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:

  • Added a new logo.

  • Added a CSS stylesheet for DocBook.

  • Took care of HTML validation (all HTML pages now are validated as conforming to the HTML 4.01 Transitional standard[2]).

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Incorporated LDP reviewer's comments.

  • 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
	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.

1.8.1. 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!

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.

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.

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.

	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_ftp”. 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 “gftp”.

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.

	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.

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 “MkDir”, which creates a new directory, and “Refresh”, 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.

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 “Edit”, 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
	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.

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 “others”. 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 644” then?

Luckily, there exists an easy mnemonic for this: “4,2,1”, 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).

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 “OK”.

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).

3.3.1. 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.

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.

3.4.1. 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:

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 file”. 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.php”, “.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)

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

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).

	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).

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.

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 succeeded”.

	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!

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).

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.

3.6.1. 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” (“suivant”). You will then be presented with screens like licence etc. and you can continue clicking on “next” (“suivant”), 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).

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.

To administrate easyPHP, you only have to click on that black “e”. 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.

<? phpinfo(); ?>

http://localhost/info.php

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.

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.

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).

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.

Once you have entered the system (as root), you can choose the three necessary pieces (Apache, PHP and MySQL):

• Apache is found under “Web Server”.

• PHP is found under “Web Server”.

• MySQL is found under “SQL database Server”.

To see what is contained in each section, click on the “Details” link (Figure 3-23).

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 “<?php”.

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 “su”, 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).

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.

	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.

3.7.1. 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:

---

3.7.1.2. 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-common”. 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.

	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.

3.9.1. 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

<?php 
include("config.php"); 
mysql_connect("$dbhost", "$dbuname", "$dbpass"); 
mysql_select_db("$dbname"); 
echo mysql_error(); 
phpinfo(); 
?> 

<?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, &nbsp;";
                        }
                }
                $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> &nbsp;($numFields $fields / $numRows $rows)\n<br>";
                $i++;
        }
        if($dbtype != "MySQL" AND eregi("mysql",$dbtype)) {
                echo "<br><font color=red><b>But, you need to set </b>
</font><font color=purple><b> \$dbtype = \"MySQL\"; </b></font>";
                echo "<font color=red><b> &nbsp;&nbsp; in your config.php!!!!!!!!</b></font><br>";
        }
        echo "<br>There are <font color=purple>$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: &nbsp;<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>&nbsp;&nbsp; (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>";
        }
}
?>

3.9.2. 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 resource”. 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;;

	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)?

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.).

	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

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).

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.

---

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.

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/includes”

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

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.

	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

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

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?”, 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

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

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 “browse”) the nuke_authors table. You can take two approaches:

   1. 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.

   2. 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.

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

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 “Refresh”, 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, Configuration”, 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.

3.10.1. 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

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

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.

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.

7.1.1. phpBB Forum administration

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.

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.

8.2.1. Moon & Sun block

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.

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

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.

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 work”. 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!

	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

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

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 “nodes”.

• 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

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).

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.

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.