Version 2.0 (September, 2006)
Introduction
Features
Installation
Upgrading Previous Versions
Usage
To Do
Credits
phpProfile Pages allows you to offer visitors their very own URL on your web site simply by registering. The elements of their pages are pre-defined, however the user has the ability to choose a color scheme and add their own content. Members can belong to Communities that you create and then interact with other members.
The script came about because I was looking for a php version of one of the old perl Home Page scripts and there didn't seem to be any. Some of the code may be a little unique, but hey it works! Its always tempting to skip right to the installation, but I recommend that you browse this page completely so you will understand the features and how the script works.
phpProfile Pages is a community building program that allows you to offer visitor's their own URL on your site. When a visitor registers, they are directed to log in and create their profile. There are the usual physical characteristics to choose from and also a large area for them to explain a little about themselves and their hobbies and interests. In this release, the profiles are template driven, with a selection of color schemes. In a future release, more detailed customization will be implemented. When the user creates their profile, the script creates a directory under the user directory and enters their input into the database. The user can edit their information anytime. From the profile page, the script recognizes the profile owner and shows a link at the top to edit the profile. For all other visitors, it shows a Get Your Own link.
The initial profile has a default picture. The user may upload their own picture in gif or jpg format. A thumbnail routine resizes the picture so it looks right on the profile page, but clicking on the image will open the full size photo in a pop-up. Pictures are limited to about 400 x 400 maximum.
When the user creates their profile, the script copies an index page and the default photo from a source directory. The index pages are very small since all of the guts are in another directory and are included with php statements. The individual content is then added from the database! The newest member will be displayed on the main page, but only after they have uploaded a picture to replace the default picture.
When you log in as the Administrative User, the script will show options in your menu to edit/delete users, profiles and pictures. You may create communities for your users to join and post comments to. You may insert advertising banners with links that you specify. The ads will rotate on a random basis using a MySQL function.
The script allows registered users to send internal messages to each other. The user can reply to or delete messages from their Mail Center. The User's menu will display a special graphic and message when they have new mail. Otherwise, they just see a link to their Mail Center.
Users each have their own blog on their profile page. They can make entries and edit or delete them later. Each user's blog entries show on the main site's blog page. User's can also enter, edit and delete bookmarks that are displayed on their profile page. The communities that they have joined are also listed on their profile page with a link to the community.
The search features allows visitor to search by a user's username, profile URL or zipcode. Many of the functions are limited to registered users. For example, a visitor can search users and find a profile, but cannot send the user a message unless they register. When a visitor tries to access a restricted function, they are invited to register!
Let's get started setting you up! Most people run Windows on a PC at home and upload their scripts to a site hosted somewhere on a Linux (or FreeBSD, etc) server. That's the approach we'll use to explain set up. The script was written for UNIX type installations. It might work on Windows servers with some modifications to the path statements, but with Windows, you're on your own!
I have to assume you have downloaded the zip file and extracted it to a directory on your computer. You can peek around at the files, but I recommend you don't change anything until you get it up & running. After that you can make changes to the look & feel, graphics or whatever you like. If you like the script, please donate to help us continue development! The script was not written to be placed in a sub-directory. It will only work right when installed in the root web directory. You can certainly use a sub-domain i.e. profiles.mysite.com as long as your sub-domain has its own web root.
Fill in the fields with the appropriate values (the script will detect some of the settings for you) and click the set up button. The script will create a configuration file based on the values you provided and install the database tables. You will need to have a database set up with a MySQL user with dba privileges.
That's it!
If you prefer, you can edit config.example in the require directory to suit your environment and save it as config.php. Then run MySQL.txt found in the install directory on your database with phpMyAdmin or the like for a manual installation.
Now you can set up some communities and change the advertisements to suit you. You do need to have at least one banner ad and one side ad set up or your pages will be missing graphics. Use the Ad Manager to replace the default ads. If you don't really want ads, you can make a graphic for a feature you want to highlight and use the ad routine for that with a link to the page.
Log in as the Administrative User. It is very important that you change the password for obvious reasons. Use the My Account link to change the password and any other information you wish to. You can change the content of the main page my editing index.inc.php in the include directory. I suggest you save the original as something like index.inc.old before you start, in case you need to refer back to it. Be careful around the include statements for the blog & community samples and the newest member feature. You can move the include statements as you wish, but be aware they are there and take note of the statements before you overwrite them.
All of the layouts are defined by linked cascading style sheets. The style sheets are in the css directory. The one named basic.css is the main site layout and the rest are used for profiles and communities. You can change the style sheets, but the names are coded in the script in various places as well as in the database. You could change the names, but you would have to find and change all references to them throughout the script. If you are good with php and want to change the names, go for it! Otherwise, I recommend leaving the names as they are.
You will probably want to change the logo graphic to your own. It should be about 188 x 70 pixels in order to fit. You should edit the privacy policy and acceptable use policy to suit your site. Find the include files in the include directory called privacy.inc.php and aup.inc.php and edit them as you like. If you'd like to remove the copyright tags, please donate what you feel the script is worth to you.
Only the Administrator can create Communities. There is a link for you at the bottom of the Control Center page. Registered users will see a link at the top of the Community page to suggest a new community. You will receive the suggestions in your onsite mailbox and can create the community if you like.
The Administrator can set up a system message that will be visible to logged in Users at the bottom of the main page (or wherever show_sysmsg.inc.php is included). Use the link in the Control Center to create a new system message. The message appears on the main page and the subject is a link to the message archive with the newest message displayed first. When you are logged in as admin, you will see a hammer icon that you can use to edit or delete the message.
Otherwise, the Administrative functions are pretty much self-explanatory. If you have trouble, you can check out our forum at http://linuxwebshop.com/forums/ for help.
These are some features being contemplated for future releases as development continues. If you have any suggestion, we welcome you to post them on our forum at: http://linuxwebshop.com/forums/ !
The Thumbnail routine is based upon James Heinrich's phpThumb which is available at: http://phpthumb.sourceforge.net to download. Mr. Heinrich's script is also a free, open-source php script in the fine tradition of giving something back to the development community!
The image verification routine used in the registration process is based upon secureimage written by Drew Phillips which is available to download at: http://www.neoprogrammers.com/ Mr, Phillips has a great site with a number of open-source offerings for the community.
The Blog routine is loosely based on Matthew Dingey's MDNews script which is available at: http://www.matthewdingley.co.uk/ to download. Mr. Dingey is also a web developer and offers some of his work, including MDNews free to the web community.
Parts of the Membership registration routine are based upon the work of Wibisono Sastrodiwiryo. He offers his user management script at http://product.cybergl.co.id/dev/index.php for download. His scripts are also free to download and use.
Kudos to these fine people for giving back to the development community! I, personally would also like to thank all those people who post to the various development forums and to those who answer questions posted there. I found many answers while developing this script by searching terms and reading posts on the forums.