Professional PHP4 Web Development Solutions
December 2, 2002
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This case study explores a very basic Content Management System
(CMS) designed for internal use by a team of technically capable
contributors. Our excerpt discusses a very simple CMS in which the
content of a document takes on several forms while using a single database.
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The true power of PHP lies in its strength to create dynamic web content. Developers have moved on from using the newbie style of PHP books, to making PHP work for them by using the theoretical offerings (from existing PHP books) to create small to medium websites. This transition has created a definite information void, and through the Professional PHP4 Web Development Solutions book we hope to exactly fill that space - by helping you create a variety of real world, interactive web sites using PHP4 along with HTML, a DBMS system (MySQL), PEAR::DB, and XML or WML wherever applicable.
This book is replete with case studies showing PHP's use with output in HTML, XML, and WML. The PHP programming techniques are presented in such a manner that you'll find focused pieces of code that you can directly plug into your applications that will help you to build sites faster and better.
Who is this book for? This book is a resource for working PHP developers who need to fill the 'solutions' gap in their knowledge base, left behind by the multitude of theory-based PHP books in the market. The intent is to extend the real-world conversation started in those books, as well as to offer solid web application design techniques and solutions using PHP, databases, and markup languages.
What does this book cover?
- Creating an association directory using XML markup and MySQL
- Creating a web forum using PHP with MySQL and PEAR::DB
- Building a PDA/Wireless store directory application using PHPLib
- Creating a job board using PHP, WML, MySQL, and Smarty
- Building a news service using PHP, MySQL, and Smarty
- Creating a web corpus using simple PHP scripts
- Building a classified ads board using PHP with MySQL, and Smarty
- Building content management systems using PHP, MySQL, and XML
- Building a search engine for dynamic sites PHP, MySQL, and PHPLib
- Building a three-tier, multi-client, wireless data warehousing application
- Creating a PHP/MySQL based data repository
- Building a robust site architecture using the PostNuke CMS
A Simple Content Management System
This case study explores a very basic Content Management System (CMS) designed for internal use by a
team of technically capable contributors. For those who are looking for a CMS that can be used by by
administrators and non-technical contributors, it would be advisable to go through this case study first and
then proceed to Chapter 10, which deals with an an advanced Content Management System (CMS).
In the course of this chapter we will look at:
- Specifications
To begin with, we need to define the features of the CMS.
- Designing the Data
The CMS will be based on a MySQL database. This section describes how the tables in this
database are structured.
- Managing the Data
We need some PHP code that manages the data in the database.
- Possible Enhancements
The most obvious enhancements to the core application are presented at the end of the chapter.
This chapter discusses a very simple CMS in which the content of a document takes on several forms while
using a single database. This is accomplished by using XML to define each document.
While all documents have the same skeleton set of XML tags, each document type differs in the tags used
within the <body> element. This content markup is actually stored as is in the database. Each document type
will require its own application component to parse and manipulate the document body.
Specifications - Page 2
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