Book VIII 3 in Java

Draw PDF 417 in Java Book VIII 3

Using CMS Made Simple (CMSMS) Adding new pages in CMSMS Adding themes Working with templates Approximating CMS with SSI and AJAX Creating a CMS with PHP and MySQL

he idea of a content management system (CMS) is very appealing because it gives you a great deal of additional control of your site and allows the user to manage his own content Of course, when you use a content management system, you re somewhat at the mercy of that system s designers In this chapter, I show you how to customize a relatively simple CMS, including adding new styles and layouts I also show you several ways to approximate a CMS with your own code using technologies introduced throughout this book Finally, I develop a rudimentary CMS using PHP and MySQL Even if you don t end up building your own CMS, looking through this code helps you see how real world CMSs work

Content management systems are certainly useful, but it s no fun to be stuck with somebody else s design You probably have your own design ideas you d like to implement in the CMS Of course, you can build new themes for any CMS, but that s not always as easy as you might think You have to be comfortable with using most CMSs before you can write your own themes I show you CMSMS (or CMS Made Simple), a CMS that s so simple you should be able to customize your site with it completely in just a couple of days For small to medium-size projects, it s a good blend of simplicity and capability (and now my favorite CMS)

The installation of CMSMS is similar to any other CMS installation Follow these steps:

from the Web site) The CMS itself is mainly a series of PHP files with a few images and other materials

The first time CMSMS runs, it checks for the existence of a script named configphp You need to create an empty file of this name and put it in the directory requested by the script

This account sets up an administrator for CMSMS (not for the database)

Figure 4-1 illustrates how CMSMS expects the data to be configured Define the database, username, and password you will use for the database relating to this CMS

CMSMS is unique because the default setup is the documentation! Most of what you need to know is already available within CMSMS itself Don t worry, though: The documentation is still available, even after you replace it with your own content, and CMSMS isn t that hard to use (much easier than Drupal, in my opinion) The default setup of CMSMS is shown in Figure 4-2 Before you change anything, take a look around and make sure to read the default pages because they re full of helpful information about how the system is designed

The philosophy of CMSMS is straightforward: Templates define structure Templates are basically XHTML pages If you want a new XHTML structure, you simply modify or create a new XHTML page

Templates include smarty tags Templates contain XHTML structure, but no content You put special markers in the templates to indicate where the content is placed I tell you more on that topic as I describe how to modify templates, later in this chapter CSS describes layout As always, use CSS to define the look and feel The CSS for CMSMS isn t really any different than it is for regular XHTML, except that a lot of it is already done for you (and done very well) Content is defined within the system When you want to create content, you specify a layout, and CMSMS provides a WYSIWYG editor to let you type in the content