The PHP-Nuke content management system is a popular open-sourceproject, designed to help you get your Web site off the ground with minimumfuss...and if you're a budding Webmaster, or just running on a tightschedule, it can probably make your life simpler. This article discussesdeploying and customizing the system to your needs.
The administration section contains everything you need to configure the PHP-Nuke system - however, the first thing you should do is visit the "Edit Admins" section and alter the super-user password for greater security.
At this point, you may also add new administrators to the system - this comes in handy if you expect a great deal of activity on your portal and would like to assign specific individuals or editors to moderate different sections of the site. Administrator rights can be assigned either for specific sections - articles, topics, downloads, links, discussion boards - or for the complete system.
If required, you can also edit registered user accounts - this includes altering the account password and assigning the user moderator privileges.
The administration section is also your starting point if you need to customize the PHP-Nuke interface. For example, let's suppose you'd like a shorter main menu on your front page. The administration section offers the "Main Block" item, which allows you to customize the menu items which appear in the main menu - delete existing items or add your own, the process is as simple as filling out a text box.
You can do the same with the other blocks which appear on the right and left borders - simply select the "Left Blocks" and "Right Blocks" options in the administration menu to edit or delete existing blocks, or add new ones. The changes you make will be immediately reflected throughout the site.
This is probably one of the better features of the PHP-Nuke system. Most of the time, the default blocks are not what you will want, and you will need to alter them to reflect your own preferences. Of the various options available, I try to always make sure that the login block, the news block and the survey are always visible; additionally, the last time I deployed this system, I added a couple of new blocks containing useful information or instructions for visitors, a link to the "site of the day", and promotional blocks containing sponsor messages.
The "Preferences" section is the place to go when you need to alter site-specific information - the name of your site, the URL and logo, the theme you'd like to use, the language, the text which appears at the bottom of every page, and default configuration options for different sections of the site. This is one of the more important administration sections, and I'd suggest you spend some time on the options available.
This article copyright Melonfire 2001. All rights reserved.
