Any Content Management System (CMS) is usually started off by creating a database (e.g., employee_directory), adding tables (e.g., employee, department, and passwords) to it and then adding a few records to it with phpMyAdmin so that a user can “view” the content of the Master, Detail or Search page that will be created. If records are not created in the database, the more advanced pages would have to be done first. There are only about nine pages that make up a CLM regardless of its complexity. These pages will be created in a logical order and then enhancements may be added to them to them as needed.
The following approaches for creating CMS will be taken:
Bare Essentials (“Must have” features)
Enhancements (“Nice to Have” features)
Security (“Must have” security features)
Test (Test early and test often)*
*You should test after adding a new feature and test often to insure you did not do something wrong. NOTE: A PHP script may be placed in a separate PHP script code block (e.g., <?PHP Code goes here….?>) to make code more modular and easier to update. However, if you are comfortable, you can add them to an existing PHP script code block.
The three user pages are the easiest pages to create because there is no change made to the database and they all use the simply SELECT clause.
Once you create these pages, you could use phpMyAdmin to add (register), update or delete records (e.g., employees) from the database. Or, you could create your own set of admin pages as discussed below.
The admin pages usually have restricted access only to certain individuals (e.g., admin). However, depending on the situation, you could allow access to these pages to others (e.g., students, employees, etc.) If an admin is registering a user, a temporary user name and password may be sent to the user so that he or she can change it. If the CMS allow users to register themselves, then they can create their own user name and password at the same time they register (See next section).
If security or private information is important, a login page will need to be created to gain access to the user and/or the admin pages depending on the need. The ability to logout can also be provided. A registration page is also useful to allow users to enter their own information into the database.