Artists Website Software – Feb 2009 Update
I thought it was about time to give you all an update on the free open-source Artists Website Software I’m currently working on.
I’ve got a very basic skeleton completed so far, but the alpha version is still some way off. I could have written it much quicker if I’d taken a more traditional procedural route, but my focus has been on writing a good core set of PHP classes with a dual emphasis on easy maintenance/extensibility and security.
The security aspects have been taking up most of my time recently. Chris Shiflet’s book Essential PHP Security (Amazon UK / Amazon US) has been of great help here. I think it is vital to make sure that any website is as secure as possible – and anything I can do to make the software immune (as far as possible) to SQL Injection, Cross Site Scripting, and Session Hijacking can only stand it in good stead.
Writing the PHP so that it will run on a standard shared web host is challenging – rather than using PEAR extensions I have set the criteria of only using a very standard PHP installation. This means I miss out on using PDO and other time-saving extensions. I am toying with the idea of using a few non-default extensions such as ImageMagick, but I’ll make sure that these are optional rather than required.
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Jennifer Montes said,
February 1, 2009 @ 4:40 pm
It’s a good idea to keep your PHP installation requirements as standard as possible, especially considering that your target audience (artists) probably won’t have very advanced hosting features. ImageMagick is a feature that I’ve seen some hosts offer more often, but keeping it optional is still your best bet.
It’s great that you’re keeping everything modular and extensible. Are you considering making this project open source once you’re done?
Paul Watson said,
February 1, 2009 @ 4:46 pm
Hi Jennifer
Yes, I’m going to be putting the PHP source code on SourceForge under one of the various Open Source licences (haven’t decided which yet) as soon as I’ve got the 1st version done.
nikki d may said,
March 4, 2009 @ 7:36 am
Paul, as an artist and web designer, I’d love to volunteer my services to help you test your software – or help with any design you might need!
nikki
nikkimay.com
bluefrogdesigns.com
ilistpaducah.com
twitter.com/nikkidale