CMS Made Simple development cookbook : over 70 simple but incredibly effective recipes for extending CMS Made Simple with detailed explanations : useful for beginners and experts alike!

The CMS Made Simple Development Cookbook gets you started building feature-rich sites quickly, regardless of your experience level. It contains clear recipes that introduce the key concepts behind each approach to extending the CMS, while also providing examples of solutions to real-world problems. CMS Made Simple has great capabilities "out of the box," but one of its great strengths is the ease of extending those capabilities. You can add a surprising amount of functionality just by customizing the core modules, but once you learn to write your own tags and modules, your ability to add features is virtually limitless. What this book covers Chapter 1, Understanding CMS Extensions, introduces the key differences between tags, user-defined tags, and modules, and teaches you to determine which is optimal for any given purpose. This chapter focuses on understanding the different approaches and deciding which to use to solve any particular problem. Chapter 2, Programming with Smarty and Core Modules, demonstrates the use of Smarty and template logic to achieve complex functionality without installing anything beyond the CMS Made Simple core. You'll see how to do things you never thought were possible – all without writing any PHP code. Chapter 3, Getting the Most out of Tags and User-Defined Tags, gives examples of Tags and User-Defined Tags, and shows how to create tags to handle such varied tasks as setting Smarty variables, filtering content, interfacing with modules, and interacting with web services. This chapter also includes information on some key CMS components, security pointers, and more. Chapter 4, Getting Started with Modules, shows how you can use tools to jump start the module writing process, and demonstrates how to write fully-localizable modules in a maintainable and memory-efficient fashion. This chapter will give you a good basic understanding of how modules are organized and how they work. Over 70 simple but incredibly effective recipes for extending CMS Made Simple with detailed explanations - useful for beginners and experts alike! In Detail CMS Made Simple has great capabilities "out of the box," but one of its great strengths is the ease of extending those capabilities. You can add a surprising amount of functionality just by customizing the core modules, but once you learn to write your own tags and modules, your ability to add features is virtually limitless. CMS Made Simple Development Cookbook will show you how to use custom PHP code to extend the power and features of CMS Made Simple, and make it do exactly what you want. This easy to use guide contains clear recipes that introduce the key concepts behind each approach to extending the CMS, while also providing examples of solutions to real-world problems. You will learn the differences between the various kinds of tags and modules in the CMS Made Simple environment, and to which purposes each is best fit. Each technology is then explored in detail with a series of practical recipes and examples.You will not only learn the basics of creating tags and modules, but you will explore the underlying APIs that you will use to solve real-world website problems. You will become proficient with the database and form APIs, so that the code you write is portable and maintainable. You'll learn to localize your code and use templates to add its flexibility. You'll master the safe handling of parameters and the creation of secure code. You'll be familiar with the CMS Made Simple Developer's Forge, and how you can use it in conjunction with revision control as a community-focused code management system, complete with web-based bug tracking and feature requests. You will learn to code complex interactions between modules, both directly and via the creation and handling of events. You will gain exposure to an array of advanced tips and tricks, along with commentary from the distilled experience of someone who has written dozens of modules. The CMS Made Simple Developer's Cookbook offers an amazing wealth of knowledge in approachable, bite-sized recipes. Whether you're new to the CMS or an old hand, you're sure to find valuable tips and information that will have you creating a richer CMS. A hands-on collection of recipes for extending CMS Made Simple, with detailed explanations - useful for beginners and experts alike! What you will learn from this book Approach This is a cookbook, with practical recipes providing tips and tricks to the most common problems and scenarios faced with CMS Made Simple Development. Who this book is written for If you are a CMS Made Simple user wanting to expand your skill set, or a programmer who wants to develop for CMS Made Simple, this book is for you. You will need working knowledge of PHP, HTML, and SQL. Some experience with CMS Made Simple is recommended.

In Detail

CMS Made Simple has great capabilities "out of the box," but one of its great strengths is the ease of extending those capabilities. You can add a surprising amount of functionality just by customizing the core modules, but once you learn to write your own tags and modules, your ability to add features is virtually limitless.

CMS Made Simple Development Cookbook will show you how to use custom PHP code to extend the power and features of CMS Made Simple, and make it do exactly what you want. This easy to use guide contains clear recipes that introduce the key concepts behind each approach to extending the CMS, while also providing examples of solutions to real-world problems.

You will learn the differences between the various kinds of tags and modules in the CMS Made Simple environment, and to which purposes each is best fit. Each technology is then explored in detail with a series of practical recipes and examples.You will not only learn the basics of creating tags and modules, but you will explore the underlying APIs that you will use to solve real-world website problems. You will become proficient with the database and form APIs, so that the code you write is portable and maintainable. You'll learn to localize your code and use templates to add its flexibility. You'll master the safe handling of parameters and the creation of secure code. You'll be familiar with the CMS Made Simple Developer's Forge, and how you can use it in conjunction with revision control as a community-focused code management system, complete with web-based bug tracking and feature requests. You will learn to code complex interactions between modules, both directly and via the creation and handling of events. You will gain exposure to an array of advanced tips and tricks, along with commentary from the distilled experience of someone who has written dozens of modules. The CMS Made Simple Developer's Cookbook offers an amazing wealth of knowledge in approachable, bite-sized recipes. Whether you're new to the CMS or an old hand, you're sure to find valuable tips and information that will have you creating a richer CMS.

A hands-on collection of recipes for extending CMS Made Simple, with detailed explanations - useful for beginners and experts alike!

Approach

This is a cookbook, with practical recipes providing tips and tricks to the most common problems and scenarios faced with CMS Made Simple Development.

Who this book is for

If you are a CMS Made Simple user wanting to expand your skill set, or a programmer who wants to develop for CMS Made Simple, this book is for you. You will need working knowledge of PHP, HTML, and SQL. Some experience with CMS Made Simple is recommended.