User management and access frameworks - php

I'm looking to add an image upload and comment area to an already existing site. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel I'm wondering if there are any "drop in" ways to handle user management and security.
I've begun looking at frameworks like Codeigniter, but as far as I can see they need to be installed in the root of the system and as I said, the rest of the site is already there.
I also noticed that Symfony has a standalone security suite for PHP but I didn't see a user management component.
I guess going further down the DRY "reinvent the wheel"...is there any already existing open source framework that has members pages where they can upload images. I currently work in php, but I'm open to suggestions.
Thanks.

Well, It seems you need something like cms,
and you are asking this from framework(which cms does). I will suggest you to go with cms, For php there lots of cms:
Druapl
Joomla
So, you do not write any code for your requirement, just drop modules into folder, and turn on them.
If you really want framework, then I would suggest you go with module based framework like yii. I has tons of modules, that you can include and use it, But they are not ultimate as cms's modules. In yii it is called exnetnsion
here is some extensions:
yii-user-management
Comments
If I were you I would go with cms's. For this kind of DRY things, They are the best and built in for this purpose.

If all you want is the ability to upload images and have users comment, then why not incorporate the functionality of an existing image gallery into your application? Most of those will already include user management. This website lists some of the more common galleries: http://www.design3edge.com/2010/08/26/best-free-and-open-source-php-image-galleries/. There is bound to be one you like in that list.

Related

Codeigniter Modules

I'm putting together a dashboard for a backend to a CMS project made with Codeigniter. There is some navigation in a sidebar and I"m trying to figure out what I need to know making "modules". I have two types of users. Administrators and basic users. They share the same sidebar navigation. Admins can see all links in the navigation and basic users can only see some. I was trying to look at a few different CMS's to see how they do it and really like how PyroCMS does it with putting together their navigation. However, I"m trying to find out what really tells me what I should makes a module. I know it has its own controllers, models, views and etc. I'm trying to find out with research what I need to know to really know what should I make into a module. Are their questions I should I should be asking myself that will be able to tell me what has the possibility of being a module and what isn't.
CMS Admin_Controller Line 80
Module development with PyroCMS is the way to go if you're used to working in CodeIgniter.
Becoming acclimated will be intuitive as a CI programmer, create a new module (drop it in your *addons/shared_addons/modules* folder):
https://github.com/pyrocms/sample
And notice how the routing works:
http://docs.pyrocms.com/2.2/manual/developers/basics/modular-routing
Then take a looksee at MY_Model (system/cms/core) that PyroCMS includes. I wrote a few modules before realizing PyroCMS includes a basic model that will save you from writing a lot of extraneous code. Don't worry, you can still always choose extend CI_Model instead if you don't want to use MY_Model for a module.
The more you learn about the mechanics of PyroCMS, the more you realize it has no limits. Unless you're writing trivial apps or just like re-writing code, I wouldn't start any new project in CI because PyroCMS is the more sensible starting point.
If there is something more advanced that the documentation doesn't answer for you. Then SNOOP AROUND! All the core features are built as modules. Check out how they did it in one of the core modules (system/cms/modules/). And if you want to change something in the core, you can avoid make any changes to the core by overloading views.
Once you're confident with your ported CI App, I would check out Streams. Streams will dramatically increase the time it takes to write trivial CRUD modules. If you're as happy as I've been with Pyro, you won't mind shelling out the lettuce to buy PyroCMS Pro or Streams.

How to go about allowing plugins for a custom framework?

First off, this isn't really a programming question but more of a programming concept question. Basically, I've built a bespoke PHP framework to speed up deployment on my end and I want some kind of plugin system in place that will allow me to add specific features to the base of the framework (like the SQL class or maybe a Twitter package) that will allow me to throw them into a folder and not have to actually edit the base for every new project.
Any ideas of the best way of going about this?
Here is a nicely written post by #ircmaxell on how to do that and what are the options:
Handling Plugins In PHP
Also check out:
Best way to allow plugins for a PHP application
what im doing in my cms:
for each plugin i make a folder latin-named of this plugin's name.
i create a /translations folder in there too. Check here.
have a single php file that has 2 basic functions, the plugin_install and plugin_uninstall (you know, things to happen on install/unistall like tables creation/drop)
create a special page of your system that reads these plugins, installed and not and give an on/off switch so users can install/unistall them.
load these single files mentioned above by a single call to include_once on top of your index page (or administration page) so to include whatever functionality they offer.
enabled plugins will be loaded (include_once) from your main page, and also their functionality, so each plugin can call each other's as well.

php plugin based script

I'm thinking of building a plugin based application.
At the moment, I am not sure what type of plugins will be used so I don't have a requirement.
I wish to know how such applications are designed so I can start my application around that.
Does anyone have any experience with this? I don't mind what sort of system it is or what your plugins do. What I want are some ideas on how others have achieved this so I can formulate and make my own.
Thanks.
I use this for all of my plugins: http://failover.co.za/2010/10/20/writing-a-pluggable-php-application-part-1/
If the plugins are going to be built by people who won't be editing the script, then you can just include the file for the plugin.
I think it's better for you to work with MVC Framework and then create an application core (modules and all apps need and require this), then think global and create other apps and modules.
Also I suggest you look at an Open Source CMS like Wordpress, Drupal, etc.

CMS for custom application

We are building a custom application using LAMP with P being PHP. We also need to have CMS to manage various aspects of the site. The two options for the CMS are
Build a complete custom CMS from scratch
Extend an existing open source CMS to fit our needs. This way we can use some of the features out of the box and others we will build ourselves.
I would like to get your feedback on the following
What are your experiences with option number 2?
Which CMS would you recommend that we can further customize and extend for our use?
What are the best ways to integrate a custom application with other external CMS?
I really like the MVC approach for a CMS (you did mention extending), and PyroCMS is built on Codeigniter. It might not (out of the box) serve all of your needs, but easily could. Its worth a look, at the least.
A whole set of CMS are available nowadays, everyone with its own pros and cons.
I guess the first step in your case is to make a list of the features that you:
MUST HAVE
SHOULD HAVE
COULD HAVE
Once you have this list, you'll be able to compare the existing CMSs to see which one better fits your needs.
There's no a best CMS (otherwise everyone would use the same).
Said this, Joomla offers a powerful base system, easily extensible. But this is just my modest opinion. Right now, 4712 extensions exist for this CMS. If you still can't find all you need, it's possible to implement your own extensions (in terms of plugins, components and modules). See the developers section for more information.
I've recommended ModX in response to previous questions
It provides a nice clean framework which is simple to install and is easy customize.
For your situation I think ModX is a strong contender as it allows you to embed your own php code in your site using snippets - Bob's guide on snippets is a good overview. The snippets can be managed through the backend web manager and they can easily be dropped into any pages as required.
Larger applications can be setup as modules, this is similar to many of the other main stream CMS's, it's just that in ModX the web based control makes the management of the code a simple task.

Need to Assess whether Joomla is good fit for Web Application Requirement

I have a web application that needs to be built using PHP/MySQL. The application will require documents to be generated from data in the MySQL database. Such documents will be printed and/or emailed and user will be prompted to run a daily print/email job based on business logic.
This application functionality needs to be made available to individual users such that they can upload data, have the system prompt them as to whether letters/emails are to be generated. The site also needs to be able to support a bulletin board, online live training events and will have admin area as well.
Question: Should a hybrid solution be developed such that the data management (upload functionality, and letter production) be a separate part of the site that authenticated Joomla users can access? That is, the document management functionality would exist separately from Joomla, but be called from within it via a link in the Joomla sitemap. Alternatively, should custom modules be developed from within Joomla to accomodate the document management functionality?
Thanks so much for your input!!
Joomla could do the job for you but based on the amount of things you need that differ from a normal Joomla site I would use a framework to build from instead of a CMS. I say this because it sounds like you need a lot more than just a CMS and it can be more work if you try making Joomla do things it wasn't designed to do. In my opinion Joomla is for "web sites" and not as much for "web apps". Of course those terms have overlap but it sounds like you would be better off with a Framework to go off of instead of working around Joomla to get what you want. However if the site is already done in Joomla it may be less work just to make a Joomla add-on.
Since you have to use PHP I would definitely recommend CakePHP for your framework. As for an integrated forum try looking at the links in this post. If that doesn't work for you, try out Vanilla forums (vanillaforums.org) which are very clean and may be easier to integrate into CakePHP than some of the other PHP forums.
If you decide to use CakePHP, check out Cake Forge to see if you can find anything there to make your life even easier.
If you were to use Joomla, the upload functionality and letter production would be written as a custom component. You can write the component to make sure that the current user is authenticated before generating the documents. I would not develop this as a separate application alongside Joomla; it would be easier to write it as a component.
Many forums and forum bridges are available for Joomla, so that would be something you wouldn't have to write.
I'm not sure what kind of live event support you're looking for.

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