PHP Fusion HB 6012 Uk

PHP-FUSION
VERSION 6.01
Copyright 2006 Jan Mlgaard

This handbook is made to he lp you install and use PHP-Fusion
Ve rsion 6.01 Copyright 2006 Nick Jones
Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01
PHP-Fusion Official Handbook

Copyright 2006 Jan Moelgaard
Porsgrunnsve j 45, DK-8200 Aarhus N
Denmark
Phone 0045 86164732
www.phpfusion.dk
All graphics made by author.
The mate rial in this publication is subje ct to the
rule s of the Copyright Act. Unless othe rwise spe cifically
agree d with Jan Moelgaard, any re production or any
othe r publication or any comme rcial usage is
only allowe d as far as it is pe rmitted
by law or authorized through an agreement
with the prope r organization.
1. Edition 2006
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Table of Contents:
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Installation ............................................................................................................................................... 6
Permissions .......................................................................................................................................... 7
Installing PHP-Fusion ............................................................................................................................. 8
Upgrading from earlier versions ..................................................................................................................13
Upgrading from version 6.00.x ...............................................................................................................13
Site Settings ............................................................................................................................................15
Structu re and PHP-Fusion terms..............................................................................................................15
Administrat ion site settings .................................................................................................................16
Site administration overview ..................................................................................................................16
Site Settings ........................................................................................................................................19
Main Settings ......................................................................................................................................20
Selection of a Theme, changing the Theme-file..........................................................................................22
Time and date settings..........................................................................................................................24
Forum Settings ....................................................................................................................................26
Registration Settings .............................................................................................................................26
Photo Gallery Settings ...........................................................................................................................27
Photo Gallery: Safe mode or not .............................................................................................................28
Converting from the old version of Photo Gallery........................................................................................29
Miscellaneous Settings ..........................................................................................................................33
Navigation Panel / Site Links ......................................................................................................................36
Changes in theme.php ..............................................................................................................................38
User Groups, Administ rators and Moderators .................................................................................................41
Administrato rs .....................................................................................................................................41
Moderators..........................................................................................................................................45
User Groups ........................................................................................................................................49
Using the TinyMCE-editor...........................................................................................................................55
Artic les ...................................................................................................................................................59
News and News Categories ........................................................................................................................69
Choosing edit news from the news display................................................................................................74
Downloads ..............................................................................................................................................76
Download Categories ............................................................................................................................76
Downloads ..........................................................................................................................................77
Images...................................................................................................................................................80
Uploading and using images...................................................................................................................80
Photo Albums ......................................................................................................................................82
Web Links ...............................................................................................................................................89
Panels and Panel Administration..................................................................................................................92
Forums...................................................................................................................................................97
Making Forum Categories ......................................................................................................................97
Polls..................................................................................................................................................... 104
Administrat ion in general ......................................................................................................................... 108
Shoutbox .......................................................................................................................................... 108
Users / Members................................................................................................................................ 110
Submissions ...................................................................................................................................... 112
Comments and Ratings ....................................................................................................................... 114
Database Backup ............................................................................................................................... 116
Private Messages................................................................................................................................ 120
FAQ how to use it ................................................................................................................................ 124
Moding the system a few examples........................................................................................................ 129
Change format for unique visits and show time taken to load page.............................................................. 129
A couple of so called MODs.................................................................................................................. 132
Styles & Themes .................................................................................................................................... 136
The new theme structure in version 6.01 .................................................................................................... 140
Design in general ................................................................................................................................... 143
Infusions .............................................................................................................................................. 145
Installing an INFUSION ....................................................................................................................... 145
Making a new INFUSION...................................................................................................................... 148
Final remarks about INFUSIONS ........................................................................................................... 154
Literature and Web Links ......................................................................................................................... 155
Closing remarks & Credits........................................................................................................................ 157
Appendix 1: Commented stylesheet........................................................................................................... 159
Index ................................................................................................................................................... 168
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Introduction
PHP-Fusion is a CMS (Content Management System ) code d in PHP (a se rve r side scripting
language) with a MySQL database running the backend. A C MS is a system which inte grates
a lot of functions usable for establishing and maintaining a homepage on the inte rne t in such a
way, that all the functions are part of the same solution and so that all mainte nance of the
homepage is done via a we b-browse r (Microsoft Inte rne t Explore r, Firefox or sim ilar).
PHP is a scripting language capable of establishing conne ctions with a database and re trie ving
and presenting data from this database in the form of a HTML page. And in a CMS like PHPFusion, this means that all the information ne cessary to form the pages that the use rs will see ,
is stored in the database and the page s are created dynam ically as the use r requests them.
PHP-Fusion distinguishes itse lf from othe r C MS packages by be ing ve ry compact (the whole
system in the ne west ve rsion fills less than 2.67 Mb including TinyMC E - an editor from
Mox ie code), ve ry effe ctive (pages are create d and pre sented ve ry fast) and ve ry flex ible (the
system is easy to adapt and expand according to your needs). PHP-Fusion is unde r constant
de ve lopment, and behind the system you find a ve ry active community and a constantly
growing ne twork of use rs expe rts and othe rs.
This handbook is a re vised and ex tended ve rsion of the English handbook for PHP-Fusion
ve rsion 6.00.2x, which was re leased in August 2005. Re visions are made in almost all
chapte rs according to the changes in functions as we ll as appearance in the ne w ve rsion.
A numbe r of changes have been made from ve rsion 6.00.300 to ve rsion 6.01. The most
im portant changes are:
- A ne w se curity laye r has been adde d to admin panel to pre vent outside link ing.
- Me ssages.php have been totally re written for se curity reasons
- A MySQL que ry have been added to the foote r to remove flood_control rows
- Forum attachment upload routine s have been enhanced for enhanced se curity.
- A partial re write of DB Backup admin pane l have bee n comple ted. Admin must spe cify the ir
password be fore backup/restore will process.
- The folde r db_backups have been removed from adm inistration folde r. Backups are now
store d on your local machine.
- C HMO D status of administration folde r has been dropped to 755.
- The db_back up_folde r field has bee n dropped from se ttings database table .
- The DB Backup Folde r option has been removed from Misc Se ttings adm in.
- A $locale array initialisation code has been added to pre vent conflict with cook ie vars.
- Flood control has been introduced to shoutbox and forums.
- A ne w 'flood_control' database table has been created.
- Adde d flood_inte rval field to se ttings database table.
- Adde d Flood inte rval option to Misc Se ttings adm in.
- Adde d m ySQL que ry to foote r to remove flood_control rows.
- Added Make this Ne ws item stick y option to ne ws admin, allows one ne ws item to remain the
top most ne ws item.
- Updated ne ws.php to support stick y ne ws feature .
- Adde d ne ws_stick y fie ld to ne ws database table .
- Adde d flood control to comments.
- Adde d Subm it Photo feature .
- Comple ted Photo Galle ry re write (uses ne w database and storage structure).
- Comple tely re wrote forum attachment upload/download handling.
- Ke y forum functions adde d to ne w forum _functions_include.php include file.
- Adde d Ne w Posts feature to Latest Active Forum Threads Pane l.
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Adde d Thread email notification option to forum.

Improve d adm inistration se ttings panels navigation.
Updated TinyMC E to ve rsion 2.0.6.1.
Introduced TinyMC E compressor reducing load times by up to 75%.
Focus has been on improving se curity and on pe rformance in this ve rsion. Only minor changes
have been made in the functions of PHP-Fusion. And changes have been made only to improve
the usability, the se curity and the flexibility of PHP-Fusion.
Since the last ve rsion of the handbook a numbe r of official support sites have been
establishe d. He re you can find localized support and ge t he lp installing and using PHP-Fusion.
Visit one of the official support sites on a regular basis to see , if your country is added to the
list.
Great Britain (UK): http://www.php-fusion.co.uk
Denmark (DK): http://www.phpfusion.dk
Be lgium (BE): http://www.phpfusion.be/
Ge rmany (DE): http://www.php-fusion.de
Holland (NL): http://www.phpfusion.nl
Swe den (SE): http://www.php-fusion.se/
Lithuania (LT): http://php-fusion.ten.lt/
Poland (PL): http://www.php-fusion.prv.pl/
France (FR ): http://www.phpfusion-france .com/
Italy (IT): http://www.nichelini.it/
Lithuania (LT): http://riomas.puslapiai.lt/
Iran (IR ): http://www.fusion.alaviwe b.com /
Bosnia (BA): http://www.phpfusion-bosnia.com/
Turke y (TR): http://www.phpfusion-tr.com/
Hungary (HU): http://www.php-fusion.co.hu/
For more themes (the file se ts used by PHP-Fusion to control the layout of pages) look he re:
PHP-Fusion Themes: http://www.phpfusion-themes.com /
For MO Ds or Infusions look he re :
Denmark: http://www.phpfusion-mods.dk/
UK: http://www.phpfusion-mods.com /
Infuse your World W ide Web prese nce !!
Jan Moe lgaard
Aarhus Denmark
June 2006
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Installation
Whe n you download PHP-Fusion, what you download is a zip-file (a compressed file), which
you first have to ex tract with a program like WinZip (or sim ilar).
Afte r unpack ing the file, you will see a folde r structure like this:
In the folde r php-files you will find all the program files. The file readme-xx.HTML (in
diffe re nt language ve rsions) stipulates the conditions for using PHP-Fusion (GNU - GPL) and
the main instructions for the installation.
You begin the installation process by mak ing a ne w MySQ L database or by ge tting your
provide r to create one for you on the we b se rve r whe re your web-page will reside.
Afte r that you copy all the files in the folde r php-files to the root of the we b se rve r (by using
a FTP-program such as C uteFTP or SmartFTP). Be fore starting the installation process, you
must se t the pe rm issions on a numbe r of files and folde rs for the installation process to run
smoothly. The R EADME files re fe r to the C HMO D command. This means to change the mode
of the file, which is simply se tting the file or folde r pe rm issions.
The pe rmissions stipulate which use rs have which le ve l of access to the files or folde rs. You
can set the se pe rmissions eithe r through your FTP-program or via the inte rface solution
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provide d by your se rvice provide r. In the examples he re we have used a FTP-program called
CuteFTP, but the principles are the same no matte r which solution you use .
Permissions
As you can see in the Readme-xx.html, this is how you set the pe rm issions1:
The folde rs and files:
adm inistration/db_backups/
images/
images/image list.js
images/articles/
images/avatars/
images/ne ws/
images/ne ws_cats/
images/photoalbum /
images/photoalbum /subm issions/
forum/attachments/
config.php
- should be se t to 777.
The code 777 means, that these folde rs should have the pe rm issions:
The code 777 means, that owner, group and public user should be able to read, write and
execute files.
1
If you install on a Windows-server you will normally not have to set up these permissions. Contact your provider if
this is the case.
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The file blank_config.php (which you have to re name to config.php before installing) which
is situated in the root folde r should have the same pe rm issions. This is ne ce ssary in orde r for
the install script to change the information in this file.
Whe n the installation process is finished, its important to change the pe rm issions on
config.php back to 644 (to pre ve nt visitors from changing the information in this file ). The
code 644 means:
Now you are ready to start the installation.

Installing PHP-Fusion
You initiate the process by ope ning your browse r and writing the address for your site . W hen
you do this, you will ge t this on your screen:
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He re you start out by choosing the language in which the dialogue of the installation proce ss
will proceed (the numbe r of languages will grow rapidly in the near future). In this example we
choose English. If you choose anothe r language , the language of the setup scree n will
change . But he re we just fill out the fie lds in the form like this and click Nex t:
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As you can see in this screen, the se tup script checks whe the r all pe rm issions have been se t
corre ctly, and if the se rve r has the corre ct ve rsion of PHP installed. If you get the message
Write permissions check passed, it means that e ve rything is O K. If you ge t an e rror
message he re , you will have to go back, change the pe rmissions and start the installation from
the beginning.
The name of the Database host is information you have re ceive d from your provider the
same is the case with the use rname and the password for the database. In most case s the
Database Hostname will be localhost.
In some cases you are allowed to create the database yourself. Should this be the case , you
will have to write the database name, the name of the system use r and the password for the
system use r down and use it he re . The information in the last fie ld is the pre fix that your
tables get in the database . If you are using one database for se ve ral installations, you can
separate the tables by using diffe rent prefixes for each installation. If this is not the case , just
acce pt what the installation program sugge sts.
It is important to note that the PHP-Fusion se tup does not create the database for you. You
must create the database on your web host and use those de tails in the PHP-Fusion
installation. If youre unsure about any de tails, contact your web host for assistance .
Whe n you are finished typing in the re quired information click Next and you will see this on
your screen:
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As you can see, all the tables in the database have now been create d and the ne cessary values
writte n to the config.php file .
In orde r to make the system accessible (so that you can log on and se t up your page ) you
have to create a supe r administrator (typically the owne r of the page), and this is what you
will have to do nex t.
It should look like this:
Whe n you click Next he re, this is what you see on your screen:
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As you can see, your page is now installed and ready to use. C lick Click he re and your ne w
homepage will ope n for the first time.
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Upgrading from earlier versions

First of all, with PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01.x you can upgrade dire ctly from ve rsion 6.0, ve rsion
6.00.1x or ve rsion 6.00.3x.
If you have an earlie r ve rsion, you will have to upgrade that to ve rsion 6.00.x be fore
proceeding to ve rsion 6.00.4x . Upgrade scripts that will make this possible , are available from
all the official support sites.
Se condly, be fore you start the upgrade process, make a backup of your database and all of
your files, so that you will be able to make a rollback if anything goes wrong. Make sure you
save a copy of your database backup to your local compute r.
How do you make a backup copy of your database?
The re are two diffe rent options. Eithe r you use the backup facility in PHP-Fusion or you use
whate ve r solution you use to adm iniste r your MySQL database (for most people this is
phpMyAdm in).
The backup function in PHP-Fusion is described late r in this handbook , so we will leave it at
that for now. Backup with phpMyAdm in is fairly simple , but you shouldnt use it unle ss you are
sure of what you are doing.
This is a brie f ove rvie w of what you have to do:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Open phpMyAdmin
Se le ct the database , you want to back up
Choose Export
Choose all tables
Choose send
Choose No compression unde r compression
Click do it
Choose a location on your hard disk to store the copy
Thats it
The copy of all your files is made with your usual FTP program the program that you use d to
upload the files to your se rve r.
What you do next depe nds on what ve rsion you want to upgrade from .
Upgrading from version 6.00.x
Before upgrading we strongly re commend that you backup your e ntire site as we ll as your
database.
1. Upload upgrade .php from upgrade folde r rele vant to your current ve rsion to the
adm inistration folde r on your se rve r.
2. Login to your site as the Supe r Adm inistrator and click Upgrade via adm in.
3. Follow all on-screen prompts until you see "Database upgrade comple te".
4. Upload the conte nts of the php-files folde r to your se rve r.
5. CHMO D the administration folde r to 755.

6. Ensure the following folde rs and file s are CHMODed 777:
images/photoalbum /subm issions/

images/ne ws_cats/ (v6.00.1x only)
images/image list.js (v6.00.1x only)
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Site Settings
Structure and PHP-Fusion terms
Before we start to go though the se tup process the re are some fundamental conce pts and
re fe rence s, we have to ge t in orde r. This is done through the following illustration:
The top logo of you page . This logo is e ithe r a gif, png or a jpg file make sure
that the style of the logo matche s the theme and the subje ct of your page.
The Top Menu or the Menu Bar which your use rs can use to navigate your
site.
The Navigation Panel. He re you can repeat the e lements of the menu bar or
you can add links to more spe cific items like Custom Pages.
The Welcome Message, which we lcomes your use rs to the page .
Log in Panel whe re the use rs can log on to their pe rsonal account, change
the ir de tails and see the ir private message s.
The Shoutbox a simple message facility for short tex t messages.
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The Footer used to display information across the whole site Powe red by
numbe r of unique use rs things like that.
User Information Panel he re your use rs can see how many othe rs have
registe red how many registe red use rs are online and who is the ne we st
membe r.
The se are the fundamental ideas and concepts you need to know to be able to find your way
around your PHP-Fusion site and that we are using from now on in this handbook
Administration site settings

Whe n you see your ne w Fusion site for the first time, you see a page that look s something like
this:
As you can see you re ce ive a warning message if you havent de le ted the setup.php file ye t.
This warning will remain, until the file is de le ted.
Before your page gets to look the way you like it to look , the res a lot of things you have to
change . In this chapte r we are look ing at Site Se ttings, themes, date format and the settings
for the navigation panel amongst othe r things.
Site administration overview
In the following chapte rs we will be using the admin pane ls of PHP-Fusion, so be fore we start
se tting up the site, he re is an ove rvie w of the admin panel functions.
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Content A dmin
Article Categorie s
Se t up cate gories for articles you nee d to

make at least one category be fore you can
save an article .
Articles all k ind of tex ts which should be
available to the use rs on your site.
Articles
Pages (not articles) can contain PHP-code .
For spe cial purposes.
Custom Pages
Download Categories
Categories for downloads you need to

create at least one category before you can
add any downloads.
Downloads UR Ls for the files you want your
use rs to be able to download from your site .
Downloads
Frequently Asked Questions questions and
answe rs you make as a se rvice to your use rs.
FAQ s
Discussion Forum all se ttings conce rning
the way forums should work on you site .
Forums
Upload and display images.
Images
This is whe re you create the ne ws on your
site or edit or dele te old ne ws items.
Ne ws
Ne ws Categories
Categories for ne ws items you can use this

function to place your ne ws items in diffe re nt
categorie s and illustrate them with diffe rent
icons
C reate albums and add pictures to them.
Photo Albums
C reate use r polls, so that your use rs
(membe rs) can vote on spe cific issues.
Polls
Web Link Categories
Categories for we b links you have to make

at least one category to be able to post links
on your page .
Add web links to your link se ction.
Web Links
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User A dmin
Adm inistrators
He re is whe re you add administrators to your

site and assign rights to them so that the y
can acce ss ce rtain parts of the administration.
Block access to your site choose domain
names or IP-addresse s.
Blacklist
Membe rs
Adm iniste r the membe rs on your site add

ne w one s, de le te membe rs or change
membe r information.
Adm iniste r the shoutbox on your site de le te
or edit shouts.
Shoutbox
Subm issions
Adm iniste r member submissions we b links,

ne ws, articles or photos. Publish them or
de le te them.
Se t up use r groups used to limit the
acce ssibility to ce rtain categories or forums.
Use r Groups
System Admin
Database Backup
Forum Se ttings
He res whe re you make your database

back ups eithe r in compressed or non
compre ssed format.
Se t up gene ral values for the forums on your
site numbe r and threads to show
attachments allowed and so on.
Install ne w infusions or remove the old ones.
Infusions
Your site s main se ttings panel theme,
language, name and so on.
Main Se ttings
Miscellaneous Se ttings
Bad words filte r, numbe r of shoutbox posts to

show. Mainte nance mode on or off and
Mainte nance message .
Pane ls administration remove or add
panels, enable or disable pane ls.
Pane ls
All main se ttings conce rning the way Photo
Albums are work ing on your site.
Photo Galle ry Se ttings
System info click he re to see the PHP
se ttings and values of your se rve r.
PHP Info
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Se ttings conce rning the PM system. Lim its to

inbox and archive amongst othe r things.
Private Message s Se ttings
Registration Se ttings
Site Links
How can use rs registe r on your site? Should it

be possible should emails be used to ve rify
use rs and so on.
Inte rnal links or site links the links in the
navigation pane l and the menu bar in top of
your site .
Title says it all time and date in diffe re nt
parts of your site .
Time and Date Se ttings

Whe n an upgrade is available this is whe re
you should apply it.
Upgrade
Site Settings
The basic se tup process is controlled from your A dmin Panel, which you access from the
Login Panel (top right corne r of your page) afte r logging on as an adm inistrator. When you
choose this option, he re is what you will see :
As you can see the adm in pane l is split up into three se ctions Content A dmin, User A dmin
and System A dmin. You move from one to anothe r by click ing on the title s.
You will find all the site se ttings in the se ction called System A dmin. Whe n you click this, this
is what you get on your screen:
Lets just start from the top se tting up your ne w site.

Main Settings
Whe n you choose Main Se ttings, this is what appears on your screen:
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Your site must have a name. The page name is shown on the top line of your browse r (in the
blue fie ld in Inte rne t Explore r), and you can choose any name for your page . He re we give the
page the name: PHP-Fusion: Handbook for version 6.01.
Your site also needs an address (this information is use d by diffe re nt functions in PHP-Fusion,
so its important that this addre ss is corre ct). In our example he re the address of the page
(the UR L) is: http://localhost/601_hb/ On the web se rve r it will look like this:
http://www.<yourdomain>.<...>. When you ente r the Site UR L it must have a trailing forward
slash like so: http://www.yourdomain.com/ othe rwise some functions will fail.
Now you will have to de cide whe the r your page has to have its own banne r. A banne r is a
graphics file (jpg, png or gif), which is shown at the top of all your pages. I have made a
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banne r for this handbook site in the gif format. It is called handbook.gif, and this is the name
I write in the banne r-fie ld (afte r copying the file to the images folde r). Remembe r that the
width of the banne r de te rmines the width of your page in the visitors browse r.
You will have to add the corre ct email address as we ll. This address is used by PHP-Fusion as
the main mail addre ss of your page (by the various contact functions).
You dont have to change Your name or nick name.
You dont have to write anything in Site introduction. But if you do, this tex t is shown on top
of your main page as a we lcome gree ting to your visitors. You can put graphics and html-tags
in he re as we ll if you want.
Site description and Site ke ywords are use d to create meta tags for the Inte rne t search
engines so that the y can index your page corre ctly. W rite a short, pre cise description and
some meaningful ke ywords and remembe r to se parate ke ywords with commas.
Finally you can write a copyright notice which is shown at the bottom of all your pages.
The last thing you can do in this se ction of the site se ttings is to choose the theme of your
page . This is what the nex t chapte r describes.
Selection of a Theme, changing the Theme-file

PHP-Fusion is delive red with a numbe r of standard themes that is, combinations of color
choices, backgrounds, fonts and so on which you are free to use. A couple of examples are
shown be low:
Figure 1: Similitude06
Figure 2: Fusion3
Figure 3: Sho wcase
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The re are more (more than 200) try the diffe re nt themes to find the one that suits your
page s purpose best. Late r he re we will give you a fe w tips to enable you to change format
(colors, page width and so on) in one of the standard themes. But if you dont want to ge t
involved in that kind of work, visit one of the many PHP-Fusion support sites. He re you can
download ex tra themes and the numbe r of themes available is increasing all the time.
In this handbook we choose the theme PFT Blue, which is use d in all illustrations from now
on. Afte r choosing this theme and making the initial se tup, this is what our page looks like:
Figure 4 : Front page after the initial setup.

What your use rs can choose from the top menu (the gre y area) and in the navigation pane l, is
de cide d by the site links option on the admin pane l. We will take a close r look at this late r in
this handbook . But right now we will go on to se t up the time and date se ttings.
Time and date settings
Open the admin pane l and choose Site Settings and Time & Date settings. W hen you do
this, this is what your scree n will look like:
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From the dropdown menus you can sele ct a se tting that suits your needs. Whe n you have
chosen a time and date format, you pre ss the symbol >> to put the se tting into the re le vant
fie ld. O r you could edit the se ttings in the fie lds Long date format, Forum date format and so
on to the same effe ct.
In the table be neath, you can see whe re the diffe rent se ttings are used:
Short date format
Long date format
Forum date format
Sub-heade r date format
Time offse t
Shoutbox
Ne ws, Articles, Guestbook
Forums
Used in the top menu
Your time offse t compared with se rve r
time -zone
This is how you should read the format se ttings:

%d Day of the month, 2 digits with leading ze ros
%m Nume ric re presentation of a month, with leading ze ros
%y A two digit represe ntation of a year
%H - 24-hour format of an hour with leading ze ros
%B - Swatch Inte rne t time (000 999)
%Y A full nume ric represe ntation of a year, 4 digits
%M A short tex tual repre sentation of a month, three le tte rs
%S English ordinal suffix for the day of the month, 2 characte rs
You can read more about the codes available he re : http://php.ne t/date .
In this handbook site we change two codes like this:
Short date format
Forum date format
%B %d %Y %H:%M
%d/%m /%Y
Note that its possible to m ix the date expression with text e lements and HTML-tags.
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Forum Settings
Whe n you open the se ttings se ction relating to the forums (by click ing Forum Settings from
System Admin or by click ing Next from Main Settings), this is what you see:
At the top you choose how many threads you want the pane l Latest Active Forum Threads to
show. This pane l is shown in one of the ce nte r panels on the front page .
Furthe rmore you can de cide whe the r your use rs should be allowe d to attach files, and if yes
de cide the maximum size of these attachments and the acce ptable file type s.
As a ne w feature in this ve rsion, you can allow registe re d use rs (membe rs) to subscribe to
forum notification. This means that a use r will ge t an email e ve ry time a ne w answe r is added
to a particular thread. It puts a little bit of strain on your se rve r but its a ve ry useful feature
for some sites.
The last option Prune forum isnt that re le vant right now, whe n we are installing a ne w
site, but late r it m ight come in handy whe n you want to clean up forum posts and threads. But
be careful! If you choose to prune your forums, theres no way back. All posts and threads
olde r than the chose n numbe r of days will be de le ted.
Registration Settings
Whe n you open the se ction Registration Se ttings (by clicking Registration Settings from
System Admin or by click ing Next from Forum Settings) this is what you will see :
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In this se ction you must first and foremost de cide whethe r it should be possible for visitors to
registe r or not. If it should be possible to registe r se t this to Yes if not set it to No.
If registration is allowed, you should de cide, whe the r verification should be used. If the
answe r is yes, an email is se nt to the ne w use r with a ve rification link . And first when the ne w
use r clicks this link , the membe rship is activated. The idea of this is that you can ge t a
ve rification of the use rs email-addre ss see if this email address actually ex ists. This se tting
requires that you have ente red the corre ct email addre ss for your site in Site Settings.
In the nex t line you de cide , whe the r ne w membe rs should be activated by an adm inistrator or
not. If you choose Yes he re , no ne w m embe r-accounts will be e nabled until an administrator
has approved them.
In the nex t line you de cide whe the r the validation code is shown or not. The validation code is
the re to prote ct your site from bots by using a C APTCHA test, so its a good idea to use it. And
finally you have to de cide , whe the r the validation code should be shown as an image or as
tex t. To show the validation code as an image , you must have GD2 support on your se rve r. If
this is not the case , choose Show validation code as text instead.
Photo Gallery Settings

PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01 is de live re d with a built in and comple te ly re written Photo Galle ry. To
se tup this facility, you have to ope n the nex t se ction of Site Se ttings. This is how it look s:
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In the first line you de te rmine the size of the thumbnails, which represent the diffe rent
albums.
In the nex t line you se t the size of the photos shown in the ordinary photoalbum pages that
is the max size of the individual pictures in each album.
The nex t line makes it possible for you to de cide how big the individual photos in the popupphoto function will be allowe d to be .
In both cases you se t the size as Width x He ight in pixels.
The thumbnail compre ssion me thod (GD1 or GD2) is the re so that you can adjust your site
se ttings to the se rve r, on which your site is residing. You ge t the best results with GD2 but if
your se rvice provide r (se rve r) doesnt support this standard, you can choose GD1.
Nex t you will have to de cide , how many thumbnails you want the Photo Album to show pe r
row its all about design he re. And finally you have to de cide how many photo-thumbnails
your albums should show pe r page .
In this ve rsion the Photo A lbum supports pictures in the formats gif, jpg, jpe g and png.
We will take a close r look at the Photo Album late r in this handbook .
Photo Gallery: Safe mode or not

The ne w ve rsion of the Photo Galle ry will work in to diffe re nt ways depending on whe the r the
se rve r has SAFEMO DE se t on or off. W hat does SAFEMODE mean? The PHP-Manual says that:
The PHP safe mode is an attempt to solve the shared-se rve r se curity problem. It is
archite cturally incorre ct to try to solve this problem at the PHP le ve l, but since the alte rnatives
at the we b se rve r and O S le ve ls aren't ve ry realistic, many people, espe cially ISP's, use safe
mode for now. This means that a lot of se rvice provide rs run their se rve rs with safe mode on
to prote ct the inte grity of the ir se rve rs.
If your se rve r has Safe Mode se t on, the Photo Galle ry will work without creating ne w folde rs
for each ne w album if Safe Mode is off, a ne w folde r will be created for each ne w album.You
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can see if safe mode is on or not, if you ope n PHP-Info and search for safe _ mode . If your
result looks like this:
- your Photo Gallery will be working without the folde r structure .

By the way if you nee d to make your scripts (for MO Ds or Infusions) work in diffe re nt ways
depe nding on whe the r Safe Mode is on or not, he re s a way to de te rmine that.
If you add this line to your script:
define("SA FEMODE", @ini_get("safe_mode") ? true : false);
you can use SAFEMO DE to control the way, your script works. If Safe Mode is on, SAFEMO DE
will be true if Safe Mode is off, SAFEMO DE will be false.
It could work like this:
This means, that if Safe Mode is off then SAFEMODE will equal false and the if-statement is
exe cuted.
Converting from the old version of Photo Gallery

PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01 is delive red with two diffe rent conve rsion scripts for your existing
Photo Galle ry - one whe re you conve rt to the standard ve rsion and anothe r whe re you conve rt
to the Photo Galle ry plus ve rsion.
Whe n you want to find out, which one to use, you should always start by che ck ing whe the r
Safe Mode is on or off on your se rve r. If Safe Mode is on choose the standard conve rsion script
if Safe Mode is off you can choose to use the plus ve rsion.
The names for the two diffe rent conve rsion scripts are inf_photo_converter_standard (for
the standard ve rsion) and inf_photo_converter_plus.
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Whe n you start upgrading your installation you should always as usual make a full back up
of you site (database and files). Then you proceed to upgrade the main installation (see how
earlie r in this handbook ) and afte r that you can start the conve rsion of your Photo Galle ry.
This is what our Photo Album looks like in ve rsion 6.00.307:
We start by upgrading the core installation. And when that has been done , we can go on and
upgrade the Photo Galle ry as we ll.
Afte r the upgrade , this is what the site looks like, if you try to open the Photo Galle ry:
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We have de cided to use the Photo Galle ry plus ve rsion he re, so the nex t step is to copy all the
Photo Galle ry plus files to the corresponding PHP-Fusion folde rs.
Now we want to conve rt the old Photo Galle ry to the ne w Photo Galle ry plus format.
You start this ope ration by copying the folde r from the download photo_converter_plus (the
folde r is calle d photo_converter) to the infusions folde r.
The n you go to your adm in panel, choose Infusions from System A dmin and choose to run
photo_converter:
Whe n you do that, this is what you see on your scree n:
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On you admin page a ne w infusion has turned up now. It looks like this:
And whe n you ope n that, you will see a list of albums ready for conve rsion. In this case you
will see only one:
Whe n you choose this album and click the Conve rt Album button, you ge t this message on
your screen:
And when you re turn to the site, this is what you see , whe n you click Photo Galle ry in the
navigation box :
If you ope n the album , this is how it look s:
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The Photo Galle ry conve rsion is done.

The ope ration needed to conve rt to the Photo Gallery standard is more or less the same.
Only he re you dont have to replace the PHP-Fusion files first but can go dire ctly to the
conve rsion proce ss.
Miscellaneous Settings
The last se ction of the Site Se ttings looks like this when you open it:
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He re you find some se ttings which do not really fit in the othe r se ctions.
PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01 is de live red with TinyMC E by Mox ie code integrate d in the system. But
it is up to you to de cide , whe the r you want to use this editor or not. If you want to use it,
simply choose Yes in the first line. If you dont like it you can always re turn to this page and
change your choice. What TinyMC E looks like , we will have a close r look at late r in this
handbook . We will take a close r look at this editor too late r in this handbook .
In PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.00.200 a ne w function was introduced, that made it possible for you
to use SMTP mail in all mail functions across you site. If you wish to use this function fill out
the fie lds with se rve r name , use rname and password he re. SMTP stands for Simple Mail
Transfe r Protocol and this is the de facto standard for email transmission across the Inte rne t.
SMTP is a re lative ly simple , tex t-based protocol, whe re one or more re cipie nts of a message
are spe cifie d (and in most cases ve rified to ex ist) and the n the message tex t is transfe rred.
PHP-Fusion has a built in function to filte r out unwanted words e ve rywhe re on your site
(shout box , forum and so on). So if the re s a word that you dont want to appear (for some
reason or othe r) you can write it in the top box (one word pe r line) and make one replacement
word in the se cond box named Bad word replacement.
On the next line you can allow guests (non-membe rs) to write short messages in the shout
box , and you can de cide the numbe r of shouts to be shown on the front page.
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Afte r that you will have to de cide , with which flood inte rval your site should ope rate. In the
illustration he re, the flood inte rval is se t to 15 (se conds) and this means, that membe rs or
guests writing more than one message within the same 15 se conds will be stopped.
Finally the re are a couple of functions you can use when you put your page in maintenance
mode . If maintenance mode is activated (usually when you pe rform a ma jor upgrade of your
site) the message in the message box will be shown instead of the front page of your site and
only administrators will be able to log in on the site .
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Navigation Panel / Site Links

The main navigation pane l (see p. 14) is controlled from the Admin pane l. If you ope n this
panel you should look for the option Site Links and whe n you click this link , the following is
shown on your scree n:
As you can see this list is orde red just like the list in the navigation panel on the front page .
And for each link the list te lls you the visibility (Public or Membe r he re ) and name of the link
and the orde r in which its displayed.
In the top of this menu you can add ne w links or edit the ex isting ones. And he re you can use
a function which was introduced in ve rsion 5.00 you can de cide whe the r this link should be
visible in the navigation panel, the sub-heade r or both.
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Besides making ne w links you can use this function to make rule rs and headings in the list.
If you want to divide the navigation pane l into three se ctions with the ir own headings, this is
what you do:
Whe n you save this site link (and the two othe r links a little furthe r down) your navigation
panel will look like this:
If you only want to divide the se ctions with rule rs, you make a link that look s like this:
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Ne w in this ve rsion is the possibility to move site links up and down in the navigation box by
click ing the green arrows. One click on the green arrow pointing upwards moves a site link one
step upwards one click on the gree n arrow pointing downwards move s the link one step
downwards. Its a function that expe rienced PHP-Fusion use rs know all ready from the pane l
se ttings screen, but it has been added he re for your convenience .
Changes in theme.php
In PHP-Fusion v6.01 its not like in earlie r ve rsions ne cessary to change a lot in the
theme .php. Most of the changes can be implemented from within the Admin Panel. But still we
may want to change a fe w things he re.
We are using PFT Blue as our theme he re and in this theme the site banne r and the width of
the theme work fine toge the r, but if you are using a diffe rent theme or your site banne r has a
diffe re nt size , it m ight be ne cessary for you to change the width of the page in theme.php.
To se t the width of the page corre ctly, you need to change the expre ssion
$theme _width=100% to $theme _width = 850; - in this example page be cause our banne r is
850 pixels wide .
To this example we furthe rmore have to change one more thing to make sure that the page
actually maintains the width of 850 pixe ls.
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In line 13 (line numbe rs may diffe r from theme to theme see more about themes late r in this
handbook ) we change 100% to 850. And now our page now looks like this:
If you want to change the way the date is displayed he re , you can do it from the Adm in Pane l /
Main Se ttings or Date and Time se ttings as shown earlie r.
But you might run into problems he re, depending on in which format your se rve r delive rs the
date .
The re st of it is really only a matte r of formatting this (UNIX) datestamp. And that depends on
the se tlocale and you can see more about how you can work with that he re :
http://www.php.ne t/function.se tlocale
Country codes are described he re :
http://www. w3.org/WAI/ER /IG/e rt/iso639.htm
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Now that the basic se tup is in orde r you can start to produce ne ws, articles and save links on
your page . More de tails in the se tup will be described late r. But be fore we move on to that we
begin by looking at group and role -de finitions and how you can use them to control the use r
acce ss to diffe rent areas of your information and the adm inistration of it.
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User Groups, Administrators and Moderators

PHP-Fusion works with two basic role -definitions for use rs administrators and members /
users. Besides that you can only be a guest on a PHP-Fusion site .
Adm inistrators can have ve ry diffe re nt access-profiles. So actually you can ope rate with as
many profiles as you need.
Finally from PHP-Fusion v6.00.1x you have been able to use user groups and moderators as
well.
This chapte r is all about that.
Administrators
While the membe rs profile is relative ly rigid, you can se tup the rights of the adm inistrators in a
separate area. The supe r administrator, which has been se t up during installation naturally has
the right to edit all values and also has access to all information. But for ne w adm inistrators
you assign rights from the A dmin Panel User A dmin which looks like this:
If you choose A dministrators he re you will see this on your screen (if the re are no more than
two use rs on your site ):
We start he re by making the use r Handbook an administrator by click ing Add A dmin.
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The ne w administrator is created with no rights (unless you have marked the fie ld Apply all
adm in rights to ne w admin).
To give the ne w adm inistrator the rights you had in mind choose Edit. W hen you do this, this
is what you will see on your screen:
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The options you see he re correspond to the main groups on the admin pane l. And you assign
rights to the ne w administrator by che ck ing the functions, which you want to give the
adm inistrator acce ss to. It could look like this:
End this part of the process by click ing Save A dmin Rights.
Whe n the profile is save d, you will see a list of adm inistrators that looks like this:
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Each area or each adm inistrative function has its own unique code. If you want to see which
codes corre spond to which area, you can open the table <your pre fix >_admin in your
database whe re the values are defined. It could look like this:
Whe n the ne w administrator opens your site, he or she ge ts access to the areas that you have
stated in the profile as you can see in the illustration below:
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At any time you can choose to remove or add ne w acce ss rights to ex isting administrators.
Moderators
Mode rators are naturally only rele vant in connection with the discussion forums. And he re
mode rators have a numbe r of rights that ordinary use rs or members dont have .
The se options are illustrated in the picture be low:
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A mode rator can Renew a thread that is he can force an update of the list.
A mode rator can Delete a thread that is he can remove a thread comple tely.
A mode rator can Lock a thread that is, he can put a stop to ne w posts in this thread.
A mode rator can make a thread Sticky which means that this thread stays on top of the list.
Finally a mode rator can Move a thread from one forum to anothe r.
Mode rators and administrators can be the same. But the y dont have to be . And the mode rator
for one forum doesnt have to be the same as a moderator for anothe r forum . You de cide this
as administrator of the site if you have the right to administe r the forum are a.
You assign mode rators to your forums by choosing Edit from a forum in the list, that you can
see be low (choose Forum to get it on your screen):
If you choose Edit he re , this is what you ge t on your screen:
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From the list of all use rs / membe rs on the le ft side of the screen, you can choose those
membe rs you want to pe rform the mode rator role by click ing their use r name . And you finish
this part of the process by pre ssing the button Save Forum Moderators.
Whe n mode rators have been assigned to the forums, this is shown as a part of the forum
information, as you can see be low:
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User Groups
The third and last part of rights and access control is managed through User Groups.
Use r groups are a ne w concept in PHP-Fusion, which was introduce d with ve rsion 5.01. And the
use r groups which can be put toge the r free ly and according to your needs can be used to
control the access to forum threads, ne ws, custom pages, site links, links categories and article
categorie s.
You create a ne w use r group by choosing User A dmin and User Groups from the Adm in
Pane l:
Whe n you have chose n User Groups, this will appear on your screen:
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C reate your ne w use r group by giving it a name and a short description. W hen you click Save
Group, this will appear on your screen (afte r you have clicked Return to User Group
A dmin):
If you choose Edit at the top of the screen, you will ge t this:
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From this scree n you can pick out and attach use rs (though the re are not so many to choose
from in this example) or add all use rs. We choose to attach the three use rs/membe rs, you
can see he re and then click Save Selected Users.
The use r group has now bee n se t up.
Now when you re turn to forums adm in page and add a ne w forum, you can use the use r group
to regulate both vie wing and participating in the discussion (see illustration below):
As you can see the use r group is available in the pick list Forum A ccessible to and Forum
Postability.
Like wise you can modify the access to Web Link Categories. It looks like this:
The same goes for Ne ws:
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And for Articles Categories:
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As a ne w thing in ve rsion 6.01 you can now also control the access rights to Photo A lbums in
exactly the same way. This is what that looks like:
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Using the TinyMCE-editor

As promise d earlie r, we will take
editor TinyMC E from Moxie code .
de cide d to use this one be cause it
all the functions ne ce ssary to work
the opportunity now to introduce the integrated wysiwyg

The re are othe r opportunities on the we b, but we have
is unde r constant de ve lopment, reasonably stable and have
toge the r with PHP-Fusion.
The ve rsion of TinyMC E delive red with PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01 is ve rsion numbe r 2.0.6.1.
You dont have to think a lot about what to do to activate the editor. All you are re quired to do
is to change no to yes in the screen you see he re below:
Whe n you do this, this is what your ne ws editing page will look like:
The ordinary page (without TinyMC E activated) looks like this:
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W ith TinyMCE activated you will ge t a numbe r of options (provided by the editor) that you
dont have with the build in e ditor. To name a fe w:
The built in image browse r make s it possible for you to see and pick the illustrations for your
tex t, which are available on the site (you just have to update the image list first see unde r
images).
You can edit the HTML-code of your article in a pop-up-window (if your browse r is se t to allow
pop-ups that is).
You can easily add tables to format your tex ts or images.
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In short you have more or less the same options as you have using a mode rn word
processor. And if TinyMC E has a language ve rsion for your native language , the editor will use
that language as we ll.
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Articles
Articles are all k inds of large r tex ts that you want to display on your site . It could be re cipes,
re vie ws, guides, tutorials or anything you want.
Before you can add articles you have to make one or more article cate gories, which you use to
group your articles.
You start from adm in panel whe re you choose A rticle Categories, which will give you this
screen:
You add a category by naming it, and mak ing a de scription of the category (a short intro) and
finally by click ing Save Category. If we add two categories (Guidelines and Explanations),
it will look like this:
The two cate gories are now added and from the adm in panel you can now e ithe r add ne w
categorie s or dele te existing categorie s. Please note that the system does not acce pt de le tion
of categories if articles are attached to them. If you wish to de le te a cate gory, you have to
de le te or move the articles attached to this category first.
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From ve rsion 6.00.2x of PHP-Fusion and upwards you have the option of de ciding the sorting
orde r of the articles attached to each category. As you can see on the illustration, you can
de cide which part of the information, you want to sort on as we ll as the sorting me thod
asce nding or desce nding:
Now le t us move on to make our first article .

You do this from admin panel by choosing A rticles, which will show this on your screen:
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What you see is the built in e ditor for PHP-Fusion.

W riting the actual article is not that difficult. Just remembe r that the snippe t tex t will only be
visible at the article index page . The re fore it might be a good idea to repeat the snippe t text at
the top of the article text.
You use the small buttons like this:
Bold
Italic
Underline
Insert
web link
Insert
image
Centre
text
Small
text
Smaller
text
Alternate
style
Insert
page
break
The function of the buttons is to inse rt (HTML) code in the tex t, which you then in some
case s - have to finish yourself. Le ts say we want to add some graphics to the article tex t.
Whe n you click the img-button, this is what happens:
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This is the code: <img src=image s/articles/ style =margin:5px align=left>

And to finish it - so the image can be seen - you have to add a little bit to the code: <img
src=images/articles/banner.gif style =margin:5px align=left> - i.e . the name of the image .
Of course you also have to be sure that the image banner.gif ex ists in the images folde r.
O the rwise it will not work .
Besides typing in the name of the image in the code, you can also choose to alte r some of the
three (3) default paramete rs. You can increase the margin width (type 8px instead of 5px) or
you can choose to le t the image align right instead of le ft in the pre sentation (by typing
align=right).
The othe r buttons work more or less in the same way. Try them out. And if you wish be fore
saving the article to vie w what the article will look like in use r mode you can use the
Preview A rticle button at the bottom. Then your article will display at the top of the scree n.
We have to mention two more things in conne ction with articles.
At the bottom of the screen you will find a che ck box A utomatic Line-breaks.
If you che ck this box then you can add ne w lines in your tex t e ve ry time you wish to add a
ne w paragraph. Leave it un-che cked and you will have to inse rt line -break HTML code
manually the HTML code <br /> is the one you have to use .
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Additionally, if you have a ve ry long tex t, it m ight be an advantage to break the text up into
se ve ral pages.
You do this by placing the cursor whe re you want the page break to be and the n click on the
new page button. This button also inse rts a code . The code looks like this:
<--PAGEBR EAK-->
Whe n PHP-Fusion parses through the code , it breaks the tex t to a ne w page. At the bottom of
the page a navigation box will be created, which will make it possible for the use rs to navigate
be twee n the pages and to see how many pages the article consists of. In pre vie w you will see
the code tag instead of the actual page break .
We save the article and the n we can have a look at how it is prese nted to the use rs.
You can access the article though A rticles in the menu. O r you can see the late st articles
additions in a spe cial pane l (if this pane l is enabled see about pane ls late r).
If you click the link A rticles instead of Latest A rticles, it looks like this:
And if you click Guidelines he re it will look like this:
If you are using the TinyMCE editor, it will look quite a bit diffe rent.
Whe n you open articles, this will appear on your screen:
And if we try to write exactly the same tex t in he re, this is what it looks like :
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As you can see you will have a lot of options he re that you dont have with the standard editor.
We will not go through them all (since the y are more or le s se lf explanatory) but one of them
needs a fe w comments.
If you click this little icon:
- this is what you ge t on your screen:
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W ith this function you will have the possibility to find, see and choose an image from the
image folde rs in your installation. You just have to be aware of one thing: be fore this function
will work, you will have to go to the image adm inistration function and click this link at the
bottom :
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Whe n you have done that, this is what the image function will look like in the article s editor:
Pick an image see it in the pre vie w pane choose to inse rt it and the n the image is placed
in your article at the point, whe re the cursor was standing, when you started the ope ration.
This is what it might look like:
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News and News Categories

PHP-Fusion includes a built in ne ws function. Ne w ne ws items are added from the admin panel,
and will - as default - be displayed on your front page. You can change this and the way the
ne ws tex ts are shown from Site Settings / Main Settings.
Since ve rsion 6.00.2x it has bee n possible for you to use ne ws categories (as we ll as article
categorie s and web link categorie s). You dont have to attach a ne ws item to a category, but
you have the possibility to do so.
Whe n you open News Categories for the first time, this is what it looks like:
From this screen you can add ne w categories e dit the ex isting one s or de le te the ones, you
dont want to use.
Eve ry time you add a ne w category, you have to add a category icon as we ll a small gif
image of size 89 x 70 pixels (or bigge r or smaller) and when you use the category, this
image will be shown as a part of the ne ws display.
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Choosing News from Admin Panel will give you this scree n:
As you can see its structured just like articles but some ne w functions are added.
At the top you can choose be tween existing ne ws items (e diting or de le ting them) and be neath
that you see the built in editor with boxe s for Subje ct, ne ws tex t (Ne ws) and ex tended tex t
(Ex tended Ne ws) if you have chosen to use TinyMC E as your editor, the editor screen for
Ne ws will look like the TinyMC E scree n you have seen unde r Articles.
If you choose to add an ex te nded ne ws tex t a link will show up saying Read More at the
bottom of this pie ce of ne ws, and click ing this tex t will send your use r on to the ex tended tex t.
At the bottom of the screen you see a numbe r of smalle r boxes, which gives you the ability to
control ne ws display by date . This means that ne ws can be made public at a ce rtain date and
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be automatically removed at a ce rtain date . Use this function if you want to be a little ahead
and if you want to be sure that outdate d ne ws is removed automatically.
You have to unde rstand the boxes this way:
If you want the ne ws to be displayed from June 10 2006 10.15 am to June 15 2006 11.30 am,
the se ttings must look like this:
A ne w function has been added to PHP-Fusion in ve rsion 6.01. A lot of use rs have bee n asking
for this and he re it is. Whe n you make a ne ws item sometimes you want that ne ws item to
stay on top of the front page for a longe r pe riod of time e ven though you add ne w ne ws items
maybe be cause its ve ry important.
You can do this now by mak ing the ne ws item stick y:
If you choose this option, this ne ws item will stay at the top no matte r how many othe r ne ws
items you add.
Whe n you want anothe r ne ws item to appear in the top of your page for a longe r pe riod of
time , you just choose that. Only one ne ws item can be stick y at the time.
We save the ne ws and can now have a look at how it is pre sented at the front page.
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At the bottom you can see information about who publishe d the ne ws, when it was published
and that the re is more tex t than you can vie w he re at the front page (Read More). You can
also see that until now no comments have bee n made (0 comments), that this ne ws item has
been vie wed 0 times and finally you can see a printe r icon, which can be used to display a
printe r friendly ve rsion. These icons are automatically added to all ne ws and articles. Finally
you will see a small pencil icon this icon indicate, that you have the right to edit this item
and click ing it will send you dire ctly to the edit screen.
C licking Read More will produce this screen:
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He re you can read the ex tended ne ws tex t and at the bottom of the page as a membe r you
can add comments or sele ct a rating (if rating and comments are e nabled in the ne ws
se ttings).
Notice that you also can inse rt links in your comment, use bold and italics and inse rt im ages
(you have to provide the full path to the image it will not ge t uploaded) and so forth.
Ve rsion 6.01 ope rates with se ve ral image folde rs: ne ws, articles, photo albums and what you
might call the main image folde r.
From the ne ws editor you have access to this folde r, as you can see below:
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You choose the image from the drop down menu (right) and you can pick tex t color from the
drop down menu (left).
Ne ws in PHP-Fusion is not automatically de le ted, unless you have provided an e nd date .
As you publish more and more ne ws, the oldest ne ws items will be moved to ne w page s you
find them by scrolling down to the bottom of the front page and the n click ing on the navigation
links the re .
Choosing edit news from the news display
In PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.00.2x a ne w function was added the opportunity to choose editing of
a ne ws item dire ctly from the ne ws display.
If you have the rights to do it, a small icon will appear, when the ne ws is displayed as
indicated by the arrow he re :
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Whe n you click this icon (the pe ncil) you will be taken dire ctly to the editor, so that you can
edit your ne ws tex t on the spot. So you no longe r have to open the adm in page find the
ne ws editor and choose the ne ws item from the drop down list to e dit it.
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Downloads
PHP-Fusion sites can also contain downloads files that your visitors can download to the ir
own compute rs.
Download Categories
He re you start by establishing a structure in which you can save your downloads. C hoose
Download Categories (admin panel). This is what you will see on your scree n:
Add a ne w category by typing in the name in the top box and a description in box numbe r 2,
the n click Save Category.
Afte r adding a couple of categorie s, this is what your screen will look like :
As you can see above you can also edit the category (change the name or description) and
de le te the category. You cant de le te a category while the re are downloads attache d to it. If
you wish to de le te it anyway, you will have to de lete or move downloads first. Afte r that you
can the n de le te the cate gory.
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And he re as we ll as with articles and we b links you can choose on which fields to sort lists
and in which orde r to sort.
Downloads
Afte r you have made your download categories you can create your downloads.
Its re commended that you have a spe cial folde r on the se rve r for downloads we m ight call it
download-files. If you have such a folde r you can se t up ne w downloads by uploading files to
the folde r (via FTP) and adding each file to the downloads-se ction in the screen be low (adm in
panel downloads):
A ne w download is added by typing in the information in all the fie lds. He re you have an
example:
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Afte r finishing typing you the n click Save Download, and now the ne w download appears on
the list at the bottom of the screen:
You can see the ne wly added category. You can also see that the re is one (1) download in this
category.
Use rs will see your downloads this way:
You can see the ne wly added category and that the re is one (1) download in this category.
C licking the link will show this:
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The information you typed in will show up he re whe n you have added the download.
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Images
We will go through two areas in this chapte r. First the ordinary image handling (upload of
images) for usage in article s, ne ws and so on. Se cond the usage of the built in and in this
ve rsion comple te ly re writte n photo album.
Uploading and using images
PHP-Fusion assumes that the images jpg, gif and png that are used for illustration in
articles and ne ws are placed in the folde r images in the corresponding subfolde rs articles and
news.
To all three folde rs you can e ithe r upload images dire ctly via your FTP clie nt, or you can use
the built in image-import facility, which you can reach from the adm in pane l.
If you click Images this is what is shown on your screen:
In the lowe r part of the screen you can see a list of the images curre ntly placed in the folde r
images and he re you have the opportunity to de le te them one by one or vie wing them by
click ing View.
In this ve rsion of PHP-Fusion a small change has been made to this screen as we ll. As you can
see the name of the active folde r is highlighted. This will he lp you to see. What folde r you are
work ing on right now. Note that this change will not work in all olde r themes.
If you wish to vie w the content of A rticle Images, click the link , and this will pop up on your
screen:
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If you click View to the right of one of the images, this will be shown on the screen:
From he re you can e ithe r choose to de le te this image or re turn to images admin.
At the top of the screen you will see a dialog box that makes it possible to import images to
the folde r in which you actually are. Click ing Browse gives you the ability to choose the
image on your own hard disk and afte r click ing Upload image you will ge t it imported to
the PHP-Fusions images folde r.
It could look like this:
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Whe n the image has been uploaded, it will turn up on the list with all the rest of the images so
that you can use it to illustrate eithe r one of your article s or a ne ws item .
If you do wish to use anothe r folde r or se ve ral folde rs to store your images, then you can
of course do that. But the import facility will always point to the folde r images (unless you
alte r the code) or the subfolde r news or the subfolde r articles in the images folde r. Just like
the image-button in the e ditor always will propose the folde r news in ne ws and articles in
articles. This can also be changed but that requires alte ration of the code .
Photo Albums
PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01 is as standard, de live red with a photo album, which has been made
for the purpose of displaying large r amounts of images in a structure d manne r. This se ction of
the handbook ex plains how you use your photo album.
You start a ne w album by choosing Photo A lbums from the admin pane l:
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As you can see an album has already been de fined in this installation, but if you comple te the
boxes Title, Description, A ccess etc. a ne w album will be made.
Thumb re fe rs to a thumbnail image which repre sents the album in the list of albums. You can
use an image of any of the supported formats he re with the max imum size 100 x 100 pixe ls
and the image will then be reduced to the size that is se t in Site Se ttings for photo albums
(see earlie r on this).
Afte r you have done this (filled out the form ) you click Save A lbum, and then the ne w album
will appear in the list Current A lbums:
To add images you have to click the album icon. If you do that, this is what you ge t on your
screen:
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He re you have to type in a title and browse for the image , photo by photo.
Just remembe r that the built in photo album only accepts JPG, JPEG, GIF and PNG files and as
standard only images smalle r than 400 pixe ls height (if you want to change that, you have to
change the standard se tting admin pane l, site se ttings).
If we try to ente r some pictures in this album, it will look like this:
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The three images are now define d, and the first album is se t up. If you wish to make more
albums, you just repeat the process. And at any point you can choose to e ithe r add more
photos to an existing album or to de le te images from the album.
Note that in this ne w ve rsion its possible to le t your use rs rate your image s and comment on
them . Both possibilities are set to on by default. But you can de cide to unable these
possibilities if you want to.
The one we have just se t up will look like this for the use rs:
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He re you can see what albums are pre sent. And if you click on the thumbnail, this will show up
on your screen:
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The album is he re prese nte d with the thumbnail above , and with thumbnails of the photos in
the album. If you as a use r click one of the thumbnails you will see this:
He re you can see the image as we ll as some information about it (size , date added, how many
time s it has been vie we d), and you can at the bottom part of the screen add comments to
the photo. Finally you can browse through the album using the arrows above the picture.
One more thing is now possible . If you click the image , this is what happe ns:
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A pop up ve rsion of your image will appear the size of the pop up is de te rm ined by the size
of your image and by the lim its se t by you in the photo album se ction of your adm in page.
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Web Links
In principal you work with the PHP-Fusion web links the same way you work with articles or
downloads. This means that be fore you can add web links, you will have to create some we b
links categories to structure the web links.
You se t up a ne w we b links category from the adm in pane l. C licking Web Link Categories will
bring this up on your screen:
You give your category a name (a title) and a description, and when that is done , you click
Save Category. Be low he re you can see, what it looks like , whe n we have added some
categorie s:
You can re turn to this page at any point to add ne w categorie s, or to dele te or edit some of the
ex isting cate gories. Just remembe r that the system wont acce pt de le tion of categories if the y
have attached links. Before de le tion you eithe r have to move the links to anothe r category or
de le te them.
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Now we can attach links to our categories. Choosing Web Links from the adm in panel will
bring this up on your screen:
At the top you can add ne w links at the bottom you can see a list structured by the
categorie s we have se t up as we ll as the links curre ntly attached to them . If you add a ne w
link, it could look like this:
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You have the option to test the link (click ing the link title ), to edit the link (click Edit) or to
de le te the link (click Delete).
It is also he re you can move your links from one category to anothe r. If you click Edit, you can
pick a ne w category for this we blink change the title or edit the URL as we ll. You save your
changes by click ing Save Web Link.
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Panels and Panel Administration

The basic layout of a PHP-Fusion base d web site is based on what we call panels. The re are
three main panels (left, centre and right). And each pane l is made up of a numbe r of separate
subpane ls. A full pane l could look like this:
This panel consists of two subpane ls the Navigation panel at the top and the User Info
Box at bottom .
The site administrator can control the content and orde r of the main pane ls through Panel
A dministration.
If you click Panels on the System Admin page, you will ge t this:
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You can see which pane ls are active the list be low Panel Name (the active ones are marked
Disable the inactive ones are marked Enable ) you can see in which side of the screen
the y are place d, you can see in what orde r they are shown in the left and right pane ls and
finally you can see what type the y are and who has access to them .
Furthe rmore you can adm iniste r the pane ls from this page .
The first row of arrows (Side) allows you to move a panel from the left side to the right side or
the opposite dire ction. The dire ction the arrow is facing is the side the panel will be moved to.
The nex t row of arrows (Order) allows you to move a panel up or down in the main pane l in
which it is situated.
Finally you can edit, e nable , disable or comple te ly de le te a pane l. You can also se t up ne w
panels.
First we are going to have a look at what a pane l consists of. Choosing the panel Forum
Threads by click ing Edit displays this on you scree n:
He re
you can see
that
the
pane l is a
standard panel,
calling the
file
forum_threads_list_panel.php located in the folde r infusions and installed by default in
PHP-Fusion. You can see that this pane l can be vie we d by e ve rybody Pane l Acce ss : Public.
But if you click the arrow beside Panel A ccess, you can also see that it is ve ry easy to change
the access rights to the pane l:
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If you wish to make an alte ration to this pane l, you have to alte r the source code of the panel.
You are able to see it, de le te it (doesnt affe ct the source code file ) or you can disable it. But
you cannot from within PHP-Fusion - change the conte nt of the source code of the standard
panels.
This also applie s to all othe r pane ls including custom made panels that make use of
ex te rnal source files. If you choose A dd New Panel, you will see this:
C licking Panel Filename gives you an ove rvie w of the pane ls that comes as standard with the
installation package .
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You se t up a ne w panel by nam ing it (e ven though you use an already ex isting file) and then
e ithe r choosing an ex isting file from Panel Filename or adding your own code to the Pane l
Conte nt fie ld.
If you want to make your own panel instead of picking one of the standard pane ls from the list
(which is a list of the files in the folde r infusions), you can se t up the pane l like this (this is
only meant as an example the re are lots of othe rs available on the PHP-Fusion support sites
around the world):
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This pane l which is an MOD (which means a System Modification) to PHP-Fusion shows a
list containing the last known 10 use rs visiting the site. The list is ge ne rated by the code
ente re d in the pane l. The pane l is presented with the headline Last seen (the line in the code :
@opensidex(Last seen, on) dete rm ines this).
Note : You can only see part of the code in the illustration above. C opying this code to the
panel adm inistration wont give you a work ing pane l be cause some of the code is not visible in
the above image .
Whe n you are done making your ne w pane l, press A dd New Panel and you will be re turned to
Pane ls Administration. The list will now look like this:
As indicated by the arrow a ne w pane l has appeare d on the list - the one we just made - BUT it
is automatically disable d by default. To activate it press Enable. When that is done, the pane l
will be shown on the main page, left side as #5 from the top. As you can see be low:
It is also possible to e dit the se panels. Just pre ss Edit on the Panel Adm inistration screen nex t
to the pane l you want to change. And whe n the panel code pops up on your screen you change
whate ve r you need to change.
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Forums
In PHP-Fusion, the res a built in forum module . But before you can make this forum available
to your visitors, you will have to se t up a structure, so that topics and discussion threads can
be organized in a prope r manne r.
The top laye r in the structure is made up of Forum Categories. Unde rneath that you can
make all the Forums you wish. And finally your use rs can make all the re le vant Threads
unde r these Forums. It could look like this:
Making Forum Categories

Start by clicking Forums from the adm inistration pane l. When you do this, this is what turns
up on your screen:
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We make three categories he re and for instructional purposes we make a forum as we ll.
Whe n we have done that, this is what your screen look s like:
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As you can see, e ve ry time you make a ne w category you will have to de cide who should be
allowed to post in this cate gory (like with web link categories or article categorie s). He re you
can choose a membe r status definition or a group. Guests cant post at all, but you can allow
them to read the postings if you want to.
This is how your use rs will see the structure , we have just made:
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If no forums are de fined in a given cate gory, that category wont show up on the list. But if
you have defined forums and attache d them to categories (as we have he re ), your use rs can
ope n a forum by clicking at the title . This is what the use r will see on the ir scree n:
To make a ne w thread he re you click the New Topic (or New Thread) button, and this page
ope ns:
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What the use r can do he re (besides writing) is de fined in the Forums Settings se ction of the
System Admin panel (for example ; adding attachments).
Each forum can have multiple mode rators. Whe n a user or adm inistrator is de fined as a
mode rator on a spe cific forum, the y have some options that the ordinary use r doesnt have as
you can see he re :
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The se options allow you to:
Renew Thread se ts date to pre sent and updates list

Delete Thread
Lock Thread - Thread is still visible , no ne w posts allowed
Make Thread Stick y kee p thread at the top of the list in the forum
Move Thread move this thread to anothe r category
As some thing ne w PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01 introduce s the ability for use rs to track the
discussion in a spe cific thread.
Before this function is available for the use rs, you have to activate it from your adm in page .
Choose System A dmin and Forum Settings and you will ge t this on your screen:
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If you choose yes he re (Enable forum thread notification), this is what your use rs discussion
screen looks like :
If the use r clicks this link , a mail will be sent to the e-mail-address of this use r eve ry time a
ne w reply has been made in this thread.
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Polls
To spice up your homepage , PHP-Fusion gives you the ability to se t up Polls for membe rs polls with one question and se ve ral answe rs. Polls can be archived when the y are no longe r
re le vant, so that you and your membe rs can che ck up on pre vious poll re sults.
The Poll is shown on the Main (Start) page - afte r voting you can see what membe rs have
voted in this spe cific poll so far.
C lick Polls in adm in pane l (indicated by the arrow):
W hen you do that, this is what you see on your screen:
He re you can create a ne w poll by typing in a Poll Title (the question that use rs have to
answe r) and a numbe r of options to choose from - option 1, 2, 3...e tc.
He re is an example poll:
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We clicke d twice on A dd Option and adde d two more poll options. Now the re are 4 options on
the list. If you press Preview Poll, you will see how the poll looks at this stage:
You end the poll construction by pre ssing Save Poll.

The Poll has now been save d. We still need to e nable it and make it visible on the Main page .
We will do this via Panels on the A dmin Panel. It looks like this:
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As shown (and mentioned earlie r), the pane l is se t to Disabled as standard. If you click
Enable nex t to Members Poll, your ne w Poll will be shown on the front page of your site like
this:
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If you want to change the Poll or make a ne w Poll late r, you can open this poll or the poll
function from the adm in pane l.
If you choose to edit a Poll from the list, this is what you ge t on your screen:
You now have the possibility to Add Options, Delete Options, view the Poll or End the Poll
(Close this Poll). You can de le te a poll option by simply clearing the conte nts of the option
that you want to de le te and pressing Save Poll. If you choose to close the Poll, the Poll stays
on the Main page , but its now close d and shows the re sult to both use rs who have ente re d a
vote and those who have not.
If you want to remove your Poll Panel from Main page , this can be done from Pane ls on the
Adm in Pane l by disabling Members Poll. If you want to make a ne w Poll in the future ,
remembe r to enable Poll Pane l in Panels, or e lse it will not show on Main page as it is disabled
by you.
Currently the re is no support for Multiple Polls at the same time. If you create a ne w Poll while
an existing Poll is still running, then the ex isting (olde r) Poll will automatically be closed.
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Administration in general
In this chapte r we will look deepe r into the adm inistration of se ve ral of the built in functions in
PHP-Fusion. Basically this adm inistration is all about e diting, de le ting and controlling the
contents of the page.
Shoutbox
PHP-Fusion comes with a small messaging function, a Shoutbox, which by default is placed on
the Main page of your site. The shoutbox is located at the bottom of the illustration he re :
In the Shoutbox, registe red membe rs (or gue sts if you allow it) can write small comments
(220 characte rs) ask fast que stions or comment on each othe rs remarks. To make it e ven
more attractive sm ile ys can be used in these comments.
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Smileys: Small faces that replace ce rtain pre configured typing, e .g. the VERY happy smile y
shown above , made with inse rting/typing :) Othe r sm ile ys are available . Click Help to see the
full list of available sm ile ys.
The Adm inistrators on the site have more options to adm inistrate these shouts.
You can manage the Shoutbox on a basic le ve l from the adm in pane l (Miscellaneous
Se ttings). He re you can de cide whe the r guests are allowed to post shouts or not and how
many shouts you want displayed on the front page :
Additionally it is possible to click Shoutbox from the Admin Panel User A dmin. If you do
this, you can see all of the shouts posted on your site and edit or de le te them:
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By click ing Delete Shouts, you de lete shouts olde r than the numbe r of days listed in the drop
down box (90 days in this illustration). But remembe r that the re s no turning back he re . The
moment you click Delete Shouts they are gone .
You can also get some information about the shouts posted on your page. You can see the
membe rs name, date of shout and the ir IP address.
Users / Members
If you click Members on the A dmin Panel, this screen will show up:
He re you see a list of registe red membe rs on your site . Use r(name) and Use r Type are shown
for all membe rs. From he re you can edit membe rs profiles and also change the Use r Type .
If you have a lot of members on your site, you can sort membe rs by clicking le tte rs in the list
unde rneath. Click ing the lette r A will produce a list of membe rs whose use rname begins with
the le tte r A.
For each member, the option to edit, ban or de le te is available .
If you click Edit (Does not work with Supe r Adm inistrator), you will see this on your screen:
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As you can see , it is possible to edit all the same fie lds that the use r / membe r can edit in his
or he r profile (Edit Profile).
In Membe rs Administration you can also registe r ne w membe rs. If you click A dd at the top of
screen, this is what you will see on your scree n:
He re you add a membe r by giving the membe r a Use r Name , Password and stating a valid
Email Addre ss. When this is done , you click A dd Member. The ne w use r can then log in and
update his profile through Edit Profile.
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From Membe rs Administration you can also choose to ban ce rtain membe rs or blacklist them.
If you do this, the banne d membe rs are not allowe d to log on to your site . Instead the y will
ge t a message telling them that the y are (for the moment) ex clude d from ente ring the site . Of
course it is not possible to pre vent the pe rson from registe ring with a ne w nick name, but it
takes a ne w nickname and a ne w email address (if email activation is enabled) to re giste r once
again.
If you click Blacklist from the A dmin Panel, you will see the following on your screen:
This feature can be used to ex clude people more efficie ntly than just using Ban Member in
Membe rs Administration. A banned membe r can always make up a ne w use r account, but if
you black list ce rtain IP-addre sses or mail addresses (or domains) the ex clusion will be more
efficient.
WA RNING: Note that IF you blacklist for example an entire email domain, you m ight risk that
a lot of ne w membe rs lose the ability to join your site . Also worth noting is, that ex cluding
people by ex cluding partial IP addre sses, will risk ex cluding ne w membe rs just be cause the y
happen to share a scope of IPs that an Inte rne t Provide r has in the ir re giste r. Provide rs often
use Dynamic IP addresses, which means that se ve ral people can use the same IP address but
at diffe rent times. Try only to use advanced ex clusion (Black listing) if its really important.
Submissions
Membe rs on your site can submit articles, ne ws, link s and images. The subm ission will not be
shown on the site until an adm inistrator has validated and approved the subm ission.
It is possible to see if any subm issions are waiting to be validated from the Admin Panel. This
information is shown in the bottom of the Admin Panel in the nex t illustration (marked with an
arrow):
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To Validate and publish the submissions or de cline them, click Submissions from the Adm in
Pane l (User A dmin). It m ight look like this:
In this example, the re are 4 types of subm issions. As shown above , you can e ithe r View and
the n Submit, or Delete them right away.
If you chose View in Photos, it could look like this:
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From he re you are able to publish or delete the photo. But before that you might want to
take a look at it. If thats the case , click Click here to view the photo, and this is what you
might see:
Comments and Ratings

Both ne ws, articles and photos can be commented on and rated by membe rs on your site if
you de cide to use this option (see be low).
It may be ne cessary to edit comments. The administrator on a site has the ability to edit (or
de le te) all comments. Comments can be se le cted for editing from the place whe re the y are
poste d that is the ne ws item or article whe re the comment is attached. It could look like this:
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If you choose Manage Comments he re , this is what you ge t on your scree n:
He re you can see who made the comment, the IP address of the pe rson posting it and the date
of posting. You also have the option to e ithe r e dit or de le te the comment as shown in this
illustration.
If you click Edit in the Comments table , you will see the following scree n:
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In Edit Comment, you may now e dit the comment, and afte rwards click Save Comment to
save the e dited comment
If an administrator e dits a Comment, you cant see on the page that it has bee n edited, like
you can with threads in the Forum se ction.
Database Backup
In PHP-Fusion v6.01, a standard back up function is implemented. Through A dmin Panel /
System A dmin you can access Database Backup, whe re you have the ability to backup your
database. It looks like this:
If you have saved backups, you can always restore your site from the se back ups.
It is a good idea to make backups on a regular basis to maintain the ability to go back . And
you should always do this before mak ing ma jor changes in your database or site se ttings.
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Thats the only way you can re turn to a state when e ve rything worked ok if some thing goes
wrong.
From PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01 you can no longe r save your back ups on the se rve r. This has
been implemented for se curity reasons. Be cause if this hacke rs dont have the same
acce ssibility to your data and you can be sure , that a se rve r breakdown wont affe ct your
back ups.
NOTE: If you have made a back up of your database with PHP-Fusion, you cant use this
back up to re store the database with an ordinary MySQL adm inistration tool only with PHPFusion. If you want your backups to be more ve rsatile, use an administration tool like
phpMyAdm in to make the copy of your database.
Whe n you are about to make a back up, you have to keep two things in m ind.
1: Do you want to copy the entire structure and all table s in your database or only the basic
structure and basic tables.
2: Do you want to backup compre ssed (.sql.gz) or uncompressed (.sql). If you have a large
database, you may want to choose the compressed back up (if your provide rs se rve r allows it the y dont always). Though a site has many posts, article s, threads, membe rs e tc. you will be
surprised to see how small the database actually is, so its up to you whe the r you want to
compre ss the backup or not.
Whe n you choose Database backup from the adm in panel, this is what you ge t on your scree n:
If you click Backup from this scree n and provide the corre ct password this is what happe ns:
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He re you will have to sele ct an appropriate folde r to store your backups, and whe n you do this,
the backup files will be saved on your local compute r.
As shown above , you can see that the first back up is 53 Kb (Uncompre ssed) and the se cond
back up is about 8 Kb (Compressed). The two back ups have been made from the exact same
database and the exact same tables.
Whe n you want to restore your site from a database back up, this is what you do. You start by
browsing to the corre ct backup file . W hen you have se le cted that and click restore, you will see
the following page :
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In the le ft column, the re is a list of the tables, which your backup gives you the opportunity to
restore. In the right column you see a list that represe nts the data in the tables.
If your database structure has not been damaged (or if you are re creating a site from a ne w
PHP-Fusion installation - e .g. moving your site to a ne w host), you dont have to re create the
full structure of the database (be cause the installation or forme r database already has the
structure ). You can choose none in left column, and just restore all the data shown in right
column, by click ing all in the right se ction. If you on the othe r hand have a nee d to re create
both structure and data, you click all in both the left and right columns.
The re construction of your database starts whe n you click the button Restore and give the
corre ct password. If you leave the page by click ing Cancel no changes to the database will be
made .
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Re construction of structure and data through a MySQ L-tool (phpMyAdm in or alike) is not
explained furthe r in this book. The list in the chapte r Lite rature and web links he re give s you
some URLs and book titles that m ight be he lpful, if you want to learn more.
In gene ral you should be care ful with your backups. Should a backup file fall into the hands of
a hacke r or anothe r pe rson, who wants to harm you through compromising your site, it will be
ve ry easy for this pe rson to do so. So try to hide your backups. Ne ve r save your back ups on
the se rve r. And remembe r ne ve r to give anybody access to the back ups unless you are
absolutely sure , the y can be trusted.
Private Messages
PHP-Fusion has a built in facility so that individual use rs can send tiny messages to one
anothe r without the use of e-mail. Re cently this message function have been re written for
se curity reasons.
The messages can be vie wed, re plied to or de le ted in the use rs (membe rs) private messages
box . Eve ry time you login as a registe red use r (membe r) on the home page , you will
automatically see a notice in your Use r Info Panel when the re are ne w messages for you. The
notice looks like this:
If you click on Private Messages, this will appear on your screen:
He re you have seve ral options. You can choose to vie w the individual message by click ing on
the message subject. You can vie w the profile of the use r who sent the message (click on the
use r name unde r from). You can de le te your messages one by one by se le cting the message
(the box) and click ing Delete. Finally you can choose to de le te all messages by click ing Check
A ll and choosing Delete.
If you click on the message subje ct, you ge t this on the screen:
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He re you can choose to Reply to the message, Save the message , mark the message as
Unread or Delete the message.
If you choose to reply to the message , this is what you get on your screen:
You can format your text (bold, italics e tc.), enter links (UR Ls) and images. You can paste tex t
as quote s (quote) or code (code) and finally you can use sm ileys. If you want to se nd code in
your message you should disable smile ys. It makes the code easie r to read.
But the message function has more options. Le ts return to the main scree n:
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As you can see above your message box comes with an A rchive, an Outbox (you can se t the
message function up from the admin panel to save copies of the messages in the Outbox
automatically) and finally some options, that each of your use rs can se t up individually.
The se tup screen in the adm in pane l looks like this:
Notice that you can se t limits for the Inbox, Outbox and Archive he re for the whole site. If you
se t the value to 0 the re are no lim its.
This is also the place whe re you se t up the global standard for email notification (the use r ge ts
an email when the y re ce ive ne w message s).
But each use r can switch this function off for them se lf, as you can see on the options pane l
be low:
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All in all the Private Message function is a ve ry powe rful function to add to your homepage .
But be aware , that your use rs can change the ir se ttings for this function and that these
changes ove rrule the standard. Se tting the options in the Adm in Panel does not pre vent use rs
from changing the ir pe rsonal prefe re nces. It just se ts the default values for those prefe re nces.
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FAQ how to use it

In PHP-Fusion the re is also a built in function for creating and vie wing the FAQs (Fre quently
Asked Que stions). These FAQs can be used for many purposes depending on the subje ct of
your home page. But mostly this function is targe ted at home pages offe ring some kind of
guidance .
As with Links and Article s you start by mak ing some categories, whe re the single que stions
and answe rs can be placed unde r:
Whe n categories have bee n made (you can always add ne w categories late r) you can start
writing questions and answe rs.
As you can see above , you have the same editing abilities in conne ction with the FAQ -function,
as you have e lse whe re in PHP-Fusion bold text, italics, making links e tc.
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Afte r ente ring questions and answe rs your visitors are able to vie w the FAQ to see if the re
should be a de scription of the use rs problem already and a solution on how the problem can
be solved. This could look like the following:
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Custom Pages
In PHP-Fusion the use r (the administrator the owne r of the home page) can make the ir own
custom pages, which can be linked to the navigation box (or othe r pages) on the front page or
called from a link on anothe r page .
You compose a custom page from the adm in panel by choosing Custom Pages. Doing that
produce s this on your scree n:
In a custom page you can write tex t but you are also able to inse rt PHP code (by clicking the
button <?php?> - you can inse rt link s, image s and so on.
In the example he re we have just placed some tex t in the page content area.
Whe n you create your custom pages, you have to choose accessibility to these pages. If you
wish to give a spe cial membe r access on your home page , you can choose to lim it the acce ss
by se le cting member from the drop down menu A ccess.
And finally you can choose if the page should be added to the navigation menu or not, whe the r
it shall be possible to make comments or rate the page .
Page title is also the conte nt on the link , which appears in the navigation box. So its a good
idea to pick a significant title .
Before you save your page the same goe s for articles and ne ws - you are able to pre vie w
your page as it will show up for the use rs. If you pre ss Preview Page in the example he re, it
will look like this:
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Pressing Save Page you will ge t this:
You can see that the page has bee n save d and that it has created the link:
viewpage.php?page_id=1 which means the page has been save d in the database and can
be vie we d by calling the file viewpage.php with the parame te r page_id=1.
Vie wing the front page and the navigation menu afte r saving the custom page will produce
this:
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As you can see the ne w page has been placed at the bottom in the navigation menu, and
click ing the link will give you this result:
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Moding the system a few examples

The re are nume rous MO Ds available on the official sites in England, Ge rmany, Estonia, Poland,
Denmark , The Ne the rlands, Swe den and so on. You can download these MO Ds and add them
to your page free of charge .
Furthe rmore the re are se ve ral sites ex clusive ly dedicated to system modifications, whe re all
ne w modifications are be ing care fully tested and registe re d in a database.
A fe w of the addresse s are :
UK-MO Ds: http://www.phpfusion-mods.com/
DK-MODS: http://www.phpfusion-mods.dk/
D-MODS: http://www.fusionmods.de/ne ws.php
S-MODS: http://www.phpfusion.se/ne ws.php/
Be cause of the vast numbe r of MODs and Infusions it is impossible he re to give you an
ove rvie w of them all. Instead we have de cided to describe a fe w e xamples, so you can ge t an
idea of how to use the se modifications.
IMPORTA NT: Always remembe r to make a backup of your database and the original files
be fore you start expe rimenting with system alte rations. That way you will always be able to
roll-back to an earlie r stage if some thing should go wrong or doesnt work pe rfe ctly.
Also remembe r to document your changes. Alte rations of this k ind are not part of the standard
installation. And you might have to do quite a lot of laborious work to get your system up and
running again afte r you have installed a ne w ve rsion, be cause this ne w ve rsion eithe r not
supports the alte rations or demands that these changes must be done once again with the ne w
ve rsion.
The most risk y part is alte rations to the database. If this is required, then you have to at least
make a back up of your database be fore your start. That way you have a chance to ge t your
site up and running afte rwards, if some thing should go wrong.
It is re commended to install a local web se rve r (Apache ) with PHP-support and MySQL on your
local machine, whe re you can try the alte rations out be fore uploading to your production site .
You can find an all-in-one package at: http://apache2triad.source forge .ne t/ (and othe r places
see also this ex citing home page : http://www.hotscripts.com/), it does not demand a lot of
resources from your machine, and is an ex ce llent platform for expe rimenting.
Change format for unique visits and show time

taken to load page
The first example of adjustment doe s not demand a lot from you as a use r. But it
demonstrates ve ry clearly how you be cause you have access to the source code in the
system can change and add se ttings, which make your home page more pe rsonal.
The example also demonstrates that in conne ction with alte rations you have to be care ful
with these changes. The fact is that whe n you make these changes, you yourse lf have to
manage them and late r (during updates or upgrade s) must re create the change s yourse lf.
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It is highly re commended to keep a journal containing the changes, and that you document
them on a re gular basis. This way it be comes easie r to re create them during system changes
and upgrade s.
At the bottom of all your pages you can always see the following information (or something
similar):
At the top you see the copyright-se ntence you can type in at site se ttings, admin pane l. Be low
this you see a line containing the PHP-Fusion copyright notice the logo of the theme creator
and a numbe r signifying the numbe r of unique use rs who have visited your site. You are not
allowed to remove or change the bottom line , as long as you have nt paid a license removal
fee for your site . Furthe r information about the various licensing options can be found at the
Main PHP-Fusion site or at one of the othe r official support sites.
If you ge t a lot of unique hits it m ight be an advantage to show the numbe r of Unique Visits
in a diffe re nt way.
W ithout the changes it m ight appear like you see it at the top he re .
But if you want to show the figure with a separator for thousands, you can accomplish this by
making a small change in the theme.php file for the theme, which you have chosen.
You ope n the file and find this part of the code (function rende r_foote r):
You change the formatting of the numbe r ($se ttings[counte r] like this:
".number_format($settings['counter'], 0, '', '.')."
The function numbe r_format change s the format of the numbe r the counte r is delive ring in this
example so that the numbe r is shown with a pe riod as the thousands de lim ite r. The alte red
code looks like this:
And the result of the change can be vie we d he re:
You can read more about how you control the format at http://php.ne t/numbe r_format.
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If you also wish to save and show page creation time , you can do that by adding two pie ce s of
code to two diffe rent files subheade r.php and foote r.php and displaying the result in a ne w
panel.
First we have to save the time , when the page is starting to load.
This is done by adding some lines of code to subheade r.php like this:
The adde d lines are lines 29 to 31. What doe s this code mean?
We ll the expression $m _time is a variable name. This variable is se t equal to the re sult of
the gene ral PHP-function microtime() which means, that $m _time will be defined as a so
called array.
From this array the value s $m _time[0] (the first value in the array the microse conds part of
the time and date) and $m _time[1] (the se cond value in the array the UNIX datestamp
value for today) is extracted, and the combined values of these two is placed in anothe r
variable called $starttime .
The n we have to add some thing to foote r.php as we ll - first to ge t the load time calculate d and
se condly to display the result. This is what it looks like :
He re we take $starttime and subtract it from $endtime which give s the value stored in
$totaltime. And afte r that the value in $totaltime is displayed (in line 20).
You could as we have done he re add a fie ld to the table se ttings (calle d load_time ) and
save the value of $totaltime, so that you can display this to your use rs in a panel for example .
But you dont have to do this.
The result looks like this:
Small changes useful result, wouldnt you say?
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A couple of so called MODs

In this example we will add two pane ls at the front page. The first one shows information
about the 10 last membe rs that have been visiting your site, and the othe r one tells the visitor
which five downloads are the most popular.
Both system add-ons (or MO Ds as the y are called) are made by PHP-Fusion use rs, and can be
used for free at your site .
You add both functions as panels (le ft or right side ). The code used in the first pane l (is
gathe red at php-fusion.uk and alte red afte rwards), looks like this:
Shortly explained, this is what happens:

First we make a que ry to the database, and the result is put into an array in the expre ssion
$result.
Now this data is use d to calculate diffe re nt values (the while-se quence with the 6 lines down
to the first if).
The se values are then handled in diffe rent if-sentences.
Finally the results are displaye d in the se cond echo-line at the bottom of the file.
You place the code in a pane l, and it looks like this:
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The panel ge ts a name (Last see n use rs) and is save d.

We have chosen the function opensidex to add a little button (an image ), to open and close
the pane l.
Note: The panel will always remain in a non collapse d state by default.
Finally we have to use two small icons online .gif and offline .gif you must place them in the
images folde r.
Afte r saving the pane l and activating it (remembe r that at the admin panel page ), this pane l
will appear at the front page :
The se cond panel we will add shows the five most popular we blinks. The code for the pane l
looks like this:
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This is how it works:

First we use the openside() function to make a headline to the pane l. Then we ge t the data
from the table (dbque ry) fusion_we blinks in the database sele cting the re cords with the five
greate st numbe rs for weblink _count (that is the five most popular).
The n we make a table to control the way the information is shown. And go through a while statement (looping through all the re cords). For each re cord we store some information in
three variables and show this information in a table structure. As far as the weblink _name is
conce rne d we lim it the numbe r of characte rs shown to 20 with the ge ne ral function substr.
We only look through the array, if the value of dbrows is > 0 if we do not ge t any re sults
from the que ry, we jump to the last part of the code and show a message .
Finally we close the table.
Whe n the panel is saved and activated, this is what it looks like on the front page (the
illustration is taken from www.phpfusion.dk so that you can see what it looks like, whe n you
have a large r numbe r of links.
On the official PHP-Fusion pages and on a numbe r of fusion pages you can find more MO Ds
MO Ds you can use to enrich and e nhance your website .
Actually you dont have to be an expe rt in PHP-coding to put some thing like this on your page .
Copy the re le vant code in the ve rsion equivalent to your PHP-Fusion ve rsion paste the code
from your admin panel save and activate . In most case s your ne w MO D will work
immediate ly.
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Eve n be tte r with the re lease of ve rsion 5.00 of PHP-Fusion a ne w standard was introduced
for adding ex tensions to your site a ne w standard that makes it a lot easie r to add fairly
advanced MODs to your site . This standard - INFUSIO NS is describe d in furthe r de tail late r
in this handbook.
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Styles & Themes

As mentioned before in this handbook, PHP-Fusion uses so called themes to control the layout
of all the e lements on your site .
A theme consist of a theme.php script, a css-styleshee t and a numbe r of graphic e lements
used to make up frames around diffe rent parts of your site .
Each theme resides in its own folde r and the folde r name is the same as the theme name:
To ge t an idea of how the theme -elements are put toge the r you can look at the illustration
be low (whe re we zoom in on the theme , we are using he re in this handbook ):
Lets start by tak ing a close r look at the theme .php

In the top of the theme -file you have some gene ral values that control appearance all the way
through your site . They look like this:
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$body_tex t = #000000; the colour of your body tex t as a hexade cimal code . You can find an
ove rvie w of the hexade cimal colour code s on this URL:
http://www.compute rhope.com /htm color.htm #03
$body_bg = #F8FBFB: the background colour as hexade cimal colour code
$theme _width = 845: page width he re in pixe ls but it m ight look like this as we ll: 100%
$theme _width_l = 165: width of the le ft panel on your page in pixe ls
$theme _width_r = 165: width of the right panel on your page in pixe ls
Be low this se ction you will see a numbe r of so called functions used throughout PHP-Fusion to
control diffe re nt parts of your site .
A function is sequence of code that stays re sident in the se rve rs memory during the whole
session. This means that the function is available from all parts of your site . Usually you call a
function by the function name and with a numbe r of parame te rs. And whe n you do this, the
function pe rform an ope ration and re turn one or more values to the script, from which is has
been called.
Lets take a look at an example .
Whe n your site opens, the default start page is ne ws.php. He re the function re nde r_ne ws is
called like this:
Rende r_ne ws needs 3 parame te rs (ne ws_subje ct, ne ws_ne ws and ne ws_info ne ws_info
consist of a numbe r of informations stored in a so called array). Re nde r_ne ws itse lf looks like
this:
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Most of this function is a scheme for, how the ne ws is presented a table definition, some
class-calls (we take a close r look at them late r in this chapte r) and some locale-calls (the
locale-calls repre sent the tex ts that are put into the ne ws presentation depe nding on what
language, you have chose n for your site).
Whe n the function is finished work ing with the information, that have been passed on to it, it
write s the results on the screen on the exact spot, whe re the function originally was calle d.
Your theme.php have at least 12 diffe re nt functions (the re may be more than 12 but 12 is the
minimum) and the y all format information on your site one way or the othe r.
Style shee ts are file s with format information made according to HTML-standards. A style
sheet is importe d to the use r pc and used the re to apply styling to diffe re nt HTML-e lements.
You can read more about the spe cification of styles and style shee ts he re :
http://www. w3.org/TR/HTML4/prese nt/styles.HTML.
The style shee t use d in PHP-Fusion contains a number of styles used throughout the system to
format diffe rent parts of your information according to ce rtain rules. A simple example from
the style sheet use d in the Theme PFT-Blue looks like this:
This e lement de fines the body e lement of your page . W hat it says is, that body tex t on your
site should be (depending on what is available on the local pc) should be shown in eithe r
Ve rdana, Tahoma, Arial or Sans-Se rif with a fontsize of 10 pixels, with no padding and with a
margin of 10 pixe ls.
Whe n PHP-Fusion uses this in formation, it looks like this:
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This is a part of the file ne ws.php. He re some content (the content in the variable
$ne ws_subje ct) is prese nted. And in the presentation a class is applied (<td class=tbl2 ).
This class is defined in the style shee t like this:
It defines the font-size at 11 pixe ls (using the body font spe cifications from above) te lls the
browse r to set the tex t in the colour defined by the hexade cimal code 091609, using a
back ground colour define d by the hexade cimal code F8FBFD and using a padding of 4 pixels.
And this is what it looks like on the screen:
What m ight represe nt a problem for you, when you are trying to modify the appearance of
your site, is finding out which style de finitions the system use whe re . To help you he re we
have produced a commente d ve rsion of a styleshee t (the one we use in the illustrations he re in
this handbook) and added it as an appe ndix.
Not all style shee ts look exactly the same. But all the main definitions in the style shee ts are
the same . If you have problems finding a spe cific definition, try searching for it both in the
style shee t and in the script.
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The new theme structure in version 6.01

W ith PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01 a ne w theme-structure has been introduced. O lde r themes are
to most part compatible to ve rsion 6.01 but with version 6.01 we have introduced a lot of ne w
functions and place d them in a separate script to make it easie r to work with themes.
What we are talk ing about? We ll try to take a look at the function rende r_ne ws as it looks in
the ne w theme structure and as it looks in the old one:
The two functions do more or less the same . But in the ne w one a lot of the formatting code
have been replaced by functions all of which are place d in a ne w script file called
theme _functions_include.php. The code in theme.php thus is more compact and easie r to
inte rpre t and the pe rformance of the system is improved.
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To he lp you out he re's a brie f guide to the functions in the theme _functions_include .php which
is now used in all core themes. If you want to see how these functions are used take a look at
any of the core theme.php file s.
showsublinks(separator, class)
Rende rs the subheade r links using spe cified separator and css class.
- separator (de fault value is "&m iddot;"): A characte r or image use d to separate each item .
- class (optional): Se ts the hype rlink css class.
showsubdate()
Displays the subheade r date /time in corre ct format.
newsposter(info(array), separator, class)
Rende rs the ne ws posted with optional separator and link class.
- info (required): An array containing the ne ws poste r and time .
- separator (de fault is ""): Used to add a separating item at the end of the poste r info, can be
tex t, image or line break.
- class (optional): Se ts the hype rlink css class.
newsopts(info(array), separator, class)
Rende rs the ne ws stats & options such as comments, reads and print.
- info (required) - an array containing the ne ws stats & options.
- separator (default is "·") - the separator be tween each option, can be tex t, image or
line break.
- class (optional) - se ts the hype rlink css class.
articleposter(info(array), separator, class)
Rende rs the posted by de tails with optional separator and link class.
- info (required) - an array containing the article poster and time .
- separator (default is "") - Used to add a separating item at the e nd of the poste r info, can be
tex t, image or line break.
articleopts(info(array), separator, class)
Rende rs the article stats & options such as comments, reads and print.
- info (required) - an array containing the article stats & options.
- separator (default is "·") - the separator be tween each option, can be tex t, image or
line break.
The following functions are optional:
openform(type, item_id)
C reate the ope n form e lement for the dire ct e dit button. Must pre cede ne ws/articleposte r or
ne ws/articleopts de pending on the way in which the e lements are placed. If ne ws/articleopts is
re nde red in its own ce ll (<td>) then openform() should be called be fore it, othe rwise
ope nform () should be called before ne ws/articleposte r.
- type - the type of item the form is for, "N" for ne ws or "A" for article.
- item_id - the unique id of the ne ws or article (ne ws_id or article _id).
closeform(type, item_id)
C reates the easy edit button along with the closing form e lement. Should be called dire ctly
afte r ne ws/articleopts.
- type - the type of item the form is for, "N" for ne ws or "A" for article.
- item_id - the unique id of the ne ws or article (ne ws_id or article _id).
showcopyright(class)
Rende rs the PHP-Fusion copyright notice .
showcounter()
Rende rs the unique visits counte r.
panelbutton(state, boxname)
Rende rs the collapse / uncollapse button in ope nsidex pane ls.
- state - the state of the button upon page load, can be "on" or "off".
- boxname - the unique name of the pane l.
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Page 143
Design in general
We have heard use rs say, that all C MS-systems look more or less the same and that the
design (although flex ible as far as graphics and colours are conce rned) is rathe r inflex ible . You
know a broade r middle se ction, to columns one right and one le ft and then a menu and a
banne r at the top.
In a way these use rs are right. And it take s some tweaking and modding to change the firm
structure . On the othe r hand its not impossible as a fe w examples might prove.
All of these sites have bee n made with PHP-Fusion:
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Just a fe w examples to demonstrate , what a little work (??) and some visions can accomplish.
The re are lots of good examples out the re . Go look for them.
Page 145
Infusions
In conne ction with the re lease of PHP-Fusion ve rsion 5.00, a ne w standard for adding
ex tensions to your site was introduced - the INFUSIO N standard.
The stre ngth of this standard is that system ex tensions are now added to PHP-Fusion in a
much simple r manne r, see n from the end use rs point of vie w
This concept has been brought e ve n furthe r in ve rsion 6.00.
Installing an INFUSION
An INFUSIO N can consist of more files. If we use the Ne wsle tte r INFUSIO N as an example , the
file structure (the folde r newsletter_panel) looks like this:
The installation of the ne wsle tte r is ve ry simple . You simply copy the whole folde r
newsletter_panel to the system folde r infusions and afte r that the infusions folde r will
look like this:
Afte r that, you logon to your site as the Supe r Adm inistrator, go to the adm in panel (System
Adm inistration) and click Infusions, which brings you to the following scree n:
Page 146
From the drop down list you choose the infusion you want to install (in this example the
Ne wslette r Pane l) and the n click Infuse. Once this has been done you will see some thing like
the following on your screen:
Whe n you re turn to the admin panel, you will see that a ne w se ction has appeared called
Infusions and if you click your way to that, this is what it looks like :
From this page you can administe r all of your Infusions. And from System Administration /
Infusions, you can de fuse installe d infusions or infuse othe rs as you like.
But what is actually happe ning, when an Infusion is installed?
This depe nds on how complicated the Infusion is. But in this case (ne wsle tte rs) the following
ope rations are pe rformed:
-
Two ne w tables are created in your database (fusion_ne wsle tte rs and
fusion_ne wsle tte r_subs containing re spe ctively the ne wsle tte rs that you
create and save and the use r subscription information)
A pane l is installe d but you have to activate it first before use rs can use it to
subscribe or unsubscribe to your ne wsle tte r.
A link is create d, so that you can reach the adm in pane l for the ne wsle tte rs
from the adm in pane l.
Page 147
The ne ce ssary language information is taken dire ctly from the language files
(locale files) according to the language choice you have made . If the res no
locale files for your language , English will be chose n.
But it doesnt have to be that complicated. An INFUSION could for example consist of only
one pane l and some busine ss logic (like the e rror report infusion). To be handle d as an
Infusion the added information to your system must include at least on file (infusion.php), that
contains some information which the adm in functions must have acce ss to, in orde r to be able
to integrate the Infusion into the system.
If we use the ne wslette r infusion as an example, you can see this in the infusion.php, which is
provide d as part of the download package:
1: Language information for this infusion says that if a locale file ex ist in
the site language use that othe rwise use the English ve rsion.
2: The title of this infusion (defined in the locale file ).
3: Ve rsion numbe r and Authors name and cre dentials.
4: Name of the folde r, whe re the infusion is situated.
5: Name of the image to use on the admin pane l for this infusion.
6: Name of the adm in file .
7: The Navigation Link de tails name to be displaye d, UR L to link to and
le vel of visibility (public, member e tc)
8: Table information numbe r of tables to create or drop.
Page 148
9: Ne cessary table creation in the form of a sql-statement.

10: Clean up commands to be used in case you want to uninstall this
infusion.
Installing an infusion is (all though the coding is rathe r complicated) in itse lf re lative ly simple .
The installation process opens the folde r infusions looks in the folde r to che ck if the re are
infusions in the folde r that havent been installe d, shows the information about these infusions,
on the drop down list and installs the infusion the use r has chosen according to the instructions
in the infusion.php file.
If the installation procedure locates a file in the infusion folde r with _panel as part of the file
name this part of the infusion is also made available as a panel unde r pane l administration. In
the example with the ne wsle tte rs such a file ex ists and this pane l can be activated afte r the
installation of the ne wslette r infusion.
Making a new INFUSION
We wont go into de tails with this issue if you want to know more about this, you can find
more ex tensive information on http://www.phpfusion-mods.com/ and in the Infusion SDK,
which can be downloaded on most official PHP Fusion Support sites. But we will go through and
comment on an example found on the Main PHP-Fusion site .
If you want to make a ne w infusion, you will have to start by downloading the SDK. Whe n you
have downloade d this k it (SDK stands for Software Development Kit) and unzippe d it, this
is what you see :
Page 149
The SDK-k it includes these files:

-
ne w_infusion_pane l.php
infusion.php
ne w_infusion_admin.php
ne w_infusion.php
an English standard locale (language) file (in the folde r locale)
Lets have a look at the files one by one . Le ts start with the file new_infusion_panel.php:
Page 150
The code he re is re lative ly simple . On lines 12 - 14 this script include s the core files of PHPFusion.
In line 16 it che cks the rights of the use r if sufficie nt the use r is allowe d access to the panel.
If not the use r is sent back to the index.php.
The nex t se ction (line 18 25) che cks to see if the re is a local language file pre sent. If not, the
English file is used as default.
Afte r that (line 27) the pane l is opene d (pane l code placed be tween openside(side pane l) and
closeside ()).
Alte rnatively a pane l in the m iddle se ction of the page is opene d (be tween opentable (ce nte r
panel) and close table ()).
Thats all.
Nex t file is infusion.php.
Page 151
The code he re has been commented earlie r in this chapte r, so we will leave it at that. This is
what the code looks like in full:
Page 152
In this part of the code you can see in which folder this infusion is supposed to be located and
which file is used to adm iniste r the infusion (31 33). In the next se ction of code you should
place information about how this infusion will be presented to the use r (35 37). The se ction
afte r that te lls PHP-Fusion what numbe r of table s to create during installation and what
numbe r of table s to drop, when the infusion is de fused.
Afte r that (44 51) you see a SQ L statement for the creation of the ne w tables. This works
in combination with one of the 4 variables unde rneath (inse rt row, drop table , alte r table and
de le te row in othe r table).
In the ne wsle tte r infusion this is what those lines looked like :
Page 153
The last file in the kit is a template file usable to make the adm inistration part of the ne w
infusion file name is new_infusion_admin.php, and this is what the code looks like:
Page 154
The re quire _once calls in the top are the standard calls on the admin pages (including the path
to maincore.php) and a call to subheader.php and navigation.php.
Afte r that you see a line (16) which che cks whe the r this use r has the rights to open this adm in
page . If the use r is re cognized as an administrator with the rights to open this page, the code
is exe cuted. If not, the use r is sent back to the index page.
In the comment line (// your code he re ) you place the code you have made .
Final remarks about INFUSIONS
A ne w infusion is supposed to be che cked and ve rified be fore its re leased. And the be st way to
accomplish this (to make sure that the infusion respe cts all standards and works in accordance
with the standard description) is to subm it the infusion to http://www.phpfusion-mods.com/
for testing and approval.
Unde r all circumstances its a ve ry sound idea only to use approved INFUSIO NS or MODs. If
you do this, it will make life easie r for you when you have to upgrade your page at some late r
stage .
Page 155
Literature and Web Links

He re you will find a list of resources on the Inte rne t and to books which might he lp you if you
wish to furthe r improve your unde rstanding of PHP-Fusion and PHP / MySQ L-programming. All
the books mentioned can be bought through http://www.amazon.com.
PHP
PHP is a scripting language a programming language used to build products and solutions
that can be exe cuted on a web se rve r (for example Internet Information Server from
Microsoft or A pache).
The comple te documentation for PHP can be found online on diffe rent we bsites.
Online-manual
English online-manual for PHP: http://php.ne t/manual/en/
You can find a lot of information on othe r addresses on the Inte rne t as we ll. A couple of these
you can see below:
Zend Technologies
He re you find the homepage for a brilliant editor (primarily for advanced use rs). This page also
has a lot of gene ral information and help: http://www.zend.com/
Maguma Studio
Ve ry good PHP-editor (I use it myse lf) with an extensive built in documentation, syntax
highlighting and so on: http://www.m aguma.com/
PHPBuilder.com
Lots of ideas and explanations in English: http://www.phpbuilde r.com/
PHP-Resources
Ve ry large site with lots of free scripts: http://www.php-resources.org/
PHP Tutorial
Online tutorial - examples of all the ma jor PHP expressions:
http://www. w3schools.com/php/de fault.asp
Learning PHP 5
By David Sklar The book be gins with an introduction to PHP, then moves to more advanced
features: language basics, arrays and functions, web forms, conne cting to database s, and
much more . (ORe illy 2004)
Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL from novice to professional
W . Jason Gilmore , Apress, 2004: A ve ry good and ex tensive documentation to both PHP and
databases from the simplest to the most advanced (and not ve ry ex pensive e ithe r).
MySQL
MySQ L is the database which PHP-Fusion (and lots of othe r products) is using as the database
back end. Its Open Source provided free of charge and allowe d to use and modify to suit
your own needs.
Page 156
MySQL-Manual
Online manual (in English) for MySQL: http://dev.MySql.com/
MySQL on line tutorial
All the hows and whys ex plaine d by an expe rt.
http://www.tizag.com /mysqlTutorial/
PHP and MySQL for Dummies, 2nd Edition

In spite of the title its actually quite good.
Jane t Valade , 2004
Graphics, HTML, Java and JavaScript isnt cove red he re . Try www.amazon.com or one of the
more spe cialized inte rne t bookshops. The y can probably supply you with all the information
you need to move on. O r ask at one of the official PHP-Fusion sites.
Page 157
Closing remarks & Credits

I made a fe w last m inute s changes in the page , we have use d he re to demonstrate PHPFusion moved a couple of pane ls, changed a bit in the style shee t, wrote anothe r pie ce of
ne ws, and this is what the final page looks like:
Its ready for re lease . And that is basically how difficult it is.
I know - this handbook could have bee n much more complicated and in depth about the many
aspe cts regarding MO D's and Infusions (and othe r things as we ll) but we have chosen to leave
it with the examples mentioned he re .
A standard is currently e volving for how these modifications are to be made and usually you
ge t not only the code you need, but also an exte nsive and informative explanation as to how
to ge t your chosen additions to work on your own site .
Page 158
Always remembe r that if you expe rie nce problems e ithe r with PHP-Fusion or with a system
Infusion or MOD you can always ge t he lp from one of the official support pages. Fusion use rs
are always helpful and will do the be st the y can to assist you.
We hope that this handbook will he lp you ge t started so that you too can be come a part of this
growing, helpful and content community.
The handbook was originally writte n in Danish by Jan Mlgaard in 2005 and updated in June
2005 and in O ctobe r 2005. This ve rsion is based on PHP-Fusion 6.01 2006 Nick Jones.
The handbook is provided free of charge. But you must remembe r that you are not allowed to
distribute it neithe r partially or in full without giving the author full cre dit. You are not allowed
to use it commercially eithe r be it partially or in full without the writte n pe rm ission from the
author.
The original English handbook was based on a translation of the Danish handbook .
This ve rsion was che cked and re vie wed by He lmuth. Thanks man!! How do you find the time?
Same place whe re I find mine???
Enjoy!
Aarhus June 15 2006
Jan Mlgaard
(mail:janm @janm.dk )
Page 159
Appendix 1: Commented stylesheet

* The BODY- attribute is use d throughout your site to format tex ts in article s, ne ws and
forums. It is used whe re othe r styles are not spe cified
body {
font-family:Ve rdana,Tahoma,Arial,Sans-Se rif;
font-size:10px ;
padding:0px 0px 0px 0px ;
margin:10px;
}
* Use d to format the line around forum posts
.forumline {
borde r: solid 1px #8F99A9;
back ground-color: #FAFAFA;
}
* Gene ral page style links (refe r to a HTML tags list)
a {
color:#000020;
tex t-de coration:none ;
font-size:10px ;
font-we ight:bold;
}
a:hove r {
color:#FB992F;
}
* Links handling in the panels
a.side {
color:#000020;
font-size:10px ;
}
a:hove r.side {
color:#FB992F;
}
a.white {
color:#000020;
font-size:10px ;
font-we ight:bold;
}
a:hove r.white {
color:#FB992F;
}
* Forms like the contact form

form {
margin:0px 0px 0px 0px ;
}
* Horizontal line
hr {
borde r-top:1px #E2E2E2 solid;
borde r-bottom:1px #F9F9F9 solid;
}
*Horizontal line in the pane ls
hr.side -hr {
borde r:1px #E2E2E2 solid;
borde r-bottom:1px #F9F9F9 solid;
}
* Formatting a table ce ll like in <td>
td {
font-size:10px ;
}
* Doesnt seem to be use d anywhe re
pre {
font-size:9px;
}
* Use d in forum names, in ne ws, in subm issions and a lot of othe r places
.alt {
color:#1C 1C1C ;
}
* Use d in some themes in theme.php (function: render_foote r)
.heade r {
back ground-color:#F6F8FA;
back ground-image :url(images/heade r_bg.gif);
}
* Use d in some themes in theme.php (function: render_heade r)
.sub-heade r {
font-size:10px ;
color:#000020;
back ground-image :url(images/ce llpic_nav.gif);
borde r-top:1px #8F99A9 solid;
borde r-bottom:1px #8F99A9 solid;
padding:5px ;
}
* Use d throughout your site for buttons
.button {
Page 160
font-size:10px ; color:#000000;
back ground-color:#FAFAFA;
borde r:1px #8F99A9 solid;
margin-top:2px ;
}
* Use d throughout your site to format tex tboxes in form s
.textbox {
font-size:10px ;
color:#000000;
back ground-color:#FAFAFA;
}
* Use d to format texts in articles situate d in theme.php in functions
.main-body {
color: #3B3B3B;
font-we ight: normal;
}
* Use d in some themes to format the graphic parts of boxes
.table-ce llpic {
font-size: 11px;
line-height: 25px;
font-we ight: bold;
color: #EBF2FF;
back ground-color: #F6F8FA;
back ground-image : url(images/cellpic1.gif);
}
* Use d in some themes to format borde r of the graphic pane ls
.pane l-borde r {
borde r: 1px solid #8F99A9;
}
* Use d in some themes to format the borde r of ne ws-items
.ne ws-borde r {
borde r-top: solid #8F99A9;
borde r-top-width: 1px ;
borde r-le ft: solid #8F99A9;
borde r-le ft-width: 1px ;
borde r-right: solid #8F99A9;
borde r-right-width:1px ;
borde r-bottom: solid #F6F6F6;
borde r-bottom-width:0px;
}
* Use d in some themes to format borde r of the graphic pane ls
.pane l-cellpic {
font-size: 11px;
Page 161
line-height: 25px;
font-we ight: bold;
color: #EBF2FF;
back ground-color: #F6F8FA;
back ground-image : url(images/cellpic1.gif);
}
* Use d in themes to format the text in the side pane ls
.side-body {
color: #2D5496;
font-we ight: normal;
}
* Use d in navigation.php and side _le ft.php to se t the bagground colour
.main-bg {
back ground-color:#F8F8F8;
}
* Use d in all themes (theme.php) to se t the format of the borde rs use d
.borde r {
borde r-width:0px 1px 1px 1px ;
borde r-color:#8F99A9;
borde r-style :solid;
}
* Use d in all themes to format the bottom part of the ne ws presentation
.ne ws-foote r {
back ground: #F0F4F7;
back ground-image :url(images/ne ws_foote r.gif);
font-size:9px;
font-we ight:normal;
color:#0C 0C0C ;
he ight:22px;
}
* Use d in the function rende r_ne ws in some themes for the ne ws subje ct
.capmain {
font-size:10px ;
font-we ight:bold;
borde r-color:#8F99A9;
color:#B78E00;
he ight:24px;
}
* Use d in the foote rs of ne ws and articles to format the information
.foote r {
Page 162
Page 163
font-size:9px;
color:#EAEAEA;
he ight:24px;
back ground-image : url(images/foote r_bg.gif);
borde r-top:1px #8F99A9 solid;
borde r-bottom:0px #8F99A9 solid;
}
* Doesnt seem to used any more
im g {
borde r: 0px;
}
* Use d in the function openside in theme.php for the heade rs of pane ls
.scapmain {
font-size:10px ;
font-we ight:bold;
color:#000;
he ight:19px;
borde r-color:#8F99A9 #8F99A9 #8F99A9 #8F99A9;
}
* Use d throughout your site to format pane l borde rs
.tbl-borde r {
back ground-color:#B4C6D8;
}
* A table format without much formatting use d for example in articles.php
.tbl {
font-size:11px ;
padding:4px ;
}
* Anothe r table format without some formatting like an alte rnative background colour used
for example in forum .php
.tbl1 {
font-size:11px ;
color:#091609;
padding:4px ;
}
* Ye t anothe r table format without some formatting like an alte rnative back ground colour
used for example in forum .php
.tbl2 {
font-size:11px ;
color:#091609;
back ground-color:#F8FBFD;
padding:4px ;
}
* Forum heade r format
.forum-caption {
font-size:10px ;
font-we ight:bold;
color:#EBF2FF;
he ight:24px;
back ground-image :url(images/ce llpic2.gif);
back ground-repeat:re peat-x ;
}
* Quote blocks in the forum
.quote {
color:#006E29;
padding:2px ;
margin:0px 20px 0px 20px ;
}
* Voting Poll formats
.poll {
he ight:12px;
}
* Use d for formatting use r name in comments
.comment-name {
font-we ight:bold;
color:#DDCC 88;
}
* This is for the Shoutbox the heade r
.shoutboxname {
font-we ight:bold;
color:#FFDDAA;
}
* Shoutbox the main part
.shoutbox {
color:#06070A;
}
* Shoutbox the date
.shoutboxdate {
font-size:9px;
color:#1C 1C1C ;
}
Page 164
Page 165
* A ge ne ral format used for small tex ts throughout your site

.small {
font-size:10px ;
}
* An alte rnative format use d for small tex ts throughout your site for example in a lot of the
adm inistration pages
.small2 {
font-size:9px;
color:#1C 1C1C ;
}
* Small format for the side pane ls
.side-small {
font-size:10px ;
color:#000000;
}
* Heade rs for the side pane ls
.side-labe l {
color:#1C 1C1C ;
padding:2px ;
}
* This is for the Photo Galle ry the main part
.galle ry {
padding: 16px 0px 8px 0px ;
}
* Photo Galle ry the images
.galle ry img {
filte r: gray;
}
* Hoove r functions in galle ry
.galle ry:hove r img {
borde r: 1px solid #4E79F3;
filte r: none;
}
* How the active parts of the galle ry is shown
im g.activegalle ry
{
filte r: none;
}
If you create a small script calle d classes.php with the following content and make a site link
calling it, this is what you will see (script content first):
<?php
/*--------------------------------------------+
| PHP-Fusion 6.01 - Content Management System
|---------------------------------------------|
| author: Nick Jones (Digitanium) 2002-2005 |
| web: http://www.php-fusion.co.uk
|
| email: digitanium@php-fusion.co.uk
|
|---------------------------------------------|
| Released under the terms and conditions of |
| the GNU General Public License (Version 2) |
+--------------------------------------------*/
require_once "maincore.php";
require_once "subheader.php";
require_once "side_left.php";
Page 166
opentable("Your PHP-Fusion style sheet classes");

echo "<table cellpadding='0' cellspacing='2' width='100%'>
<tr><td><a href='".FUSION_SELF."' target='_blank' class='hover'>Class name: a.hover (move cursor in
over text to see effect)</a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href='".FUSION_SELF."' target='_blank' class='a'>Class name: a</a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href='".FUSION_SELF."' target='_blank' class='side'>Class name: a.side</a></td></tr>
<td><a href='".FUSION_SELF."' target='_blank' class='white'>Class name: a.white</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class='hr'>Class name: hr<hr></td></tr>
<tr><td class='side-hr'>Class name: side-hr<hr></td></tr>
<tr><td class='td'>Class name: td</td></tr>
<tr><td class='pre'>Class name: pre</td></tr>
<tr><td><div class='alt'>Class name: alt</div></td></tr>
<tr><td><div class='white-header'>Class name: white-header</div></td></tr>
<tr><td><div class='full-header'>Class name: full-header</div></td></tr>
<tr><td>
<form name='userform' method='post'>
<input type='submit' name='sendmessage' value='Class name: button' class='button'>
</form></td></tr>
<tr><td class='textbox'>Class name: textbox</td></tr>
<tr><td class='main-body'>Class name: main-body</td></tr>
<tr><td class='side-body'>Class name: side-body</td></tr>
<tr><td class='side-base'>Class name: side-base</td></tr>
<tr><td class='main-bg'>Class name: main-bg</td></tr>
<tr><td class='border'>Class name: border</td></tr>
<tr><td class='side-border-left'>Class name: side-border-left</td></tr>
<tr><td class='side-border-right'>Class name: side-border-right</td></tr>
<tr><td class='news-footer'>Class name: news-footer</td></tr>
<tr><td class='capmain'>Class name: capmain</td></tr>
<tr><td class='tbl-border' align='center'><br><font color='#FFFFFF'>Class name: tblborder<br><br></font></td></tr>
<tr><td class='tbl'>Class name: tbl</td></tr>
<tr><td class='tbl1'>Class name: tbl1</td></tr>
<tr><td class='tbl2'>Class name: tbl2</td></tr>
<tr><td class='forum-caption'>Class name: forum-caption<br><br></td></tr>
<tr><td class='quote' align='center'><br>Class name: quote</td></tr>
<tr><td class='poll'>Class name: poll</td></tr>
<tr><td class='comment-name'>Class name: comment-name</td></tr>
<tr><td class='shoutboxname'>Class name: shoutboxname</td></tr>
<tr><td class='shoutbox'>Class name: shoutbox</td></tr>
<tr><td class='shoutboxdate'>Class name: shoutboxdate</td></tr>
<tr><td class='small'>Class name: small</td></tr>
<tr><td class='small2'>Class name: small2</td></tr>
<tr><td class='side-small'>Class name: side-small</td></tr>
<tr><td><div class='side-label'>Class name: side-label</td></tr>
</table>";
closetable();
require_once "side_right.php";
require_once "footer.php";
?>
Page 167
Page 168
Index
Add N ew Panel;94;96
Admin
Panel;19 ;38 ;39;41 ;49;70 ;105;107;109;110 ;
112;113 ;116;123
Admin Rights ;43
Administration;16;96 ;108;111;112 ;145;146
Administrators ;18 ;41;109
Article Categories ;17;59
Article Images;80
Articles;17 ;25;53 ;59;60 ;63;70 ;113;114 ;124
Automatic Line-breaks ;62
Backup;13 ;18;116;117
Bad word replac ement;34
Blacklist;18 ;112
CMS;4
Comments ;114;115
Content Admin;17 ;19
Custom Pages ;15 ;17;126
Database backup;117
Date settings ;24
Delete a thread;46
Delete Shouts ;110
Download Categories ;17;76
Downloads ;17 ;76;77
Edit P rofile;111
FAQ ;17 ;124;125
Forum;17 ;18;25 ;26;46 ;48;51 ;93;97 ;116
Forum Settings ;18 ;26
Forums ;17;25 ;97;101
I mages ;17;80
Infuse;5 ;146
INFUSIO N;145;147 ;148
infusions ;18 ;93;95 ;145;146;148
Infus ions;5 ;18 ;129;145;146 ;157
Ins tallation;6 ;8;9 ;10 ;41;83 ;94;119 ;129;145;14
8 ;152
Ins talling;8 ;145;148
Literature;155
Lock a thread;46
Log in Panel;15
Main Settings;18 ;20 ;26;39 ;69
Miscellaneous ;18 ;33;109
MO Ds ;5 ;129;132;134;135 ;154
Moderators ;41;45 ;46;48
Move a thread;46
Navigation;15 ;36;92
Navigationpanel;15
New T hread;100
New T opic;100
News ;17 ;25;52 ;69;70 ;74
news item s ticky;71
Panel Access;93
Panel Administration;92 ;96
Panel Filename;94 ;95
Panel N ame;93
Panels ;18 ;92;96 ;105;107
Permissions ;7
Photo Album;28
Photo Albums ;17 ;18;82 ;83
Photo Gallery;18;27
Polls ;17;104;107
Preview Article;62
Private Messages ;19 ;120
Ratings ;114
Read More;70 ;72
Registration;19 ;26
Renew a thread;46
Restore;118;119
Safe mode;28
Shoutbox;15 ;18;25 ;108;109
Sitefooter;16
Site link;37
Site Settings ;15;16 ;19;24 ;27 ;33;69 ;83
Smileys;109
SMTP;34
Sticky;46;102
Sys tem Admin;18;19 ;26;92 ;101;116
Theme;15;18 ;22;24 ;38;130
Theme;22
Thread notific ation;103
TinyMCE;4;34 ;70
TinyMCE;5;34 ;55 ;56;58 ;70
Top Menu;15
Toplogo;15
Topmenu;15
Upgrading;13
User Admin;18 ;19;41 ;49 ;109;113
User Groups ;18 ;41;49
Welcome message;15
Web L ink Categories ;17;51 ;89
Web L inks;17 ;89;90 ;155
Welcome;15
WinZip;6

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PHP-FUSION

Copyright 2006 Jan Mlgaard

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

PHP-Fusion Official Handbook

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Adde d Thread email notification option to forum.

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Now you are ready to start the installation.

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Upgrading from earlier versions

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

5. CHMO D the administration folde r to 755.

images/photoalbum /subm issions/

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Administration site settings

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Se t up cate gories for articles you nee d to

Categories for downloads you need to

Categories for ne ws items you can use this

Web Link Categories

Categories for we b links you have to make

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

He re is whe re you add administrators to your

Adm iniste r the membe rs on your site add

Adm iniste r member submissions we b links,

He res whe re you make your database

Bad words filte r, numbe r of shoutbox posts to

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Se ttings conce rning the PM system. Lim its to

How can use rs registe r on your site? Should it

Time and Date Se ttings

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Lets just start from the top se tting up your ne w site.

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Selection of a Theme, changing the Theme-file

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Figure 3: Sho wcase

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Figure 4 : Front page after the initial setup.

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

This is how you should read the format se ttings:

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Photo Gallery Settings

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Photo Gallery: Safe mode or not

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

- your Photo Gallery will be working without the folde r structure .

Converting from the old version of Photo Gallery

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

Whe n you do that, this is what you see on your scree n:

Use r Handbook for PHP-Fusion ve rsion 6.01

If you ope n the album , this is how it look s: