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 other administration menu items are very specific - the "Download", "Web Links", "FAQ" and "Surveys/Polls" sections allow administrators to add new items to the respective areas of the Web site, and you will need to visit them whenever you decide to update your Web site.
The "Headlines" section allows your site to read news articles from other Web sites using an RDF or XML source. This is a pretty powerful feature, and it's a great way to make the front page dynamic - I'd recommend using this if you can. A number of XML sources are available by default, including PHPBuilder, LinuxPreview and PHP-Nuke itself, and you can add your own to the list as well.
Another interesting (though infrequently-used) feature is "Ephemerids", which allows you to remind users of specific events that occurred in the past. For example, if April 2 is your birthday, you can enter the date into the "Ephemerids" system, together with a short description of the event, and the system will pop up a notification of the event to every visitor on April 2 every year. It's fun and easy to do; however, you should activate this feature only if it fits in with the overall tone of your site.
As visitors browse your PHP-Nuke site, the system is keeping itself busy as well, tracking which stories are being read and storing browser information. All this information is then compiled and made available to administrators and users - the "Stats" section displays pageviews per month, together with a graph indicating the various browser types and operating systems preferred by visitors, while the "Top 10" section keeps track of the most active categories, articles, threads and polls. This information is very valuable, and is one of the reasons why I like PHP-Nuke so much - it makes tracking visitor activity far simpler than it usually is.
This article copyright Melonfire 2001. All rights reserved.
