eZ publish: PHP's Killer App - Part 1

[Duende]

Hi,

I have two designs declared in my site.ini.php. The default design works nicely with my static pages.

Now, I'm wondering why that dynamically generated link (from the menubox that goes on many of our pages) that reads "site map" always pops up my site map in the alternate style and not my default?

Also, what's the suggestion for building a largely "nomal" looking site with a bona fide home page -> general info pages AND also have the modules for ecommerce, forums, calendar etc. on the periphery? Do I have to create a mess of static pages, hard code the links and then url translate everything?

I seem to have difficulties controling how the menubox templates generate the links.

[HarryF]

Now, I'm wondering why that dynamically generated link (from the menubox that goes on many of our pages) that reads "site map" always pops up my site map in the alternate style and not my default?

This is defined here;

[eZArticleMain]
...
TemplateDir=templates/phppoint/

The sitemap is part of the eZ article module.

Also, what's the suggestion for building a largely "nomal" looking site with a bona fide home page -> general info pages AND also have the modules for ecommerce, forums, calendar etc. on the periphery? Do I have to create a mess of static pages, hard code the links and then url translate everything?

You will need to hard code some things into frame.php, many of which are provided in each module via a script called menubox.php. I wouldn't overuse static pages though - just for the things that will be truly static. The real grief with ezPublish 2.x is the templates - there's alot of work to do customizing each template to your own design. The more modules you use, the worse it gets. eZ publish 3.x (currently beta) seems to have adopted a better approach to templates, which seems to a trade off between templates and "widgets" - basically less work.

I seem to have difficulties controling how the menubox templates generate the links.

Depending on the menubox you're using, if you set a variable before including it, like $Category=1 for the eZ article module), it controls what appears (this will show all folders under category 1 in eZ article). To find out what the variable is, you have to look at the menubox script under each module (a pain I know).

These things aren't great but that's the price to pay for flexibility - more work. Should be better in 3.x

[rhubarb]

But none the less...ezpublish kicks some serious butt!!!!

I am glad to hear that the next release will attempt to make template management a bit less convoluted. The ability to list and edit the templates from within the admin console is nice... but there needs to be a map of template snippets so that a newbie to the system can hone right in on a specific file for editing.


Other than that..I have very few gripes!!



Thanks again Harry for your hard work introducing ezpublish.

rhu

[Duende]

Its both amazing and admirable to find people who are truly knowledgable. I'm not talking about an "expert" who can manipulate the tools of their trade (that's a craftsman) BUT I'm describing a person who understands the relationships governing those tools - that's an artist! And an artist who can transmit their knowledge is a genius.

I have met less than a dozen, out of hundreds, of such persons who consider themselves experts in their field (from martial artists to IT people) who are truly artists.

Thank you HarrF, your help and understanding are amazing.

I'll dig into your suggestions when I get home.

[royby]

Hi Harry

this is a well planned and well written article on a difficult instal. Congratulations.

I have worked through to the stage ("The Magic Moment") where I can access the index page and the login to admin page. However, when I use the userid: admin and password: publish I receive a 404 error like so;

Error 404 - file not found
What does that mean ? - well exactly that ! the page you are looking (http://localhost/public/ezpublish_2_...r/login/login/) for does not exist

Can you give me any clues on where I may have gone astray.

Cheers and keep up the good work - Roy

[HarryF]

Error 404 - file not found
What does that mean ? - well exactly that ! the page you are looking (http://localhost/public/ezpublish_2...er/login/ login/) for does not exist

That file doesn't exist - correct - but eZ publish uses a trick for passing variables in the URL (search for "Search Engine Friendly URLS" here to find out more) so http://localhost/index.php/these/are/all variables

The two main reasons we seen here for the problem you're describing are;

a. register_globals is off in php.ini
b. You're using Apache 2

Either of those the case?

[royby]

That file doesn't exist - correct - but eZ publish uses a trick for passing variables in the URL (search for "Search Engine Friendly URLS" here to find out more) so http://localhost/index.php/these/are/all variables
The two main reasons we seen here for the problem you're describing are;

a. register_globals is off in php.ini
b. You're using Apache 2

Either of those the case?

Thanks for your reply Harry. No, register globals is on and I am using Apache 1.3 (as downloaded from Firepage), and I've cleared the cache several times.

One possible problem may be that I have my hard drive partitioned with a duel boot set up. C: drive contains win 98 SE and E drive contains Win XP Prof. with D: drive reserved for applications and so on. phpdev is installed on C: drive but using Win XP as my operating system. Therefore I changed the php.ini files on both C: and E:?????

also, I have installed Image Magick on D: drive and adjusted the path in site.ini.php accordingly. Would this make any difference though?

Well, I'm a bit stuck but maybe you will glean something from this

Cheers - Roy

[HarryF]

The OS thing may be the problem - you should only need to modify the php.ini in your currently active version of Windows.

Easiest way to double check is to put a file under Apache containing;

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

Looking at the file from your browser, should tell you if register globals is on.

Imagemagick shouldn't be a problem.

[royby]

The OS thing may be the problem - you should only need to modify the php.ini in your currently active version of Windows.
Easiest way to double check is to put a file under Apache containing;

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

Looking at the file from your browser, should tell you if register globals is on.

Imagemagick shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks yet again Harry. I tried that last night and register globals was on but still no luck. Rebooted my computer this morning and "viola!!" it is all working. So, instead of doing all of those chores around the house I was going to do today - guess what I'll be doing.

Thanks for your replies, I'm eagerly looking forward to the rest of the articles

Cheers - Roy

[Draven]

Hey Harry, I'm glad to say I finally got up and running, apache 2 must have been the problem cause got it to work fine under 1.3.

I'm curious if you've tried out version 3 yet? Has it been totally restructured? I'm worried if I create my website with v2 it's going to be too much work to switch up to 3 when it comes out.

[Majglow]

Same question as above.

Should I wait for version 3 to be finished or should I use version 2 now? How hard will the transition be?

[HarryF]

So, instead of doing all of those chores around the house I was going to do today - guess what I'll be doing.

Tsk tsk tsk.

As to eZ publish 3.x - that's a tough call right now. eZ publish 2.x is solid and if you want you're site right now (like during the next 3-4 months) I'd recommend it. It's going to take at least three months before the new version is stable and perhaps longer for full documentation.

I haven't done anything but glance at eZ publish 3.x at the moment. I'm guessing that anything you have stored in the database can be upgraded (they'd be insane not to provide that option). It does look like investment in time in customizing templates will be wasted though - they're revamped template system will mean you'll need new ones - but perhaps this will be a much easier process in future.

Like I say - tough call. Depends on your plans. It's worth remembering that 2.x is stable and complete for the purposes of most websites. Where you might be losing out is in the ease with which you can change the design at a later date, after having done it one, and the availability of new funky features (which you may or may not need).

[mjbeck]

Thanks HarryF,

I just wanted to thank you for a great article and installation assistance. I successfully installed eZ publish v2.2.7.1 today on a shared server (ventures online) using Apache 1.3.26, PHP 4.2.3 and MySQL 3.23.39 on the first attempt. After reading this thread and contacting the host for ImageMagick info, the only manual change I had to make was to add the magic quote flag to the .htaccess file.

I'm already deep into the homework from part one and am looking forward to completing the last two articles from the series.

So far my only complaint is that the software appears to be running slow, at least compared to my other sites on the server. I'm hoping that the new version will be a lot quicker.

Thanks again.

Mark

[mjbeck]

Hi Again,

I have encountered the following:

Warning: User localhost has already more than 'max_user_connections' active connections in [ez publish_root]/classes/ezmysqldb.php on line 58.

I have been testing most of the features before I received this error. Any ideas?

Thanks.

Mark

[Draven]

You said your on a shared server right? Could be the DB is overloaded. Chances are someone else on your shared server is using a db, heavily.

[HarryF]

That's right;

'max_user_connections'

MySQL is the problem - too many connections.

[allant]

Hi all
Could anyone suggest a way to use SKD.ez. to read Mysql tables in ezpublish and re-insert data into tables in a postgresql database.

Allant

[HarryF]

That shouldn't be a problem in general. You'll need to create two database connections (corresponding to a seperate object instance for each database). Then use the MySQL object to read and the PostGre object to write.

That's the theory at least. Short for time right now but if you have some sample code, may be I can help.

[allant]

Thanks,
I do not have any code yet, just trying to find out if that can be done. and some direction. I will have to learn more about SKD.ez, I want to read and update ezpublish 2.2.7 's customer, order and product tables ( all in eztrade ?). and using that data to update an accounting system running postgres in the same server. may be these are all too complicated for someone just startout in php !

[Jon K]

I'm running eZpublish_2_7_7-1 on top of a FirePages (http://www.firepages.com.au/) install "phpdev423" (apache 1.3.27, php 4.2.3, MySql4a) on a WindowsMe machine (900MHz Duron, 256MB RAM).

I installed eZpublish_2_2_7 following Harry's directions (no virtual host, etc. Thank you VERY much) and everything works ... but SLOW!

It takes 5 to 10+ seconds to load any eZpublish page on "localhost" vs. less than <1sec to acces "http://developer.ez.no" or "http://kino.schirmacher.de/article/static/2" (another eZpublish site) through a cable modem (40-60kB/sec).

While an eZpublish page is loading locally, my Kernel Processor usage pegs at 100% while allocated memory remains at 300M and Available physical memory drops from 90MB to 60MB (although initially it recovers after the page has finished loading).

The speed just goes downhill from here (i.e. after a fresh boot). In half a day or so, the Processor usage kreeps up to a steady 80% while the available physical memory leaks down to a few MB-s. When this happens everything comes to a near halt (eZpublish gets even slower page loads take 10++ secs).

What do I need to change to make eZpublish actually usable? I see some posts that indicate that Linux makes everything faster. PHP accelerators seem to be another solution, but is there one for Windows? And of course the promise of version 3 is much inhanced speed.

There must be some parameters in these infinite number of *.ini files that should make at least a little improvement!? (5-10x would be quite wellcome.)

Gurus, or anybody with actual knowledge or a desire to help please - please respond!

thanks for you time,

Jon

[EzPc]

Hi Harry,

Great article.. I got mine up with the eZPublish windows install on a Windows 2000 pro machine. I scanned the posts and did not find this question posted so here goes...

Am I correct when I say that in its current form eZPublish will only work on an Apache server?? I have a project that looks like the requirement is IIS... I suppose I can use Apache on Windows... using Linux would require more time then I have alloted this particular project because I have no Linux experiance... yet.

Thanks for you time and thoughts...


Aleks

[HarryF]

You should be able to run with Apache on Windows and I've "heard" it works with IIS but can't confirm - there will certainly be some fine tuning of settings to get that right.

Might be worth investing time in eZ publish 3.x which is supposed to be platform (and even php.ini) independent.

[Ravedesigns]

Hi Harry - You know, when I first read your article I had no idea that I'd one day be playing with ezpublish, but thanks to your great tutorial and the help you've provided in the forums - I've successfully installed it!! WooHoo!!

Well..to be honest, I'm having one problem though, and despite reading all the posts here tonight I'm still not getting anywhere. I keep getting the message that ImageMagick isn't installed properly when I log in, and despite verifying that it's installed properly and following all of your advice below...I'm still not getting it right. Can you think of anything else that could possibly be causing my problems?

Many thanks!!

-Steve

I tried all the following advice, and verified convert was installed properly, with no luck

OK - what you need is the following line to be configured correctly;

code:
ImageConversionProgram=C:\ImageMagick\convert.exe

This will typically be just this on Linux;

code:
ImageConversionProgram=convert

This depends on convert being in your path. You can test to see if this is correct by logging in with SSH and simply typing;

code:
convert -help

on the command line - you should get a help page telling you how to use it.

If not you need the full path to the convert binary (you'll need to ask your host that question). A common place to put it is '/usr/local/bin/' in which case you'd configure site.ini like;

code:
ImageConversionProgram=/usr/local/bin/convert

One other thing you might be able to do, if all else fails and your host won't install it is download the Linux binary from ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/ImageMagick/binaries/ and see if you can find convert (I haven't tried this). You could then upload this to your own directory on the server in point to it in site.ini e.g.

code:
ImageConversionProgram=/home/myUserName/bin/convert

[HarryF]

Hi Steve,

Glad eZ publish is turning out well for you.

As far as Imagemagick is concerned, first - are you running on Windows?

If so, double check where you installed imagemagick - it may be directory names with spaces in them cause problems

e.g. c:\Program Files\ImageMagick

Otherwise, is there anything you've done which is not the same as the article (installation locations etc.)?

[Ravedesigns]

Hi Harry and thanks for your reply.

I'm sorry, I should have indicated that this installation is on my webserver (http://www.ravedesigns.com/ezpublish/), not a local connection. I host with Ventures Online, and I used your trick while connected with SSH (convert -help) and I get the help to show up. I also installed ImageMagicks little script to detect ImageMagick and it says it's successfully installed.

I think I followed the article and installation instructions to the letter - and I've tried every combination possible for the Image conversion program (ImageConversionProgram=/usr/local/bin/convert - ImageConversionProgram=convert) and have asked my host to see if it could possiblly be in any other location.

Thanks again for your help Harry - I'd appreciate any other ideas you might have for what could be causing my problem.

Regards,

Steve