Before you start

This "Create an interactive production wiki using PHP" series is designed for PHP application developers who want to to take a run at making their own custom wikis. You'll define everything about the application, from the database all the way up to the wiki markup you want to use. In the final product, you will be able to configure much of the application at a granular level, from who can edit pages to how open the blog really is.

At the end of this tutorial, Part 5 of a five-part series, you will have an open blog working in your wiki. You should not continue until you have completed the first four tutorials.

About this series

Part 1 of this series draws the big picture. You determine how you want the application to look, flow, work, and behave. You'll design the database and rough-out some scaffolding. Part 2 focuses on the primary wiki development, including defining the markup, tracking changes, and file uploads. In Part 3, you define some users and groups, as well as a way to control access to certain aspects of individual wiki pages and uploaded files. Part 4 deals with a Calendaring and Milestones feature to track tasks, to-dos, and progress against set goals. Here in Part 5, you put together an open blog to allow discussion of production topics and concerns.

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About this tutorial

This tutorial deals with creating an open blog for Criki. You have built the basic wiki features, and you have added task management for your users. An open blog is another valuable feature that will allow your users a place to hold public discussions. Topics include:

• What is meant by "open blog"
• Blog workflow design
• Building out the blog database table
• Basic blog features

Prerequisites

It is assumed you have completed Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of this "Create an interactive production wiki using PHP" series. And it is assumed that you have some experience working with the PHP programming language and MySQL. We won't be doing a lot of deep database tuning, so as long as you know the basic ins and outs, you should be fine.

System requirements

Before you begin, you need to have an environment in which you can work. The general requirements are reasonably minimal:

• An HTTP server that supports sessions (and preferably mod_rewrite). This tutorial was written using Apache V1.3 with mod_rewrite enabled.
• PHP V4.3.2 or later (including PHP V5). This was written using PHP V5.0.4
• Any version of MySQL from the last few years will do. This was written using MySQL V4.1.15.

You'll also need a database and database user ready for your application to use. The tutorial will provide syntax for creating any necessary tables in MySQL.

Additionally, to save time, we will be developing Criki using a PHP framework called CakePHP. Download CakePHP by visiting CakeForge.org and downloading the latest stable version. This tutorial was written using V1.1.13. For information about installing and configuring CakePHP, check out the tutorial series titled "Cook up Web sites fast with CakePHP" (see Resources).

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Table of contents

• Before you start
• Criki so far
• Creating the open blog
• Basic blog functionality
• Configuration options
• Summary
• Download
• Resources
• About the author

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