µTopic - Micro news site by AnOldMan

Description:

Simple News / Opinion site with page ranking
Lightweight at ~ 200kb
Secure - Hashed challenge/response login
Flexible - can use MySQL -OR- sqLite
Customizable - several stylesheet examples included
Sub Topics
Multiple vote blocking

When we wanted a simple page ranking system for opinion.anoldman.com, we spent an incredible amount of time trying scripts and CMS systems.

Ratings scripts with any kind of administration were complicated and bulky and had little or no security.
CMS systems were huge for the purpose intended and adding page ratings to them involved additional modules or customization.

So we created a database driven PHP page ranking engine, wrapped a secure administration module around it, and added simple CMS with stylesheets for article publication.

The result is uTopic - a truely unique, simple, secure, customizable, and LIGHTWEIGHT CMS.

Requirements:

Server with PHP -AND- MySQL -OR- sqLite
Username, password, and database name from your server if using MySQL
These files

Installation:

Unzip files
Edit admin/config.php to match your site
Upload files to server

utopic.sql not required
StyleSheetTest.htm optional
readme not required
utopic.s3db not required for MySQL

Set permissions for content folder to be writeable - CHMOD 666 - if you wish to edit or publish to files from administration

(for sqLite, you may also need to set permissions for utopic.s3db in the admin folder)

For MySQL - go to http://www.yoursite.com/admin/install.php and create admin account
(there is an sql file included if you wish to run that instead)
Delete install.php file - for security purposes it stops working , but it is now unneeded

Using:

Adding content

Upload new articles to content folder

it is recommended you name file something.htm and test in your browser before uploading
REMOVE <head> SECTION and any <body> TAGS - many page editors add them "for" you
filename format is topicX.php where X is the article number set in administration
file format is text/html - plain text works, most HTML tags will work also
Upload icon (50x50) to content/graphics folder - there is a readme there for more info

Go to admin/login.php and add article

If you create article here, paste html into window or type it out
For manual entry, remember that you are typing html - returns, extra spaces, and special characters like "<>&" will not behave like you expect them to - look at this file from administration if you are unfamiliar with HTML
Special characters are expressed in HTML like this - < equals <
You can also link html pages - they will not be tracked or ranked

Go to your page and test it

Security:

Site uses CAPTCHA to verify login attempts.
Username and password are hashed - many sites transmit your login in plain text, µTopic hashes your password with a unique seed EVERY login - your password cannot be intercepted. (this is referred to as challenge-response)
Input checks to avoid SQL injections
Login/admin files can be renamed
Excessive login attempts tracked and blocked
Most files cannot be called directly - even articles can be blocked from direct access (see example in content folder)

TODO:

Currently you cannot reset ratings count. For now, simply delete article from administration and re-enter it
Only one admin account accessible from admin panel. If you forget your details or want additional accounts, you will have to use SQL admin (see sql file for example)
StyleSheets - need to make site even more customizable

Now that you've got it, let me make your life easier.

Most of the files I show you how to edit, you can't just double-click on. In Windows, there is a folder called "Send To" that can be very handy.

In WindowsXP, the folder is located at C:/Documents and Settings/USERNAME/SendTo where "USERNAME" is the name of the user that the setting(s) apply to. Just put metapad.exe in that folder.

Now you can RIGHT-CLICK on a file, choose "Send To" and "metapad.exe" to open a file for editing.

(If you're really daring, you could re-name metapad.exe to notepad.exe and put it in the windows folder.)

NOTE: If you can't "see" the SendTo folder in your computer, it's because windows is hiding it. To fix that:

Double-click on "My Computer"
Choose "Tools" from the top menu
Choose "Folder options"
Choose the "View" tab
Mark the show button in "Hidden files and folders"
(while you're in there, uncheck "hide extensions for known filetypes" !)
Hit "Apply" then "OK"