |
| $next_page = ""; |
| } else { |
| $next_pagenumber = $page + 1; |
| if ($page != 1) { |
| $next_page .= "- "; |
| } |
| $next_page .= "<a href=\"modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=$sid |
| &page=$next_pagenumber\">"._NEXT." ($next_pagenumber/$pageno)</a> |
| <a |
| href=\"modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=$sid&page=$next_pagenumber\">|
| <img src=\"images/right.gif\"border=\"0\" alt=\""._NEXT."\"></a>"; |
| } |
| if ($page == $pageno) { |
| $thetextNew .= "<br><p align=\"justify\">".nl2br($mypage[page_footer])."</ |
| p><br><br>"; |
| } |
| if($page <= 1) { |
| $previous_page = ""; |
| } else { |
| $previous_pagenumber = $page - 1; |
| $previous_page = "<a href=\"modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=$sid |
| &page=$previous_pagenumber\"> |
| <img src=\"images/left.gif\" border=\"0\" alt=\""._PREVIOUS."\"></a> |
| <a href=\"modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=$sid |
| &page=$previous_pagenumber\">"._PREVIOUS." ($previous_pagenumber/$pageno)</|
| a>"; |
| } |
| $thetextNew .= "<br><br><br><center>$previous_page $next_page</ |
| center><br><br>"; |
| $thetext = $thetextNew; |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
Now you can use <!--pagebreak--> in your News stories, and the code above will
split the text at the <!--pagebreak--> and create the “previous†and “nextâ€
hyperlinks for you (don't forget to define _NEXT and _PREVIOUS in your language
file, as shown in Chapter_13).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.4.2. How to change background colour
A well-constructed theme will offer you a simple way to change the various
colours (see How_to_change_the_background_colour): in the theme.php file of the
NukeNews theme, for example, you can read:
________________________________________________________________
| |
| /************************************************************/|
| /* Theme Colors Definition */|
| /* */|
| /* Define colors for your web site. $bgcolor2 is generaly */|
| /* used for the tables border as you can see on OpenTable() */|
| /* function, $bgcolor1 is for the table background and the */|
| /* other two bgcolor variables follows the same criteria. */|
| /* $texcolor1 and 2 are for tables internal texts */|
| /************************************************************/|
|________________________________________________________________|
and immediately after that:
__________________________
| |
| $bgcolor1 = "#efefef"; |
| $bgcolor2 = "#cfcfbb"; |
| $bgcolor3 = "#efefef"; |
| $bgcolor4 = "#cfcfbb"; |
| $textcolor1 = "#000000";|
| $textcolor2 = "#000000";|
|__________________________|
The strings to the right side of the above assignments are hexadecimal
representations of colours. They begin with a # and contain six hexadecimal
digits, two for each colour of the basic ones, red, green and blue. Thus, the
string "#cfcfbb" fot $bgcolor4 means cf for red, cf for green and bb for blue.
Each one of the three hexadecimal two-digit numbers has a range from 00 to FF
(just as each hexadecimal digit goes from 0 to F: 0, 1, 2, 3..., 8, 9, a, b, c,
d, e, f, where a means 10, b means 11, c means 12 ... and f means 15 in the
hexadecimal system). This means a range from 0 to 255 - that's 256 different
values for each colour.
Tip Colour wheels
A useful tool in exploring the visible spectrum in HTML is the colour
wheel. Just hover over the wheel with your mouse to view 4096 colors in
 their web safe, web smart and unsafe versions.
You can also use the colour_popups_of_the_Tag-o-matic to show all 216
web-safe colours in a virtual colour card.
But what do you do if your theme does not follow this scheme and does not offer
you this possibility? In such a case, we need to applly our knowledge on the
structure of a theme (see Section_14.1). We have seen that each theme comes
with its own definition of the OpenTable() and CloseTable() functions. A brief
look at the code of tables.php in modules/NukeNews reveals the place where
$bgcolor1 and $bgcolor2 are used in the Nuke News theme: in the definitions of
OpenTable() and CloseTable()! This is for example the OpenTable() function for
the NukeNews theme (see modules/NukeNews/tables.php):
_________________________________________________________________
| |
| function OpenTable() { |
| global $bgcolor1, $bgcolor2; |
| echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"1\" |
| cellpadding=\"0\" bgcolor=\"$bgcolor2\"><tr><td>\n";|
| echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"1\" |
| cellpadding=\"8\" bgcolor=\"$bgcolor1\"><tr><td>\n"; |
| } |
|_________________________________________________________________|
Other themes construct their the OpenTable() and CloseTable() functions
similarly, if not identically. We will use this fact to change the background
colour in the Stories Archive module - and only there. To this end, we only
need to define new OpenTable() and CloseTable() functions, with the colour of
our choice, then use the new functions instead of the old ones everywhere in
the module:
In the theme.php file of your theme, add the following two functions[21]:
___________________________________________________________________
| |
| function OpenTableNew() { |
| global $bgcolor1, $bgcolor2; |
| echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"1\" |
| cellpadding=\"0\" bgcolor=\"$bgcolornew2\"><tr><td>\n";|
| echo "<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"1\" |
| cellpadding=\"8\" bgcolor=\"$bgcolornew1\"><tr><td>\n";|
| } |
| function CloseTableNew() { |
| echo "</td></tr></table></td></tr></table>\n"; |
| } |
|___________________________________________________________________|
Give the new background colours, $bgcolornew1 and $bgcolornew2, the values of
your liking in the start of theme.php, for example:
___________________________
| |
| $bgcolornew1 = "#ffffff";|
| $bgcolornew2 = "#660000";|
|___________________________|
Then just change every occurence of "OpenTable" and "CloseTable" with
"OpenTableNew" and "CloseTableNew" respectively in modules/Stories_Archive/
index.php. That's all! The Stories Archive module will now use the new colours.
There is one small detail you may also want to fix though: the colours of the
cells for the “Articles | Comments | Reads | Score | Date | Actions†links. To
change those too, you will have to change the $bgcolour2 colour in the table
cells of the show_month function of modules/Stories_Archive/index.php (see also
Background_color_in_Stories_Archive):
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| echo "<table border=\"0\" width=\"100%\"><tr>" |
| ."<td bgcolor=\"$bgcolor2\" align=\"left\"><b>"._ARTICLES."</b></ |
| td>" |
| ."<td bgcolor=\"$bgcolor2\" align=\"center\"><b>"._COMMENTS."</b></|
| td>" |
| ."<td bgcolor=\"$bgcolor2\" align=\"center\"><b>"._READS."</b></ |
| td>" |
| ."<td bgcolor=\"$bgcolor2\" align=\"center\"><b>"._USCORE."</b></ |
| td>" |
| ."<td bgcolor=\"$bgcolor2\" align=\"center\"><b>"._DATE."</b></td>"|
| ."<td bgcolor=\"$bgcolor2\" align=\"center\"><b>"._ACTIONS."</b></ |
| td></tr>"; |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
For your design to be consistent, the best way would be to change the six
occurences of $bgcolor2 in the above code, to your new background colour
$bgcolornew2.
If you want to change the foreground colour, the easiest method might be to
change the value of the text attribute in the <body> tag that is echoed in the
themeheader() function of theme.php (see How_to_change_the_main_font_color):
_________________________________________________________
| |
| echo "<body bgcolor=\"#505050\" text=\"#000000\" |
| link=\"#363636\" vlink=\"#363636\" alink=\"#d5ae83\">";|
|_________________________________________________________|
Setting
__________________
| |
| text=\"#FF0000\"|
|__________________|
for example, should make all text appear in red.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.5. Modifying the PHP-Nuke theme index
The themeindex() function displays and formats the News articles. In its
standard form, it will attribute a news article to the administrator, rather
than the registered user who submitted it. It would be nice if the “Posted byâ€
string pointed to the real author, not the administrator who approved and
posted the submission (see Figure_14-4).
Figure 14-4. News article: “posted by†does not mean “submitted byâ€.
News article: “posted by†does not mean “submitted byâ€.
To give credit, where credit is due, you must change function themeindex() in
the file theme.php of your theme, e.g. themes/NukeNews/theme.php. Change the
following:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| if ("$aid" == "$informant") { |
| $content = "$thetext$notes\n"; |
| } else { |
| if($informant != "") { |
| $content = "<a href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account |
| &op=userinfo&username=$informant\">$informant</a> ";|
| } else { |
| $content = "$anonymous "; |
| } |
| $content .= ""._WRITES." <i>\"$thetext\"</i>$notes\n"; |
| } |
| $posted = ""._POSTEDBY." "; |
| $posted .= get_author($aid); |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
to:
____________________________________________
| |
| $content = "$thetext$notesn"; |
| $posted = ""._POSTEDBY." "; |
| if("$informant" == "") { |
| $posted .= "$anonymous "; |
| } else { |
| $posted .= get_author($informant);|
| } |
|____________________________________________|
or, if you want to be more flexible, to:
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| if ($informant == "") { |
| $informant = "Anonymous"; |
| }else { |
| $holder = sql_query("SELECT url, femail |
| FROM ".$user_prefix."_users where uname='$informant'", $dbi);|
| list($url, $femail) = sql_fetch_row($holder, $dbi); |
| if ($url != "") { |
| $informant = "<a href="$url">$aid</a>"; |
| } elseif ($femail != "") { |
| $informant = "<a href="mailto:$femail">$informant</a>"; |
| } else { |
| $informant = "<a href="modules.php?name=Your_Account |
| &op=userinfo&uname=$informant">$aid</a>"; |
| } |
| } |
| echo "$informant"; |
|______________________________________________________________________|
If you apply the latter solution, you should also declare $user_prefix and $dbi
to be global variables in themeindex().
Caution Every theme is different!
Not all themes are like the NukeNews theme. Some may format the "Posted
by" string in a separate function. The important thing to remember is
that you must find the line
_____________________________
| |
 | $posted = ""._POSTEDBY." ";|
|_____________________________|
in the themeindex() function. The name of the “informant†is echoed
immediately after that line. That's the place to include the above
pieces of code (perhaps replacing some function call).
See submit_news_problem and Need_to_change_some_links for further discussion of
this topic.
The themeindex() function in theme.php is also the place where the “number of
reads†is printed after the “posted by†part (see How_to_remove_the_number_of
reads_in_News). Thus, if you want to remove the number of reads in the News
module and your theme is NukeNews, for example, you have to edit themes/
NukeNews/theme.php with a decent_text_editor (see also Chapter_11), find the
line
______________________________________________________________
| |
| $posted .= " "._ON." $time $timezone ($counter "._READS.")";|
|______________________________________________________________|
in the themeindex() function and change it to:
_________________________________________
| |
| $posted .= " "._ON." $time $timezone ";|
|_________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.6. Modifying the PHP-Nuke theme footer
* Section_14.6.1
* Section_14.6.2
Here is a little unorthodox example of what you can achieve by modifying the
theme footer:
Suppose you just wonder how you can make a new table to the right of each page
(Section_14.6.1), perhaps because you want to put an advertisement table there.
The standard way to do this would be to write a PHP-Nuke block (see Chapter
20), insert it in PHP-Nuke through the block management panel (see Section
9.4), position it in the right column, then define its relative position to the
other blocks in the right column through the intuitive graphical arrows in the
block table of the block management panel.
An alternative way is to edit your theme.php. There, in the function
themefooter(), you should see an IF statement for the blocks(right):
_______________________________________________________
| |
| if ($index == 1) { |
| $tmpl_file = "themes/NukeNews/center_right.html";|
| $thefile = implode("", file($tmpl_file)); |
| $thefile = addslashes($thefile); |
| $thefile = "\$r_file=\"".$thefile."\";"; |
| eval($thefile); |
| print $r_file; |
| blocks(right); |
| } |
|_______________________________________________________|
The $index variable controls whether the right column should be displayed at
all (together with all the blocks that were positioned “rightâ€). If it is equal
to 1, the right column should be visible and a call to blocks(right) is made.
You can echo the HTML for the extra table cell after this IF block. This extra
table cell will be visible in all pages and could contain a PHP-Nuke block with
Google skyscraper ad (Section_20.7), or any other content of your choice. See
Section_14.6.1 for the details.
Tip What makes right blocks disappear...
...is the theme footer, as you can see from the code above! It is in the
themefooter() function of theme.php in your theme folder where the value
of $index is checked and blocks(right) is called to display the right
 blocks. If blocks(right) and the statements around it are called
unconditionally, then the right blocks will never disappear, no matter
what value $index has, and the method of Section_18.1.1 will not work.
You will then have to adjust themefooter() in your theme manually. See
also Disable_right_blocks_in_News_Module.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.6.1. How to insert an extra table to the right of the page
The themefooter() function in the theme.php file of your theme is the right
place to modify if you want to insert an extra table cell to the right of your
page:
Find the call to blocks(right) (see it in Section_14.6) and modify it by adding
code as follows:
_______________________________________________________________
| |
| blocks(right); |
| } |
| echo "</td><td> </td>"; |
| echo "<td>Some text here."; |
| // This is an extra table cell now |
| $footer_message = "$foot1<br>$foot2<br>$foot3<br>$foot4";|
| $tmpl_file = "themes/fiblack/footer.html"; |
| $thefile = implode("", file($tmpl_file)); |
| $thefile = addslashes($thefile); |
| $thefile = "$r_file="".$thefile."";"; |
| eval($thefile); |
| print $r_file; |
| } |
|_______________________________________________________________|
Or, as a more elaborate variation that includes an external piece of code (in
this case the Login block):
_______________________________________________________________
| |
| blocks(right); |
| } |
| echo "</td><td> </td>"; |
| echo "<td>Some text here.<br>"; |
| include("blocks/block-Login.php"); |
| $title = "Title Here"; |
| themesidebox($title,$content); |
| // This is an extra table cell now |
| $footer_message = "$foot1<br>$foot2<br>$foot3<br>$foot4";|
| $tmpl_file = "themes/fiblack/footer.html"; |
| $thefile = implode("", file($tmpl_file)); |
| $thefile = addslashes($thefile); |
| $thefile = "$r_file="".$thefile."";"; |
| eval($thefile); |
| print $r_file; |
| } |
|_______________________________________________________________|
In both cases, it is important that the inserted code is outside the IF
statement that controls the call to blocks(right). See Insert_a_new_table for
more details.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.6.2. The PHP-Nuke Copyright notice
The theme footer also is the place where the PHP-Nuke copyright notice comes
in. You don't need to do anything for this, it is done automatically as follows
(see PHP-Nuke_Copyright_and_Logo):
The function themefooter() in theme.php contains a call to the footmsg()
function, as in the following example from the Milo theme (file themes/Milo/
theme.php):
_________________________________________________________________________
| |
| echo "</td>\n" |
| ."</tr></table>\n" |
| ."<table bgcolor=\"#000000\" width=\"750\" |
| cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" |
| align=\"center\">\n" |
| ."<tr>\n" |
| ."<td width=\"750\" height=\"5\"> |
| <img src=\"themes/Milo/images/bottombar.gif\" width=\"750\" |
| height=\"5\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\"></td>\n" |
| ."</tr>\n" |
| ."<tr>\n" |
| ."<td width=\"100%\"><img src=\"themes/Milo/images/pixel.gif\" |
| width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\"></td>\n" |
| ."</tr>\n" |
| ."</table>\n" |
| ."<br>\n" |
| ."<br>\n" |
| ."<table width=\"750\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" |
| border=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n" |
| ."<tr align=\"center\">\n" |
| ."<td width=\"100%\" colspan=\"3\">\n"; |
| footmsg(); |
| echo "</td>\n" |
| ."</tr>\n" |
| ."</table>\n"; |
|_________________________________________________________________________|
footmsg, in turn, is defined in the footer.php file (located in the root
directory, together with config.php, mainfile.php and the other important
files). There, among some code that displays the computation time it took to
display the page, we read:
_____________________________________________________
| |
| // DO NOT REMOVE THE FOLLOWING COPYRIGHT LINE. |
| YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO REMOVE NOR EDIT THIS. |
| echo "$copyright<br>$totaltime<br>\n</font>\n";|
|_____________________________________________________|
So that's the place where the Copyright notice for PHP-Nuke comes from! Does
that mean that, now that we have found it, we are entitled to edit or remove
it? Absolutely NOT! In the INSTALL file that comes with the PHP-Nuke package,
Franzisco Burzi, the author of PHP-Nuke explicitly forbids this:
________________________________________________________________________________
| |
| ##############################################################################|
| # I M P O R T A N T N O T E #|
| ##############################################################################|
| # IMPORTANT: I saw many sites that removes the copyright line in the footer #|
| # of each page. YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO REMOVE NOR CHANGE/EDIT THAT NOTE. If I #|
| # still see this problem happening I'll need to take extreme measures that #|
| # can include: to change the <application>PHP-Nuke</application> license, to |
| encrypt some parts of the # |
| # code, stop distributing it for free and in an extreme case stop developing #|
| # it. The decision is in your hands. #|
| # If you do not agreed with this simple rule, delete all <application>PHP- |
| Nuke</application> files # |
| # rigth now and move away from it. Thanks. #|
| ##############################################################################|
|________________________________________________________________________________|
Still, even this simple and clear admonition from the author does not stop some
folks to pose the same question in the forums again and again: Am I allowed to
take the Copyright Notice away? The argument often presented is one that
involves the Licence uder which PHP-Nuke is released, the GNU_General_Public
Licence (GPL). If I am allowed to change the code under the GPL, the argument
goes, and the Copyright Notice is generated by a function call to footmsg(),
why not just change the code and delete that call in my theme? I can do this,
right?
Wrong. In an article titled PHP-Nuke_GPL_Copyright_Removal_Question_Finally
Solved, MissS writes:
A while back, questions were raised as to whether or not the
copyright notice at the bottom of PHPNuke created pages could be
removed. Now there is an answer to this question, straight from the
GNU people.
The GNU website states that if you have any questions concerning
licensing, you can simply email them for clarification. That is
exactly what I did and what follows is my email to them...
So MissS wrote to licensing@gnu.org on Sept. 19th, 2002 and asked:
I have a question about the GNU/GPL license. There is a program
called PHP-Nuke that has been released under this license. (This
program can be found at www.phpnuke.org) This program is a content
management system that provides the structure for a website along
with the means to administer that site.
What I would like to know is this: if I use this PHPNuke program to
create my website, must the copyright notice (that is included at the
bottom of each page that is created with PHPNuke) remain there in
order to remain in compliance with this license? There is also a
copyright notice within the source code files themselves.
Dave Turner's answer was clear, albeit somewhat lapidary:
Yes. See section 2c of the GPL for details.
MissS was also confused as to whether PHP-Nuke can be technically considered as
what the GPL in its 2c section calls a program that “normally reads commands
interactively when run†, in which case it must, among other things, “print or
display an announcement including an appropriate copyright noticeâ€:
This subject came up a while back at PHPNuke.org and no-one seemed to
know the real
answer. I have spent quite sometime reading over your license and
can't definitively figure out
this answer for myself. (I had questions such as: is the output from
a program like this truly
considered interactive or not?)
Please let me know. I don't want to remove the copyright footers on
the output pages if I am
not legally allowed to do so.
To which Dave Turner replied:
I think a web-based message board clearly reads commands
interactively. So, if there is such a notice, you can't remove it.
But you could alter its form, so long as it is still appropriate.
-Dave Turner
Free Software Licensing Guru
This is not legal advice. If you need legal advice, see a lawyer.
This pretty much says it all.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.7. Modifying the PHP-Nuke theme icons
You are not allowed to use PHP-Nuke's own icons (found in phpnuke.org:_Topics).
From the PHP-Nuke_FAQ:
Can I copy and use your topics graphics?
Absolutely No. All the topics graphics has been made by me and have
copyright. You can't copy, modify and/or use those graphics. You can
only use "phpnuke.gif" topic image to setup a topic in your web site
that refers "only" to PHP-Nuke. Will be exceptions to this rule for
PHP-Nuke community's sites. If you run a community support site (for
PHP-Nuke ONLY), drop me line. You'll need my written permission to
use them. Be fair and don't play with my hard work.
Thus, you must use your own icons. You will have to either use icons that are
royalty free, or licence some for use on your site, or create your own ones.
To create your own PHP-Nuke icons, you can use some of the tools available
specifically for this purpose, e.g. The_Topic_Dude.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.8. 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:
__________________________________________________
| |
| <td bgcolor="#ffffff "width="150" valign="top ">|
|__________________________________________________|
Where this table is that one that includes the right blocks.
4. Try to validate_the_HTML_code as much as possible and to use the style
sheets (see Section_28.3) as much you can. In this way you will save a lot
of time when you will modify colors, fonts etc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.9. How to change a buggy PHP-Nuke theme
You changed your PHP-Nuke theme to one that is buggy. Now, you cannot see
anything, or you only see errors and the Administration panel cannot be reached
to change the theme - a chicken-and-egg problem...
There are various solutions to this problem:
1. Copy the following code into a file and save it as fixtheme.php:
_____________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| require("config.php"); |
| $host = $dbhost; |
| $database = $dbname; |
| $username = $dbuname; |
| $password = $dbpass; |
| $def_theme = "NukeNews"; |
| mysql_connect($host, $username, $password);|
| @mysql_select_db($database); |
| mysql_query("update ".$prefix."_config set |
| Default_Theme='$def_theme'"); |
| ?> |
|_____________________________________________|
If you don't have the NukeNews theme uploaded in your site then change the
value for $def_theme in the code above so that it reflects one of your
working themes, save it, upload it to where nuke's config.php file is,
then point your browser to http://yoursite.com/fixtheme.php (thanks to
Humpa for this).
2. Just rename the DeepBlue theme (or some other theme known to work) folder
to the problematic one.
3. Use phpMyAdmin and change the default_theme field in the nuke_config
table.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.10. How to prevent users from changing the theme in PHP-Nuke
PHP-Nuke comes with several standard themes. It gives your registered users the
possibility to change the theme at the click of a button (see Chapter_6). But
what if you don't want your users to do that? What if you want them to stay
with the default theme you chose in the Preferences (see Section_7.1) of the
administration panel?
There are two ways to achieve this (see I_do_not_want_to_let_users_choose_their
own_themes):
1. You delete all themes except the one chosen by you. Themes are stored in
the themes folder, under directories that carry the theme name. PHP-Nuke
counts the available themes in function nav() of the file modules/
Your_Account/navbar.php:
________________________________________
| |
| $handle=opendir('themes'); |
| while ($file = readdir($handle)) {|
| if ( (!ereg("[.]",$file)) ) { |
| $thmcount++; |
| } |
| } |
| closedir($handle); |
|________________________________________|
If the theme count $thmcount is greater than 1 - and only then - , the
registered user is presented the possibility to change the theme. This is
done again in function nav() of modules/Your_Account/navbar.php a few
lines further down:
___________________________________________________________________
| |
| if ($thmcount > 1) { |
| $menuimg = menuimg("themes.gif"); |
| echo "<td width=\"10%\"><font class=\"content\">" |
| ."<center><a |
| href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=chgtheme\"> |
| <img src=\"$menuimg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"" |
| ._SELECTTHETHEME."\" title=\""._SELECTTHETHEME."\"></|
| a><br>" |
| ."<a |
| href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=chgtheme\">" |
| ._SELECTTHETHEME."</a>" |
| ."</center></form></font></td>"; |
| } |
|___________________________________________________________________|
Thus, by deleting all other themes you will get a theme count of only 1
and the theme change functionality will not be available to the user.
2. Why get to all the trouble and delete whole theme directories? From what
we said above, it should suffice just as well to replace the line
______________________
| |
| if ($thmcount > 1) {|
|______________________|
with
_________________________
| |
| if ($thmcount > 1000) {|
|_________________________|
Unless you really installed more than a thousand themes, your users are
not going to get the chance to change the default one!
Choose the first solution, if you don't want to touch the code, choose the
second one, if you are lazy.
Warning Don't delete themes if you already have registered users!
Do the above changes before you go online and start getting
registered users. Why? Because if you already have some, you don't
know if the theme they chose in the User Preferences was the one you
want to be the default. If it is not, and you apply either solution
above, then those users will not be able to get into your site!
Either the theme they specified will not be there, or they will not
be able to change it.
The first solution has the extra disadvantage that if you choose to
change the default theme, you will need to move it under the themes
folder. Thus, even for a very short period of time, you will end up
having two themes available. You never know if a user just chose the
theme you wanted to remove as her default theme. That user will be
 denied access to your site the next time she tries, because the theme
will not be there anymore!
In cases you do have registered users, you are thus advised to run
the following SQL statement, either from the MySQL prompt, or through
a graphical frontend, like phpMyAdmin:
________________________________
| |
| update nuke_users set theme=";|
|________________________________|
This will set the theme to blank for all users, making it for them
possible to change it to the default one afterwards, see disabling
themes and also Where_is_the_themeheader_function_located?.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.11. How to change the PHP-Nuke theme depending on the module
For some web designs, it is desirable to always use the same theme for a few
modules, while letting the user choose his own theme for the rest. Let's say
you want to use the NukeNews theme for the News and Sections modules, but let
the user's personal theme be applied to the other modules of your site.
The theme is set in the get_theme function of mainfile.php. Thus, all you have
to do is declare the $name variable to be global in that function, then check
its value before the selected theme is returned (i.e. immediately before the
return statement) and, if it is, say "News", or "Sections", to choose the
NukeNews theme (see Truly_Global_Variables):
___________________________________________________________
| |
| function get_theme() { |
| global $user, $cookie, $Default_Theme, $name; (1) |
| if(is_user($user)) { |
| $user2 = base64_decode($user); |
| $t_cookie = explode(":", $user2); |
| if($t_cookie[9]=="") $t_cookie[9]=$Default_Theme;|
| if(isset($theme)) $t_cookie[9]=$theme; |
| if(!$tfile=@opendir("themes/$t_cookie[9]")) { |
| $ThemeSel = $Default_Theme; |
| } else { |
| $ThemeSel = $t_cookie[9]; |
| } |
| } else { |
| $ThemeSel = $Default_Theme; |
| } |
| if ($name == "News" || $name == "Sections") { (2) |
| $ThemeSel = "NukeNews"; (3) |
| } else { |
| /* Don't change the theme */ |
| } |
| return($ThemeSel); |
| } |
|___________________________________________________________|
_(1)_
Declare $name to be global.
_(2)_
Check if the module name, $name, is News or Sections.
_(3)_
Set the selected theme to NukeNews.
Of course, there is nothing magic about $name. You could take just any other
variable and make the theme selection be dependent on it. You would only have
to declare it global in the get_theme() function and in the modules that you
would like to se t it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.12. How to change the font size in PHP-Nuke
Since every theme comes with a CSS (style.css, see also Section_28.3 and
Section_25.7) in the styles folder of the theme itself (see Section_14.1), it
is very easy to apply global formatting changes to our PHP-Nuke site: we just
edit the CSS file. For example, to change the font size for all documents, we
don't have to chase <font> tags in the PHP code - we only need to edit the
style.css of our theme.
Note </font> is deprecated in HTML 4.x
 </font> tags are deprecated in the HTML standard, starting from version
4.0, see Font_modifier_elements:_FONT_and_BASEFONT.
Typically, in style.css there will be one or more lines specifying the font
size, like:
___________________________________________________________________
| |
| FONT {FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,Helvetica; FONT-SIZE: 11px}|
| TD {FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,Helvetica; FONT-SIZE: 11px}|
| BODY {FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,Helvetica; FONT-SIZE: 11px}|
| P {FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,Helvetica; FONT-SIZE: 11px}|
| DIV {FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,Helvetica; FONT-SIZE: 11px}|
|___________________________________________________________________|
or
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| .title {BACKGROUND: none; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 13px; |
| FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Helvetica; TEXT-DECORATION: none}|
| .content {BACKGROUND: none; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 11px; |
| FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Helvetica} |
| .storytitle {BACKGROUND: none; COLOR: #363636; FONT-SIZE: 14px; |
| FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Helvetica; TEXT-DECORATION: none}|
|____________________________________________________________________________|
Font size is usually specified in pixels (px), but other units are also
possible (see CSS_Font-Size):
* Relative units - they specify a length relative to another length.
o em: the 'font-size' of the relevant font.
o ex: the 'x-height' of the relevant font.
o px: pixels, relative to the viewing device.
Thus, the 'em' unit is equal to the computed value of the 'font-size'
property of the element on which it is used. The exception is when 'em'
occurs in the value of the 'font-size' property itself, in which case it
refers to the font size of the parent element. That's what the following joke
refers to:
What did one .em say to the other .em? Who's your Daddy?
* Absolute units:
o in: inches -- 1 inch is equal to 2.54 centimeters.
o cm: centimeters
o mm: millimeters
o pt: points -- the points used by CSS2 are equal to 1/72th of an inch.
o pc: picas -- 1 pica is equal to 12 points.
Depending on where you make the font size change, it may apply only to the
title, the content or even the wholy body. Inheritance in the HTML document
tree is applied by the browser to decide which properties can be passed on from
the “parent†elements to the “children†or the “descendantsâ€. This is called
“cascading†and is responsible for the first “C†in “CSSâ€. You need to
understand cascading to use the full potential of CSS, but for simple changes
like this one, you can just experiment and get the idea (see Section_28.3 for a
short discussion of CSS syntax).
However, it is better, from the "Accessibility" point of view, to let your
users decide themselves what font size they like, by setting it in up in their
browsers (see How_to_change_font_size). Read Using_relative_font_sizes for the
background on this. Using the advice given in that article, Chris has the
following in the CSS_file_for_DocBook that controls the appearence of the PHP-
Nuke_HOWTO (and actually, all other documents on his site):
________________________________
| |
| P { |
| font-size: 12px; |
| } |
| /*/*/A{} |
| BODY P { |
| font-size: x-small; |
| voice-family: "\"}\"";|
| voice-family: inherit;|
| font-size: small; |
| } |
| HTML>BODY P { |
| font-size: small; |
| } |
| /* */ |
|________________________________|
There's a lot going on here, and it's all important, so pay attention (taken
from Using_relative_font_sizes):
1. First, we're defining an absolute size (12px) for every <p>. All browsers
apply this style, including Netscape 4.
2. Then we include the odd-looking comment "/*/*/". Due to bugs in Netscape
4, everything between this comment and the following one will be ignored.
That's right, all the following styles will only be applied in non-
Netscape-4 browsers.
3. Immediately after the odd-looking comment, we include an empty rule "a
{}". Opera 5 for Mac is buggy and ignores this rule (and only this rule).
It applies everything else.
4. We have now carved out a realm where we can define rules that are applied
in all browsers except Netscape 4. Now we can start defining relative font
sizes (which Netscape 4 can't handle). The first thing we do is use a
"body p" selector to redefine the behaviour of the p tag. Due to the way
CSS works, this will override our previous p selector. (In technical
terms, "body p" is a more specific selector than "p".)
5. We redefine the font size of all <p> tags to be x-small. This is a font
size keyword which, at default settings, Internet Explorer 5 for Windows
will translate into 12px. However, if the user changes their "Text Size"
(under the View menu), this text will scale larger or smaller, depending
on the user's setting. This is what we want. (Note: we've now defined
font-size twice for IE5/Win, but that's okay, because the more specific
selector always wins, and the previous selector is simply ignored.)
6. Unfortunately, IE5/Win an off-by-1 bug with its font size keywords; every
other browser in the world (IE5/Mac, Netscape 6, Mozilla, IE6/Win) will
translate x-small to 10px, not 12px. Luckily for us, IE5/Win has its own
parsing bug that we can exploit: it looks at that odd-looking voice-family
and mistakenly thinks that this entire "body p" selector is over, so it
ignores all the lines until the "}".
7. Now we have carved out a smaller realm where we can define rules that are
applied in all browsers except IE5/Win (and Netscape 4, which is still
blissfully ignoring all of this). So we redefine font-size to small, which
modern non-IE5/Win browsers (the only ones still listening) correctly
interpret as 12px (at default settings). Again, if the user sets their
"text size" to larger, this text will scale larger, which is what we want.
8. But wait! Opera 5 has the same parsing bug that IE5/Win has, so it was
also confused by the voice-family hack, but it correctly interprets font
size keywords, so now our text will look too small in Opera 5. Luckily,
Opera 5 supports a third type of selector, "html>body p". (Again, this is
"more specific" than "body p", so it takes precedence over the previous
selector.) IE5/Win does not support this type of selector, so it will just
ignore it, which is what we want (since we've already compensated for it's
off-by-1 bug and don't want to go mucking that up now). IE6/Win also does
not support it, but that's OK, because we caught it with the "font-size:
small" after the "voice-family: inherit" hack in the "body p" selector.
All other browsers support "html>body" selectors, so for them we end up
defining font-size four times. Again, that's not a problem, because the
most specific selector always wins, and the rest are simply ignored.
9. Finally, we have a set of empty comments: /* */. This triggers Netscape
4's parser to start listening again. If we defined any further rules after
these empty comments, all browsers (including Netscape 4) would apply
them.
To recap:
1. Netscape 4 displays <p> text at 12px, regardless of user setting.
2. Internet Explorer 5 for Windows displays <p> text at x-small, which works
out to be 12px at the default setting, but would scale larger if the user
set their "Text Size" setting larger in the View menu.
3. Internet Explorer 6 for Windows displays <p> text at small, because of the
"font-size: small" rule in the "body p" selector. This works out to 12px
at the default setting, but would scale larger if the user set their "Text
Size" setting larger.
4. Internet Explorer 5 for Mac, Opera, Netscape 6, Mozilla, and (hopefully)
all future browsers will display <p> text at small, because of the "font-
size: small" rule in the "html>body p" selector. This works out to 12px at
the default setting, but would scale larger if the user used the "Text
Zoom" feature.
Tip Dive into Accessibility!
By the way, the whole Dive_into_Accessibility document by Mark Pilgrim is
 highly recommended reading for everyone. It will open your eays to a
different world - that also uses the Internet!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 15. Modifying the PHP-Nuke HTML header
The PHP-Nuke HTML header (i.e. everything that goes between the <head> and </
head> tags in the HTML code of the generated page) is fully customizable
through the includes/my_header.php file. This file contains whatever custom
stuff you need to include in your site when the header loads. This can be used
for third party banners, custom javascript, popup windows, etc. With this file
you don't need to edit system code each time you upgrade to a new version. Just
remember, in case you add code here to not overwrite this file when updating!
Whatever you put here will be between <head> and </head> tags.
Here are some example customizations of the PHP-Nuke HTML header:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.1. How to implement a favourites icon (favicon.ico)
Would you like to use a custom icon to appear in the URL address field at the
top of the IE window when people are at your site? This is a “faviconâ€, a
favourites icon, that small icon that you see besides the URL when you visit
some cool sites. This “functionality†was introduced by the Internet Explorer.
When you add a site to your Favourites list, Internet Explorer (version 5 and
above) asks the server if it has a file called favicon.ico. If present, this
file will be used to provide an icon that is displayed next to the bookmark
text. It is not visible in the old browsers, but newer ones, like Mozilla and
Konqueror, will also display it.
To display a favicon, you have first to create one. The icon has to be in the
ICO format which, contrary to common belief, is NOT the same as GIF, or PNG.
You have to transform your GIF or PNG file to ICO format. For Windows, you can
use one of the numerous icon tools (Section_14.7). For Linux, simply create a
16x16 PNG file and convert it to an icon resource with png2ico.
Upload the ICO file to, say, images/favicon.ico. Then add the following lines
in the includes/my_header.php file, somewhere between the “<?php†and “?>â€
tags:
_______________________________________________________________________________
| |
| echo "<link rel=\"icon\" href=\"images/favicon.ico\" type=\"image/x-icon\">";|
| echo “<link rel=\"shortcut icon\" href=\"images/favicon.ico\" type=\"image/|-
| icon\">â€; |
|_______________________________________________________________________________|
Note Note:
If you did the above and your browser still does not show the icon,
remember that it may be using an old cache. Empty the cache and remember
 that even with a new cache, the browser may be using some old
information, so you will have to be patient, or check it with a browser
that did not visit that URL before.
For more information on how to create and use a favicon, see How_To_Create_And
Install_A_favicon.ico.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.2. How to prevent the statistics module from gathering hits from certain
hosts
If you are still in the phase of editing and tweaking your PHP-Nuke site while
it is already online, you may find out that your frequent visits are counted
just as every other visit to your site by the statistics module. During a very
productive phase, this can skew the statistics of your site quite a bit!
Contrary to what you might have expected, to prevent the statistics module from
gathering hits from certain hosts, like your own one, you have to edit the
header.php file, not any other file from the modules folder.
Note header.php and includes/my_header.php
Do not confuse header.php, a file located in the PHP-Nuke root
directory, with the my_header.php file, located under the includes
 directory. The former contains standard PHP-Nuke functions for the PHP-
Nuke header, the latter is there for your own, personal additions to the
header.
In your header.php file, find the code:
__________________________________
| |
| include("includes/counter.php");|
|__________________________________|
and replace it with[22]:
_____________________________________________
| |
| global $admin; |
| if(!is_array($admin)) { |
| $admin_name = base64_decode($admin); |
| $admin_name = explode(":", $admin_name); |
| $admin_name = "$admin_name[0]"; |
| } else { |
| $admin_name = "$admin[0]"; |
| } |
| if($admin_name != "PutYourAdminNameHere") {|
| include("includes/counter.php"); |
| } |
|_____________________________________________|
Put your administrator name in place of the "PutYourAdminNameHere" string in
the above code and visits by that administrator will not increase your
statistics counter any more.
Tip How to block all administrators from the statistics counter
A simpler fix, which will block all administrators from the statistics
counter, is:
_________________________________
| |
| global $admin; |
 | if(!$admin) |
| { |
| inlude("includes/counter.php");|
| } |
|_________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 16. Modifying mainfile.php
The mainfile.php file in the root directory of PHP-Nuke contains all commonly
used functions and plays a crucial role in PHP-Nuke. We devote this chapter to
a closer investigation of this central file. We show:
* How to allow special HTML tags (Section_16.1).
* How to change the order of messages (Section_16.2).
Warning Warning
Most of the changes discussed in this chapter have direct or indirect
security implications (see Chapter_23). No line in mainfile.php was
put there without some reason, the reason being often security-
 related. Whenever you comment a line that seems to do a too
restrictive check on user input, for example, bear in mind that in
the worst of all cases you may run the risk of being hacked because
of the absence of exactly a check like that.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16.1. How to allow special HTML tags
User input is checked and filtered automatically by PHP-Nuke. For this purpose
the functions filter_text and check_html are used. filter_text checks and
replaces bad words, then calls check_html, which in turn checks for HTML tags
and strips them completely off, if the second parameter is “nohtmlâ€.
Table_16-1 shows all modules that call filter_text, together with the line the
call is made on. You can see that filter_text is used to filter
* the text of a mail response in the WebMail module
* the comments in the News module
* the comments in the Reviews module
* the subject, story and extended story text in the Submit_News module
* the subject and comments in the Surveys module
* the username and message in the Your_Account module
Table 16-1. Calls to filter_text from PHP-Nuke modules (v.6.8)
_____________________________________________________________________________
|Module________________________|Line_with_call_to_filter_text_________________|
|modules/WebMail/readmail.php |$res = filter_text($res); // Security fix by |
|______________________________|Ulf_Harnhammar_2002___________________________|
|modules/News/comments.php |$comment = FixQuotes(nl2br(filter_text |
|______________________________|($comment)));_________________________________|
|modules/News/comments.php |$subject = FixQuotes(filter_text($subject, |
|______________________________|"nohtml"));___________________________________|
|modules/News/comments.php_____|$comment_=_FixQuotes(filter_text($comment));__|
|modules/Reviews/index.php |$comments = FixQuotes(nl2br(filter_text |
|______________________________|($comments)));________________________________|
|modules/Submit_News/index.php |$subject = FixQuotes(filter_text($subject, |
|______________________________|"nohtml"));___________________________________|
|modules/Submit_News/index.php |$story = FixQuotes(nl2br(filter_text |
|______________________________|($story)));___________________________________|
|modules/Submit_News/index.php |$storyext = FixQuotes(nl2br(filter_text |
|______________________________|($storyext)));________________________________|
|modules/Submit_News/index.php_|$story_=_FixQuotes(filter_text($story));______|
|modules/Submit_News/index.php_|$storyext_=_FixQuotes(filter_text($storyext));|
|modules/Surveys/comments.php |$subject = FixQuotes(filter_text($subject, |
|______________________________|"nohtml"));___________________________________|
|modules/Surveys/comments.php |$comment = FixQuotes(nl2br(filter_text |
|______________________________|($comment)));_________________________________|
|modules/Surveys/comments.php__|$comment_=_FixQuotes(filter_text($comment));__|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php|filter_text($username);_______________________|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php|if ($bio) { filter_text($bio); $bio = |
|______________________________|$EditedMessage;_$bio_=_FixQuotes($bio);_}_____|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php|$the_message = FixQuotes(filter_text |
|______________________________|($the_message,_"nohtml"));____________________|
check_html, in turn, is not only called from filter_text, but also in its own
right. Table_16-2 shows all modules that call check_html and the line it is
called on. You can see that check_html is called to check the HTML input in
* the query string in the Downloads, Encyclopedia, Web Links and Search
sections
* the title, text, reviewer, URL text and comments in the Reviews module
* user name, e-mail, various user info fields in the Your Account module
* bodytext and comments in the Journal module
Table 16-2. Calls to check_html from PHP-Nuke modules (v.6.8)
_____________________________________________________________________________
|Module_________________________|Line_with_call_to_filter_text________________|
|modules/Downloads/index.php____|$query_=_check_html($query,_nohtml);_________|
|modules/Encyclopedia/search.php|$query_=_check_html($query,_nohtml);_________|
|modules/Encyclopedia/search.php|$query_=_check_html($query,_nohtml);_________|
|modules/Reviews/index.php |$title = stripslashes(check_html($title, |
|_______________________________|"nohtml"));__________________________________|
|modules/Reviews/index.php______|$text_=_stripslashes(check_html($text,_""));_|
|modules/Reviews/index.php |$reviewer = stripslashes(check_html |
|_______________________________|($reviewer,_"nohtml"));______________________|
|modules/Reviews/index.php |$url_title = stripslashes(check_html |
|_______________________________|($url_title,_"nohtml"));_____________________|
|modules/Reviews/index.php |$title = stripslashes(FixQuotes(check_html |
|_______________________________|($title,_"nohtml")));________________________|
|modules/Reviews/index.php |$text = stripslashes(Fixquotes(urldecode |
|_______________________________|(check_html($text,_""))));___________________|
|modules/Reviews/index.php |$comments = stripslashes(FixQuotes(check_html|
|_______________________________|($comments)));_______________________________|
|modules/Search/index.php |$query = stripslashes(check_html($query, |
|_______________________________|nohtml));____________________________________|
|modules/Web_Links/index.php____|$query_=_check_html($query,_nohtml);_________|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php_|$username_=_check_html($username,_nohtml);___|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php |$user_email = check_html($user_email, |
|_______________________________|nohtml);_____________________________________|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php |$user_email = check_html($user_email, |
|_______________________________|nohtml);_____________________________________|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php_|$femail_=_check_html($femail,_nohtml);_______|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php |$user_website = check_html($user_website, |
|_______________________________|nohtml);_____________________________________|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php_|$bio_=_check_html($bio,_nohtml);_____________|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php |$user_avatar = check_html($user_avatar, |
|_______________________________|nohtml);_____________________________________|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php_|$user_icq_=_check_html($user_icq,_nohtml);___|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php_|$user_aim_=_check_html($user_aim,_nohtml);___|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php_|$user_yim_=_check_html($user_yim,_nohtml);___|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php_|$user_msnm_=_check_html($user_msnm,_nohtml);_|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php_|$user_occ_=_check_html($user_occ,_nohtml);___|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php_|$user_from_=_check_html($user_from,_nohtml);_|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php |$user_interests = check_html($user_interests,|
|_______________________________|nohtml);_____________________________________|
|modules/Your_Account/index.php_|$realname_=_check_html($realname,_nohtml);___|
|modules/Journal/display.php |$row[bodytext]=check_html($row[bodytext], |
|_______________________________|$strip);_____________________________________|
|modules/Journal/display.php |$row[comment]=check_html($row[comment], |
|_______________________________|$strip);_____________________________________|
check_html uses the $AllowableHTML array that is defined in config.php. The
idea is that only the tags that are included in the $AllowableHTML array should
be allowed. However, even if you explicitly allow the img tag in
$AllowableHTML, it will be stripped away by check_html (and by filter_text,
which also calls it). The line that does this is
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| $str = eregi_replace("<[[:space:]]* img[[:space:]]*([^>]*)[[:space:]]*>",|
| ", $str); |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
You can comment out that line - though it is certainly a security issue
(allowing people to post harmful code in img tags).
You can also comment out the line that eliminates all anchor attributes exept
href in the <a> tag:
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| $str = eregi_replace("<a[^>]*href[[:space:]]*=[[:space:]]*\"?[[:space:]]*(|
| [^\" >]*)[[:space:]]*\"?[^>]*>", '<a href="\\1">', $str); # " |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
These changes will affect the checks done at all places shown in both Table_16-
1 and Table_16-2, so again, be careful with security issues. You have to trust
your users to give them this comfort.
Put the tags you want to allow in the $AllowableHTML array in the config.php
file. Here is a (quite liberal) example:
________________________________
| |
| $AllowableHTML = array("b"=>1,|
| "i"=>1, |
| "a"=>2, |
| "em"=>1, |
| "br"=>1, |
| "strong"=>1, |
| "blockquote"=>1, |
| "tt"=>1, |
| "li"=>1, |
| "ol"=>1, |
| "H1"=>1, |
| "H2"=>1, |
| "H3"=>1, |
| "H4"=>1, |
| "center"=>1, |
| "img"=>2, |
| "alt"=>1, |
| "table"=>2, |
| "tr"=>2, |
| "td"=>2, |
| "p"=>2, |
| "div"=>2, |
| "font"=>2, |
| "p"=>1, |
| "p"=>1, |
| "ul"=>1); |
|________________________________|
The numbers that appear next to each tag have the following meaning:
* a 1 means the tag does not accept any attributes
* a 2 indicates that the tag may also contain attributes
See also Section_3.7.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16.2. How to change the order of messages
Figure 16-1. Administration panel: Messages.
Administration panel: Messages.
The default for PHP-Nuke is to display messages in ascending order of mid (the
id number for each message). You can use Add Story (Figure_7-2) to post
articles on your site and these will appear in reverse order, i.e. last posted
at the top (see also Section_18.9.1, on how to order articles in Sections and
Section_18.11.1, on how to order articles in the Stories Archive). Thus you
could have a main “Welcome Message†at the top which will always be there as a
home page, followed by a series of announcements appearing in reverse order
below the Welcome Message. But what happens if you don't use “Add Story†to add
articles, but would rather like to use Messages (Figure_7-17) for communicating
your news?
If you really want to use Messages and have them appear in reverse order (last
one at the top), you need to edit mainfile.php using a decent editor (see
Chapter_11).
At around line 334 in mainfile.php, in function message_box(), change
_________________________________________________________
| |
| $sql = "SELECT mid, title, content, date, expire, view |
| FROM ".$prefix."_message WHERE active='1' $querylang"; |
|_________________________________________________________|
to
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| $sql = "SELECT mid, title, content, date, expire, view |
| FROM ".$prefix."_message WHERE active='1' $querylang ORDER by mid DESC";|
|__________________________________________________________________________|
and this will display your messages in reverse order (last one at the top). See
also How_to_reverse_the_order_of_Messages_in_the_Homepage.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16.3. How to change the duration of a public broadcast message
So you want the public broadcast message to show for a longer/shorter period?
There is a simple solution (see How_to_change_the_duration_of_a_public
broadcast_message):
You can increase the time the message will be displayed by editing the
following lines in mainfile.php:
_________________________
| |
| $ref_date = $tdate+600;|
|_________________________|
and
_____________________________________
| |
| setcookie("p_msg",$mid,time()+600);|
|_____________________________________|
Adjust the 600 to a value that matches the time you want the message displayed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 17. Modifying PHP-Nuke blocks
In this chapter we show how to modify PHP-Nuke blocks. If you are interested in
creating PHP-Nuke blocks, read Section_20.2. We cover the topics:
* How to change a buggy block (Section_17.1),
* How to build custom module blocks (Section_17.2),
* How to build RSS blocks with variable number of news items (Section_17.3),
* How to get scrolling headlines in blocks (Section_17.4).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.1. How to change a buggy block
You activated a buggy PHP-Nuke block. Now, your site is broken and you get a
blank page, or you only see errors and the administration panel is unreachable
because the block breaks your page's design...
There is a very simple solution to this very annoying problem (see Site_crashed
when_block_was_created): just replace the broken block, say block-Broken.php,
with a script that does not contain anything but the following line:
_______________________
| |
| <?php $content=""; ?>|
|_______________________|
Then, the administration panel should be reachable and you can deactivate the
offending block.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.2. How to build custom module blocks
Figure 17-1. The standard Modules block
The standard Modules block
A module block is a block that displays links to all available modules of a
PHP-Nuke site (Figure_17-1). It is the block that appears at the top of the
left column, with the standard title “Modulesâ€. The module block is a standard
PHP-Nuke block, for its construction you have to follow the same rules as for
any other block (see Section_20.2). It is thus fairly easy to construct your
own module block, if you are not satisfied with the standard one. Below are
some examples:
* Simple module block (Section_17.2.1),
* Treemenu block (Section_17.2.2).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.2.1. Simple module block
The links that are inside the standard PHP-Nuke module block are constructed
dynamically, using information that is available about the modules in the
database. For example, to present only active modules in the links, the block
(located in blocks/block-Modules.php) checks the “active†field of the
$prefix_modules table (which is table nuke_modules, if $prefix is left to the
standard “nuke†in config.php, see Section_3.7):
______________________________________________________________
| |
| $sql = "SELECT title, custom_title FROM ".$prefix."_modules |
| WHERE active='1' AND inmenu='0' ORDER BY title ASC"; |
|______________________________________________________________|
As we can easily read in the SELECT query above, only modules with the “activeâ€
bit set to 1 are selected. But we also see that the order in which they are
selected is the standard ascending lexicographic order of the modules' title
(ORDER BY title ASC). If we wish a different ordering, we are left with only a
few possibilities:
* Change the order from ascending (ASC) to descending (DESC):
______________________________________________________________
| |
| $sql = "SELECT title, custom_title FROM ".$prefix."_modules |
| WHERE active='1' AND inmenu='0' ORDER BY title DESC"; |
|______________________________________________________________|
* Change the field on which the ORDER BY clause is applied, e.g. use
custom_title instead of title:
______________________________________________________________
| |
| $sql = "SELECT title, custom_title FROM ".$prefix."_modules |
| WHERE active='1' AND inmenu='0' ORDER BY custom_title ASC"; |
|______________________________________________________________|
* Add an extra field to the $prefix_modules table, populate it with custom
values (e.g. “1†for the module we want to be the first in the list, , “2â€
for the second, “3†for the third etc. if we decided to use a numeric field )
for each module, and sort in ascending order of this new field:
______________________________________________________________
| |
| $sql = "SELECT title, custom_title FROM ".$prefix."_modules |
| WHERE active='1' AND inmenu='0' ORDER BY new_field ASC"; |
|______________________________________________________________|
But if we wish a custom grouping of the modules links, we will have to write
our own modules block. You can use the following code as a starting point for
your own creations. This script will display certain links only when an admin
or user is logged in. Just name it block-menuSample.php and put in the blocks
folder, deactivate the block-Modules.php and activate this one (see Different
links_-_some_for_registered_users_only and How_would_I_add_a_clickable_link_in
a_Modules_Block?):
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (eregi("block-menuSample.php",$PHP_SELF)) { |
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
| die(); |
| } |
| Global $user, $admin; |
| $title = "Main Menu"; |
| $content = " |
| <font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\"> |
| <B><u>Navigation</u> |
| <BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <a href=index.php>Start Page</a><br><br> |
| <u>Information</u><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=News&file=index\">News</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=aboutus\">About us</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=somefolder&file=index\">Entry with Some word</|
| A><BR> |
| <BR> |
| <u>Other things</u> |
| <BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Web_Links |
| &file=index&l_op=viewlink&cid=1\">Links</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=My_eGallery\">All sorts of Pictures</A><br> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Reviews\">Reviews</A><BR> |
| <BR> |
| <u>Interact</u> |
| <BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=GuestBook\">Guestbook</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Feedback\">Feedback</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Recommend_Us\">Recommend Us</A><BR> |
| <BR> |
| <u>Misc.</u> |
| <BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Web_Links\">Links</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=FAQ\">FAQ</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Web_Links |
| &file=index&l_op=AddLink\">Add A Link</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Downloads\">Downloads</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Statistics\">Site Statistics</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=HeadLines\">News Headlines</A><BR> |
| <BR> |
| //****************************************** |
| //Below is for users and admins ONLY!!! |
| //****************************************** |
| <u>User Control Panel</u> |
| <BR>"; |
| if (!IsSet($user)) |
| {; |
| $content .= " |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account\">Reg. Users Login. </A><br>"; |
| } |
| if ((IsSet($user)) or (IsSet($admin))) |
| {; |
| $content .= " |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account\">Your Account</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=edituser\">Edit Profile</ |
| A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Members_Photo_Upload\">Members Photo upload</ |
| A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Members_List\">View Member List</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=logout\">logout</A><BR> |
| <BR> |
| <u>Private Messages</u> |
| <BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Private_Messages\">View Messages</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Private_Messages |
| &file=reply&send=1\">Compose A Message</A><BR> |
| "; |
| }; |
| //*************************************** |
| //ENDS HERE |
| //*************************************** |
| $content .= " |
| <BR> |
| <u>Send Content</u> |
| <BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Submit_News\">Submit News</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=write\">Write A Review</A><BR>|
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=Web_Links |
| &file=index&l_op=AddLink\">Add A Link</A><BR> |
| <STRONG><BIG>·</BIG></STRONG> |
| <A href=\"modules.php?name=My_eGallery |
| &file=index&do=upload\">Add images to the Gallery</A><BR> |
| <BR> |
| </font> |
| </B> |
| <HR size=3> |
| "; |
| ?> |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.2.2. Treemenu block
A commonly asked question in PHPNuke forums (see for example Menu_Hack_Needed_
(show_different_menu_or_block_depending_on_the_category)), is if there exists
some Module block out there that displays a dynamic view of the available
modules. The webmaster needs a functionality that will allow for the display of
only certain module links, depending on, say, the interests, access level, or
preferences of the viewer.
A typical Module block, as shipped with the standard PHPNuke package, looks as
in Figure_17-2.
Figure 17-2. The standard Modules block.
The standard Modules block.
What we need instead is a module block that displays some links (to modules, or
generally, to pages) when a certain condition is met (say, when Category A was
previously chosen) and some other ones when a different condition is true (e.g.
when Category B was chosen).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.2.2.1. The general idea
To met the above requirements, the Treemenu_block_for_PHP-Nuke adapts the well-
known Treemenu concept to a PHPNuke Block and creates a PHPNuke block
containing a Treemenu which looks as in Figure_17-3.
Figure 17-3. Treemenu Block.
Treemenu Block.
When the user clicks on an item like “Linksâ€, the subtree under this item is
unfolded (Figure_17-4).
Figure 17-4. Treemenu Block with “Links†expanded.
Treemenu Block with “Links†expanded.
A further click on the subcategory “My work†will reveal another level of
groups (Figure_17-5).
Figure 17-5. Treemenu Block with “My work†expanded.
Treemenu Block with “My work†expanded.
Finally, a click on a subsubcategory like “Linux†will unfold the “leaves†of
the Treemenu (Figure_17-6).
Figure 17-6. Treemenu Block with “Linux†expanded.
Treemenu Block with “Linux†expanded.
Of course, the naming and nesting of categories and/or items is fully
arbitrary. The above functionality can easily be adapted to suit more advanced
needs too (see refinements_of_the_PHP-Nuke_Treemenu).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.2.2.2. What is Treemenu
The Treemenu block makes use of a Treemenu in a PHPNuke Block. Treemenu is a
PHP class created by Bjorge Dijkstra (original script to be found Treemenu
Class_from_Bjorge) and adapted by Denny Shimkoski (his version to be found in
Treemenu_from_Denny). Chris have fixed some bugs in the latter one and
integrated it into a Treemenu_block_for_PHP-Nuke.
There are two ways you can use the Treemenu class - Chris uses the one that
takes as input a simple_text_file and creates a tree menu, in a style that most
users are familiar with from a graphical file manager (see Figure_17-3).
Navigation through such a tree is done intuitively by expanding and collapsing
the various tree levels by clicking on the node icons (the icons are discussed
in custom_node_icons_for_the_PHP-Nuke_Treemenu).
To create a Treemenu, once you have written the input text file with your
favorite text editor (see input_file_method_for_the_Treemenu) or used the
alternative_method_to_fill_the_nodes_and_leaves_of_the_Treemenu, you just have
to write this 3-liner to get it up and running:
___________________________________________________________
| |
| include("blocks/treemenu/treemenu.inc"); |
| $tree = new TreeMenu("a", "blocks/treemenu/sitemap.txt");|
| $tree->show(); |
|___________________________________________________________|
Note Note
In order to be able to display the output of the above code in a PHPNuke
Block, we have to capture it in an output buffer with the ob_start(),
ob_get_contents() and ob_end_clean() mechanism:
___________________________________________________________
| |
| ob_start(); |
 | include("blocks/treemenu/treemenu.inc"); |
| $tree = new TreeMenu("a", "blocks/treemenu/sitemap.txt");|
| $tree->show(); |
| $output = ob_get_contents(); |
| ob_end_clean(); |
| $content = $output; |
|___________________________________________________________|
See Treemenu_block_for_PHP-Nuke for more information of how to use the Treemenu
block as a module block for PHP-Nuke.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.3. How to build RSS blocks with variable number of news items
If you have created an RSS block from the block administration fuction of the
administration panel, you may have noticed that, notably after some change on a
previously working RSS block (for example, in the title, or the refresh time),
or even from the very start, you get the error:
____________________________________________________________
| |
| Currently there is a problem with headlines from this site|
|____________________________________________________________|
This is not always due to some error on your part - it is a bug too. Often, the
only solution would be to delete the block and add it anew.
The problem is in the file admin/modules/blocks.php. There, the problematic
code is
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| for ($i=0;$i<10;$i++) { |
| $link = ereg_replace(".*<link>","",$items[$i]); |
| $link = ereg_replace("</link>.*","",$link); |
| $title2 = ereg_replace(".*<title>","",$items[$i]); |
| $title2 = ereg_replace("</title>.*","",$title2); |
| if ($items[$i] == "" AND $cont != 1) { |
| $content = ""; |
| } else { |
| if (strcmp($link,$title2) AND $items[$i] != "") { |
| $cont = 1; |
| $content .= "<strong><big>·</big></strong> <a|
| href=\"$link\" target=\"new\">$title2</a><br>\n"; |
| } |
| } |
| } |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
which has the number of news items (10) hardcoded into it. The problem is
caused by the fact that, if there aren't that many headlines being returned,
and in many unlucky cases, there aren't, you will either get an array out of
bounds error, or nothing will be returned, and the content of the block will be
set to equal nothing.
You could fix that by changing the “10†in the code above to “5â€, for example.
However, that fix wouldn't work for a site that had only three headlines in
their RSS file. What needs to happen is to modify the
_________________________
| |
| $content = ""; |
| to |
| $content += "";|
|_________________________|
For a modification of the mainfile.php and admin/modules/blocks.php files that
also allows for a variable number of items to be chosen from the administration
panel individually for each RSS block, see Digital_Nick_Downloads, for a
discussion thread on this bug, see Problems_when_saving_RSS_block.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.4. How to get scrolling headlines in blocks
You may have noticed those scrolling headlines in blocks of some sites. Perhaps
you abhor them, because they distract you from reading the context, or because
the scrolling effect is not supported by all browsers. But if you are
fascinated by this effect and wondering how to achieve it in your own PHP-Nuke
RSS blocks, here's how:
In mainfile.php, find the code for the headlines() function:
_____________________________________
| |
| function headlines($bid, $cenbox=0)|
|_____________________________________|
There, near the end, replace the lines
_______________________________________
| |
| if ($cenbox == 0) { |
| themesidebox($title, $content); |
| } else { |
| themecenterbox($title, $content);|
| } |
|_______________________________________|
with the lines
_______________________________________________________________
| |
| if ($cenbox == 0) { |
| $content = "<marquee scrollamount=\"2\" direction=\"up\" |
| loop=\"true\">$content</marquee>"; |
| themesidebox($title, $content); |
| } else { |
| $content = "<marquee scrollamount=\"2\" direction=\"up\" |
| loop=\"true\">$content</marquee>"; |
| themecenterbox($title, $content); |
| } |
|_______________________________________________________________|
Enclosing the old $content variable in the marquee code and assigning it to the
$content variable again before the call to the themesidebox or themecenterbox
functions, gives the desired scrolling effect for our RSS headlines.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 18. Modifying PHP-Nuke modules
Figure 18-1. Administration panel: Modules.
Administration panel: Modules.
In this chapter we will talk about modifying PHP-Nuke modules. If you are
interested in creating PHP-Nuke modules, read Chapter_21. We will talk about:
* Modifying any PHP-Nuke module (Section_18.1),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke Homepage (Section_18.2),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke FAQ module (Section_18.3),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke Reviews module (Section_18.4),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke Web_Links module (Section_18.5),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke Your_Account module (Section_18.6),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke News module (Section_18.7),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke Submit News module (Section_18.8),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke Sections module (Section_18.9),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke Downloads module (Section_18.10),
* Modifying the PHP-Nuke Stories Archive module (Section_18.11).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.1. Modifying any PHP-Nuke module
Talking about modifying any PHP-Nuke module in general, we will show:
* How to hide the right blocks (Section_18.1.1),
* How to change a buggy module (Section_18.1.2).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.1.1. How to hide the right blocks
If your module needs more space than is available in the central column of the
PHP-Nuke layout, you may want to hide the right column of blocks. This is
accomplished very easily from within the code of any module: find the line
_____________
| |
| $index = 1;|
|_____________|
and change it to:
_____________________________________________________________________
| |
| $index = 0; // 0 : do not show right blocks - 1:show right blocks|
|_____________________________________________________________________|
Of course, if the line is not there, then $index is already 0, so your module
already hides the right blocks.
Tip How to hide the left blocks
 If you want to hide the left blocks, you have to modify the theme header.
See Section_14.3.9.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.1.2. How to change a buggy module
You activated a buggy PHP-Nuke module. Now, your site is broken and you get a
blank page, or you only see errors and the administration panel is
unreachable...
Connect to the MySQL database and change the value of the "active" field in the
$prefix_modules table to 0 for that module's entry. Example (see Site_crashed
when_block_was_created and logout-Fehler): suppose the broken module is
Mod_Broken, your $prefix is "nuke" and the value of the module id, "mid", field
for the Mod_Broken module is "7"):
_______________________________________________________
| |
| UPDATE nuke_modules SET active = '0' WHERE mid = '7';|
|_______________________________________________________|
or (if you prefer to select by title and not by module id)
__________________________________________________________________
| |
| UPDATE nuke_modules SET active = '0' WHERE title = 'Mod_Broken';|
|__________________________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.2. Modifying the PHP-Nuke Homepage
The PHP-Nuke Homepage is the “Home†module. The Home module is chosen in the
modules administration panel. We show:
* How to redirect users to the Login page (Section_18.2.1),
* How to restrict the Homepage only to registered users (Section_18.2.2).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.2.1. How to redirect users to the Login page
If you want your users to be redirected straight to the Login page, rather than
the Homepage, do the following:
Right at the begining of the index.php file , add this code after the
'require_once(“mainfile.phpâ€);' line, like this:
______________________________________________________
| |
| require_once("mainfile.php"); |
| global $user; |
| if(!is_user($user)) { |
| header("Location: modules.php?name=Your_Account");|
| } |
|______________________________________________________|
This will send anyone who is not logged in (or registered) to the Your Account
(Login) page. See Section_18.6.1 for the inverse procedure — but don't try
both.
See how_to_redirect_from_forms_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block for redirection from other
places, like blocks.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.2.2. How to restrict the Homepage only to registered users
Suppose that you have set up the News module as the “Homepage module†of your
PHP-Nuke, but you want the news articles to be visible only to registered
users. Can this be done?
Well, not exactly. Since you want the News module to be visible only to
registered users, you cannot have it in the "Home". This means you must put a
different module in Home (see hide_articles_from_logged_out_users). You can do
this from the "Put in Home" link in the modules table shown in the modules
administration panel (Section_7.1, Figure_7-19).
Once the News module is not in Home anymore, you can edit it and choose that it
be visible only by the registered users.
Note The "Who can View This?" selection box is not available, as long as the
module remains the "Home" module of your P HP-Nuke installation. That's
why you can't restrict the visibility of the Home module, no matter
which module this is. T he reason for this is that it makes little sense
to have a Home module and restrict its availability only to registered
users, unless you want your site to be generally available only to
registered members.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.3. Modifying the PHP-Nuke FAQ module
Figure 18-2. Administration panel: FAQ.
Administration panel: FAQ.
In this section we modify the PHP-Nuke FAQ module:
* How to add more than 127 FAQ answers (Section_18.3.1).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.3.1. How to add more than 127 FAQ answers
You have 127 Q&A. You cannot add more, if you delete one, you can add one.
Cause: Looking at the sql/nuke.sql script that creates the PHP-Nuke tables on
installation, we see the following for the structure of the nuke_faqAnswer
table:
______________________________________________
| |
| # |
| # Table structure for table `nuke_faqAnswer`|
| # |
| |
| CREATE TABLE nuke_faqAnswer ( |
| id tinyint(4) NOT NULL auto_increment, |
| id_cat tinyint(4) NOT NULL default '0', |
| question varchar(255) default ", |
| answer text, |
| PRIMARY KEY (id), |
| KEY id (id), |
| KEY id_cat (id_cat) |
| ) TYPE=MyISAM; |
|______________________________________________|
From the MySQL_manual_on_column_types, we see:
TINYINT[(M)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]
A very small integer. The signed range is -128 to 127. The unsigned
range is 0 to 255.
so that tinyint is a very small integer indeed in this case.
Solution: Change the length of id and id_cat of nuke_faqAnswer. You can do this
with phpMyAdmin, or by logging into MySQL from the console and, after choosing
the PHP-Nuke database ("use xxxx;"), by typing:
_____________________________________________________________
| |
| alter table nuke_faqAnswer modify id SMALLINT unsigned; |
| alter table nuke_faqAnswer modify id_cat SMALLINT unsigned;|
|_____________________________________________________________|
See also FAQ_problem.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.4. Modifying the PHP-Nuke Reviews module
Figure 18-3. Administration panel: Reviews.
Administration panel: Reviews.
In this section we modify the PHP-Nuke Reviews module:
* How to allow only registered users to enter a review (Section_18.4.1),
* How to choose images from a dropdown list (Section_18.4.2).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.4.1. How to allow only registered users to enter a review
If you want only your registered users to be able to enter a review, you can
achieve it with the following simple change:
Edit the modules/Reviews/index.php file and find the write_review() function:
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| function write_review() { |
| global $admin, $sitename, $user, $cookie, $prefix, $user_prefix, |
| $currentlang, $multilingual, $dbi, $module_name; |
| include ('header.php'); |
| OpenTable(); |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
Add the following check after the call to OpenTable():
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| if (!is_user($user)) { |
| echo "You need to be |
| <a href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account\">logged in</a> or |
| <a href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=new_user\">become a|
| member</a> |
| to submit reviews."; |
| } else { |
|________________________________________________________________________|
This check will only allow registered users to continue with a review, while
pointing others to the login or register page. Of course, the IF statement has
to be closed - just put a } at the end of the function, as shown below:
_____________________________
| |
| CloseTable(); |
| include ("footer.php");|
| } |
| } |
|_____________________________|
Unregistered users will be able to view reviews, but only site members will be
able to submit new ones.
Tip Tip
 This simple check can be used to restrict access to registered users in
any module that does not offer this functionality, not only in Reviews.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.4.2. How to choose images from a dropdown list
Isn't it more comfortable being able to choose the image for your review (if
you are an administrator) from a dropdown list that offers the names of all
available images in your image directory, rather than having to enter the full
URL to the image each time? You could easily incorporate this functionality if
you just cut and pasted the code from the admin/modules/topics.php file. The
functionality is in the Topics module already - you don't need to write full
URLs to the topics icons, do you?
The relevant part in the Reviews to introduce the code from the Topics module
is the following code in modules/Reviews/index.php:
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| if(is_admin($admin)) { |
| echo " |
| <b>"._RIMAGEFILE.":</b><br> |
| <input type=\"text\" name=\"cover\" size=\"40\" |
| maxlength=\"100\"><br> |
| <i>"._RIMAGEFILEREQ."</i><br><br> |
| "; |
| } |
| Replace it with: |
| if(is_admin($admin)) { |
| echo " |
| <b>"._RIMAGEFILE.":</b><br> |
| echo "<select name="cover">"; |
| $path1 = explode ("/", "images/reviews/"); |
| $path = "$path1[0]/$path1[1]"; |
| $handle=opendir($path); |
| while ($file = readdir($handle)) { |
| if ( (ereg("^([_0-9a-zA-Z]+)([.]{1})([_0-9a-zA-Z]{3})$",$file)) |
| AND $file != "AllTopics.gif") { |
| $tlist .= "$file "; |
| } |
| } |
| closedir($handle); |
| $tlist = explode(" ", $tlist); |
| sort($tlist); |
| for ($i=0; $i < sizeof($tlist); $i++) { |
| if($tlist[$i]!="") { |
| if ($topicimage == $tlist[$i]) { |
| $sel = "selected"; |
| } else { |
| $sel = ""; |
| } |
| echo "<option name="cover" value="$tlist[$i]" $sel>$tlist |
| [$i]n"; |
| } |
| } |
| echo "</select><br>"; |
| echo "<i>"._RIMAGEFILEREQ."</i><br><br> |
| "; |
| } |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
The part of code that was stolen from the Topics module (from the admin/
modules/topics.php file) is between the blank lines in the above code. It will
offer you a dropdown list of all images in the images/reviews folder. Just like
with the topics images, you must use all small letters and no underscores or
other special characters. See choose_image_for_review.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.5. Modifying the PHP-Nuke Web_Links module
Figure 18-4. Administration panel: Web Links.
Administration panel: Web Links.
In this section we modify the PHP-Nuke Web Links module:
* How to display Web Links in the same window (Section_18.5.1),
* How to change the number of Web Links per page (Section_18.5.2).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.5.1. How to display Web Links in the same window
The Web_Links module will display each web link in a separate window. To change
this behaviour and make it display the link in the same window, you have to
change each occurence of
________________
| |
| target=\"new\"|
|________________|
to
__________________
| |
| target=\"_self\"|
|__________________|
in the modules/Web_Links/index.php file. This is a straightforward search and
replace procedure. In vi, you would do
____________________________________________
| |
| 1,$s/target=\\"new\\"/target=\\"_self\\"/g|
|____________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.5.2. How to change the number of Web Links per page
You can change the number of Web Links that are displayed per page very easily
- no programming necessary!
Just change the value of $perpage in modules/Web_Links/l_config.php:
________________
| |
| $perpage = 10;|
|________________|
Tip Make use of the module configuration files!
It definitely pays off to have a look at the configuration files of the
various modules! The l_config.php file, for example, located in the
Web_Links folder under the modules directory, offers many variables that
can be used to achieve the desired appearence of the Web Links module:
* $perpage: How many links to show on each page?
* $popular: How many hits need a link to be listed as popular?
* $newlinks: How many links to display in the New Links Page?
* $toplinks: How many links to display in The Best Links Page? (Most
Popular)
* $linksresults: How many links to display on each search result page?
* $links_anonaddlinklock: Lock Unregistered users from Suggesting New
Links? (0=Yes 1=No)
* $anonwaitdays: Number of days anonymous users need to wait to vote on a
link
* $outsidewaitdays: Number of days outside users need to wait to vote on
a link (checks IP)
* $useoutsidevoting: Allow Webmasters to put vote links on their site
(1=Yes 0=No)
 * $anonweight: How many Unregistered User vote per 1 Registered User
Vote?
* $outsideweight: How many Outside User vote per 1 Registered User Vote?
* $detailvotedecimal: Let Detailed Vote Summary Decimal out to N places.
(no max)
* $mainvotedecimal: Let Main Vote Summary Decimal show out to N places.
(max 4)
* $toplinkspercentrigger: 1 to Show Top Links as a Percentage (else # of
links)
* $toplinks: Either # of links OR percentage to show (percentage as whole
number. #/100)
* $mostpoplinkspercentrigger: 1 to Show Most Popular Links as a
Percentage (else # of links)
* $mostpoplinks: Either # of links OR percentage to show (percentage as
whole number. #/100)
* $featurebox: 1 to Show Feature Link Box on links Main Page? (1=Yes
0=No)
* $linkvotemin: Number votes needed to make the 'top 10' list
* $blockunregmodify: Block unregistered users from suggesting links
changes? (1=Yes 0=No)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.6. Modifying the PHP-Nuke Your_Account module
In this section we modify the PHP-Nuke Your Account module, one of the most
central modules of PHP-Nuke. We show:
* How to redirect users to the Homepage (Section_18.6.1),
* How to redirect Your Info to the Forums user profile (Section_18.6.2),
* How to redirect users to Login and back (Section_18.6.3),
* How to disable registration (Section_18.6.4),
* How to let users register immediately (Section_18.6.5),
* How to approve users before registration (Section_18.6.6),
* How to register users through iBill (Section_18.6.7),
* How to change the maximum allowed length for user names (Section_18.6.8).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.6.1. How to redirect users to the Homepage
Are you looking for a way to redirect a user to Home rather than Your Account
when they login? Would you rather prefer them to go to Your Account only when
they choose to and be automatically redirected to Home when they login? There
is a simple way to accomplish this (see How_to_redirect_users_to_the_Homepage
and Redirect_login_to_home):
Find the following lines in function login() in the modules/Your_Account/
index.php:
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Header("Location: |
| modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&bypass=1&username=$username");|
|__________________________________________________________________________|
Change it to this:
_________________________________
| |
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
|_________________________________|
See Section_18.2.1 for the inverse procedure — but don't try both.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.6.2. How to redirect Your Info to the Forums user profile
Figure 18-5. Your Info link in the User Preferences panel.
Your Info link in the User Preferences panel.
With the advent of phpBB forums in PHP-Nuke (starting from somewhere around v.
6.5), you not only have to cope with two administration panels, one for PHP-
Nuke in general and one for the Forums in particular, your users can maintain
their profile in two places too, from the Your Info link in the User Preference
panel (Figure_18-5), as well as the Forums profile link in the Forums module
(Figure_18-6).
Figure 18-6. Forum Profile link in the Forums module.
Forum Profile link in the Forums module.
The Your Info link has the URL
___________________________________________
| |
| modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=edituser|
|___________________________________________|
and leads to a panel similar to the one of Figure_18-7.
Figure 18-7. User profile in Your Info.
User profile in Your Info.
The Profile link in the Forums module, on the other hand, has the URL
_______________________________________________________
| |
| modules.php?name=Forums&file=profile&mode=editprofile|
|_______________________________________________________|
(optionally with the session ID parameter, sid, which is not shown here) and
leads to the panel shown in Figure_18-8.
Both panels use the same database tables in the background, so it doesn't
matter which one you use. This may be confortable for some, but also confusing
for other users.
If your users find it confusing to use two different entry points for their
personal information, you can modify the Your_Account module to redirect them
to the Forum profile (Figure_18-8), even when they click on the Your Info link
(Figure_18-5).
Figure 18-8. User profile in the Forums.
User profile in the Forums.
The Your Info link is output (“echoedâ€) in modules/Your_Account/navbar.php, in
the following code block:
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| echo "<font class=\"content\">" |
| ."<center><a href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=edituser\">|
| <img src=\"$menuimg\" border=\"0\" alt=\""._CHANGEYOURINFO. |
| "\" title=\""._CHANGEYOURINFO."\"></a><br>" |
| ."<a href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=edituser\">" |
| ._CHANGEYOURINFO."</a>" |
| ."</center></font></td>"; |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
To redirect the users to the Forum profile (Figure_18-8), you can change the
above block to:
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| echo "<font class=\"content\">" |
| ."<center><a |
| href=\"modules.php?name=Forums&file=profile&mode=editprofile\"> |
| <img src=\"$menuimg\" border=\"0\" alt=\""._CHANGEYOURINFO. |
| "\" title=\""._CHANGEYOURINFO."\"></a><br>" |
| ."<a |
| href=\"modules.php?name=Forums&file=profile&mode=editprofile\">"|
| ._CHANGEYOURINFO."</a>" |
| ."</center></font></td>"; |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
As you can easily see, we have changed only the two links (one for the image
and one for the text), the other lines are for your reference only.
Note It is not necessary to compute the user's numeric ID and pass it on the
URL through the u parameter - the mode=editprofile parameter on the URL
will find the user automatically (but mode=viewprofile will not!).
But wait a minute! Is this really all we have to change? Is the Your Info link
(Figure_18-5) the only one that leads a user to the profile screen of the
Your_Info module (Figure_18-7)? How about the user name links in other modules,
for example? Search for the string “op=edituser†and you will already find a
ton of those links in various places (Newsletter, language files, Reviews...)
And how about a new user? Will the new user registration screen be the one of
Your_Account or the one of Forums?
Instead of chasing links in the code, there is a more elegant solution that
will eliminate any attempt to bring a user to the Your Info profile at its very
beginning! It is also a very good example of what type of control you can
achieve over your PHP-Nuke, if you put your knowledge about the way a module
works (see Chapter_21) into practice:
In modules/Your_Account/index.php find the lines:
__________________
| |
| case "edituser":|
| edituser(); |
| break; |
|__________________|
and replace them with:
______________________________________________________________
| |
| case "edituser": |
| Header("Refresh: 0; |
| url=modules.php?name=Forums&file=profile&mode=editprofile");|
| break; |
|______________________________________________________________|
This will take care of the “edit user†case. We need to do the same for the
“new user†case too. Just replace
__________________
| |
| case "new_user":|
| new_user(); |
| break; |
|__________________|
with:
___________________________________________________________
| |
| case "new_user": |
| Header("Refresh: 0; |
| url=modules.php?name=Forums&file=profile&mode=register");|
| break; |
|___________________________________________________________|
The idea here is the following: instead of searching all code of all modules
for links that point to the Your Info profile, we look at the parameters that
such a link passes on the URL. A typical Your Info profile link is of the form:
___________________________________________
| |
| modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=edituser|
|___________________________________________|
so the parameters it passes to the modules.php script are:
* name: the name of the module to execute (Your_Account)
* op: the operation to execute (edituser)
The second URL parameter, op, is checked at one single place in the code, in
the switch statement of modules/Your_Account/index.php:
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| switch($op) { |
| case "logout": |
| logout(); |
| break; |
| ...many other cases checked here, among them "edituser" and "new_user"|
| |
| default: |
| main($user); |
| break; |
| } |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
This is the one and only point of control for the actions taken by the
Your_Account module. We make use of this fact and change the actions that are
to be taken for the operations "edituser" and "new_user". We don't change the
links, we change the actions that follow when the links are clicked.
This will make the Your Info profile practically inaccessible in your system
and will present the Forums profile instead.
Warning Missing functionality in the Forums profile!
Bear in mind that, depending on the versions of PHP-Nuke and Forums,
you may be missing some functionality in the Forums profile, that was
 present in the profile that was accessible through the Your Info
link. This may include changing the fake email address, changing the
subscription to the newsletter, or changing the extra info (Figure
12-1). However, this is planned to be corrected in the future.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.6.3. How to redirect users to Login and back
We have already seen how to redirect users to the Login page (Section_18.2.1),
to the Homepage (Section_18.6.1) and to the Forum profile from the Your Info
profile (Section_18.6.2). Finally, it is time that we consider the general
redirection problem:
You are using some module, say an eCommerce module like the Emporium Shopping
Cart (Section_8.3.14), and at some point you need to ask the user to login (if
not already done) to finish off the order. You would like to redirect the user
to the Login screen (Figure_3-28), then bring him back where he was to
continue.
This is already implemented in PHP-Nuke at some places, like the Private
Messages part of the Your Account module: in the forums for example, if you
aren't logged in, you see the link 'Log in to check your private messages',
which when clicked on it, takes you to Your Account (address line becomes :
http://www.yoursite.com/
modules.php?name=Your_Account&redirect=privmsg&folder=inbox), and upon login
in, you get taken back to PMs.
To accomplish this from an arbitrary module, that serves as the starting point
for the redirection, open that module's code and find the place where the
redirection has to happen. Initiate the redirection with the following two
lines:
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| $redirect = $module_name; |
| <a href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account&redirect=$redirect\">CLICK HERE TO|
| LOGIN</a> |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
The value of $redirect is what you will key off in the next step. In this
example we use the module name as the key that will point the way back, but you
can use anything, as long as you know how to use it later, to trace your way
back with the right link.
Now go to modules/Your_Account/index.php and look for the following code in the
login() function:
______________________________________________________________
| |
| if ($pm_login != "") { |
| Header("Location: |
| modules.php?name=Private_Messages&file=index&folder=inbox");|
| exit; |
| } |
|______________________________________________________________|
Add the following after it:
_________________________________________________________
| |
| if ($redirect == "XXXXXXXXX"){ |
| Header("Location: modules.php?name=YYYYYYYYY");|
| exit; |
| } |
|_________________________________________________________|
where XXXXXXXXX is the value of $redirect from the first step and YYYYYYYY is
the name of the module you want them dumped into after login.
You might think that we are done by now, but there is a caveat: the above will
work as long as they log in correctly on the first try. If they make a mistake
and have to try a second or more times, they will get dumped in Your Account,
after they log in successfully, not in the module they came from. This is also
true for the Private Messages example above.
To fix this, find the following code in Your_Account\index.php at the bottom of
the login function.
______________________________________________________________
| |
| } else { |
| Header("Location: modules.php?name=$module_name&stop=1");|
| } |
|______________________________________________________________|
and change it to:
____________________________________________________________
| |
| } else { |
| Header("Location: |
| modules.php?name=$module_name&stop=1&redirect=$redirect");|
| } |
|____________________________________________________________|
Then it will redirect even if they log in incorrectly the first time. See How
to_redirect.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.6.4. How to disable registration
If you want to make registration of users impossible, you can apply a variation
of the solution in Section_18.6.2: you can redirect the users to the main page
(index.php) whenever they try to register (e.g. by clicking on some
registration link). Note that just by deleting the registration links from the
code (see Section_26.5 on how to find them), you still can't prevent a
determined user from entering
_____________________________________________________________________
| |
| http://www.yourdomain.com/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=new_user|
|_____________________________________________________________________|
in the URL box of his browser by hand, thus triggering the “operation new_userâ€
in PHP-Nuke. By this, it becomes clear that a real solution must at least
change the behaviour of PHP-Nuke for the value “new_user†of the op URL
parameter.
Again, instead of chasing links in the code, there is a more elegant solution:
In modules/Your_Account/index.php find the lines:
__________________
| |
| case "new_user":|
| new_user(); |
| break; |
|__________________|
and replace them with:
______________________________________
| |
| case "new_user": |
| Header("Refresh: 0; url=index.php");|
| break; |
|______________________________________|
This will only disable registration from the Your Account module (more
accurately: it will redirect every registration attempt to the main index.php
page).
To disable it in the Forums too, edit modules/Forums/profile.php. Find
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| else if ( $mode == 'editprofile' || $mode == 'register' ) |
| { |
| if ( !$userdata['session_logged_in'] && $mode == 'editprofile' )|
| { |
| $header_location = ( @preg_match("/ |
| Microsoft|WebSTAR|Xitami/", |
| $_SERVER["SERVER_SOFTWARE"]) ) ? "Refresh: 0; URL=" : |
| "Location: "; |
| header($header_location . |
| append_sid |
| ("login.$phpEx?redirect=profile.$phpEx&mode=editprofile", |
| true)); |
| exit; |
| } |
| include("includes/usercp_register.php"); |
| exit; |
| } |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
and change it to something like:
___________________________________________________________
| |
| else if ( $mode == 'editprofile' || $mode == 'register' )|
| { |
| Header("Refresh: 0; url=index.php"); |
| exit; |
| } |
|___________________________________________________________|
i.e. we again redirect the user to the index.php page. See also How_to_disable
registration.
Tip It's also possible without programming!
As so often in life, it all depends on what you want. You can of course
 achieve a similar effect, without any programming, if you make the Your
Account module accessible to admins only, from the modules
administration, in the administration panel.
If you want users to be registered directly, without confirmation mails, see
Section_18.6.5. If you want to approve every user who applied for registration,
you can use the Approve Membership module (see Section_8.3.4).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.6.5. How to let users register immediately
When new users register, you may want them to be able to do so immediately,
without having to wait for an email notification with an activation link.
Caution Do you trust your users?
If you let everyone post without being registered, you will not have
*any* data as to who wrote that inflammatory, libellous, pornographic
 or whatever post in your forum that caught FBI's attention. Thus you
should really trust your users not to abuse your system, if you plan
to bypass email notification on registration.
You have two options, if you are not in the mood of programming it yourself :
1. From the administration panel, Preferences, just choose that non-
registered users are allowed to post. Then, from the modules and blocks
administration panels, for each module or block you use, choose that all
users are allowed to see it. That should come very close to what you want
- that all users be able to use all parts of your site without
registration.
2. A module that allows the administrator to bypass email activation is NSN
Your_Account_Tweak_650_3.0.2. According to the description, administrators
can choose to bypass email activation. But the module offers a lot of
other useful features around user management, see Section_8.3.3.
See also Authorization_and_avatars.
Caution Download the right NSN Your Account Tweak version!
Be careful with the version you download from this module! The number
650, for example, indicates that it is only for PHP-Nuke 6.5. Use
 only the version that is in accordance with your installed PHP-Nuke
version, otherwise you are guaranteed to mess up your installation
completely.
See also the New_User_Auto_Activation_Hack and the Auto_Registration_Activation
For_Nuke_v7.0. If you want to disable registration, see Section_18.6.4. If you
want to approve every user who applied for registration, you can use the
Approve Membership module (see Section_8.3.4).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.6.6. How to approve users before registration
If you want to enforce the opposite of what is described in Section_18.6.5,
i.e. be able to approve each and every user before he is allowed to register,
then you should have a look at the Approve Membership module. See Section_8.3.4
and Authorize_accounts for more details.
If you want users to be registered directly, without confirmation mails, see
Section_18.6.5. If you want to disable registration, see Section_18.6.4.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.6.7. How to register users through iBill
Theoretically, you could modify the Your Account module easily to accomodate
for a registration through the iBill credit card option. You could proceed
along the following lines (see Replacing_registration_with_iBill_credit_card
option):
The iBill system essentially works by users entering information into the iBill
script. The script would then connect to the web server and create an account
in an .htaccess file (Section_25.4) in the PHP-Nuke root directory. When a paid
user account would expire, iBill's server could then remove the user account
from the .htaccess file.
With iBill controlling the .htaccess file, there would be no need for a
Registration option in PHP-Nuke. The only thing that would be needed would be
to change the code in block-Login.php, perhaps replacing the Register link with
a link to a static html page, where the iBill sign up scripts would do the
trick. Or you could just put the iBill code in a block and remove the Register
option.
There is no ready-made solution for this scenario yet, but the procedure
outlined above points to the right direction.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.6.8. How to change the maximum allowed length for user names
The standard maximum length for user names is 25 characters. If your users
really pick up such long nicknames, they may break your blocks' layout,
depending on your theme and resolution. This is because they may appear as
authors of news articles etc. in headlines that appear in various blocks.
To prevent your users from using long user names, you must change the maximum
allowed length in modules/Your_Account/index.php, in the function userCheck().
Find the line:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| if (strlen($username) > 25) $stop = "<center>"._NICK2LONG."</center>";|
|________________________________________________________________________|
and change the 25 to a lower length. A better programming style would be to
define a constant for this and do the check against the constant.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.7. Modifying the PHP-Nuke News module
Figure 18-9. Administration panel: Add story.
Administration panel: Add story.
In this section we modify the PHP-Nuke News module, which is also one of the
most important ones:
* How to get rid of the need to use <br> for new lines (Section_18.7.1).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.7.1. How to get rid of the need to use <br> for new lines
It is one of the most annoying requirements for users who want to submit a News
article to your site: they have to write the text either in BBcode, or in HTML.
While BBcode is easy to learn and use, HTML can be a real pain for the average
Jo user. Worse yet, for sites that have disabled BBcode, HTML is the only
available language for the aspiring journalist. Thus, a lot of people find
themselves forced to write their articles with the editor of their choice, then
export that document to HTML with the editor's own export function. Although
this scenario will not alleviate the need for a subsequent scrutiny of the HTML
code thus produced, for the purpose of locating and eliminating the HTML tags
that are not allowed by the PHP-Nuke site (see Section_16.1), it definitely has
its merits, especially for long text.
Those users however, who will rather opt for a quick entering of the text
directly in the form fields, will most often be reminded the hard way, by a
text totally lacking paragraph structure, that something is missing from their
text: two break tags (<br><br>) for the insertion of a blank line, something
that is used intuitively to separate paragraphs. Even seasoned HTML coders will
find themselves routinely omitting the obligatory <br> tags, so a way to avoid
the need for them is great help for both beginners and specialists alike.
To eliminate the <br> plague once for all, you only have to enter a 2-liner in
the modules/news/index.php file. Find the lines:
_________________________________________________
| |
| getTopics($s_sid); |
| formatTimestamp($time); |
| $subject = stripslashes($subject); |
| $hometext = stripslashes($hometext); |
| $notes = stripslashes($notes); |
| $introcount = strlen($hometext); |
| $fullcount = strlen($bodytext); |
| $totalcount = $introcount + $fullcount;|
| $c_count = $comments; |
| $r_options = ""; |
|_________________________________________________|
and append the following two ones to them:
_______________________________________
| |
| $hometext=nl2br("$hometext");|
| $bodytext=nl2br("$bodytext");|
|_______________________________________|
Then, in the modules/News/article.php, find the lines
________________________________________________________
| |
| if ($notes != "") { |
| $notes = "<br><br><b>"._NOTE."</b> <i>$notes</i>";|
| } else { |
| $notes = ""; |
| } |
| if($bodytext == "") { |
| $bodytext = "$hometext$notes"; |
| } else { |
| $bodytext = "$hometext<br><br>$bodytext$notes"; |
| } |
|________________________________________________________|
and add in 2 more lines, like this:
_______________________________
| |
| $hometext = nl2br($hometext);|
| $bodytext = nl2br($bodytext);|
|_______________________________|
The nl2br_PHP_function (newline to break) will automatically insert HTML <br /
> tags (breaks) before every newline in the short ($hometext) and extended text
($bodytext) of the news article (see also How_do_I_stop_using_the_br_tag,
Linebreaks_when_entering_text).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.8. Modifying the PHP-Nuke Submit News module
Figure 18-10. Administration panel: Submissions.
Administration panel: Submissions.
In this section we modify the PHP-Nuke Submit News module:
* How to bypass article approval (Section_18.8.1).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.8.1. How to bypass article approval
The standard workflow for a news article is that the user writes it, submits it
for approval by the administrator, the administrator reads it, approves and
publishes it on the site. This has some advantages:
* Everybody can post, even anonymous users.
* Since the posts are checked, there is no risk of getting flooded with garbage
posts.
But it also has some disadvantages too:
* Users have to wait to see their post published. This may not be what they
expect, if actuality of content is highly important for the topics of your
site.
* The administrators have to spend time on approving news articles. Waiting
content (Figure_18-11) can be quite an administrative headache, if the site
receives many user submissions a day (see, for example phpnuke.org, where
there are dozens of submissions awaiting approval at any given time).
Figure 18-11. Waiting Content block.
Waiting Content block.
Fortunately, to bypass article approval, the solution is relatively simple (see
Automatic_Article_Posting):
* For versions before PHP-Nuke 6.5:
In the modules/Submit_News, in the function submitStory(), find this
________________________________________________________________
| |
| $result = sql_query("insert into ".$prefix."_queue |
| values (NULL, '$uid', '$name', '$subject', '$story', |
| '$storyext', now(), '$topic', '$catid', '$alanguage')", $dbi);|
|________________________________________________________________|
Change it to this:
__________________________________________________________________
| |
| $result = sql_query("insert into ".$prefix."_stories |
| values (NULL, '$catid', '$name', '$subject', now(), '$story', |
| '$storyext', '0', '0', '$topic', '$name', ", '0', '$alanguage', |
| '0','0', '0', '0', '0')", $dbi); |
|__________________________________________________________________|
The story will get posted immediately, so you will want to make the
Submit_News module only available to Users. Also, you will notice that it
will now say “Posted By Some_userâ€, and it will no longer show in italics.
* For PHP-Nuke 6.5 and later, the solution is slightly different. Replace this:
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| $sql = "INSERT INTO ".$prefix."_queue VALUES (NULL, '$uid', '$name',|
| '$subject', |
| '$story', '$storyext', now(), '$topic', '$alanguage')"; |
|______________________________________________________________________|
with this:
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| $sql = "insert into ".$prefix."_stories values (NULL, '$catid', '$name',|
| '$subject', |
| now(), '$story', '$storyext', '0', '0', '$topic', '$name', ", '0', |
| '$alanguage', '0', '0', '0', '0','0', ")"; |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
You will also want to change the language file "defines", or edit these lines
in the function submitStory (this is what is displayed when the submission is
sent.
__________________________________________________________________
| |
| echo "<center><font class=\"title\">"._SUBSENT."</font><br><br>"|
| ."<font class=\"content\"><b>"._THANKSSUB."</b><br><br>" |
| .""._SUBTEXT."" |
| ."<br>"._WEHAVESUB." $waiting "._WAITING.""; |
|__________________________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.8.1.1. The formatAidHeader() function
If you want to make the “Posted By Some_user†also be a link to the User's
profile, then you can edit the function formatAidHeader in your mainfile.php.
The following refers to PHP-Nuke 6.5 and above.
The function is simple: it takes an argument, the author id $aid, searches the
nuke_authors table for that author id and, if found, it prints a link to the
web page of the author. Only if the web page link fiels of nuke_authors is
empty for that author, it prints a link to the author's e-mail (which is always
there):
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| function formatAidHeader($aid) { |
| global $prefix, $db; |
| $sql = "SELECT url, email FROM ".$prefix."_authors WHERE aid='$aid'";|
| $result = $db->sql_query($sql); |
| $row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result); |
| $url = $row[url]; |
| $email = $row[email]; |
| if (isset($url)) { |
| $aid = "<a href=\"$url\">$aid</a>"; |
| } elseif (isset($email)) { |
| $aid = "<a href=\"mailto:$email\">$aid</a>"; |
| } else { |
| $aid = $aid; |
| } |
| echo "$aid"; |
| } |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
You could easily change this behaviour. For example, you could take out the
check against the $url and leave only the e-mail part, if you wanted the
“Posted By Some_user†to be an e-mail link, rather than a link to a web page
(see Change_Posted_by..._Name_(Website)_to_Name_(Email)):
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| function formatAidHeader($aid) { |
| global $prefix, $db; |
| $sql = "SELECT url, email FROM ".$prefix."_authors WHERE aid='$aid'";|
| $result = $db->sql_query($sql); |
| $row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result); |
| $url = $row[url]; |
| $email = $row[email]; |
| if (isset($email)) { |
| $aid = "<a href=\"mailto:$email\">$aid</a>"; |
| } else { |
| $aid = $aid; |
| } |
| echo "$aid"; |
| } |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
You could make it even more sophisticated, by making “Posted By Some_user†a
link to the user's profile (see Section_18.6.2 for the related subject of user
profile redirection). The formatAidHeader function should then be:
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| function formatAidHeader($aid) { |
| global $prefix, $db; |
| $sql = "SELECT url, email FROM ".$prefix."_authors WHERE aid='$aid'";|
| $result = $db->sql_query($sql); |
| if($row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result)) { |
| $url = $row[url]; |
| $email = $row[email]; |
| if (isset($url)) { |
| $aid = "<a href=\"$url\">$aid</a>"; |
| } elseif (isset($email)) { |
| $aid = "<a href=\"mailto:$email\">$aid</a>"; |
| } else { |
| $aid = $aid; |
| } |
| }else { |
| $sql = "SELECT user_id FROM ".$prefix."_users WHERE |
| username='$aid'"; |
| $result = $db->sql_query($sql); |
| $row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result); |
| $user_id = $row[user_id]; |
| $aid = "<a |
| href=\"modules.php?name=Forums&file=profile |
| &mode=viewprofile&u=$user_id\">$aid</a>"; |
| } |
| echo "$aid"; |
| } |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.9. Modifying the PHP-Nuke Sections module
Figure 18-12. Administration panel: Sections.
Administration panel: Sections.
In this section we modify the PHP-Nuke Section module:
* How to order the articles in the Sections module (Section_18.9.1).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.9.1. How to order the articles in the Sections module
Sometimes you may not be satisfied with the order of articles in the Sections
module. To change it, edit the following line of the modules/Sections/
index.php:
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| $result = sql_query("select artid, secid, title, content, counter |
| from ".$prefix."_seccont where secid=$secid $querylang", $dbi); |
|____________________________________________________________________|
Change it to[23]
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| $result = sql_query("select artid, secid, title, content, counter |
| from ".$prefix."_seccont where secid=$secid $querylang ORDER BY artid|
| DESC", $dbi); |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
Tip Changing the order of results
This is a typical example of changing the order of results of a database
selection. This was achieved by solely adding "ORDER BY artid DESC" to
the SQL query string. In plain text, this means "order the results by
 descending article id". The "right way" would of course be to sort by
time. But lacking an extra timestamp field, we make use of the fact that
later articles have a higher id. Thus, sorting by descending id will give
last articles first. Think of this simple trick whenever you seek a
simple way to change the order of some results.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.10. Modifying the PHP-Nuke Downloads module
Figure 18-13. Administration panel: Downloads.
Administration panel: Downloads.
In this section we modify the PHP-Nuke Downloads module:
* How to add URLs longer than 100 characters in Downloads and Web Links
(Section_18.10.1).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.10.1. How to add URLs longer than 100 characters in Downloads and Web Links
Not always is the database the sole culprit when you stumble upon an arbitrary
limitation of the functionality: constraints are, for some obscure design
reason, also eagerly set in the code of PHP-Nuke itself. A typical example of
this situation, is the limitation of the URL length in the Downloads and
Web_Links modules to just 100 characters. To remove this constraint you need to
make changes to the database tables and the programming code.
The database change consists of a MySQL command that changes the length of the
relevant field. For the Downloads module, the relevant field is the “url†field
in the nuke_downloads_downloads table, for the Web_Links module it is the “urlâ€
field in the nuke_links_links table. To change its length, type on the MySQL
command line
_______________________________________________________________
| |
| alter table nuke_downloads_downloads modify url varchar(200);|
|_______________________________________________________________|
for the Downloads module, and
_______________________________________________________
| |
| alter table nuke_links_links modify url varchar(200);|
|_______________________________________________________|
for the Web_links module.
Tip Changing the length of database fields
If you don't feel comfortable with the MySQL command line, you can use a
graphical user interface (GUI) for it, like phpMyAdmin (see Section_3.4).
But you can also pack the above commands in a PHP program:
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| include_once("mainfile.php"); |
| global $prefix, $dbi; |
| $result=sql_query("alter table nuke_downloads_downloads modify url|
| varchar(200)", $dbi); |
| if (!$result) { |
| print (mysql_error()); |
 | } |
| $result=sql_query("alter table nuke_links_links modify url varchar|
| (200)", $dbi); |
| if (!$result) { |
| print (mysql_error()); |
| } |
| ?> |
|____________________________________________________________________|
Upload it to your web server in the PHP-Nuke root directory (the one
where config.php and mainfile.php are also located) and point your
browser to it. The script even takes care to print a descriptive error
message (a good programming practice), if an error occurs.
But you are not done yet: for the length change to really take effect, you must
change all relevant occurences of "maxlength" in the PHP code to reflect the
new length of the field in the various HTML forms. This means searching not
only the modules folder, but also the admin folder, for files related to the
two modules and containing the string “maxlengthâ€.
* For the Downloads module, those are:
1. The modules/Downloads/index.php file:
_________________________________________________________________
| |
| .""._FILEURL.": <input type=\"text\" name=\"url\" size=\"50\" |
| maxlength=\"100\" value=\"http://\"><br>"; |
| .""._URL.":<br><input type=\"text\" name=\"url\" value=\"$url\"|
| size=\"50\" |
| maxlength=\"100\"><br><br>" |
|_________________________________________________________________|
2. The admin/modules/download.php file:
__________________________________________________________________
| |
| .""._FILEURL.": <input type=\"text\" name=\"url\" value=\"$url\"|
| size=\"50\" |
| maxlength=\"100\"> [ <a target=\"_blank\" |
| href=\"$url\">"._CHECK."</a> ]<br>" |
| .""._FILEURL.": <input type=\"text\" name=\"url\" size=\"50\" |
| maxlength=\"100\" value=\"http://\"><br>"; |
| .""._PAGEURL.": <input type=\"text\" name=\"url\" value=\"$url\"|
| size=\"50\" |
| maxlength=\"100\"> [ <a href=\"$url\">"._CHECK."</a> ]<br>"|
|__________________________________________________________________|
* For the Web Links module, they are:
1. The modules/Web_Links/index.php file:
_________________________________________________________________
| |
| .""._PAGEURL.": <input type=\"text\" name=\"url\" size=\"50\" |
| maxlength=\"100\" value=\"http://\"><br>"; |
| .""._URL.":<br><input type=\"text\" name=\"url\" value=\"$url\"|
| size=\"50\" |
| maxlength=\"100\"><br><br>" |
|_________________________________________________________________|
2. The admin/modules/links.php file:
__________________________________________________________________
| |
| .""._PAGEURL.": <input type=\"text\" name=\"url\" value=\"$url\"|
| size=\"50\" |
| maxlength=\"100\"> [ <a target=\"_blank\" |
| href=\"$url\">"._VISIT."</a> ]<br>" |
| .""._PAGEURL.": <input type=\"text\" name=\"url\" size=\"50\" |
| maxlength=\"100\" value=\"http://\"><br>"; |
| .""._PAGEURL.": <input type=\"text\" name=\"url\" value=\"$url\"|
| size=\"50\" |
| maxlength=\"100\"> [ <a href=\"$url\">Visit</a> ]<br>" |
| .""._PAGEURL.": <input type=\"text\" name=\"url\" value=\"$url\"|
| size=\"50\" |
| maxlength=\"100\"> [ <a target=\"_blank\" |
| href=\"$url\">"._VISIT."</a> ]<br>" |
|__________________________________________________________________|
Tip Search for "maxlength" thoroughly!
 If it still does not work, then you forgot to change "maxlength"
somewhere - perhaps in a file under the admin folder. Search thoroughly!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.11. Modifying the PHP-Nuke Stories Archive module
Figure 18-14. Administration panel: Add story.
Administration panel: Add story.
In this section we modify the PHP-Nuke Stories Archive module:
* How to order the articles in the Stories Archive module (Section_18.11.1).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.11.1. How to order the articles in the Stories Archive module
Sometimes you may wish a different order of articles in the Stories module. To
change the article order so that the articles appear in alphabetical topic
order, instead of a LIFO (last-in-first-out) order, edit the following line of
the modules/Sections/index.php:
_________________________________________________________________________
| |
| $result = sql_query("select sid, catid, title, time, comments, counter,|
| topic, |
| alanguage, score, ratings from ".$prefix."_stories order by sid DESC |
| limit $min,$max", $dbi); |
|_________________________________________________________________________|
Change it to (see Sorting_the_Stories_Archive_by_Topic_first):
_________________________________________________________________________
| |
| $result = sql_query("select sid, catid, title, time, comments, counter,|
| topic, |
| alanguage, score, ratings from ".$prefix."_stories order by topic ASC |
| limit $min,$max", $dbi); |
|_________________________________________________________________________|
Tip Changing the order of results
This is a typical example of changing the order of results of a database
selection. This was achieved by solely replacing "ORDER BY sid DESC" with
"ORDER BY topic ASC" in the SQL query string. In plain text, this means
"order the results by ascending topic". Whenever you are not satisfied
 with the order of your results, you will know that you have to add or
change an ORDER BY clause to an SQL query string somewhere in your
module. Of course, you will still have to find where, but hopefully there
will be only a few calls to sql_query() in the code, so that, in the
worst case, you could try them all and find the one that works.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 19. Modifying the PHP-Nuke administration panel
Figure 19-1. Administration panel.
Administration panel.
This chapter is devoted to modifications of the administration panel - a rather
exotic topic, but with interesting applications:
* How to set an arbitrary "Stories Number in Home" (Section_19.1),
* How to allow HTML in the Newsletter (Section_19.2).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19.1. How to set an arbitrary "Stories Number in Home"
Figure 19-2. Administration panel: Preferences.
Administration panel: Preferences.
You want to display only, say, 3 News on the hopepage of your PHP-Nuke. But in
the administration panel you get only the options to change the "Stories Number
in Home" to 5, 10, 15, 20 , 25 and 30.
Go to admin/modules/settings.php and change at line 61[24]:
_________________________________________________________________
| |
| ."</td></tr><tr><td>" |
| .""._STORIESHOME.":</td><td><select name='xstoryhome'>"|
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>$storyhome</option>" |
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>5</option>" |
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>10</option>" |
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>15</option>" |
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>20</option>" |
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>25</option>" |
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>30</option>" |
| ."</select>" |
|_________________________________________________________________|
to
_________________________________________________________________
| |
| ."</td></tr><tr><td>" |
| .""._STORIESHOME.":</td><td><select name='xstoryhome'>"|
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>$storyhome</option>" |
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>3</option>" |
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>5</option>" |
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>10</option>" |
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>15</option>" |
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>20</option>" |
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>25</option>" |
| ."<option name='xstoryhome'>30</option>" |
| ."</select>" |
|_________________________________________________________________|
Now you can select "3" from the drop-down list. You get the idea. See How_to
set_an_arbitrary_"Stories_Number_in_Home".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19.2. How to allow HTML in the Newsletter
Figure 19-3. Administration panel: Newsletter.
Administration panel: Newsletter.
If you want to use HTML, instead of only plain text in the Newsletter from the
administration panel, you have to do the following:
Replace the function newsletter_send() in admin/modules/newsletter.php with:
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| function newsletter_send($title, $content) { |
| global $user_prefix, $sitename, $dbi, $nukeurl, $adminmail; |
| $send_html_messages = "yes"; |
| $from = $adminmail; |
| $subject = "[$sitename Newsletter]: ".stripslashes($title).""; |
| $content = stripslashes($content); |
| $content = "$sitename "._NEWSLETTER."\n\n\n$content\n\n- |
| $sitename "._STAFF."\n\n\n\n\n\n"._NLUNSUBSCRIBE.""; |
| $result = sql_query("select email from ".$user_prefix. |
| "_users where newsletter='1'", $dbi); |
| while(list($email) = sql_fetch_row($result, $dbi)) { |
| $xheaders = "From: " . $sitename . " <" . $adminmail . ">\n";|
| $xheaders .= "X-Sender: <" . $adminmail . ">\n"; |
| $xheaders .= "X-Mailer: PHP\n"; // mailer |
| $xheaders .= "X-Priority: 6\n"; // Urgent message! |
| if ($send_html_messages == "yes") { |
| $xheaders .= "Content-Type: text/html; |
| charset=iso-8859-1\n"; // Mime type |
| } |
| mail("$email","$subject","$content",$xheaders); |
| } |
| Header("Location: admin.php?op=newsletter_sent"); |
| } |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
and the function massmail_send() with
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| function massmail_send($title, $content) { |
| global $user_prefix, $sitename, $dbi, $nukeurl, $adminmail; |
| $send_html_messages = "yes"; |
| $from = $adminmail; |
| $subject = "[$sitename]: $title"; |
| $content = stripslashes($content); |
| $content = ""._FROM.": $sitename\n\n\n\n$content\n\n\n\n- |
| $sitename "._STAFF."\n\n\n\n"._MASSEMAILMSG.""; |
| $result = sql_query("select email from ".$user_prefix |
| ."_users where uid != '1'", $dbi); |
| while(list($email) = sql_fetch_row($result, $dbi)) { |
| $xheaders = "From: " . $sitename . " <" . $adminmail . ">\n";|
| $xheaders .= "X-Sender: <" . $adminmail . ">\n"; |
| $xheaders .= "X-Mailer: PHP\n"; // mailer |
| $xheaders .= "X-Priority: 6\n"; // Urgent message! |
| if ($send_html_messages == "yes") { |
| $xheaders .= "Content-Type: text/html; |
| charset=iso-8859-1\n"; // Mime type |
| } |
| mail("$email","$subject","$content",$xheaders); |
| } |
| Header("Location: admin.php?op=massmail_sent"); |
| } |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
The changes are in both functions the same: a flag, $send_html_messages, is
checked and if set to "yes", the headers of the Newsletter mails (stored in the
$xheaders variable) get an extra line for the MIME type:
_____________________________________________
| |
| Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1|
|_____________________________________________|
See also HTML_Newsletter, but be warned that the code presented in that link,
may not escape double quotes, probabbly due to an upgrade bug in the forums.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 20. Creating PHP-Nuke blocks
Figure 20-1. Administration panel: Blocks.
Administration panel: Blocks.
Having seen how to modify a PHP-Nuke block (Chapter_17), we can gradually try
our skills in creating one. We proceed by showing:
* The characteristics of the various types of blocks (Section_20.1),
* How to create a new block (Section_20.2),
* A simple Content block (Section_20.3),
* How to include PHP/HTML files in a PHP-Nuke block (Section_20.4),
* How to use Javascript in PHP-Nuke blocks (Section_20.5),
* How to display Flash in PHP-Nuke blocks (Section_20.6),
* How to show advertisements in PHP-Nuke blocks (Section_20.7),
* How to display images in PHP-Nuke blocks (Section_20.8),
* How to display HTML forms in a block: Paypal (Section_20.9).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.1. 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 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_20.2)
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:
* spaghettibrain.com
* spaghettiopen.com
* spaghettipython.com
The text will be formatted in this way in order to be inserted in the block
(see Figure_20-2):
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <B> webmaster </b> who writes this book manages the following sites: <b|
| ><br> |
| <a href="http://www.spaghettibrain.com">spaghettibrain.com</a> |
| <a href ="http://www.claudioerba.com">claudioerba.com</a> |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
Figure 20-2. Block example
Block example
Some Small HTML lessons:
<b>
It is for bold text, it opens a tag. All words that we write after this
tag will be bold until </B> (which closes the tag).
<br>
It is for a page break, it does not need to be closed.
<ahref="http://siteyouwant.com">SiteName</a>
is used to open the http://siteyouwant.com.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.2. 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.
We describe:
* How to create a block, theoretical approach (Section_20.2.1),
* How to create a block, a practical example (Section_20.2.2).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.2.1. 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:
_______________________________________________________
| |
 | <a href="modules.php?op=modload&name=FAQ&file=index">|
|_______________________________________________________|
must be written:
_______________________________________________________________
| |
| <a href="modules.php?op=modload&name=FAQ&file=index">|
|_______________________________________________________________|
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.2.2. 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
_______
| |
| <?php|
|_______|
Then we insert the protection script we've seen before:
___________________________________________
| |
| if (eregi("block-hits.php", $PHP_SELF)) {|
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
| die(); |
| } |
|___________________________________________|
And now we insert the variables that we want to call (in this case the
parameter $prefix and $dbi, which handles the database abstraction):
_______________________
| |
| global $prefix, $dbi;|
|_______________________|
Now we continue inserting the query that reads from the database how many pages
were seen in our site: (the instruction would be “read the first line value of
the table nuke_counter in the cell countâ€)
____________________________________________________________
| |
| $result = sql_query("select count from "$prefix."_counter |
| order by type desc limit 0.1", $dbi);|
| list($count) = sql_fetch_row($result, $dbi); |
|____________________________________________________________|
Finally, we pass the “$content†variable that will be echoed by the block and
close the PHP tag:
____________________
| |
| $content. = $count|
| ?> |
|____________________|
Our complete script will be :
____________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (eregi("block-hits,php", $PHP_SELF)) { |
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
| die(); |
| } |
| global $prefix, $dbi; |
| $result = sql_query("select count from "$prefix."_counter |
| order by type desc limit 0.1", $dbi);|
| list($count) = sql_fetch_row($result, $dbi); |
| $content. = $count |
| ?> |
|____________________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.3. Simple Content block
Figure 20-3. Administration panel: Content.
Administration panel: Content.
PHP-Nuke comes with a Content module (Figure_20-3). But how about a Content
block? How to display links to Content pages in a PHP-Nuke block? A block may
be desirable in case you wish to place a link summary of the Content module's
er...content, somewhere in the left, central or right columns.
After you have created the desired categories for the Content module, you can
then go to http://yoursite.com/admin.php?op=content and start adding pages to
the categories. To find out the link to these pages, you will have to click on
the Content link in the modules block, view each page and copy its url from the
browser's address window, then just add these urls to a html block with maybe
the following HTML code:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <b><big>·</big></b> <img src=images/blocks/icon_dot.gif>|
| <a href="modules.php?name=Content...etc...1">Page Title 1</a><BR> |
| <b><big>·</big></b> <img src=images/blocks/icon_dot.gif>|
| <a href="modules.php?name=Content...etc...2">Page Title 2</a><BR> |
| <b><big>·</big></b> <img src=images/blocks/icon_dot.gif>|
| <a href="modules.php?name=Content...etc...3">Page Title 3</a><BR> |
| <b><big>·</big></b> <img src=images/blocks/icon_dot.gif>|
| <a href="modules.php?name=Content...etc...4">Page Title 4</a><BR> |
| <b><big>·</big></b> <img src=images/blocks/icon_dot.gif>|
| <a href="modules.php?name=Content...etc...5">Page Title 5</a><BR> |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
A block that does the job is the following:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (eregi("block-Content.php",$PHP_SELF)) { |
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
| die(); |
| } |
| $content = " <b><big>·</big></b> <img src=images/ |
| blocks/icon_dot.gif> |
| <a href=\"modules.php?name=Content...etc...1\">Page Title 1</a><BR>";|
| $content .= "nbsp; <b><big>·</big></b> <img src=images/blocks/|
| icon_dot.gif> |
| <a href=\"modules.php?name=Content...etc...2\">Page Title 2</a><BR>";|
| $content .= "nbsp; <b><big>·</big></b> <img src=images/blocks/|
| icon_dot.gif> |
| <a href=\"modules.php?name=Content...etc...3\">Page Title 3</a><BR>";|
| $content .= "nbsp; <b><big>·</big></b> <img src=images/blocks/|
| icon_dot.gif> |
| <a href=\"modules.php?name=Content...etc...4\">Page Title 4</a><BR>";|
| $content .= "nbsp; <b><big>·</big></b> <img src=images/blocks/|
| icon_dot.gif> |
| <a href=\"modules.php?name=Content...etc...5\">Page Title 5</a><BR>";|
| ?> |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
Name it block-Content, put it in the blocks folder, then "create" it in the
blocks administration (see Section_7.1).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.4. How to include PHP/HTML files in a PHP-Nuke block
Suppose you want to write a block, block-bar.php, that includes the file foo/
bar.php. The way PHP-Nuke displays a block is that it first includes the block,
with a statement like
__________________________________
| |
| include("blocks/block-bar.php");|
|__________________________________|
then makes a table and puts in the title, and makes another table row, and
"echo"es the $content variable. Thus, the $content variable must contain all
the output of foo/bar.php, if your block has to contain its output. The PHP
output control functions come in here very handy. The PHP_output_control
functions allow you to control when output is sent from the script. This can be
useful in various situations, especially if you need to send headers to the
browser after your script has began outputting data. The output control
functions (or output buffering functions, as they are often called and as the
ob_ prefix in their name suggests) do not affect headers sent using header() or
setcookie(), only functions such as echo() and data between blocks of PHP code.
Output buffering is a powerful tool in PHP which allows you to buffer a
script's output. You can even edit this buffer before returning it to the
client. The PHP functions that constitute the output buffering toolbox are:
* ob_start([callback function]) - Starts an output buffering session.
* ob_flush() - Send the contents of the buffer to the client and clear the
buffer.
* ob_get_contents() - Returns the contents of the buffer. The buffer is not
cleared.
* ob_end_clean() - Ends the current buffering session and purges the buffer.
* ob_end_flush() - Ends the current buffering session and displays the buffer.
* ob_get_length() - (Version >= 4.0.2) Return the size of the current buffer.
* ob_get_clean() - (Version >= 4.3) Composite of ob_get_contents() and
* ob_end_clean(). The buffer is returned and the session ends.
How can we use output buffering to include the output of foo/bar.php in our
PHP-Nuke block? The idea is simple: rather than having PHP send output directly
to the standard output device (the browser) as the script gets executed, we
will define a special output buffer which stores all the output generated by
the script during its lifetime. When we do this, the output of the script is
never seen by the user unless we explicitly make the contents of this buffer
visible via a call to PHP's output control API (through one of the above
functions). We put the foo folder in the main phpnuke directory, and use this
code our block:
______________________________
| |
| ob_start(); |
| include("foo/bar.php"); |
| $output = ob_get_contents();|
| ob_end_clean(); |
| $content = $output; |
|______________________________|
This way the $content variable will contain the output of foo/bar.php, which
will thus be shown in the block. To learn more about PHP output buffering, see
Output_Buffering_with_PHP and PHP_Output_Buffering_tutorial. See also Scripting
a_new_Block_Problem, for a complete example of including a PHP scoring
application in a PHP-Nuke block.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.5. How to use Javascript in PHP-Nuke blocks
Javascript can be used with PHP-Nuke without problems, as long as you remember
that they operate in different environments (see Frames,_JavaScript,_and_PHP
Overview):
* PHP-Nuke, like PHP, is server side. Therefore, if you want to pass data from
a form to PHP-Nuke, you have to submit it and load the page again. There is
no getting around it.
* Javascript is client side (run in the browser), and can help you with dynamic
functionality. You can easily use JavaScript and PHP-Nuke together. However,
just like PHP, PHP-Nuke knows nothing about Javascript. PHP-Nuke will just
echo the Javascript code to the HTML page, just as it would echo the value of
a string variable.
Thus, from the point of view of PHP and PHP-Nuke, there is no difference
between
_____________________________
| |
| <?php |
| echo 'Welcome to PHP-Nuke';|
| ?> |
|_____________________________|
and
__________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| echo '<script type="text/javascript"> |
| <!-- |
| if ( 1 ) { |
| window.open(\'modules.php?name=News\', \'_WELCOME\',|
| \'HEIGHT=450, resizable=yes, WIDTH=600\'); |
| } |
| //--> |
| </script>'; |
| ?> |
|__________________________________________________________|
They both echo strings, of which the first one is simply displayed in the
client's browser as a welcome message, while the second one is interpreted by
the client's browser and leads to the browser sending a request for the News
module, which in turn sends the usual home page of a PHP-Nuke site to be
displayed on the client.
With this in mind, Javascript does not demand any special treatment when used
in PHP-Nuke blocks. Just append the Javascript code to the $content variable of
the block and you are done. Of course, you have to escape double quotes - and
it is a good idea to add a newline (\n) to the end of each Javascript line (see
Javascript_and_BLOCKs).
If you use sed, the following sequence of sed commands, applied to a Javascript
file, will produce the right PHP code to include in the PHP-Nuke block:
_______________________________
| |
| 1,$s/"/\\"/g (1) |
| 1,$s/^/\$content \.= "/ (2) |
| 1,$s/$/";/ (3) |
| 1,$s/";$/\\n";/ (4) |
|_______________________________|
_(1)_
Escape all double quotes.
_(2)_
Add the string '$content .= "' at the start of every line.
_(3)_
Add the string '";' at the end of every line.
_(4)_
Add a newline \n at the end of each JS line.
You can put them in a file, sedscr, and tell sed to read sedscr for commands,
while editing the original Javascript file (javascript):
_________________________________________________
| |
| sed -f sedscr javascript > block-Javascript.php|
|_________________________________________________|
Of course, you can use vi (Section_11.1) too - see Section_21.9.1 for a similar
example - or just do the substitutions manually. The examples in this section
demonstrate what you have to do (see also Javascript_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block):
* How to create a Hello World block (Section_20.5.1),
* How to create a fade block (Section_20.5.2),
* How to create a Help Center Live block (Section_20.5.3).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.5.1. How to create a Hello World block
Figure 20-4. Hello World block with Javascript.
Hello World block with Javascript.
We will start with a very simple block, one that just displays “Hello Worldâ€.
Once you get the idea, you will be able to construct any Javascript block for
PHP-Nuke - they all follow the same rules.
We will keep the Javascript code in a separate file, say hello-world.php, in
the PHP-Nuke includes directory. The includes directory is a natural place for
it, because it also contains the javascript.php file (see Section_21.9.1). You
can use the javascript.php file to store your own Javascript functions (as
shown in Javascript_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block), but for this simple example, hello-
world.php is more than enough. It contains only a few lines:
_________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| echo ' |
| document.write("Hello World!");|
| '; |
| ?> |
|_________________________________|
Now, create a block, block-Hello_World.php, in the blocks folder that contains:
___________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (eregi("block-Hello_World.php",$_SERVER[PHP_SELF])) { |
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
| die(); |
| } |
| $content.="<center><script language=\"JavaScript\" |
| src=\"includes/hello-world.php\"></script></center></b>";|
| ?> |
|___________________________________________________________|
As you can see, block-Hello_World.php loads the hello-world.php from the
includes folder as a Javascript code. hello-world.php, in turn, is executed and
echoes the document.write command in the HTML file that is sent to the client's
browser. When a the browser receives it (and has Javascript enabled), executes
the code writing the "Hello World" message in the place it was called - in the
Hello World block.
Using this technique, you can create blocks that are very rich in functionality
- just echo their code with a PHP file and call that file as Javascript code
from the block. See Section_20.5.3 for a non-trivial example.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.5.2. How to create a fade block
So you have seen this cool fade effect on a site and you decided to incorporate
it in a PHP-Nuke block on your site too? I mean that effect that makes the
image fade gradually away, when you pass over it with the mouse cursor - and
comes again gradually back the next time you revisit it with the mouse cursor.
Before you plunge into this, consider that it is just an effect - and one that
will work only with Internet Explorer. If you still feel you must have it, here
is the PHP-Nuke block that demonstrates this fade effect:
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (eregi("block-Fade.php",$PHP_SELF)) { |
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
| die(); |
| } |
| $content .= "<script> \n"; |
| $content .= "\n"; |
| $content .= "/* \n"; |
| $content .= "Gradual-Highlight Image Script II- \n"; |
| $content .= "By J. Mark Birenbaum (birenbau@ugrad.cs.ualberta.ca) \n"; |
| $content .= "Permission granted to Dynamicdrive.com to feature script in |
| archive \n"; |
| $content .= "For full source to script, visit http://dynamicdrive.com \n";|
| $content .= "*/ \n"; |
| $content .= "\n"; |
| $content .= "nereidFadeObjects = new Object(); \n"; |
| $content .= "nereidFadeTimers = new Object(); \n"; |
| $content .= "\n"; |
| $content .= "/* object - image to be faded (actual object, not name); \n";|
| $content .= "* destop - destination transparency level (ie 80, for mostly |
| solid) \n"; |
| $content .= "* rate - time in milliseconds between trasparency changes |
| (best under 100) \n"; |
| $content .= "* delta - amount of change each time (ie 5, for 5% change in |
| transparency) \n"; |
| $content .= "*/ \n"; |
| $content .= "\n"; |
| $content .= "function nereidFade(object, destOp, rate, delta){ \n"; |
| $content .= "if (!document.all) \n"; |
| $content .= "return \n"; |
| $content .= "if (object != \"[object]\"){ //do this so I can take a string|
| too \n"; |
| $content .= "setTimeout(\"nereidFade |
| (\"+object+\",\"+destOp+\",\"+rate+\",\"+delta+\")\",0); \n"; |
| $content .= "return; \n"; |
| $content .= "} \n"; |
| $content .= "\n"; |
| $content .= "clearTimeout(nereidFadeTimers[object.sourceIndex]); \n"; |
| $content .= "\n"; |
| $content .= "diff = destOp-object.filters.alpha.opacity; \n"; |
| $content .= "direction = 1; \n"; |
| $content .= "if (object.filters.alpha.opacity > destOp){ \n"; |
| $content .= "direction = -1; \n"; |
| $content .= "} \n"; |
| $content .= "delta=Math.min(direction*diff,delta); \n"; |
| $content .= "object.filters.alpha.opacity+=direction*delta; \n"; |
| $content .= "\n"; |
| $content .= "if (object.filters.alpha.opacity != destOp){ \n"; |
| $content .= "nereidFadeObjects[object.sourceIndex]=object; \n"; |
| $content .= "nereidFadeTimers[object.sourceIndex]=setTimeout |
| (\"nereidFade(nereidFadeObjects[\"+object.sourceIndex+\"],\"+destOp+\", |
| \"+rate+\",\"+delta+\")\",rate);\n"; |
| $content .= "\n"; |
| $content .= "} \n"; |
| $content .= "} \n"; |
| $content .= "\n"; |
| $content .= "</script> \n"; |
| $content .= "<center><img src=\"images/xxx.png\" |
| style=\"filter:alpha(opacity=10)\" onmouseover=\"nereidFade |
| (this,100,30,5)\" |
| onmouseout=\"nereidFade(this,10,50,5)\"></center>"; |
| ?> |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
This is an adaptation of the Dynamic_Highlight_II_Script, by J Mark Birenbaum,
that just appends the Javascript code in the $content variable of a PHP-Nuke
block. You can adjust some parameters, such as the transparency level, the time
between trasparency changes and amount of change each time - see the comments
in the script's code. You should of course at least adapt the image source file
(images/xxx.png in the code) to your situation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.5.3. How to create a Help Center Live block
We will now move on to consider a block that can integrate the whole
functionality of a Help Center: the Help Center Live block for PHP-Nuke. Help
Center_Live is an Open Source Application that is distributed under the GNU
Genreal Public License (GPL). It helps you build a real support department for
your business. With Help Center Live you can:
* Create online accounts for your departments.
* Create online accounts for your support operators and assign them to
departments.
* Create FAQs for your customers.
* If an operator is online, he can see which hosts currently view the company's
page and can initiate chat sessions with those hosts.
* If someone from a support department is online (has logged in Help Center
Live), the visitors browsing the company's page can see this and initiate a
chat session with that support person. Thus, a customer can directly contact
support personnel and seek a solution to his problem.
* At the end of the chat session, a transcript of the session can be sent to
the participants, at e-mail addresses of their choice.
* If nobody from the support department(s) is online, the visitor still has the
possibility to issue a trouble ticket.
* Trouble tickets are tracked through a database and there exists a
sophisticated backend for dealing with them.
How can you incorporate all this functionality into your PHP-Nuke site?
At first, you must install Help Center Live on our site, or, if we only want to
test it, local system. For this, download the package from Help_Center_Live and
extract its contents into some folder of your web root, say under /helpcenter.
Then you must edit the config.php file in the inc directory of that folder with
the decent text editor (Chapter_11) of your choice. There are various
parameters you can set up there, but the most important are the $URL_* ones
___________________________________________
| |
| $URL_site = "midas"; |
| $URL_dir = "/helpcenter/"; |
| $URL_maindir = "http://midas/helpcenter";|
| $URL_secure = 0; |
|___________________________________________|
as well as the DB_* ones:
________________________________
| |
| $DB_host = "localhost"; |
| $DB_user = "db user here"; |
| $DB_pass = "db password here";|
| $DB_name = "db name here"; |
| $DB_prefix = "prefix here"; |
| $DB_pconnect = 0; |
|________________________________|
The $DB_host, $DB_user, $DB_pass and $DB_name variables could be the same as
the $dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass and $dbname variables in config.php respectively
(see Section_3.7), although not necessarily so.
Tip Terminate the DB_prefix with an underscore!
If you use a $DB_prefix, make sure it ends in an underscore (_),
 otherwise it will be directly concatenated with the table names,
rendering them difficult to tell apart.
The $URL_site, $URL_dir and $URL_secure variables are only used in calls to the
PHP_setcookie()_function:
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| setcookie("Help Center LiveUser", $INFO_username, $time, $URL_dir,|
| $URL_site, $URL_secure); |
|____________________________________________________________________|
Calls to setcookie() like the above are scattered throughout the code - Table
20-1 lists all files and lines containing such calls. If you experience the
infamous login loop problem, it is probably because the setcookie() function
was not able to set the cookie on the client.
Table 20-1. Help Center Live: setcookie() calls
_____________________________________________________________________________
|File________________|setcookie()_call________________________________________|
|cp/logout.php |setcookie("HelpCenterLiveOperator", $LOGIN_username, |
|____________________|$time,_$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);_______________|
|cp/logout.php |setcookie("HelpCenterLivePassword", $LOGIN_password, |
|____________________|$time,_$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);_______________|
|cp/login.php |setcookie("HelpCenterLiveOperator", $LOGIN_username, |
|____________________|$time,_$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);_______________|
|cp/login.php |setcookie("HelpCenterLivePassword", $LOGIN_password, |
|____________________|$time,_$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);_______________|
|lh/live_request.php |setcookie("HelpCenterLiveGuest", $REQUEST_name, $time, |
|____________________|$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);______________________|
|lh/live_request.php |setcookie("HelpCenterLiveGuest", $REQUEST_delname, |
|____________________|$deltime,_$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);____________|
|lh/live_request.php |setcookie("HelpCenterLiveGuest", $REQUEST_name, $time, |
|____________________|$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);______________________|
|lh/live_mail.php |setcookie("HelpCenterLiveUser", $LOGIN_username, $time, |
|____________________|$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);______________________|
|lh/live_mail.php |setcookie("HelpCenterLivePass", $LOGIN_password, $time, |
|____________________|$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);______________________|
|tt/user_register.php|setcookie("Help Center LiveUser", $REGISTER_username, |
|____________________|$time,_$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);_______________|
|tt/user_register.php|setcookie("Help Center LivePass", $REGISTER_password, |
|____________________|$time,_$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);_______________|
|tt/user_login.php |setcookie("HelpCenterLiveUser", $LOGIN_username, $time, |
|____________________|$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);______________________|
|tt/user_login.php |setcookie("HelpCenterLivePass", $LOGIN_password, $time, |
|____________________|$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);______________________|
|tt/user_logout.php |setcookie("HelpCenterLiveUser", $LOGIN_username, $time, |
|____________________|$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);______________________|
|tt/user_logout.php |setcookie("HelpCenterLivePass", $LOGIN_password, $time, |
|____________________|$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);______________________|
|tt/user_info.php |setcookie("Help Center LiveUser", $INFO_username, $time,|
|____________________|$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);______________________|
|tt/user_info.php |setcookie("Help Center LivePass", $INFO_password, $time,|
|____________________|$URL_dir,_$URL_site,_$URL_secure);______________________|
This happens if, for example, you are installing Help Center Live locally, and
the host name for $URL_site is taken from a hosts file and not from DNS. One
way to get around this is to change all calls to setcookie() listed in Table
20-1 and take out the last two parameters, $URL_site and $URL_secure, as in the
following example:
_____________________________________________________________________
| |
| setcookie("Help Center LiveUser", $INFO_username, $time, $URL_dir);|
|_____________________________________________________________________|
After the installation of Help Center Live, you can point your browser to the
address you entered for $URL_maindir (http://midas/helpcenter, in our example)
and, after a successful login, you will be presented with the main screen
(Figure_20-5).
Figure 20-5. Help Center Live: Main screen.
Help Center Live: Main screen.
Now, create a PHP-Nuke block that uses the method of our Hello World example in
Section_20.5.1 to incorporate Help Center Live's functionality:
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (eregi("block-Online_Support.php",$_SERVER[PHP_SELF])) { |
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
| die(); |
| } |
| $content.="<center><script language=\"JavaScript\" |
| src=\"http://midas/helpcenter/lh/live.php\"></script></center></b>";|
| ?> |
|______________________________________________________________________|
We named the block above "block-Online_Support", but of course you can use
whatever title you like, as long as it is passed as the "needle" string to the
eregi() function of the block. The main code consists of only one line, which
inserts a Javascript code, whose source file is the lh/live.php PHP script of
Help Center Live. We did the same in Section_20.5.1 to output a Hello World
message, but now, this simple line opens a whole world of possibilities for our
PHP-Nuke page! Let's see what happens when we activate the Online Support block
we just created:
As long as all Help Center operators are logged off, the block will display a
“Live Support is Offline†message, as in Figure_20-6.
Figure 20-6. Help Center Live block: Live Support is Offline.
Help Center Live block: Live Support is Offline.
In this case, a click on the arrow in the block's inside will open a window
that gives the customer the possibility to enter a trouble ticket (Figure_20-
7). The window also offers a link to the FAQ and offers the choice to refer to
an existing trouble ticket or create a new one.
Figure 20-7. Help Center Live block: Creating a trouble ticket.
Help Center Live block: Creating a trouble ticket.
On the other side, if some support operator is online and has launched the
request monitor (which opens a window for the operator, displaying the live
connections he is currently maintaining), the block will display it with a
“Live Support is Online!†message (Figure_20-8).
Figure 20-8. Help Center Live block: Live Support is Online.
Help Center Live block: Live Support is Online.
The request monitor, on the operator's side, will display all hosts that are
currently viewing the PHP-Nuke page with the Online Support block showing the
“Live Support is Online!†message (Figure_20-9). In other words, both users and
operators are informed of each other's online presence.
Figure 20-9. Help Center Live block: Request monitor for the operator.
Help Center Live block: Request monitor for the operator.
Now - and this adds a tremendous value to that tiny block we just created -
each side can initiate an online chat with the other part:
The operator can click on the “Initiate†link and, after selecting the
aproppriate department, initiate a chat with the selected user. The user will
get pop-up window, notifying him of the operator's wish for a chat (Figure_20-
10). The user can then decide whether to accept or decline the chat request.
Figure 20-10. Help Center Live block: User notification of the operator's chat
request.
Help Center Live block: User notification of the operator's chat request.
On the user's side, everybody can click on the arrow besides the “Online!â€
message in the Online Support block. This will initiate a chat request on
behalf of the user (Figure_20-11). The operator will get a pop-up window
notifying him of the user's request, which he can accept or decline as well.
Figure 20-11. Help Center Live block: User chat request.
Help Center Live block: User chat request.
Either way, initiating from the operator's or user's side, a chat session
starts between the two, hopefully leading to the solution of the user's
problem. A transcript of the chat can be sent to an e-mail address of the
participant's choice for future reference.
This completes our brief review of Help Center Live's features. If you have a
look at the code of the Online Support block above and the code of the Hello
World block in Section_20.5.1, you will see that they both use the same method
to incorporate functionality in a PHP-Nuke block through Javascript. The method
is the same, but what a huge difference in functionality! There, a simple
“Hello World†output - here, a full-featured Help Center! This demonstrates the
broad spectrum of possibilities that a simple line like
_____________________________________________________________________
| |
| $content.="<center><script language=\"JavaScript\" |
| src=\"Some <acronym>PHP</acronym> script\"></script></center></b>";|
|_____________________________________________________________________|
can offer, when used intelligently in a PHP-Nuke block with Javascript.
Note Help Center Live is looking for a sponsor!
HCL is getting well over a million hits per month and its on a huge
increase keeping in mind that Fantastico now has HCL as a featured
script for install. Mike, the developer of HCL, offers it under the GPL
 - however, he is looking for sponsor to help him continue its
development for free and cope with the ever-increasing hosting fees and
other expenses. Please contact Mike, if you are interested and serious
about sponsoring HCL.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.6. How to display Flash in PHP-Nuke blocks
To show Flash in a PHP-Nuke block, you simply have to include the appropriate
HTML code in the $content variable. Since the HTML code is something like
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| <object classid=\"clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000\" |
| codebase=\"http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/ |
| flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0\" width=\"350\" height=\"100\">|
| <param name=\"movie\" value=\"yourMovie.swf\"> |
| <param name=quality value=high> |
| <embed src=\"yourMovie.swf\" quality=high |
| pluginspage=\"http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/ |
| download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash\" |
| type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" |
| width=\"350\" height=\"100\"></embed> |
| </object> |
|____________________________________________________________________|
the PHP-Nuke block code should be something like
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| $content = "<object classid=\"clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000\"|
| codebase=\"http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/ |
| flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0\" width=\"350\" height=\"100\"> " |
| ."<param name=\"movie\" value=\"yourMovie.swf\"> " |
| ."<param name=quality value=high> " |
| ."<embed src=\"yourMovie.swf\" quality=high |
| pluginspage=\"http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/ |
| download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash\" |
| type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" |
| width=\"350\" height=\"100\"></embed>" |
| ."</object>"; |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
See Section_14.3.8 on how to display Flash in the PHP-Nuke header, like a
banner.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.7. How to show advertisements in PHP-Nuke blocks
Advertisements are a popular source of revenue for webmasters. It doesn't take
long until the young webmaster feels attracted to the sirene call of affiliate
programs, banners or context relevant advertising.
Advertisements are often created through the use of a Javascript function,
called at the right place in the HTML code. We have already treated the subject
of Javascript in PHP-Nuke blocks (see Section_20.5) and modules (see Section
21.9) and seen that Javascript does not pose any special problems with PHP-
Nuke. However, due to the increasing popularity of Google's AdSense program,
there has been an increasing demand for ready-to-use solutions in the PHP-Nuke
field. The following code examples should be seen as representative examples of
how such advertising functionality can be incorporated in PHP-Nuke blocks. You
can use them as starting point for similar_advertising_solutions, as offered by
today's modern search engines or affiliate programs.
Tip Ready-to-use Google AdSense Block
If you don't feel like writing your own Google AdSense block, just use a
 ready-made one! Go to http://home.vie4life.com/downloads-cat-13.html and
download a ready-to-use AdSense block.
Create a block called block-AdSense.php and add the following in the file:
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (eregi("block-AdSense.php",$PHP_SELF)) { |
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
| die(); |
| } |
| ?> |
| <script language="JavaScript"> |
| <!-- |
| google_ad_client = 'your client-number'; |
| google_ad_width = 468; |
| google_ad_height = 60; |
| google_ad_format = '468X60_as'; |
| google_color_border = "E5E5E5"; |
| google_color_bg = "E5E5E5"; |
| google_color_link = "336699"; |
| google_color_url = "000000"; |
| google_color_text = "000000"; |
| // --> |
| </script> |
| <?php |
| $content .= "<center><script language=\"JavaScript\" |
| src=\"http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js\">";|
| $content .= "</script></center>"; |
| ?> |
|____________________________________________________________________|
Important Don't forget:
 Add your Google client number in the script.
Activate the AdSense block in your administration panel (see Section_9.4) by
clicking on the “Blocks†links and choosing it from the blocks list as a new
block.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.8. How to display images in PHP-Nuke blocks
Blocks offer a quick way to incorporate content in PHP-Nuke. They are happily
used to display images, since they can be placed anywhere in the three layout
columns - and their position can be comfortably changed from the administration
panel. A very common use of blocks in PHP-Nuke is to display dynamic images,
i.e. images that change depending on some parameter of dynamic nature, most
offen time: a daily quote, a daily weather forecast or a daily comic.
Most of the time you will not be the original author of the quote, forecast or
comic. You will want to fetch this content from some popular source on the
Internet.
Important Before you proceed: think on copyright!
We will describe the tecnology that allows you to use somebody
else's work to make your site more beautiful, attractive or
 informative. This almost certainly touches that person's copyright.
Please take the time to read the admonition on copyright in Section
8.2.3!
PHP enables you to read a remote URL, store its whole content in one (!)
variable, then search the contents of the variable for any regular expression
(for regular expressions, see Section_25.3). We will use this technique to find
out the filename of the User_Friendly daily comic strip, in order to display it
in a PHP-Nuke block. This UserFriendly_block reads the User_Friendly_daily
cartoon_page line by line, searches for the pattern
_________________________________________________________________
| |
| whatever<IMG ALT="Latest Strip"whateverSRC="imagefile">whatever|
|_________________________________________________________________|
extracts the location of the image file (imagefile) from it and displays it in
the block. The PHP_code_of_the_User_Friendly_block is a classic example of how
you can do this “scrapping†in PHP (-Nuke):
_________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (eregi("block-User_Friendly.php",$PHP_SELF)) { (1) |
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
| die(); |
| } |
| $ufurl = "http://www.userfriendly.org/static/"; (2) |
| $content = "<i>ufurl:</i> $ufurl<br>"; |
| $imagefile = ""; (3) |
| if (!($textfile = fopen( "$ufurl", "r"))) { (4) |
| $content .= "$ufurl<br> could not be opened<br>"; (5) |
| die(); |
| } |
| while (!feof($textfile)) { (6) |
| $line = fgets($textfile, 1500); (7) |
| if (eregi( ".*<IMG ALT=\"Latest Strip\".*SRC=\"(.*)\">.*", $line, |
| $out)) { (8) |
| $imagefile = $out[1]; (9) |
| break; |
| } |
| } |
| fclose($textfile); |
| $content = "<p align=center>"; |
| $content .= "<A HREF=\"http://www.userfriendly.org\" target=\"_blank\">|
| <IMG SRC=\"$imagefile\" alt=\"User Friendly by Illiad\"></A>"; (10) |
| ?> |
|_________________________________________________________________________|
where "whatever" may be any content, including space. The regular
expression contains a subexpression in the place of the image filename.
This results in the file name being stored in the $out array, as its
first element.
_(9)_
We copy the first element the $out array to the $imagefile variable. By
construction of the regular expression above, $imagefile now contains the
image filename of the daily comic strip. We only have to display it!
_(10)_
We echo an image anchor using as source the filename we just "scrapped"
from our source page. This displays the daily comic strip without
fetching the image to our web server (hot linking!).
A similar technique is used in news aggregators, like the MyHeadlines module
(see Section_8.3.9), that “scrap†news sources for pieces of dynamic
information that are not otherwise available (i.e. not available as RSS/RDF
news feeds), see Template_Based_Scraping. For each source page, a regular
expression is stored in a table. Its subexpressions will automatically store
the dynamic information pieces that are of interest to us in the elements of
some $out array. We would then only have to display those elements for each
source.
Tip Quod medicina aliis, aliis est acre venenum[25]
If you are an artist whose images are being hot-linked with the above
methods without your permission, you are certainly not excited. But don't
 despair! You can defend your work with a simple technique that requires
only the Apache mod_rewrite module and a few lines in your .htaccess
file. See Section_25.6.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.8.1. How to display random images in PHP-Nuke blocks
We now move to a more advanced example of a PHP-Nuke block: a block that
displays random images. Suppose you have a collection of images in a directory
of your webserver and would like to display a random image each time in a PHP-
Nuke block. Using PHP-Nuke's own positioning capabilities for blocks (in the
administration panel, from the “Blocks†link, see Section_7.1), you can achieve
an almost arbitrary positioning of random images in your page - a functionality
that could be used to display whatever visual content you like, ranging from a
“daily babe†to a random skyscraper banner.
To create a random image block for PHP-Nuke, proceed as follows (see Random
Picture_Block):
Make a script called block-RandomPics.php and put it in the blocks folder. The
code for block-RandomPics.php is:
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| $content=""; |
| if (eregi("block-RandomPics.php",$PHP_SELF)) { |
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
| die(); |
| } |
| // $whereimgs has to be in the Domain (like localhost area) |
| // or put ../ in front of folder name |
| $whereimgs = "../pictures"; |
| mt_srand((double)microtime()*1000000); |
| $imgs = dir($whereimgs); |
| while ($file = $imgs->read()) { |
| if (eregi("gif", $file) || eregi("jpg", $file)) { |
| $imglist .= "$file "; |
| } |
| } |
| closedir($imgs->handle); |
| $imglist = explode(" ", $imglist); |
| $a = sizeof($imglist)-2; |
| $random = mt_rand(0, $a); |
| $image = $imglist[$random]; |
| $asin = explode(".", $image); |
| $content = ""; |
| $content .= "<center><a href=\"PicShow.php?show=".$whereimgs."/$image\">";|
| $content .= "<img src=\"".$whereimgs."/$image\" border=\"0\" |
| width=\"120\" alt=\"\"><br><br>"; |
| $content .= "Click for full picture.</a><BR></center>"; |
| ?> |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
The block-RandomPics.php block reads all .gif's and .jpg's from the $whereimgs
directory into an array ($imglist), computes a random index between 0 and the
maximum array index ($a) and uses the random index to select an image name from
the array. It then writes some HTML code to display a thumbnail of 120 pixels
width with a ling to the original picture. The link itself passes the show
parameters on the URL as the concatenation of the $whereimgs directory and the
random image name ($image) to a script we still have to write, PicShow.php.
Tip The right images path
Taking into account that block-RandomPics.php has to be located in the blocks
folder, then, if your images folder is the folder “pictures†under the “PHP-Nuke
 root†directory (i.e. under the same directory where mainfile.php, index.php,
config.php etc. are located), then you have to prepend a “../†to “picturesâ€, as
we did in the code, assuming that you don't want to give an absolute, fully
qualified URL there.
For PicShow.php, which is the script that will show the full image, we have to
write code that behaves just like a standard PHP-Nuke module (but without any
administration functions), so you can see it as an example of a minimal module:
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (!isset($mainfile)) { include("mainfile.php"); } |
| $index = 0; |
| include("header.php"); |
| OpenTable(); |
| $sl = $show; |
| echo " |
| <center><h3><a href=\"javascript:history.back()\">Go back!<br><br>|
| <img src=$sl border=\"2\"></a></h3> |
| </center>"; |
| closetable(); |
| include("footer.php"); |
| ?> |
|____________________________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.9. How to display HTML forms in a block: Paypal
A lot of sites have a block, asking for donations through PayPal. It is easy to
construct your own, all you need is get an account from PayPal, then construct
an HTML form that contains your data, for example:
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Help keep our web site online with a donation! |
| <form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> |
| <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick"> |
| <input type="hidden" name="business" value="My email"> |
| <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="My Homepage"> |
| <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="10.00"> |
| <input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="1"> |
| <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD"> |
| <input type="hidden" name="tax" value="0"> |
| <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/images/x-click-but04.gif" |
| border="0" |
| name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it"s fast, free and |
| secure!"> |
| </form> |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
The meaning of the form fields is the following:
cmd:
Must be set to "_xclick" (required).
business:
This is your PayPal ID, or email address, where payments will be sent.
This email address must be confirmed and linked to your Verified Business
or Premier account. (required).
item_name:
Description of donation (maximum 127 characters). If omitted, donor will
see a field in which they have the option of entering an Item Name
(optional).
amount:
The price or amount of the purchase, not including shipping, handling, or
tax. If omitted, this value will be editable by the buyer at the time of
purchase (optional).
no_note:
Including a note with payment. If set to 1, your customer will not be
prompted to include a note. If omitted or set to 0, your customer will be
prompted to include a note (optional).
currency_code:
The currency of the payment. Defines the currency in which the monetary
variables (amount, shipping, shipping2, handling, tax) are denoted.
Possible values are USD (U.S. Dollar), EUR (Euro), GBP (Pound Sterling),
CAD (Canadian Dollar), JPY (Yen). If omitted, all monetary fields will be
interpreted as U.S. Dollars (optional).
tax:
Transaction-based tax override variable. Set to a flat tax amount you
would like to apply to the transaction regardless of the buyer s
location. If present, this value overrides any tax settings that may be
set in the seller s Profile. If omitted, Profile tax settings (if any)
will apply (optional).
Tip PayPal hyperlink variables
There are many more hyperlink variables that you can use in your PayPal
 block, covering all aspects of a donation transaction. You should consult
the PayPal_Donations_Manual, to learn about all the possibilities!
Figure 20-12. PayPal donation button
PayPal donation button
Pasting the code above into your website would generate a button that looks
like Figure_20-12. To create a block out of this HTML Form, all we have to do
is add the obligatory check for the block name, transform all lines to strings
and append them to the $content variable, taking care to escape all double
quotes between the string quotes:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (eregi("block-Donations.php",$PHP_SELF)) { |
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
| die(); |
| } |
| $content = "Help keep our web site online with a donation!"; |
| $content .= "form action=\"https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr\" |
| method=\"post\">"; |
| $content .= "input type=\"hidden\" name=\"cmd\" value=\"_xclick\">"; |
| $content .= "input type=\"hidden\" name=\"business\" value=\"My email\">";|
| $content .= "input type=\"hidden\" name=\"item_name\" value=\"My |
| Homepage\">"; |
| $content .= "input type=\"hidden\" name=\"amount\" value=\"10.00\">"; |
| $content .= "input type=\"hidden\" name=\"no_note\" value=\"1\">"; |
| $content .= "input type=\"hidden\" name=\"currency_code\" value=\"USD\">";|
| $content .= "input type=\"hidden\" name=\"tax\" value=\"0\">"; |
| $content .= "input type=\"image\" src=\"https://www.paypal.com/images/x- |
| click-but04.gif\" |
| border=\"0\" name=\"submit\" |
| alt=\"Make payments with PayPal - it"s fast, free and |
| secure!\">"; |
| $content .= "/form>"; |
| ?> |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
Put the above code in a file called block-Donations.php in the blocks folder.
Then, just activate and position the block from the blocks management link in
the administration panel.
Figure 20-13. PayPal donation block.
PayPal donation block.
Depending on your theme, the block will look as in Figure_20-13. You can
experiment with various button images from the PayPal site. For more
information on donations with PayPal, see the PayPal_Donations_Manual.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 21. Creating modules
After having seen how to modify PHP-Nuke modules, we are in a position to try
our skills at creating one - in this chapter we will show you how! We cover:
* Module structure (Section_21.1),
* The rules to follow (Section_21.2),
* Module creation, the public part (Section_21.3),
* Module creation, administrator part (Section_21.4),
* How to include a HTML file in a PHP-Nuke module (Section_21.5),
* How to include a HTML file and its links in a PHP-Nuke module (Section_21.6),
* How to include a HTML file and its links using an iframe in a PHP-Nuke module
(Section_21.7),
* How to include a plain text file in a PHP-Nuke module (Section_21.8),
* How to use Javascript in PHP-Nuke modules (Section_21.9),
* How to create a Logout module (Section_21.10),
* How to show advertisements in PHP-Nuke modules (Section_21.11),
* How to display HTML forms in a module (Section_21.12).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.1. Module structure
The PHP-Nuke modules are PHP-written applications that manage the central part
of the site. For example, the “Newsâ€, “Forumâ€, “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_9.3 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).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.2. 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.3. Module creation, the public part
We continue using the example of Topolino from Section_21.2 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:
___________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (!eregi("modules.php", $PHP_SELF)) { |
| die ("You can't access this file directly...");|
| } |
| $index = 1; |
| require_once("mainfile.php"); |
| $module_name = basename(dirname(__FILE__)); |
| get_lang($module_name); |
| include("header.php"); |
| include("footer.php"); |
| ?> |
|___________________________________________________|
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_3.4 - or an
equivalent interface) the names of the 3 people we are interested in, see
Figure_21-1 (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 21-1. PHPMyAdmin: inserting values
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:
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| define("_BENVETOPOMOD", "Topolino Module, Welcome!"); |
| define("_DESCRITOPOMOD", "This is an example module that |
| serves to illustrate how a <application>PHP-Nuke</application> module is|
| created"); |
| ?> |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
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:
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (!eregi("modules.php", $PHP_SELF)){ |
| die ("You can't access this rows directly..."); |
| } |
| $index = 1; |
| require_once("mainfile.php"); |
| $module_name = basename(dirname(__FILE__)); |
| get_lang($module_name); |
| include("header.php"); |
| echo "<br>"; |
| echo""._BENVETOPOMOD.""; |
| echo "<br><br>"; |
| opentable(); |
| echo "<br>"; |
| echo""._DESCRITOPOMOD.""; |
| echo "<br><br>"; |
| $resultpersons = sql_query("SELECT idperson, nameperson |
| FROM ".$prefix."_topolino", $dbi); |
| for ($m=0; $m < sql_num_rows($resultpersons, $dbi); $m++) { |
| list($idperson, $nameperson) = sql_fetch_row($resultpersons, $dbi);|
| echo "$idperson - $nameperson <br>"; |
| } |
| closetable(); |
| include("footer.php"); |
| ?> |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
We have only added text, some breaks for the headers and an “Opentable();†and
a “Closetable();†to include the text. The result can be seen in Figure_21-2
Figure 21-2. Example module.
Example module.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.4. Module creation, administrator part
It's time to create the administration part of the module. In this very simple
module the only function that will work on the DB will be the one in which we
can modify the text of one of the three languages that we have created. First
of all, we have to create the files to insert in the folders:
* admin/case
* admin/links
* admin/modules
It's important to remember how much we have just said in Section_9.1:
Admin:
contains 4 subdirectories (links, language, case, modules) that manage
the various administration modules. The folder that holds the files is
modules/admin/ .
The folder admin/links instead says that the admin module must recall and
position one language in admin for that determined module.
Example (Administration for the FAQ module):
______________________________________________________________
| |
| if (($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 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:
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (!eregi("admin.php", $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])) { die ("Access Denied"); }|
| $querystr = "SELECT radminsuper, admlanguage FROM " |
| .$prefix."_authors where aid='$aid'"; |
| $result = sql_query($querystr, $dbi) or die ("invalied query"); |
| list($radminsuper) = sql_fetch_row($result, $dbi); |
| if ($radminsuper==1) { |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
This part of the file controls the administration rights for whoever calls it,
a control on which language to use and (not in this module) a control on the
administrator's rights. An administrator could have only partial rights of
administration on modules or some modules can be managed only by a superadmin.
In our specific case the module can be managed only by the superadmin because
the control is only:
______________________
| |
| if ($radminsuper==1)|
|______________________|
In case there are some specific rights (for example in the reviews module) the
rights to control would have been:
_______________________________________________
| |
| if (($radminreviews==1) OR ($radminsuper==1))|
|_______________________________________________|
Activating the rights on two levels on new modules indeed isn't simple, you
must specify in the nuke_authors table a new field that designates the rights,
then modify admin/modules/authors.php adding the checkbox for the rights of the
new module and modify the corresponding UPDATE queries.
Let's go back to our module: we have already seen the initial part, which is
obligatorily. The end of the open IF statement is:
_______________________
| |
| } else { |
| echo "Access Denied";|
| } |
|_______________________|
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(); |
| $querystr = "SELECT idperson, nameperson FROM ".$prefix."_topolino";|
| $resultpersons = sql_query($querystr, $dbi) |
| or die ("invalid query in mousedisplay"); |
| for ($m=0; $m < sql_num_rows($resultpersons, $dbi); $m++) |
| { |
| list ($idperson, $nameperson) = mysql_fetch_row($resultpersons); |
| $tmpLink = "<a href=\"admin.php?op=mouseselect&idtopo=" |
| .$idperson."\">Select mouse</A><br>"; |
| echo "$idperson - $nameperson $tmpLink"; |
| } |
| 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, $idtopo; |
| include ("header.php"); |
| GraphicAdmin(); |
| opentable(); |
| echo "idtopo=".$idtopo; |
| $querystr = "SELECT idperson, nameperson |
| FROM ".$prefix."_topolino where idperson='$idtopo'"; |
| $resultpersons = sql_query($querystr, $dbi) |
| or die ("Invalid query in mouseselect"); |
| for ($m=0; $m < sql_num_rows($resultpersons, $dbi); $m++){ |
| list($idperson, $nameperson) = sql_fetch_row($resultpersons, $dbi); |
| echo "<form action=\"admin.php\" method=\"post\">"; |
| echo "<input type=\"text\" name=\"nameperson\" size=\"20\" |
| maxlength=\"20\" value=\"$nameperson\"><br><br>"; |
| echo "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"idperson\"value=\"$idtopo\" > ";|
| echo "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"op\" value=\"mousemodify\" > "; |
| echo "<input type=\"submit\" value=\""._ADDTOPO."\" > "; |
| echo "</form >"; |
| } |
| closetable(); |
| include("footer.php"); |
| } |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
It is very important to take note of some things:
1. The variables that we insert will be the ones to be checked, in fact you
can see the variable “$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, $multilingaul, |
| $idtopo, $nameperson, $idperson; |
| include ("header.php"); |
| GraphicAdmin(); |
| Opentable(); |
| sql_query("Update ".$prefix."_topolino set nameperson=' $nameperson' |
| where idperson=$idperson", $dbi); |
| echo"OK"; |
| die(mysql_error()); |
| closetable(); |
| include("footer.php"); |
| } |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
The last two elements to insert are the definitions for the CASE statements
(that is, which function to call according to the variable passed to the
module) and the closing of the file.
Definition of the cases:
___________________________
| |
| if ($radminsuper==1) { |
| switch($op) { |
| case "": |
| mousedisplay(); |
| break; |
| case "topolino"; |
| mousedisplay(); |
| break; |
| case "mouseselect";|
| mouseselect(); |
| break; |
| case "mousemodify";|
| mousemodify(); |
| break; |
| } |
| } |
| else { |
| echo "Access Denied"; |
| } |
|___________________________|
The complete modules/topolino.php file is thus (see also Problems_with_new
mods):
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (!eregi("admin.php", $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])) { die ("Access Denied"); } |
| $querystr = "SELECT radminsuper, admlanguage FROM " |
| .$prefix."_authors where aid='$aid'"; |
| $result = sql_query($querystr, $dbi) or die ("invalied query"); |
| list($radminsuper) = sql_fetch_row($result, $dbi); |
| if ($radminsuper==1) { |
| switch($op) { |
| case "": |
| mousedisplay(); |
| break; |
| case "topolino"; |
| mousedisplay(); |
| break; |
| case "mouseselect"; |
| mouseselect(); |
| break; |
| case "mousemodify"; |
| mousemodify(); |
| break; |
| } |
| } |
| else { |
| echo "Access Denied"; |
| } |
| function mousedisplay() { |
| global $admin, $bgcolor2, $prefix, $dbi, $multilingual; |
| include ("header.php"); |
| GraphicAdmin(); |
| Opentable(); |
| $querystr = "SELECT idperson, nameperson FROM ".$prefix."_topolino"; |
| $resultpersons = sql_query($querystr, $dbi) |
| or die ("invalid query in mousedisplay"); |
| for ($m=0; $m < sql_num_rows($resultpersons, $dbi); $m++) |
| { |
| list ($idperson, $nameperson) = mysql_fetch_row($resultpersons); |
| $tmpLink = "<a href=\"admin.php?op=mouseselect&idtopo=" |
| .$idperson."\">Select mouse</A><br>"; |
| echo "$idperson - $nameperson $tmpLink"; |
| } |
| closetable(); |
| include("footer.php"); |
| } |
| function mouseselect() { |
| global $admin, $bgcolor2, $prefix, $dbi, $multilingual, $idtopo; |
| include ("header.php"); |
| GraphicAdmin(); |
| Opentable(); |
| echo "idtopo=".$idtopo; |
| $querystr = "SELECT idperson, nameperson FROM ".$prefix."_topolino |
| where idperson='$idtopo'"; |
| $resultpersons = sql_query($querystr, $dbi) |
| or die ("Invalid query in mouseselect"); |
| for ($m=0; $m < sql_num_rows($resultpersons, $dbi); $m++) |
| { |
| list($idperson, $nameperson) = sql_fetch_row($resultpersons, $dbi); |
| echo "<form action=\"admin.php\" method=\"post\">"; |
| echo "<input type=\"text\" name=\"nameperson\" size=\"20\" |
| maxlength=\"20\" value=\"$nameperson\"><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 "</form >"; |
| } |
| closetable(); |
| include("footer.php"); |
| } |
| function mousemodify() { |
| global $admin, $bgcolor2, $prefix, $dbi, $multilingaul, $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 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:
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (!eregi("admin.php", $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])) { die ("Access Denied"); }|
| switch($op) { |
| case "topolino": |
| include("admin/modules/topolino.php"); |
| break; |
| case "mouseselect": |
| include("admin/modules/topolino.php"); |
| break; |
| case "mousemodify": |
| include("admin/modules/topolino.php"); |
| break; |
| } |
| > |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
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
______________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if ($radminsuper==1) { |
| adminmenu("admin.php?op=topolino ", "" _EDITTOPOLINO." ",|
| "topolino.gif"); |
| } |
| ?> |
|______________________________________________________________|
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 www.spaghettibrain.com so you will be able to study it).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.5. How to include a HTML file in a PHP-Nuke module
From what we have said about the structure of a PHP-Nuke module (see Section
21.1), it is easy to include a HTML file in a module - all we have to do is use
the PHP include command, to include it between the calls to OpenTable() and
CloseTable() functions:
* Create a folder under the modules directory. Call it whatever you like, but
take care to replace blanks with underscores in the name.
* Using a decent text editor (see Chapter_11), create a text file called
index.php in that newly created directory.
* Copy the following code in index.php:
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| / |
| ************************************************************************/|
| /* PHP-NUKE: Web Portal System |
| */ |
| /* =========================== |
| */ |
| / |
| * */|
| /* PHP-Nuke-HOWTO module for <application>PHP-Nuke</application> |
| */ |
| / |
| * */|
| /* Copyright (c) 2003 index.php |
| */ |
| /* by Chris Karakas |
| */ |
| /* http://www.karakas-online.de |
| */ |
| / |
| * */|
| /* See licence.html for the Licence of the other files |
| */ |
| /* distributed together with this index.php file. |
| */ |
| / |
| * */|
| /* This program is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify |
| */ |
| /* it under the terms of the <acronym>GNU</acronym> General Public |
| License as published by */ |
| /* the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License. |
| */ |
| / |
| ************************************************************************/|
| if (!eregi("modules.php", $PHP_SELF)) { |
| die ("You can't access this file directly..."); |
| } |
| $index = 0; // 0 : do not show right blocks - 1:show right blocks |
| require_once("mainfile.php"); |
| $module_name = basename(dirname(__FILE__)); |
| include("header.php"); |
| OpenTable(); |
| include("path/to/the/html/file"); // <-- CHANGE THIS! |
| CloseTable(); |
| include("footer.php"); |
| ?> |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
* Change the licence to reflect your decisions. Of course, I urge you to use
the GNU_General_Public_License whenever possible, to help the cause of free
software - PHP-Nuke is itself set under the GPL, after all, so why would you
want a different licence for your module?.
* Then just enter the right path to the HTML file you want to include,
replacing the “path/to/the/html/file†string. This can be either a full
filesystem path, or a relative one - relative to the PHP-Nuke root directory,
which is always the same directory where config.php is located. But it may
also very well be a URL to a HTML file of another site. Examples:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| include("/usr/local/httpd/htdocs/myfile.html"); // absolute filesystem|
| path |
| include("modules/PHP-Nuke_HOWTO/cookies.html"); // relative filesstem |
| path |
| include("http://www.yoursite.com/filexx.html"); // full URL |
|________________________________________________________________________|
* Finally, activate the module from the modules administration (see Section
9.3).
Tip Javascript in modules
There is nothing that prevents you from including a file that contains
Javascript code in a module. As long as the Javascript functions defined
in the included file are not also present in the includes/javascript.php
 file (see Section_21.9.1), and the HTML page created with the Javascript
does not break the table layout of your theme, there should be no
problem. In this way you could create a PHP-Nuke Guestbook module, for
example, if you already had the Javascript code for a guestbook (see
Javascript_in_themes).
If you want to include two files in the module, so that they appear side-by-
side, rather than one after the other, you can use the usual HTML table trick
to show the files in two separate cells of the same table row (see Using
"include"_for_HTML_pages):
___________________________
| |
| OpenTable(); |
| echo "<table><tr><td>"; |
| include ("page.html"); |
| echo "</td><td>"; |
| include ("page2.html"); |
| echo "</td></tr></table";|
| CloseTable(); |
|___________________________|
An alternative way to include a HTML file in the module, is to terminate PHP
interpretation of the file with a closing ?>, include the HTML code verbatim
and then reopen the PHP context with a new <?php line:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (!eregi("modules.php", $PHP_SELF)) { |
| die ("You can't access this file directly..."); |
| } |
| $index = 0; // 0 : do not show right blocks - 1:show right blocks |
| require_once("mainfile.php"); |
| $module_name = basename(dirname(__FILE__)); |
| include("header.php"); |
| OpenTable(); |
| ?> |
| PUT YOUR HTML CODE HERE, WHATEVER COMES BETWEEN THE <html> AND </html>|
| TAGS OF YOUR HTML FILE |
| <?php |
| CloseTable(); |
| include("footer.php"); |
| ?> |
|________________________________________________________________________|
Note that we have inserted a closing ?> after the call to OpenTable() and an
opening <?php before the call to CloseTable(). Whatever comes in between,
should be plain HTML code, not PHP. This method is suitable for small HTML
texts, for larger texts the include method is recommended.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.6. How to include a HTML file and its links in a PHP-Nuke module
If the HTML file you included in your module with the methods shown in Section
21.5 contains links to HTML files that you would also like to have included,
you will need to apply some additional handwork. The problem here is that,
although the included file will show correctly inside your module (and your
theme), as soon as you click on one of its HTML links, you will be shown the
target HTML file as is, i.e. outside your PHP-Nuke environment, like any other
file independent of PHP-Nuke. This is certainly not something you are going to
like - otherwise, why go into the trouble of including the first HTML file
anyway? It is clear that, for a collection of interlinked HTML documents, a
better approach is needed.
Tip See the PHP-Nuke HOWTO module!
For a real world example of including a large collection of HTML
 documents in a PHP-Nuke module, download and install the PHP-Nuke_HOWTO
module. Then, see how modules/PHP-Nuke_HOWTO/index.php is programmed, as
well as how the HTML links to files of the HOWTO were set up.
In the method we will present here, we use an URL parameter (“pageâ€) to find
out which file to include in index.php. Every link to a file of our collection
is changed to contain this URL parameter. The page URL parameter is validated
through an associative array, minimizing the risk for SQL injection and other
cracking attacks (see Section_23.3.2). For a simpler, but not universal, method
using iframes, see Section_21.7.
Proceed in two steps as follows:
1. Change every HTML link that appears in your HTML documents and points to
another document of the same collection (links to other documents should
be left unchanged) For example, a link to somefile.html like the following
one
__________________________
| |
| <a href="somefile.html">|
|__________________________|
should be changed to
________________________________________________________________
| |
| <a href="modules.php?name=Your_Module&page=somefile.html">|
|________________________________________________________________|
where you should replace "Your_Module" with the name of your module, of
course. This link passes the filename as the value of the page URL
parameter to Your_Module. You should do this for every link in your HTML
document collection that points to another file of the same collection.
2. As a next step, you modify the index.php file of your PHP-Nuke module
slightly (this is the file modules/Your_Module/index.php, if we stay with
the module naming of our example). You add a line for every file that was
involved in a link modification above. This means that for every file like
somefile.html in the above example, you add a line
__________________________________________________
| |
| $ACCEPT_FILE['somefile.html'] = 'somefile.html';|
|__________________________________________________|
Thus, if your HTML file collection consists of the files
_______________________________
| |
| accelerating-php-nuke.html |
| add-on-blocks.html |
| add-on-modules.html |
| administration-functions.html|
| admin-management.html |
|_______________________________|
then, following the above step 1, you should change every HTML link in those
files as shown in Table_21-1.
Table 21-1. Changing HTML links for use in a custom PHP-Nuke module
____________________________________________________________________________
|Original_link________________________|Changed_link__________________________|
|<a href="accelerating-php-nuke.html">|<a href="modules.php?name=Your_Module |
|_____________________________________|&page=accelerating-php-nuke.html">|
|<a href="add-on-blocks.html"> |<a href="modules.php?name=Your_Module |
|_____________________________________|&page=add-on-blocks.html">________|
|<a href="add-on-modules.html"> |<a href="modules.php?name=Your_Module |
|_____________________________________|&page=add-on-modules.html">_______|
|<a href="administration- |<a href="modules.php?name=Your_Module |
|functions.html"> |&page=administration- |
|_____________________________________|functions.html">______________________|
|<a href="admin-management.html"> |<a href="modules.php?name=Your_Module |
|_____________________________________|&page=admin-management.html">_____|
After that, following step 2 above, you should insert the following lines in
the index.php file of Your_Module:
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| $ACCEPT_FILE['accelerating-php-nuke.html'] = 'accelerating-php-nuke.html';|
| $ACCEPT_FILE['add-on-blocks.html'] = 'add-on-blocks.html'; |
| $ACCEPT_FILE['add-on-modules.html'] = 'add-on-modules.html'; |
| $ACCEPT_FILE['administration-functions.html'] = 'administration- |
| functions.html'; |
| $ACCEPT_FILE['admin-management.html'] = 'admin-management.html'; |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
The ACCEPT_FILE plays the role of a validator for the page URL parameter. It
connects a value of “pageâ€, as passed by some URL, with the name of a file that
has to be selected. The way we programmed it above, ACCEPT_FILE points to the
file accelerating-php-nuke.html when given the “page†argument 'accelerating-
php-nuke.html' (i.e. when “page†was 'accelerating-php-nuke.html' on the URL).
This may look trivial, but is not. What's more, there is nothing that would
prevent you from choosing a different (and less intuitive) mapping from the
values of “page†to the selected filenames.
Thus, you could decide that a “page†(URL parameter) value of “1†means the
accelerating-php-nuke.html file, a vlaue of “2†the add-on-blocks.html file
etc. Then, the ACCEPT_FILE assignments would look as follows:
______________________________________________________
| |
| $ACCEPT_FILE['1'] = 'accelerating-php-nuke.html'; |
| $ACCEPT_FILE['2'] = 'add-on-blocks.html'; |
| $ACCEPT_FILE['3'] = 'add-on-modules.html'; |
| $ACCEPT_FILE['4'] = 'administration-functions.html';|
| $ACCEPT_FILE['5'] = 'admin-management.html'; |
|______________________________________________________|
while the HTML links in the files themselves should be changed as indicated by
Table_21-2.
Table 21-2. Alternative way of changing HTML links for use in a custom PHP-Nuke
module
___________________________________________________________________________
|Original_link________________________|Changed_link_________________________|
|<a href="accelerating-php-nuke.html">|<a href="modules.php?name=Your_Module|
|_____________________________________|&page=1">________________________|
|<a href="add-on-blocks.html"> |<a href="modules.php?name=Your_Module|
|_____________________________________|&page=2">________________________|
|<a href="add-on-modules.html"> |<a href="modules.php?name=Your_Module|
|_____________________________________|&page=3">________________________|
|<a href="administration- |<a href="modules.php?name=Your_Module|
|functions.html">_____________________|&page=4">________________________|
|<a href="admin-management.html"> |<a href="modules.php?name=Your_Module|
|_____________________________________|&page=5">________________________|
The idea is that you retain control of what filename is selected. If you would
blindly set the name of the selected file to be equal to the passed parameter
value of “pageâ€, then a malicious user could use the URL
___________________________________________________
| |
| modules.php?name=Your_Module&page=/etc/passwd|
|___________________________________________________|
and read the contents of the system's password file (or whatever other file
readable by the web server, for that matter). The use of an associative mapping
between URL parameters and filenames, as the one implemented by the ACCEPT_FILE
array above, is thus not a gimmic, but a necessity. It protects your module
from SQL injections and other attacks that rely on the programmer being too
lazy to verify user input. See Chapter_23 for more on PHP-Nuke security in
general and Section_23.3.2 for SQL injections with PHP-Nuke in particular.
However, even with these precautions in place, the module is still vulnerable
to a serious attack, as waraxe has pointed out in a security advisory (to be
published): if the $ACCEPT_FILE array is not initialized, one could “poisonâ€
it. This means that an attacker could pass the parameters
'...&page=xxx&ACCEPT_FILE[xxx]=/etc/passwd' on the URL and could still get /
etc/passwd (or any other file for that matter) back! This will not work if
safe_mode is ON in php.ini, but it still poses a very serious threat. For this
reason, we must initialize the array first:
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| // We initialize the array, to avoid attacks based on poisoning the |
| // <acronym>PHP</acronym> global variable space. Thanks to waraxe for|
| pointing this out! |
| // See http://www.waraxe.us |
| // |
| $ACCEPT_FILE = array(); |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
Now you can hopefully see how important is the following rule:
Important Don't forget:
 Always initialize your variables!
The complete code of modules/Your_Module/index.php is thus:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| /************************************************************************/ |
| /* PHP-NUKE: Web Portal System */ |
| /* =========================== */ |
| /* */ |
| /* PHP-Nuke-HOWTO module for <application>PHP-Nuke</application> |
| */ |
| /* */ |
| /* Copyright (c) 2003 index.php */ |
| /* by Chris Karakas */ |
| /* http://www.karakas-online.de */ |
| /* */ |
| /* See licence.html for the Licence of the other files */ |
| /* distributed together with this index.php file. */ |
| /* */ |
| /* This program is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify */ |
| /* it under the terms of the <acronym>GNU</acronym> General Public License |
| as published by */ |
| /* the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License. */ |
| /************************************************************************/ |
| if (!eregi("modules.php", $PHP_SELF)) { |
| die ("You can't access this file directly..."); |
| } |
| $index = 0; // 0 : do not show right blocks - 1:show right blocks |
| require_once("mainfile.php"); |
| $module_name = basename(dirname(__FILE__)); |
| include("header.php"); |
| // We initialize the array, to avoid attacks based on poisoning the |
| // <acronym>PHP</acronym> global variable space. Thanks to waraxe for |
| pointing this out! |
| // See http://www.waraxe.us |
| // |
| $ACCEPT_FILE = array(); |
| $ACCEPT_FILE['accelerating-php-nuke.html'] = 'accelerating-php-nuke.html'; |
| $ACCEPT_FILE['add-on-blocks.html'] = 'add-on-blocks.html'; |
| $ACCEPT_FILE['add-on-modules.html'] = 'add-on-modules.html'; |
| $ACCEPT_FILE['administration-functions.html'] = 'administration- |
| functions.html'; |
| $ACCEPT_FILE['admin-management.html'] = 'admin-management.html'; |
| OpenTable(); |
| $php_ver = phpversion(); |
| $php_ver = explode(".", $php_ver); |
| $phpver = "$php_ver[0]$php_ver[1]"; |
| if ($phpver >= 41) { |
| $page = $_GET['page']; |
| } else { |
| $page = $HTTP_GET_VARS['page']; |
| } |
| $pagename = $ACCEPT_FILE[$page]; |
| if (!isSet($pagename)) $pagename = "accelerating-php-nuke.html"; // default|
| file |
| include("modules/Your_Module/$pagename"); |
| CloseTable(); |
| include("footer.php"); |
| ?> |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
As you can easily deduce from the above code, the "page" URL parameter is
firtst extracted using either the GET_superglobal, if the PHP version is at
least 4.1, or the $HTTP_GET_VARS array otherwise. The associated filename is
then computed from the ACCEPT_FILE array. If the user (maliciously or not)
entered a value for “page†that could not be mapped to a filename, a default
file is used (the accelerating-php-nuke.html in the example). Finally, the
computed filename is included, just as we have seen in the simpler examples of
Section_21.5.
Tip Automate!
Most of the work in the method we presented, will revolve around changing
links in the various files and adding the right ACCEPT_FILE line for each
file in index.php. This is an error prone procedure, even with just a few
files. You should thus automate it with whatever tools you have at your
 disposal. For the creation of the PHP-Nuke_HOWTO_module, for example, a
shell script is used to produce dynamically the right sed commands, which
are then executed to produce the link substitutions. The ACCEPT_FILE
lines are also produced automatically. The result is a perfectly
integrated PHP-Nuke module, even with the hundreds of files that comprise
this HOWTO.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.7. How to include a HTML file and its links using an iframe in a PHP-Nuke
module
You can also use an iframe to include an external HTML page in your module. An
inline frame (iframe) is a construct which embeds a document into an HTML
document so that embedded data is displayed inside a subwindow of the browser's
window. This does not mean full inclusion; the two documents are independent,
and both them are treated as complete documents, instead of treating one as
part of the other (see Using_inline_frames_(iframe_elements)_to_embed_documents
into_HTML_documents).
Iframes are not supported by all browsers, however they offer a much more
comfortable alternative to the solution of Section_21.6, since any links of the
included HTML page will be shown in the iframe, if they are linked with a
relative URL. To include a HTML file and its links in a PHP-Nuke module, use
the following as the index.php file of the module (see Adding_Links_To_The_Main
Page_(Modules) and Make_PHP-Nuke_Use_"Frame_Like_target"):
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <? |
| if (!eregi("modules.php", $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])) { |
| die ("You can't access this file directly..."); |
| } |
| if(!IsSet($mainfile)) { include ("mainfile.php"); } |
| $index=0; |
| $theme="DeepBlue"; |
| $go_to_address1="http://www.karakas-online.de/EN-Book/book1.html"; |
| $go_to_address=rawurldecode($go_to_address1); |
| include("header.php"); |
| OpenTable(); |
| echo "<center><h4><a href=\"index.php\">Click to close.</a></h4></center>";|
| echo "<iframe SRC=\"".$go_to_address."\" width=\"100%\" height=\"1200\" |
| framespacing=0 frameborder=no border=0 scrolling=auto></iframe>"; |
| echo "<br><center>NB. Using iframes!</center><br>"; |
| CloseTable(); |
| include("footer.php"); |
| die; |
| ?> |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
You only have to enter the HTTP address of the page to be included in
$go_to_address1 and the desired theme in $theme (or, if you want to use
whatever theme is currently used, comment the $theme line). Activate the module
and you are done (Figure_21-3)!
Figure 21-3. PHP-Nuke HOWTO included in a module with the help of an iframe.
PHP-Nuke HOWTO included in a module with the help of an iframe.
Tip Include the PHP-Nuke HOWTO as a module in your PHP-Nuke site!
You can include the PHP-Nuke_HOWTO in your PHP-Nuke site as a module
using either the method of Section_21.6 or the method of Section_21.7!
To use the method of Section_21.6, download the PHP-Nuke_module_version
of_the_PHP-Nuke_HOWTO and install it according to the instruction in the
 accompanying INSTALL file.
To use the method of Section_21.7, just make a module with an index.php
file exactly as in the example shown there. It will show the starting
page of the PHP-HOWTO in an iframe (Figure_21-3) and you will be able to
navigate its pages without installing anything locally. You have Chris'
explicit permission for this.
Besides browser compatibility issues, the iframe method has also problems when
it comes to printing. For more information on iframes, see Using_inline_frames_
(iframe_elements)_to_embed_documents_into_HTML_documents.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.8. How to include a plain text file in a PHP-Nuke module
A plain text file needs a somewhat different treatment than a HTML file, if it
is to be included in a PHP-Nuke module. The reason is that a plain text file
lacks the formatting tags that are present in a usual HTML file. If you simply
include it as shown in Section_21.5, it will show as a single paragraph,
lacking any structure.
Why? Because the “formatting tags†of a plain text file are the newline
characters. They will introduce a new line - and a new paragraph. In HTML
however, a newline will not suffice, you need a break tag (<br>) to achieve the
same effect. Since a PHP-Nuke module is a PHP file, and as such it will be
transformed to a HTML file for the visitor, we need to play by the HTML rules
if we want our file to be formatted correctly.
Fortunately, the nl2br_PHP_function (newline to break) comes to our rescue
here: it will automatically insert HTML <br /> tags (breaks) before every
newline in the text file. Replace
_______________________________________________________
| |
| OpenTable(); |
| include("path/to/the/html/file"); // <-- CHANGE THIS!|
| CloseTable(); |
|_______________________________________________________|
in the code of Section_21.5 with (see another_adding_module_question):
__________________________________________________________
| |
| OpenTable(); |
| $filename = "path/to/the/text/file"; // <-- CHANGE THIS!|
| $content_array = file($filename); |
| $content = implode("", $content_array); |
| print nl2br($content); |
| CloseTable(); |
|__________________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.9. How to use Javascript in PHP-Nuke modules
You can include Javascript code in modules without problems in PHP-Nuke. You
can proceed in two ways:
* Include your Javascript functions in javascript.php (Section_21.9.1).
* Include your complete Javascript code in the module (Section_21.9.2)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.9.1. Javascript functions in javascript.php
PHP-Nuke come with its own Javascript functions included in the file
javascript.php, located under the includes folder. You can add your own
Javascript code there, if you follow some simple rules:
* Use a decent text editor (see Chapter_11) to edit the file.
* Append your code after the code already there, but before the ending ?> line.
* “echo†each line of your Javascript script. Example: Instead of entering
directly the script code:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <script type="text/javascript"> |
| <!-- |
| function openwindow(){ |
| window.open |
| ("modules/$name/ |
| copyright.php","Copyright","toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no, |
| status=no,scrollbars=yes,resizable=no,copyhistory=no,width=400,height=200")|
| } |
| //--> |
| </script> |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
* enter it with “echoâ€s as:
_________________________________________________________________________
| |
| echo "<script type=\"text/javascript\">\n"; |
| echo "<!--\n"; |
| echo "function openwindow(){\n"; |
| echo " window.open(\"modules/$name/copyright.php\",\"Copyright\", |
| \"toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no, |
| scrollbars=yes,resizable=no,copyhistory=no,width=400,height=200\");\n";|
| echo "}\n"; |
| echo "//-->\n"; |
| echo "</script>\n\n"; |
|_________________________________________________________________________|
* Enclose each line in double quotes, like a string, and escape (with a
backslash \) any double quote inside that string.
* Add a newline character (\n) to the string, before the closing double quote
[26].
* End each line, like every PHP line, with a semicolon (;).
If you use vi (see Section_11.1), the following sequence of vi commands,
applied to a Javascript file, will produce the right PHP code to append in the
javascript.php file:
_______________________
| |
| 1,$s/"/\\"/g (1) |
| 1,$s/^/echo "/ (2) |
| 1,$s/$/";/ (3) |
| 1,$s/";$/\\n";/ (4) |
|_______________________|
_(1)_
Escape all double quotes.
_(2)_
Add 'echo "' at the start of every line.
_(3)_
Add '";' at the end of every line.
_(4)_
Add a newline '\n' at the end of each Javascript line.
You can then include calls to your Javascript functions in the HTML code of
your module. You echo the Javascript code, just like any other HTML code.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.9.2. Complete Javascript code in modules
You can use the following template to include your complete Javascript code in
your PHP-Nuke module:
______________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (!eregi("modules.php", $PHP_SELF)) { |
| die ("You can't access this file directly..."); |
| } |
| require_once("mainfile.php"); |
| // 0 : do not show right blocks - 1:show right blocks |
| $index = 0; |
| include("header.php"); |
| ?> |
| // PUT HTML OR JAVASCRIPT CODE HERE, |
| // OR GET RID OF THE ?> AND <?php ABOVE AND BELOW THIS LINE |
| // AND USE <acronym>PHP</acronym> CODE HERE INSTEAD. |
| <?php |
| include("footer.php"); |
| ?> |
|______________________________________________________________|
Tip Javascript with PHP
 If you decide to use PHP code ("echo"s) to enter your Javascript code,
you should take into account the rules presented in Section_21.9.1.
Tip Javascript codebase
You may need to add the following line to your Javascript applet:
_______________________________
 | |
| codebase="modules/modulename"|
|_______________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.10. How to create a Logout module
Figure 21-4. Logout link in the Modules block.
Logout link in the Modules block.
Do you consider it too much work for your registered users to have to click on
the “Your Account†link in the Modules block, be directed to their personal
account page, then have to click on “Logout†in order to get logged out of your
site? Why not have a direct “Logout†link in the Modules block? Well, since all
links in the Modules block are automatically created from the active modules
(unless you created a custom Modules block along the lines of Section_17.2),
asking for a Logout link in the Modules block is asking for a Logout module!
In fact, it is easy to construct a Logout module - and is another example of
using Javascript in modules (see Section_21.9):
Create a new folder, call it Logout, in the modules directory. In the Logout
folder, create an index.php file that contains (see Add_"Logout"_to_Modules
Block):
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| echo " |
| <script type=\"text/javascript\"> |
| top.location.replace ('modules.php?name=Your_Account&file=index&op=logout')|
| </script> |
| " |
| ?> |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
Activate the Logout module from the administration panel. From now on, a Logout
link will appear in the Modules block - it will log a registered user
immediately upon clicking on it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.11. How to show advertisements in PHP-Nuke modules
So now you have seen how nice your new AdSense block (Section_20.7) looks and
you've got appetite for more? Here you are:
* Google AdSense in the News module (Section_21.11.1),
* Google AdSense on top of a PHP-Nuke module (Section_21.11.2).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.11.1. Google AdSense in the News module
Wouldn't it be nice to have your Google AdSense placed just right to a news
article? The solution we will present here, taken from Google_AdSense_in_PHP-
Nuke, can be used as a starting point for introducing AdSense (and other
similar advertisement schemes) in modules other than the News module.
In file modules/News/article.php, look for the following code:
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| $boxtitle = ""._RELATED.""; |
| $boxstuff = "<font class=\"content\">"; |
| $sql = "select name, url from ".$prefix."_related where tid=$topic"; |
| $result = $db->sql_query($sql); |
| while ($row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result)) { |
| $name = $row[name]; |
| $url = $row[url]; |
| $boxstuff .= "<strong><big>·</big></strong> <a href=\"$url\"|
| target=\"new\">$name</a><br>\n"; |
| } |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
just before that, add the following:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| echo "<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"2\" |
| bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\" |
| width=\"160\"><tr><td>\n" |
| ."<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"160\">\n"|
| ."</table>\n" |
| ."<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"2\" |
| bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\" |
| width=\"100%\">\n" |
| ."<tr><td align=\"center\">\n" |
| ."<font class=\"title\" size=\"1\"><b>Related Websites</b></font>\n" |
| ."</td></tr>\n" |
| ."<tr>\n" |
| ."<td bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\"><font size=\"1\">"; |
| ?> |
| <center> |
| <script type="text/javascript"><!-- |
| google_ad_client = "your client-number"; |
| google_ad_width = 120; |
| google_ad_height = 600; |
| google_ad_format = "120x600_as"; |
| google_color_border = "FFFFFF"; |
| google_color_bg = "FFFFFF"; |
| google_color_link = "336699"; |
| google_color_url = "000000"; |
| google_color_text = "000000"; |
| //--></script> |
| <script type="text/javascript" |
| src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> |
| </script> |
| </center> |
| <?php |
| echo "</td>\n" |
| ."</tr>\n" |
| ."</table></td></tr></table>\n" |
| ."<br>\n\n\n"; |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
In the above code, you can recognize the Google AdSense Javascript, also used
in Section_20.7 to show AdSense in a PHP-Nuke block, in the middle of a table
layout construction.
Important Don't forget:
 Add your Google client number in the AdSense script.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.11.2. Google AdSense on top of a PHP-Nuke module
If you would like to add a 728x90 banner on top of every module, you can
include the AdSense Javascript code in a separate file, call it adsense.php,
then just include this file from your module (you can also choose a 486*60-
banner if you like):
Put the following code in includes/adsense.php:
________________________________________________________________
| |
| <center> |
| <script type="text/javascript"><!-- |
| google_ad_client = "your client-number"; |
| google_ad_width = 728; |
| google_ad_height = 90; |
| google_ad_format = "728x90_as"; |
| google_color_border = "FFFFFF"; |
| google_color_bg = "FFFFFF"; |
| google_color_link = "336699"; |
| google_color_url = "000000"; |
| google_color_text = "000000"; |
| //--></script> |
| <script type="text/javascript" |
| src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">|
| </script> |
| </center> |
|________________________________________________________________|
This is nothing else but the well-known Google AdSense Javascript code we have
also encountered in Section_20.7 and Section_21.11.1. Once you have adsense.php
in the includes directory, it becomes trivial to use its code in any module you
choose: for every module you would like to add the Google AdSense to, look for
the following code:
________________________
| |
| include("header.php");|
|________________________|
and place the following line after that:
__________________________________
| |
| include("includes/adsense.php");|
|__________________________________|
Tip Make some room for long banners
Make sure that your module contains the line
_____________
| |
 | $index = 0;|
|_____________|
(not necessary if you use 468*60), otherwise you will get the right
blocks column too - and this is not nice with a 728*90-banner.
Tip Long AdSense banner in the News module
The right place to put the Google AdSense long banner in the News module,
is in the modules/News/index.php file,. There, find the line
___________________________________
| |
| $topic_title = $row_a[topictext];|
|___________________________________|
Â
and add the line
__________________________________
| |
| include("includes/adsense.php");|
|__________________________________|
directly after it (see Google_AdSense_in_PHP-Nuke).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.12. How to display HTML forms in a module
When you have HTML forms in a module, you may run into problems with passing
the values from the form fields to the module itself. Here is just a simple
form that you can use as a starting point for your own module with forms - just
make a folder named Testing (for instance) in your modules folder, and put an
index.php in it with the following code (see File_doesn't_exist_error_when
posting_with_a_form):
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (!eregi("modules.php", $PHP_SELF)) { |
| die ("You can't access this file directly..."); |
| } |
| require_once("mainfile.php"); |
| include("header.php"); |
| $module_name = basename(dirname(__FILE__)); |
| echo "<center><form action=\"modules.php?name=$module_name\" |
| method=\"post\"> " |
| ."Name: <input type=\"text\" name=\"yourname\" size=\"20\" |
| value=\"$yourname\"> " |
| ."<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"test_input\" value=\"test is good\">"|
| ."<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\"></form></center>"; |
| if($test_input != "") { |
| echo "<br>Form worked, and yourname is $yourname"; |
| } |
| include("footer.php"); |
| ?> |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 22. Duplicating PHP-Nuke modules
In some situations, you may find yourself wishing a second, identical module to
the one you already have installed. This requires the following general steps
on your part:
* Copy the whole module directory, say module1, to a different name, say
module2, in the modules folder. You now have modules/module1 and modules/
module2, where module1 and module2 are exact directory copies.
* Copy all administrative files of module1 (if any). Search for them in admin/
modules, admin/links and admin/case. The copied files should be in the same
directory as the original ones.
* Find all tables used by module1. This part may be tricky and involves close
examination of the code of all files under modules/module1.
* Locate the part(s) of the nuke.sql file (located under the sql directory of
the extracted PHP-Nuke package) that creates and populates the tables used by
module1. Copy that part(s) in a separate file, say nuke2.sql, and change the
names of the tables involved e.g. by adding a “2†after the names. Run the
nuke2.sql file, just as you had ran nuke.sql (see Section_3.2.4):
________________________________________
| |
| mysql -u dbuname -p dbname < nuke2.sql|
|________________________________________|
* Inspect the code of all files under modules/module2 and change the table
names to reflect the changes in nuke2.sql, e.g. by adding a “2†to every
table that is specific to module2. Also change any references to
administrative files to point to the copied ones. Check the code of the
copied administrative files too.
* If your module uses any “op†parameter from the URL, you need to edit all the
"op" input fields and all the calls to/from those "op's" in the admin/case
file.
* If the duplicate module should use different texts from the original ones,
then you should create the appropriate entries in the language files (under
admin/language/, modules/YourModule/ and language/).
* Activate module2 from the administration panel (Section_7.1)
As you can see from the above, duplicating modules can be a fairly complicated
enterprise (see also How_do_I_duplicate_modules?, Multiple_Content_Modules). In
what follows, we will demonstrate this general procedure in a real world
example - duplicating the FAQ module.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22.1. Duplicating the PHP-Nuke FAQ module
Suppose you would like to have two FAQ modules. You might of course ask why on
earth you would want such a complication in your PHP-Nuke site, but if you
recall that PHP-Nuke lets you decide for each module individually whether to
all visitors, only registered ones, or only administrators to view it, you will
find out that two identical FAQ modules would be a simple way to have two FAQs,
one only for administrators and one for all users.
We will now follow the steps outlined above for the purpose of duplicating the
FAQ module:
* We copy the whole directory modules/FAQ to modules/Admin_FAQ
* We also copy:
o admin/modules/adminfaq.php to admin/modules/adminfaq2.php,
o admin/links/links.faq.php to admin/links/links.faq2.php and
o admin/case/case.adminfaq.php to admin/case/case.adminfaq2.php.
* Code inspection reveals that the only tables used by the FAQ module are
faqAnswer and faqCategories.
* The relevant part of nuke.sql that creates and populates faqAnswer and
faqCategories is easily located. After we append a “2†at the table names and
copy it to nuke2.sql, the latter will have the following content:
____________________________________________________________
| |
| # |
| # Table structure for table `nuke_faqAnswer2` |
| # |
| |
| CREATE TABLE nuke_faqAnswer2 ( |
| id tinyint(4) NOT NULL auto_increment, |
| id_cat tinyint(4) NOT NULL default '0', |
| question varchar(255) default ", |
| answer text, |
| PRIMARY KEY (id), |
| KEY id (id), |
| KEY id_cat (id_cat) |
| ) TYPE=MyISAM; |
| # |
| # Dumping data for table `nuke_faqAnswer2` |
| # |
| # --------------------------------------------------------|
| # |
| # Table structure for table `nuke_faqCategories2` |
| # |
| CREATE TABLE nuke_faqCategories2 ( |
| id_cat tinyint(3) NOT NULL auto_increment, |
| categories varchar(255) default NULL, |
| flanguage varchar(30) NOT NULL default ", |
| PRIMARY KEY (id_cat), |
| KEY id_cat (id_cat) |
| ) TYPE=MyISAM; |
| # |
| # Dumping data for table `nuke_faqCategories2` |
| # |
| # --------------------------------------------------------|
|____________________________________________________________|
* We run the nuke2.sql file from the MySQL prompt::
________________________________________
| |
| mysql -u dbuname -p dbname < nuke2.sql|
|________________________________________|
* This will create the nuke_faqAnswer2 and nuke_faqCategories2 tables in the
database dbname (remember to replace dbuname and dbname with their real
values from your config.php!). Since the FAQ module does not come with preset
categories and answers, the tables are not populated with data.
* We edit all files under modules/Admin-FAQ and also the administrative files
admin/modules/adminfaq2.php, admin/links/links.faq2.php and admin/case/
case.adminfaq2.php: we change all references to faqAnswer or faqCategories to
faqAnswer2 and faqCategories2 respectively.
* In admin/case/case.adminfaq.php we change
_________________________________________
| |
| include ("admin/modules/adminfaq.php");|
|_________________________________________|
to
__________________________________________
| |
| include ("admin/modules/adminfaq2.php");|
|__________________________________________|
Finally, we activate the Admin-FAQ module and specify that it can be viewed
only by administrators.
Caution Don't forget the "op"s!
If you want your duplicate module to perform slightly different
functions than the original one, there is no way around to creating
duplicate "op" functions to be called from the "switch($op)" part of
the admin file. In our example, this would mean that we would change
__________________________________________________________________
| |
| switch($op) { |
| case "FaqCatSave": |
| FaqCatSave($id_cat, $categories, $flanguage); /* Multilingual|
| Code : added variable */ |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatGoSave": |
| FaqCatGoSave($id, $question, $answer); |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatAdd": |
| FaqCatAdd($categories, $flanguage); /* Multilingual Code : |
| added variable */ |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatGoAdd": |
| FaqCatGoAdd($id_cat, $question, $answer); |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatEdit": |
| FaqCatEdit($id_cat); |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatGoEdit": |
| FaqCatGoEdit($id); |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatDel": |
| FaqCatDel($id_cat, $ok); |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatGoDel": |
| FaqCatGoDel($id, $ok); |
| break; |
| case "FaqAdmin": |
| FaqAdmin(); |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatGo": |
| FaqCatGo($id_cat); |
| break; |
| } |
| } else { |
| echo "Access Denied"; |
| } |
|__________________________________________________________________|
Â
in the admin/modules/adminfaq.php file, to:
___________________________________________________________________
| |
| switch($op) { |
| case "FaqCatSave2": |
| FaqCatSave2($id_cat, $categories, $flanguage); /* Multilingual|
| Code : added variable */ |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatGoSave2": |
| FaqCatGoSave2($id, $question, $answer); |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatAdd2": |
| FaqCatAdd2($categories, $flanguage); /* Multilingual Code : |
| added variable */ |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatGoAdd2": |
| FaqCatGoAdd2($id_cat, $question, $answer); |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatEdit2": |
| FaqCatEdit2($id_cat); |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatGoEdit2": |
| FaqCatGoEdit2($id); |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatDel2": |
| FaqCatDel2($id_cat, $ok); |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatGoDel2": |
| FaqCatGoDel2($id, $ok); |
| break; |
| case "FaqAdmin2": |
| FaqAdmin2(); |
| break; |
| case "FaqCatGo2": |
| FaqCatGo2($id_cat); |
| break; |
| } |
| } else { |
| echo "Access Denied"; |
| } |
|___________________________________________________________________|
and then program the new functionality into the new functions (the
ones with the 2 suffix in their name).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 23. Security
 Aut inveniam viam aut faciam.
I will either find a way or make one.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.1. How secure is PHP-Nuke?
If you run the security audit tool nessus against a host running PHP-Nuke, you
will get the following:
The remote host is running a copy of PHP-Nuke.
Given the insecurity history of this package, the Nessus team
recommands that you do not use it but use something else instead, as
security was clearly not in the mind of the persons who wrote it.
The author of PHP-Nuke (Francisco Burzi) even started to rewrite the
program from scratch, given the huge number of vulnerabilities
(Clarifications_on_a_possible_rewrite_of_PHP-Nuke).
Solution : De-install this package and use something else
Risk factor : High
Uh? Does this mean we have throw away PHP-Nuke? Why is nessus saying this?
The link given by nessus above, contains Francisco's thoughts on the furure of
PHP-Nuke, provoked by a recent series of security holes at that time. How was
Francisco thinking to cope with the security issues? In that article regarding
Clarifications_on_a_possible_rewrite_of_PHP-Nuke, Franzisco considers the
following possibility as the first one that comes to his mind when
contemplating on how to proceed:
1) The new code will be closed. This means that script kiddies should
get a computer science master or PhD before hacking it. This will
reduce the security issues. From time to time, a security test will
be made on the code to catch those bugs and fix them.
This is a well-known method of securing your programs - it is called security
by_obscurity. A system relying on security by obscurity may have theoretical or
actual security vulnerabilities, but its owners or designers believe that the
flaws are not known, and that attackers are unlikely to find them.
Would you trust such a system to be secure? Would you run a Fortune 500 website
on top of it? It is in this light that you have to interpret nessus' warning
above. Relying on security by obscurity as a strategy for PHP-Nuke, be it only
in a thought experiment, will not persuade the security experts at nessus.org.
Because in the cryptography world, the reverse of security by obscurity is
believed to be true: Kerckhoffs'_principle from the late 1880s, which states
that system designers should assume that the entire design of a security system
is known to all attackers, with the exception of cryptographic key secrets.
In practice, operators of systems that rely on security by obscurity often keep
the fact that their system is broken secret, so as not to destroy confidence in
their service or product (see security_by_obscurity). Examples of such systems
are the Windows “operating system†and the IIS web server. According to its
creator above, PHP-Nuke may join them in the future. This has not kept large
firms from using these products for their web presence, though. It is therefore
up to you how you interpret nessus' warning and Francisco's tendency to resort
to controversial security principles.
People have commented on Francisco's thoughts in that article, the sleepless
nights trying to close the security holes that were afflicting thousands of
PHP-Nuke sites were over and, after some sleep and thoughtful weighting of all
the factors involved, Francisco published an Update_and_answer_to_all_your_nice
comments. In this update, we read that the to do list for PHP-Nuke starts as
follows:
1) Release the 6.5 version
2) Start catching security bugs, sql injections holes, etc and fixing
it.
3) Recode some parts of the core system to properly check variables
against malicious code.
4) Reorganization of some html code
etc.
Unfortunately, reading the above can give one the impression that the release
of an intermediate version (priority 1) is more important than catching
security bugs and properly checking against malicious code (priorities 2 and 3
respectively), even if this may not be really the case in the author's mind.
In fact, Francisco, does care about security, as he confesses in another
article on the History_of_PHP-Nuke_and_Post-Nuke:
About security... Many people can think that I don't care about
security... I care, a lot. But what I don't do is to publish
"exploits" in my site about my software...Paul is the perfect proof
of the above affirmation, he's a direct witness of my interest on
this matter... is secret yes, but there is interest.
Should nessus' warning prevent you from deploying PHP-Nuke on your site? This
is a question that only you can answer. In the Web there are multiple truths
that can coexist one besides the other. In Envisioning_a_Site_That_Won't_Be
Featured_In_suck.com, Philip Greenspun writes about one-truth cultures:
Oral cultures do not share this belief. Knowledge is open-ended.
People may hold differing opinions without one person being wrong.
There is not necessarily one truth; there may be many truths. Though
he didn't grow up in an oral culture, Shakespeare knew this. Watch
Troilus and Cressida and its five perspectives on the nature of a
woman's love. Try to figure out which perspective Shakespeare thinks
is correct.
In deciding how secure PHP-Nuke is for you, you have to find your own truth.
Let's have a look at PHP-Nuke's security record, since this is what nessus
mentions as a prominent reason not to use it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.2. The impact of bad security record on software popularity
sendmail, the leading Mail Transport Agent in use today, was written at a time
when security was not a big issue. Internet was not as widespread as today and
the netizens were kinder to each other. To use nessus' words, “security was
clearly not in the mind of the persons who wrote itâ€. Sendmail's security
record is legendary (one is tempted to say “abysmalâ€), see this list of
Sendmail_desasters, which only covers the period from 1993 through 1997. There
was a time when sysadmins had to get used to weekly security patches from the
sendmail author and even joked about that.
Did this prevent the whole world from using sendmail? Not at all. Did this
prevent Fortune 500 companies from organising their mail systems with sendmail?
Doesn't seem so. I wonder if the nessus folks would issue the same warning for
sendmail too (didn't check, I must admit):
The remote host is running a copy of Sendmail. Given the insecurity
history of this package, the Nessus team recommends that you do not
use it but use something else instead, as security was clearly not in
the mind of the persons who wrote it.
Other software, like vBulletin, Iconboard, YaBB or Post-Nuke have shown
security problems too. Even hardware is not safe from vulnerabilities today,
since it may be running on faulty firmware. See How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke? for a
long list of links on such examples.
You may have a different opinion on sendmail's merits, but obviously its
security record did not harm its popularity that much. And we didn't go that
far as to examine this effect on even more popular software, like Windows.
That's why, once again, you have to weigh nessus' warning with your own
personal “weight factorâ€.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.3. Common PHP-Nuke security vulnerabilities
It's instructive to take the time and have a look at PHP-Nuke's_list_of
vulnerabilities (see Table_23-1). Even a superficial inspection reveals some
common vulnerability patterns:
* Cross-site scripting (Section_23.3.1)
* SQL injection (Section_23.3.2)
* Path disclosure (Section_23.3.3)
* Cross-site tracing (Section_23.3.4)
In the following we will examine them in more detail.
Table 23-1. List of PHP-Nuke security vulnerabilities
_______________________________________________________________________
|Description_________________________________________________|Date______|
|PHP-Nuke_Path_Disclosure_Vulnerability______________________|21.10.2003|
|Splatt_Forum_Cross-Site_Scripting_Vulnerability_____________|19.07.2003|
|PHP-Nuke_SQL_injection______________________________________|19.05.2003|
|Splatt_Forum_Cross_Site_Scripting___________________________|02.05.2003|
|PHP-Nuke_Cross-Site_Scripting_______________________________|25.04.2003|
|PHP-Nuke_Cross-Site_Scripting_______________________________|01.04.2003|
|PHP-Nuke_SQL_Injection______________________________________|26.03.2003|
|PHP-Nuke_Referer_Cross-Site_Scripting_______________________|19.03.2003|
|PHP-Nuke_Path_Disclosure____________________________________|18.03.2003|
|PHP-Nuke_Multiple_SQL_Injection_Vulnerabilities_____________|07.03.2003|
|PHP-Nuke_Multiple_SQL_Injection_Vulnerabilities_____________|25.02.2003|
|PHP_Nuke_Avatar_Scriptcode_Injection________________________|04.02.2003|
|PHP-Nuke_mail_CRLF_injection________________________________|23.12.2002|
|PHP-Nuke_execution_of_arbitrary_code________________________|17.12.2002|
|PHP-Nuke_Cross_Site_Scripting_______________________________|17.12.2002|
|PHP-Nuke_Cross_Site_Scripting_______________________________|25.11.2002|
|PHP-Nuke_SQL_injection_resets_passwords_____________________|01.11.2002|
|PHP-Nuke_Cross_Site_Scripting_______________________________|10.10.2002|
|Cross_Site_Scripting_holes_in_Xoops,_PHP-Nuke,_NPDS,_daCode,|24.09.2002|
|Drupal_and_phpWebSite_______________________________________|__________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.3.1. Cross-site scripting with PHP-Nuke
A CSS vulnerability is caused by the failure of a site to validate user input
before returning it to the client s web-browser. The essence of cross-site
scripting is that an intruder causes a legitimate web server to send a page to
a victim's browser that contains malicious script or HTML of the intruder's
choosing. The malicious script runs with the privileges of a legitimate script
originating from the legitimate web server (see Cross-Site_Scripting
Vulnerabilities). By failing to validate user input, the vulnerable site makes
it possible for a malicious user to execute (“injectâ€) a script in the context
of that site's process.
Here are some known examples of cross-site scripting with PHP-Nuke:
* When a user posts messages, special characters are not stripped making it
possible to inject malicious script code. The user types in a forum message
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Some test text for fun <script>alert(document.cookie);</script> some more|
| text.. |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
the text is not checked for the presence of a script - and the script is
executed in the victim's browser, who thinks it is a safe forum text from a
trusted PHP-Nuke site. (see Splatt_Forum_Cross_Site_Scripting).
* In a search field, the user types
__________________________________________
| |
| <script>alert(document.cookie);</script>|
|__________________________________________|
The search text is displayed in the results page without being validated. The
result: a script is again executed in the victim's browser (see Splatt_Forum
Cross_Site_Scripting, PHP-Nuke_Cross_Site_Scripting).
* In a forum post, a user types
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <html> |
| <body> |
| <script> |
| <!-- Modify here --> |
| var address='http://www.splatt.it/ |
| gate.html?mop=modload&name=Forums&file=newtopic'; |
| </script> |
| <!-- Exploit form --> |
| <script> |
| document.write("<form action="+address+" method='post' name='coolsus'>");|
| </script> |
| Forum Number: <input type=text name=forum value=1 size=3><br> |
| Username: <input CLASS=textbox TYPE="TEXT" NAME="username" |
| SIZE="25" MAXLENGTH="40"><br> |
| Password: <input CLASS=textbox TYPE="PASSWORD" NAME="password" |
| SIZE="25" MAXLENGTH="25"><br> |
| Subject: <input CLASS=textbox TYPE="TEXT" NAME="subject" |
| SIZE="75" MAXLENGTH="75"><br> |
| Message:<br><textarea name="message" rows="10" cols="75" |
| wrap="VIRTUAL"></textarea><br> |
| <input type=hidden name=bbcode value=0> |
| <input type=hidden name=smile value=0> |
| <input type=hidden name=notify value=0> |
| <b>Inject code:</b> <input type=text name=image_subject |
| value='icon1.gif">HTML CODE<!-- "' size=100><br> |
| <input type="submit" name="submit" value=submit class="Button"> |
| </form> |
| </body> |
| </html> |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
The input is not checked if it contains malicious code, the script is
executed in a user's browser when viewed. Successful exploitation can result
in disclosure of various information (eg. cookie-based authentication
information) associated with the site running Splatt Forum or inclusion of
malicious content, which the user thinks is part of the real website (see
Splatt_Forum_Cross-Site_Scripting_Vulnerability).
* Due to insufficient validation of user input used in an attribute inside a
tag, arbitrary script code can be executed by a malicious user. The
characters < and > are filtered, but PHP-Nuke neglects to filter out “
characters. A malicious person can exploit this to execute arbitrary script
code in a user's browser session by including it in either the profile,
comments, or a private message, where one has only to type something like
___________________________________________________________________
| |
| <a href="http://" onclick="alert('test')">http://" onclick="alert|
| ('test')</a> |
|___________________________________________________________________|
to provoke this behaviour (see PHP-Nuke_Cross-Site_Scripting).
* By posting a forum message with a title like:
____________________________________________
| |
| "><script>evil_code;</script> |
|____________________________________________|
the title will be returned by blocks/block-Forum.php as valid html or script
code to the users viewing the message (see PHP-Nuke_Cross-Site_Scripting).
* Input supplied to the $referer variable is not filtered when inserted into
the backend database, which makes it possible to include arbitrary script
code. When viewed by an administrator, the script code will be executed
automatically in the administrator's browser session and could eg. steal the
authentication cookie associated with the website, which contains the
administrator's username and password (see PHP-Nuke_Referer_Cross-Site
Scripting).
* Using the following manipulated addresses
__________________________________________________________
| |
| modules/Forums/bb_smilies.php?name=code |
| modules/Forums/bb_smilies.php?Default_Theme=code |
| modules/Forums/bb_smilies.php?site_font=}--></style>code|
| modules/Forums/bb_smilies.php?bgcolor1=">code |
|__________________________________________________________|
where "code" is a malicious code, a user can execute this code in a viewer's
browser (see PHP-Nuke_Cross_Site_Scripting).
As you can see from the above examples, the only remedy to cross-site scripting
problems is to write PHP code that validates user input (or, if you are the
“viewerâ€, disable scripting altogether, although even this will not prevent the
injection of malicious HTML, see Cross-Site_Scripting_Vulnerabilities).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.3.2. SQL injection with PHP-Nuke
Interaction with relational databases takes place through a textual language,
the Structured Query Language ('SQL'). The most recent standard is ANSI SQL-92
and forms the basis around which most SQL dialects are based today. See SQL
syntax_diagrams for a visualization of SQL syntax. Data extraction from the
database takes place through a 'query', which is a collection of SQL
statements. An SQL query returns the data in a so-called 'result set'.
SQL statements are divided into two general categories: those that can modify
the structure (Data Definition Language statements, or 'DDL') and those that
can manipulate the contents of databases (Data Manipulation Language
statements, or 'DML'). SQL Injection occurs when an attacker is able to insert
a series of SQL statements into a 'query' by manipulating data input into an
application (see Advanced_SQL_Injection_in_SQLServer_Applications).
The typical scenario of an SQL Injection goes like this: an SQL statement like
(taken from mainfile.php)
______________________________________________________________
| |
| SELECT active FROM ".$prefix."_modules WHERE title='$module'|
|______________________________________________________________|
is used to retrieve the 'active' column from the 'nuke_modules' table (assuming
that $prefix is set to 'nuke' in config.php, see Section_3.7), returning in the
'result set' only the row that matches the module $module. An important point
to note here is that the string literal '$module' is delimited with single
quotes. Presuming that $module is taken from the URL or from user input and was
not subjected to further scrutiny, one could use a “module name†of
_____________________________________________________________
| |
| ' UNION ALL SELECT user_password FROM nuke_users WHERE "=' |
|_____________________________________________________________|
and the 'query string' would become:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| SELECT active FROM ".$prefix."_modules |
| WHERE title=" UNION ALL SELECT user_password FROM nuke_users WHERE "="|
|________________________________________________________________________|
The database server would execute the first part
______________________________________________________
| |
| SELECT active FROM ".$prefix."_modules WHERE title="|
|______________________________________________________|
and would find no modules with empty title. It would then combine[27] this
empty result set with the outcome of
________________________________________________
| |
| SELECT user_password FROM nuke_users WHERE "="|
|________________________________________________|
which selects all passwords (since the WHERE clause is tautologically true,
comparing an empty string with itself), returning the “cartesian productâ€
(UNION) of the two - i.e. the set of all passwords. If the outcome of such a
query is supposed to be printed somewhere, the user will be able to see
sensitive information.
If the “module name†passed on unchecked were
___________________________
| |
| ' ; DROP TABLES WHERE "='|
|___________________________|
the consequences would be catastrophic: the database server would execute
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| SELECT active FROM ".$prefix."_modules WHERE title=" ; DROP TABLES WHERE|
| "=" |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
Depending on the actual SQL query, you may have to try some of these
possibilities for the WHERE clause:
_______________
| |
| ' or 1=1-- |
| " or 1=1-- |
| or 1=1-- |
| ' or 'a'='a |
| " or "a"="a |
| ') or ('a'='a|
|_______________|
instead of
_____
| |
| "='|
|_____|
The general rule is that to "break out" of the quotes and manipulate the SQL
query, while maintaining valid SQL syntax, your query string must start with a
quote and end in a WHERE clause that needs a query appended to it (see SQL
Injection).
In PHP-Nuke, SQL injection has been reported in the following vulnerabilities:
* The "cid" parameter isn't properly verified in the "Downloads" module. This
can be exploited to manipulate the SQL query and may potentially allow
bypassing authentication or reveal sensitive information (see PHP-Nuke_SQL
Injection_Vulnerability).
* Numeric values in the Web_Links module aren't validated before they are used
in SQL queries. Example:
______________________________________________________________________________________
| |
| / |
| modules.php?op=modload&name=Web_Links&file=index&l_op=viewlink&cid=2%20malicious_SQL|
|______________________________________________________________________________________|
(see PHP-Nuke_SQL_injection). You wonder how malicious_SQL might look like?
Here is a real world example from my web server logs:
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| /modules.php?name=Web_Links&l_op=viewlink&cid=2 |
| %20UNION%20select%20counter,%20pwd,%20aid%20FROM%20nuke_authors%20|
|____________________________________________________________________|
* Several input validation errors, which could be exploited by malicious people
to manipula te existing SQL queries by conducting SQL injection attacks
against the application, see PHP-Nuke_SQL_Injection.
* Input validation errors in the modules "Members_List" and "Your_Account",
which can be exploited by conducting a SQL injection attack, see PHP-Nuke
Multiple_SQL_Injection_Vulnerabilities.
* Vulnerabilities can be exploited to manipulate existing SQL queries, which
can result in disclosure of the Admin user's password hash. This can
afterwards be used to gain administrative priviliges for PHP-Nuke, see PHP-
Nuke_Multiple_SQL_Injection_Vulnerabilities.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.3.3. Path disclosure with PHP-Nuke
Path disclosure is a vulnerability that enables a user to gain knowledge of the
internal path structure of an installation. It affects not only PHP-Nuke, but
almost all PHP scripts too. A typical path disclosure scenario goes as follows:
A user enters deliberately a value which is passed unchecked to the script. The
value is crafted so as to cause an error in the PHP interpreter or the database
server. The user's speculation is that the error message will contain valuable
information about the paths of the given software installation.
As an example, the error could be something like:
_______________________________________________________________
| |
| Fatal error: Cannot redeclare theindex() in |
| /mnt/be1/02/738/0004711/w3/htdocs/www.yoursite.net/index.php |
| on line 7 |
|_______________________________________________________________|
Typically, error reporting is set to display the errors on the served page and
the user would gain knowledge of the full path of the index.php script on the
server. This may or may not worry you, but it is a good idea to keep
undisclosed to malicious users. To achieve this, once a script is in production
and displayed messages are no longer needed for debugging, they should be
disabled.
Path disclosure with PHP-Nuke has been reported in the following cases:
* The search module can't handle certain characters such as """, ">" and
"'". This causes PHP-Nuke to return an error m essage that discloses the
installation path (see PHP-Nuke_Path_Disclosure_Vulnerability).
* The PHP script "print.php" used by the modules "News" and "AvantGo" does not
verify user input supplied to the "$sid" variable. A malicious person could
exploit this to gain knowledge of the full path to the installation directory
by sending a HTTP request including invalid input to the "$sid" variable (see
PHP-Nuke_Path_Disclosure).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.3.4. Cross-site tracing with PHP-Nuke
A new vulnerability has been found in Microsoft's Internet Information Server
(IIS) which allows the reading of cookies. This is potentially possible also on
Apache. Since PHP-Nuke relies on the cookie mechanism (Section_23.4.5) for user
authentication, it is important to know the risks emanating from this type of
vulnerability. Here is the way it works, according a CERT advisory (see
Microsoft_Internet_Information_Server_(IIS)_vulnerable_to_cross-site_scripting
via_HTTP_TRACK_method):
Microsoft IIS servers support the HTTP TRACK method. The HTTP TRACK method asks
a web server to echo the contents of the request back to the client for
debugging purposes. The TRACK request is not RFC compliant and not well
documented.
The complete request, including HTTP headers, is returned in the entity-body of
a TRACK response. This leads to a Cross-site Scripting attack. Using features
that provide client-side HTTP protocol support, such as XMLHTTP ActiveX or
XMLDOM scripting objects, a web site can cause browsers to issue TRACK
requests. The site can read the TRACK response, including sensitive header
information such as cookies or authentication data.
Because the TRACK method is similar to the TRACE method, when combined with
cross-domain browser vulnerabilities (VU#244729, VU#711843, VU#728563), HTTP
TRACK and client-side HTTP support can be leveraged by attackers to read
sensitive header information from third-party domains. This technique has been
termed "Cross-Site Tracing," or XST, in Cross-Site_Tracing_(XST), a report
published by WhiteHat Security. Cross-site tracing is also described in a CERT
advisory_about_Cross-Site-Tracing.
As noted in the report of WhiteHat, the technique can be used to bypass the
HttpOnly cookie attribute introduced in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1.
HttpOnly blocks script access to the cookie property (document.cookie), but
does not prevent a scripting object from reading the cookie out of an HTTP
TRACK response. In the White Paper of WhiteHat Security, this new method of
Cross-Site-Scripting is explained in detail. The essence is that this technique
...is able not only to bypass the httpOnly mechanism present in i.e.
6 service pack 1, but in addition the ability to xss just about
anything from just about anywhere. This technique allows client-side
scripting languages, such as javascript, and possibly other client-
side technologies like vbscript, flash, java, etc., the ability
access http web authentication credentials, with the added bonus of
achieving this result over ssl.
Normally, the cookie is sent back to the domain it belongs. But with this TRACE
or TRACK HTTP method, it is possible to request a trace and the web server will
send back all data, including the cookie! This is especially important for PHP-
Nuke, since it relies on cookies for the authentication of its users.
To protect yourself, you should deactivate the TRACE HTTP method , if you are
using Apache, and the TRACK HTTP method, if you are using IIS:
* For Apache, you should put the following in the .htaccess file (Section_25.4)
of your document root (or, for performance reasons, directly in the
configuration file of Apache, if you have access to it):
______________________________________
| |
| RewriteEngine On |
| RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^TRACE|
| RewriteRule .* - [F] |
|______________________________________|
Of course, this assumes that you have mod_rewrite (Section_25.2) installed.
* For IIS, you should filter out the TRACE and TRACK methods with the URLScan
filter. The only methods allowed should be GET, HEAD and POST.
There is nothing you can do in the code of PHP-Nuke to avoid this
vulnerability, however you should bear in mind when we talk about cookies
Section_23.4.5 that a Cross-Site Tracing attack may steal the cookies of your
PHP-Nuke too. See also Cross-site_tracing_attack_via_HTTP_TRACK_/_TRACE_method.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.4. How to guard against security vulnerabilities in PHP-Nuke
After all the detailed excusion to the security risks lurking around your
pristine installation of PHP-Nuke that was undertaken in the previous sections,
you may be asking yourself if there is anything you can do to avoid them.
Indeed, following the advice in this section, will render your PHP-Nuke system
as secure as can be.
But there is also one point you should understand while talking about software
(and especially Web software) security: there is no absolute security! You can
make life very difficult for the hypothetical “malicious userâ€, but then, given
enough (time, money and criminal energy) resources, every system connected to
the Web can become vulnerable. Thus, if your carreer depends on this, hire a
security professional to check the code for you.
However, even if you are on your own, you can still do a lot to guard against
security vulnerabilities. You can:
* Stay current on developments and apply security fixes (see Section_23.4.1).
* Take the right security measures (see Section_23.4.2).
* Perform a security audit of the code yourself (see Section_23.4.3).
* Check file permissions (see Section_23.4.4) and cookie settings (see Section
23.4.5).
Tip Disable HTML and uploads!
Many of the most important security risks arise from the fact that HTML
is allowed in the News and Forums, or that users are allowed to upload
 avatars or mail attachments to the web server. You can thus diminish the
attack potential against your site, if you disable HTML and uploads. But
of course, this will not protect you from everything, so read on!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.4.1. Security fixes
No piece of software is free from security related bugs. PHP-Nuke is no
exception to this rule. Due to its open source nature, everyone can search the
source code for security holes. This is done by professionals and amateurs
alike. When a security hole is found (i.e. a bug in the code that has the
potential to enable unauthorized access and/or execution of code, leading to a
compromise of the system's integrity or function), a bug fix will appear that
closes it. It is of utmost importance to the integrity of your data to follow
the developement in this area and apply those “security fixes†as soon as they
become available.
If you run a fresh version of the analyze.php script (see Section_3.9.1.3), it
will not only test your database connection and report errors, it will also
warn you of any vulnerabilities regarding your PHP version (see Figure_23-1).
Figure 23-1. PHP security warning from analyze.php.
PHP security warning from analyze.php.
Tip Run a fresh analyze.php regularly
analyze.php will also test other components of your system, such as
MySQL, various modules etc. for known vulnerabilities, so you should run
a fresh copy at regular intervalls (an old copy will not report new
 vulnerabilities, of course!). But it is also important that you do not
rely completely on one script. There is no way around subscribing to the
security mailing lists, if you want to stay current on developments in
the software security field.
You should register yourself to well-known security advisories, like those from
secunia, securityfocus, CERT, http://neworder.box.sk or linuxsecurity and
filter those that are relevant to PHP and PHP-Nuke (unless you plan to read
emails all day!).
Upon reading about a new vulnerability for PHP-Nuke, you should reach the pages
of
* PHP-Nuke
* nukecops
* nukeresources
* nukesecurity
looking for available security fixes to apply. For example, nukeresources
collects all (security or not) fixes to the 6.x version of PHP-Nuke under
Downloads_Category:_PHPNuke_6.x_/_Fixes.
If a new PHP vulnerability has been discovered, then the first place to run to,
is php.net.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.4.2. Security measures
Figure 23-2. Site key security warning from analyze.php.
Site key security warning from analyze.php.
Staying current on security fixes is only part of the story. The other part is
a conservatively configured system. Regarding security, you cannot be overly
conservative, so consider taking the following general security measures:
* Apply any security fixes available for your PHP-Nuke version (see Section
23.4.1).
* Do not allow HTML in the news, forums, private messages or any other areas of
PHP-Nuke. Use BBcode instead.
* Do not allow uploading of images (e.g. for a gallery), avatars (e.g. for a
forum) or mail attachments, in any module, be it a forum, gallery, mail or
whatever.
* As long as the mailattach.php file is on the server, even if the module is
not active, you can get hacked. Currently, the best fix is to delete the file
(see mailattach). analyze.php (see Section_3.9.1.3) will issue a waring, if
it finds the file in your installation (see Figure_23-3).
* Delete the nuke.sql file from your web server, as soon as you finished
installation and everything is working correctly. First, you will not need it
any more and second, if someone takes control of your site, he could have the
nice idea to rerun the nuke.sql file on your database, thus bringing it to
its original, pristine state (see Hacked_-_now_what? for a real story).
* You should also change your site key. The best time to do this is during
installation, while entering all the other parameters in config.php.
analyze.php will issue a warning, if it finds the default site key in your
config.php (see Figure_23-2). A site key is an important but often overlooked
security feature of PHP-Nuke. It is used in generating security codes for
authentication and resource access (e.g. downloads) purposes (see PHP-Nuke
Security_GFX_Mapping_-_Potential_Risk for details on how this is done). Each
installation of PHP-Nuke system requires choosing a unique site key.
You can use the Electric_Dice for this purpose. ElectricDice generates true
random site keys that can be easily pasted into the config.php file. As
opposed to pseudo random numbers generated by computers, Electric Dice uses
numbers generated from atmospheric noise in radio waves - a proven entropy
source. ElectricDice is useful for both first time installation as well as
updating your existing site key.
Figure 23-3. WebMail security warning from analyze.php.
WebMail security warning from analyze.php.
To reduce the risk of SQL injection (see Section_23.3.2) and cross-site
scripting (see Section_23.3.1), you can do the following:
* Set “magic_quotes†to ON in php.ini. When magic_quotes are on, all ' (single-
quote), " (double quote), \ (backslash) and NUL's are escaped with a
backslash automatically, see PHP_Options_and_Information.
* Set “register_globals†to OFF in php.ini. When on, register_globals will
inject (poison) your scripts will all sorts of variables, like request
variables from html forms. This coupled with the fact that PHP doesn't
require variable initialization means writing insecure code is that much
easier (see Using_Register_Globals).
* Follow a well-thought user rights concept. Do not give users more rights to
the database than it is absolutely necessary.
Note PHP-Nuke now works with register_globals set to OFF!
Contrary to the older 5.x versions that needed some extra script for
this, newer versions (starting 6.0) of PHP-Nuke will work with
register_globals set to OFF in the php.ini! Thus, there is no need to
renounce this security measure, as far as PHP-Nuke is concerned. The
reason is the following code that is now included in the start of
mainfile.php:
_____________________________________
| |
 | if (!ini_get("register_globals")) {|
| import_request_variables('GPC'); |
| } |
|_____________________________________|
Since every module includes mainfile.php, it also includes the above
code, and will thus work with register_globals OFF. If, for some unusual
reason, your module does not include mainfile.php, just add the above
lines of code to make it work with register_globals OFF.
To avoid path disclosure (see Section_23.3.3), you can:
* Set "display_errors" to off in php.ini or
_____________________________
| |
| php_flag display_errors off|
|_____________________________|
in .htaccess (see Section_25.4) or in an http configuration file.
* Use PHP's error handling functions to disable error reporting or alter the
handling (to email an admin for example, and display a less explicit error).
Tip Security Tip (from the PHP-Nuke INSTALL file)
It's a good choice to put your config.php file outside the Web Server
path, then you can create a new config.php with the line:
_____________________________________
 | |
| <?php include("../config.php"); ?> |
|_____________________________________|
Some of the above measures may make PHP-Nuke less attractive to you, or your
visitors, who would very much like, for example, to be able to write in HTML,
upload images at will, or attach nice files to their mails. It is up to you to
weigh the risks and the merits of allowing or disabling a functionality. A
small, amateur site may take a different approach than a big, professional one.
And remember that the most secure website is one that is offline.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.4.3. Security audit
Unfortunately, the above measures will not be enough to protect you, if the
code is flawed. Thus, the most effective measure, is the one that needs a
programmer and a security specialist together:
If you are a programmer, or if you hire one: inspect (audit) the code and
“sanitize†the data, whenever it is input by the user. Sanitization is best
achieved through a default-deny regular expression, like [^a-zA-Z0-9] -
whatever matches the expression should be removed. The regular expression acts
like a filter on user input. Make that filter as narrow as possible: if at all
possible, allow only numbers, else letters and numbers. Make sure that any
other characters, like symbols or punctuation, are converted to their HTML
entity equivalents. Further, prefix and append a quote to all user input. For
more programming tips, see Advanced_SQL_Injection_In_SQL_Server_Applications
and Web_Applications_and_SQL_Injection.
If you rather prefer an explicit list of what to block, try this one, taken
from SQL_Injection_Walkthrough:
Filter out characters like single quote, double quote, slash,
backslash, semicolon, extended characters like NULL, carriage return,
newline, etc, in all strings from:
* Input from users
* Parameters from URLs
* Values from cookies
For a numeric value, convert it to an integer before parsing it into
an SQL statement.
Currently, PHP-Nuke checks with the following code for the presence of “bad
code†in GET parameters:
_________________________________________________________
| |
| foreach ($_GET as $secvalue) { |
| if ((eregi("<[^>]*script*\"?[^>]*>", $secvalue)) |||
| (eregi("<[^>]*object*\"?[^>]*>", $secvalue)) |||
| (eregi("<[^>]*iframe*\"?[^>]*>", $secvalue)) |||
| (eregi("<[^>]*applet*\"?[^>]*>", $secvalue)) |||
| (eregi("<[^>]*meta*\"?[^>]*>", $secvalue)) || |
| (eregi("<[^>]*style*\"?[^>]*>", $secvalue)) || |
| (eregi("<[^>]*form*\"?[^>]*>", $secvalue)) || |
| (eregi("<[^>]*img*\"?[^>]*>", $secvalue)) || |
| (eregi("\([^>]*\"?[^)]*\)", $secvalue)) || |
| (eregi("\"", $secvalue))) { |
| die ("I don't like you..."); |
| } |
| } |
|_________________________________________________________|
Notice that the expressions in the first argument of the eregi functions above
are regular expressions (see Section_25.3). Their meaning is the following:
For the sake of example, we explain the first regular expression
________________________
| |
| <[^>]*script*\"?[^>]*>|
|________________________|
meaning "anything that starts with "<" (that's the first "<" in the
expression), immediately followed by zero or more occurrences (that's the "*"
after the [^>]) of a character that is NOT (that's the "^" inside the "[^>]")
">" (that's what follows the "^" in the square brackets), immediately followed
by "script", followed by zero or more occurrences of "t" (that's the "*" after
"script", but it is wrong here, you probably should have a blank between
"script" and "*", meaning zero or more blanks....but let's continue ),
immediately followed by zero or one """ (that's the ""?" - don't let the double
quotes mislead you, what we mean is "zero or one double quote" ), immediately
followed by zero or more occurrences of any character that is not ">" (that's
the "[^>]*" again...)". Phew...
As it stands, an expression like that will match everything that contains “<
scriptxxxxxxxxxâ€, where the x's stay for “whateverâ€. This may be too
restrictive for you, as you might want to allow words that contain “script†as
part of the word, but not the word “script†itself. Try the following regular
expression instead:
_________________________
| |
| <[^>]*script +\"?[^>]*>|
|_________________________|
Uhmm...what's the difference? We have inserted a blank between "script" and the
"*" immediately following it and have replaced the "*" with the "+". Thus, the
"+" will refer to the preceding blank (meaning "one or more blanks", not "zero
or more t's", as in the case of the original "script*"). Remember, the "*" and
the "+" and the "?" all refer to the preceding "atom" - it is NOT like "dir
*.exe" here!
Small, but crucial!
Further, go to modules/Forums/admin/common.php and have a look at the start of
the code. There you can see how to use addslashes to "escape" potentially
dangerous characters (like quotes). Since we are dealing only with GET
parameters in this discussion, you need only the part that is relevant to the
$HTTP_GET_VARS array:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| // |
| // addslashes to vars if magic_quotes_gpc is off |
| // this is a security precaution to prevent someone |
| // trying to break out of a SQL statement. |
| // |
| if( !get_magic_quotes_gpc() ) |
| { |
| if( is_array($HTTP_GET_VARS) ) |
| { |
| while( list($k, $v) = each($HTTP_GET_VARS) ) |
| { |
| if( is_array($HTTP_GET_VARS[$k]) ) |
| { |
| while( list($k2, $v2) = each($HTTP_GET_VARS|
| [$k]) ) |
| { |
| $HTTP_GET_VARS[$k][$k2] = |
| addslashes($v2); |
| } |
| @reset($HTTP_GET_VARS[$k]); |
| } |
| else |
| { |
| $HTTP_GET_VARS[$k] = addslashes($v); |
| } |
| } |
| @reset($HTTP_GET_VARS); |
| } |
| } |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
Chatserv has recently undergone PHP-Nuke a detailed scrutiny from the security
point of view and came up with security_patches_for_all_6.x_and_7.x_versions_of
PHP-Nuke that cover:
* New Abstraction layer conversion.
* Variables quoted on all sql queries.
* Security check added to most variables.
* Bugs in core files fixed.
* Previous sec-fix patches applied.
You should include Chatserv's patches in your security audit and try to stay
current on the developments in this area as much as you can.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.4.4. Permissions on 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).
You have already set the right permissions on folders and files during
installation (see Section_3.2.3, where you will find a more in-depth treatment
of the concept of file permissions). However, it is a good idea to think about
permissions once again, in a security context.
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 “mediaâ€
would have to be 777, due to an override problem, the 777 permissions will have
to be imposed on everything that is below “modulesâ€. 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. But
you still have to consider the risks associated with such a decision. To quote
the phpGroupWare_Installation_and_security_HOWTO:
As discussed earlier, having a world writable file in you web root is
a rather serious security risk, especially if that file will accept
raw user data. It becomes trivial for someone to add php code or any
type of script or cgi code your server supports and execute it on
your system. Risk is reduced slightly because it would be executed as
the "anonymous" nobody user that apache runs under but still would
allow access to your ...[ed. config.php] and thus your database, as
well as access to /etc/* where all sorts of fun and dangerous
information could be abused.
Thus, if the upload feature is of utmost importance to you, you are well
advised to double-check what kinds of files your users will be allowed to
upload - and test any paranoid scenario you can think of. In case of doudt, it
may be safer to disable uploading at the cost of making some users unhappy.
Better safe than sory.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.4.5. 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.4.5.1. Cookie hijack
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 “burglarâ€.
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:
_____________________________________________
| |
| <vbscript>(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 the security for our
administration area:
1. First of all STOP using Internet Explorer as a browser and pass the seat
to 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 Microsoft.
2. Disable, where possible, the insertion of HTML tags (for example in the
forum)
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 realized through the check_html and
filter_text functions in mainfile.php (see Section_16.1). The admissible
tags are defined in the file config.php in the $AllowableHTML array, these
are valid for the comments, the insertion of news and many other user
inputs (see Table_16-1 and Table_16-2 for all instances of a call to the
filter_text and check_html functions respectively).
All these actions and a correct configuration of the permissions as illustrated
in Section_3.2.3 and Section_23.4.4, should guarantee us a good security for
our site. It is also important to closely follow the security warnings for PHP-
Nuke that are brought up on the various security advisories (see Section
23.4.1).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.4.5.2. Changing the duration of the user cookie
If you want to redefine the duration of the user cookie (as opposed to the
administrator cookie), you have to edit the file modules/Your_Account/
index.php. There, find the function docookie():
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| function docookie($setuid, $setusername, $setpass, $setstorynum, $setumode,|
| |
| $setuorder, $setthold, $setnoscore, $setublockon, $settheme, |
| $setcommentmax) { |
| $info = base64_encode("$setuid:$setusername:$setpass:$setstorynum: |
| $setumode: |
| $setuorder:$setthold:$setnoscore:$setublockon:$settheme:$setcommentmax"); |
| setcookie("user","$info",time()+2592000); |
| } |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
and change the 2592000 seconds (30 days) to the duration of your choice.
If you want the user cookie to expire as soon as the user closes his browser,
to avoid problems with internet cafes and similar situations where a user might
forget to log off your site and leave his browser still running, thus making it
trivial for others to use his PHP-Nuke account, you should set a temporary
cookie. This is done by removing the time altogether:
____________________________
| |
| setcookie("user","$info");|
|____________________________|
See:
* PHP_Manual_on_setcookie,
* user_Log_off,
* cookie_expire_time
* how_to_force_all_users_to_relogin and
* automatic_logout
for discussions on this subject.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.5. How to ban IP addresses
So you have been hacked and your IP Tracking module (Section_8.3.6) shows you
it was an attack from a few IP addresses? Perhaps your site is continuing to be
the aim of notorious cracking attempts from those IP addresses and you now want
to ban them? That's something you can accomplish easily in two ways, a hard-
coded approach and a more elaborate one.
The hard-coded approach (suitable only for just a few IP addresses, unless you
want to clutter the code with unwanted IPs) requires you to place this 4-liner:
______________________________________________________
| |
| $ip = getenv("REMOTE_ADDR"); |
| if ($ip != "66.666.66.6" AND $ip != "55.555.55.5") {|
| return 0; |
| } |
|______________________________________________________|
in two places:
1. after the global line of the is_amdin() function in mainfile.php and
2. at the begining of the admin.php file.
Change the “66.666.66.6†and “55.555.55.5†to the IP addresses you want to
block and you are done! See How_to_block_an_IP_address_in_PHP-Nuke.
The more elaborate approach is to create a text file, call it banned.txt,
containing all the IP addresses you want to ban, one address per line. Upload
banned.txt in the PHP-Nuke root directory on your web server (this is the same
directory where also config.php is located). Then include the following code in
the includes/my_header.php file (the custom HTML header file of PHP-Nuke, see
Chapter_15):
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'])) { |
| $ip = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']; |
| } |
| elseif (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_VIA'])) { |
| $ip = $_SERVER['HTTP_VIA']; |
| } |
| elseif (isset($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'])) { |
| $ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']; |
| } |
| else { |
| $ip = "Banned"; |
| } |
| $banned = file("banned.txt", "r+"); |
| $nbanned = count($banned); |
| function ban($ip, $banned, $nbanned){ |
| for ($i = 0 ; $i < $nbanned ; $i++) { |
| |
| // Use this if you want to use IP patterns with regular |
| expressions: |
| // if (eregi($ip, $banned[$i])) { |
| // We have to strip the end-of-line characters, to test for |
| equality: |
| if ($ip == rtrim($banned[$i])) { |
| echo "You have been banned from this portal, if you feel this|
| is in error "; |
| echo "please send email to you@yoursite.com "; |
| die(); |
| } |
| } |
| } |
| ban($ip, $banned, $nbanned); |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
If you are having problems with PHP not recognizing the line endings when
reading files with the PHP_file()_function (see the code above), either on or
created by a Macintosh computer, you might want to enable the
auto_detect_line_endings run-time configuration option (which, however, is
available only starting PHP v. 4.3.0).
If you would like to ban whole ranges of IP addresses, you can play with the
PHP_eregi()_function and use
________________________________
| |
| if (eregi($ip, $banned[$i])) {|
|________________________________|
instead of
___________________________________
| |
| if ($ip == rtrim($banned[$i])) {|
|___________________________________|
You then use patterns of IP addresses, i.e. regular expressions (see Section
25.3, Regular_Expression_Functions_(POSIX_Extended)), instead of constant IPs
in banned.txt. See also How_to_ban_IPs_real_fast.
Tip How to ban IPs using the web server
Of course, you can achieve the same results by putting deny directives in
the server configuration file, or .htaccess file (Section_25.4):
___________________________
 | |
| deny from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx|
|___________________________|
See the Protector Module (Section_8.3.7) for a PHP-Nuke module for IP banning.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.6. Hacked - now what?
Here is an incomplete list of what you can do when you realize that your PHP-
Nuke site has been hacked:
* Check the files on your server against your latest backup to check for any
modifications.Tripwire can help you with this task.
* Reset all admin passwords.
* Search the logs for the message posting URL, e.g. *admin.php?op=messages ,
find the perpetrator's IP and notify the person responsible for the network.
* If using Apache, create "admin" user group, add a new user to this group and
create the appropriate .htaccess file (Section_25.4).
* Limit access to admin.php to a "tight" IP range/subnet.
* Install the Protector module (Section_8.3.7), which gives you "high level"
logs of session activity on your PHP-Nuke site.
* Re-evaluate the security of installed 3rd party modules/blocks.
See also
* My_site_running_phpnuke_6.9_got_hacked,
* Hacked_-_what_do_I_do?,
* My_site_has_reset_itself_to_the_'welcome_to_php-nuke'_screen.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 24. Accelerating PHP-Nuke
Figure 24-1. Accelerating PHP-Nuke.
Accelerating PHP-Nuke.
Want a lightning fast PHP-Nuke? Read on...
Problem:
You installed all kinds of modules, blocks and image galleries on your
PHP-Nuke. Now, you notice that it has become painfully slow. What can be
done to accelarate things a bit?
Idea:
Cache_PHP-Nuke!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.1. Caching PHP-Nuke
As in How_to_accelerate_PHP-Nuke, we ask ourselves the following questions:
* Does your index.php, or the other parts of your PHP-Nuke change more often
than, say, once in 15 minutes? Maybe not, if you are not logged in.
* Do you really need to see a change the very moment you hit the reload button
of your browser? For me, if this change is the number of private messages I
got, then I might be interested to see the *real* number. But then again, why
not the number as of 5 minutes ago? How important is current content for you?
How current is current enough for you? 1 minute, 5 minutes, or even 15
minutes?
If you think a little about it, you will realize that maybe it is not
absolutely necessary that your PHP-Nuke does all these conections to the
database, querying all that data that most probably did not change the last x
minutes, each time you display a page.
Figure 24-2. Optimizing PHP code execution.
Optimizing PHP code execution.
Various tests on optimizing PHP (see, for example, Optimizing_PHP) have shown
that the biggest time savings in execution time are not achieved through
elaborate algorithmic optimization, but rather with an old, well-known
technique: caching! The idea behind caching is to avoid repeated execution of
the PHP code, by storing the HTML output in a file, as jpcache (Section_24.1.1)
and Cache-Lite (Section_24.1.2) do, or in shared memory, as Turck MMCache
(Section_24.1.3) does. Optimizers, such as the commercial Zend_Performance
Suite and the free Turck MMCache, transform the PHP code in an intermediate
form, an “opcode†, which they cache - Figure_24-2 shows the way these
optimizers work. In the following we will examine them in more detail.
Caution Know what you cache and why!
If you try to cache the whole index.php page even for registered
users, you shouldn't be surprised of the errors and you shouldn't
blame it on cache. The cache will just cache what you tell it to, for
the time intervall you tell it to.
Now, suppose that your users get different output on your index.php
page, depending on your settings as an administrator (blocks, modules
etc.) and their settings as users. Also suppose that you use a
 caching mechanism, like the ones we will describe later in this
chapter, to cache the whole index.php page. Then we can easily
imagine a situation where your user A will not get to see what he
should see, but what user B was viewing a few minutes ago. In other
words, all users will see user's B cached index.php page, with all
the wrong links in it, like "Your Account" with user's B data in the
link etc.
For this reason, it is absolutely necessary to know what you cache
and why you cache it!
Tip What to cache for registered users
If you want to cache content when it is viewed by registered users too,
it will make more sense to cache only individual modules or blocks which
(see Caching_strategy_with_PHP-Nuke)
Â
* take much time to build their content and
* their content is independent of the user viewing it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.1.1. jpcache
Figure 24-3. Powered by jpcache.
Powered by jpcache.
Enter jpcache: jpcache is a lightweight, full page caching system for PHP, thus
reducing server load, as pages are generated less often. It dramatically speeds
up serving of your pages, by caching page ouput and returning the chached page
instead of compiling the PHP one. In the following we will describe jpcache
installation, configuration and use (see also How_to_accelerate_PHP-Nuke):
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.1.1.1. Installation of jpcache
Installation is very simple:
* Download it from the jpcache_download_page_at_sourceforge.net.
* Extract the files in the includes directory of your PHP-Nuke. A folder
"jpcache" will be created containing all the necessary files. Change to that
folder.
* Read the readme file.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.1.1.2. Configuration of jpcache
* Edit the $includedir variable in the jpcache.php file to reflect the *full*
path to the jpcache files:
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| // Set the includedir to the jpcache-directory |
| $includedir = "/usr/local/httpd/htdocs/nuke6/html/includes/jpcache";|
|______________________________________________________________________|
* Edit the jpcache-config.php file. You basically only need to set the
$JPCACHE_TYPE to "file" (remember, we want to avoid database connections):
_____________________________________
| |
| $JPCACHE_TYPE = "file"; |
| //$JPCACHE_TYPE = "mysql"; |
| //$JPCACHE_TYPE = "dbm"; -- Not yet|
|_____________________________________|
then coment the next block (you don't need it, since you *did* specified the
$JPCACHE_TYPE above):
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| // DOH! Strip out this check for performance if you are sure you did set|
| it. |
| // if (!isset($JPCACHE_TYPE)) |
| // { |
| // exit("[jpcache-config.php] No JPCACHE_TYPE has been set!"); |
| // } |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
Just check the configuration options to see what they do, the defaults are
O.K. for me:
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| /** |
| * General configuration options. |
| */ |
| $JPCACHE_TIME = 900; // Default number of seconds to cache a page |
| $JPCACHE_DEBUG = 0; // Turn debugging on/off |
| $JPCACHE_IGNORE_DOMAIN= 1; // Ignore domain name in request(single site)|
| $JPCACHE_ON = 1; // Turn caching on/off |
| $JPCACHE_USE_GZIP = 1; // Whether or not to use GZIP |
| $JPCACHE_POST = 0; // Should POST's be cached (default OFF) |
| $JPCACHE_GC = 1; // Probability % of garbage collection |
| $JPCACHE_GZIP_LEVEL = 9; // GZIPcompressionlevel to use (1=low,9=high) |
| $JPCACHE_CLEANKEYS = 0; // Set to 1 to avoid hashing storage-key: |
| // you can easily see cachefile-origin. |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
* Finally, set the directory for the cached files, preferably outside your web
server root, say /tmp/jpcache. Create it, set the owner and group equal to
the owner and group of your web server and change the permissions to 755
(rwx-r-x-r-x), or even 750 (rwx-r-x----). Then, enter in jpcache-config.php
the absolute path to that cache directory:
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| /** |
| * File based caching setting. |
| */ |
| $JPCACHE_DIR = "/tmp/jpcache"; // Directory where jpcache must store |
| // generated files. Please use a dedicated |
| // directory, and make it writable |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
That's all! jpcache is now configured correctly.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.1.1.3. How to use jpcache
To use it, just open the index.php file of your PHP-Nuke and enter the
following lines, after the line "require_once("mainfile.php");" (that's
important!):
______________________________________________
| |
| require_once("mainfile.php"); |
| if (!isset($user)) { |
| $cachetimeout=900; |
| } else { |
| $cachetimeout=300; |
| } |
| require_once "includes/jpcache/jpcache.php";|
|______________________________________________|
(I have included the 'require_once("mainfile.php");' line in the code above for
your orientation).
That's it! You can now tweak the two caching intervalls, 900 and 300 seconds,
which apply to non-logged-in and logged-in users respectively. Rethink the
questions I asked you in Section_24.1 above.
A caching intervall of x seconds means that your server will serve you a cached
copy of the page, if the cache copy is not older than x seconds. Since non-
logged-in users don't get private messages or similar "events", a longer
caching intervall is just right for them. Feel free to experiment with these
two values, trading actuality of content against serving speed.
Enjoy your new, lightning fast PHP-Nuke!
Oops...I forgot a crucial detail:
You must edit the mainfile.php file too! There, you *must* comment the line
___________________________
| |
| ob_start("ob_gzhandler");|
|___________________________|
as follows:
_____________________________
| |
| # ob_start("ob_gzhandler");|
|_____________________________|
Otherwise, you will be compressing twofold, once from PHP-Nuke with the above
line and once with jpcache through the configuration line
______________________________________________________
| |
| $JPCACHE_USE_GZIP = 1; // Whether or not to use GZIP|
|______________________________________________________|
of jpcache-config.php.
The other way round, turning off gzip in jpcache and leaving the ob_start
("ob_gzhandler") line uncommented in PHP-Nuke, works too. It may even be better
to choose this way, if you use Apache and mod_gzip (a common configuration).
Tip How to test if caching is working
You can check if you are doing it right, by trying to cache a block that
just echoes the current time. If the cached block displays the same time
again and again after reloading (for some time interval equal to the
"cache interval"), then caching is working!
 If it displays the current time (which is changing after every
reloading), then caching is NOT working! In this case, most probably no
files are being written into the cache directory you specified. Most of
the time, this will be a permissions problem: check that the web server
has write and execute permissions on the cache directory! See How_to
accelerate_PHP-Nuke.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.1.2. Cache-Lite
Figure 24-4. Cache-Lite is powered by PEAR.
Cache-Lite is powered by PEAR.
After reading the above, you may ask yourself if this is all we can do to
accelerate PHP-Nuke with caching - and the answer is: of course not!
jpcache (Section_24.1.1) enables caching of the whole page. Remember, we edited
index.php to set a different cache expiration time for logged and not logged-in
users. The idea behind this was that a user that is not logged in will not have
access to most of the dynamic features of PHP-Nuke, thus making caching of the
whole page for longer intervalls an acceptable compromise between freshness of
content and speed of page generation.
But how about our logged-in users? Wouldn't it be nice if we could at least
cache some PHP-Nuke blocks we know they don't change that often? This is indeed
possible with Cache-Lite of the PEAR_library from PHP.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.1.2.1. Installation of Cache-Lite
Download Cache-Lite and extract it in the includes folder of your PHP-Nuke
installation.
If your PHP does not include the PEAR library, you will need to download
download the base PEAR package too. Extract only the PEAR.php file and put it
in the same folder as mainfile.php, i.e. your PHP-Nuke base folder.
Cache-Lite needs the PEAR.php file for its error-handling, so you may not
notice that you need it until some error occurs.
If your PHP installation includes PEAR, you don't need to bother installing
PEAR.php anywhere - it is already there, at the right place. But if your ISP
does not include it, the above PEAR.php will do the trick.
That's all! You are now ready to use Cache-Lite.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.1.2.2. How to use Cache-Lite
Cache-Lite can easily be used to cache a PHP variable. The easiest application
of this is to cache the $content variable of a block that does not change very
often - and this is the majority of PHP-Nuke blocks!
To use Cache-Lite in a PHP-Nuke block, open that block in your editor and put
the following code (see How_to_accelerate_PHP-Nuke):
________________________________________________________________
| |
| // include the Cache-Lite package |
| require_once("includes/Cache_Lite/Lite.php"); |
| // set some variables |
| $options = array( |
| "cacheDir" => "/tmp/Cache_Lite/", |
| "lifeTime" => 900 |
| ); |
| // create a Cache_Lite object |
| $objCache = new Cache_Lite($options); |
| // test if there exists a valid cache, |
| // the <acronym>ID</acronym> will be the basename of the block|
| $fileid = basename($blockfile,".php"); |
| if ($content = $objCache->get($fileid)) { |
| // add a message indicating this is cached output |
| $content .= "\n[cached with ID=$fileid]"; |
| } |
| else |
| { |
| // do the block's work here... |
|________________________________________________________________|
after the lines
_____________________________________________
| |
| if (eregi("block-XXXXXXX.php",$PHP_SELF)) {|
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
| die(); |
| } |
|_____________________________________________|
What does the inserted code do?
* It includes Cache-Lite. Note that in this example, Cache_Lite is a symbolic
link to the actual directory the Lite.php file is in. I created this symbolic
link myself, as I did not want to put a version-specific directory name in my
code - I would have to change it each time I would upgrade Cache-Lite, this
way I will only need to change the symbolic link to show to the right
directory.
* It first sets the path to the cache directory, in this case /tmp/Cache_Lite/.
The directory must exist and must be writable and readable by the web server.
* Sets the cache expiration time intervall for the object we are going to
cache, in this case to 900 seconds.
* Creates a cache object with the above settings.
* Uses a computed "file id" as a key to identify the cached object (the cached
$content variable). I have decided to use the basename of the PHP-Nuke block
, i.e. the filename of the block without the ".php" ending, as the key for
the $content variable. This way I don't have to change my code each time I
insert the above lines in a new block. The $key will be computed
automatically and will be the basename of the block file. Since in PHP-Nuke
blocks are guaranteed to have distinct names, this is a good choice.
$blockfile is a variable that is computed by PHP-Nuke in mainfile.php, in
function blocks():
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| $sql = "SELECT bid, bkey, title, content, url, blockfile, view FROM |
| ".$prefix."_blocks |
| WHERE bposition='$pos' AND active='1' $querylang ORDER BY weight ASC";|
| $result = $db->sql_query($sql); |
| while($row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result)) { |
| $bid = $row[bid]; |
| $title = $row[title]; |
| $content = $row[content]; |
| $url = $row[url]; |
| $blockfile = $row[blockfile]; |
|________________________________________________________________________|
The value of $blockfile is then passed through to the individual block: it is
passed to function render_blocks() (in mainfile.php again), which in turn
renders the block using the blockfileinc() function.
Tip What to do if the cache ID is empty
Looking at the blockfileinc() function in mainfile.php, you can see
that it uses the functions themecenterbox(() and themesidebox() for
blocks that don't have a filename - and, of course, it does not pass
the (empty) blockfile parameter. Thus, if you see that the above code
 for the block prints an empty cache ID, then you will know that you are
using a block without a filename (see empty_cache_ID_and_Cache-Lite).
The quick solution is to explicitly set the fileid variable to some
arbitrary value in you block code. However, you should check to find
out why your block does not posess a filename (e.g. it could be an RSS
block - we describe these in Section_7.1 and Figure_7-7).
* If a valid cached copy of the object identified by the key exists, it is
fetched and fed into the $content variable of the block. I issue an echo to
print the cache ID (the key) in this case, just for the start, to give me
some idea of how (and if at all) this works. Of course, you can comment the
echo later.
* In case the cache misses the object (or expiration time is over), you wil
have to compute $content from scratch. Put your normal code here.
Of course, we are not done yet - after we compute $content in our block, we
will want to cache it for future use.
Thus, after the end of your computations and before you close the block with
"?>", put the following to instruct Cache-Lite to cache your $content:
_______________________________________________
| |
| // ...and save it in the cache for future use|
| $objCache->save($content, $fileid); |
| } |
|_______________________________________________|
This closes the IF-statement we opened with the previous block of lines. It
caches the $content variable in our cache object, using as identifier the file
ID we derived from the block's filename. You have to put these two blocks of
lines in every PHP-Nuke block you plan to cache, but the work is worth it!
The complete code for your cached block should thus look like:
________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (eregi("block-XXXXXXX.php",$PHP_SELF)) { |
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
| die(); |
| } |
| // include the Cache-Lite package |
| require_once("includes/Cache_Lite/Lite.php"); |
| // set some variables |
| $options = array( |
| "cacheDir" => "/tmp/Cache_Lite/", |
| "lifeTime" => 900 |
| ); |
| // create a Cache_Lite object |
| $objCache = new Cache_Lite($options); |
| // test if there exists a valid cache, |
| // the <acronym>ID</acronym> will be the basename of the block|
| $fileid = basename($blockfile,".php"); |
| if ($content = $objCache->get($fileid)) { |
| // add a message indicating this is cached output |
| $content .= "\n[cached with ID=$fileid]"; |
| } |
| else |
| { |
| // do the whole work here... |
| -------> Your original code goes here <------- |
| // ...and save it in the cache for future use |
| $objCache->save($content, $fileid); |
| } |
| ?> |
|________________________________________________________________|
If something goes wrong and your block is not being cached, check the following
(How_to_accelerate_PHP-Nuke):
* Do you have the PEAR.php?
* Where did you install the Lite.php file?
* Did you install it in includes/Cache_Lite/Lite.php, as I suggested?
* Did you enter the right path to Lite.php in the block you are trying to
cache?
* Did you follow my example for a cached block above?
* If you did, do you have the right path in the line
_______________________________________________
| |
| require_once("includes/Cache_Lite/Lite.php");|
|_______________________________________________|
of that example?
For a more in-depth tutorial on Cache-Lite, see Caching_With_PHP_Cache_Lite.
You can use both jpcache and Cache-Lite together in a cache strategy that
caches the whole page with jpcache when a user is not logged-in, but caches the
least changing blocks (probably most of them) with Cache-Lite when he is. Such
a strategy allows enough flexibility and room for experimentation and brings a
considerable acceleration to your PHP-Nuke, without, on the other hand,
requiring any access to the internals of your PHP installation - something that
you will need, if you want to try the ultimate approach to caching , which we
will present you in Section_24.1.3.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.1.3. Turck MMCache
Figure 24-5. Turck MMCache.
Turck MMCache.
As we know, PHP is an interpreted language. The PHP interpreter compiles your
scripts each time you call them. However, the PHP code itself may not change
that often in your scripts. Having to compile the code on each call wastes your
CPU's time. That's where the idea of caching the PHP code (and not only the
HTML content) comes in (see How_to_accelerate_PHP-Nuke).
The idea of PHP code caching lies in the basis of many commercial PHP
accelerators, like
* Zend_Performance_Suite
* PHP_Accelerator
* Alternative_PHP_Cache
* AfterBurner_Cache
Hopefully, there is a free open source alternative: Turck_MMCache, a product
under the GPL Licence.
Turck MMCache is a free open source PHP accelerator, optimizer, encoder and
dynamic content cache for PHP. It increases performance of PHP scripts by
caching them in compiled state, so that the overhead of compiling is almost
completely eliminated. Also it uses some optimizations to speed up execution of
PHP scripts. Turck MMCache typically reduces server load and increases the
speed of your PHP code by 1-10 times!
Download the newest version (currently 2.4.6) from the Turck_MMCache_download
page_at_Sourceforge. There are precompiled binaries for Windows, as well as
source packages for Linux and other operating systems.
Before you rush and download it though, let me bring to your attention that the
approach taken by a code accelerator like MMCache requires that you install it
as a so-called "PHP extension". You will also be configuring options like the
amount of shared memory that you want allocated to MMCache, in order to use it
for caching. These steps are normally beyond the reach of mass hosting accounts
on ISPs, so you may be out of luck. However, if you own the web server, or have
administration access to it, then MMCache is for you - rush to the download
page and get it!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.1.3.1. Installation of Turck MMCache
In the following, I will describe the installation process of Turck MMCache for
Linux:
* Login as root.
* Change to a directory that is appropriate for holding source code. In Linux,
this is /usr/src:
_____________
| |
| cd /usr/src|
|_____________|
* Extract the package:
__________________________________________________________
| |
| tar -xzvf /usr/cdimage/source/turck-mmcache-2.4.6.tar.gz|
|__________________________________________________________|
* It creates an folder with all files. Change to that folder:
________________________
| |
| cd turck-mmcache-2.4.6|
|________________________|
* Find the place where the phpize program is installed on your system. For
this, type:
______________
| |
| which phpize|
|______________|
* Mine is on /usr/bin, as you can see from the output:
_________________
| |
| # which phpize |
| /usr/bin/phpize|
|_________________|
* so what is before the "/bin" is my PHP_PREFIX. In this case “/usrâ€. Type the
following:
__________________________
| |
| export PHP_PREFIX="/usr"|
| $PHP_PREFIX/bin/phpize |
|__________________________|
You get the output:
_________________________________________________________
| |
| autoheader: `config.h.in' is created |
| You should update your `aclocal.m4' by running aclocal.|
|_________________________________________________________|
so you run
_________
| |
| aclocal|
|_________|
* Now you are ready to create the Makefile with the configure script:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| ./configure --enable-mmcache=shared --with-php-config=$PHP_PREFIX/bin/|
| php-config |
|________________________________________________________________________|
* After that, the Makefile is there and you can do (you must be root for the
last step)
______________
| |
| make |
| make install|
|______________|
This will finish installation of Turck MMCache on your server.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.1.3.2. Configuration of Turck MMCache
After installation, you need to configure MMCache:
Open the php.ini file (/etc/php.ini), find the "extensions" section and put the
following there:
__________________________________
| |
| [extension section] |
| ... various other extensions |
| extension="mmcache.so" |
| mmcache.shm_size="16" |
| mmcache.cache_dir="/tmp/mmcache"|
| mmcache.enable="1" |
| mmcache.optimizer="1" |
| mmcache.check_mtime="1" |
| mmcache.debug="0" |
| mmcache.filter="" |
| mmcache.shm_max="0" |
| mmcache.shm_ttl="0" |
| mmcache.shm_prune_period="0" |
| mmcache.shm_only="0" |
| mmcache.compress="0" |
| ; end of extension section |
|__________________________________|
MMCache uses shared memory for caching, as opposed to disk space. This is a
reason why it is so fast. The mmcache.shm_size option defines how much shared
memory (in MBytes) it should use for caching.
Again, you need a cache directory too, which is what mmcache.cache_dir is for.
Again, the cache directory should be writable and readable by your web server.
You can read about the other options in the Turck_MMCache_Homepage. For our
purposes, you can leave them at their values as in the example above.
This completes the configuration of MMCache. We still have to talk about its
use - but that's easy, see the next section.
Tip Turck MMCache on a virtual server
Question: I am on a virtual server and should not interfere with the
other domains hosted there. How do I configure MMCache in this situation?
Answer: Compile MMCache and put it into the extensions directory.
Configure php.ini to utilize the extension but set mmcache.optimizer,
.compress and .enable all to FALSE.
Then a .htaccess file (see Section_25.4) in your own webspace and use:
 ___________________________________
| |
| php_value 'mmcache.enable' '1' |
| php_value 'mmcache.optimizer' '1'|
| php_value 'mmcache.compress' 1' |
|___________________________________|
This should do the trick.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.1.3.3. How to use Turck MMCache
By following the configuartion steps above, MMCache already works for you: it
compiles PHP code and caches it. Whenever a script's code changes, it
recompiles it and caches it again. You should already see a noticeable
improvement in your response times because of this.
But there is more you can do with MMCache: you can cache a whole page, like
with jpcache (Section_24.1.1), or individual parts of them, like with Cache-
Lite (Section_24.1.2). Since jpcache uses disk space for caching the whole
page, you can replace it by MMCache's functionality, which uses shared memory
and could thus be up to 5 times faster. Here's how you do it (see How_to
accelerate_PHP-Nuke):
Open the index.php file and change the code we put there for jpcache (see a
previous post) as follows:
_____________________________________________________________________
| |
| require_once("mainfile.php"); |
| if (!isset($user)) { |
| $cachetimeout=900; |
| mmcache_cache_page($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'].'?GET='.serialize($_GET),|
| $cachetimeout); |
| } else { |
| $cachetimeout=-1; |
| } |
| # require_once "includes/jpcache/jpcache.php"; |
|_____________________________________________________________________|
As you can see, we commented the jpcache inclusion line and put a call to
mmcache_cache_page with the same cache timeout. This will do exactly what
jpcache was doing previously - cache the whole page in case the user is not
logged-in and leave it uncached in case he is, so that Cache-Lite can cache
parts of it. But due to the shared memory implementation, we are going the get
an extra speed kick out of it.
mmcache_cache_page is only one of many MMCache functions you can use in your
blocks and modules to speed up things. Some other interesting ones are:
* mmcache_set_session_handlers(): install the MMCache session handlers. Since
PHP 4.2.0 you can install MMCache session handlers in "php.ini" by
______________________________
| |
| session.save_handler=mmcache|
|______________________________|
* mmcache_cache_output($key, $eval_code, $ttl=0): caches the output of
$eval_code in shared memory for $ttl seconds. Output can be removed from
cache by calling mmcach_rm() with the same $key. For Example:
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php mmcache_cache_output('test', 'echo time(); phpinfo();', 30); ?>|
|_______________________________________________________________________|
* mmcache_cache_result($key, $eval_code, $ttl=0): caches the result of
$eval_code in shared memory for $ttl seconds. Result can be removed from
cache by calling mmcach_rm() with the same $key. For Example:
________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php mmcache_cache_output('test', 'time()." Hello";', 30); ?>|
|________________________________________________________________|
There are other uses of MMCache, like its use as an encoder to hide your
precious PHP scripts from the spying eyes of competitors - but we are talking
open source here, aren't we?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.1.4. Caching PHP-Nuke: Conclusion
We have seen three approaches to PHP-Nuke acceleration in the previous
sections:
* jpcache (see Section_24.1.1) can cache and compress a whole page - on disk.
* Cache-Lite (see Section_24.1.2) can cache and compress a whole page or
individual PHP-Nuke blocks, modules, variables - on disk (or shared memory
too? FIXME: someone please correct me here!).
* Turck MMCache (see Section_24.1.3) can cache and compress all of the above,
plus can do encoding - all in shared memory!
So which tool is the right one for you?
There are a lot of combinations one could try there and without serious testing
it is not easy to answer this question definitely. However, from what we have
seen already in the previous posts, we can derive some strategies (see also How
to_accelerate_PHP-Nuke):
* If you don't have administration access to your web server, you are left with
jpcache and Cache-Lite. Use a combination of them as outlined above, caching
whole pages with jpcache and individual blocks/modules with Cache-Lite. It's
a strategic decision when to use which one - one you will have to make
yourself.
* If you do have administration access to your web server, MMCache is the way
to go. You can use it to cache PHP code and - optionally - a whole page
content or just part of it. Whether you should prefer Cache-Lite for the
latter, or decide to use MMCache, is something that probably only tests can
show.
* Ease of deployment can also play a role: with MMCache, you add a line, with
Cache-Lite a whole block of lines, to each PHP-Nuke module or block you wish
to cache. On the other hand, Cache-Lite may live up to its name and prove
itself to be really lightweight in some (or all) situations. Again, you wll
have to test.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 25. Optimizing PHP-Nuke
Once your PHP-Nuke site is up and running, you can relax and watch it grow. But
as it grows, your expectations will grow too: better visibility with the search
engines, better protection of your content, better response times from the
database - in short, the idea of optimization will start occupying your
thoughts more and more. In this chapter we cover some advanced optimization
topics:
* Search engines and dynamic URLs (Section_25.1),
* mod_rewrite (Section_25.2),
* Regular expressions (Section_25.3),
* The .htaccess file (Section_25.4),
* How to make PHP-Nuke search engine friendly (Section_25.5),
* How to make PHP-Nuke hot link stealth (Section_25.6),
* How to make a dynamic CSS (Section_25.7),
* How to proceed when MySQL is slow (Section_25.8).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.1. Search engines and dynamic URLs
The ability to transfer information from one script to another is essential to
modern dynamic web pages. Usually, the scripts will use the well-known GET
method for this purpose. For example, to edit your personal information, PHP-
Nuke calls the Your_Account module with an URL like:
_____________________________________________________________________
| |
| http://www.yourdomain.com/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=edituser|
|_____________________________________________________________________|
The "name" and "op" are so-called URL parameters and are passed to the
modules.php script through the GET method. This is what happens besides the
scenes:
The modules.php file includes mainfile.php, as practically every piece of PHP-
Nuke code does, directly or indirectly (see Section_20.2, for blocks and
Chapter_21, for modules). In mainfile.php, one of the first things that is
checked, is whether you have register_globals set to OFF in your php.ini:
______________________________________
| |
| if (!ini_get("register_globals")) { |
| import_request_variables('GPC');|
| } |
|______________________________________|
If it is, the above code will call import_request_variables and import all GET
variables (i.e. "name" and "op" in the example) in the $_GET array. Using the
types parameter, you can specify which request variables to import with
import_request_variables . You can use 'G', 'P' and 'C' characters respectively
for GET, POST and Cookie, as in the example from mainfile.php above.
The code goes on to submit each variable in the $_GET array to a series of
checks that should guard against any misuse of the parameters for cracking
purposes (see Section_23.4.3), but this is not going to be pursued further here
(see Section_23.1 for the security perspective on PHP-Nuke). We are rather
going to concentrate on a different aspect of URL parameter passing: the GET
method of transferring parameters between scripts makes your web pages
unfriendly for search engines - up to the point that they may not be indexed at
all!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.1.1. Search engines and the GET method
When a search engine spider encounters an URL with many parameters while
indexing your pages, it will ignore the URL and not index that particular page.
Just how many parameters are too many for a search engine, is difficult to say.
The search engines are deliberately vague on this point, just as they are on
almost every other point regarding their algorithms. For example, Google states
the following in its Guidelines_for_Webmasters:
Allow search bots to crawl your sites without session ID's or
arguments that track their path through the site. These techniques
are useful for tracking individual user behavior, but the access
pattern of bots is entirely different. Using these techniques may
result in incomplete indexing of your site, as bots may not be able
to eliminate URLs that look different but actually point to the same
page.
This does not mean that Google will not spider dynamic pages at all, however
(although this seems to have been the case in the past, though). Somewhere in
the first months of 2003, Google's algoritms became intelligent enough to
tackle the tricky problem of dynamic URLs - well, at least partly, see Google
is_now_better_at_spidering_dynamic_sites. Observational evidence suggests that
Google will now index a page whose URL contains no more than 2-3 parameters
with short names (URLs with 2 parameters is the maximum for Google right now,
said Marissa Mayer of Google in the Search_Engines_Strategies_Chicago_December
10th_Day_Two, Dec. 10th 2003 ).
Still, the problem remains for URLs with many parameters, as well as session
IDs. A page that uses session IDs can generate an infinite amount of pages for
a spider to visit. These types of pages are blocked from being indexed not only
by Google, but from other search engines as well.
If a bot ignores a page due to a session ID or a large number of GET parameters
on the URL, it will also ignore all pages referenced by that page (unless it
finds its way to them through some other link that it can follow). Since every
PHP-Nuke module is accessible through an URL of the form
_____________________________________________________________________
| |
| http://www.yourdomain.com/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=edituser|
|_____________________________________________________________________|
and the PHP-Nuke forums with at least 4 URL parameters, one of which is a
session ID,
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| http://www.yourdomain.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewforum&f=1|
| &sid=9bd5f57e4615bbd6d9e2677ea7cbb781 |
|______________________________________________________________________|
you run the risk that the majority of your pages will be unknown to the search
engines. As a rule of thumb we can say that, if this happens, it will cost you
two thirds of your external referrals[28]. This can cost you your web existence
and can mean the difference between success and failure for your website!
Why? Because search engines create multiple entry points into your website, a
fact that many people fail to realize. Most people you know may be coming to
your website through its main index.php page, mainly because it is easier to
remember, or it's just the web address you printed on the business card you
gave to them. But a well-indexed website will soon begin driving traffic to
deeper located pages. The search engines have rendered elaborately crafted
entry pages almost obsolete: today, every page of your website can be an entry
page.
It is also overseen by the average webmaster that these interior pages often
draw a different kind of users than the index page: users arriving there are
much more qualified because they are looking for information specific to a
certain topic. Because they are looking for very specific information, they are
also more likely to convert on a sale or action that you have prepared for
them.
If the search engines are not able to spider your dynamic content because of
the GET parameters in the URL, you are losing - these more qualified visitors
often won't find your website. Thus it is very important that you find a way to
make as much of your website as possible visible to the search engines.
If you budget affords it, you can choose the lazy way: some serach engines,
like Inktomi (FIXM: URL!), offer a Paid Inclusion Program. In a Paid Inclusion
Program, it is you who submits a list of URLs to the search engine to crawl,
not the search engine that finds them automatically. This way, the search
engine can be sure that the list of URLs you submitted contains real content
that is of importance to you and that none of the URLs contain duplicate
content of one and the same page (something that can easy happen with session
IDs and an automatic spider, for example).
On the plus side of a Paid Inclusion Program, you will get your pages indexed,
the URLs will be the correct ones and the world will be able to search and find
you. The downside is that you have to pay for each and every URL you want to
have indexed. If this strains your budget, you will have to search for
alternatives.
It turns out that such an alternative exists, thanks to the Swiss-Army-Knife of
URL manipulation that is called mod_rewrite.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.2. mod_rewrite
You will probably find mod_rewrite already installed by your ISP on your web
server. This module uses a rule-based rewriting engine (based on a regular-
expression parser) to rewrite requested URLs on the fly. It supports an
unlimited number of rules and an unlimited number of attached rule conditions
for each rule to provide a really flexible and powerful URL manipulation
mechanism. The URL manipulations can depend on various tests, for instance
server variables, environment variables, HTTP headers, time stamps and even
external database lookups in various formats can be used to achieve a really
granular URL matching (see the Apache_Documentation_of_mod_rewrite).
Caution Find out if you have mod_rewrite installed first!
There is little meaning in trying to implement an URL manipulation solution, if your
ISP has not installed mod_rewrite on your web server - so you better find out before
you start. The easiest way is to call your ISP and ask. If this appears to be more
time consuming than you thought, you can also find it out yourself if you save the
following 3-liner
___________
| |
| <? |
 | phpinfo()|
| ?> |
|___________|
in a file called test.php, then upload it to you web server and open it with your
browser. It will display a wealth of information about your PHP configuration (that's
why you should delete it, or at least restrict access to it by putting it in a
.htaccess password protected directory, when you are done). Among others, you will
see a section called “apacheâ€. Search for “mod_rewrite†in the “Loaded Modules†part.
If you find it, mod_rewrite is up and running on your web server.
Figure 25-1. Apache section of the phpinfo() output: mod_rewrite is loaded.
Apache section of the phpinfo() output: mod_rewrite is loaded.
The internal processing of this module is very complex but needs to be
explained once even to the average user to avoid common mistakes and to let you
exploit its full functionality. For this we use the Apache_Documentation_of
mod_rewrite. Of course, there is little point in reproducing it here in whole,
so you are referred to it for all the gory details.
Here we will cover:
* The mod_rewrite API phases (Section_25.2.1),
* The mod_rewrite ruleset processing (Section_25.2.2),
* Quoting special characters (Section_25.2.3),
* Regex backreference availability (Section_25.2.4).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.2.1. API phases
First you have to understand that when Apache processes a HTTP request it does
this in phases. A hook for each of these phases is provided by the Apache API.
Mod_rewrite uses two of these hooks: the URL-to-filename translation hook which
is used after the HTTP request has been read but before any authorization
starts and the Fixup hook which is triggered after the authorization phases and
after the per-directory config files (.htaccess) have been read, but before the
content handler is activated.
So, after a request comes in and Apache has determined the corresponding server
(or virtual server) the rewriting engine starts processing of all mod_rewrite
directives from the per-server configuration in the URL-to-filename phase. A
few steps later when the final data directories are found, the per-directory
configuration directives of mod_rewrite are triggered in the Fixup phase. In
both situations mod_rewrite rewrites URLs either to new URLs or to filenames,
although there is no obvious distinction between them. This is a usage of the
API which was not intended to be this way when the API was designed, but as of
Apache 1.x this is the only way mod_rewrite can operate. To make this point
more clear remember the following two points:
1. Although mod_rewrite rewrites URLs to URLs, URLs to filenames and even
filenames to filenames, the API currently provides only a URL-to-filename
hook. In Apache 2.0 the two missing hooks will be added to make the
processing more clear. But this point has no drawbacks for the user, it is
just a fact which should be remembered: Apache does more in the URL-to-
filename hook than the API intends for it.
2. Unbelievably mod_rewrite provides URL manipulations in per-directory
context, i.e., within .htaccess files, although these are reached a very
long time after the URLs have been translated to filenames. It has to be
this way because .htaccess files live in the filesystem, so processing has
already reached this stage. In other words: According to the API phases at
this time it is too late for any URL manipulations. To overcome this
chicken and egg problem mod_rewrite uses a trick: When you manipulate a
URL/filename in per-directory context mod_rewrite first rewrites the
filename back to its corresponding URL (which is usually impossible, but
see the Re writeBase directive below for the trick to achieve this) and
then initiates a new internal sub-request with the new URL. This restarts
processing of the API phases.
Again mod_rewrite tries hard to make this complicated step totally
transparent to the user, but you should remember here: While URL
manipulations in per-server context are really fast and efficient, per-
directory rewrites are slow and inefficient due to this chicken and egg
problem. But on the other hand this is the only way mod_rewrite can
provide (locally restricted) URL manipulations to the average user.
Don't forget these two points!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.2.2. Ruleset processing
Now when mod_rewrite is triggered in these two API phases, it reads the
configured rulesets from its configuration structure (which itself was either
created on start up for per-server context or during the directory walk of the
Apache kernel for per-directory context). Then the URL rewriting engine is
started with the contained ruleset (one or more rules together with their
conditions). The operation of the URL rewriting engine itself is exactly the
same for both configuration contexts. Only the final result processing is
different.
The order of rules in the ruleset is important because the rewriting engine
processes them in a special (and not very obvious) order. The rule is this: The
rewriting engine loops through the ruleset rule by rule (RewriteRule
directives) and when a particular rule matches it optionally loops through
existing corresponding conditions (RewriteCond directives). For historical
reasons the conditions are given first, and so the control flow is a little bit
long-winded. See Figure_25-2 for more details.
Figure 25-2. mod_rewrite: The control flow through the rewriting ruleset
mod_rewrite: The control flow through the rewriting ruleset
As you can see, first the URL is matched against the Pattern of each rule. When
it fails mod_rewrite immediately stops processing this rule and continues with
the next rule. If the Pattern matches, mod_rewrite looks for corresponding rule
conditions. If none are present, it just substitutes the URL with a new value
which is constructed from the string Substitution and goes on with its rule-
looping. But if conditions exist, it starts an inner loop for processing them
in the order that they are listed. For conditions the logic is different: we
don't match a pattern against the current URL. Instead we first create a string
TestString by expanding variables, back-references, map lookups, etc. and then
we try to match CondPattern against it. If the pattern doesn't match, the
complete set of conditions and the corresponding rule fails. If the pattern
matches, then the next condition is processed until no more conditions are
available. If all conditions match, processing is continued with the
substitution of the URL with Substitution.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.2.3. Quoting special characters
As of Apache 1.3.20, special characters in TestString and Substitution strings
can be escaped (that is, treated as normal characters without their usual
special meaning) by prefixing them with a slosh ('\') character. In other
words, you can include an actual dollar-sign character in a Substitution string
by using '\$'; this keeps mod_rewrite from trying to treat it as a
backreference.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.2.4. Regex backreference availability
One important thing here has to be remembered: Whenever you use parentheses in
Pattern or in one of the CondPattern, back-references are internally created
which can be used with the strings $N and %N (see Section_25.3). These are
available for creating the strings Substitution and TestString. Figure_25-
3 shows to which locations the backreferences are transfered for expansion.
Figure 25-3. mod_rewrite: The back-reference flow through a rule.
mod_rewrite: The back-reference flow through a rule.
We know this was a crash course on mod_rewrite's internal processing. But you
will benefit from this knowledge when reading the following. mod_rewrite's
behaviour can be controlled with numerous directives, they are all described in
the Apache_Documentation_of_mod_rewrite. Further, real world examples of
mod_rewrite use are presented in the Apache_URL_Rewriting_Guide.
But besides the directives available for mod_rewrite, you will also need a
grasp of regular expressions (Section_25.3) and the .htaccess file (Section
25.4) to understand the solution for a search engine friendly PHP-Nuke site
that we will present later on, in Section_25.5.
Not so fast! “Regular expression?†Right. If you've used "wildcards" with MS-
DOS or Windows, somefile.* or some?.exe for example, you already understand the
concept. But regex (regular expressions) are much more powerful. And complex.
Read on!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.3. Regular expressions
Figure 25-4. Pattern matching with a regular expression.
Pattern matching with a regular expression.
Regular expressions are used as “templates†that match patterns of text. For
example, the regular expression for the pattern matching in Figure_25-4 is[29]
_______________________________________________
| |
| \([Ii]f \|and \)*\(<i>[AC]\+<\/i>.\)\(and\)\?|
|_______________________________________________|
To understand any URL manipulation solution to the problem of non-search-
engine-friendly URLs, you have to get acquainted with Regular Expressions. To
get you started, read Using_Regular_Expressions and Matching_Patterns_in_Text.
We can only touch the basics here, for which we use material taken from A_Brief
Introduction_to_Regular_Expressions:
An expression is a string of characters. Those characters that have an
interpretation above and beyond their literal meaning are called
metacharacters. A quote symbol, for example, may denote speech by a person,
ditto, or a meta-meaning for the symbols that follow. Regular Expressions are
sets of characters and/or metacharacters that UNIX endows with special
features.
The main uses for Regular Expressions (REs) are text searches and string
manipulation. An RE matches a single character or a set of characters (a
substring or an entire string).
* The asterisk -- * -- matches any number of repeats of the character string or
RE preceding it, including zero.
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| "1133*" matches 11 + one or more 3's + possibly other characters: 113,|
| 1133, 111312, and so forth. |
|________________________________________________________________________|
* The dot -- . -- matches any one character, except a newline. [2]
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| "13." matches 13 + at least one of any character (including a space):|
| 1133, 11333, but not 13 (additional character missing). |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
* The caret -- ^ -- matches the beginning of a line, but sometimes, depending
on context, negates the meaning of a set of characters in an RE.
* The dollar sign -- $ -- at the end of an RE matches the end of a line.
* "^$" matches blank lines.
* Brackets -- [...] -- enclose a set of characters to match in a single RE.
o "[xyz]" matches the characters x, y, or z.
o "[c-n]" matches any of the characters in the range c to n.
o "[B-Pk-y]" matches any of the characters in the ranges B to P and k to y.
o "[a-z0-9]" matches any lowercase letter or any digit.
o "[^b-d]" matches all characters except those in the range b to d. This is
an instance of ^ negating or inverting the meaning of the following RE
(taking on a role similar to ! in a different context).
o Combined sequences of bracketed characters match common word patterns. "
[Yy][Ee][Ss]" matches yes, Yes, YES, yEs, and so forth. "[0-9][0-9][0-9]-
[0-9][0-9]-[0-9
o ][0-9][0-9][0-9]" matches any Social Security number.
* The backslash -- \ -- escapes a special character, which means that character
gets interpreted literally.
o A "\$" reverts back to its literal meaning of "$", rather than its RE
meaning of end-of-line. Likewise a "\\" has the literal meaning of "\".
o Escaped "angle brackets" -- \<...\> -- mark word boundaries. The angle
brackets must be escaped, since otherwise they have only their literal
character meaning:
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| "\<the\>" matches the word "the", but not the words "them", "there",|
| "other", etc. |
|______________________________________________________________________|
* The question mark -- ? -- matches zero or one of the previous RE. It is
generally used for matching single characters.
* The plus -- + -- matches one or more of the previous RE. It serves a role
similar to the *, but does not match zero occurrences.
* Escaped "curly brackets" -- \{ \} -- indicate the number of occurrences of a
preceding RE to match. It is necessary to escape the curly brackets since
they have only their literal character meaning otherwise.
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| "[0-9]\{5\}" matches exactly five digits (characters in the range of 0 to|
| 9). |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
* Parenthesses -- ( ) -- enclose groups of REs. They are useful with the
following "|" operator and in substring extraction using expr.
* The -- | -- "or" RE operator matches any of a set of alternate characters.
What does the above tell us when we encounter a cryptic mod_rewrite directive
that looks like the following?
________________________________________________
| |
| RewriteEngine on |
| RewriteRule ^page1\.html$ page2.html [R=301,L]|
|________________________________________________|
Of course, the first line is easy: mod_rewrite is not enabled by default, so
this line starts the “Rewrite Engineâ€. The second directive is a “Rewrite Ruleâ€
that instructs mod_rewrite to translate whatever URL is matched by the regular
expression “^page1\.html$†to “page2.htmlâ€.
What URLs does the regular expression “^page1\.html$†match?
In this example, adapted from An_Introduction_to_Redirecting_URLs_on_an_Apache
Server, we have a caret at the beginning of the pattern, and a dollar sign at
the end. These are regex special characters called anchors. The caret tells
regex to begin looking for a match with the character that immediately follows
it, in this case a "p". The dollar sign anchor tells regex that this is the end
of the string we want to match. In our simple example, "page1\.html" and
"^page1\.html$" are interchangable expressions and match the same string.
However, "page1\.html" matches any string containing "page1.html" (apage1.html
for example) anywhere in the URL, but "^page1\.html$" matches only a string
which is exactly equal to "page1.html". In a more complex redirect, anchors
(and other special regex characters) are often essential.
Putting all the above together, we can see that “^page1\.html$†matches URLs
that start (the caret -- ^ --) with “page1â€, immediately followed by a literal
dot (escaped dot --\.--, as opposed to a simple tot, which is a metacharacter
that matches any single character except newline), immediately followed by
“html†and the end of the URL (dollar sign --$--).
In our example, we also have an "[R=301,L]". These are called flags in
mod_rewrite and they're optional parameters. "R=301" instructs Apache to return
a 301 status code with the delivered page and, when not included as in [R,L],
defaults to 302. The "L" flag tells Apache that this is the last rule that it
needs to process, IF the RewriteRule pattern is matched. Experts suggest that
you get in the habit of including the "L" flag with every RewriteRule to avoid
unpleasant surprises.
One powerful option in creating search patterns is specifying that a
subexpression that was matched earlier in a regular expression is matched again
later in the expression. We do this using backreferences. Backreferences are
named by the numbers 1 through 9, preceded by the backslash/escape character
when used in this manner (in mod_rewrite, you have to use the dollar sign
instead of the backslash, but in PHP you will use the backslash, so don't get
confused, it just depends on the context the regular expression is in). These
backreferences refer to each successive group in the match pattern, as in /
(one)(two)(three)/\1\2\3/ (or $1, $2 and $3 for mod_rewrite). Each numbered
backreference refers to the group that has the word corresponding to the
number.
Thus the following URL translation:
_______________________________________________________
| |
| #Your Account |
| RewriteRule ^userinfo-([a-zA-Z0-9_-]*)\.html |
| modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=$1|
|_______________________________________________________|
in the .htaccess file (Section_25.4) will match any URL that starts (carret --
^--) with “userinfo-â€, immediately followed by any number (star --*--) of
characters belonging to the alphanumeric class (a-z, A-Z, 0-9), including
underscores (_) and dashes (-), followed by a literal dot (an escaped dot --\.-
-) and “htmlâ€. The Rewrite Rule instructs mod_rewrite to translate ther URL to
_______________________________________________________
| |
| modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=$1|
|_______________________________________________________|
where $1 is a backreference, referring to the first matched subexpression, the
one inside the parenthesses (). Since inside the parenthesses is a regular
expression that matches “any number of characters belonging to the alphanumeric
class, including underscores and dashesâ€, $1 will contain whatever alphanumeric
characters were between “userinfo-†and “.html†(including underscores and
dashes). In PHP-Nuke, this is the username, so that the URL returned by
mod_rewrite will be
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=(some matched username)|
|____________________________________________________________________________|
thus completing the transformation of a static URL (that PHP-Nuke does not
understand), to a dynamic one that makes perfectly sense to PHP-Nuke (see
Section_25.5.1.3 for the complete picture).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.4. The .htaccess file
An .htaccess file just is a plain text file that contains web server
“directives†(another word for instructions in the Apache world), one per line.
Think of it as an .ini file for your web server. The peculiarity of the
.htaccess files is that, contrary to .ini files, their directives can be
overwritten by .htaccess files located in subdirectories.
Thus your web server root directory may contain an .htaccess file (perhaps put
in place by your ISP) whose directives should be valid through the whole
website. However, you can create separate .htaccess files, one for each
subdirectory of your website, containing directives that override those of the
root. In this manner, you can achieve a very fine-grained control of the web
server's behaviour.
Warning Beware of hidden .htaccess files!
Just because you don't see any .htaccess file there, does not
necessarily mean there isn't one! Some hosts will hide files whose
 names start with a period, so you'd better ask your ISP. Overwriting
an .htaccess file can affect your website in a very negative way -
you could even lose access to it, if you delete an .htaccess file
that contained directives vital to your configuration.
If you don't have access to the web server configuration file (a usual
situation in mass hosting environments), then a properly populated .htaccess
file is your only way of setting server configuration options. Apart form URL
manipulation, there is a whole bunch of interesting things you can achieve with
the .htaccess file, see Section_25.6, Section_25.7, or Section_27.3, for
example. But before you do them, please make a backup of the existing .htaccess
file!
Also bear in mind that, if you have full control of your server (i.e.
administrator access to its configuration file), then it will be way faster to
avoid using .htaccess and insert all the necessary lines in the configuration
file itself. As the Apache_HOWTO_on_when_(not)_to_use_.htaccess_files says, in
general, use of .htaccess files should be avoided when possible. Any
configuration that you would consider putting in a .htaccess file, can just as
effectively be made in a <Directory> section in your main server configuration
file.
There are two main reasons to avoid the use of .htaccess files:
1. The first of these is performance. When AllowOverride is set to allow the
use of .htaccess files, Apache will look in every directory for .htaccess
files. Thus, permitting .htaccess files causes a performance hit, whether
or not you actually even use them! Also, the .htaccess file is loaded
every time a document is requested.
Further note that Apache must look for .htaccess files in all higher-level
directories, in order to have a full complement of directives that it must
apply. Thus, if a file is requested out of a directory /www/htdocs/
example, Apache must look for the following files:
_______________________________
| |
| /.htaccess |
| /www/.htaccess |
| /www/htdocs/.htaccess |
| /www/htdocs/example/.htaccess|
|_______________________________|
And so, for each file access out of that directory, there are 4 additional
file-system accesses, even if none of those files are present. (Note that
this would only be the case if .htaccess files were enabled for /, which
is not usually the case.)
2. The second consideration is one of security. You are permitting users to
modify server configuration, which may result in changes over which you
have no control. Carefully consider whether you want to give your users
this privilege.
Note that it is completely equivalent to put a .htaccess file in a directory /
www/htdocs/example containing a directive, and to put that same directive in a
Directory section <Directory /www/htdocs/example> in your main server
configuration:
.htaccess file in /www/htdocs/example:
___________________________
| |
| AddType text/example .exm|
|___________________________|
httpd.conf example:
_________________________________
| |
| <Directory /www/htdocs/example>|
| AddType text/example .exm |
| </Directory> |
|_________________________________|
However, putting this configuration in your server configuration file will
result in less of a performance hit, as the configuration is loaded once when
Apache starts, rather than every time a file is requested. Remember this,
before you complain that Googletap (Section_25.5.1) is too slow for you.
Tip How to disable .htaccess completely
The use of .htaccess files can be disabled completely by setting the
AllowOverride directive to "none"
____________________
 | |
| AllowOverride None|
|____________________|
In the sections to follow, we will see that the .htaccess file has to be
populated with lines like
_______________________________________________________
| |
| #Your Account |
| RewriteRule ^userinfo-([a-zA-Z0-9_-]*)\.html |
| modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=$1|
|_______________________________________________________|
If you don't use the .htaccess file for performance reasons, you should put
those lines in the configuration file. It is these lines that trigger
mod_rewrite (Section_25.2) to translate static URLs that match the regular
expression (Section_25.3)
__________________________________
| |
| ^userinfo-([a-zA-Z0-9_-]*)\.html|
|__________________________________|
to a dynamic URL that PHP-Nuke understands:
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=(some username)|
|____________________________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.5. How to make PHP-Nuke search engine friendly
To create a search engine friendly PHP-Nuke site, you need a means of
converting dynamic URLs to static ones. How can this be done? For example, you
could convert
__________________________________________________________
| |
| http://www.yourdomain.com/ |
| modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=chris|
|__________________________________________________________|
to
_______________________________________________
| |
| http://www.yourdomain.com/userinfo-chris.html|
|_______________________________________________|
Notice that the spider-friendly format contains no indication that there are
any parameters being passed at all. Rather, it simply looks like we are trying
to access the file userinfo-chris.html on www.yourdomain.com, and this will not
present any problems to the search engine spiders. We have of course to track
this case down and use such a “file†accordingly, i.e split it internally into
its parts, determine the parameter-value pairs and the name of the script to
execute and pass the parameters (name=Your_Account, op=edituser,
username=chris) to that script (modules.php) for execution.
We will describe GoogleTap, an ingenious solution to this problem, that
combines the components we saw in the previous sections:
* mod_rewrite (Section_25.2),
* regular expressions (Section_25.3),
* .htacces file (Section_25.4).
Warning Frontpage extensions will not work!
This does not need to upset you, since PHP-Nuke does not use
Frontpage extensions. But for the sake of completeness, be warned
 that if you use Frontpage extensions, mod_rewrite will not work! Of
course, if your ISP has installed them, but you don't use them, you
also don't need to worry.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.5.1. GoogleTap
GoogleTap is a collection of files (header.php, footer.php, .htaccess and
replacements for some modules and blocks) that combines the power of regular
expressions (Section_25.3) and mod_rewrite (Section_25.2) into a PHP-Nuke
setting, to implement a search engine friendly PHP-Nuke using URL manipulation.
It grew out of attempts to make PHP-Nuke search engine friendly, that date back
to the 5.x versions (see Mod_rewrite_and_Nuke, PHP_Nuke_&_mod_rewrite and
Google_mod_rewrite_fix), which in turn seem to be related to similar efforts in
the PostNuke camp (see Search_engine_friendly_URLs_revisited and Hackin'_the
core_-_Mod_Rewrite).
Our treatment of GoogleTap is divided in three parts:
* Requirements (Section_25.5.1.1),
* Installation (Section_25.5.1.2),
* How it works (Section_25.5.1.3).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.5.1.1. Requirements
To implement the solution of GoogleTap, your system needs to fullfil some
software requirements:
* mod_rewrite needs to be compiled and loaded into apache (see Section_25.2 on
how you can check this).
* allowoverrides need to be set to "all" for the directory location your site
resides in. Check with your ISP (but see also Section_25.4 why this will make
your web server much slower).
* rewriteengine needs to be turned "on" in the .htaccess file (this is already
done in the .htaccess file that comes with GoogleTap).
But it also needs to fullfil some hardware requirements too: mod_rewrite has to
check a lot of regular expressions for each page request. Regular expressions
are very flexible, but can be very time consuming too, depending on their
complexity. The current implementation of GoogleTap seems to strain the CPU
quite a bit. Depending on the hardware, your hosting scheme (“root†, or
“virtual†server) and the number of HTTP requests you have to serve per second,
this may make your pages prohibitively slow to load! Get the best hardware you
can afford!
Tip Monitor the load of your web server!
If you are on your own ("root") server, but your hardware is not up to
the demands of mod_rewrite for computing power, you may find out that
your web server load is approaching dwindling heights. There have been
reports that a high server load affects the stability of Apache, or
causes memory leaks. This may or may not be true for your version and
configuration. But in case you are experiencing a high server load, the
following script of Zhen-Xjell (the nukecops Webmaster) may turn out to
be very helpful:
_________________________________________________________________
| |
| #!/usr/bin/perl -w |
| #use strict; |
| $|++; |
 | open(LOAD,"/proc/loadavg") || die "couldn't open /proc/loadavg:|
| $!\n"; |
| my @load=split(/ /,<LOAD>); |
| close(LOAD); |
| if ($load[0] > 5) { |
| `/sbin/service httpd restart`; |
| } |
|_________________________________________________________________|
Save it as loadavg.pl, adapt it to your case (location of the perl
executable and the Apache start script) and set up a cron job to call
loadavg.pl at regular time intervalls. The script monitors the server
load average and restarts the server process, if it becomes too high,
say, higher than 5 - see GoogleTap,_mod_rewrite_and_SID_defined.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.5.1.2. Installation
Warning Do not download the Google_Tap_Beta_0.6.5 package!
Do not download the Google_Tap_Beta_0.6.5 package! At least the
.htacess file contained there, is missing some crucial lines. Besides
that, you will not find any clear installation instructions and the
 files are probably already too old by the time you read this. Use the
GT_Distro_10-22-03 package, or a newer one, instead! Please
understand that this is beta software and still under constant
development.
We will describe the manual installation of GoogleTap, as applies to the GT
Distro_10-22-03 package (see Updated_Google_Tap_Distribution_10-22-2003):
* Open your header.php file and make the required changes as indicated in
header.php_manualchanges.txt. Please use the included header.php as a
reference. This means that you have to find the lines:
_________________________________________________
| |
| if (eregi("header.php",$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])) {|
| Header("Location: index.php"); |
| die(); |
| } |
|_________________________________________________|
in your existing header.php file and add
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| ob_start(); |
| function replace_for_mod_rewrite(&$s) { |
| $urlin = array( |
| "'(?<!/)modules.php\?name=News&file=article& |
| sid=([0-9]*)&mode=([a-z]*)&order=([0-9]*)&thold=([0-9]*)|
| '", |
| "'(?<!/)modules.php\?name=News&file=article&sid=([0-9]*)'", |
| "'(?<!/)modules.php\?name=News&file=article&sid=([0-9]*)'", |
| "'(?<!/)modules.php\?name=News&new_topic=([0-9]*)'", |
| ... |
| ); |
| $urlout = array( |
| "article-\\1-\\2-\\3-\\4.html", |
| "article\\1.html", |
| "article\\1.html", |
| "article-topic-\\1.html", |
| "archive-\\1-\\2-\\3.html", |
| "archive.html", |
| ... |
| ); |
| $s = preg_replace($urlin, $urlout, $s); |
| return $s; |
| } |
|______________________________________________________________________|
The code shown here has been abbreviated for clarity - please refer to the
original instructions in header.php_manualchanges.txt! You should leave the
code of your original header.php untouched, after the above lines. The final
header.php would look as the header.php file that is included in the
GT_Distro_10-22-03 package for your reference.
What you basically do with this in your header.php, is start output buffering
and include a function (replace_for_mod_rewrite) with two arrays, urlin and
urlout.
* Open your footer.php file and make the required changes as indicated in
footer.php_manualchanges.txt. Please use the included footer.php as a
reference. This means that you have to add
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| //Google Tap Footer Entry |
| $contents = ob_get_contents(); // store buffer in $contents |
| ob_end_clean(); // delete output buffer and stop buffering |
| echo replace_for_mod_rewrite($contents); //display modified buffer to|
| screen |
| //End of Google Tap Footer |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
after the end of the foot function in your footer.php file. The final
footer.php would look as the footer.php file that is included in the
GT_Distro_10-22-03 package for your reference.
With this change, you just conclude the actions that you introduced in
header.php: there, you started output buffering, here you have to store the
buffer in a variable ($contents), before you stop buffering and call the new
function you introduced in header.php, the replace_for_mod_rewrite()
function, passing it the whole buffer content as argument.
* Open your includes/sessions.php (Older than PHP-Nuke v.6.5, this may be
modules/Forums/includes) file and make the required changes as indicated in
includes/sessions.php_manualchanges.txt. Please use the included sessions.php
as a reference. This means that you replace
______________________________________________________________
| |
| if ( !empty($SID) && !eregi('sid=', $url) ) |
| { |
| $url .= ( ( strpos($url, '?') != false ) ? |
| ( ( $non_html_amp) ? '&' : '&' ) : '?' ) . $SID; |
| } |
| return($url); |
|______________________________________________________________|
with
_____________________________________________________________________
| |
| if( !empty($SID) && !eregi('sid=', $url) && !areyouabot() )|
| { |
| $url .= ( ( strpos($url, "?") != false ) ? |
| ( ( $non_html_amp ) ? "&" : "&" ) : "?" ) . $SID; |
| } |
| return($url); |
|_____________________________________________________________________|
This introduces an extra check with the areyouabot() function. The session ID
($SID) is appended to the URL ($url) only if the areyouabot() function
returns false. Already from the name, we can deduce that areyouabot() checks
if the visitor is a search engine spider bot. Thus, the session ID will not
be output on the URL that search engines get to see when they visit the site.
Of course, we still have to insert the code for the areyouabot() function. We
can do this after the append_sid function of sessions.php, by including the
code as shown in includes/sessions.php_manualchanges.txt:
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| function areyouabot() |
| { |
| global $HTTP_SERVER_VARS; |
| $RobotsList = array ( |
| "antibot", |
| "appie", |
| "architext", |
| "bjaaland", |
| "digout4u", |
| "echo", |
| "fast-webcrawler", |
| "ferret", |
| ... |
| ); |
| $botID = strtolower($HTTP_SERVER_VARS['HTTP_USER_AGENT']);|
| for ($i = 0; $i < count($RobotsList); $i++) |
| { |
| if ( strstr($botID, $RobotsList[$i]) ) |
| { |
| return TRUE; |
| } |
| } |
| return FALSE; |
| } |
|____________________________________________________________________|
Please note that the above code has been abbreviated for clarity. Refer to
includes/sessions.php_manualchanges.txt for the full code of areyouabot().
The final sessions.php would look as the includes/sessions.php file that is
included in the GT_Distro_10-22-03 package for your reference.
* Upload the distribution .htaccess to your PHP-Nuke root directory. This is
the same directory that the header.php and footer.php are located within.
Caution Make a backup of your original .htaccess file!
Your ISP may already have set up an .htaccess file for you. Even if
you don't see one there, there might be one, as some systems will not
show hidden files (such as .htaccess). Check very thoroughly that you
don't overwrite an existing .htaccess file with important directives
 that are vital to your site. If you find one, make a backup copy of
it and be sure that you have saved it somewhere in a safe and
accessible place. If your site breaks and you can't access it with
your browser anymore, you should still be able to upload the backup
copy of your .htaccess and restore the previous settings.
In order for GT to work correctly with all modules currently supported, you
will need to make a few minor adjustments to the following modules:
* Sections
* Statistics
* Web_Links
* Top
* Your_Account
You can either overwrite your existing file with the one included in the
distribution or make the manual changes as indicated in the readme files
contained within each module. (Make sure you backup your existing files first!
Included files are based on the ones located at cvs.nukecops.com).
The changes correct some links in the above modules. If you check, you will see
that the corrections are really minimal, but are nonetheless essential for a
correct working of the GoogleTap: they replace the ampersand (&) on the links,
with its equivalent “HTML entity†(&) (but not in the language files, where
the changes work in the opposite direction, replacing & with &).
This is actually an ommission on the part of the modules, that GoogleTap is
just trying to correct: to be HTML 4.x compliant, you can't put an ampersand
(&) on the URL, you have to put its HTML_entity (&) instead. This may not
harm your links in most situations if you don't do it, but if you pass the URL
through some regular expression, as GoogleTap does through mod_rewrite (see
Section_25.5.1.3 for an explanation of how GoogleTap works)), you have to know
if the ampersand is meant in a literal way, or if it is a metacharacter of some
regular expression (a character that is not a “literal†, i.e. does not match
(only) itself ).
You can now upload the GT (Google Tap) converted blocks - currently supported
are:
* Scrolling Forums Block
* Top 10 Downloads Block
* Top 10 Web_Links Block
* Sections Articles Block
To install, simply overwrite your existing block. Make sure they are enabled in
the blocks administration panel.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.5.1.3. How it works
The GoogleTap works as follows:
The header.php file starts output buffering. This delays the output - all
contents are temporarily sent to an internal buffer. It also defines a
function, replace_for_mod_rewrite(). This function takes a sole argument (a
variable) and replaces every occurence of a member of the urlin array with the
respective member of the urlout array (we have seen the urlin and urlout arrays
already in Section_25.5.1.2). You can view the urlin and urlout arrays as
ordered collections of regular expressions (see Section_25.3), where the first
member of urlin corresponds to the first member of urlout, the second member of
urlin to the second member of urlout and so forth.
The replace_for_mod_rewrite() function examines the contents of the variable
that was passed to it as argument (remember that in PHP a variable can hold the
contents of a whole page - in fact, in our case, it does exactly that!) and
replaces every occurence of the first regular expression in urlin, with the
first element of urlout. It does so with all other regular expressions of urlin
- if it finds a string that matches the nth regular expression, it replaces
that string with the nth array member of urlout. The first five replacement
pairs[30] are shown in Table_25-1.
Table 25-1. URL replacement with replace_for_mod_rewrite(): dynamic to static.
__________________________________________________________________________
|urlin:_regular_expression_for_dynamic_URL|urlout:_corresponding_static_URL|
|'(?<!/)modules.php\?name=News |article-\\1-\\2-\\3-\\4.html |
|&file=article | |
|&sid=([0-9]*) | |
|&mode=([a-z]*) | |
|&order=([0-9]*) | |
|&thold=([0-9]*)'_____________________|________________________________|
|'(?<!/)modules.php\?name=News |article\\1.html |
|&file=article | |
|&sid=([0-9]*)'_______________________|________________________________|
|'(?<!/)modules.php\?name=News |article\\1.html |
|&file=article | |
|&sid=([0-9]*)'___________________________|________________________________|
|'(?<!/)modules.php\?name=News |article-topic-\\1.html |
|&new_topic=([0-9]*)'_________________|________________________________|
|'(?<!/)modules.php\?name=Stories_Archive |archive-\\1-\\2-\\3.html |
|&sa=show_month | |
|&year=([0-9]*) | |
|&month=([0-9]*) | |
|&month_l=([a-zA-Z]*)'____________________|________________________________|
From Table_25-1 we can already see that an URL of the form
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| (something)modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=(some SID)|
| &mode=(some mode)&order=(some order)&thold=(something) |
|______________________________________________________________________|
is replaced with
_____________________________________________________________
| |
| article-(some SID)-(some mode)-(some order)-(something.html|
|_____________________________________________________________|
(first replacement pair of the table), while an URL of the form
_____________________________________________________________________
| |
| (something)modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=(someSID)|
|_____________________________________________________________________|
is replaced with
________________________
| |
| article(some SID).html|
|________________________|
(the escaped numbers in the second column of Table_25-1 represent
"backreferences": they match the subexpressions inside the () of the
expressions in the first column. \1 matches the first subexpression, \2 the
second and so forth).
Some explanations on the regular expressions used in the urlin column of Table
25-1 (see also Section_25.3):
* (?<!/) is a so-called assertion. It means that this pattern will only be
valid, if it does not start with a preceding slash and helps us convert only
links inside our PHP-Nuke site (so links to external sites will not be
converted).
* The question mark on the URL must be escaped, so we have to write \? to match
it.
* The ampersands (&) on the URL must be in the form of their HTML entities,
“&†(see SGML_entities). That's why all affected modules will have to be
changed to echo URLs that contain & instead of & (this was done in
Section_25.5.1.2).
* sid=([0-9]*) indicates that you may have any digit from 0 to 9 after sid=.
The * means that the occurrence may be 0 or more times.
* mode=([a-zA-Z]*) indicates that you may have any alphabetical character after
mode=. Again, the * means that the occurence may be 0 or more times.
* The parenthesis () around a regular expression like [a-zA-Z]* or [0-9]*
indicate that this is a subexpression that, if matched, will be stored in an
internal numbered buffer that we cann access as \1, \2, \3 and so forth.
Thus, if sid=([0-9]*) is the first such subexpression in an URL, \1 will
internally store the sid value, whatever it is, as long as it is matched by
[0-9]* , which matches arbitrarily long sequences of digits. If it is the
second one, then the session ID will be stored in \2.
* The matched subexpressions (\1, \2, \3 etc) are then used in the regular
expressions of the urlout array to construct a simpler, static looking URL
that nevertheless contains all necessary information to convert it back to
the dynamic version (this backward conversion is carried up in the .htaccess
file, see below).
The replace_for_mod_rewrite() function is not called in header.php though - it
is only defined there. As its name says, header.php outputs the standard PHP-
Nuke header (as opposed to the custom HTML header, which is contained in
includes/my_heder.php, see Chapter_15). It would be too early to call
replace_for_mod_rewrite() during header generation. Instead, everything is
meticulously gathered in the “output buffer†of PHP (to learn more about output
buffering in PHP, see Output_Buffering_With_PHP and the PHP_manual_pages_on
output_control_functions).
As PHP-Nuke outputs the page contents (which continue to land in the output
buffer), it eventually reaches the page footer. This is the job of footer.php.
We already saw in Section_25.5.1.2 that it is the footer who calls
replace_for_mod_rewrite(): it stops buffering, saves the buffer contents in a
variable, cleans up the buffer and calls replace_for_mod_rewrite().
What are the contents of the output buffer at this stage? You guessed -it - the
whole page, all the HTML that comprises the “page source†(the HTML code you
see when you hit the “View source†menu entry of your browser. Without
GoogleTap, this would be the HTML code that would be sent to your browser to
render the page, with all its text and links and...
Huh! Did I say links? What if your page contains dynamic links? In fact, it is
very unusual for a PHP-Nuke page to NOT contain any dynamic links. Dont't they
have to be replaced with their static pendants too? Of course they do! Thus, it
should be clear to you by now, that just by changing the URLs from dynamic to
static, we are by far not done - we have to do this for every URL contained in
the HTML of our page.
Well, that's exactly what that call of replace_for_mod_rewrite() in the footer
does: it passes the whole page as argument to replace_for_mod_rewrite(), which
then does an elaborate “search and replace†in the whole page, according to the
urlin and urlout arrays, as indicated by Table_25-1.
This completes the translation from dynamic to static: the browser gets a page
where every dynamic link of PHP-Nuke has been replaced by a static one. The
user - and the search engine - sees only static links on the page to follow.
What's more, through the changes we did in sessions.php during installation
(see Section_25.5.1.2), we have already taken care that if the visitor is a
search engine bot, it will not be shown the session ID on the URL. Normal users
will continue to see it, though. With this ingenious method, we get the best of
two worlds: users can rely on the security and comfort that PHP session
management has to offer - and search engines will not be chased away from our
site through some huge URLs.
But suppose that the user (or better, the search engine, for which we are
actually getting into all this trouble) now clicks on one of those static links
on the page thet we previously served through our header-footer trick - what
then? How are we going to tell PHP-Nuke which link was meant? Remember, PHP-
Nuke sits on the server and understands only links like
__________________________________________________________________
| |
| modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=chris|
|__________________________________________________________________|
Only so it is going to understand that you mean to see the User Info profile
for chris (see Figure_18-7), in the Your_Account module. But the user will not
click on that link, because all dynamic links were already transformed to
static (by replace_for_mod_rewrite()), before the page was served by the web
server to his browser. The user will click on a link that looks like
_____________________
| |
| userinfo-chris.html|
|_____________________|
This is because, according to the urlin and urlout arrays, which control
dynamic-to-static translation of URLs in the replace_for_mod_rewrite() function
of header.php, the regular expression
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| '(?<!/)modules.php\?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=([a-zA-|
| Z0-9_-]*)' |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
is translated to
___________________
| |
| userinfo-\\1.html|
|___________________|
(the \1 in the second expression matches a subexpression, enclosed in
parenthesis (), of the first regular expression, in this case whatever follows
the "username=" string).
For the reverse translation, from static to dynamic, the .htaccess file comes
into play. It tells mod_rewrite to rewrite every URL that looks like
_______________________________
| |
| userinfo-(some username).html|
|_______________________________|
to
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=(some username)|
|____________________________________________________________________|
Here is the relevant part of .htaccess that is responsible for this
translation:
_______________________________________________________
| |
| #Your Account |
| RewriteRule ^userinfo-([a-zA-Z0-9_-]*).html |
| modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=$1|
|_______________________________________________________|
You will find rewrite rules like the above, for every regular expression pair
that you encounter in the urlin and urlout arrays of the header.php file. Only
the roles have been exchanged: the first expression is the static one, the
second the dynamic.
This way, PHP-Nuke never sees the static URLs - when they arrive at the PHP
interpreter, they have been already translated to the original, correct,
dynamic URLs that PHP-Nuke knows how to treat.
While it is at it, by the way, .htaccess does some other neat things for us
too. They don't have to do with the search-engine friendliness, but rather with
the security of our site, and come as a nice by-product of the mod_rewrite
technology:
* It blocks access to almost everything, except .php files:
______________________________________________________________
| |
| <FilesMatch "\. |
| (inc|tpl|h|ihtml|sql|ini|conf|class|bin|spd|theme|module)$">|
| deny from all |
| </FilesMatch> |
|______________________________________________________________|
* It redirects email spammers robots to a fake page (some emailsforyou.php)
__________________________________________________
| |
| RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Alexibot [OR] |
| RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^asterias [OR] |
| RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^BackDoorBot [OR]|
| RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Black.Hole [OR] |
| RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^BlackWidow [OR] |
| ... |
| RewriteRule ^.*$ emailsforyou.php [L] |
|__________________________________________________|
Of course, this is only going to work for email robots that are not clever
enough to fake the HTTP_USER_AGENT string they present to the server.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.6. How to make PHP-Nuke hot link stealth
The Web has made incorporating material from other sources almost trivial: an
anchor with the source attribute pointing to someone else's image and voila!
your page looks much nicer already - thanks to the hard work of that other
person, or organization.
PHP-Nuke amplifies this tendency for “content sharing†with its easily
programmed blocks: just include the output of another page in the $content
variable, perhaps utilizing the output buffer - and that's all, your block now
shows the content of that page (see Section_20.2). Numerous blocks, such as
Meteosat (Section_8.2.2), Sun & Moon (Section_8.2.1), Daily Comic Section
8.2.3), to name just a few, take advantage of this technology. They inform,
beautify and entertain you.
Or they make somebody very angry about you! This somebody is the original
author who sees his content being used without permission and the bandwidth of
his site used for purposes of other sites. You should not underestimate these
two problems:
* Copyright: although a block that displays sattelite images for public use may
be above suspicion, the situation becomes less favourable for a block that
displays the work of other artists - cartoonists, for example.
* Bandwidth: because the image is still being called from the server of the
author or his hosting account, the bandwidth or data transfer is tacked onto
his account for each time that image is loaded.
If you are the author of a collection of image files that you do not want to
share through this so-called “hot†linking, there is a solution to your
problem. It is not specific to PHP-Nuke, but it is based on mod_rewrite
(Section_25.2) and the .htaccess file (Section_25.4), so that if you are
willing to deploy these two for a search engine friendly PHP-Nuke (as shown in
Section_25.5), then why not use them for a hot link stealth PHP-Nuke too? Even
more so, since the requirements from a programming standpoint are minimal.
Caution Find out if you have mod_rewrite installed first!
 Be sure that your web server supports mod_rewrite (see Section_25.2
on how to find out).
Here is what you have to do in order to show an error to everybody who is
trying to access an image on your server, but is not currently viewing a page
of your domain:
Insert the following lines in the .htaccess file of the directory you want to
protect:
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| RewriteEngine on (1) |
| RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$ (2) |
| RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?mydomain.com/.*$ [NC] (3) |
| RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ - [F] (4) |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
_(1)_
Enable URL rewriting through mod_rewrite.
_(2)_
Check that the HTTP referer of the client is not empty
_(3)_
Check that the HTTP referer of the client does NOT start with your
domain. Of course, you must enter your real domain here. The ! at the
start of the condition pattern negates the result of the pattern that
follows it. ^ and $ are special characters used to match the start and
the end of the string in question respectively. Thus the pattern ^http:/
/ would match strings starting in http://. The sequence .* will match any
character f or 0 or more times, and so adding it to the start or end of a
particular string will allow fuzzy pattern matching. The ? will match
zero or one occurences of the string that precedes it, so (www\.)? means
that either "www." appears once, or not at all. The [NC] flag at the end
of the RewriteCond lines tells the server to ignore the case (no case)
while looking for matches.
_(4)_
Finally, if all conditions are met, this rewrite rule matches anything
that ends in .gif or .jpg. Note that the dot in front of the file ending
is escaped in the regular expression (\.) and that the OR function is
indicated by the | . The dollar sign denotes the end of the URL. The [F]
flag tells the browser that it is forbidden to retrieve that file.
Note Will not work with faked HTTP_REFERER!
The method will also prevent web spiders from downloading your images.
Web spiders are a popular tool and are used whenever a complete local
copy of a site or resource is preferred over online reading. Bear in
 mind, however, that good spiders allow the user to fake the HTTP referer
field, thus presenting themselves as coming from some internal page of
your domain. There is no way to force a determined user to look at your
pages or the advertisements you have there, before downloading your
precious images.
Of course, you can just as well redirect the offending visitor to a file you
have created just for this purpose, one that contains a standard text or image
that reflects your feelings. For this, you can change the above slightly to:
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| RewriteEngine on |
| RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$ |
| RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?mydomain.com/.*$ [NC]|
| RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.mydomain.com/nasty.gif [R,L] |
|____________________________________________________________________|
Important Don't block search engine caches, image searches and automatic
translations on your site!
The rewrite conditions we use here are a bit too restrictive:
everything whose referer is not in our domain is blocked or
redirected. But what about image searches with search engines? A
search engine will hot link our image when it shows it to the
searcher. The same is true with the search engine cache and the
automatic translations offered by Google or Altavista. You will not
want to block these services, let alone force search engines to
display a nasty image in place of figures in a cached or translated
document from your site.
Thus, unless you don't care, you will have to be more thoughtful
 and construct additional rewrite conditions that do not block
useful services. For example, the following rules will allow the
Altavista and Google translation services to hot link images from
your site:
______________________________________________________________
| |
| RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://jump.altavista.com/.* |
| (www\.)?mydomain\.com.*$ [NC] |
| RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://translate.google.com/.*|
| (www\.)?mydomain\.com.*$ [NC] |
|______________________________________________________________|
See Using_Mod_rewrite_to_block_hot_linked_images, Preventing_hot_linking_of
images, Preventing_Hotlinking_with_Apache_mod_rewrite and How_to_be_a_total
prick_using_mod_rewrite.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.7. How to make a dynamic CSS
A lot of people think that PHP can only be used to deliver dynamic HTML pages.
This is by no means the whole story! Did you know, for example, that with PHP
you can deliver dynamic CSS files? Forget all those multiple CSS for different
browsers! You can maitain one CSS file, with PHP code in it - and PHP will
interpret that code and deliver the right CSS to the right browser.
Again, the .htaccess file (see Section_25.4) plays a central role here: add
this line to the .htaccess file in your PHP-Nuke root directory:
______________________________________
| |
| AddType application/x-httpd-php .css|
|______________________________________|
This will instruct the Apache web server to parse .css files for PHP commands.
Then add this line to the top of your CSS file:
____________________________________________
| |
| <?php Header ("Content-type: text/css");?>|
|____________________________________________|
This makes sure that the .css file looks like a regular CSS file to anyone that
asks. If you don't return a text/css header, Mozilla will refuse to include the
file if the calling page has an XHTML or strict HTML doctype.
With these two changes in place, you can now use PHP everywhere in your CSS
file. Conditional operations, function calls, and generally the whole PHP
functionality is at your disposal!
You could for example have a link to 'printer-friendly.php' which would set a
cookie (for say 10/20secs) and redirect back to the refering page. Your CSS
file would then check the “printer†cookie and, if set, would produce a
stylesheet that is more printer friendly:
_______________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if(isset($_COOKIE['printer'])) { |
| ?> |
| /* print styles here, turn off logos,|
| do in black and white or whatever */ |
| <?php |
| } else { |
| ?> |
| /* regular styles */ |
| <?php |
| } |
| ?> |
|_______________________________________|
Note Your browser does not notice!
Whether you use a dynamic CSS with PHP, or a static one, your browser
will never notice - just as will never notice with other HTML files
anyway! Why? Because all the "dynamics" take place on the server. As
soon as PHP finishes its work with parsing the CSS file on the server,
 the browser gets served a CSS file that looks just about any other CSS
file would do. The only difference is that this CSS is constructed on-
the-fly, taking into account whatever dynamic parameters you told it to
(cookies, user preferences, browser type etc.). Your browser will never
notice and will cache it like any other CSS.
The above is of course just an example, since CSS already caters for
alternative 'print-friendly' styles using the "media" attribute:
_________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <LINK rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/style.css"> |
| <LINK rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/print.css" media="print">|
|_________________________________________________________________________|
which, on the other hand, does not seem to be completely supported by all
browsers for the moment.
Another interesting application of the dynamic CSS idea, is the construction of
“theme variantsâ€: different colour combinations for the same theme. Following
the previous lines, you could set links somewhere in your pages, that would set
a cookie and redirect back to the refering page. Your CSS file would then check
the “style†cookie and, would produce the appropriate colours (see Server_Side
Scripting_in_CSS_Files):
__________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| switch($_COOKIE['style']) { |
| case "high_contrast": |
| $bg="black"; |
| $fg="white"; |
| break; |
| case "silly": |
| $bg="pink"; |
| $fg="red"; |
| break; |
| default: |
| $bg="white"; |
| $fg="black"; |
| break; |
| } |
| ?> |
| body { |
| background-color: <?php =$bg;?>;|
| color: <?php =$fg;?>; |
| } |
|__________________________________|
The CSS file that you should modify for such actions, is the style.css file in
the styles folder of your theme (see Section_14.1).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.8. How to proceed when MySQL is slow
It is of course too general a complain to say “MySQL is slow! What is wrong
with my pages?â€, but nonetheless, there exist a couple of things you can check
if this happens to you (see slow_page_load_and_mysql_errors):
* First obvious question: did your host upgrade or make changes to MySQL?
* Second, any new or modified modules added?
* Third, does your host have 'log slow queries' enabled for mysql so you can
isolate which ones are causing the problems? When started with the --log-
slow-queries[=file_name] option, mysqld writes a log file containing all SQL
commands that took more than long_query_time seconds to execute. See The_Slow
Query_Log.
* Does this happen randomly or during certain time periods throughout the day?
* Maybe you need to rebuild your indexes. To rebuild your indexes, the easiest
way to do so for a MyISAM table is to use the following statement, which
rebuilds the index file:
_____________________________________
| |
| mysql> REPAIR TABLE tbl_name QUICK;|
|_____________________________________|
If you don't have access to the MySQL prompt through a terminal, you can
write a small PHP script that does the same. Copy the following code into a
file and save it as, say, repair.php:
______________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| require("config.php"); |
| $host = $dbhost; |
| $database = $dbname; |
| $username = $dbuname; |
| $password = $dbpass; |
| mysql_connect($host, $username, $password); |
| @mysql_select_db($database); |
| $res = mysql_query("repair table ".$prefix."_XXXX");|
| if ($res) { |
| echo $res; |
| } else { |
| print (mysql_error()); |
| } |
| ?> |
|______________________________________________________|
Dont't forget to replace “XXXX†with the actual name (without the prefix!) of
the table you are suspecting of causing you trouble. Read the table
definitions in the nuke.sql file that came with your PHP-Nuke package under
the sql directory (you used nuke.sql during installation to populate the
database, see Section_3.2.4 and Section_3.4.5).
Upload repair.php to the same directory on your web server where also
config.php is in - and point your browser to it. Of course, you should delete
it after you are done.
* The phpBB software used for the standard Forum in PHP-Nuke, comes with a
table, nuke_bbsearch_wordlist, that is used to store words that occur in
forum posts. Due to the large size of your database, the
nuke_bbsearch_wordlist table may have grown very large. By default phpBB does
not include an index for that table. Lack of an index on
nuke_bbsearch_wordlist can make your forum slow down. Running the SQL command
below will increase the size of the nuke_bbsearch_wordlist table (could
double it), but a performance increase is expected with the index (see How_to
Increase_your_Forums_Performance):
__________________________________________________________________
| |
| ALTER TABLE nuke_bbsearch_wordmatch ADD INDEX post_id (post_id);|
|__________________________________________________________________|
Run this during a time on your site when it is least busy. More records on
that table means longer run time.
If you find that this doesn't work for you, you can remove the index with:
_______________________________________________________
| |
| ALTER TABLE nuke_search_wordmatch DROP INDEX post_id;|
|_______________________________________________________|
Tip Large Slow Query Logs
The slow query log can be used to find queries that take a long time to
execute and are thus candidates for optimization . With a large log, that
 can become a difficult task. You can pipe the slow query log through the
mysqldumpslow command to get a summary of the queries which appear in the
log.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 26. How to solve common probems with PHP-Nuke
What often inhibits the work of administrators of websites made with PHP-Nuke,
are the maintenance interventions that are necessary for an optimal operation
of their site. You should never consider your installation of PHP-Nuke
“finishedâ€, as correction releases that eliminate bugs, or cover security holes
(Section_23.4.1), often follow an original release and you may also feel the
need for a new module that adds a much-needed functionality. Various everyday
problems are related to these activities and in this chapter we are going to
discuss the most common ones and ways to solve them:
* How to repair a corrupt table (Section_26.1),
* How to restore PHP-Nuke from backup (Section_26.2),
* How to install new modules (Section_26.3),
* How to install patches and correct errors (Section_26.4),
* How to find all registration links (Section_26.5),
* How to allow anonymous web link submissions (Section_26.6),
* How to disable DEBUG mode (Section_26.7).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.1. How to repair a corrupt table
 Three things are certain: Death, taxes and lost data. Guess which has
occurred.
Occasionally, under circumstances involving high load on the server, multiple
INSERTs and UPDATEs, coupled with many SELECTs (see Section_28.5 for the syntax
of SQL code), or hardware failure (oh yes...whenever possible, blame the
hardware! ), your database server may corrupt a table. This is something it
shouldn't happen, but of course this doesn't help you if it does. According to
the MySQL manual on Corrupted_MyISAM_Tables, you can get corrupted tables if
some of the following things happens:
* The mysqld process being killed in the middle of a write.
* Unexpected shutdown of the computer (for example, if the computer is turned
off).
* A hardware error.
* You are using an external program (like myisamchk) on a live table.
* A software bug in the MySQL or MyISAM code.
and the typical symptoms for a corrupt table are:
* You get the error
_______________________________________________________
| |
| Incorrect key file for table: '...'. Try to repair it|
|_______________________________________________________|
while selecting data from the table.
* Queries don't find rows in the table or return incomplete data.
For PHP-Nuke, a typical error is MySQL errno 145 (see MySQL_errno:_145_Can't
open_file_nuke_bbsearch_wordmatch.MYI):
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Could not insert new word matches |
| DEBUG MODE |
| SQL Error : 1016 Can't open file: 'nuke_bbsearch_wordmatch.MYI'. (errno:|
| 145) |
| INSERT INTO nuke_bbsearch_wordmatch (post_id, word_id, title_match) |
| SELECT 4467, word_id, 0 FROM nuke_bbsearch_wordlist WHERE word_text IN |
| ('testing') |
| Line : 282 |
| File : /xxxx/xxxx/public_html/nuke/includes/functions_search.php |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
You can use the repair.php script of Section_25.8, or the REPAIR TABLE command
from the MySQL prompt, not only to rebuild indexes, but also to generally
repair a broken table (see Missing_blocks_and_modules). Normally you should
never have to run the REPAIR TABLE command, but if disaster strikes, you are
very likely to get back all your data from a MyISAM table with it (if your
tables get corrupted a lot, you should try to find the reason for this, to
eliminate the need to use REPAIR TABLE, see What_To_Do_If_MySQL_Keeps_Crashing
and MyISAM_Table_Problems). On the MySQL prompt, type:
__________________________
| |
| repair table nuke_users;|
|__________________________|
to repair the nuke_users table, for example. To only check if the table is
corrupt, use the “check table†SQL command:
_________________________
| |
| check table nuke_users;|
|_________________________|
See REPAIR_TABLE_Syntax for the syntax of REPAIR TABLE.
If you don't have a ccess to the MySQL prompt, but can access the shell, you
can use the myisamchk utility. Again, you can both check and repair a table. To
check it, type
______________________________
| |
| myisamchk /path/to/the/table|
|______________________________|
on the shell's command line. To repair it, use
_________________________________
| |
| myisamchk -r /path/to/the/table|
|_________________________________|
If you ever needed the REPAIR TABLE function of MySQL (and went through the
torture process of wondering what this might do to your beloved data), then you
may be appreciating backups a bit more - see Section_27.16 and backup your
database regularly!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.2. How to restore PHP-Nuke from backup
Figure 26-1. Administration panel: Backup DB.
Administration panel: Backup DB.
We have already seen that PHP-Nuke offers a built-in database backup function
in the administration panel (Figure_26-2). phpMyAdmin (Section_3.3) also offers
a very good web interface to database backups and you can even use home-made
scripts that automate the backup work for you (see Section_27.16). However, we
have not yet covered the procedures necessary to restore a backup made with the
above procedures.
Figure 26-2. Administration panel: Backup DB.
Administration panel: Backup DB.
PHP-Nuke can bee seen as a structure comprising two general elements, the files
and the database. The pulsing heart of our dynamic CMS is the database. It is
actually there where the we save all usernames, articles, statistics and all
the rest. In the files, on the other hand, we have the commands that are
necessary for a functioning connection to the database, the fetching and
processing of the data and finally their saving back to the database again.
Although the database is experiencing constant modifications (UPDATEs) -
practically every time some user is vieweing some page - the files themselves
are subject to much slower change, most of the time due to necessary
interventions of the administrator. If, for example, we have PHP-Nuke 6.8
installed, then the possible modifications to our installation include:
* Installation of a new theme we programmed ourselves, or modification of an
existing theme.
* Installation of patches that correct errors.
* Installation of new modules or of modification of existisng modules in order
to get a more personalized site.
As you can see, if we were to lose our PHP-Nuke files, a recuperation would not
be something impossible, although painful and annoying. On the other hand, it
would be really impossible to recuperate our database data, if lost, due to the
fact that they may change automatically, independently of the administrator's
will. For example, the update of the statistics, a user's post in the forums,
or a user registration, are all events that happen independently of the
administrator's will and they all find their way to the database.
Hopefully, the above observations have convinced you of the necessity of
database backups. We recommend you to:
Make a backup of your PHP-Nuke at least every time you make a change to them
(although a regular backup every N days would be even better).
Make a database backup as often as possible. The backup frequency should be
directly proportional to the number of visits that your site attracts per day:
the more visits per day , the more new data is stored in our database each day.
Also in this case, a regular backup is the recommended way.
Warning Don't trust your ISP on making backups of your data!
Do not, under any circumstances, indulge to the comforting thought that your ISP
is doing database backups for you, even if he talks in his marketing brochures
about "security", "crash protection" or even "backups"! If you read the Standard
Terms and Conditions of your ISP carefully, you will almost certainly discover
that he does not assume any responsibility for data loss, unless it was the
result of gross negligence (a rare condition that you will have to prove in a
 court).
Even if your ISP does do backups, and runs big ads declaring so, this does not
mean that he does them for you! You might discover that you have to pay an
“market fair†hourly rate for the ISP's operator's work, if you ask his help on
restoring that lost table of yours...
Thus, you'd better not rely on your ISP when it comes to backups. Do your
homework and you will not regret it.
Restoring a backup is very simple. All you need to do is delete all tables
contained in the PHP-Nuke database and insert the emergecy versions in their
place. You can do this through the function “SQL query†of phpMyAdmin (see
Section_3.4.2). Enter the full name of the backup file in the field for
“textfile†in Figure_26-3, or select “Browse†and then search for it in the
dialog that follows.
Figure 26-3. phpMyAdmin: SQL query.
phpMyAdmin: SQL query.
However, it is important that we are aware of some exceptions or particular
cases that may yield themselves the above restore procedure:
* How to restore a single table (see Section_26.2.1).
* How to restore a large backup (see Section_26.2.2).
We will talk about these cases in the following subsections.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.2.1. How to restore a single table
Suppose we only need to restore the nuke_users table, leaving all other tables
untouched. For this we use phpMyAdmin (Section_3.3) to selectively delete the
nuke_users table. We then open our backup file with a decent text editor (see
Chapter_11) and copy from it only those parts that are relevant to the
* structure and
* data
of the nuke_users table. The structure part is normally preceded by a three-
line comment like:
__________________________________________
| |
| # |
| # Table structure for table `nuke_users`|
| # |
|__________________________________________|
The data part, on the other hand, is preceded by a three-line comment like:
_______________________________________
| |
| # |
| # Dumping data for table `nuke_users`|
| # |
|_______________________________________|
All in all, our structure and data parts for the nuke_users table will look
like the following:
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| # |
| # Table structure for table `nuke_users` |
| # |
| CREATE TABLE nuke_users ( |
| user_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment, |
| name varchar(60) NOT NULL default ", |
| username varchar(25) NOT NULL default ", |
| user_email varchar(255) NOT NULL default ", |
| femail varchar(255) NOT NULL default ", |
| |
| ...many other fields of nuke_users follow here |
| |
| # |
| # Dumping data for table `nuke_users` |
| # |
| INSERT INTO nuke_users VALUES (1, ", 'Anonymous', ", ", ", |
| 'blank.gif', 'Nov 10, 2000', ",", ", ", ", 0, 0, ", ", ", |
| ", 10, ", 0, 0, 0, ", 0, ", ", 4096, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, |
| 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 10,NULL, 'english', 'D M d, Y g:i a', 0, 0, 0, NULL, |
| 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 3, NULL, NULL, NULL); |
| |
| ...many other user data follow here |
|______________________________________________________________________|
In the above example, only a small part of the structure of the nuke_users
table is shown for brevity. You will also most probably have more than one
user, so that the data part will also be much bigger (we only show the user
data for user “Anonymousâ€).
We can get a partial restore of the single nuke_users table in three ways:
1. We copy and paste the relevant structure and data parts from our backup
file into a separate file that we will call partial_backup.sql. Then we
use phpMyAdmin's “SQL query†function (see Section_3.4.2) to import the
partial_backup.sql file, just as we do with any other file containing SQL
queries. We enter the full path to partial_backup.sql in the “textfileâ€
field of Figure_26-3 and click on “Goâ€.
2. We copy and paste the relevant structure and data parts from our backup
file into the text area field above the “Browse†button, then click on
“Goâ€.
3. We don't use phpMyAdmin but use the shell command line instead. From the
shell promt, we type:
___________________________________________________________
| |
| mysql -h dbhost -u dbuname -p dbname < partial_backup.sql|
|___________________________________________________________|
where dbhost, dbuname and dbname are exactly the same as in your
config.php file(Section_3.7).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.2.2. How to restore a large backup
If your backup file is really large (a few megabytes are enough), PHP will not
be able to import it in the usual CPU time limit of 30 sec. that is set by most
ISPs. The result will be an error and a corrupted or incomplete table. In this
case you can proceed as follows:
* If you have access to the shell promt, login to your server with SSH and type
the following on the shell prompt:
___________________________________________________________
| |
| mysql -h dbhost -u dbuname -p dbname < partial_backup.sql|
|___________________________________________________________|
where dbhost, dbuname and dbname are exactly the same as in your config.php
file(Section_3.7).
* If you don't have shell access, you can use an interface like MysqlFront (see
Section_28.6):
Warning The PHP CPU time limit may hit you in backups too!
Just as PHP may time out on a restore, it may timeout on a backup as
 well!. You are then left with the command line option , or some
script solution along the lines of Section_27.16, modified so that it
only makes a backup of a piece of your data each time.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.3. How to install new modules
Figure 26-4. Administration panel: Modules.
Administration panel: Modules.
Important Check versions!
Before we start, check that the version of the module you are about
 to install is compatible with the PHP-Nuke version of your
installation!
The add-on modules of PHP-Nuke are of various types (see Section_8.3 for some
examples), but can be grouped together in 3 different categories:
1. Modules that do not change the database structure (see Section_26.3.1).
2. Modules that change the database structure (see Section_26.3.2).
3. Modules that change both the database structure and the orininal PHP-Nuke
files (see Section_26.3.3).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.3.1. How to install modules that do not change the database structure
These are the simplest modules to install. Their installation consists only of
copying the module's files in the aproppriate folders in PHP-Nuke. There are no
changes to the original tables and no new tables involved.
These modules may consist of only a public part, only an administration part ,
or both. But how tell if a certain module requires a database modification or
not? Generally, a module package comes with the following folders:
____________________
| |
| html (1) |
| html/modules (2) |
| html/admin (3) |
| html/images (4) |
| html/sql (5) |
|____________________|
_(1)_
This is a container folder that is not involved in the installation.
_(2)_
The subfolders of this folder constitute the public part of the module
and should be copied under a directory with the module's name in the PHP-
Nuke modules folder.
_(3)_
The subfolders of this folder constitute the administration part of the
module and should be copied under PHP-Nuke's admin folder.
_(4)_
Contains any images used by the module. Its contents should be copied in
the PHP-Nuke images folder.
_(5)_
Contains the file with all the necessary modification commands for the
database, if any. It is the existence of such a file (sometimes not with
the .sql ending) that suggests that the module in question requires
changes in the database. However, its absence is not a sure sign that
such a change is not needed at all: some modules will make their changes
to the database on-the-fly, e.g. through some install.php PHP script that
we will have to open with our browser during installation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.3.2. How to install modules that change the database structure
These modules, although they will not change any original PHP-Nuke files, they
will require a change in the PHP-Nuke database. The required change in the
database may be of two types:
1. Some tables are appended to the database, but without changing any of the
existing ones.
2. The original PHP-Nuke tables must be changed.
The installation of these modules consists in the copying of their files into
the appropriate folders (see Section_26.3.1 for the details, remember that they
don't overwrite or change any original PHP-Nuke file) and the import of a .sql
file (using phpMyAdmin, as shown in Section_3.4.2, or the command line as in
Section_3.2.4), or the opening of some install.php file through the browser
that will make the database changes automatically.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.3.3. How to install modules that change the database structure and the files
There are module that, in order to function properly, require the addition of
functions in the original files of PHP-Nuke. These modules will overwrite
mainfile.php, modules.php, or some other file.
Caution Beware of subsequent installations!
If you install a module that changes PHP-Nuke's original files, you
may not be able to conduct the installation of another one that
requires changes in those files too! The new module's installation
script may not find the expected code to modify, since it will have
 been changed by the previous one.
For example, in PHP-Nuke 6.0 there were two interesting add-on
modules, Indy News and Groups, that both required changes to be made
in mainfile.php. In order to get them both to work, we had to do the
changes in mainfile.php by hand, resulting in a file that contained a
mix of modifications by both modules.
Warning Automatic upgrades may not work any more!
In case you had to change the original tables of PHP-Nuke (i.e. you
had not just to append some new tables to the database, but to change
existing ones), then you may find out the next time you want to
upgrade, the automatic upgrade scripts that come with each new PHP-
 Nuke version (see Chapter_4) do not work any more!
This is because the scripts will search for the original table
structure to upgrade, but will find some new one instead. In this
case it is recommended to have a look at the upgrade scripts and do
the changes manually, using either a graphical frontend, like
phpMyAdmin (Section_3.3) or the MySQL command line (Section_3.2.4).
The same warning applies to file changes during upgrades: it is best to make
the changes in the files by hand, also for those files of the new modules. Such
a procedure can be very painful and time-consuming. It is recommended that you
use a local test server for all these changes and that you do not upload the
modified files, until you have tested them thoroughly and made all backups of
the production system. (See Figure_26-2 and Section_7.1, for PHP-Nuke's own
backup function, Section_3.3 for phpMyAdmin's functionality, which also
includes a very good web interface to database backups and Section_27.16, for
home-made scripts that automate the backup work for you).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.4. How to install patches and correct errors
From time to time it occurs that some functions of a certain PHP-Nuke version
contain bugs, or that some others are in need of an update. Here we will
briefly discuss the most common problems that arise in such situations.
Tip Use the Forums!
If you are in search of a solution to a common problem, your first move
should be to consult a Forum, like those of the authors: PHP-Nuke_Forum
 of_spaghettibrain (Claudio), or PHP-Nuke_Forum_of_karakas-online (Chris).
Of course, you should always use the search function of the Forums first,
before asking a question that has been possibly asked (and answered) many
times already.
Here is an example of the installation of a patch:
Generally a patch consists of one or more files that will overwrite the buggy
existing ones. The “installation†of the patch is thus nothing more than the
simple overwriting of those files: foobar.php (12Kb) will overwrite the
existing file foobar.php (13Kb) (notice that the name is the same, but the size
differs). It is a good practice not to overwrite the old file, thus deleting it
completely, but to move it to something like foobar.old or foobar.orig, so that
you can easily restore it, should the new version present unexpected problems.
Example of a manual correction in the code:
Suppose our file consists of a number of lines:
__________________________________________________________
| |
| $qdb = "WHERE topic='$new_topic'"; |
| $sql_a = "SELECT topictext FROM ".$prefix."_topics WHERE|
| topicid='$new_topic'"; |
| $result_a = $db->sql_query($sql_a) |
| $row_a = $db->sql_fetchrow($result_a); |
| $numrows_a = $db->sql_numrows($result_a); |
| $topic_title = $row_a[topictext]; |
|__________________________________________________________|
and we are told that we must replace the fourth one with
_____________________________________
| |
| $result_a = $db->sql_query($sql_a);|
|_____________________________________|
then, after we do this and save the file, our new file will look like:
__________________________________________________________
| |
| $qdb = "WHERE topic='$new_topic'"; |
| $sql_a = "SELECT topictext FROM ".$prefix."_topics WHERE|
| topicid='$new_topic'"; |
| $result_a = $db->sql_query($sql_a); |
| $row_a = $db->sql_fetchrow($result_a); |
| $numrows_a = $db->sql_numrows($result_a); |
| $topic_title = $row_a[topictext]; |
|__________________________________________________________|
(Can you see the difference? )
Most decent text editors (see Chapter_11) will display the line number for your
orientation during such operations.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.5. How to find all registration links
Links pointing to the registration page
___________________________________________
| |
| modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=new_user|
|___________________________________________|
exist at various places in PHP-Nuke - and with various texts. To disable
registration, it will not suffice to find them all and delete them from the
code. This will not prevent a user from entering the above URL directly by hand
in the address field of his browser. You will have to apply a solution like the
one of Section_18.6.4. Nevertheless, you may still wish to find and delete all
links to the registration page after you have applied the solution of Section
18.6.4. How do you proceed?
Place your mouse on a registration link and take note of the URL show in the
status bar of your browser. Try to find some special string in it. The URL
parameters are well suited for this. In the above registration URL, there are
two of them, name (with value “Your_Accountâ€) and op (with value “new_userâ€).
The value of name is certainly not a uniquely identifying feature of the URL
(you will encounter “name=Your_Account†in many URLs, not only those for
registration) , but the value of op certainly is.
Thus, you only have to search for “new_user†. But not in the whole code. Since
link texts have to be different for different languages, you can safely bet
that the URLs you are looking for are going to contain text constants (see
Section_13.1). Your first attempt should thus concentrate in the language
files:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| grep new_user language/* |
| ... |
| language/lang-english.php:define("_ASREGISTERED", |
| "Don't have an account yet? You can |
| <a href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=new_user\">create one</a>. |
| As a registered user you have some advantages like theme manager, |
| comments configuration and post comments with your name."); |
| language/lang-english.php:define("_YOUAREANON", |
| "You are Anonymous user. You can register for free by clicking |
| <a href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=new_user\">here</a>"); |
| language/lang-english.php:define("_MODULEUSERS", |
| "We are Sorry, but this section of our site is for |
| <i>Registered Users Only.</i><br><br>You can register for free by clicking |
| <a href=\"modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=new_user\">here</a>, |
| then you can<br>access this section without restrictions. |
| Thanks.<br><br>"); |
| ... |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
You now see that user registration links (from the Your Account module) come in
three flavours, containing the text constants _ASREGISTERED, _YOUAREANON and
_MODULEUSERS respectively. Now, all you have to do to find the exact places of
the links in the code, is to search the PHP files for those three constants.
You can then delete or modify the links you find, according to the context and
your liking.
A similar “bottom-up†approach can be used to find the reason for an error,
such as Sorry,_such_file_doesn't_exist... for example, which is discussed in
Section_3.9.6.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.6. How to allow anonymous web link submissions
Figure 26-5. Administration panel: Web Links.
Administration panel: Web Links.
Suppose you need to allow anonymous users to submit web links that then must be
approved by an Administrator. Is this possible with the vanilla install of PHP-
Nule?
It turns out that yes, it is - very easily indeed! But instead of just
presenting you the solution, we will also describe how we arrived at it (see
Anonymous_Web_Link_Submissions):
We first thought that if the Web Links module was visible by all visitors, it
would also allow them to suggest a link. We tried it, but we got the error:
You are not a registered user or you have not logged in.
If you were registered you could add links on this website.
Becoming a registered user is a quick and easy process.
Why do we require registration for access to certain features?
So we can offer you only the highest quality content,
each item is individually reviewed and approved by our staff.
We hope to offer you only valuable information.
Obviously, PHP-Nuke made a check if this was a registered user - and issued
that statement. But where was this check located in the code?
To find it, we used the same bottom-up approach of Section_3.9.6 and Section
26.5:
We first had to find the place where the above error was echoed. We thus
searched the whole code tree for all occurences of a word that most probably
would appear only in the error above - we chose the word "valuable". It turned
out that the word "valuable" was in some unrelated text consntants - but it was
also in the _LINKSNOTUSER7 text constant that was translated in all modules/
Web_Links/language/lang-XXXX.php files!
Armed with this information, we only had to do a second search, this time for
all occurences of the string "_LINKSNOTUSER" in the whole code tree of PHP-
Nuke. We got again dozens of language files in the output, but we also got the
modules/Web_Links/index.php file. Indeed, if at all, it must be this file where
the check is made!
We thus checked the relevant lines of modules/Web_Links/index.php and the code
went like this:
______________________________________________________
| |
| if (is_user($user) || $links_anonaddlinklock == 1) {|
| --> do the work here <-- |
| }else { |
| echo "<center>"._LINKSNOTUSER1."<br>" |
| .""._LINKSNOTUSER2."<br><br>" |
| .""._LINKSNOTUSER3."<br>" |
| .""._LINKSNOTUSER4."<br>" |
| .""._LINKSNOTUSER5."<br>" |
| .""._LINKSNOTUSER6."<br>" |
| .""._LINKSNOTUSER7."<br><br>" |
| .""._LINKSNOTUSER8.""; |
| } |
|______________________________________________________|
So that's where the check is made! You can see it for yourself, because the
code is almost speaking natural language:
If is user or anon add link
We first thought we had to remove the check "if is user", but then we saw that
"or $links_anonaddlinklock == 1" which made us suspicious. So there was some
kind of configuration variable ( $links_anonaddlinklock) which can control the
outcome of the test!
We know from experience that such variables are set in a separate PHP file, in
the same folder of the module. If you didn't have this experience, then you
would just have to do a third search for all occurences of the string
"links_anonaddlinklock" in the text of all files - there shouldn't be that
many.
Indeed, $links_anonaddlinklock is set in modules/Web_Links/l_config.php:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| # $links_anonaddlinklock: Lock Unregistered users from Suggesting New|
| Links? |
| (0=Yes 1=No) |
| ...many other comments |
| ###################################################################### |
| ...many other variables |
| $links_anonaddlinklock = 0; |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
So you just have to set
_____________________________
| |
| $links_anonaddlinklock = 1;|
|_____________________________|
in modules/Web_Links/l_config.php and any user, also unregistered ones, will be
able to suggest Web Links!
Tip A general approach to problem solving
 You can use this bottom-up approach to solve many similar problems of
your daily work as an administrator of a PHP-Nuke system.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.7. How to disable DEBUG mode
You may have already come across those errors that enter automatically a DEBUG
mode and output a more descriptive message of what happened (we saw how to do
this ourselves in Section_3.9.23):
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| General Error |
| Couldn't update private forum permissions |
| DEBUG MODE |
| SQL Error : 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax near ' 1)' at line 2|
| INSERT INTO nuke_bbauth_access (forum_id, group_id, auth_mod) VALUES (1, ,|
| 1) |
| Line : 425 |
| File : /web/htdocs/www.yoursite.net/home/html69/modules/Forums/admin/ |
| admin_ug_auth.php |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
By the way, this is the error discussed in Section_3.9.14. You may not want to
show so many details to your users and wish you could disable the DEBUG mode.
But to disable the DEBUG mode, you have first to find where to do it:
In cases like this, search is your friend (see Can_I_disable_the_DEBUG_mode):
search for DEBUG in all texts of all files in all subdirectories of a PHP-Nuke
installation. You will get a handful of lines:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| /usr/bin/find ./ -type f -print0 | /usr/bin/xargs -0 /usr/bin/grep DEBUG |
| ./includes/constants.php://define('DEBUG', 1); // Debugging on |
| ./includes/constants.php:define('DEBUG', 1); // Debugging off |
| ./includes/functions.php: if ( DEBUG && ( $msg_code == GENERAL_ERROR |
| || |
| $msg_code == CRITICAL_ERROR ) ) |
| ./includes/functions.php: // Add on DEBUG info if we've enabled debug|
| mode |
| and this is an error. This |
| ./includes/functions.php: // prevents debug info being output for |
| general |
| messages should DEBUG be |
| ./includes/functions.php: if ( DEBUG && ( $msg_code == GENERAL_ERROR |
| || |
| $msg_code == CRITICAL_ERROR ) ) |
| ./includes/functions.php: $msg_text = $msg_text . |
| '<br /> |
| <br /><b><u>DEBUG MODE</u></b>' . $debug_text; |
| ./modules/WebMail/pop3.php: var $DEBUG=0; |
| ./modules/WebMail/pop3.php: if ($this->DEBUG) echo |
| "<b>Sending |
| Command: </b>".$command."<br>";flush(); |
| ./modules/WebMail/pop3.php: if ($this->DEBUG) echo |
| "<b> |
| Result OK: </b><br>";flush(); |
| ./modules/WebMail/pop3.php: if ($this->DEBUG) echo "<b> |
| Openning Connection to: </b>".$this->hostname."<br>";flush(); |
| ./modules/WebMail/pop3.php: if ($this->DEBUG) echo "<b> |
| Connection opened </b><br>";flush(); |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
It is clear that the DEBUG constant is set in includes/constants.php (see the
first two lines of the above results) and is used in the rest of the files.
Thus, to disable DEBUG mode, you only need to edit includes/constants.php and
change
________________________________________
| |
| // Debug Level |
| define('DEBUG', 1); // Debugging on |
| //define('DEBUG', 1); // Debugging off|
|________________________________________|
to
_______________________________________
| |
| // Debug Level |
| //define('DEBUG', 1); // Debugging on|
| define('DEBUG', 1); // Debugging off |
|_______________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 27. Miscellaneous
This chapter contains material that did not fit anywhere else, because the
content was too specific, too advanced, or even too eccentric to be presented
elsewhere. This does not mean that you should skip it, however. You will find
some tips and tricks that may save the day - and you will learn some techniques
applicable not only to PHP-Nuke, but to other areas as well, such as PHP
programming or website management - so please read on!
The topics we cover are:
* How to change the Home module (Section_27.1),
* How to use PHP-Nuke under SSL (Section_27.2),
* How to change PHP parameters when you don't have access to php.ini (Section
27.3),
* How to display HTML code in a FAQ (Section_27.4 ),
* How to enter thousands of web links (Section_27.5),
* How to enter thousands of download links (Section_27.6),
* How to check the validity of thousands of web links (Section_27.7),
* How to enter thousands of ephemerids (Section_27.8),
* How to make the Encyclopedia international (Section_27.9),
* How to find the user name in a module (Section_27.10),
* How to correct thousands of users fields (Section_27.11),
* How to size the select boxes in a module (Section_27.12),
* How to deal with date and time (Section_27.13),
* How to deal with quotes in the site's name (Section_27.14),
* How to embed a Flash object in PHP-Nuke News (Section_27.15),
* How to backup your MySQL database using only the browser (Section_27.16).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.1. How to change the Home module
Figure 27-1. Administration panel: Modules.
Administration panel: Modules.
In PHP-Nuke, the “Home†module is the module that is displayed in the central
column of the index.php page. The default Home module is the News module, i.e.,
upon opening the index.php page, we get the usual news summary of the News
module in the central column. However, you may want to change this behaviour
and display, say, the Downloads module in the Home instead. You could of course
use some kind of redirection (see Section_18.6.1 and Section_18.6.3 for ideas)
to redirect your visitors to the Downloads module, however this is not
necessary: PHP-Nuke allows you to change the module that will be “put in Homeâ€
from the modules administration panel (Section_7.1).
Normally, to change the Home module, you proceed as follows: go to the
administration panel, click on "Modules". You get a table of modules (Figure
27-2).
Figure 27-2. Modules administration panel.
Modules administration panel.
Find the line that contains the information on the "Downloads" module. There,
there is a link "Put in Home", besides the "Edit" and "Delete" links. Click on
"Put in Home" and answer with "Yes" the question that follows (you may have to
scroll to see it):
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Default Homepage Module |
| Are you sure you want to change your Homepage from Web_Links To Downloads?|
| [ No | Yes ] |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
Then the Downloads module will be your "Home".
However, this may not work with some themes like Sand_Journey (which is one of
the standard ones).
The reason is the following code in index.php (see Setting_a_module_to_be_shown
on_Home_page):
___________________________________________________
| |
| if (file_exists("themes/$ThemeSel/module.php")) {|
| include("themes/$ThemeSel/module.php"); |
|___________________________________________________|
For the Sand_Journey theme (i.e. when $ThemeSel is "Sand_Journey"), this means
that themes/Sand_Journey/module.php file is included in index.php, if it
exists. But if it is included, it changes the default module, because the
module.php file for the Sand_Journey theme contains:
___________________________
| |
| <?php |
| $default_module = "News";|
| ?> |
|___________________________|
overriding any other settings. Thus, to be able to change the Home module with
such a theme, you have to rename, delete, or remove the module.php file from
the theme folder. No file, no cry.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.2. How to use PHP-Nuke under SSL
SSL encrypts data at layer 6 of the OSI_model (FIXME: image!). SSL doesn't
necessarily keep hackers out, but rather encrypts the data so that IF a hacker
is listening, it renders the data useless to the hacker. SSL is mainly used for
e-commerce but is not limited to it, so you can certainly use it with PHP-Nuke.
To install SSL on your system, you need the openSSL package and the Apache
modSSL_module.
SSL will, by default, slow a site down. However not considerably, it does slow
a site down due to encryption algorythms (don't worry, it's not a slowdown
analogous to broadband vs. dialup).
SSL will NOT protect you from a user that knows the PHP-Nuke password of a user
or is determined to apply the latest exploit to your site. It will only protect
the traffic from eavesdroppers on the line. Nothing can totally protect you
from this kind of attack - unless you probably sit the whole day in front of
your computer, reading security advisories and taking action the very minute
you read something about a new PHP-Nuke vulnerability. Of course you can take
security measures for your site (and you should take them, see Section_23.4.2),
but you should not conclude that your site is now secure just because you are
using SSL!
After installing Apache with openSSL and modSSL to make your site more secure,
you will be connecting to it with the HTTPS protocol and, accordingly, your
site will be accessible as https://www.yoursite.com (notice the extra “s†after
“httpâ€). But now every page of your site popps up with a Seuciryt Information
Alert like this:
_____________________________________________________
| |
| This Page contains both secure and nonsecure items.|
| Do you want to display the nonsecure items? |
| Yes - No - More Info |
|_____________________________________________________|
Of course, this is normal after installation of SSL. The reason is that many
PHP-Nuke blocks get their images from other sites (e.g. weather blocks (Section
8.2.2), comics blocks (Section_8.2.3, Section_8.3.1), daily_babe_blocks ...).
You will find out that the browser will nerve you with questions like the above
and will NOT display images, showing rather a broken key in their place, if the
images come from outside the SSL domain.
The only solution to this annoyance is to write "SSL versions" of the relevant
blocks that will store the image in a local directory and then display the
image from that directory, instead from the remote one.
To save the image locally, you can use for example:
___________________________________________________________________
| |
| require_once "includes/SSL.php"; |
| $myurl = "http://www.someremotesite.com/somedir/someimage.jpg";|
| $myfile = "localtmpdir/mylocalimage.jpg"; |
| $content = ""; |
| saveimage($myurl, $myfile, $content); |
|___________________________________________________________________|
in the block code, where includes/SSL.php is
__________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| function saveimage($imagefileurl, $tempfile, &$content) { |
| if (time() - filemtime($tempfile) > 3600); { |
| if (!($imagefile = fopen( "$imagefileurl", "rb"))) { |
| $content .= "$imagefileurl<br> could not be opened<br>";|
| die(); |
| } |
| $imagecontent .= fread($imagefile, 300000); |
| fclose($imagefile); |
| if (!($localimagefile = fopen($tempfile , "wb"))) { |
| $content .= "$tempfile<br> could not be opened<br>"; |
| die(); |
| } |
| fwrite($localimagefile, $imagecontent); |
| fclose($localimagefile); |
| } |
| return 1; |
| } |
| ?> |
|__________________________________________________________________|
the idea being that we only download the remote file to the local one if the
remote file's modification time is older that one hour (3600 sec.).
There are probably better ways to do this - you could for example use Cache-
Lite (Section_24.1.2) to cache the image file in a local cache directory, see
Section_24.1 and How_to_accelerate_PHP-Nuke. A discussion thread is in SSL_on_a
phpnuke_site.
If you want to restrict SSL only on certain directories for the above reasons,
you wil have to find a way to enforce the HTTPS protocol in some directories
and enforce HTTP on others. Note that will have to enforce HTTP on the
directories that don's need encryption, otherwise a secure (and slow)
connection will still be possible and your users might not notice that they are
still using encryption in pages that don't matter (if they come to those pages
from an encrypted page through a relative link, for example).
You can try mod_rewrite Section_25.2) to force HTTPS on some URLs and force
HTTP on others: using SERVER_PORT, you can check the current port is not 443
(the standard HTTPS port), and thus to force HTTPS when entering the /dir/
directory, use:
___________________________________________________
| |
| # /dir/.htaccess |
| RewriteEngine On |
| RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT}!443 |
| RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.x.com/dir/$1 [R,L]|
|___________________________________________________|
And because HTTPS is slower than HTTP, take the users out of HTTPS mode when
they leave the /dir/ directory by:
_______________________________________________
| |
| # /.htaccess |
| RewriteEngine On |
| RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 443 |
| RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.x.com/$1 [R,L]|
|_______________________________________________|
The above code should be in a .htaccess file (Section_25.4) in the respective
directory, but you can achieve the same result much faster if you have access
to the web server configuration file and use the <Directory> directive, as
described in Section_25.4. See also Using_mod_rewrite_to_force_SSL and More_on
rewrites.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.3. How to change PHP parameters when you don't have access to php.ini
Unless you have your own “root†server, you are most probably sharing the same
hardware with a few thousand other so-called “virtual†domains. For this
reason, it is all too natural that your ISP will deny you access to the system-
wide php.ini file (usually located under /etc). Whatever value you enter there,
is going to affect all the virtual domains running on that machine!
But what to do if you find out that you must change a setting and you are told
to change it in php.ini? Fortunately, there is an alternative way - and once
again the .htaccess file (see Section_25.4) comes to your rescue:
To set register_globals to off (a good idea from a security point of view, see
Section_23.4.2), for example, add
_______________________________
| |
| php_flag register_globals off|
|_______________________________|
to the .htaccess file in the PHP-Nuke root directory.
To set magic_quotes to off (a bad idea from a security point of view, see
Section_23.4.2), you can add the following line to the .htaccess file in the
PHP-Nuke root directory:
_______________________________
| |
| php_flag magic_quotes_gpc off|
|_______________________________|
To set "display_errors" to off, add:
_____________________________
| |
| php_flag display_errors off|
|_____________________________|
while to set the include path (see Section_3.9.10), you can add
_____________________________________________________
| |
| php_value include_path “your/include/path/hereâ€|
|_____________________________________________________|
If you get a memory limit error like:
______________________________________________________________
| |
| Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted |
| (tried to allocate 67584 bytes) in xxx/xxxxxxx/xxxxx |
|______________________________________________________________|
then you can try to increase allocated memory with
__________________________________
| |
| php_value memory_limit “16Mâ€|
|__________________________________|
although you will probably not achieve the desired result, due to restrictions
that your ISP has set in place.
To change the maximum execution time limit of your PHP scripts, add:
_________________________________
| |
| php_value max_execution_time 60|
|_________________________________|
This will set the time limit to 60 seconds. But if you are not allowed to
change php.ini, it is doudtful that you will be allowed to change the value of
max_execution_time in a .htaccess file. If you can do it, however, then the
.htaccess method gives you the flexibility to set different time limits in
different directories - and thus different scripts that reside therein. See
also Page_genration_time_too_long.
As you have guessed by now , the general syntax is:
______________________________
| |
| php_value PHP-variable value|
|______________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.4. How to display HTML code in a FAQ
Figure 27-3. Administration panel: FAQ.
Administration panel: FAQ.
Using standard tools of a Linux system, like sed and awk, you can automate code
generation for some highly repetitive code fragments, like the one in the
following example:
Suppose you want to display a table of smilies that are available on your
system. Each row should show the smiley and the code needed to insert it in an
article. The code that does the job is phpnuke-faq-code-1, for only one smiley,
icon_smile.gif:
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| <table width='100%' border='0' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='3'> |
| <tr><td> |
| <a> <img src="./modules/Forums/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif"> </a>|
| </td><td><b> |
| &a& &img src="./modules/Forums/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif"& &/a&|
| </b></td></tr> |
| </table> |
|____________________________________________________________________|
To automate the code generation process for all the smilies you have, do:
________________________________________________________________
| |
| cd /usr/local/httpd/htdocs/nuke6/html |
| ll modules/Forums/images/smiles/* | awk '{print $9}' > smilies|
|________________________________________________________________|
That is, you change to the html directory, list all smilies from the modules/
Forums/images/smiles directory and let awk print the 9th field of each line -
this is the file name of the smiley. The output is redirected to the smilies
file, which will thus contain a list of all smiley filenames.
Create a sed_script_that_produces_the_HTML_code_for_the_smilies and put it in a
file named “sedscr†(for sed script):
______________________________________________
| |
| s/\(^.*$\)/<tr><td><a> <img src="\1"> <\/a>\|
| <\/td><td><b>\ |
| \&a\& \&img src="\1"\& \&\/a\&\ |
| <\/b><\/td><\/tr>\ |
| / |
|______________________________________________|
and run sed on the previously created smilies file, using the above script as
the “sed scriptâ€. For this, just run the runsed script:
_______________________
| |
| runsed sedscr smilies|
|_______________________|
(runsed accepts two arguments: the sed script and the file to operate on). This
produces the right code for our FAQ. You just have to add
_________________________________________________________________
| |
| <table width='100%' border='0' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='3'>|
| <tr><td> |
|_________________________________________________________________|
at the beginning and
__________
| |
| </table>|
|__________|
at the end.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.5. How to enter thousands of web links
Figure 27-4. Administration panel: Web Links.
Administration panel: Web Links.
You have gathered, or you have found , thousands of web links that you would
like to enter in the PHP-Nuke Web Links module. You don't want to do this
manually. You can use sed to produce the MySQL commands in a script file that
you will then feed to MySQL, as described in How_to_enter_thousands_of_web
links_in_PHP-Nuke.
The first step is of course to find the page that contains all the links you
need. This may be a HTML file, but it may also be a CVS file from an exported
MS Access data - this doesn't matter, the procedure is the same: edit the
source with sed to convert every line that has a link and a description to an
SQL command that inserts the link and its description to the aproppriate table.
Example: Let's consider the page Content_Management_-_PHP-Nuke of the Open
Directory (DMOZ) for a real world example. Save it as dmoz.html. To enter all
the web links contained in dnoz.html into the WEB_Links module[31], we have to
create the appropriate MySQL commands. To this end, save the following sed
script under the name "sedscr_downloads":
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| s/<li><a href="\([^"]*\)">\(.*\)<\/a>\(.*\)$/INSERT INTO nuke_links_links|
| ( lid, cid, sid, title, url, description, date, name, email, hits, |
| submitter, linkratingsummary, totalvotes, totalcomments ) |
| VALUES ( '0', '100', '0', '\2', '\1', '\3', '2003-06-23 06:05:45', |
| ", ", ", ", ", ", ");/p |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
This is a one-line sed command that creates the SQL INSERT query for every line
of dmoz.html that contains a link. It takes the links's URL, title and
description and stores them in sed's internal numbered fields 1, 2 and 3
respectively. It then uses the values of those fields [you can see them as
escaped numbers \1, \2 and \3 in the VALUES part of the query) to fill the
appropriate fields of the nuke_links_links table. You can download this sed
script from sedscr_downloads. Adapt sedscr_downloads to your situation (e.g.
change cid from 100 to the right category id, add values for name and email,
change the date or the prefix of the links_links table). Then, run it as
follows:
_________________________________________________
| |
| sed -n -f sedscr_downloads dmoz.html > dmoz.sql|
|_________________________________________________|
This will produce the file dmoz.sql, containing lines like this one:
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| INSERT INTO nuke_links_links( lid, cid, sid, title, url, description, |
| date, name, email, hits, submitter, linkratingsummary, totalvotes, |
| totalcomments ) VALUES ( '0', '100', '0', 'PHPNuke: Management and |
| Programming', |
| 'http://www.karakas-online.de/EN-Book/', ' - This tutorial describes the |
| installation and structure of PHPNuke. It also delves into more advanced |
| issues, |
| like the programming of PHPNuke blocks and modules.', '2003-06-23 06:05: |
| 45', |
| ", ", ", ", ", ", "); |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
A line like the above will insert a Web Link in the module, when ran from the
MySQL command line. As you can see, dmoz.sql contains the complete set of
INSERT commands for all links contained in dmoz.html. To execute the commands
from MySQL, type
__________________
| |
| mysql < dmoz.sql|
|__________________|
and all links will be inserted in the Web Links module.
Tip A big time saver!
 If you have thousands (or even hundreds) of web links to enter, this
method will save you days of typing! That's the power of sed!
Since I used DMOZ (or ODP, Open Directory Project) as an example, let me add
that there are a lot of scripts out there that can help you include the DMOZ
data in your website. An example is phpODP. phpODP enables you to add the
content of The Open Directory Project to your own website. You can let your
visitors browse the categories, or search the directory - 100% locally on your
site. The content is updated in real-time - so when ODP updates, you update!
Tip Search for ODP tools in ODP itself!
There is even an ODP category that is devoted to scripts and tools that
can scrap ODP data for you: Computers:_Internet:_Searching:_Directories:
Open_Directory_Project:_Use_of_ODP_Data:_Upload_Tools . It includes links
 to more than 20 tools that can do this, so I think one of those should
fit your purposes, if the method described here is not the right one for
you. In any case, it is a source of a wealth of ideas that you can
explore!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.6. How to enter thousands of download links
Figure 27-5. Administration panel: Downloads.
Administration panel: Downloads.
You have gathered, or you have found , thousands of download links that you
would like to enter in the PHP-Nuke Downloads module. You don't want to do this
manually. You can use a PHP script to read the links and create the file with
the SQL commands for you.
Put the following script (which you can download from downloadadd.txt) in the
PHP-Nuke root directory (the directory where also the config.php file is
located), using .php as the ending, instead of .txt:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| global $prefix, $dbi; |
| include_once("mainfile.php"); |
| $url_downloads_folder = "http://www.humpa.com/images/"; // put the url to |
| the |
| // directory with your downloads - you need the trailing |
| slash! |
| $cat = 2; // the download category id (cid) |
| $description = "You can put a generic description here - this will be on |
| all of them!!!!"; |
| $name = "PutThe_Subbmitted_By_Name_Here"; |
| $email = "PutEmailHere"; |
| $the_hits = 0; // you can change this if you want |
| $filesize = 0; // you can change this if you want |
| $version = ""; // you can put something betwenn the quotes if you want, or|
| leave them empty |
| $homepage = "http://www.HomePage.com"; |
| $fp = @fopen("$url_downloads_folder","r"); |
| if($fp) { |
| echo "success opening the $url_downloads$downloads_folder |
| folder.<br><br>"; |
| |
| $i=1; |
| $buffer = ""; |
| while (!feof ($fp)) { |
| $i++; |
| $buffer_temp = fgets($fp, 2048); |
| $buffer = "$buffer$buffer_temp"; |
| } |
| fclose ($fp); |
| }else { |
| echo "couldn't connect to $url_downloads_folder"; |
| die(); |
| } |
| //$buffer = str_replace("A HREF=\"/", "", $buffer); |
| //$buffer = str_replace("A HREF=\"?", "", $buffer); |
| $i=0; |
| while(eregi("(<A HREF=\")([a-zA-Z0-9._-]+)(\">)",$buffer,$array_data)) { |
| $i++; |
| $buffer = str_replace($array_data[1].$array_data |
| [2].$array_data[3],"",$buffer); |
| //echo "$array_data[2] is data-2<br>"; |
| $file_names[$i] = $array_data[2]; |
| } |
| echo "found $i files<br>"; |
| while($i>0) { |
| //echo "$file_names[$i]<br>"; |
| $title = eregi_replace("(.+)(\.)(.+)","\\1",$file_names[$i]); |
| $url = $url_downloads_folder.$file_names[$i]; |
| $the_sql_querys .= "insert into ".$prefix."_downloads_downloads |
| values |
| (NULL, '$cat', '0', '$title', '$url', '$description', now(), '$name', |
| '$email', |
| '$the_hits',",'0','0','0', '$filesize', '$version', '$homepage');<br><br>";|
| $i--; |
| } |
| echo "<br><br>$the_sql_querys"; |
| ?> |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
You must of course adapt the script to your situation. The following variables
must be set correctly:
* $url_downloads_folder: the url to the directory with your downloads - you
need the trailing slash (obligatory)!
* $cat: the download category id (cid) (obligatory).
* $description: you can put a generic description here - this will be on all of
them! (optional)
* $name: this will be the Subbmitted_By name (optional).
* $email : your email (optional).
* $version: the download version (optional).
* $homepage: your homepage address (optional).
When you point the browser to the locally saved downloadadd.php script, it will
print out some messages about the files it found in your downloads folder and
also all the necessary SQL INSERT commands for those files to be entered as
Downloads in the Downloads module.
Caution You should not have a file named index.html in your downloads folder!
If you have an index.html, index.htm or similar file in the
$url_downloads_folder, the script will analyze the contents of this
 file, instead of the contents of the folder itself! Thus, to get the
right SQL INSERT commands, you should make sure that your download
folder does not contain any index.htm* file.
You can copy and paste them in a text file, call it downloads.sql for example,
then run that file in the MySQL prompt, just as we did with the dmoz.sql file
in Section_27.5:
_______________________
| |
| mysql < downloads.sql|
|_______________________|
Tip Test a few INSERTSs first!
You should copy and test a few INSERTs first, before you run the whole
downloads.sql file! You might not be satisfied with the resulted entries,
 you might discover an error, or decide to change some optional variable
in the script - all this is much easier if you just tested a few commands
first!
See How_to_add_many_downloads_to_my_phpnuke_site?, Question_about_bulk_upload
and Can_this_be_done?.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.7. How to check the validity of thousands of web links
Figure 27-6. Administration panel: Web Links.
Administration panel: Web Links.
Problem: You need the check the validity of your PHP-Nuke weblinks. You have a
lot of them and the built-in checker of PHP-Nuke just hangs , probably due to
constraints on CPU time consumption (usually 30 sec.) . You would like to run a
cron job to check for valid weblinks.
Solution: Download deadlinkcheck, let MySQL dump a list of your web links, and
give it to deadlinkcheck to validate (see How_to_check_the_validity_of
thousands_of_weblinks, Weblinks_Validation).
deadlinkcheck is a simple - you guessed right! - dead link checker. It only
requires Perl 5.x to run, nothing else. It produces a nice HTML validation
report that you can check every day, if you combine it with a scheduling
facility like cron. To install it, follow these three simple steps:
1. Extract the tar archive you downloaded:
____________________________
| |
| tar -xzvf dlc-0.4.0.tar.gz|
|____________________________|
2. Change in the newly created directory dlc-0.4.0 and run the configure
script:
_________________________________
| |
| ./configure --prefix=/usr/local|
|_________________________________|
Substitute your own prefix. In the above example, deadlinkcheck will be
installed in /usr/local/bin and the man page in /usr/local/man/man1
(unfortunately, the --mandir option to the configure script is not
honoured).
3. Run "make install". This completes installation. Do a "man deadlinkcheck"
to get acquainted with the options.
The only thing you need now, is a file with all those 5000 HTTP links - or were
they 50000? No matter how many links you have to check, this is easy done:
Create a MySQL batch script, say weblinks.sql, that contains:
_________________________________________
| |
| # Put your database here! |
| use phpnuke; |
| # |
| # Output all entries of 'nuke_weblinks'|
| # |
| select url from nuke_links_links; |
|_________________________________________|
Run it from the MySQL prompt:
______________________
| |
| mysql < weblinks.sql|
|______________________|
(You may need to add your user and password in the file, see running_MySQL_in
Batch_Mode). This should produce a list of all the URLs on the standard output.
You only need to redirect it to a file:
______________________________________
| |
| mysql < weblinks.sql > urls_weblinks|
|______________________________________|
Now all the above comes to its completion: write a cron job to execute a script
that contains the following two commands:
________________________________________________________________
| |
| mysql < weblinks.sql > urls_weblinks |
| deadlinkcheck -output deadlinks.html -HTMLoutput urls_weblinks|
|________________________________________________________________|
Next day, when the cron job is finished and you're enjoying the morning coffee,
just open the file deadlinks.html with your browser and check the results.
Tip How to find out the category of the invalid links
To find and correct an invalid link in PHP-Nuke, it is nice to know the
category it is in. The solution we will present is not perfect, but you
could find an even better one, if you were willing to tweak the code of
the deadlinkcheck script. Use the following command in weblinks.sql:
_____________________________________________
| |
| select url, cid, sid from nuke_links_links;|
|_____________________________________________|
Â
The rest remains the same. Now, at the end you get a file that contains
the validated links, sorted according to HTTP return code (2xx, 3xx and
4xx) with the difference that now you see the categories in the anchor
text! The links themselves show up in the status line of the browser when
you pass the mouse pointer over the category id! This just makes use of a
bug (in this case a feature ) of deadlinkcheck: if you have more
information than just the link to check on a line, it checks the link and
uses (part of) that extra information as anchor text.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.8. How to enter thousands of ephemerids
Figure 27-7. Administration panel: Ephemerids.
Administration panel: Ephemerids.
Problem: You have a file of nice quotes (often called "fortunes") that you
would like to see displayed every day in the Ephemerids module (see Section_6.1
for the user view and Section_7.1 for the administrator view of the Ephemerids
module) . You don't want to write all those texts by hand, so you are looking
for a way to automate the text insertion.
Idea:The right command to insert a text in the Ephemerids table nuke_ephem is:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| insert into nuke_ephem values (4,4,11,2002, |
| "Nothing cures insomnia like the realization that it's time to get up.",");|
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
We will use a script to produce these INSERT commands (see Inserting_Ephemerids
through_script).
Solution: We write a script like:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| #! /bin/sh |
| did=6 |
| while [ $did -le 30 ]; do |
| read LINE |
| if [ -n "$LINE" ]; then |
| echo "insert into nuke_ephem values (",$did,11,2002,\"$LINE\",");"|
| did=$((did+1)) |
| fi |
| done |
|________________________________________________________________________|
Let's call it "ephemerids" - don't forget to make it executable. When executed,
the ephemerids script outputs the MySQL INSERT command we saw above, for each
fortune in the standard input. Suppose that the "fortunes" are in the file
called "myfortune", one fortune per line. Then, if you use the script as
follows:
_________________________________________
| |
| ephemerids < myfortune > ephemerids.sql|
|_________________________________________|
it will create the necessary MySQL statements and put them all in the
ephemerids.sql file. Once ephemerids.sql is created, you only need to import it
in the PHP-Nuke database. For this, you can type
_______________________________________________________
| |
| mysql -u dbuname -h dbhost -p dbname < ephemerids.sql|
|_______________________________________________________|
or use the import function of phpMyAdmin (Section_3.3).
Verification: To show the content of nuke_ephem and verify that the fortunes
were inserted, execute the following SQL query:
_________________________________________
| |
| select eid,did,mid,yid from nuke_ephem;|
|_________________________________________|
Note that in this version, the above problem can be easily solved with the
Random Quotes block (see Section_8.2.8). However, instead of fortunes, you
could just as well have the birthdays of hundreds of people, or the dates and
descriptions of thousands of historical events, as in a classic ephemerids
context.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.9. How to make the Encyclopedia international
Figure 27-8. Administration panel: Encyclopedia.
Administration panel: Encyclopedia.
If you are using the Encyclopedia module in your own language, which happens to
be different from english, you may encounter problems like the following:
* If you enter a term in your language, it is not recognized, if you enter it
in english, it is.
* Sorting of Encyclopedia terms is O.K. for english terms, but not O.K. for
terms in your language.
Such problems have their roots in both MySQL and the Encyclopedia code (see
Encyclopedia_Module_with_terms_in_non-english_language):
First, make sure that the MySQL server uses the right character encoding. From
the MySQL manual on The_Character_Set_Used_for_Data_and_Sorting:
By default, MySQL uses the ISO-8859-1 (Latin1) character set with
sorting according to Swedish/Finnish. This is the character set
suitable in the USA and western Europe.
All standard MySQL binaries are compiled with --with-extra-
charsets=complex. This will add code to all standard programs to be
able to handle latin1 and all multi-byte character sets within the
binary. Other character sets will be loaded from a character-set
definition file when needed.
The character set determines what characters are allowed in names and
how things are sorted by the ORDER BY and GROUP BY clauses of the
SELECT statement.
You can change the character set with the --default-character-set
option when you start the server. The character sets available depend
on the --with-charset=charset and --with-extra-charsets= list-of-
charset | complex | all | none options to configure, and the
character set configuration files listed in `SHAREDIR/charsets/
Index'.
Also, the user comments for the German_character_set_in_MySQL suggest that, if
you change the default character encoding of mysqldd after you have already
entered some texts with a different character set previously, then you will
have to export the database and reimport it, for all texts to be stored with
the right character encoding. "REPAIR" or "MYISAMCHECK" (see Section_26.1) will
not help, even if the documentation wants to make us believe they will.
You can see the character set used in a table by issuing the command
__________________________
| |
| myisamchk -dvv table.MYI|
|__________________________|
If it is not the one you want, then the only thing that helps is to export the
DB and reimport it with:
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| mysqldump -u dbuname -h dbhost --all-databases --add-drop-table -p dbname >|
| backup.sql |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
for the export, and
_______________________________________________________
| |
| mysql -u dbuname -h dbhost -lL -p dbname < backup.sql|
|_______________________________________________________|
for the import, where dbuname, dbhost and dbname are exactly the same as in
your config.php (Section_3.7). Your character encoding should be set to the one
that is aproppriate for your language, see the Table_with_Character_Sets_and
Corresponding_4.1_Character_Set/Collation_Pairs.
Second, even if you set the character encoding correctly in MySQL, you may
still want to change the $alphabet array in the alpha() function of modules/
Encyclopedia/index.php:
_________________________________________________________________________
| |
| $alphabet = array ("A","B","C","D","E","F","G","H","I","J","K","L","M",|
| "N","O","P","Q","R","S","T","U","V","W","X","Y","Z"); |
|_________________________________________________________________________|
Add the letters of your non-english alphabet there, either by intermixing them
with the english ones, or by deleting the english ones alltogether.
The way all this works in PHP-Nuke, is by constructing a database query that
finds all entries of the given encyclopedia id having a title which, when
transformed to all uppercase, starts "like" the given letter, where the letter
can only be one of the entries in the $alphabet array. See for yourself in
function terms() of modules/Encyclopedia/index.php:
_______________________________________________________________
| |
| $sql = "SELECT tid, title FROM ".$prefix."_encyclopedia_text |
| WHERE UPPER(title) LIKE '$ltr%' AND eid='$eid'"; |
|_______________________________________________________________|
Now, what if you want to mix chinese and greek together?
In such a case, your best bet would be to go with Unicode. But given that PHP's
Unicode_support_is_close_to_non-existent, you are out of luck. Perhaps this
will change in the future. In the meantime, you can prepare yourself with a
good reading on The_Absolute_Minimum_Every_Software_Developer_Absolutely,
Positively_Must_Know_About_Unicode_and_Character_Sets - No Excuses!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.10. How to find the user name in a module
If you want to greet the user personally, if registered, from your own home-
made module, here is the code that does it in PHP-Nuke (see Getting_username_in
PHP_script):
____________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| if (!isset($mainfile)) {include("mainfile.php"); }|
| include ("header.php"); |
| if(!is_array($user)) { |
| $user_get = base64_decode($user); |
| $user_get = explode(":", $user_get); |
| $user_name = "$user_get[1]"; |
| } else { |
| $user_name = "$user[1]"; |
| } |
| if($user_name == "") {$user_name="Anonymous";} |
| echo "Welcome, $user_name"; |
| include ("footer.php"); |
| ?> |
|____________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.11. How to correct thousands of users fields
You have discovered a problem where several (thousands) of your users were
added through the edit user screen and ended up with a space (or in some cases
2 spaces) inserted before the e-mail address and other fields. Your bulk e-
mails are coming through, but you are not able to effectively search or sort
users because of this space. In situations like this, you must be able to
correct thousands of users fields, without having to do it manually. Proceed as
follows (see exporting_nuke_users_data):
Create the following PHP script with a decent_text_editor (Chapter_11):
_________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| include("mainfile.php"); |
| global $prefix, $db, $dbi; |
| $sql = "SELECT * FROM ".$prefix."_users ORDER BY user_id ASC"; |
| $result = $db->sql_query($sql); |
| while ($row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result)) { |
| $userid = $row['user_id']; |
| $oldemail = $row["user_email"]; |
| $newemail = str_replace (" ","",$oldemail); |
| $update = $db->sql_query("UPDATE ".$prefix. |
| "_users set user_email='$newemail' where user_id='$userid'");|
| } |
| ?> |
|_________________________________________________________________|
Upload it in the same directory where also the mainfile.php of your PHP-Nuke is
located (sinse it includes mainfile.php with a relative, as opposed to
absolute, path, it will not work if you upload it in a different place!). Point
your browser to it - and the script will do the rest for you!
Caution Backup your database!
 Always make a backup of your database before trying such a thing! If
it breaks, you keep both pieces.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.12. How to size the select boxes in a module
Figure 27-9. Administration panel: Downloads.
Administration panel: Downloads.
Select boxes (those boxes that present you with multiple options to choose from
a dropdown list) are in many places around in PHP-Nuke. An example is the
"Modify a Category" select box in the Downloads administration panel (Figure
27-10).
Figure 27-10. Downloads: Add download.
Downloads: Add download.
What if you wish to change the dimensions of such a select box? The code that
outputs the select boxes is in admin/modules/download.php. Just search the code
there for "<select" and you will see them all.
However, there is no way to manipulate the width of a select box in HTML, other
than entering a "dummy" option that has a certain length: the width of a select
box is determined by the width of the longest line of text beside an <option>!
Thus, there is no way to set the width of select boxes except by manipulating
the text tags associated with <option>s.
This leads us to the following tip (see How_to_Change_Width_of_Modify_a
Category_Drop-Down):
Tip Sizing The select box in Downloads
The very first category that you ever enter in the Downloads
Administration Panel should be one with a text long enough to size the
 box to the desired length. If you choose to enter a "dummy" category like
"Choose your Category here" (see Figure_27-11), bear in mind that it will
be displayed along with the "right" ones in the Downloads category list.
Figure 27-11. Downloads: Add download.
Downloads: Add download.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.13. How to deal with date and time
You will encounter date/time functions all over PHP-Nuke: cookie expiration
time, broadcast message duration time, article time, server time. PHP offers
many functions that help us with date/time tasks. Here we will cover:
* How to find the last date of some article, download etc. (Section_27.13.1),
* How to adjust server time (Section_27.13.2),
* How to use the Discordian Calendar (Section_27.13.3).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.13.1. How to find the last date of...
Dates are stored in many tables of PHP-Nuke. The date fields are used to hold
the date we
* entered a banner and whhen that banner expires,
* wrote a private message,
* wrote a comment,
* entered a download link,
* voted for something (article, download, link etc.),
* wrote in our journal,
* inserted a web link,
* wrote a review,
* wrote an article
and so on. Sometimes, while writing a modification (Chapter_17, Chapter_18), or
even a new block (Chapter_20) or module (Chapter_21), you may want to compute
the last date that an event like the above has happened.
Whenever you encounter a problem of this type - find the first, the last, the
minimum, the maximum, the average...of some attribute that is stored in a table
field of PHP-Nuke - think aggregate_functions. There is no need to go through a
loop of all records in our table, just to find an aggregate function of its
fields - the database does it for us:
___________________________________________________
| |
| SELECT max( date ) FROM nuke_downloads_downloads;|
|___________________________________________________|
The above SQL query will compute the maximum date (i.e. the last date) of all
links n the Downloads section. You can use SQL queries like the above in your
blocks and modules. To start with, create (with a decent_text_editor, see
Chapter_11) a file that contains (see How_to_compute_the_date_of_the_last_file
added_in_Downloads):
__________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| require_once("mainfile.php"); |
| global $db; |
| include("header.php"); |
| $sql = "SELECT max(date) FROM nuke_downloads_downloads";|
| $result = $db->sql_query($sql); |
| $row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result); |
| $maxdate = $row["max(date)"]; |
| echo "maxdate = $maxdate"; |
| echo "<br><br>"; |
| ?> |
|__________________________________________________________|
name it query.php, upload it in the same dir on your server where also
mainfile.php is located, then point your browser to query.php. You should see a
line like
_______________________________
| |
| maxdate = 2003-11-17 15:33:03|
|_______________________________|
This example illustrates the use of the new SQL layer (see Section_28.5) for
the computation of aggregates. Note that the argument of the $row array is a
string that mimics exactly the aggregate function in the SELECT statement:
_______________________________
| |
| $maxdate = $row["max(date)"];|
|_______________________________|
Here, “max(date)†is just a string and has nothing to do with the max()
function.
Of course, this example is more a “proof of conceptâ€, rather than something you
should use in production - on the contrary, you should delete it from server as
soon as you don't need it, for security reasons. But it serves as a starting
point for more ambitious projects. like the following modification to the
Downloads module:
Problem: You have various categories and subcategories defined in the Downloads
section. For each category, you want to compute the last date that you entered
some download link, either in this category, or in any of its subcategories.
We have already seen how to find the lst date of the downloads in one category
above. What makes the situation here somewhat more complicated is the fact that
we have to do the same computation for every subcategory of a category -
however we don't know all those subcategory IDs a priori, we have to search for
them.
More specifically, the steps to be taken for every category ID $cid are:
* Compute the maximum date for that $cid.
* Search the nuke_downloads_categories for all category IDs, whose parent ID is
$cid. Let's call such a category ID $subcid (meaning that it is a
subcategory, since it has a parent, $cid).
* Compute the latest date a download was inserted in that $subcid. Do this for
all $subcid's you can find for that $cid.
* Compute the maximum of all those maximum dates (including the maximum date
for $cid). This will be the latest date a download link was inserted in
either the category $cid, or any of its subcategories $subcid.
The code that implements the above algorithm is (see How_to_compute_the_date_of
the_last_file_added_in_Downloads):
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| $sql3 = "SELECT max(date) FROM ".$prefix."_downloads_downloads WHERE |
| cid='$cid'"; (1) |
| $result3 = $db->sql_query($sql3); |
| $row3 = $db->sql_fetchrow($result3); |
| $maxdate3 = $row3["max(date)"]; (2) |
| $sql4 = "SELECT cid FROM ".$prefix."_downloads_categories WHERE |
| parentid='$cid'"; (3) |
| $result4 = $db->sql_query($sql4); |
| $maxdate4 = 0; |
| while ($row4 = $db->sql_fetchrow($result4)) { (4) |
| $subcid = $row4["cid"]; |
| $sql5 = "SELECT max(date) FROM ".$prefix."_downloads_downloads WHERE |
| cid='$subcid'"; (5) |
| $result5 = $db->sql_query($sql5); |
| $row5 = $db->sql_fetchrow($result5); |
| $maxdate5 = $row5["max(date)"]; (6) |
| if ($maxdate5 > $maxdate4){ |
| $maxdate4 = $maxdate5; (7) |
| } |
| } |
| $maxdate = max($maxdate3, $maxdate4); (8) |
| if ($maxdate) { |
| echo "<font class=\"content\">Latest Download on $maxdate</font><br>"; |
| (9) |
| } |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
_(1)_
Compute the maximum date for that $cid. The SQL query is the same as the
one we used in the simplified example above.
_(2)_
This is the maximum date for the category ID $cid. It may or may not be
set, depending on whether we entered a download directly under that
category at all, i.e. without making use of any of its subcategories. If
we did, this is the last date (and time) we did it, otherwise it is 0.
_(3)_
With this SQL query, we select all subcategories of that category. The
subcategories' parentid field will contain the parent category ID,
therefore this field must be equal to our $cid.
_(4)_
We enter a loop for every subcategory. Inside the loop, the subcategory
will be stored in $subcid and we will compute the maximum date for each
subcategory ID.
_(5)_
This is the same SQL query we used previously to compute the maximum date
for a given ID. In this case, the ID is that one of the subcategory, i.e.
$subcid. Depending on whether we entered a download under that
subcategory this will either be the last date (and time) we did so, or
just 0.
_(6)_
The maximum date of downloads under the $subcid is stored in $maxdate5.
_(7)_
Since for every subcategory $subcid, a different maximum date is going to
be stored in $maxdate5, we have to compute the maximum of all those
maximums. This is stored in $maxdate4. At the end of the loop, $maxdate4
will be the maximum of all dates of all subcategories. Again, this will
be some date, or zero.
_(8)_
Finally, we take the maximum of the maximum date of all subcategories and
the maximum date of the category itself. This is the last date we
inserted a link, either in the category itself, or in any of its
subcategories.
_(9)_
Print some result, if the last date we computed is not 0. It looks as in
Figure_27-12.
Figure 27-12. Downloads: Main categories with last download date.
Downloads: Main categories with last download date.
Tip Use JOIN
This algorithm would be a perfect example of an application of the SQL JOIN
query, since the “parent-child†information is kept in a different table,
nuke_downloads_categories, while the dates themselves are kept in
nuke_downloads_downloads. However, JOINs may not be supported by your version
of MySQL, so we took the rather primitive (and usually slower) approach of
 nested SELECT statements in the code above. If you only have a few
categories, subcategories and downloads, JOINs may not be a big deal for you,
but the situation changes if you have thousands of them (see Section_27.6 on
how you can enter that many, without subjecting yourself to Repetitive_Stress
Injury ). You are encouraged to experiment with JOINs and test if they
improve the algorithm's performance!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.13.2. How to adjust server time
Figure 27-13. Your Info profile: Timezone and Date settings.
Your Info profile: Timezone and Date settings.
In some cases, perhaps due a misconfiguration of your server, the time shown up
in the News stories is wrong. Normally, it should be possible to control it by
changing the time settings in either the Preferences of the administration
panel, or the user preferences (Figure_27-13). However, there will be
situations where a quick fix is desirable.
You can offset the time by tweaking the following line in the mainfile.php in
the function formatTimeStamp (see How_to_adjust_server_time_in_PHP-Nuke):
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| $datetime = strftime(""._DATESTRING."", mktime($datetime[4],$datetime|
| [5],$datetime[6], |
| $datetime[2],$datetime[3],$datetime[1])); |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
For example to add one hour (3600 seconds), you would simply add 3600:
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| $datetime = strftime(""._DATESTRING."", mktime($datetime[4],$datetime|
| [5],$datetime[6], |
| $datetime[2],$datetime[3],$datetime[1]) + 3600); |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
or, to subtract two hours:
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| $datetime = strftime(""._DATESTRING."", mktime($datetime[4],$datetime|
| [5],$datetime[6], |
| $datetime[2],$datetime[3],$datetime[1]) - 7200); |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
A situation that calls for server time modification arises when your server is
located in a different timezone than your geographic location - say you are
located in Japan, but your hosting company is in Canada (see How_to_adjust
server_time_in_PHP-Nuke). The article on phpbuilder.com On_User-Defined
Timezones_in_PHP explains the problem in detail. Quoting:
PHP's 'mktime' and 'date' functions work well as a pair without the
help of any other timestamp manipulation routines, but only if the
application in which they are used is concerned solely with display
and entry of time in the servers timezone. If an application needs to
handle entry from a timezone other than that in which the server is
located something more than 'mktime' and 'date' is required.
Two things are required to accomplish this: a location independent
format for storing time in the database, and methods to translate to
and from that format into the user's local time.
Read the original article for a solution. To apply it to PHP-Nuke, you would
need to replace the time functions with the new ones, read the time offset from
the user's profile and display the result.
To reflect the new time zone that may be implied by the hardcoded time offset,
you would also want to change the _DATESTRING definition in your language file,
e.g. language/lang-english.php:
____________________________________________
| |
| define("_DATESTRING","%A, %B %d @ %T %Z");|
|____________________________________________|
You can change the "%A, %B %d @ %T %Z" string to whatever you deem appropriate.
PHP gives to some placeholders a special meaning:
* %a - abbreviated weekday name according to the current locale
* %A - full weekday name according to the current locale
* %b - abbreviated month name according to the current locale
* %B - full month name according to the current locale
* %c - preferred date and time representation for the current locale
* %C - century number (the year divided by 100 and truncated to an integer,
range 00 to 99)
* %d - day of the month as a decimal number (range 01 to 31)
* %D - same as %m/%d/%y
* %e - day of the month as a decimal number, a single digit is preceded by a
space (range ' 1' to '31')
* %g - like %G, but without the century.
* %G - The 4-digit year corresponding to the ISO week number (see %V). This has
the same format and value as %Y, except that if the ISO week number belongs
to the previous or next year, that year is used instead.
* %h - same as %b
* %H - hour as a decimal number using a 24-hour clock (range 00 to 23)
* %I - hour as a decimal number using a 12-hour clock (range 01 to 12)
* %j - day of the year as a decimal number (range 001 to 366)
* %m - month as a decimal number (range 01 to 12)
* %M - minute as a decimal number
* %n - newline character
* %p - either `am' or `pm' according to the given time value, or the
corresponding strings for the current locale
* %r - time in a.m. and p.m. notation
* %R - time in 24 hour notation
* %S - second as a decimal number
* %t - tab character
* %T - current time, equal to %H:%M:%S
* %u - weekday as a decimal number [1,7], with 1 representing Monday
* %U - week number of the current year as a decimal number, starting with the
first Sunday as the first day of the first week
* %V - The ISO 8601:1988 week number of the current year as a decimal number,
range 01 to 53, where week 1 is the first week that has at least 4 days in
the current year, and with Monday as the first day of the week. (Use %G or %g
for the year component that corresponds to the week number for the specified
timestamp.)
* %W - week number of the current year as a decimal number, starting with the
first Monday as the first day of the first week
* %w - day of the week as a decimal, Sunday being 0
* %x - preferred date representation for the current locale without the time
* %X - preferred time representation for the current locale without the date
* %y - year as a decimal number without a century (range 00 to 99)
* %Y - year as a decimal number including the century
* %Z - time zone or name or abbreviation
* %% - a literal `%' character
You can combine them with punctuation or extra words to construct the datetime
string of your liking. You are not limited to the above interpretation. For
example, you can just delete the %Z, and replace it with EST or whatever you
time zone is (if you cannot set it from the preferences, that is). There are
some points to bear in mind while experimenting:
* Given a 'bare number' in seconds, e.g. 143567, strftime() will format this
number according to your local timezone. Thus, for Germany, you will get an
extra hour, since CET is GMT +1. If you are interested in simply formatting a
number to give you hours, minutes and seconds (very quick for showing time
values), then you should always use 'gmstrftime' instead, which will not
adjust the time for your local timezone. You set the local timezone in the
preferences section of the administration panel, or the preferences in the
user info panel. Valid timezone codes can (usually) be seen (on Linux, at
least) in /usr/share/zoneinfo or /usr/lib/zoneinfo (according to the tzset
manpage).
* The call to mktime
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| mktime($datetime[4],$datetime[5],$datetime[6],$datetime[2],$datetime|
| [3],$datetime[1]) |
|______________________________________________________________________|
means something equivalent to
_________________________________________________
| |
| mktime($hour,$minute,$second,$month,$day,$year)|
|_________________________________________________|
assuming that $hour, $minute etc. are filled with the right values (this is
exactly what the datetime array does for us).
See the PHP_manual_page_for_strftime for more information and examples about
date string formatting.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.13.3. The Discordian Calendar
Date and time functions in PHP are very flexible, but I still have to find a
PHP function that converts my date strings to the Discordian_Calendar:
The Discordian calendar divides the year into five seasons (commonly
known as Chaos (la kalsa), Discord (la tolsarxe), Confusion (la
cfipu), Bureaucracy (la lujycatni) and the Aftermath (la jalge) ) of
73 days each. Every four years, an extra day (St. Tib's Day / la tib
noi vrude) is inserted between Chaos 59 and Chaos 60.
The Discordian calendar defines a week as having five days, named
Sweetmorn(la titcer), Boomtime (la bumtem), Pungenday (la pynjdei/
cpinydei), Prickle-Prickle (la kilkil) and Setting Orange (after the
Five Elements). Chaos 1 is always Sweetmorn, Chaos 2 Boomtime, The
Aftermath 73 Setting Orange(la canci narju), etc. St. Tib's Day is
none of the five days of the week.
The Discordian calendar's year 0 (notionally the time of the Original
Snub) is known in the Gregorian calendar as 1166 BC; alternatively,
the Gregorian year 0 (notionally the birth of the Jewish mystic
Yeshua ben Yosef) is known as 1166 YOLD in the Discordian calendar.
The year known in the Gregorian calendar as 2001 is known as 3167 in
the Discordian calendar.
Just in case you wanted to know.
How do we output a date string in the Discordian Calendar? If you want to write
your own PHP ddate function, you might find the code of the Perl_Date::
Discordian_module useful. If the settings in your php.ini allow the execution
of system commands (either safe_mode is off, or safe_mode is on and
safe_mode_exec_dir contains the directory that holds the ddate executable, see
safe_mode_settings) and you are running off a Linux box, then you can use the
output of ddate to construct a discordian date in mainfile.php:
_________________________________________________
| |
| $datetime = explode("Today is", exec('ddate'));|
|_________________________________________________|
This will result in something like
______________________________________________________________
| |
| Setting Orange, the 41st day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3169|
|______________________________________________________________|
as the value of $datetime displayed in the News posts. More on this confusing
topic in Principia_Discordia, the Opiatum Magnum of the Discordian Philosophy,
as well as in the Discordian_Forum - where Enlightenment meets Confusion
(TM)...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.14. How to deal with quotes in the site's name
What if O'Reilly decided to use PHP-Nuke for an "O'Reilly website"? He might
find out the single quote in his name made it impossible to save the site's
name in the Preferences of the administration panel (see Section_7.2).
Single quotes ('), double quotes (") and backslashes (\) need to be quoted in
strings that will be entered in a database. This is done by the PHP_addslashes
function. Conversely, the PHP_stripslashes_function returns a string with
backslashes stripped off (\' becomes ' and so on). To enable the use of single
quotes in the site's name, do the following:
Add the line
______________________________________
| |
| $sitename = stripslashes($sitename);|
|______________________________________|
in mainfile.php, after the line that computes $sitename. According to your PHP-
Nuke version, this line may be
_____________________________
| |
| $sitename = $row[sitename];|
|_____________________________|
(for version 6.8) or
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| list($sitename, $nukeurl, $site_logo, $slogan, $startdate, $adminmail, |
| $anonpost, $Default_Theme, $foot1, $foot2, $foot3, $commentlimit, |
| $anonymous, $minpass, |
| $pollcomm, $articlecomm, $broadcast_msg, $my_headlines, $top, $storyhome, |
| $user_news, $oldnum, $ultramode, $banners, $backend_title, |
| $backend_language, |
| $language, $locale, $multilingual, $useflags, $notify, $notify_email, |
| $notify_subject, $notify_message, $notify_from, $footermsgtxt, $email_send,|
| |
| $attachmentdir, $attachments, $attachments_view, $download_dir, |
| $defaultpopserver, |
| $singleaccount, $singleaccountname, $numaccounts, $imgpath, |
| $filter_forward, |
| $moderate, $admingraphic, $httpref, $httprefmax, $CensorMode, |
| $CensorReplace, |
| $copyright, $Version_Num) = sql_fetch_row($result, $dbi); |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
(for earlier 6.x versions). Repeat this for the file admin/modules/
settings.php. While you are in this file, search for the line
_______________________________________________________________
| |
| .""._SITENAME.":</td><td><input type='text' name='xsitename' |
| value='$sitename' size='40' maxlength='255'>" |
|_______________________________________________________________|
and change it to
___________________________________________________________________
| |
| .""._SITENAME.":</td><td><input type=\"text\" name=\"xsitename\" |
| value=\"$sitename\" size=\"40\" maxlength=\"255\">" |
|___________________________________________________________________|
(we basically replace single quotes with escaped double ones in the above line,
so that the single quote(s) in $sitename don't mess up the code). Finally ,
while still in admin/modules/settings.php, find the line
_______________________
| |
| global $prefix, $dbi;|
|_______________________|
in function ConfigSave and add the following line after it:
______________________________________
| |
| $xsitename = addslashes($xsitename);|
|______________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.15. How to embed a Flash object in PHP-Nuke News
To embed a Flash object in a PHP-Nuke news article, you have to use HTML code
like the following - you must have administrator rights, or the whole code will
be wiped out after submission.
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" |
| codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/ |
| swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0" width="600" height="400"> |
| <param name="movie" value="yourmovie.swf"> |
| <param name=quality value=high> |
| <embed src="http://www.yoursite.com/yourmovie.swf" quality=high |
| pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi |
| ?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" |
| type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="600" height="400"></embed>|
| </object> |
|________________________________________________________________________|
Adapt the file name and dimensions to your situation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27.16. How to backup your MySQL database using only the browser
You want to do regular dumps of your MySQL database, but you are lazy and would
like to automate the task.
If your PHP installation permits execution of commands through system() (e.g.
you are not running in safe mode, or, if you are, safe_mode_exec_dir contains
all the commands you need), you can trigger a backup of your MySQL database,
just by pointing your browser to the following script (see How_to_backup_your
MySQL_database_using_only_the_browser):
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <?php |
| // Enter your MySQL access data |
| $host= 'dbhost'; |
| $user= 'dbuser'; |
| $pass= 'dbpassword'; |
| $db= 'db'; |
| $backupdir = 'backups'; |
| // Compute day, month, year, hour and min. |
| $today = getdate(); |
| $day = $today[mday]; |
| if ($day < 10) { |
| $day = "0$day"; |
| } |
| $month = $today[mon]; |
| if ($month < 10) { |
| $month = "0$month"; |
| } |
| $year = $today[year]; |
| $hour = $today[hours]; |
| $min = $today[minutes]; |
| $sec = "00"; |
| // Execute mysqldump command. |
| // It will produce a file named $db-$year$month$day-$hour$min.gz |
| // under $DOCUMENT_ROOT/$backupdir |
| system(sprintf( |
| 'mysqldump --opt -h %s -u %s -p%s %s | gzip > %s/%s/%s-%s%s%s-%s%s.gz',|
| |
| $host, |
| $user, |
| $pass, |
| $db, |
| getenv('DOCUMENT_ROOT'), |
| $backupdir, |
| $db, |
| $year, |
| $month, |
| $day, |
| $hour, |
| $min |
| )); |
| echo '+DONE'; |
| ?> |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
Upload it to your backup directory (see code) and just reload it with your
browser each time you want to do a backup.
Tip Use cron on the client, if it is not available on the server
If you are not allowed cron access on the web server (to start mysqldump
 directly there), you can set up your own cron job (on your home system!)
to periodically call the above script.
Tip Poor man's cron
If you don't have cron, or a similar functionality on your system, you
 can still modify the above script to inform the browser to reget the file
every xxx hours. A poor man's cron, so to say.
Caution Protect your backup directory!
 Of course, the backup directory should at least be protected with a
.htaccess file.
Caution Beware of the PHP execution limit!
If your PHP has some timeout limit set (often 30 sec), you will not
be able to dump really large databases (larger than, say, 2-5MB)
 through this method. It is the same limitation, as with the
phpMyAdmin DB backup option. The only alternative you have in this
case is telnet or ssh access, see Section_26.2.2.
Note that phpMyAdmin (Section_3.3) also offers an excellent backup capability
through the browser, with many options, like compression, structure and data
backups, various backup file formats etc. However, you cannot automate backup
creation with phpMyAdmin.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 28. Programmer's tools
28.1. The database tables
Here are the tables that comprise the PHP-Nuke database and what they serve for
(FIXME: these are still from a very old version! Update! Data model!):
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:
Â
nuke_pages_categories:
Â
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:
Â
nuke_priv_msgs:
Manages the module private messages.
nuke_queue:
Lists the texts waiting for publication
nuke_quotes:
Â
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:
Â
nuke_reviews_add
Â
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.2. The syntax of HTML code
HTML is the language that is used to construct web pages. It is somewhat
obsolete, as it is going to be replaced by XHTML. In this section we will have
a look at the HTML code we need in order to
* format text,
* create links,
* insert images,
* create tables.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.2.1. How to format text in HTML
To format a text in bold, you can use the <b> tag (deprecated in XHTML, use CSS
instead, see Section_14.12, Section_28.3!). We recall that in HTML in most
cases you have to open and close the tag. Thus, the code
____________________
| |
| <b>Hello</b> World|
|____________________|
means that the word “Hello†shall be in bold face, while the rest of the
sentence will be in normal face, since the <b> tag was closed with </b>
immediately after the word “Helloâ€. Other formatting tags are:
* <u></u> (for underlining a phrase)
* <i></i> (for italicizing, i.e. render a phrase with cursive face)
But how can we change not only the face, but also the colour, the size and the
font? For this, the <font> tag comes to our help (also deprecated in XHTML, use
CSS instead, see Section_14.12, Section_28.3!). Let's take a concrete example
and analyze it:
___________________________________________________
| |
| <font color="#FF0000" size="2">Hello World</font>|
|___________________________________________________|
The code assigns some values to attributes of the font tag, that will apply to
the “Hello World†text:
* color="#FF0000": assigns the red colour to the text. Why red? Because only
the first two hex numbers are set (to FF, which is the hexadecimal notation
for 255), meaning that only the red component is active (there are three
components, red, grren and blue, each one taking up two hex digits in the
colur notation).
Tip Colour wheels
A useful tool in exploring the visible spectrum in HTML is the colour
wheel. Just hover over the wheel with your mouse to view 4096 colors in
 their web safe, web smart and unsafe versions.
You can also use the colour_popups_of_the_Tag-o-matic to show all 216
web-safe colours in a virtual colour card.
* size = 2: assigns the size 2 to the characters of the “Hello World†string.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.2.2. How to create a link in HTML
We recall that a link in HTML is always composed of two parts, the clickable
part (the link text) and the URL (Uniform Resource Locator, the destination
site, page or resource). Here is an example:
* Clickable part (link text): PHP-Nuke HOWTO.
* URL: http://www.karakas-online.de/EN-Book/
The HTML code for this link is:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| <a href=â€http://www.karakas-online.de/EN-Book/â€>PHP-Nuke HOWTO</a>|
|________________________________________________________________________|
which will look like: PHP-Nuke_HOWTO. As you can see, the <a> tag is closed
with </a>.
Some rules for creating links:
* If the link points to an external site, the address must always start with
“http://â€.
* If the link points to an internal page in the same directory as the page
setting the link, it suffices to give only the name of the file. This will be
a little faster, as we save a DNS query on the site's fully quallified domain
name. It also saves you administration headaches, should you choose to move
your files under a different directory: in case of absolute paths, you would
have to change all of them in your code. Finally, if you use relative paths,
you can still navigate around your pages locally, on your development server,
without having to upload all files on the web server first. See also Relative
vs._Absolute_Links and About_Paths.
* We can pass parameters (the so-called “URL parametersâ€) on the link. PHP-Nuke
make heavy use of this feature: all PHP-Nuke modules are called through a
link that passes the module's name to the modules.php script, as in the
following example for the News module:
______________________________________________
| |
| http://www.yousite.com/modules.php?name=News|
|______________________________________________|
* The link text can be treated just as any other text in HTML, assigning it
colour and size, in the same way as we do it for normal text (see Section
28.2.1).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.2.3. How to insert an image in HTML
To insert an image in an HTML file (or PHP-Nuke news article (see Section_6.1),
or PHP-Nuke theme (see Section_14.1)), we use the <img> tag. For example, to
insert an image called photo.png, located in the same directory as the file
that is going to show it, we write:
________________________________________________________________
| |
| <img src="photo.png" alt=â€description of the photoâ€></img>|
|________________________________________________________________|
The alt tag serves as an alternative, textual description of the image. This
description is shown when we hover with the mouse over the image, but it is
also used by speech browsers like JAWS, or text-only browsers like Lynx,
instead of the image file, to convey an idea of the image object to people with
disabilities, see day 23 of the 30-day Dive_Into_Accessibility tutorial on
Providing_text_equivalents_for_images.
In case your image is included in a different folder, say images/, as is often
the case with PHP-Nuke, the code looks like:
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| <img src="images/photo.png" alt=â€description of the photoâ€></img>|
|_______________________________________________________________________|
Note that we only need to specify a relative path to the image file, relative
to the PHP-Nuke root directory, that is. The reason for this is that in PHP-
Nuke all articles, stories etc. are shown through the modules.php file (which
is passed the right module name through an URL parameter, as shown in Section
28.2.2), which is located in the PHP-Nuke root directory (by the way, this is
the same directory where the config.php file (Section_3.7) is also located).
Also note that, to remain compatible with the HTML standards, you have to
include the values of the attributes, like src or alt, in double quotes, as in
the examples above. You can check your site for HTML standards compliance with
the W3C_HTML_validator.
You can also make the image clickable, combining the two techniques of creating
a link (see Section_28.2.2) and inserting an image:
_______________________________________________________________________
| |
| <a href=â€http://www.karakas-online.de/EN-Book/â€> |
| <img src=†http://www.karakas-online.de/EN-Book/images/nuke.png†|
| alt=â€PHP-Nuke HOWTOâ€></img></a> |
|_______________________________________________________________________|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.2.4. How to create a table in HTML
The important HTML tags for tables are:
* <table></table> (opens and closes a table)
* <tr></tr> (opens and closes a table row)
* <td><td> (opens and closes a table cell, inside a column)
A table with one row and one column will be constructed with the code:
_________________________________
| |
| <table width="100%" border="0">|
| <tr> |
| <td></td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
|_________________________________|
Here you can also see how to use some attributes, like "width", which can
attain values in pixels or percent, and "border", which, if set to "0" as in
the above example, will suppress the drawing of borders around table cells,
thus making the structure of the table invisible to the reader.
A table with two rows and two columns can be created with the code:
________________________________
| |
| <table width="500" border="0">|
| <tr> |
| <td width="200"></td> |
| <td></td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td width="200"></td> |
| <td></td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
|________________________________|
As you can see in this example, the table has the following properties:
* two rows,
* two columns,
* fixed total table width of 500 pixels,
* fixed width of the left column: 200 pixels.
Content is inserted in the columns, while the rows have a higher priority and
are inserted first. For example, if we wanted to insert the text “PHP-Nuke†in
the first line of the left column of the above table, the code would look like
this:
___________________________________
| |
| <table width="500" border="0"> |
| <tr> |
| <td width="200">PHP-Nuke</td>|
| <td></td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td width="200"></td> |
| <td></td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
|___________________________________|
Note HTML layout: tables was yesterday, today is CSS!
Tables are meant to hold tabular data. They should not be used for
layout purposes, even though they are being widely misused for this
 purpose, also in PHP-Nuke. The correct way to position your data today,
is not through tables, but through CSS (see Section_28.3 and Designing
Without_Tables). If you decide to use tables, you should be using_real
table_headers and providing_a_table_summary, for accessibility reasons.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.3. The syntax of CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are files that contain presentational information.
They are associated wit an HTML or XHTML file and help us separate presentation
from content, thus rendering the management of our pages much easier and our
code much cleaner.
CSS files work as follows: they contain a series of rules, to every rule is
appended a group of formatting instructions. The formatting instructions are
only applied by the client's browser to those parts of the HTML page specified
by the preceding rule. With a CSS we can do everything that we could do with
the deprecated HTML tags, like setting the font, the font size or colour
(<font> tag), the font face (bold with the <b> tag or italics with the <i>
tag), link colour and much more that was not previously possible.
In the following we will examine some examples. In PHP-Nuke, the CSS file is
contained in a file called style.css, located in the style folder of the
corresponding theme. For the NukeNews theme, for example, the CSS file is
themes/NukeNews/style/style.css.
For the HTML <body> tag, we can set up its attributes in the CSS as follows:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| body {background: #FFF; color:#003366; margin-left: 0; margin-top: 0;}|
|________________________________________________________________________|
This rule specifies a few attributes that will be valid through the whole HTML
body (unless overriden by a more specific rule):
* background: assigns a background colour to the page.
* color: defines the text colour.
* margin-left and margin-top: define the space between the margin of the page
and the margin of the content.
The concepts of margin, border and padding follow a page model that is
described in W3C's working draft CSS3_Paged_Media_Module, version of Dec. 18th
2003. Figure_28-1, taken from this document (Copyright © 2003 W3C (MIT, ERCIM,
Keio), All Rights Reserved) illustrates the various geometric notions of this
page model. Note that the XSL_area_model is deliberately very similar to the
CSS one.
Figure 28-1. CSS page area model.
CSS page area model.
CSS allows for the creation of whole sets of rules that will be applied to the
parts of the page those rules specify. Such a rule could for example look like:
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| .headercoldx { |
| vertical-align: top; |
| width:500px; |
| background-image: url(http://yoursite.com/themes/sometheme/images/|
| bgheader.png); |
| background-color:#ffffff; |
| font: 11px arial, verdana, helvetica; |
| color: #000 |
| } |
|______________________________________________________________________|
The .headercoldx part is a so-called CSS_Selector, specifically a class
selector. It selects (applies to) HTML elements of the class “headercoldxâ€. If
we had an element name in front of the dot, the selector would apply only to
that element and only if it were of the headercoldx class. Since in the above
example there is no element name in front of the dot, the formatting
instructions that follow are applied to all HTML elements of the headercoldx
class (see also Class_selectors). Thus, all HTML elements that are of class
headercoldx will
* be vertically aligned to the top of the box that contains them,
* have a width of 500 pixels,
* display bgheader.png as background image,
* use white as the background colour,
* use a 11 pixel font, preferably arial, or, if arial is not available,
verdana, or, if verdana is also missing, helvetica,
* use black for the text colour.
What remains to be seen, is how to mark HTML elements as being members of a
certain class, like headercoldx above. This is easily done through the use of
the class attribute, as the following example demonstrates for the table we
constructed in Section_28.2.4:
___________________________________
| |
| <table class="headercoldx"> |
| <tr> |
| <td width="200">PHP-Nuke</td>|
| <td></td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td width="200"></td> |
| <td></td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
|___________________________________|
As you can see, all attributes of the table tag have been removed and replaced
by the class attribute. The formatting information that was contained in the
replaced attributes is now contained in the group of formatting instructions
that follows the class selector for the headercoldx class.
In the following example, a different selector is used, one that selects the
pseudo-class_:link and one that selects the dynamic_pseudo-class_:hover:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| A:link {BACKGROUND: none; COLOR: #003366; FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONTFAMILY:|
| Verdana, Helvetica; TEXT-DECORATION: underline} |
| A:hover {color:003366; background-color:#FFCC33; FONT-SIZE: 11px; |
| FONTFAMILY: |
| Verdana, Helvetica; TEXT-DECORATION: underline } |
|________________________________________________________________________|
The first rule specifies the formatting of a link, the second overrides the
first one for the case that the user hovers with the mouse over the link.
Conflicting rules are intrinsic to the CSS mechanism. To find the value for an
element/property combination, the following algorithm must be followed (see The
cascade):
1. Find all declarations that apply to the element/property in question.
Declarations apply if the selector matches the element in question. If no
declarations apply, the inherited value is used. If there is no inherited
value (this is the case for the 'HTML' element and for properties that do
not inherit), the initial value is used.
2. Sort the declarations by explicit weight: declarations marked '!important'
carry more weight than unmarked (normal) declarations.
3. Sort by origin: the author's style sheets override the reader's style
sheet which override the UA's default values. An imported style sheet has
the same origin as the style sheet from which it is imported.
4. Sort by specificity of selector: more specific selectors will override
more general ones. To find the specificity, count the number of ID
attributes in the selector (a), the number of CLASS attributes in the
selector (b), and the number of tag names in the selector (c).
Concatenating the three numbers (in a number system with a large base)
gives the specificity. Some examples:
o LI {...} /* a=0 b=0 c=1 -> specificity = 1 */
o UL LI {...} /* a=0 b=0 c=2 -> specificity = 2 */
o UL OL LI {...} /* a=0 b=0 c=3 -> specificity = 3 */
o LI.red {...} /* a=0 b=1 c=1 -> specificity = 11 */
o UL OL LI.red {...} /* a=0 b=1 c=3 -> specificity = 13 */
o #x34y {...} /* a=1 b=0 c=0 -> specificity = 100 */
Pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes are counted as normal elements and
classes, respectively.
5. Sort by order specified: if two rules have the same weight, the latter
specified wins. Rules in imported style sheets are considered to be before
any rules in the style sheet itself.
Tip CSS of this HOWTO
This HOWTO uses a special_CSS_file (well, at least in its original
version that you can always find in PHP-Nuke_HOWTO), tailored to the
 classes created by the DocBook stylesheets, which are used for its
creation (see Section_1.8). If you like the formatting, you can read more
about it in CSS_file_for_DocBook.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.4. The syntax of PHP code
PHP-Nuke is written in PHP and uses the MySQL database. In this section we will
present some examples of PHP code. We don't try to teach you a new programming
language, but only to illustrate how some things work.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.4.1. Variables
Variables are those elements that are given variable values, depending on the
case. Here is an example:
___________________________________
| |
| <? (1) |
| if ($foobar == 1)){ (2) |
| echo "The value is 1"; (3) |
| } else { |
| echo "The value is not 1"; (4) |
| } |
| ?> (5) |
|___________________________________|
_(1)_
As with every PHP script, we have to designate its start and end. Here is
the start...
_(2)_
We check if the foobar variable has the value 1.
_(3)_
If it does, we output a message. We do this with the echo function. This
functions will print whatever is included in the double quotes. The
double quotes may contain other variables (in which case the echo command
will print their values), HTML code etc. If you want to print double
quotes, you have to escape them with a backslash.
_(4)_
If it doesn't, we also output an aproppriate message.
_(5)_
...and here is the end of the script.
See also PHP_variables.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.4.2. Functions
Here is an example of a simple PHP function:
___________________________________
| |
| function get_lang($module) { |
| global $currentlang, $language;|
| |
| HERE GOES THE FUNCTION CODE |
| } |
|___________________________________|
It has the following structure, common to every PHP function:
* the function name, preceded by the keyword "function",
* the function parameters in the parenthesis,
* the global variables that we intend to use in this function, registered
through the "global" keyword (we cannot use any global variables, if we do
not register them as such),
* the curly brackets that include the function's content
Functions may be called from anywhere in the PHP code. See also PHP_functions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.4.3. Switches
A switch in PHP allows us to take certain actions depending on the value of a
certain variable, as in the following example, where we check the value of the
$pa variable:
__________________________________
| |
| switch($pa) { |
| case "showpage": |
| showpage($pid, $page); |
| break; |
| case "list_pages_categories": |
| list_pages_categories($cid);|
| break; |
| default: |
| list_pages(); |
| break; |
| } |
|__________________________________|
In case $pa has the value “showpageâ€, we call the showpage() function, in case
it has the value "list_pages_categories", we call the list_pages_categories()
function. If $pa does not have any of these two values, or any value at all, we
enter the default case and call list_pages(). See also PHP_control_structures.
Switch statements are often used in module development (especially in the
module administration functions, see Section_21.4). So, if you declared in a
module admin case file a switch like:
_______________________
| |
| switch($func) { |
| case "func-one":|
| funct-one(); |
| break; |
| } |
|_______________________|
you must call it through a link like:
_________________________________________________
| |
| http://www.yoursite.com/modules.php?mop=modload|
| &name=The_Web_Ring&file=index&func=func-one |
|_________________________________________________|
If your function needs to have parameters (see Section_28.4.2), your switch
will look like:
______________________________
| |
| switch($func) { |
| case "func-one": |
| funct-one($xid, $xname);|
| break; |
| } |
|______________________________|
and your link will have to be:
___________________________________________________________________
| |
| http://www.yoursite.com/modules.php?mop=modload |
| &name=The_Web_Ring&file=index&func=func-one&xid=$xid&xname=$xname|
|___________________________________________________________________|
See also the ADDONS-MODULES file that came with your PHP-Nuke package.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.5. The syntax of SQL code
Aiming at making PHP-Nuke compatible with more databases, the SQL syntax has
been transformed to functions, in order to achieve a standard syntax that is
independent of the database used. For convenience, let us recall the file
sql_layer.php in a somewhat cleaned-up version:
_________________________________________________
| |
| sql_connect($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
From version 6.5 and up, PHP-Nuke users the same abstraction layer of phpBB for
compatibility reasons. It's very easy and highly tested. Normaly you make a
query on MySQL like this:
________________________________________________
| |
| $sql = "SELECT uid, uname FROM nuke_users"; |
| $result = mysql_query($sql); |
| list($uid, $uname) = mysql_fetch_row($result);|
|________________________________________________|
With the SQL abstraction layer on PHP-Nuke, you would declare $db as a global
variable and then write:
_____________________________________________
| |
| $sql = "SELECT uid, uname FROM nuke_users";|
| $result = $db->sql_query($sql); |
| $row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result); |
|_____________________________________________|
This will return the array $row[] with the results. If you want to work with
more friendly names you should do this:
_______________________
| |
| $uid = $row[uid]; |
| $uname = $row[uname];|
|_______________________|
But it is much faster for you (and for the system) to use just the array values
directly, ie:
________________________________________________
| |
| echo "Hello $row[uname], Welcome to my site!";|
|________________________________________________|
Note that there isn't any "sql_fetch_array", the sql_fetch_row automaticaly
will create the array with the results of your query.
The old method using the file sql_layer.php and the variable $dbi is now
deprecated. It works for compatibility reasons, but we strongly suggest to any
developer making new modules or modifying a module to start using the new
method. See also the ADDONS-MODULES file that came with your PHP-Nuke package.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.6. 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_28-2): 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 28-2. MySQL Front: Connection
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_28-3).
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 28-3. MySQL Front: export tables
MySQL Front: export tables
Upload of a DB: clicking on the SQL Query button (Figure_28-4), 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 looksâ€Playâ€-like button. Before starting this
operation will have to select the destination database.
Figure 28-4. MySQL Front: SQL Query
MySQL Front: SQL Query
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.7. 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.
FIXME: This section certainly needs updating!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix A. Appendix
A.1. The GNU Free Documentation Licence
This is an exact copy of the GNU_Free_Documentation_License_Version_1.2,
November 2002:
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place,
Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Everyone is permitted to copy and
distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not
allowed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.1.1. PREAMBLE
The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional
and useful document "free" in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the
effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it,
either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for
the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being
considered responsible for modifications made by others.
This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative works of the
document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU
General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software.
We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software,
because free software needs free documentation: a free program should come with
manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does. But this License is
not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any textual work,
regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We
recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or
reference.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.1.2. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains
a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the
terms of this License. Such a notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license,
unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein. The
"Document", below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public
is a licensee, and is addressed as "you". You accept the license if you copy,
modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright
law.
A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the Document or
a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or
translated into another language.
A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the
Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or
authors of the Document to the Document's overall subject (or to related
matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall
subject. (Thus, if the Document is in part a textbook of mathematics, a
Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The relationship could be a
matter of historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or of
legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding them.
The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are
designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that
the Document is released under this License. If a section does not fit the
above definition of Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as
Invariant. The Document may contain zero Invariant Sections. If the Document
does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none.
The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-
Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is
released under this License. A Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a
Back-Cover Text may be at most 25 words.
A "Transparent" copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented
in a format whose specification is available to the general public, that is
suitable for revising the document straightforwardly with generic text editors
or (for images composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings)
some widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text
formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for
input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file format
whose markup, or absence of markup, has been arranged to thwart or discourage
subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. An image format is not
Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text. A copy that is not
"Transparent" is called "Opaque".
Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII without
markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly
available DTD, and standard-conforming simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed
for human modification. Examples of transparent image formats include PNG, XCF
and JPG. Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can be read and edited
only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or
processing tools are not generally available, and the machine-generated HTML,
PostScript or PDF produced by some word processors for output purposes only.
The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such
following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License
requires to appear in the title page. For works in formats which do not have
any title page as such, "Title Page" means the text near the most prominent
appearance of the work's title, preceding the beginning of the body of the
text.
A section "Entitled XYZ" means a named subunit of the Document whose title
either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses following text that
translates XYZ in another language. (Here XYZ stands for a specific section
name mentioned below, such as "Acknowledgements", "Dedications",
"Endorsements", or "History".) To "Preserve the Title" of such a section when
you modify the Document means that it remains a section "Entitled XYZ"
according to this definition.
The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states
that this License applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are
considered to be included by reference in this License, but only as regards
disclaiming warranties: any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers
may have is void and has no effect on the meaning of this License.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.1.3. VERBATIM COPYING
You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or
noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the
license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in
all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this
License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading
or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may
accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough
number of copies you must also follow the conditions in Section_A.1.4.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may
publicly display copies.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.1.4. COPYING IN QUANTITY
If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed
covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and the Document's license
notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that carry,
clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front
cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly
and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must
present the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and
visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition. Copying with
changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the
Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in
other respects.
If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you
should put the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual
cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.
If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than
100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with
each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a computer-network
location from which the general network-using public has access to download
using public-standard network protocols a complete Transparent copy of the
Document, free of added material. If you use the latter option, you must take
reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in
quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at
the stated location until at least one year after the last time you distribute
an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that edition
to the public.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document
well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to
provide you with an updated version of the Document.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.1.5. MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the
conditions of Section_A.1.3 and Section_A.1.4 above, provided that you release
the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified Version
filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification
of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you
must do these things in the Modified Version:
* A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from
that of the Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if
there were any, be listed in the History section of the Document). You may
use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of that
version gives permission.
* B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities
responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version,
together with at least five of the principal authors of the Document (all of
its principal authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release you
from this requirement.
* C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version,
as the publisher.
* D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
* E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the
other copyright notices.
* F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving
the public permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this
License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.
* G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and
required Cover Texts given in the Document's license notice.
* H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
* I. Preserve the section Entitled "History", Preserve its Title, and add to it
an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the
Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If there is no section Entitled
"History" in the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and
publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item
describing the Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence.
* J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public
access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network
locations given in the Document for previous versions it was based on. These
may be placed in the "History" section. You may omit a network location for a
work that was published at least four years before the Document itself, or if
the original publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.
* K. For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications", Preserve the
Title of the section, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone
of each of the contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.
* L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their
text and in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not
considered part of the section titles.
* M. Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements". Such a section may not be
included in the Modified Version.
* N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled "Endorsements" or to
conflict in title with any Invariant Section.
* O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.
If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that
qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document,
you may at your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To
do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified
Version's license notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section
titles.
You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains nothing but
endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties--for example,
statements of peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization
as the authoritative definition of a standard.
You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage
of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts
in the Modified Version. Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-
Cover Text may be added by (or through arrangements made by) any one entity. If
the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added
by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of,
you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit
permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.
The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give
permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply
endorsement of any Modified Version.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.1.6. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License,
under the terms defined in Section_A.1.5 above for modified versions, provided
that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the
original documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your
combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty
Disclaimers.
The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple
identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are
multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different contents, make the
title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in parentheses,
the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known, or else
a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of
Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.
In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled "History" in the
various original documents, forming one section Entitled "History"; likewise
combine any sections Entitled "Acknowledgements", and any sections Entitled
"Dedications". You must delete all sections Entitled "Endorsements".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.1.7. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents
released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this License
in the various documents with a single copy that is included in the collection,
provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each
of the documents in all other respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it
individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License
into the extracted document, and follow this License in all other respects
regarding verbatim copying of that document.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.1.8. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and
independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution
medium, is called an "aggregate" if the copyright resulting from the
compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilation's users
beyond what the individual works permit. When the Document is included in an
aggregate, this License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate
which are not themselves derivative works of the Document.
If the Cover Text requirement of Section_A.1.4 is applicable to these copies of
the Document, then if the Document is less than one half of the entire
aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on covers that bracket the
Document within the aggregate, or the electronic equivalent of covers if the
Document is in electronic form. Otherwise they must appear on printed covers
that bracket the whole aggregate.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.1.9. TRANSLATION
Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute
translations of the Document under the terms of Section_A.1.5. Replacing
Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission from their
copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all Invariant
Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You
may include a translation of this License, and all the license notices in the
Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also include the
original English version of this License and the original versions of those
notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between the translation and
the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original
version will prevail.
If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements", "Dedications", or
"History", the requirement (Section_A.1.5) to Preserve its Title (Section
A.1.2) will typically require changing the actual title.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.1.10. TERMINATION
You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as
expressly provided for under this License. Any other attempt to copy, modify,
sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will automatically terminate
your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or
rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so
long as such parties remain in full compliance.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.1.11. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free
Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in
spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems
or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.
Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the
Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License "or any
later version" applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and
conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has
been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the
Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any
version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.1.12. ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the
License in the document and put the following copyright and license notices
just after the title page:
Copyright (c) YEAR YOUR NAME. Permission is granted to copy,
distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU
Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version
published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of
the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free
Documentation License".
If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace
the "with...Texts." line with this:
with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with the Front-
Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts being LIST.
If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination
of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the situation.
If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend
releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free software
license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit their use in free
software.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Index
Symbols
%A, How_to_adjust_server_time
%G, How_to_adjust_server_time
%H, How_to_adjust_server_time
%y, How_to_adjust_server_time, How_to_adjust_server_time
%Z, How_to_adjust_server_time
1.2.3.4, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
10px, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke
127, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux, How_to_add_more_than_127_FAQ
answers
12px, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change_the_font_size_in
PHP-Nuke
200.100.40.40, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
4-liner, How_to_ban_IP_addresses
55.555.55.5, How_to_ban_IP_addresses
6.5, Invalid_session_in_forums, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled
modules, Back_end_structure:_administrator_view, How_to_bypass_article
approval, Installation
6.5B5, analyze.php
6.6, The_preinstalled_modules
600, How_to_adjust_server_time
644, File_permissions, File_permissions
666, File_permissions, Permissions_on_folders_and_files, How_to_ban_IP
addresses
7.0, Error:_Couldn't_update_private_forum_permissions
750, Configuration_of_jpcache
755, File_permissions
764, File_permissions, File_permissions
777, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux, Permissions_on_folders_and
files, Permissions_on_folders_and_files, Permissions_on_folders_and_files
_EDITTOPOLINO, Module_creation,_administrator_part
_NOADMINYET, You_cannot_create_the_administrator_account
_SEARCH, General_PHP-Nuke_texts
_YOUAREANO, How_to_find_all_registration_links
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A
A-Z, Regular_expressions
abbreviation, How_to_adjust_server_time
abstraction, Creating_fully_compatible_modules:_the_rules_to_follow
abused, Permissions_on_folders_and_files
access, phpMyAdmin:_other_commands, Sorry,_such_file_doesn't_exist..., Upload
module, Security_fixes, How_to_restore_a_large_backup, How_to_change_PHP
parameters_when_you_don't_have_access_to_php.ini
access level, Treemenu_block
accessible, PHP-Nuke_vs._Post-Nuke
ACP, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
acquisition, The_preinstalled_modules
activate, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux, The_administration
functions, The_administration_functions, How_to_change_a_buggy_block, Simple
module_block
activated, PHP-Nuke_vs._XOOPS, The_administration_functions, The
administration_functions, How_to_create_a_new_block, API_phases
activation, Users_don't_receive_any_confirmation_mails, NSN_Your_Account
Tweak_module
admin, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, Upload_through_FTP, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke_through
phpMyAdmin, phpMyAdmin:_How_to_administer_MySQL_via_Web, phpMyAdmin
navigation_bar:_Export, The_config.php_file, The_config.php_file, Security
code_is_not_showing_up, You_lost_the_administrator_password,_or_deleted_the
admin_account, Compressed_output_in_forums, Changing_Web_hoster, Back_end
structure:_administrator_view, The_Preferences_Page, The_Preferences_Page,
NSN_Your_Account_Tweak_module, Approve_Membership_module, eCommerce_module,
Directory_structure, Administration_management, How_to_eliminate_session
checks, How_to_add_more_than_127_FAQ_answers, Module_creation,_administrator
part, Module_creation,_administrator_part, Module_creation,_administrator
part, How_to_ban_IP_addresses, Hacked_-_now_what?, Hacked_-_now_what?, How_to
install_modules_that_change_the_database_structure, How_to_backup_your_MySQL
database_using_only_the_browser
admin.php, Security_code_is_not_showing_up, You_cannot_create_the
administrator_account, You_cannot_create_the_administrator_account, Back_end
structure:_administrator_view, The_administration_functions, Simple_Content
block, Module_creation,_administrator_part, Module_creation,_administrator
part, Hacked_-_now_what?
admin/case, Administration_management, Module_creation,_administrator_part,
Module_creation,_administrator_part
admin/links, Administration_management, Module_creation,_administrator_part,
Module_creation,_administrator_part
administration, easyPHP, The_config.php_file, Compressed_output_in_forums,
The_preinstalled_blocks, The_preinstalled_blocks, Back_end_structure:
administrator_view, AutoTheme, How_to_display_random_images_in_PHP-Nuke
blocks, How_to_install_modules_that_do_not_change_the_database_structure, How
to_adjust_server_time
administrator, Sorry,_such_file_doesn't_exist..., The_preinstalled_modules,
The_preinstalled_modules, The_administration_functions, phpBB_Forum
administration, Approve_Membership_module, Approve_Membership_module,
Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_index, How_to_bypass_article_approval, How_to
create_a_new_block, Module_structure, Cross-site_scripting_with_PHP-Nuke,
Cookie_hijack, Cookie_hijack, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup, How_to
allow_anonymous_web_link_submissions
ads, The_PHP-Nuke_Communities, The_PHP-Nuke_Communities, Modules_do_not_show
up_and/or_disappear, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_blocks, The
preinstalled_blocks, The_administration_functions, The_administration
functions, How_to_create_a_top_navigation_bar_as_in_NukeNews_theme, Modifying
the_PHP-Nuke_theme_index, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_HTML_header, How_to_allow
special_HTML_tags, How_to_change_the_Home_module, How_to_enter_thousands_of
download_links, How_to_enter_thousands_of_download_links, How_to_find_the
last_date_of..., The_database_tables
AdSense, How_to_show_advertisements_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
adsense.php, Google_AdSense_on_top_of_a_PHP-Nuke_module, Google_AdSense_on
top_of_a_PHP-Nuke_module
advisories, Security_fixes, How_to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL
Aemmenet, Aknowledgements
aggregators, How_to_display_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
album, Gallery_module
albums, Gallery_module
Alert, How_to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL
algorithms, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method
AllowableHTML, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags, How_to_allow_special_HTML
tags, Cookie_hijack
alter, Modules_do_not_show_up_and/or_disappear, How_sessions_work_in_the
forums
alternatives, Editing_PHP_(-Nuke)_files, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method
ampersand, Installation, Installation
analyse, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme
analyze, Test_scripts, analyze.php, Security_code_is_not_showing_up, Security
code_is_not_showing_up, Upload_add-on_for_phpBB, Security_fixes, Security
measures, Security_measures
anchors, Regular_expressions
anonymous, Upload_module, Permissions_on_folders_and_files, How_to_restore_a
single_table
Apache, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Mandrake_Linux, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on
Mandrake_Linux, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Mandrake_Linux, Apache,_PHP_and
MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux, Apache,_PHP
and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux, Apache,
PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke, Cross-site
tracing_with_PHP-Nuke, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke, The_.htaccess_file
API, API_phases, API_phases
applicant, Approve_Membership_module, Approve_Membership_module
application, Upload_through_FTP, phpMyAdmin:_other_commands, easyPHP, Approve
Membership_module, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke,
How_to_adjust_server_time
approval, Approve_Membership_module, Upload_add-on_for_phpBB, How_to_bypass
article_approval
architecture, AutoTheme
archived, The_preinstalled_modules
archives, The_preinstalled_blocks
arrows, IP_Tracking_module, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_footer
article, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled
modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled
modules, The_administration_functions, The_administration_functions, The
administration_functions, The_administration_functions, The_administration
functions, The_administration_functions, The_administration_functions, The
Preferences_Page, The_Preferences_Page, The_Preferences_Page, How_to_get
multipage_News_articles, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_get
rid_of_the_need_to_use_<br>_for_new_lines, Google_AdSense_in_the_News_module,
Google_AdSense_in_the_News_module, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?, How_secure_is
PHP-Nuke?, How_to_display_HTML_code_in_a_FAQ, How_to_deal_with_date_and_time,
How_to_find_the_last_date_of..., How_to_find_the_last_date_of..., How_to
embed_a_Flash_object_in_PHP-Nuke_News
Articles, The_preinstalled_blocks, The_preinstalled_blocks
ascending, Simple_module_block
assertion, How_it_works
ations, Aknowledgements, phpMyAdmin:_other_commands, Different_PHP-Nuke_sites
from_the_same_database, Different_PHP-Nuke_sites_with_the_same_user_base,
Users_don't_receive_any_confirmation_mails, Forums_Error:_Can't_create_a
category_without_a_name, Forums_Error:_Can't_create_a_category_without_a
name, Changing_Web_hoster, The_preinstalled_modules, Meteosat_block, Google
AdSense_block, Approve_Membership_module, Directory_structure, Administration
management, Administration_management, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums,
Simple_module_block, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_administration_panel, How_to
include_PHP/HTML_files_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block, How_to_display_HTML_forms_in_a
block:_Paypal, Module_creation,_administrator_part, Caching_PHP-Nuke:
Conclusion, How_to_make_a_dynamic_CSS, How_to_install_patches_and_correct
errors, How_to_install_patches_and_correct_errors, The_syntax_of_CSS
attachments, The_Preferences_Page, The_Preferences_Page, Security_measures
attack, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke
attackers, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke
attribute, How_to_make_a_dynamic_CSS, The_syntax_of_CSS, The_syntax_of_CSS
attributes, How_to_display_a_watermark_background_image, How_to_allow_special
HTML_tags, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags,
How_to_create_a_table_in_HTML, The_syntax_of_CSS
authentication, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke, Cookies_-_timeout_and
configuration
authorization, API_phases
AvantGO, Version_1.0, The_preinstalled_modules
avatars, PHP-Nuke_vs._XOOPS, phpBB_Forum_administration
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B
babe, How_to_display_random_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
Babelfish, Versions_1.x
baby, Aknowledgements
backend, The_administration_functions, The_administration_functions
backend.php, The_administration_functions
background, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme,
Example_creation_of_HTML_file_to_include_in_the_theme, How_to_redirect_Your
Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile, The_syntax_of_CSS
backreference, Quoting_special_characters
backreferences, Regular_expressions, How_it_works
backslash, Security_audit, Regular_expressions
backup, How_to_upgrade_PHP-Nuke, Changing_Web_hoster, Changing_Web_hoster,
Changing_Web_hoster, The_administration_functions, phpBB_Forum
administration, How_to_restore_a_single_table, How_to_restore_a_single_table,
How_to_restore_a_single_table, How_to_restore_a_single_table, How_to_restore
a_single_table, How_to_backup_your_MySQL_database_using_only_the_browser
Backup DB, The_administration_functions
backups, Changing_Web_hoster, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup, How_to
backup_your_MySQL_database_using_only_the_browser
ban, How_to_ban_IP_addresses
banned, Protector_module, How_to_ban_IP_addresses, How_to_ban_IP_addresses,
How_to_ban_IP_addresses
banner, The_preinstalled_blocks, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, Structure_of
a_PHP-Nuke_theme, How_to_change_placement_of_the_banner_in_the_PHP-Nuke
header, How_to_display_a_Flash_object_in_the_PHP-Nuke_header, How_to_display
Flash_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_display_random_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
banners, Directory_structure, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, How_to_change
placement_of_the_banner_in_the_PHP-Nuke_header, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_HTML
header
banning, IP_Tracking_module, How_to_ban_IP_addresses
bars, Treemenu_with_Javascript
base, Database_creation, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke_through_phpMyAdmin, How_to
install_phpMyAdmin, phpMyAdmin:_How_to_administer_MySQL_via_Web, phpMyAdmin:
How_to_administer_MySQL_via_Web, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Structure,
phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_SQL, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export, How_to
install_the_DB_of_PHP-Nuke_with_PHPMyadmin, How_to_install_the_DB_of_PHP-Nuke
with_PHPMyadmin, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke_using_nukesql.php, The_config.php
file, The_config.php_file, The_config.php_file, The_config.php_file,
Different_PHP-Nuke_sites_from_the_same_database, Warning:_mysql_fetch_row():
supplied_argument_is_not_a_valid_MySQL_result_resource, Call_to_undefined
function:_message_die()_in_db.php_line_88, Call_to_undefined_function:
message_die()_in_db.php_line_88, Error:_Failed_opening_'language/lang-.php'
for_inclusion, You_cannot_create_the_administrator_account, How_to_upgrade
PHP-Nuke, How_to_upgrade_PHP-Nuke, Transferring_a_local_installation_to_the
Web, Changing_Web_hoster, Changing_Web_hoster, Changing_Web_hoster, The
administration_functions, The_administration_functions, The_administration
functions, The_administration_functions, phpBB_Forum_administration, phpBB
Forum_administration, My_Headlines_module, My_Headlines_module, WorkBoard
Module, Directory_structure, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, More_than_255
characters_of_user_extra_information, More_than_255_characters_of_user_extra
information, Simple_module_block, Cross-site_scripting_with_PHP-Nuke,
Security_measures, Permissions_on_folders_and_files, Caching_PHP-Nuke, How_to
proceed_when_MySQL_is_slow, How_to_proceed_when_MySQL_is_slow, How_to_restore
PHP-Nuke_from_backup, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup, How_to_restore
PHP-Nuke_from_backup, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup, How_to_restore
PHP-Nuke_from_backup, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup, How_to_install
modules_that_change_the_database_structure, How_to_install_modules_that
change_the_database_structure, How_to_enter_thousands_of_ephemerids, How_to
adjust_server_time, How_to_deal_with_quotes_in_the_site's_name, How_to_backup
your_MySQL_database_using_only_the_browser, How_to_backup_your_MySQL_database
using_only_the_browser, The_syntax_of_PHP_code, The_syntax_of_SQL_code, The
syntax_of_SQL_code, MySQL_Front,_how_to_administer_a_MySQL_DB_from_Windows,
MySQL_Front,_how_to_administer_a_MySQL_DB_from_Windows, MySQL_Front,_how_to
administer_a_MySQL_DB_from_Windows
BBcode, How_to_get_rid_of_the_need_to_use_<br>_for_new_lines, How_to_get_rid
of_the_need_to_use_<br>_for_new_lines, The_database_tables
Bechini, Aknowledgements, Aknowledgements
Bibliography, Credits
Birenbaum, How_to_create_a_fade_block
block, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_blocks, The_preinstalled
blocks, The_administration_functions, The_administration_functions, The
administration_functions, The_administration_functions, The_administration
functions, Comic_block, Treemenu_with_PHP, Random_Quotes_block, Event
calendar, PHP-Nuke-Tools_module, PHP-Nuke_module_and_block_titles, PHP-Nuke
module_and_block_titles, Example_creation_of_HTML_file_to_include_in_the
theme, How_to_display_a_Flash_object_in_the_PHP-Nuke_header, How_to_hide_the
left_blocks, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_footer, How_to_change_a_buggy
block, How_to_change_a_buggy_block, How_to_build_custom_module_blocks, How_to
build_custom_module_blocks, Simple_module_block, Treemenu_block, What_is
Treemenu, How_to_build_RSS_blocks_with_variable_number_of_news_items, How_to
redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile, Creating_PHP-Nuke_blocks, The
characteristics_of_the_various_types_of_blocks, The_characteristics_of_the
various_types_of_blocks, How_to_create_a_new_block, How_to_create_a_new
block, How_to_create_a_block,_theoretical_approach, How_to_create_a_block,
theoretical_approach, Simple_Content_block, Simple_Content_block, Simple
Content_block, How_to_include_PHP/HTML_files_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block, How_to
include_PHP/HTML_files_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block, How_to_include_PHP/HTML_files_in
a_PHP-Nuke_block, How_to_include_PHP/HTML_files_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block, How_to
include_PHP/HTML_files_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block, How_to_include_PHP/HTML_files_in
a_PHP-Nuke_block, How_to_use_Javascript_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_create_a
Hello_World_block, How_to_create_a_Hello_World_block, How_to_create_a_Hello
World_block, How_to_create_a_Hello_World_block, How_to_create_a_Hello_World
block, How_to_create_a_fade_block, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block,
How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block, How_to_display_Flash_in_PHP-Nuke
blocks, How_to_show_advertisements_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_display_images
in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_display_random_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to
display_random_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_display_HTML_forms_in_a
block:_Paypal, How_to_create_a_Logout_module, How_to_create_a_Logout_module,
Google_AdSense_in_the_News_module, Security_audit, How_to_use_Cache-Lite, How
to_use_Cache-Lite, How_to_use_Cache-Lite, How_to_use_Cache-Lite, How_to_use
Cache-Lite, Installation, How_to_make_PHP-Nuke_hot_link_stealth
block-Login.php, How_to_bypass_the_security_code
block-Online_Support, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block
Blocks, analyze.php, Front_end_structure:_user_view, The_administration
functions, How_to_show_advertisements_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_display
random_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
board, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
border, How_to_change_the_logo_in_the_PHP-Nuke_header, How_to_create_a_table
in_HTML
bottom-up, How_to_find_all_registration_links
Browse, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Structure, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:
Structure, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Structure, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:
SQL, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup, How_to_restore_a_single_table
buffer, How_to_include_PHP/HTML_files_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block, How_to_include
PHP/HTML_files_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block, How_to_include_PHP/HTML_files_in_a_PHP-
Nuke_block, How_to_include_PHP/HTML_files_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block, How_to_include
PHP/HTML_files_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block, How_it_works, How_it_works
buffering, Warning:_Cannot_add_header_information...in_forums, How_to_include
PHP/HTML_files_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block, Installation, How_it_works
bug, How_to_build_RSS_blocks_with_variable_number_of_news_items
bugs, The_PHP-Nuke_Communities, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?, Security_fixes, How
to_solve_common_probems_with_PHP-Nuke
Bureaucracy, The_Discordian_Calendar
burglar, Cookie_hijack
Burzi, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, Short_history_of_PHP-Nuke, The_PHP-Nuke_Copyright
notice
business, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block, How_to
display_HTML_forms_in_a_block:_Paypal
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C
cache, Moon_&_Sun_block, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_to_use_Cache-
Lite, How_to_use_Cache-Lite, Configuration_of_Turck_MMCache, Configuration_of
Turck_MMCache, Caching_PHP-Nuke:_Conclusion
Cache-Lite, Installation_of_Cache-Lite, How_to_use_Cache-Lite, How_to_use
Cache-Lite, How_to_use_Cache-Lite, Caching_PHP-Nuke:_Conclusion, Caching_PHP-
Nuke:_Conclusion, How_to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL
cached, How_to_use_Cache-Lite, How_to_use_Cache-Lite
calendar, The_Discordian_Calendar, The_Discordian_Calendar, The_Discordian
Calendar
campaigns, The_database_tables
Campoli, Aknowledgements
camPortal, WebCam_module
cancel, Module_creation,_the_public_part
captions, Gallery_module
capture, The_administration_functions
care, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?
cartoon, Daily_Comic_module
cartoonists, How_to_make_PHP-Nuke_hot_link_stealth
cascading, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke
case, The_config.php_file, Users_don't_receive_any_confirmation_mails, Forums
Error:_Can't_create_a_category_without_a_name, Forums_Error:_Can't_create_a
category_without_a_name, Transferring_a_local_installation_to_the_Web, The
preinstalled_modules, Protector_module, Administration_management, How_to
change_the_PHP-Nuke_header_depending_on_some_global_feature, How_to_add_more
than_127_FAQ_answers, How_to_redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile,
How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block, Module_creation,_administrator_part,
Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module, How_to_use_Cache-Lite, The_.htaccess
file, How_it_works, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup, How_to_make_the
Encyclopedia_international, Variables
CASE statement, Module_creation,_administrator_part
Categories, WebCam_module, eCommerce_module, Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ
module
category, Forums_Error:_Can't_create_a_category_without_a_name, The
preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, Treemenu_with_Javascript,
Treemenu_with_Javascript, Administration_management, Module_creation,
administrator_part, How_to_find_the_last_date_of..., How_to_find_the_last
date_of..., How_to_find_the_last_date_of...
censor, phpBB_Forum_administration
Center, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block, How_to_create_a_Help_Center
Live_block
centimeters, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change_the_font
size_in_PHP-Nuke
Championship, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules
character, Quoting_special_characters, Regular_expressions, Regular
expressions, Installation, How_it_works, How_to_adjust_server_time, How_to
adjust_server_time, How_to_adjust_server_time
characteristics, The_Preferences_Page
checker, How_to_check_the_validity_of_thousands_of_web_links
check_html, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags
chinese, General_PHP-Nuke_texts
Chris, Version_2.0
cid, How_to_find_the_last_date_of..., How_to_find_the_last_date_of..., How_to
find_the_last_date_of..., How_to_find_the_last_date_of..., How_to_find_the
last_date_of...
class, Regular_expressions, The_syntax_of_CSS, The_syntax_of_CSS, The_syntax
of_CSS
classification, Why_use_PHP-Nuke_and_not_static_HTML_pages
clause, Error:_Couldn't_update_private_forum_permissions, SQL_injection_with
PHP-Nuke
click, The_administration_functions, How_to_create_a_Logout_module
clients, The_administration_functions, The_database_tables
collapsing, What_is_Treemenu
colour, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, How_to_change_background_colour, How
to_change_background_colour, How_to_change_background_colour, How_to_change
background_colour, How_to_format_text_in_HTML, The_syntax_of_CSS, The_syntax
of_CSS, The_syntax_of_CSS, The_syntax_of_CSS
colours, How_to_display_a_watermark_background_image, How_to_change
background_colour, How_to_change_background_colour, How_to_change_background
colour
comic, How_to_display_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_display_images_in
PHP-Nuke_blocks
comics, Comic_block
command, MySQL_errno:_145:_Can't_open_file_nuke_XXXX.MYI, PHP-Nuke_upgrade
scripts, PHP-Nuke_upgrade_scripts, PHP-Nuke_upgrade_scripts, PHP-Nuke_upgrade
scripts, PHP-Nuke_upgrade_scripts, PHP-Nuke_upgrade_scripts, PHP-Nuke_upgrade
scripts, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, How_to_repair_a
corrupt_table, How_to_repair_a_corrupt_table, How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia
international
command-line, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export
comments, Versions_1.x, Security_code_is_not_showing_up, The_preinstalled
modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The
administration_functions, The_Preferences_Page, The_Preferences_Page, Gallery
module, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change_the_font_size
in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_create_a_fade_block, Cookie_hijack, The_database_tables
commercial, Changing_Web_hoster
communities, The_PHP-Nuke_Communities
community, Credits, PHP-Nuke_vs._Post-Nuke, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke, How_to
install_PHP-Nuke, Common_installation_problems, Transferring_a_local
installation_to_the_Web
compatibility, PHP-Nuke_vs._Post-Nuke
complexity, AutoTheme, Module_structure, Requirements
compliance, PHP-Nuke_vs._Post-Nuke
complication, Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module
computers, Security_measures
concatenation, How_to_display_random_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
concepts, Disclaimer
condition, Treemenu_block, Module_creation,_administrator_part
CondPattern, Regex_backreference_availability
config, Database_creation, How_to_install_phpMyAdmin, How_to_install
phpMyAdmin, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export, How_to_install_the_DB_of_PHP-
Nuke_with_PHPMyadmin, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke_using_nukesql.php, How_to
install_PHP-Nuke_using_nukesql.php, The_config.php_file, The_config.php_file,
The_config.php_file, The_config.php_file, The_config.php_file, The_config.php
file, More_than_one_PHP-Nuke_sites, Different_PHP-Nuke_sites_from_the_same
database, Different_PHP-Nuke_sites_from_the_same_database, Different_PHP-Nuke
sites_from_the_same_database, Different_PHP-Nuke_sites_from_the_same
database, Different_PHP-Nuke_sites_with_the_same_user_base, Different_PHP-
Nuke_sites_with_the_same_user_base, Different_PHP-Nuke_sites_with_the_same
user_base, test.php, ConnectTest.php, analyze.php, analyze.php, Call_to
undefined_function:_message_die()_in_db.php_line_88, Call_to_undefined
function:_message_die()_in_db.php_line_88, How_to_bypass_the_security_code,
You_cannot_create_the_administrator_account, How_to_upgrade_PHP-Nuke, From
phpBB_to_PHP-Nuke, phpBB_Forum_administration, The_Preferences_Page, The
Preferences_Page, Editing_PHP_(-Nuke)_files, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live
block, Creating_fully_compatible_modules:_the_rules_to_follow, How_to_include
a_HTML_file_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module,
Security_measures, Security_measures, How_to_ban_IP_addresses, Configuration
of_jpcache, Configuration_of_jpcache, How_to_allow_anonymous_web_link
submissions, How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia_international, How_to_insert_an
image_in_HTML, Foxserv,_making_PHP-Nuke_work_on_Windows_Systems
config.php, Database_creation, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke_using_nukesql.php, The
config.php_file, Different_PHP-Nuke_sites_from_the_same_database, Different
PHP-Nuke_sites_with_the_same_user_base, How_to_upgrade_PHP-Nuke, The_PHP-Nuke
Copyright_notice, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags, How_to_allow_special_HTML
tags, Simple_module_block, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke, Security_measures,
How_to_proceed_when_MySQL_is_slow, How_to_enter_thousands_of_download_links
configuration, Prerequisites, Prerequisites, How_to_check_a_successful
installation, Invalid_session_in_forums, The_Preferences_Page, The_.htaccess
file, The_.htaccess_file, The_.htaccess_file
configurations, Prerequisites, Approve_Membership_module
connection, ConnectTest.php
consntants, How_to_allow_anonymous_web_link_submissions
constants, How_to_find_all_registration_links, How_to_disable_DEBUG_mode, How
to_disable_DEBUG_mode
constraints, Purpose
Content, The_book_behind_the_book, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled
blocks, The_administration_functions, The_administration_functions, The
administration_functions, The_administration_functions, The_administration
functions, Simple_Content_block, Simple_Content_block
contents, The_characteristics_of_the_various_types_of_blocks
context, Credits, The_preinstalled_modules, How_to_get_scrolling_headlines_in
blocks, Permissions_on_folders_and_files, API_phases, Regular_expressions,
How_to_find_all_registration_links, How_to_enter_thousands_of_ephemerids
control, phpBB_Forum_administration, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_to
redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile, Module_creation,_administrator
part, Security_measures, Ruleset_processing, The_.htaccess_file, How_it_works
cookie, The_preinstalled_modules, How_to_eliminate_session_checks, Cookie
hijack, Changing_the_duration_of_the_user_cookie, Search_engines_and_dynamic
URLs
cookies, Architecture_and_structure, How_to_change_the_logo's_dimensions
dynamically, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke, Security_audit, Cookies_-
timeout_and_configuration, Cookie_hijack
copy, Licence, Licence, Licence, Licence, General, General_PHP-Nuke_texts,
Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module, The_syntax_of_CSS
copyright, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_icons, How_to_make_PHP-Nuke_hot_link
stealth
corporate, How_to_create_a_fade_block
corrupt, How_to_repair_a_corrupt_table
costs, Forums_Error:_Can't_create_a_category_without_a_name
counter, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, WebCam_module, Upload_add-on_for_phpBB, The
database_tables
cracking, Search_engines_and_dynamic_URLs
credentials, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke
credit, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_index
criteria, PHP-Nuke_vs._XOOPS, The_preinstalled_modules, phpBB_Forum
administration, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme
cron, How_to_check_the_validity_of_thousands_of_web_links
cross-references, Version_2.0
cryptic, File_permissions
CSS, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change_the_font_size_in
PHP-Nuke
culprit, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
cultures, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?
currencies, eCommerce_module
custom, Simple_module_block, How_to_create_a_Logout_module
customers, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block
customizable, Approve_Membership_module, PHP-Nuke_module_texts
customization, Google_AdSense_block
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D
daily, Moon_&_Sun_block
dashes, You_have_an_error_in_your_SQL_syntax_near_'-------------, Regular
expressions
data, File_permissions, phpMyAdmin:_How_to_administer_MySQL_via_Web,
phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export,
phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export, Changing_Web_hoster, phpBB_Forum
administration, How_to_create_a_new_block, How_to_include_PHP/HTML_files_in_a
PHP-Nuke_block, How_to_display_HTML_forms_in_a_block:_Paypal, Duplicating_the
PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke, Cross-site_tracing
with_PHP-Nuke, Security_audit, Permissions_on_folders_and_files, How_to
repair_a_corrupt_table, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup, How_to_use_PHP-
Nuke_under_SSL, The_database_tables, The_database_tables
database-driven, General_PHP-Nuke_texts
databases, What_Is_PHPMyadmin, phpMyAdmin:_other_commands, Changing_Web
hoster, Changing_Web_hoster, Directory_structure
date, Versions_1.x, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux, Changing_Web
hoster, The_preinstalled_modules, The_administration_functions, Gallery
module, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_to_register_users_through_iBill,
Module_creation,_administrator_part, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?, GoogleTap, How
to_install_patches_and_correct_errors, How_to_find_the_last_date_of..., How
to_adjust_server_time, The_database_tables
dates, Changing_Web_hoster, How_to_enter_thousands_of_web_links
dbhost, Database_creation, Transferring_a_local_installation_to_the_Web,
Changing_Web_hoster, How_to_restore_a_single_table, How_to_restore_a_large
backup
dbuname, MySQL_errno:_145:_Can't_open_file_nuke_XXXX.MYI, How_to_make_the
Encyclopedia_international
dbuser, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live
block
deadlinkcheck, How_to_check_the_validity_of_thousands_of_web_links
debugging, Path_disclosure_with_PHP-Nuke
decent, Editing_PHP_(-Nuke)_files, Editing_PHP_(-Nuke)_files
delays, Meteosat_block
DELETE, PHP-Nuke_upgrade_scripts
dependencies, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Mandrake_Linux, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL
on_Red_Hat_Linux
dependency, How_to_hide_the_left_blocks
deprecated, How_to_format_text_in_HTML, The_syntax_of_SQL_code
descendants, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke
designer, What_Is_PHP-Nuke
development, PHP-Nuke-Tools_module, eCommerce_module, WorkBoard_Module
diagram, Licence, Aknowledgements
dictionaries, The_preinstalled_modules
digit, Regular_expressions
digits, How_it_works
directives, General_PHP-Nuke_texts, Regex_backreference_availability, The
.htaccess_file
Directories, File_permissions
disabilities, How_to_insert_an_image_in_HTML
disk, Caching_PHP-Nuke:_Conclusion
display_errors, Security_measures, How_to_change_PHP_parameters_when_you
don't_have_access_to_php.ini
disposal, How_to_change_the_PHP-Nuke_header_depending_on_some_global_feature
distribution, Front_end_structure:_user_view, Front_end_structure:_user_view
ditto, Architecture_and_structure, Regular_expressions
dmoz.html, How_to_enter_thousands_of_web_links, How_to_enter_thousands_of_web
links
dmoz.sql, How_to_enter_thousands_of_download_links
DNS, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block
documentation, Aknowledgements
domain, Invalid_session_in_forums, How_to_make_PHP-Nuke_hot_link_stealth, How
to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL
domains, Users_don't_receive_any_confirmation_mails, Upload_add-on_for_phpBB,
Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change_PHP_parameters_when_you_don't
have_access_to_php.ini, How_to_change_PHP_parameters_when_you_don't_have
access_to_php.ini
download, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, Upload_through_FTP, XAMPP, The_administration
functions, Cookie_hijack, Installation_of_Cache-Lite, How_to_size_the_select
boxes_in_a_module, The_database_tables
Downloads, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change_the_Home_module
DreamWeaver, Example_creation_of_HTML_file_to_include_in_the_theme
dummy, How_to_size_the_select_boxes_in_a_module
dynamic, Meteosat_block, Treemenu_block, How_to_use_Javascript_in_PHP-Nuke
blocks, How_to_display_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_it_works, How_it_works
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E
e-mail, The_Preferences_Page, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags
easyPHP, easyPHP, easyPHP, easyPHP, easyPHP
Edit, Upload_through_FTP, Upload_through_FTP, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:
Structure, The_administration_functions, The_administration_functions, How_to
change_the_Home_module
editor, Call_to_undefined_function:_message_die()_in_db.php_line_88, Editing
PHP_(-Nuke)_files, Theme_construction:_the_rules_to_follow, How_to_change_the
order_of_messages
edituser, How_to_redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile
elements, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup
Emporium, eCommerce_module
emulate, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke
encoding, How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia_international, How_to_make_the
Encyclopedia_international
encrypted, Compressed_output_in_forums, How_to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL
encryption, How_to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL
encyclopedia, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The
preinstalled_blocks, The_preinstalled_blocks, The_preinstalled_blocks, The
administration_functions, The_administration_functions
engine, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, Why_use_PHP-Nuke_and_not_static_HTML_pages, The
preinstalled_modules, Directory_structure, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method,
Ruleset_processing, Regular_expressions, How_it_works
English, Aknowledgements, WebCam_module
enhancements, Availability_of_sources
entities, How_it_works
entity, The_config.php_file, Installation
Enumerate, How_to_translate_this_HOWTO, How_to_translate_this_HOWTO, Apache,
PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux,
Sorry,_such_file_doesn't_exist..., Sorry,_such_file_doesn't_exist..., You
lost_the_administrator_password,_or_deleted_the_admin_account, You_lost_the
administrator_password,_or_deleted_the_admin_account, You_lost_the
administrator_password,_or_deleted_the_admin_account, You_lost_the
administrator_password,_or_deleted_the_admin_account, Warning:_Cannot_add
header_information...in_forums, The_administration_functions, The
administration_functions, Protector_module, Protector_module, Protector
module, Protector_module, How_to_add_URLs_longer_than_100_characters_in
Downloads_and_Web_Links, Cookie_hijack, API_phases, API_phases, The_.htaccess
file, The_.htaccess_file, How_to_check_the_validity_of_thousands_of_web
links, How_to_check_the_validity_of_thousands_of_web_links
Ephemerids, The_preinstalled_blocks, The_preinstalled_blocks, The
administration_functions, How_to_enter_thousands_of_ephemerids, How_to_enter
thousands_of_ephemerids, How_to_enter_thousands_of_ephemerids
Europe, Meteosat_block, How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia_international
evaluation, Transferring_a_local_installation_to_the_Web
event, ConnectTest.php, The_administration_functions, Event_calendar
Exit, The_administration_functions
expiration, How_to_deal_with_date_and_time
expire, How_to_register_users_through_iBill
explanation, Credits, Session_management
exploit, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, mod_rewrite
Explorer, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_implement_a
favourites_icon_(favicon.ico), How_to_create_a_fade_block
export, How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia_international, How_to_make_the
Encyclopedia_international
Expressions, Regular_expressions
extract, How_to_install_phpMyAdmin
extraction, Upload_through_FTP, Regular_expressions
ExtraLite, How_to_display_a_watermark_background_image
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
F
failure, Sorry,_such_file_doesn't_exist...
faked, Directory_structure
FAQ, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_administration
functions, The_administration_functions, The_administration_functions,
Administration_management, Module_creation,_administrator_part, Module
creation,_administrator_part, Module_creation,_administrator_part,
Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module, Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module,
Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module, Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module,
Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module, How_to_display_HTML_code_in_a_FAQ
faqAnswer2, Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module
FAQs, Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module
favicon, How_to_implement_a_favourites_icon_(favicon.ico), How_to_implement_a
favourites_icon_(favicon.ico), How_to_implement_a_favourites_icon_
(favicon.ico), How_to_implement_a_favourites_icon_(favicon.ico), How_to
implement_a_favourites_icon_(favicon.ico)
features, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke_using_nukesql.php, The_preinstalled
modules, Upload_module, Upload_add-on_for_phpBB, eCommerce_module, eCommerce
module, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block, Regular_expressions, How_to
allow_anonymous_web_link_submissions
feed, How_to_enter_thousands_of_web_links
Feedback, The_preinstalled_modules
filename, The_administration_functions, The_administration_functions, How_to
include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, How_to_use_Cache-
Lite, API_phases
filter, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke
filter_text, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags
FINAL, Versions_1.x
firmware, The_impact_of_bad_security_record_on_software_popularity
FIXME, Version_2.0, Treemenu_with_Javascript, vi, Emacs, Bluefish, UltraEdit,
WinSyntax, HTMLKit, Crimson_Editor, PHPEd, Caching_PHP-Nuke:_Conclusion, How
to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL, The_database_tables
flash, How_to_create_a_block,_theoretical_approach, Cross-site_tracing_with
PHP-Nuke
font-size, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change_the_font
size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke
fonts, Theme_construction:_the_rules_to_follow
foobar, How_to_install_patches_and_correct_errors, How_to_install_patches_and
correct_errors
foobar.orig, How_to_install_patches_and_correct_errors
football, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The
preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules
footer, Versions_1.x, The_Preferences_Page, Architecture_and_structure,
Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_footer, Installation, Installation,
Installation, Installation, How_it_works
footer.php, Installation, How_it_works
forecast, How_to_display_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
foreground, How_to_change_background_colour
forks, The_PHP-Nuke_forks
format, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export, phpMyAdmin:_other_commands, The
preinstalled_modules, The_administration_functions, The_Preferences_Page,
Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, How_to_implement_a_favourites_icon_
(favicon.ico), How_to_adjust_server_time
formats, Formats, Formats, How_to_translate_this_HOWTO, phpMyAdmin:_other
commands
Forum, The_PHP-Nuke_Communities, Why_use_PHP-Nuke_and_not_static_HTML_pages,
The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules,
The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_blocks,
The_administration_functions, The_administration_functions, The
administration_functions, phpBB_Forum_administration, phpBB_Forum
administration, phpBB_Forum_administration, Module_structure, Cross-site
scripting_with_PHP-Nuke
foxserv, Foxserv,_making_PHP-Nuke_work_on_Windows_Systems, Foxserv,_making
PHP-Nuke_work_on_Windows_Systems
FoxServ-2.0core.exe, Foxserv,_making_PHP-Nuke_work_on_Windows_Systems
frame, phpBB_Forum_administration, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links
using_an_iframe_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module
frames, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, How_to
include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_using_an_iframe_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module
Free Software Foundation, Licence
french, Versions_1.x, Versions_1.x, Error:_Failed_opening_'language/
lang-.php'_for_inclusion, How_to_change_the_PHP-Nuke_header_depending_on_some
global_feature, How_to_change_the_PHP-Nuke_header_depending_on_some_global
feature
friendliness, How_it_works
frustration, Common_installation_problems
function, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Structure, How_to_check_a_successful
installation, How_to_upgrade_PHP-Nuke, Front_end_structure:_user_view, The
preinstalled_modules, The_administration_functions, phpBB_Forum
administration, phpBB_Forum_administration, Protector_module, Structure_of_a
PHP-Nuke_theme, How_to_change_the_PHP-Nuke_header_depending_on_some_global
feature, How_to_display_a_Flash_object_in_the_PHP-Nuke_header, How_to_get
multipage_News_articles, The_PHP-Nuke_Copyright_notice, Theme_construction:
the_rules_to_follow, How_to_change_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_depending_on_the
module, How_to_allow_only_registered_users_to_enter_a_review, How_to_redirect
users_to_Login_and_back, How_to_get_rid_of_the_need_to_use_<br>_for_new
lines, How_to_show_advertisements_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_use_Cache-Lite,
Installation, Installation, Installation, How_it_works, How_to_restore_PHP-
Nuke_from_backup, How_to_install_modules_that_change_the_database_structure
and_the_files, How_to_find_the_last_date_of..., The_Discordian_Calendar,
Functions, Functions, Switches, Switches
functionality, File_permissions, Front_end_structure:_user_view, The
preinstalled_modules, The_administration_functions, Moon_&_Sun_block, How_to
get_multipage_News_articles, How_to_implement_a_favourites_icon_
(favicon.ico), How_to_use_Javascript_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_create_a
Hello_World_block, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block, How_to_create_a
Help_Center_Live_block, Security_measures, How_to_use_Turck_MMCache,
mod_rewrite, How_to_solve_common_probems_with_PHP-Nuke, MySQL_Front,_how_to
administer_a_MySQL_DB_from_Windows
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G
Gallery, Gallery_module
garbage, You_get_garbage_in_some_parts_of_the_page, How_to_bypass_article
approval
GET, Search_engines_and_dynamic_URLs
gftp, Upload_through_FTP
global, How_to_change_the_PHP-Nuke_header_depending_on_some_global_feature,
How_to_change_the_PHP-Nuke_header_depending_on_some_global_feature,
Functions, The_syntax_of_SQL_code
GMT, Meteosat_block, Meteosat_block
GNU, WorkBoard_Module
GNU Free Documentation License, Licence
God, The_config.php_file, The_config.php_file, The_config.php_file
goodies, Apache2Triad
Google, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method
GoogleTap, How_to_make_PHP-Nuke_search_engine_friendly, Requirements,
Installation, Installation, How_it_works
Gossip, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules
GPL, The_PHP-Nuke_Copyright_notice, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_in_a_PHP-Nuke
module
granular, mod_rewrite
graphics, The_PHP-Nuke_Communities, The_PHP-Nuke_Communities, Modifying_the
PHP-Nuke_theme_icons, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_icons
Gregorian, The_Discordian_Calendar
guide, Versions_1.x
Guru, The_PHP-Nuke_Copyright_notice
GZIP, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
H
hack, IP_Tracking_module, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, Cookie
hijack
hacked, Security_measures, Hacked_-_now_what?
hacker, How_to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL
hackers, Protector_module, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
hand-out, Licence
hardcoded, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme
hash, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke
headache, How_to_bypass_article_approval
headaches, Test_scripts, Sorry,_such_file_doesn't_exist..., How_to_create_a
link_in_HTML
Header, The_preinstalled_modules, The_administration_functions, The
Preferences_Page, The_Preferences_Page, IP_Tracking_module, Directory
structure, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme,
Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, How_to_create_a_top_navigation_bar_as_in
NukeNews_theme, How_to_create_a_top_navigation_bar_as_in_NukeNews_theme, How
to_insert_a_Search_Box_as_in_SlashOcean_theme, How_to_change_the_PHP-Nuke
header_depending_on_some_global_feature, How_to_change_the_logo_in_the_PHP-
Nuke_header, How_to_display_a_Flash_object_in_the_PHP-Nuke_header, Modifying
the_PHP-Nuke_HTML_header, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_HTML_header, How_to
implement_a_favourites_icon_(favicon.ico), How_to_prevent_the_statistics
module_from_gathering_hits_from_certain_hosts, How_to_prevent_the_statistics
module_from_gathering_hits_from_certain_hosts, Module_creation,_administrator
part, How_to_ban_IP_addresses, GoogleTap, Installation, Installation,
Installation, Installation, Installation, Installation, Installation,
Installation, Installation, Installation, Installation, Installation, How_it
works, How_it_works, How_it_works, How_it_works, How_it_works, How_it_works,
How_to_make_a_dynamic_CSS, The_syntax_of_CSS
headers, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke, mod_rewrite
headlines, The_administration_functions, How_to_build_RSS_blocks_with
variable_number_of_news_items, How_to_build_RSS_blocks_with_variable_number
of_news_items, How_to_get_scrolling_headlines_in_blocks, The_database_tables
hello-world.php, How_to_create_a_Hello_World_block, How_to_create_a_Hello
World_block
higher-level, The_.htaccess_file
hijacked, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
hijacking, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
history, eCommerce_module
homepage, The_preinstalled_modules, Directory_structure, General_PHP-Nuke
texts, How_to_enter_thousands_of_download_links
hook, API_phases
hooks, API_phases
hosters, Resources, Changing_Web_hoster
hosting, Resources
hosts.allow, Changing_Web_hoster
hours, Short_history_of_PHP-Nuke, Cookie_hijack, Cookie_hijack, How_to_adjust
server_time, How_to_adjust_server_time
HOWTO, Aknowledgements, Common_installation_problems, How_to_create_a_link_in
HTML
HTML, The_book_behind_the_book, PHP-Nuke_vs._Post-Nuke, How_to_create_a_top
navigation_bar_as_in_NukeNews_theme, How_to_get_rid_of_the_need_to_use_<br>
for_new_lines, How_to_allow_HTML_in_the_Newsletter, Cross-site_scripting_with
PHP-Nuke, Security_measures, How_to_make_a_dynamic_CSS, How_to_size_the
select_boxes_in_a_module, How_to_create_a_link_in_HTML, The_syntax_of_CSS
HTTP, The_administration_functions, How_to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I
Iconboard, The_impact_of_bad_security_record_on_software_popularity
icons, phpBB_Forum_administration, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_icons,
Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_icons, The_database_tables
ICQ, The_preinstalled_modules
IDE, PHP-Nuke-Tools_module
identifier, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_to_use_Cache-Lite
idperson, Module_creation,_the_public_part
IIS, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke
illustrated, Cookie_hijack
images, Architecture_and_structure, Directory_structure, Structure_of_a_PHP-
Nuke_theme, How_to_choose_images_from_a_dropdown_list, How_to_display_images
in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_display_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_display
random_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL, The_syntax
of_HTML_code
impetus, PHP-Nuke_vs._Post-Nuke
includes, Include_path_is_wrong, Directory_structure, Administration
management, How_to_create_a_Hello_World_block
index, Sorry,_such_file_doesn't_exist..., How_to_bypass_the_security_code,
The_administration_functions, phpBB_Forum_administration, phpBB_Forum
administration, My_Headlines_module, Architecture_and_structure, Architecture
and_structure, Architecture_and_structure, Directory_structure, Module
management, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_to_redirect_users_to_the
Login_page, How_to_allow_only_registered_users_to_enter_a_review, How_to
display_Web_Links_in_the_same_window, How_to_redirect_users_to_the_Homepage,
How_to_redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile, How_to_redirect_users
to_Login_and_back, How_to_redirect_users_to_Login_and_back, How_to_disable
registration, How_to_disable_registration, How_to_disable_registration, How
to_disable_registration, How_to_get_rid_of_the_need_to_use_<br>_for_new
lines, How_to_add_URLs_longer_than_100_characters_in_Downloads_and_Web_Links,
How_to_add_URLs_longer_than_100_characters_in_Downloads_and_Web_Links, Module
structure, Module_creation,_the_public_part, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_in_a
PHP-Nuke_module, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_in_a_PHP-Nuke
module, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, How_to
include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_using_an_iframe_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, How
to_create_a_Logout_module, How_to_display_HTML_forms_in_a_module, Path
disclosure_with_PHP-Nuke, How_to_use_jpcache, Cache-Lite, How_to_use_Turck
MMCache, How_to_allow_anonymous_web_link_submissions, How_to_allow_anonymous
web_link_submissions, How_to_change_the_Home_module
index.php, Main_page_management, Main_page_management, Module_management, How
to_change_background_colour, How_to_change_background_colour, How_to_choose
images_from_a_dropdown_list, How_to_redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user
profile, How_to_change_the_maximum_allowed_length_for_user_names, How_to
order_the_articles_in_the_Sections_module, How_to_order_the_articles_in_the
Stories_Archive_module, Module_structure, Module_structure, Module_structure,
Creating_fully_compatible_modules:_the_rules_to_follow, How_to_include_a_HTML
file_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_in_a_PHP-
Nuke_module, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module,
Changing_the_duration_of_the_user_cookie, Caching_PHP-Nuke, Search_engines
and_the_GET_method, How_to_change_the_Home_module, How_to_change_the_Home
module, How_to_change_the_Home_module, How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia
international, How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia_international
indexed, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method
indynews, Permissions_on_folders_and_files
info, How_to_check_a_successful_installation, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on
Mandrake_Linux, test.php, test.php, You_lost_the_administrator_password,_or
deleted_the_admin_account, The_preinstalled_modules, The_administration
functions, Moon_&_Sun_block, PHP-Nuke_module_texts
information, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, Why_use_PHP-Nuke_and_not_static_HTML_pages,
The_preinstalled_modules, Moon_&_Sun_block, Protector_module, More_than_255
characters_of_user_extra_information, More_than_255_characters_of_user_extra
information, How_to_redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile, Cross-site
scripting_with_PHP-Nuke, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke, Cross-site_tracing_with
PHP-Nuke, Search_engines_and_dynamic_URLs, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method,
How_to_allow_anonymous_web_link_submissions, How_to_allow_anonymous_web_link
submissions, The_syntax_of_CSS
initialization, Security_measures
inject, Cross-site_scripting_with_PHP-Nuke
INSERT, PHP-Nuke_upgrade_scripts, The_Preferences_Page, The_Preferences_Page,
The_Preferences_Page, Module_creation,_the_public_part, How_to_include_a
plain_text_file_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module
insertion, How_to_enter_thousands_of_ephemerids
installation, How_to_install_the_DB_of_PHP-Nuke_with_PHPMyadmin, How_to
install_PHP-Nuke_using_nukesql.php, easyPHP, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on
Mandrake_Linux, Different_PHP-Nuke_sites_from_the_same_database, Fatal_error:
Failed_opening_required_'includes/sql_layer.php', Event_calendar, How_to_add
more_than_127_FAQ_answers, Path_disclosure_with_PHP-Nuke, Path_disclosure
with_PHP-Nuke, Security_measures, jpcache, Installation_of_Cache-Lite, How_to
use_Cache-Lite, Configuration_of_Turck_MMCache, How_to_install_patches_and
correct_errors, How_to_disable_DEBUG_mode, How_to_check_the_validity_of
thousands_of_web_links, Foxserv,_making_PHP-Nuke_work_on_Windows_Systems
insurance, Different_PHP-Nuke_sites_with_the_same_user_base
integer, How_to_add_more_than_127_FAQ_answers, How_to_adjust_server_time
integrity, Security_fixes
interface, PHP-Nuke_vs._XOOPS, How_to_install_phpMyAdmin, How_to_upgrade_PHP-
Nuke, The_preinstalled_blocks, Back_end_structure:_administrator_view, Back
end_structure:_administrator_view, Back_end_structure:_administrator_view,
Event_calendar, Architecture_and_structure, Creating_fully_compatible
modules:_the_rules_to_follow, Module_creation,_the_public_part, How_to
install_modules_that_change_the_database_structure_and_the_files, MySQL
Front,_how_to_administer_a_MySQL_DB_from_Windows
Internet, Changing_Web_hoster, How_to_display_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
interpretation, How_to_adjust_server_time
interpreter, How_it_works
IP, Changing_Web_hoster, Protector_module, Protector_module, Protector
module, Protector_module, Protector_module, Protector_module, Protector
module, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How
sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_sessions
work_in_the_forums, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_to_ban_IP_addresses
IPs, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
ISP, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke_locally
ISPs, Turck_MMCache, How_to_restore_a_large_backup
Italian, Creating_fully_compatible_modules:_the_rules_to_follow
italicizing, How_to_format_text_in_HTML
item_name, How_to_display_HTML_forms_in_a_block:_Paypal
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
J
Japanese, PHP-Nuke_vs._XOOPS
Java, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, The_PHP-Nuke_Communities
Javascript, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, Treemenu_with_Javascript, PHP-Nuke-Tools
module, Directory_structure, How_to_change_the_logo's_dimensions_dynamically,
How_to_change_the_logo's_dimensions_dynamically, How_to_display_a_watermark
background_image, How_to_display_a_watermark_background_image, How_to_use
Javascript_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_create_a_Hello_World_block, How_to
create_a_Hello_World_block, How_to_create_a_Hello_World_block, How_to_create
a_Help_Center_Live_block, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block, How_to_use
Javascript_in_PHP-Nuke_modules, Javascript_functions_in_javascript.php,
Javascript_functions_in_javascript.php, Google_AdSense_in_the_News_module,
Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke
Journal, The_preinstalled_modules
jpcache, Installation_of_jpcache, Configuration_of_jpcache, Configuration_of
jpcache, Caching_PHP-Nuke:_Conclusion
jpcache-config.php, How_to_use_jpcache
JpGraph, XAMPP
JSP, PHP-Nuke-Tools_module
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
K
key, File_permissions, Creating_fully_compatible_modules:_the_rules_to
follow, Security_measures, Security_measures, Security_measures, How_to_use
Turck_MMCache, How_to_use_Turck_MMCache, How_to_use_Turck_MMCache, How_to_use
Turck_MMCache
knowledge, How_to_change_background_colour, Path_disclosure_with_PHP-Nuke
Konqueror, How_to_implement_a_favourites_icon_(favicon.ico)
korean, Versions_1.x
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
L
lang-.php, Error:_Failed_opening_'language/lang-.php'_for_inclusion
lang-english.php, You_cannot_create_the_administrator_account, Directory
structure, General_PHP-Nuke_texts, How_to_adjust_server_time
lang-languagename.php, General_PHP-Nuke_texts
lang-xxx.php, PHP-Nuke_module_texts, PHP-Nuke_module_texts
Language, The_administration_functions, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke
latin1, How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia_international
layer, Warning:_mysql_fetch_row():_supplied_argument_is_not_a_valid_MySQL
result_resource, Warning:_mysql_fetch_row():_supplied_argument_is_not_a_valid
MySQL_result_resource, Warning:_mysql_fetch_row():_supplied_argument_is_not_a
valid_MySQL_result_resource, Fatal_error:_Failed_opening_required_'includes/
sql_layer.php', Directory_structure, Directory_structure, Directory
structure, The_syntax_of_SQL_code, The_syntax_of_SQL_code
layer,, Directory_structure
layout, Random_Quotes_block, Upload_module, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme,
Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, How_to_hide_the_right_blocks, How_to_change
the_maximum_allowed_length_for_user_names
LC_TIME, Warning:_setlocale():_Passing_locale_category_name_as_string_is
deprecated
League, The_preinstalled_modules
leaves, Treemenu_with_PHP, Treemenu_with_PHP, Treemenu_with_PHP, Treemenu
with_Javascript, The_general_idea
legitimate, Cross-site_scripting_with_PHP-Nuke
libraries, test.php
library, How_to_bypass_the_security_code, Upload_add-on_for_phpBB
Licence, WorkBoard_Module, Turck_MMCache
lightweight, jpcache
Linux, Short_history_of_PHP-Nuke, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke_locally, Apache,
PHP_and_MySQL_on_Mandrake_Linux, How_to_implement_a_favourites_icon_
(favicon.ico), The_general_idea, Installation_of_Turck_MMCache, Installation
of_Turck_MMCache, How_to_adjust_server_time
Lite.php, How_to_use_Cache-Lite
load, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_SQL, Administration_management, jpcache,
MySQL_Front,_how_to_administer_a_MySQL_DB_from_Windows
local time, How_to_adjust_server_time
Locator, How_to_create_a_link_in_HTML
lock, The_preinstalled_blocks, phpBB_Forum_administration, What_is_Treemenu,
Installation, Installation, Installation, Installation
logged-in, How_to_use_Cache-Lite
login, How_to_bypass_the_security_code, How_to_redirect_users_to_the
Homepage, How_to_redirect_users_to_the_Homepage, How_to_redirect_users_to
Login_and_back, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block
logo, Versions_1.x, Versions_1.x, The_Preferences_Page, How_to_insert_a
Search_Box_as_in_SlashOcean_theme, How_to_change_the_logo_in_the_PHP-Nuke
header, How_to_change_the_logo_in_the_PHP-Nuke_header, How_to_change_the_logo
in_the_PHP-Nuke_header, How_to_change_the_logo's_dimensions_dynamically
logo.gif, How_to_change_the_logo_in_the_PHP-Nuke_header, How_to_change_the
logo_in_the_PHP-Nuke_header
Logout, How_to_create_a_Logout_module, How_to_create_a_Logout_module, How_to
create_a_Logout_module, How_to_create_a_Logout_module
lookups, Ruleset_processing
LyX, Version_1.0, Version_1.0, Version_2.0, Line_of_attack, How_to_translate
this_HOWTO
l_config.php, How_to_change_the_number_of_Web_Links_per_page, How_to_allow
anonymous_web_link_submissions
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
M
MacOS, Prerequisites
magic_quotes, Security_measures
mainfile.php, Sorry,_such_file_doesn't_exist..., Sorry,_such_file_doesn't
exist..., You_get_garbage_in_some_parts_of_the_page, Module_management, How
to_change_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_depending_on_the_module, How_to_change_the_order
of_messages, How_to_change_the_duration_of_a_public_broadcast_message, How_to
get_scrolling_headlines_in_blocks, How_to_redirect_users_to_the_Login_page,
The_formatAidHeader()_function, Module_structure, How_to_use_jpcache, How_to
use_jpcache, How_to_use_Cache-Lite, Search_engines_and_dynamic_URLs, How_to
adjust_server_time, The_Discordian_Calendar, How_to_deal_with_quotes_in_the
site's_name
maintenance, Protector_module
malicious, Cross-site_scripting_with_PHP-Nuke
management, Aknowledgements, PHP-Nuke_vs._XOOPS, The_preinstalled_modules,
phpBB_Forum_administration, phpBB_Forum_administration, Architecture_and
structure, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, Example_creation_of_HTML_file_to
include_in_the_theme
manager, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, Treemenu_with_PHP
manipulations, API_phases
margin-top, The_syntax_of_CSS
marketese, Random_Quotes_block
Matarrazzo, Aknowledgements
match, Protector_module, Ruleset_processing, Ruleset_processing, Regular
expressions, Regular_expressions, Regular_expressions
matching, The_Preferences_Page
maxlength, How_to_add_URLs_longer_than_100_characters_in_Downloads_and_Web
Links, How_to_add_URLs_longer_than_100_characters_in_Downloads_and_Web_Links
mcrypt, XAMPP
MD5, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Structure, You_lost_the_administrator
password,_or_deleted_the_admin_account
members, Aknowledgements, Approve_Membership_module, WorkBoard_Module
memory, Caching_PHP-Nuke
menu, Front_end_structure:_user_view, The_administration_functions, The
Preferences_Page, Treemenu_with_PHP, Treemenu_with_PHP, How_to_change_the
font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, The_general_idea, What_is_Treemenu, What_is_Treemenu,
How_to_create_a_new_block
Messages, The_administration_functions, Treemenu_with_Javascript
metacharacters, Regular_expressions
metatags, Architecture_and_structure
Micione, Why_use_PHP-Nuke_and_not_static_HTML_pages
Microsoft, Cookie_hijack
mid, How_to_change_the_order_of_messages, How_to_change_a_buggy_module
millimeters, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke
Minnie, How_to_install_phpMyAdmin, Module_creation,_the_public_part
MMCache, Caching_PHP-Nuke, Turck_MMCache, Installation_of_Turck_MMCache, How
to_use_Turck_MMCache, Caching_PHP-Nuke:_Conclusion, Caching_PHP-Nuke:
Conclusion
model, The_syntax_of_CSS
moderation, The_Preferences_Page, The_Preferences_Page
modifications, Hacked_-_now_what?, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup, The
syntax_of_SQL_code
module, Prerequisites, File_permissions, Sorry,_such_file_doesn't_exist...,
Sorry,_such_file_doesn't_exist..., Security_code_is_not_showing_up, Modules
do_not_show_up_and/or_disappear, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled
modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled
modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled
modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled
modules, The_preinstalled_blocks, The_preinstalled_blocks, The_preinstalled
blocks, The_administration_functions, The_administration_functions, The
administration_functions, The_administration_functions, The_administration
functions, The_administration_functions, The_Preferences_Page, The
Preferences_Page, The_Preferences_Page, Gallery_module, IP_Tracking_module,
IP_Tracking_module, WebCam_module, My_Headlines_module, ODP_module,
Architecture_and_structure, Architecture_and_structure, Directory_structure,
Directory_structure, Administration_management, Administration_management,
PHP-Nuke_module_texts, How_to_hide_the_left_blocks, How_to_get_multipage_News
articles, How_to_change_background_colour, How_to_prevent_the_statistics
module_from_gathering_hits_from_certain_hosts, How_to_allow_special_HTML
tags, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags, How_to
allow_special_HTML_tags, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags, How_to_allow_special
HTML_tags, How_to_hide_the_right_blocks, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Homepage, How
to_restrict_the_Homepage_only_to_registered_users, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ
module, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Reviews_module, How_to_choose_images_from_a
dropdown_list, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Web_Links_module, Modifying_the_PHP-
Nuke_Your_Account_module, How_to_redirect_users_to_Login_and_back, How_to
redirect_users_to_Login_and_back, How_to_redirect_users_to_Login_and_back,
How_to_approve_users_before_registration, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_News_module,
Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Submit_News_module, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Sections
module, How_to_order_the_articles_in_the_Sections_module, Modifying_the_PHP-
Nuke_Downloads_module, How_to_add_URLs_longer_than_100_characters_in
Downloads_and_Web_Links, How_to_add_URLs_longer_than_100_characters_in
Downloads_and_Web_Links, How_to_add_URLs_longer_than_100_characters_in
Downloads_and_Web_Links, How_to_add_URLs_longer_than_100_characters_in
Downloads_and_Web_Links, How_to_add_URLs_longer_than_100_characters_in
Downloads_and_Web_Links, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Stories_Archive_module, How
to_order_the_articles_in_the_Stories_Archive_module, Simple_Content_block,
How_to_use_Javascript_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_display_random_images_in
PHP-Nuke_blocks, Creating_modules, Module_structure, Creating_fully
compatible_modules:_the_rules_to_follow, Creating_fully_compatible_modules:
the_rules_to_follow, Module_creation,_the_public_part, Module_creation,_the
public_part, Module_creation,_administrator_part, Module_creation,
administrator_part, Module_creation,_administrator_part, Module_creation,
administrator_part, Module_creation,_administrator_part, How_to_include_a
HTML_file_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_in_a_PHP-Nuke
module, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_using_an_iframe_in_a_PHP-
Nuke_module, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_using_an_iframe_in_a
PHP-Nuke_module, How_to_include_a_plain_text_file_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module,
Javascript_functions_in_javascript.php, Complete_Javascript_code_in_modules,
Google_AdSense_in_the_News_module, Google_AdSense_on_top_of_a_PHP-Nuke
module, How_to_display_HTML_forms_in_a_module, Duplicating_PHP-Nuke_modules,
Duplicating_PHP-Nuke_modules, Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module, SQL
injection_with_PHP-Nuke, Permissions_on_folders_and_files, Installation, How
it_works, How_to_allow_anonymous_web_link_submissions, How_to_change_the_Home
module, How_to_change_the_Home_module, How_to_enter_thousands_of_web_links,
How_to_enter_thousands_of_web_links, How_to_enter_thousands_of_web_links, How
to_enter_thousands_of_web_links, How_to_enter_thousands_of_download_links,
How_to_enter_thousands_of_download_links, How_to_find_the_user_name_in_a
module, How_to_find_the_last_date_of..., How_to_create_a_link_in_HTML
module.php, How_to_change_the_Home_module
modules, Short_history_of_PHP-Nuke, The_PHP-Nuke_Communities, The_PHP-Nuke
Communities, Why_use_PHP-Nuke_and_not_static_HTML_pages, PHP-Nuke_vs._Post-
Nuke, Resources, analyze.php, Modules_do_not_show_up_and/or_disappear,
Modules_do_not_show_up_and/or_disappear, Modules_do_not_show_up_and/or
disappear, Modules_do_not_show_up_and/or_disappear, Modules_do_not_show_up
and/or_disappear, Front_end_structure:_user_view, Front_end_structure:_user
view, Front_end_structure:_user_view, The_preinstalled_blocks, The
preinstalled_blocks, The_preinstalled_blocks, The_administration_functions,
The_administration_functions, The_Preferences_Page, AutoTheme, Menu_Builder,
Treemenu_with_Javascript, PHP-Nuke-Tools_module, PHP-Nuke-Tools_module,
Upload_add-on_for_phpBB, Architecture_and_structure, Architecture_and
structure, Architecture_and_structure, Architecture_and_structure,
Architecture_and_structure, Directory_structure, Directory_structure, Module
management, Module_management, Module_management, Administration_management,
Administration_management, How_to_hide_the_left_blocks, How_to_hide_the_left
blocks, How_to_change_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_depending_on_the_module, How_to
change_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_depending_on_the_module, How_to_build_custom_module
blocks, Simple_module_block, Simple_module_block, Simple_module_block,
Treemenu_block, Treemenu_block, Modifying_PHP-Nuke_modules, Modifying_PHP-
Nuke_modules, How_to_redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile, How_to
redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile, How_to_redirect_Your_Info_to
the_Forums_user_profile, How_to_redirect_users_to_Login_and_back, Creating
modules, Module_structure, Module_structure, Module_structure, Module
structure, Module_structure, Creating_fully_compatible_modules:_the_rules_to
follow, Module_creation,_administrator_part, Module_creation,_administrator
part, Duplicating_PHP-Nuke_modules, Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module,
Permissions_on_folders_and_files, Permissions_on_folders_and_files,
Accelerating_PHP-Nuke, Caching_PHP-Nuke:_Conclusion, Search_engines_and
dynamic_URLs, Search_engines_and_dynamic_URLs, How_to_make_PHP-Nuke_search
engine_friendly, Installation, Installation, Installation, How_to_install
modules_that_change_the_database_structure, How_to_install_modules_that
change_the_database_structure_and_the_files, How_to_install_modules_that
change_the_database_structure_and_the_files, How_to_change_the_Home_module,
How_to_find_the_last_date_of..., The_database_tables, How_to_create_a_link_in
HTML, How_to_insert_an_image_in_HTML
mod_auth_mys, XAMPP
Mod_Broken, How_to_change_a_buggy_module
mod_gzip, Changing_Web_hoster, How_to_use_jpcache
mod_perl, XAMPP
mod_php, XAMPP
monitor, How_to_change_the_logo's_dimensions_dynamically, How_to_create_a
Help_Center_Live_block, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block
Moon, Moon_&_Sun_block
Mozilla, Compressed_output_in_forums, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-
Nuke, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, Cookie_hijack
mSQL, The_syntax_of_SQL_code
Multi-categories, Upload_add-on_for_phpBB
multilanguage, Module_management, Module_structure
myfortune, How_to_enter_thousands_of_ephemerids
MyHeadlines, My_Headlines_module
MySQL, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke_using_nukesql.php, XAMPP, XAMPP, Apache,_PHP
and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux, The_config.php_file, Call_to_undefined_function:
message_die()_in_db.php_line_88, Module_creation,_the_public_part, How_to
proceed_when_MySQL_is_slow, How_to_enter_thousands_of_web_links, How_to_enter
thousands_of_web_links, How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia_international, The
syntax_of_SQL_code
mysqldump, Transferring_a_local_installation_to_the_Web
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
N
nature, PHP-Nuke_vs._Post-Nuke, The_administration_functions, How_to_display
images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, Security_fixes
navigation, The_preinstalled_modules
navigations, Module_creation,_the_public_part
nessus, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?
news, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, The_preinstalled_modules, The_administration
functions, My_Headlines_module, My_Headlines_module, Directory_structure, How
to_change_the_order_of_messages, Google_AdSense_in_the_News_module, Security
measures, Permissions_on_folders_and_files, Cookie_hijack, The_database
tables
newsfeed, The_Preferences_Page
newsletter, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, The_administration_functions, phpBB_Forum
administration, How_to_redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile, How_to
allow_HTML_in_the_Newsletter
newspaper, The_preinstalled_modules
new_user, How_to_disable_registration, How_to_disable_registration, How_to
find_all_registration_links, How_to_find_all_registration_links
nickname, The_preinstalled_modules
nohtml, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags
noise, Back_end_structure:_administrator_view
non-Netscape-4, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke
notation, How_to_adjust_server_time, How_to_adjust_server_time
notes, File_permissions, File_permissions, File_permissions, The
administration_functions
notification, Approve_Membership_module
notifications, The_Preferences_Page
nuke-common, Different_PHP-Nuke_sites_with_the_same_user_base
nuke-common_users, Different_PHP-Nuke_sites_with_the_same_user_base
nuke.sql, Database_creation
nuke2.sql, Duplicating_PHP-Nuke_modules, Duplicating_PHP-Nuke_modules,
Duplicating_the_PHP-Nuke_FAQ_module
Nuke6, Download
nukecops, Installation
nuked, Gallery_module
nukeforums.com, Aknowledgements, How_to_translate_this_HOWTO
NukeNews, Theme_construction:_the_rules_to_follow
nuke_access, The_database_tables
nuke_authors, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export, You_cannot_create_the
administrator_account, The_database_tables
nuke_banlist, The_database_tables
nuke_bbsearch_wordlist, How_to_proceed_when_MySQL_is_slow
nuke_blocks, The_database_tables
nuke_catagories, The_database_tables
nuke_config, PHP-Nuke_upgrade_scripts, The_database_tables
nuke_disallow, The_database_tables
nuke_downloads_categories, The_database_tables
nuke_downloads_editorials, The_database_tables
nuke_downloads_modrequest, The_database_tables
nuke_encyclopedia_text, The_database_tables
nuke_encyclopedya, The_database_tables
nuke_ephem, How_to_enter_thousands_of_ephemerids, The_database_tables
nuke_faqAnswer, How_to_add_more_than_127_FAQ_answers, 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_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_main, The_database_tables
nuke_message, The_database_tables
nuke_pages, The_database_tables
nuke_pages_categories, 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_add, The_database_tables
nuke_seccont, The_database_tables
nuke_sections, The_database_tables
nuke_session, 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, How_to_restore_a_single_table, The_database_tables
nuke_words, The_database_tables
NUL-byte, Forums_Error:_Can't_create_a_category_without_a_name
NULL, Security_audit
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
O
objects, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke
obscurity, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?
obsolete, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method
occurrences, Regular_expressions
ODBC, The_syntax_of_SQL_code
ODBC_Adabas, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, The_syntax_of_SQL_code
ODP, How_to_enter_thousands_of_web_links
odp.php, ODP_module
offset, How_to_adjust_server_time
OOP, PHP-Nuke_vs._XOOPS
open-ended, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?
OpenTable, How_to_change_background_colour
operation, Purpose, phpMyAdmin:_How_to_administer_MySQL_via_Web, Cookies_-
timeout_and_configuration, How_to_solve_common_probems_with_PHP-Nuke
operator, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block
optimization, Caching_PHP-Nuke
optimizer, Turck_MMCache
Optimizers, Caching_PHP-Nuke
origin, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, The_syntax_of_CSS
overlay, WebCam_module
Owen, General, Session_management
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
P
packages, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Mandrake_Linux, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on
Mandrake_Linux, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL
on_Red_Hat_Linux
pagebreaks, The_book_behind_the_book
pagination, Licence
palmtop, The_preinstalled_modules
panel, The_administration_functions, phpBB_Forum_administration, Menu
Builder, Treemenu_with_Javascript, Protector_module, WebCam_module, WorkBoard
Module, How_to_eliminate_session_checks, How_to_change_placement_of_the
banner_in_the_PHP-Nuke_header, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_footer, How_to
prevent_users_from_changing_the_theme_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_build_RSS_blocks
with_variable_number_of_news_items, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_Homepage, How_to
allow_HTML_in_the_Newsletter, How_to_display_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How
to_display_random_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_display_HTML_forms_in_a
block:_Paypal, How_to_create_a_Logout_module, Installation, How_to_adjust
server_time, How_to_adjust_server_time, Foxserv,_making_PHP-Nuke_work_on
Windows_Systems
parameter, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux, Treemenu_with_PHP, How_to
redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile, How_to_disable_registration,
How_to_create_a_block,_a_practical_example, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and
its_links_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_in_a
PHP-Nuke_module, Search_engines_and_dynamic_URLs, Search_engines_and_dynamic
URLs, How_to_insert_an_image_in_HTML
Paramétrable, Treemenu_with_Javascript
parent, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change_the_font_size
in_PHP-Nuke, API_phases, How_to_find_the_last_date_of..., How_to_find_the
last_date_of...
parenthesis, How_it_works, Functions
password, Upload_through_FTP, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Structure, Apache,
PHP_and_MySQL_on_Mandrake_Linux, The_config.php_file, You_lost_the
administrator_password,_or_deleted_the_admin_account, MySQL_errno:_145:_Can't
open_file_nuke_XXXX.MYI, The_preinstalled_blocks, Back_end_structure:
administrator_view, The_Preferences_Page, MySQL_Front,_how_to_administer_a
MySQL_DB_from_Windows
patch, How_to_install_patches_and_correct_errors
pattern, Comic_block, How_to_display_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, Regular
expressions, Regular_expressions
patterns, Common_PHP-Nuke_security_vulnerabilities, Regular_expressions
payment, How_to_display_HTML_forms_in_a_block:_Paypal, How_to_display_HTML
forms_in_a_block:_Paypal
PayPal, How_to_display_HTML_forms_in_a_block:_Paypal, How_to_display_HTML
forms_in_a_block:_Paypal
PEAR, XAMPP, Installation_of_Cache-Lite, Installation_of_Cache-Lite,
Installation_of_Cache-Lite, Installation_of_Cache-Lite
PEAR.php, How_to_use_Cache-Lite
pending, Regular_expressions
performance, The_.htaccess_file
Perl, PHP-Nuke-Tools_module
permission, General, File_permissions, Upload_module, Upload_module
permissions, PHP-Nuke_vs._XOOPS, File_permissions, File_permissions, File
permissions, File_permissions, File_permissions, File_permissions, Apache,
PHP_and_MySQL_on_Mandrake_Linux, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux,
analyze.php, The_administration_functions, phpBB_Forum_administration,
Permissions_on_folders_and_files, Permissions_on_folders_and_files
phase, API_phases, API_phases, MySQL_Front,_how_to_administer_a_MySQL_DB_from
Windows
phases, API_phases, API_phases, API_phases, Ruleset_processing
Philosophy, The_Discordian_Calendar
photos, Gallery_module
PHP, Short_history_of_PHP-Nuke, PHP-Nuke_vs._XOOPS, How_to_check_a_successful
installation, In_Windows,_you_get_an_empty_page, How_to_get_a_more
descriptive_error_message, AutoTheme, PHP-Nuke-Tools_module, Editing_PHP_(-
Nuke)_files, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, How_to_use_Javascript_in_PHP-Nuke
blocks, How_to_use_Javascript_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_include_a_HTML_file
in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, Cache-Lite, Turck_MMCache, How_it_works
php.ini, Warning:_Cannot_add_header_information...in_forums, You_get_a_lot_of
Notice_lines_in_the_output_of_PHP-Nuke, Security_measures, Security_measures,
How_to_use_Turck_MMCache, Search_engines_and_dynamic_URLs, How_to_change_PHP
parameters_when_you_don't_have_access_to_php.ini, How_to_change_PHP
parameters_when_you_don't_have_access_to_php.ini
phpBB, Front_end_structure:_user_view, The_preinstalled_modules, How_sessions
work_in_the_forums, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_to_eliminate_session
checks, The_syntax_of_SQL_code
phpbb2mysql2, Invalid_session_in_forums
PHPNuke, Aknowledgements, The_PHP-Nuke_Copyright_notice
phpnuke.org, How_to_bypass_article_approval
PHP_PREFIX, Installation_of_Turck_MMCache
PicShow.php, How_to_display_random_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_display
random_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
Pippo, How_to_install_phpMyAdmin
pixels, Example_creation_of_HTML_file_to_include_in_the_theme, How_to_change
the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_create_a_table_in_HTML, How_to_create_a
table_in_HTML, The_syntax_of_CSS
plattform, Aknowledgements, Upload_through_FTP
Pluto, Module_creation,_the_public_part
PNG, Version_1.0, Version_2.0, How_to_implement_a_favourites_icon_
(favicon.ico), How_to_create_a_fade_block, How_to_insert_an_image_in_HTML
poisoned, Back_end_structure:_administrator_view
Polls, The_administration_functions, The_Preferences_Page
pop-up, The_administration_functions
portal, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, The_PHP-Nuke_Communities, Why_use_PHP-Nuke_and_not
static_HTML_pages, Front_end_structure:_user_view, Front_end_structure:_user
view, The_administration_functions, Google_AdSense_block
portals, PHP-Nuke_vs._XOOPS, PHP-Nuke_vs._XOOPS
POST, Forums_Error:_Can't_create_a_category_without_a_name, Cross-site
tracing_with_PHP-Nuke
Post-Nuke, PHP-Nuke_vs._Post-Nuke, PHP-Nuke_vs._Post-Nuke, XOOPS_vs._Post-
Nuke, XOOPS_vs._Post-Nuke
PostgreSQL, The_syntax_of_SQL_code
PostgreSQL_local, The_syntax_of_SQL_code
posts, How_to_bypass_article_approval, Caching_PHP-Nuke:_Conclusion, How_to
proceed_when_MySQL_is_slow, The_Discordian_Calendar
powered_by_apache.png, The_Preferences_Page
Preferences, The_administration_functions, The_administration_functions, More
than_255_characters_of_user_extra_information, How_to_adjust_server_time
prefix, Different_PHP-Nuke_sites_from_the_same_database, Different_PHP-Nuke
sites_from_the_same_database, More_than_255_characters_of_user_extra
information, More_than_255_characters_of_user_extra_information, Creating
fully_compatible_modules:_the_rules_to_follow, Creating_fully_compatible
modules:_the_rules_to_follow, How_to_check_the_validity_of_thousands_of_web
links
preinstall, Upload_through_FTP
preprocessor, Main_page_management
presentation, The_syntax_of_CSS
presented, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, The_PHP-Nuke_Copyright_notice
prevention, Upload_add-on_for_phpBB
Preview, Short_history_of_PHP-Nuke, The_administration_functions
Prickle-Prickle, The_Discordian_Calendar
printer-friendly, How_to_make_a_dynamic_CSS
printing, The_book_behind_the_book, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links
using_an_iframe_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module
privileges, phpMyAdmin:_other_commands, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat
Linux
procedure, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke, Upload_through_FTP, How_to_install_the_DB
of_PHP-Nuke_with_PHPMyadmin, Changing_Web_hoster, The_administration
functions, How_to_change_the_logo's_dimensions_dynamically, How_to_display
Web_Links_in_the_same_window, How_to_register_users_through_iBill, How_to
restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup
profile, The_preinstalled_modules, More_than_255_characters_of_user_extra
information, How_to_redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile, How_to
disable_registration, The_formatAidHeader()_function, Cross-site_scripting
with_PHP-Nuke, How_it_works
programmer, Security_audit
project, Aknowledgements, Short_history_of_PHP-Nuke
Protector, IP_Tracking_module
protocol, Login_loop, How_to_change_the_logo's_dimensions_dynamically
provider, Upload_through_FTP
proxies, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
Pruning, phpBB_Forum_administration
punctuation, Security_audit
Python, Apache2Triad
PÃ ., Aknowledgements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q
queries, Module_creation,_administrator_part, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke,
SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke, Security_audit, How_to_restore_a_single_table
Query, phpMyAdmin:_How_to_administer_MySQL_via_Web, You_cannot_create_the
administrator_account, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke
from_backup, How_to_restore_a_single_table, How_to_enter_thousands_of
ephemerids, How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia_international, The_syntax_of_SQL
code
query.php, How_to_find_the_last_date_of..., How_to_find_the_last_date_of...
quotas, Upload_module
quote, PHP-Nuke_vs._Post-Nuke, Javascript_functions_in_javascript.php
quotes, The_config.php_file, How_to_allow_HTML_in_the_Newsletter, How_to
display_HTML_forms_in_a_block:_Paypal, Javascript_functions_in
javascript.php, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke, How_to_insert_an_image_in_HTML
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
R
Radio, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, eCommerce_module
random, Back_end_structure:_administrator_view
range, Protector_module, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
rank, phpBB_Forum_administration
Ranks, analyze.php, The_administration_functions, phpBB_Forum_administration
RDF, The_administration_functions, The_administration_functions, The
characteristics_of_the_various_types_of_blocks
readme, Event_calendar
ready-to-use, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke_locally
rebuild, How_to_repair_a_corrupt_table
recipes, How_to_change_placement_of_the_banner_in_the_PHP-Nuke_header
RedHat, XAMPP
redirect, Regular_expressions
redirection, How_to_redirect_users_to_Login_and_back
referers, The_preinstalled_blocks, The_administration_functions, The
Preferences_Page
referrals, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method
Refresh, Upload_through_FTP, Compressed_output_in_forums
registered, The_preinstalled_modules, The_administration_functions, The
administration_functions, Upload_module, How_to_find_the_user_name_in_a
module, Functions
register_globals, Security_measures
registration, Users_don't_receive_any_confirmation_mails, Users_don't_receive
any_confirmation_mails, Approve_Membership_module, PHP-Nuke_module_texts,
PHP-Nuke_module_texts, How_to_disable_registration, How_to_let_users_register
immediately, How_to_let_users_register_immediately, How_to_approve_users
before_registration, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup, How_to_find_all
registration_links
regular-expression, mod_rewrite
reinstall, In_Windows,_you_get_an_empty_page
REMOTE_ADDR, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
REPAIR, How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia_international
repair.php, How_to_proceed_when_MySQL_is_slow
requirements, Prerequisites, The_general_idea, Requirements
rescue, How_to_change_PHP_parameters_when_you_don't_have_access_to_php.ini
response, The_preinstalled_modules, Treemenu_with_Javascript, How_sessions
work_in_the_forums, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke, Cross-site_tracing_with
PHP-Nuke, Optimizing_PHP-Nuke
restart, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux
restore, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup
reviews, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled
blocks, The_administration_functions, How_to_get_multipage_News_articles, How
to_allow_only_registered_users_to_enter_a_review, How_to_redirect_Your_Info
to_the_Forums_user_profile, The_database_tables, The_database_tables, The
database_tables
rewrite, General, Short_history_of_PHP-Nuke, Directory_structure, Search
engines_and_the_GET_method, API_phases, Regex_backreference_availability,
Regular_expressions, Regular_expressions, How_it_works
risk, Permissions_on_folders_and_files
robots, Directory_structure, Directory_structure, Directory_structure,
Directory_structure, Directory_structure
root, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Mandrake_Linux, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red
Hat_Linux, Transferring_a_local_installation_to_the_Web, WorkBoard_Module,
The_PHP-Nuke_Copyright_notice, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block,
Permissions_on_folders_and_files, Installation_of_Turck_MMCache,
Requirements, How_to_change_PHP_parameters_when_you_don't_have_access_to
php.ini, How_to_change_PHP_parameters_when_you_don't_have_access_to_php.ini,
Foxserv,_making_PHP-Nuke_work_on_Windows_Systems
RPMdrake, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Mandrake_Linux
RSS, The_preinstalled_modules, The_administration_functions
Rule, Creating_fully_compatible_modules:_the_rules_to_follow, Creating_fully
compatible_modules:_the_rules_to_follow, Creating_fully_compatible_modules:
the_rules_to_follow, Creating_fully_compatible_modules:_the_rules_to_follow,
Regular_expressions
rule-looping, Ruleset_processing
rules, Example_creation_of_HTML_file_to_include_in_the_theme, How_to_create_a
Hello_World_block, Creating_fully_compatible_modules:_the_rules_to_follow,
Creating_fully_compatible_modules:_the_rules_to_follow, Javascript_functions
in_javascript.php, The_syntax_of_CSS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S
Sand_Journey, How_to_change_the_Home_module
sanitize, Security_audit
scheme, The_preinstalled_modules, Administration_management, Module_creation,
administrator_part
score, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules
scrapping, Comic_block, How_to_display_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
scratch, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?, How_to_use_Cache-Lite
screen, Upload_through_FTP, easyPHP, easyPHP, The_administration_functions
script kiddie, Cookie_hijack
scripting, The_administration_functions, NSN_Your_Account_Tweak_module,
Cross-site_scripting_with_PHP-Nuke
scrutiny, How_to_get_rid_of_the_need_to_use_<br>_for_new_lines, SQL_injection
with_PHP-Nuke
search, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_blocks, Search_engines_and
the_GET_method, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method, How_to_make_PHP-Nuke
search_engine_friendly
seconds, How_to_use_jpcache, How_to_use_Cache-Lite, How_to_use_Turck_MMCache,
How_to_use_Turck_MMCache, How_to_change_PHP_parameters_when_you_don't_have
access_to_php.ini, How_to_adjust_server_time
Sections, Version_2.0, Version_2.0, Version_2.1, The_preinstalled_modules,
The_preinstalled_blocks, The_administration_functions, How_to_change_the_PHP-
Nuke_theme_depending_on_the_module, How_to_change_the_PHP-Nuke_theme
depending_on_the_module, How_to_order_the_articles_in_the_Sections_module,
Installation
security, The_PHP-Nuke_Communities, PHP-Nuke_vs._Post-Nuke, How_to_bypass_the
security_code, The_Preferences_Page, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?, How_secure_is
PHP-Nuke?, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?, How_to_guard_against_security
vulnerabilities_in_PHP-Nuke, Security_measures, The_.htaccess_file, How_to
find_the_last_date_of...
sedscr, How_to_use_Javascript_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_display_HTML_code_in
a_FAQ
sedscr_downloads, How_to_enter_thousands_of_web_links
selector, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change_the_font
size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change_the
font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change
the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, The_syntax_of_CSS, The_syntax_of_CSS, The_syntax
of_CSS
sendmail, The_impact_of_bad_security_record_on_software_popularity, The
impact_of_bad_security_record_on_software_popularity, The_impact_of_bad
security_record_on_software_popularity, The_impact_of_bad_security_record_on
software_popularity
series, How_to_change_the_order_of_messages, Search_engines_and_dynamic_URLs
server, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, Upload_through_FTP, Upload
through_FTP, Upload_through_FTP, File_permissions, How_to_install_phpMyAdmin,
How_to_install_phpMyAdmin, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_SQL, Different_PHP-Nuke
sites_from_the_same_database, Users_don't_receive_any_confirmation_mails,
Users_don't_receive_any_confirmation_mails, Users_don't_receive_any
confirmation_mails, You_get_garbage_in_some_parts_of_the_page, Forums_Error:
Can't_create_a_category_without_a_name, The_Preferences_Page, Treemenu_with
PHP, How_to_display_random_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to_include_a_HTML
file_and_its_links_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?, Path
disclosure_with_PHP-Nuke, Path_disclosure_with_PHP-Nuke, Security_measures,
Security_measures, How_to_use_Cache-Lite, Turck_MMCache, Installation_of
Turck_MMCache, Configuration_of_Turck_MMCache, Caching_PHP-Nuke:_Conclusion,
Caching_PHP-Nuke:_Conclusion, mod_rewrite, mod_rewrite, The_.htaccess_file,
The_.htaccess_file, The_.htaccess_file, How_it_works, How_to_make_PHP-Nuke
hot_link_stealth, How_to_change_PHP_parameters_when_you_don't_have_access_to
php.ini, How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia_international, How_to_adjust_server
time, How_to_adjust_server_time, How_to_create_a_link_in_HTML, Foxserv,
making_PHP-Nuke_work_on_Windows_Systems, Foxserv,_making_PHP-Nuke_work_on
Windows_Systems
SERVER_PORT, How_to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL
services, Apache,_PHP_and_MySQL_on_Red_Hat_Linux, The_preinstalled_blocks
session, phpMyAdmin:_other_commands, Upload_add-on_for_phpBB, How_sessions
work_in_the_forums, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_sessions_work_in_the
forums, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How
to_eliminate_session_checks, How_to_include_PHP/HTML_files_in_a_PHP-Nuke
block, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block, How_to_create_a_Help_Center
Live_block, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method, Foxserv,_making_PHP-Nuke_work
on_Windows_Systems
sessions.php, Installation
session_id, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
settings, analyze.php, analyze.php, analyze.php, phpBB_Forum_administration,
How_to_set_an_arbitrary_"Stories_Number_in_Home", How_to_use_Cache-Lite, How
to_adjust_server_time, How_to_deal_with_quotes_in_the_site's_name, How_to
deal_with_quotes_in_the_site's_name
setup, easyPHP, The_administration_functions
SGML, The_book_behind_the_book, How_to_translate_this_HOWTO
shell, MySQL_errno:_145:_Can't_open_file_nuke_XXXX.MYI, How_to_repair_a
corrupt_table
showpage, Switches
sid, How_to_redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile
sign, Main_page_management, Example_creation_of_HTML_file_to_include_in_the
theme, How_to_add_URLs_longer_than_100_characters_in_Downloads_and_Web_Links
Slash, Short_history_of_PHP-Nuke, How_to_insert_a_Search_Box_as_in_SlashOcean
theme
SlashOcean, How_to_insert_a_Search_Box_as_in_SlashOcean_theme
Slogan, The_Preferences_Page
sophisticated, PHP-Nuke_module_texts, The_formatAidHeader()_function, How_to
create_a_Help_Center_Live_block
sorting, How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia_international
sources, The_preinstalled_modules, How_to_guard_against_security
vulnerabilities_in_PHP-Nuke
space, Forums_Error:_Can't_create_a_category_without_a_name, Forums_Error:
Can't_create_a_category_without_a_name, Forums_Error:_Can't_create_a_category
without_a_name, Transferring_a_local_installation_to_the_Web, Configuration
of_Turck_MMCache, How_to_correct_thousands_of_users_fields
speed, How_to_use_jpcache
spider, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method
spiders, How_to_make_PHP-Nuke_search_engine_friendly
SQL, phpMyAdmin:_How_to_administer_MySQL_via_Web, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:
SQL, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke
SSL, How_to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL, How_to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL
SSLCert, Apache2Triad
standards, How_to_insert_an_image_in_HTML
statements, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_SQL, Module_creation,_administrator
part, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke, SQL_injection
with_PHP-Nuke
Statistics, The_preinstalled_modules, The_Preferences_Page, The_Preferences
Page, Installation, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup
steps, How_to_upgrade_PHP-Nuke, How_to_check_the_validity_of_thousands_of_web
links
stolen, Cookie_hijack
strings, How_to_use_Javascript_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, Quoting_special_characters
strip, How_to_display_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks
structure, phpMyAdmin:_How_to_administer_MySQL_via_Web, Changing_Web_hoster,
AutoTheme, How_to_get_rid_of_the_need_to_use_<br>_for_new_lines, How_to
include_a_plain_text_file_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, Functions
style sheets, What_Is_PHP-Nuke
style.css, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, The_syntax_of_CSS
sub-administrators, The_administration_functions
subcategories, How_to_find_the_last_date_of...
subcategory, How_to_find_the_last_date_of...
subdirectories, easyPHP, The_.htaccess_file
subdirectory, Call_to_undefined_function:_message_die()_in_db.php_line_88,
The_.htaccess_file
subexpression, Regular_expressions, How_it_works
subject, Credits, Purpose, Changing_Web_hoster, The_administration_functions,
phpBB_Forum_administration, The_Preferences_Page, How_to_allow_special_HTML
tags
Submissions, The_administration_functions, Cookie_hijack
superadmin, Back_end_structure:_administrator_view, Module_creation,
administrator_part
Survey, The_preinstalled_blocks, The_administration_functions, The
administration_functions, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, The_database_tables
Surveys, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules
Swiss-Army-Knife, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method
syndicate, The_administration_functions
syntax, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, Module_creation,_administrator_part,
SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke, The_syntax_of_SQL
code, The_syntax_of_SQL_code
system, Disclaimer, Aknowledgements, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, What
Is_PHP-Nuke, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, PHP-Nuke
vs._XOOPS, How_to_check_a_successful_installation, XAMPP, The_preinstalled
modules, The_administration_functions, Gallery_module, Protector_module,
Protector_module, Protector_module, WebCam_module, WebCam_module, WebCam
module, Upload_add-on_for_phpBB, Upload_add-on_for_phpBB, Upload_add-on_for
phpBB, How_to_redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile, How_to_create_a
Help_Center_Live_block, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?, Security_measures,
Permissions_on_folders_and_files, Installation_of_Turck_MMCache, API_phases,
How_to_install_modules_that_change_the_database_structure_and_the_files, How
to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL, How_to_display_HTML_code_in_a_FAQ, How_to_display
HTML_code_in_a_FAQ, MySQL_Front,_how_to_administer_a_MySQL_DB_from_Windows
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
T
tables, Version_1.0, Upload_through_FTP, Database_creation, phpMyAdmin
navigation_bar:_Export, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export, phpMyAdmin
navigation_bar:_Export, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export, How_to_install
PHP-Nuke_using_nukesql.php, MySQL_errno:_145:_Can't_open_file_nuke_XXXX.MYI,
How_to_change_background_colour, How_to_change_background_colour, Theme
construction:_the_rules_to_follow, Theme_construction:_the_rules_to_follow,
How_to_add_URLs_longer_than_100_characters_in_Downloads_and_Web_Links,
Duplicating_PHP-Nuke_modules, The_syntax_of_HTML_code
taste, Line_of_attack
tax, How_to_display_HTML_forms_in_a_block:_Paypal, How_to_display_HTML_forms
in_a_block:_Paypal
terms, The_administration_functions, The_administration_functions, Random
Quotes_block, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_make_the
Encyclopedia_international
test, Test_scripts, test.php, test.php, test.php, Security_code_is_not
showing_up, Include_path_is_wrong, Changing_Web_hoster, Changing_Web_hoster,
Caching_PHP-Nuke:_Conclusion
tests, The_preinstalled_modules
TestString, Regex_backreference_availability
textfield, eCommerce_module
Thatware, Short_history_of_PHP-Nuke
theme, How_to_upgrade_PHP-Nuke, The_preinstalled_modules, phpBB_Forum
administration, The_Preferences_Page, Directory_structure, Structure_of_a
PHP-Nuke_theme, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme,
Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, Structure_of_a
PHP-Nuke_theme, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme, Example_creation_of_HTML_file
to_include_in_the_theme, Example_creation_of_HTML_file_to_include_in_the
theme, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_header, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme
header, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_header, How_to_create_a_top_navigation
bar_as_in_NukeNews_theme, How_to_create_a_top_navigation_bar_as_in_NukeNews
theme, How_to_insert_a_Search_Box_as_in_SlashOcean_theme, How_to_change_the
PHP-Nuke_header_depending_on_some_global_feature, How_to_change_the_PHP-Nuke
header_depending_on_some_global_feature, How_to_change_the_logo_in_the_PHP-
Nuke_header, How_to_change_placement_of_the_banner_in_the_PHP-Nuke_header,
How_to_display_a_watermark_background_image, How_to_display_a_watermark
background_image, How_to_display_a_watermark_background_image, How_to_display
a_watermark_background_image, How_to_display_a_watermark_background_image,
How_to_display_a_watermark_background_image, How_to_display_a_Flash_object_in
the_PHP-Nuke_header, How_to_hide_the_left_blocks, How_to_hide_the_left
blocks, How_to_get_multipage_News_articles, How_to_get_multipage_News
articles, How_to_get_multipage_News_articles, How_to_change_background
colour, How_to_change_background_colour, How_to_change_background_colour, How
to_change_background_colour, How_to_change_background_colour, Modifying_the
PHP-Nuke_theme_index, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_index, Modifying_the_PHP-
Nuke_theme_index, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke_theme_index, Modifying_the_PHP-Nuke
theme_footer, How_to_insert_an_extra_table_to_the_right_of_the_page, The_PHP-
Nuke_Copyright_notice, The_PHP-Nuke_Copyright_notice, How_to_change_a_buggy
PHP-Nuke_theme, How_to_change_a_buggy_PHP-Nuke_theme, How_to_prevent_users
from_changing_the_theme_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke,
How_to_display_HTML_forms_in_a_block:_Paypal, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and
its_links_using_an_iframe_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, How_to_make_a_dynamic_CSS,
How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup, The_syntax_of_CSS, The_syntax_of_CSS
themes, What_Is_PHP-Nuke, Short_history_of_PHP-Nuke, PHP-Nuke_vs._Post-Nuke,
PHP-Nuke_vs._XOOPS, The_preinstalled_modules, phpBB_Forum_administration,
phpBB_Forum_administration, Directory_structure, Directory_structure, How_to
insert_a_Search_Box_as_in_SlashOcean_theme, How_to_change_the_logo_in_the
PHP-Nuke_header, How_to_change_a_buggy_PHP-Nuke_theme, How_to_prevent_users
from_changing_the_theme_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_prevent_users_from_changing_the
theme_in_PHP-Nuke
themes/NukeNews, Structure_of_a_PHP-Nuke_theme
thousands, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?
threshold, phpBB_Forum_administration
thumb, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
thumbnail, Gallery_module, Gallery_module
thumbnails, The_book_behind_the_book
ticket, How_to_create_a_Help_Center_Live_block
timestamp, How_to_adjust_server_time
timezone, How_to_adjust_server_time, How_to_adjust_server_time, How_to_adjust
server_time
tinytext, More_than_255_characters_of_user_extra_information
title, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_administration
functions, The_administration_functions, The_administration_functions, The
Preferences_Page, WebCam_module, PHP-Nuke_module_and_block_titles, How_to
change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_allow_special_HTML_tags, Simple
module_block, How_to_build_RSS_blocks_with_variable_number_of_news_items, How
to_include_PHP/HTML_files_in_a_PHP-Nuke_block, SQL_injection_with_PHP-Nuke
Top10, The_preinstalled_modules
topics, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled_modules, The_preinstalled
modules, The_administration_functions, Directory_structure, How_sessions_work
in_the_forums, Customising_PHP-Nuke_themes, Modifying_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to
choose_images_from_a_dropdown_list, Optimizing_PHP-Nuke
Topolino, How_to_install_phpMyAdmin, Creating_fully_compatible_modules:_the
rules_to_follow, Creating_fully_compatible_modules:_the_rules_to_follow,
Module_creation,_the_public_part, Module_creation,_administrator_part, Module
creation,_administrator_part, Module_creation,_administrator_part, Module
creation,_administrator_part, Module_creation,_administrator_part, Module
creation,_administrator_part, Module_creation,_administrator_part, Module
creation,_administrator_part, Module_creation,_administrator_part
tracking, Event_calendar, IP_Tracking_module
transfer.php, From_phpBB_to_PHP-Nuke
Transitional, How_to_create_a_block,_theoretical_approach
translation, How_to_translate_this_HOWTO, Regular_expressions, How_it_works
translators, Version_1.0
tree-like, The_preinstalled_modules
trivial, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module,
Google_AdSense_on_top_of_a_PHP-Nuke_module, How_to_make_PHP-Nuke_hot_link
stealth
TTL, Changing_Web_hoster
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U
U.S., Moon_&_Sun_block, How_to_display_HTML_forms_in_a_block:_Paypal, How_to
display_HTML_forms_in_a_block:_Paypal
ulterior, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke
ultramode, The_Preferences_Page
underscores, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module
undisclosed, Path_disclosure_with_PHP-Nuke
Unicode, How_to_make_the_Encyclopedia_international
University, Aknowledgements
Unix, Permissions_on_folders_and_files, Regular_expressions
unregistered, The_Preferences_Page
upgrade66-67.php, How_to_upgrade_PHP-Nuke
upgrade67-68.php, How_to_upgrade_PHP-Nuke
upgrades, How_to_install_modules_that_change_the_database_structure_and_the
files
upload, MySQL_Front,_how_to_administer_a_MySQL_DB_from_Windows
URL, How_to_check_a_successful_installation, The_administration_functions,
The_Preferences_Page, Moon_&_Sun_block, Moon_&_Sun_block, How_sessions_work
in_the_forums, How_to_redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile, How_to
redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile, How_to_redirect_Your_Info_to
the_Forums_user_profile, How_to_add_URLs_longer_than_100_characters_in
Downloads_and_Web_Links, How_to_add_URLs_longer_than_100_characters_in
Downloads_and_Web_Links, How_to_display_images_in_PHP-Nuke_blocks, How_to
include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, How_to_include_a_HTML
file_and_its_links_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its
links_using_an_iframe_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, Duplicating_PHP-Nuke_modules,
Hacked_-_now_what?, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method, Search_engines_and_the
GET_method, API_phases, Ruleset_processing, Regular_expressions,
Installation, How_it_works, How_to_find_all_registration_links, How_to_enter
thousands_of_web_links, How_to_create_a_link_in_HTML
urlin, Installation
urlout, Installation, How_it_works, How_it_works, How_it_works, How_it_works
usability, Aknowledgements
User, File_permissions, File_permissions, You_cannot_create_the_administrator
account, You_cannot_create_the_administrator_account
username, Protector_module
usernames, How_to_restore_PHP-Nuke_from_backup
user_id, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
utility, MySQL_errno:_145:_Can't_open_file_nuke_XXXX.MYI, How_to_repair_a
corrupt_table
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
V
validation, Aknowledgements, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, How_sessions
work_in_the_forums, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums
validity, The_preinstalled_modules
variants, How_to_make_a_dynamic_CSS
verdana, The_syntax_of_CSS
viewable, phpBB_Forum_administration
views, The_preinstalled_modules, The_administration_functions
virtual, Requirements, How_to_change_PHP_parameters_when_you_don't_have
access_to_php.ini
VirtualDarkness, Aknowledgements
visibility, Aknowledgements
visitor, Front_end_structure:_user_view, How_to_include_a_plain_text_file_in
a_PHP-Nuke_module, Installation
vote, The_preinstalled_modules, The_administration_functions
vulnerabilities, PHP-Nuke_vs._Post-Nuke, How_secure_is_PHP-Nuke?, SQL
injection_with_PHP-Nuke, How_to_guard_against_security_vulnerabilities_in
PHP-Nuke
vulnerability, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-
Nuke, Permissions_on_folders_and_files, How_to_use_PHP-Nuke_under_SSL
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
W
watermark, How_to_display_a_watermark_background_image
Web Links, ODP_module
webcam, WebCam_module
WebLinks, The_preinstalled_modules, How_to_check_the_validity_of_thousands_of
web_links
Weblog, The_preinstalled_modules
Webmail, The_preinstalled_modules, The_Preferences_Page
webmaster, The_preinstalled_modules, The_Preferences_Page
website, General, How_sessions_work_in_the_forums, The_PHP-Nuke_Copyright
notice, Cross-site_scripting_with_PHP-Nuke, Search_engines_and_the_GET
method, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method, Search_engines_and_the_GET_method,
The_.htaccess_file, The_.htaccess_file, How_to_allow_anonymous_web_link
submissions, How_to_enter_thousands_of_web_links, How_to_enter_thousands_of
web_links
Web_Links, Installation
WhiteHat, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke
window.open, Javascript_functions_in_javascript.php
Windows, How_to_install_PHP-Nuke_locally, XAMPP, In_Windows,_you_get_an_empty
page, WebCam_module, How_to_implement_a_favourites_icon_(favicon.ico), Turck
MMCache
wizard, Gallery_module
Wordpad, Call_to_undefined_function:_message_die()_in_db.php_line_88
words, How_to_translate_this_HOWTO, Forums_Error:_Can't_create_a_category
without_a_name, The_preinstalled_modules, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-
Nuke, How_to_change_the_font_size_in_PHP-Nuke, How_to_create_a_Help_Center
Live_block, The_impact_of_bad_security_record_on_software_popularity, SQL
injection_with_PHP-Nuke, Hacked_-_now_what?, API_phases, Quoting_special
characters
WorkBoard, WorkBoard_Module
world-readable, The_administration_functions
World-wide, PHP-Nuke_vs._XOOPS
ws_ftp, Upload_through_FTP, Upload_through_FTP, Upload_through_FTP
WYGIWYM, The_general_idea
WYSIWYG, The_general_idea
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
X
XAMPP, XAMPP
XDMP, The_preinstalled_modules
XHTML, The_syntax_of_HTML_code, How_to_format_text_in_HTML, How_to_format
text_in_HTML
XML, The_administration_functions
XST, Cross-site_tracing_with_PHP-Nuke
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Y
Yahoo, eCommerce_module
Your Account, How_to_create_a_top_navigation_bar_as_in_NukeNews_theme, How_to
redirect_users_to_the_Homepage, How_to_redirect_users_to_Login_and_back, How
to_create_a_Logout_module
Your_Account, How_to_redirect_users_to_Login_and_back, SQL_injection_with
PHP-Nuke, Installation, How_to_find_all_registration_links, How_to_find_all
registration_links
Your_Info, How_to_redirect_Your_Info_to_the_Forums_user_profile
Your_Module, How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module,
How_to_include_a_HTML_file_and_its_links_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module, How_to_include
a_HTML_file_and_its_links_in_a_PHP-Nuke_module
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Z
zero, Regular_expressions
zip, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export, The_administration_functions, The
administration_functions, Treemenu_with_Javascript
zipped, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export, phpMyAdmin_navigation_bar:_Export
zlib, XAMPP
Notes
[1] Openoffice is an office suite completely free which you can download from
OpenOffice.
[2] all, that is, except those that contain callouts, see HTML_validation.
[3] The current version of the lyxtox script make less use of sgmltools, due to the
need of processing intermediate results for the integration of Mathematics,
Bibliography etc. The originally used calls to sgmltools are nonetheless included
in the comments of that script to demonstrate alternative ways of achieving the
same result.
[4] directories are just special files in Linux
[5] “White spaceâ€, in the setting of the PHP trim(), function can contain only the
following characters:
* " " (ASCII 32 (0x20)), an ordinary space.
* "\t" (ASCII 9 (0x09)), a tab.
* "\n" (ASCII 10 (0x0A)), a new line (line feed).
* "\r" (ASCII 13 (0x0D)), a carriage return.
* "\0" (ASCII 0 (0x00)), the NUL-byte.
* "\x0B" (ASCII 11 (0x0B)), a vertical tab.
[6] We will assume all prefixes, like $prefix and $user_prefix to be “nukeâ€.
[7] 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.
[8] Note that, starting from version 6.7, a news article may be associated with
multiple topics.
[9] This applies to PHP-Nuke version 6.0, that has the Splatt Forum installed, or to
those installations of a later version that nevertheless use the Splatt Forum
module. For the administration functions of the phpBB Forum, see Section_7.1.1.
[10] Actually, the source code for the PHP-Nuke block is slightly different, but the
algorithm is exactly the same.
[11] Laws without morals are empty.
[12] This is the original name.
[13] To find out if you have the GD library loaded, run a test script like test.php
(see Section_3.9.1.1), ConnectTest.php (see Section_3.9.1.2) or analyze.php (see
Section_3.9.1.3).
[14] See Section_25.6 for a do-it-yourself solution to hot link prevention.
[15] How much emptiness there is in things!
[16] See edit_module_your_acount.
[17] Life has given nothing to mortals without hard work!
[18] Of course, this also means that our change has to be applied for every theme and
after every upgrade anew.
[19] That is at least the way I managed to get it to work with the ExtraLight theme.
Since everyt heme is different, you will have to experiment here.
[20] Notice that we have added $page to the global variable list - other than that ,the
first two lines are included here only for your orientation.
[21] Strictly seen, the CloseTableNew() function is not necessarily needed, since no
new colour is defined there, but it is good to have, to keep the functions
conceptually separated from the standard ones.
[22] See Block_hosts_from_total_hits_in_statistics_module.
[23] See How_to_sort_in_Sections.
[24] Line numbers are subject to change. If you don't find what you expected, search
for it.
[25] One person's medicine is another's foul poison.
[26] the “window.open†line in the example above is actually a long line that has been
broken to 3 lines only for layout purposes, that's why there are no newlines (\n)
at the ends of two lines (just as there is no semicolon for the same reason).
[27] this kind of SQL injection needs a database capable of understanding the UNION
clause (for MySQL at least v. 4.x)
[28] A typical website will get about two thirds of its external traffic from search
engines and one third from sites that link directly to it. Of course, your mileage
may vary.
[29] The regular expression matches the HTML code for the text shown in Figure_25-4,
where the capital letters A and C were enclosed in <i> tags. This makes it look
more formidable than it actually is.
[30] For better readability, the urlin regular expression was broken across several
lines in their table cell. The parts of the regular expression that match an URL
parameter of the dynamic URL are on separate lines. But in reality, the regular
expression is a one line long string.
[31] If you are looking for a ready-made ODP module for PHP-Nuke, see Section_8.3.13.