Book Image

Building Websites with e107

Book Image

Building Websites with e107

Overview of this book

e107 is a PHP-based content management system that uses the popular open source MySQL database system for content storage. e107 is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License and is completely free, totally customizable and in constant development. It is an ideal tool for developing small to large dynamic community websites, intra company portals, corporate portals, weblogs and much more. It has a large, enthusiastic, and helpful community of users.If you want to create a powerful, fully-featured website in no time, this book is for you. This book will help you explore e107, putting you in the picture of what it offers, and how to go about building a site with the system. The book covers all the core features of e107, and it is thorough and incremental tutorial approach it gives you the understanding to experiment with advanced features and customization.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Building Websites with e107
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewer
Preface

How a Content Management System Works


If you look at screenshot overleaf, you will see all the different parts that combine to make up a content management system today.

A basic content management system works like this:

  1. 1. You select a template from the templates that are available by default with your content management system. If you prefer, you can spend a little money and hire a professional web designer/developer to create a custom template, typically with a logo at the top, and standard navigation options across the top, down the left-hand side, and/or at the foot of the page incorporating all the insert tags required to display information from the database.

  2. 2. When the information is submitted, it usually goes through a process of review by a designated administrator who may accept it, send it back for revision, or reject it. The information is available for viewing from the database only if the administrator or designated manager approves the information.

  3. 3. A text database stores the information. When a user requests information, the data script makes a request to the database for the information. The information in combination with the template forms the display page you see in your browser. Think mail merge in your favorite word processing program. The scripting language in use determines the URL page extension; in PHP, the extension is .php. It can also be .cfm for Adobe ColdFusion, .asp for Microsoft Active Server Pages, or htm/html for UNIX Linux.

  4. 4. The content management system generates indexes allowing it to keep track of added, updated, accessed, and deleted information. It also keeps track of who performed and approved these actions.

  5. 5. Most content management systems offer document archives, built-in search engines, permission controls, e-commerce, and workflow control.