Mastering Mambo E-Commerce, Templates, Module Development, SEO, Security, and Performance A professional guide to Mambo's most powerful and useful features Tobias Hauser Christian Wenz BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI Mastering Mambo E-Commerce, Templates, Module Development, SEO, Security, and Performance Copyright © 2005 Packt Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews. Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, Packt Publishing, nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book. Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information. First published: December 2005 This book is based on material originally written in German for the book Mambo -- Das Open Source-CMS einsetzen und erweitern Published in 2005 by Carl Hanser Verlag, ISBN 3446404465. Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. 32 Lincoln Road Olton Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK. ISBN 1-904811-51-5 www.packtpub.com Cover Design by www.visionwt.com Credits Authors Indexer Tobias Hauser Niranjan Jahagirdar Christian Wenz Proofreader Development Editor Chris Smith David Barnes Production Coordinator Technical Editor Manjiri Nadkarni Nanda Padmanabhan Cover Designer Editorial Manager Helen Wood Dipali Chittar Translator Wolfgang Spegg About the Authors Tobias Hauser is an author, trainer, and consultant with a focus on web development and web design. He has written or co-written over 40 books and is author of numerous articles for IT magazines. Tobias also frequently speaks at conferences and teaches classes on a variety of subjects. His current areas of interest are CMS and document management. He is a Zend Certified Engineer, contributes to PEAR, and is listed in Zend's Who's Who. Together with a team of half a dozen specialists, he runs the company Arrabiata Solutions GmbH (http://www.arrabiata.net/), which focuses on implementing websites for customers of all sizes, very often using Mambo. Christian Wenz is an author, trainer, and consultant with a focus on web technologies and web security. He is author or coauthor of over 50 books, most recently the PHP Phrasebook (Sams Publishing). Christian also frequently contributes to various IT magazines and is invited to speak at developer conferences around the globe. He is Germany's very first Zend Certified Engineer, one of the founder-members of the PHP Security Consortium, maintains several PEAR packages, and is listed in Zend's Who's Who. Together with a team of half a dozen specialists, he implements websites for a variety of customers at his company, Arrabiata Solutions GmbH (http://www.arrabiata.net/). The authors would like to thank… Fernando Schneider, the editor of the original German book, for his support in this project. We would also like to thank the team at Packt Publishing for making this happen: Louay Fatoohi, David Barnes, and Nanda Padmanabhan. Thanks also to Stefan Fischerländer for his valuable suggestions about search engine optimization and to Emir Sakic, who provided us with a version of SEF advance. Table of Contents Preface 1 Chapter 1: Basic Mambo Principles and Terms 5 Front-End Configuration 7 Administration Interface 10 Start Page and Control Elements 12 Workspace 13 Menu 15 Path 17 Status Indication 18 Tool Bar 18 Editing Lists (Manager) 20 Editing Elements (Edit Mode) 23 Preview 25 Logging Out 28 Summary 28 Chapter 2: Designing Your Own Templates 29 Template Manager 30 Switching Between Templates 30 Installing Templates 32 Edit Templates 33 Positions 34 Your Own Template 35 The Example 35 Template Functions 44 CSS Formats 49 Administrator Templates 51 Useful Stuff 53 Prefabricated? 53 Dreamweaver Template Builder 54 Template Chooser 55 Summary 57 Table of Contents Chapter 3: Extensions: Modules, Mambots, and Components 59 Modules 59 Installing and Uninstalling Modules 60 Administration of Modules 64 Positioning and Configuring Modules 66 Mambots 68 Components 71 Installing Components 71 Installation and Configuration of Components 72 Included Stuff 74 Banner Administration 75 Contacts 77 Newsfeeds 78 RSS and Syndicates 79 Polls 80 Web Links 82 Search 83 Summary 84 Chapter 4: Internationalization 85 Languages and Language Packs 85 Mambel Fish 89 Installing Mambel Fish 89 Configuration 91 Translation 93 Customizing other Components 96 Summary 97 Chapter 5: E-Commerce 99 Installation 99 Functions 101 Administration of Products 104 Categories 104 Products 105 Importing Products Automatically 108 ii Table of Contents Configuration 110 Currency and Other Basic Attributes 110 Vendors 112 Manufacturer 112 Customer Administration: Shoppers 112 Shipping and Taxes 113 Payment Methods 114 Order Administration 114 Coupons 115 Global Configuration 115 Customize and Extend 117 Summary 119 Chapter 6: Forum 121 Alternatives 121 Installation 122 Configuration 125 Setting up the Forum 126 Fill the Forum 130 User Concept 134 Customizing and Extending 135 And a Lot More... 136 Summary 138 Chapter 7: Document Administration with DOCMan 139 Installation 139 Administration of Documents 141 Categories 142 Documents 143 Menu Entries 145 Cleaning Up 147 Monitoring 147 Configuration 148 Updates 150 Users and Groups 151 Customization 152 Extensions 153 Summary 154 iii Table of Contents Chapter 8: Even More Extensions 155 MosForms: Forms with Mambo 155 Community Builder 159 First Steps 161 Administration 162 Calendar: Events 166 Picture Gallery: zOOm Gallery 169 Picture Gallery: RSGallery 172 Chat: MOS-Chat and Others 175 Some More Extensions 177 Summary 179 Chapter 9: Your Own Modules, Mambots, and Components 181 Your Own Modules 182 Your Own Mambots 185 Your Own Components 189 Prepare the Database 189 Front End and Back End 190 Administration 192 Installer 200 Summary 206 Chapter 10: Search Engine Optimization 207 Google PageRank 207 Problems and Solutions 210 The Trouble with Links 211 Specific Modules for Optimization 213 mod_rewrite 214 404 SEF 218 Xaneon Extensions 222 SEF advance 223 Summary 224 Chapter 11: Mambo and Security 225 Security and CMS 225 Cross Site Scripting (XSS) 228 iv