I'm working on a Restaurant website project and my client wants a Blog section and a complex Reservation System with it.
I use Wordpress to work with blogs and I prefer to use Code Igniter for systems but I don't know if these two can work good together. I have been reading some articles regarding the integration of CI to WP and a lot of it points out that conflicts are inevitable when doing so.
Are there any solutions you can offer me? One that is easy to integrate, no conflicts and helps me keep my code DRY.
As you pointed out, integration is not readily available. If you truly wanted to integrate them, it would be a long road (and not likely worth it). One think you could do is install them separately and just link between the two when necessary (not ideal, but doable). For instance you could install CodeIgniter at example.com/reservations/, and then install your blog at example.com/blog/
You could also utilize subdomains if you wanted. I honestly would go this route if I was faced with the same situation...I definitely would not waste the time in trying to integrate the two if there isn't a lot need (ie, blog posts needing to access information in the reservation system, etc...).
Related
I almost feel dumb/ignorant for asking but I have never used Wordpress in my life. My primary skill of recent has been developing secure internet/intranet applications in PHP for healthcare companies. Every now and then I get asked to do some personal work for friends or coworkers but don't have the time or willingness to learn something new with my busy schedule.
Recently, I was approached to develop a site for a non-profit education group in which the group would need to update content on a regular basis. Simple CMS system should do the trick and while I've never used it, what if I built the site for them on Wordpress? It would give a few of the employees the ability add and update blog posts and keep new content fresh on the site. The site would also need to maintain a member 'log in' area with security being a top concern which I have no idea if Wordpress is capable of on its own. I have no problem building the latter in straight PHP but I am curious, is it possible to truly integrate the two?
I would like to build something like this site:
http://tf.dtbaker.com.au/template/child_care/index.html
but add in the security/member only area features they mentioned while keeping the ability for 'blogging'. I recently came across a few hosted CMS providers (such as Surreal CMS http://surrealcms.com/) as a method to manage the CMS aspects but if there are better solutions, I am all ears.
Note: Using WP solely as a subdomain for any blogging aspects is not an option.
Thank you ahead of time.
WordPress is extendable using PHP and their Plugin system. WP has a basic level of user authentication and permission level to handle site management and maintenance. There are plugins available which allow you to implement member only features. Google search for WordPress membership plugin shows up quite a few hits.
Regarding security of WordPress, we have 3 websites running on WordPress for the last 5 years. Security has improved since version 3.x of WP compared to the earlier versions. There are plugins that help from doing things like scan the system for security holes (wrong permissions on files etc.) as well as plugins that claim to make your site more secure. But the best security is really understanding the WordPress system, how it works, and ensuring that the plugins you install are properly tested and vetted before being installed in production.
HTH
It's hard to make a recommendation without knowing the specifics, but if the majority of the functionality of the site has nothing to do with blogging, you'll probably end up spending a lot of time writing plugins to modify the way Wordpress works, and then you'll have to potentially maintain those plugins as the API changes as new versions of Wordpress are released. Since you're dealing with health care companies and a need for security, not upgrading when a new version of Wordpress comes out could potentially be a security risk. You'll probably also find that Wordpress's "blog-centricness" will start to get in your way.
From what you've said in your question, my inclination would be to use a CMS to build the site if I were in your shoes.
That's not to say that you can't use custom themes and plugins to add CMS-like functionality to Wordpress and end up with some nice looking sites. The folks at WooThemes (http://www.woothemes.com/) are doing a darn good job at that from what I've seen, and there are other folks doing the same thing. I just wouldn't go that route if I were you.
I'm working on a web application in Codeigniter. I'd like to integrate the functionality of my application with a CMS so that site admins can easily update the site (about pages, blog, etc). Is this easily done with PyroCMS or another Codeigniter-based CMS? Will I need to drastically restructure my existing app?
From my own experience integrating an app inside Expression Engine I can say that a CMS changes the way you usually work with CI. So be prepared to make some adjustments. Every CMS will come with it's perks and differences. It shouldn't be a big problem though.
If you want to use PyroCms take a look at this doc first:
http://www.pyrocms.com/docs/2.0/developers/creating-custom-modules
If you're looking for alternatives, there are a lot. It seems almost everyone working with CI has made it's own.
Here are a few:
http://www.ionizecms.com/
http://www.halogy.com/
http://codefight.org/
http://www.getfuelcms.com/
Also make sure you check out CI Bonfire, it's not a CMS but does help you when you start up a new project with a basic admin wrapper, which is sometimes more useful than a CMS:
http://cibonfire.com/
This was answered a year ago and answered well, but my support guy has forwarded me a few emails from users asking about this page.
When people talk about Content Management Systems they often suddenly get the idea of rigid backends where you applications have to follow specific rules. While PyroCMS certainly has a few conventions you are free to build your modules just like they are a CodeIgniter application, on the frontend or the backend.
If you want to use Models, Controllers, Views, REST API's, SOAP, whatever the hell, then you can do that.
But, we also offer some awesome tools to make building modules CRAZY-fast. Hate writing CRUD? Well don't bother. Using the Streams API you can leverage the build in "Custom Data" system we use to rock out chunks of interface for you.
Using PyroCMS for your application is certainly not "hacking it into a CMS", this is the exact use-case it was built for.
If you have an existing application, while you can't "put PyroCMS into your app" you can certainly convert your application to a module easy enough.
The simplest way of doing it is to write your models around the CMS' database. Host the CMS at a subdomain with authentication for your admins. (admin.mysite.com) or something and then use the same database to power your front-end for your site.
Is it the best approach? Probably not.
Will it work? Yes.
You will probably find it hard to expand vertically & add new features if you're relying on a 3rd party CMS for data entry & backend.
I've read that you can host multiple drupal sites, while they use the same core files(so not needing to copy a few megabytes for each site). I wanted to ask if there is an automated tool that can create a new site, while let you choose a template and then connecting it to the drupal system?
Are there tools like that(with a web layout)?
I would really like to get a few pointers as to how, lets say a company for building websites, will be able to use an automated system to build sites easily. I also understand that with drupal you have alot of manuver to edit your own code, when lets say you want some future in one of the sites. Is it pure php/html or in order to do that you have to delve into core Drupal futures? Also what are the chances that somebody already did it before and you can use this module?
Last, if a company wants to move to a Drupal system (web development company), how much of a transformation is it? Should they be Drupal core experts in order to not lose themself? Or they can keep a drupal base while still using the regular html/php? I really appreciate any leads.
Thanks.
*the questions is also intended to Joomla.
To answer your first question, the Aegir project is a system whereby you can use Drupal to create and manage Drupal sites. That includes installing from install profiles--which are sort of like site templates--or a distribution (Drupal installations pre-packaged with modules). The downside is that installation is fairly involved, more so than just Drupal itself. There's a lot of documentation on the Drupal groups site for Aegir. For a straight multi-site install, there's some documentation on the subject, but the install instructions with the software come with help that you should consult first.
As for your second question, the answer is (unfortunately) "it depends". Knowledge of PHP, especially "the Drupal way", plus integration with the community, are huge plusses. If you intend to join the community, immediately sign up both yourself and all developers an account on Drupal.org and, if you find solutions to bugs or other problems, providing back is a sign of goodwill, and it usually pays back dividends (one example: you submit a patch, it gets included in a module, and then the community maintains it for you). Developers need not be experts with Drupal core, but they need to be pretty comfortable with learning the API and knowing how to create sites for clients in general. First start with requirements gathering, then see how it fits into the Drupal way of doing things. If it doesn't fit, then use the right tool.
That's a tip of the iceberg view from the developer's point of view (as opposed to the businessman's point of view). There are plenty of companies that do only Drupal and there are plenty of companies where Drupal is one tool they use out of many.
I've spent a while searching around with google but come up with a relative blank.
Having just quit my day job (!!) I'm going to spend the next few months writing a very specific ecommerce website. Due to the nature of the site, using an existing package like Mage is out of the question, so I'm going to dust off my programming hat and get stuck in with Code Igniter.
I realise there's a cart and session class already, but I was just wondering if anyone had put together a simple ecommerce / member wireframe so I don't have to reinvent the wheel.
From all my googling I've only really found totalshopuk, but that's a bit too feature rich (and, with respect, not that well written.)
I've also come across http://www.kaydoo.co.uk/projects/backendpro which looks closer to the mark, and I'll be investigating it after I've finished this :)
Any further suggestions would be great.
Thanks.
Well, I faced the same problem half a year ago - making some specific ecommerce solutions and still maintaining some features like membership handling, CMS features and a lot of extras in the form of frontend visual effect and features. The CMS part and frontend request came a little late in the the developing process, but as a developer you probably already know how that works ;)
I started my editor and went on whacking in CI. I'm a big fan of CI, but got a bit tired of reinventing the wheel (as you put it yourself) for almost every feature asked for. I started looking around for alternatives which could help me develop fast and get easy profit, but EllisLab (the people behind CI) already had something great: ExpressionEngine - which is a fairly large CMS with all the features you need to start a complex eCommerce site. Best part? It's based on CodeIgniter and it's the same structure, libraries (and so on) when developing addons and extensions for ExpressionEngine.
Although it could seem a bit pricy, it didn't take me more then 3-4 hours developing for the customer before having paid for the license.
The main reason I recommend EE is that it's based on a framework I've worked with for so long that it doesn't take long to develop something extra for my customers.
eCommerce module is free for download and is easy to modify for your needs. Membership management is already integrated into EE.
I'm looking for a good solution to integrate a forum into a symfony application.
Something like phpBB would be excellent. I've seen phpBB plugins to integrate with symfony but that's not enough for my purposes, also, mapping database tables is a lame approach in my opinion.
If anybody knows a good working forum component for Symfony then I would really apreciate it. :)
Also, it needs to work with Doctrine.
Thanks!
I've found sfDoctrineSimpleForumPlugin Thanks for all the responses, hope this works :) !
The author made even some changes today after this post
If you're discounting the prestaForumConnectorPlugin which connects sfGuard and PHPBB3, then you may have to write your own connector. You should check if any resources exist on the websites of your favourite PHP forum.
One option is Invision Power Board (IPB) v3, as their developer resources explain how to integrate your own code (ie. symfony) into their system, including single sign-on: http://community.invisionpower.com/resources/official.html?category=41
I have integrated IPB v2 with symfony, and it wasn't ideal - there was no developer interface at that time to make IPB respect symfony. I had to hack around in the IPB source to make it work, but after discussing it with Invision was assured this would not be necessary with v3. This seems to now exist, which would be where I would start.
NB. IPB is not free, so hopefully this is not a sticking point for you.
I've integrated Phorum with symfony before - there's some old and semi-out of date documentation on the web for doing this, but essentially Phorum has an architecture that allows its user authentication to be easily overridden. You will then need to write a controller to wrap the forum calls too, and apply the main site templating (if you need that).
There are a couple of forums which use the Symfony frmaework. They are listed on the Symfony forum plugins page.
The most popular is the sfSimpleForum, which was built by Francois Zaninotto, one of the original Symfony developers.
There is little development in this area however, possibly because forums are the 'old' way of allowing users interact online and are gradually being replaced with new techniques.