BlueTrip.org has been doing pretty well for itself, even in it’s incomplete state. However, one of the things that it is completely lacking in is some method of communication and collaberation. The uber simple but reporter really isn’t built for that. I’ve always hung tight to the ExpressionEngine forum module so I don’t have much experience with standalone scripts. So it’s time to find a good forum.

My only requirements: PHP and MySQL, really simple, outputs valid code, and easy to theme. So far, the only options I’ve found are punBB, flexBB, and SMF, though I’m sure there are others. However, I happen to know that anybody who reads this blog must be brilliant, so anybody care to drop some knowledge?

While a large part of our likes or dislikes come down to personal taste, there are still quite a few things that I think most of us want in a Content Management System. Here’s my list, and I’ll carefully explain why nothing satisfies it, and nothing ever will.

Free and Open Source (GPL, anyone?)

Heckle if you wish, but this is a biggie for me. I need to be able to download and play with it for free! I need to be able to use it on my auntie Barb’s beauty parlor site that she’s not paying me a dime for. I need to be able to screw with the code and reuse the code and branch off from the code without getting sued.

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On a recent project, I worked with a lesser known and charming little CMS known as Textpattern (or “Txp” to its users). The decision came after a long and drawn out process of researching and theming various CMS solutions to see what would be the easiest to develop (there was a time constraint) and what would be the easiest to maintain for a non-technical manager.

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So you understand the basics of MVC. You get the Active Record and all that craziness. You have CI up and running, maybe even with some basic controllers and views. You’re on your way. At this point, it’s the details that start to get confusing. Where do assets (CSS, JS, images, etc.) go? How do I know if this piece of code belongs in a model or a library (or a helper)? How can I change the way URLs are displayed? If this sounds like you, you’re in the right place my friend.

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One of the major reasons why PHP frameworks benefit us has to do with the inexperienced (or even average) developer’s lack of security knowledge. PHP (especially database driven PHP) is riddled with loopholes and opportunities to a malicious user to get the best of you, unless you know what you’re doing.

Luckily, CodeIgniter handles a lot of these concerns for you, and gives you the tools to handle the rest. In this section of the CI tutorial, we’ll take a look at many common security threats, including how CI handles them and what you need to do to make sure your CI driven web apps aren’t being threatened by them.

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And we’re back with part 3 of our incredible CI tutorial. In part 1, we installed and configured CodeIgniter. In part 2, we took a basic look at how CodeIgniter handles the MVC architecture. Now we’ll check out CodeIgniter’s database handling including the Active Record implementation, performing simple CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations, and sending query data from models to controllers to views.

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Welcome back. In the last section we got up and running with CodeIgniter and familiarized ourselves with the structure and installation of it. This time, we’re going to take a closer look at how CodeIgniter handles MVC, and what MVC really even means!

This is the meat of CodeIgniter and most other web application frameworks (Symfony, Zend, CakePHP, and even the infamous Ruby on Rails). It’s also a really great way to structure any kind of application, and you’ll feel like a better person for having learned it. And it’s good in bed. Moving on…

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