I am looking to create a web site that will need to exchange information with a Filemaker Pro (version 11) database. Using PHP I can create simple web apps that submit and retrieve data from Filemaker. I would however like to use a CMS framework (such as Drupal) to allow users to control access to the site and update site content (blog posts, images, etc ...).
Is it possible to use Drupal as a "shell", controlling access to certain pages and allowing site editors to modify content, while embedding a PHP page/form to interact with the Filemaker data? I would be planning to use MySQL for Drupal and the custom "web apps" would access Filemaker. Thanks for any help.
Have you ever heard of the expression "there's a module for that?" It's used quite a bit in the Drupal world. And yes, for Filemaker, there is a Module for That!. It's called, the Filemaker module, see more detail at http://drupal.org/project/filemaker.
Now I've never tested it, so it may not give you everything you want. But the beauty of open source is that you can always contribute what it doesn't already have. Or at least see how they did it to see if its worth it for you to try your own integration.
Now this module is one version behind current, so maybe you can learn Drupal by learning to upgrade the module. There's great guides on how to do this.
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I am developing a web application using Django and python. We have also a public website where a customer can find information regarding our products. I was thinking to implement this website using WordPress or other well known php CMS, since the content may be modified by people who don't know how to code.
A user must login to access our web application. The login should be located in the public website (built using php and a CMS) along with the registration form. The user model is already implemented in the web application and therefore is not available in the CMS/php. I was thinking to include a login page written in python by means of an iframe. is it a good idea?
Is there a neat solution for this problem? Is a good idea to mix up php/cms and python/Django?
There is an opensource CMS for Django called Mezzanine. Its very elegant.
In some ways, Mezzanine resembles tools such as Wordpress that provide an intuitive interface for managing pages, blog posts, form data, store products, and other types of content. But Mezzanine is also different. Unlike many other platforms that make extensive use of modules or reusable applications, Mezzanine provides most of its functionality by default. This approach yields a more integrated and efficient platform
Follow this link to download and have a look at its features
Regarding you question Is a good idea to mix up php/cms and python/Django?, No, because Django is Python based and wordrepss is PHP based. Although you can sync data by writing different scripts that require some knowledge of both ends.
There is another option https://www.django-cms.org/
This is specially usefull if you have already a django project, because you can add to the project the CMS components, Mezzanine is a very good option too, but you have to start the project from scratch.
Trying to integrate something like tracewatch into admin panel of my PHP, MySQL based website.
But I need 1 page solution, not heavy system like twatch with user management.
I wonder, is there any simple php class or mini app for this purpose (want to get something like this on admin page)?
There are bunch of tracewatch alternatives. Here are somes:
Piwik
Piwik is an open-source Web analytics application developed using PHP and MySQL. It has a "plugins" system that allows for utmost extensibility and customization. Install only the plugins you need or go overboard and install them all – the choice is up to you. The plugins system, as you can imagine, also opens up possibilities for you to create your own custom extensions. This thing’s lightweight – the download’s only 1.9MB.
FireStats
FireStats is a simple and straight-forward Web analytics application written in PHP/MySQL. It supports numerous platforms and set-ups including C# sites, Django sites, Drupal, Joomla!, WordPress, and several others. Are you a resourceful developer who needs moar cowbell? FireStats has an excellent API that will assist you in creating your own custom apps or publishing platform components (imagine: displaying the top 10 most downloaded files in your WordPress site) based on your FireStats data.
JAWStats
JAWStats is a server-based Web analytics application that runs with the popular AWStats (in fact, if you’re on a shared hosting plan – AWStats is probably already installed). JAWStats does two things to extend AWStats – it improves performance by reducing server resource usage and improves the user interface a little bit. With that said, you can’t go wrong with just using AWStats either if you’re happy with it.
SimpleStats
Simple Stats is a PHP based, web analytics utility designed to enable you in monitoring visits on your website. It is very simple to install, and it's interface goes straight to the important facts such as the Google search queries (understand "the search expressions in Google") that your visitors might have used to browse to your website.
You could try Piwik. You can access features using an API or embed a widget via iframe.
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.
My company is building a platform on top of a heavily extended Drupal core. I have multiple customers who will be using separate instances of this system and will want to customize both the theme and the functionality.
I'm trying to design a system to allow them to add themes and modules, some of which might interact with some of my modules, without giving them access to the actual code. (This isn't open source)
The way that Facebook and Ning do this is to have the developer host their own custom code, and have a callback to it. This won't really work for me, as these sites need the ability to be fully customized, so callbacks for specific integration points don't really work.
One option is to set up a sandbox environment where the custom developers only have access to a couple specific directories to build their themes and custom modules. We could then integrate with git to commit these when they're ready and deploy them with the rest of our code into production. The problem with this setup is that developers have to develop remotely and have to use our source control system.
A more typical setup is to allow the developers to download something to build their custom code against. They can develop locally and use whatever source control practices they already have. As we don't want specific point integrations, I don't think this can be a library that runs against a separate server. The alternative is to download our full core Drupal system and develop locally against that, uploading the custom code when it's ready, but then they would have access to all our code and IP.
Thus the predicament, as I don't think there is any way to effectively obfuscate PHP.
Anyone have any brilliant ideas here?
It sounds like your system is a derivative work of Drupal and thus covered by the GPL. If you distribute the code to your clients they have all of the rights provided by the GPL, Including modifying and redistributing it.
Be aware that distributing obfuscated GPLed code is not allowed. To quote the GPLv2 "The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it."
Obfuscated code does not comply with this clause of the GPL.
That said, if you really want to provide your clients a way to customize your system you could provide your clients access to the existing Drupal module and theme system but only on your sandbox.
Of course since the modules and themes are PHP and you "don't want specific point integrations" it seems they would have the sort of freedom that would allow them to write a module that reads all of the source code for the rest of your system and then tar it up and send it to themselves.
I think you've painted yourself into a corner by depending on GPL. Keeping your IP private while allowing your clients to extend/customize the system in general ways doesn't really work.
I hope you're aware that Drupal is GPL licensed, be sure to read their licensing FAQ before you start obfuscating.
Why not just create an FTP user for them which can only access /sites/theirsite? What am I missing?
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.