PHPbase web framework

What is the PHPbase web framework?

PHPbase web framework (also known as PHPBase 0.0.1) is a PHP based frame work library for building websites, originally written in 2003.

Note: This framework is old, very old, dating back to 2003, however it does work in php4, for php5 I recommend ezcomponents, also take a look at symfony, however this is not as highly rated, also check pear.

Who wrote the PHPbase web framework?

Where did it come from?

Listed below are just a few scripts that utilise this platform, they are:

  • Auto Dealer Inventory (car-dealer-website.zip)
  • Property Management (property-management-software.zip)
  • Expense Reporting (expense-report-software1.zip)
  • There is also a whole host of others listed here and here.

Note: I do not endorse any of the above sites.

All of these sites look fairly similar, generally “spammy” looking, it looks like none of them have been updated very recently, and only exist as an attempt to make money from advertisements.

Having said this, the scripts do actually work, and generally the PHPbase web framework works very well.

Obviously I very much doubt the person distributing this software is the original author of the framework.

Note: You may also find mention of the framework here, where I made a post about it back in May 16th 2006.

What is contained in the framework library?

The actual frame work files are as follows:

  • common.php - common functions
  • config.php - generic xml configuration file parser
  • database.php - database manipulation
  • forms.php - Forms Auto Generations and validations library
  • html.php - for generating html pages
  • library.php - abstract library class
  • mail.php - this class encapsulates the PHP mail() function.
  • menu.php - image rollover menu
  • site.php - links the whole thing together
  • sqladmin.php - speaks for itself
  • template.php - template library
  • vars.php - database stored variables
  • xml.php - generic expat xml parser object

Each of the above files has it’s own set of functions classes and subfunctions, they are generally bound together by a file named “pb_events.php”.

How does it work?

Due to the amount of functions there’s far more information than I’d like to explain here.

However in short, the idea is to pass everything via the framework, making your entire site very easy to manage.

Why am I interested in this?

  • It’s difficult to find any information on this framework.
  • The original authors are unreachable.
  • It’s always a shame to see hard work go to waste.
  • It may help people using this framework to understand the situation.
  • It has some bugs that stop certain things from working how they should without a bit of modification.
  • I like the way it does certain things, they are worth noting.
  • For reference.

I’m in no way trying to revive this framework, mealy trying to offer an answer to some of the questions you may have.

7 Comments »

  1. Striker said,

    November 26, 2007 @ 9:19 pm

    I’m a PHP n00b poking around with a web dev project at work.

    I found those spam-like pages and was interested in how the framework ticked. I’ve been working with it for awhile and have learned a lot about PHP the devleopment of a user-based login system with MySQL functionality.

    Here’s their latest site with updated framework. Looks like this framework is still in use, they have a more complete release that requires purchase. 0.2 is open source and free to use.

    http://www.oxylus-development.com/

    Enjoy everyone :)

  2. hm2k said,

    November 26, 2007 @ 9:37 pm

    Ah yes, I did come across oxylus-development.com on my travels after finding “oxylus.ro” in one of the email addresses for one of the developers. As it seems their “service management” system, which was last updated 04-Oct-2006, appears to use a slightly updated version of the libs.

    I had a look at the code, it seems (excluding comment changes), only common.php, database.php, forms.php, html.php and template.php has significantly changed.

    There appears to be a few fixes added, and some missing.

    It’s an interesting framework to look at, but ultimately it’s bad code, and it would require a revamp to survive PHP4 becoming obsolete at the end of this year.

  3. Florin said,

    December 5, 2007 @ 12:43 am

    Hi,

    I found this framework on the internet too and I got in contact with the guys from oxylus. This was some kind of limitated framework for applications released as GPL. I managed to get their commercial framwork and it has nothing to do with the one you discuss. It modular, and the most importants its fully compatible with php5.

    From what i can see even i’m a novice on this the code looks preaty neat, but without proper documentation its kinds useless.

  4. Martin said,

    June 18, 2008 @ 10:42 pm

    Hey all, i’m actually editing the script car-dealer-website for another kind of script and im bumping off my head for a silly thing;

    I used for a regular checkbox. The checkbox works fine but when it comes to uncheck the checkbox the form doesnt take in charge the new value for this checkbox which is suppose to be ‘nothing’ because I’ve unchecked it.

    I dont know if you guys really understand what I mean..

    When I check the checkbox and send the form, it works fine and the database takes in charge my value but when I go to edit this form and uncheck the checkbox, the database keep the old value …

    What I want is when it comes to uncheck the chexbox this value is reseted to ‘nothing’.

    Any ideas?

  5. Arthur Manning said,

    July 14, 2008 @ 2:04 pm

    I had to dig through this code for someone wanting to use it for a car dealer website. File uploads for ads were not uploading. Some code comments are very useless and look like the work of some high-school kid just learning PHP. Not very easy to navigate or debug. I got very nervous seeing an ‘eval()’ function based on customer-configurable .xml file data (very dangerous and likely easily broken/hacked).

  6. Maurice said,

    September 13, 2008 @ 2:00 pm

    Hello all.
    I am currently working on a car dealer website and I see a problem above from Martin with the checkboxes. I experience the same here. Was someone able allready to solve that issue?
    You can use checkboxes and store a ‘checked’ value but you can not uncheck them anymore.
    Hope someone can help, thanks guys.

  7. Maurice said,

    September 13, 2008 @ 8:31 pm

    Ok after some search in the code I found the handling for the checkboxes.

    To store checkbox items in the correct way do the following.
    -In the database create the checkbox items as INT(1)

    Then locate and edit ../admin/lib/sqladmin.php
    - locate the line: switch ($val["type"]) {
    (this is somewhere around line 204 in the code)

    - Add the folowing code;
    case “checkbox”:
    $_POST[$key]=isset($_POST[$key]);
    break;

    - Safe the file and voila.

    Goodluck guys.

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