Template v1.0.0

To setup the template read Setup guide (Its really easy)

This is a php backend website template with a redirect engine allowing for custom url's and 404 pages. Sounds complicated? Don't worry! Its actually very easy to use :).

• Custom urls & 404 pages by the redirect engine
• Easy way to create new pages and load custom css and js files on them.
• Has SEO functionalities build into it
• A clean (and safe) way of dealing with forms and redirects
• Always include header and footer on a every page
• Keeping files & pages organized

Must-reads:

I highly recommend you read these BEFORE you start working with the template

• Setup guide (Important!)
• How to use > links on the webpage (Important!)
• How to use > Security features. (Useful!)
• Default files & settings (Important!)

Questions about the template? Send me a email

Setup guide:

To make the template work you need to define the variables inside the configs files.
There are currently 2 config files, local_config.php & global_config.php.
Why? The local_config.php defines data that might be different depending on the device its running on. This makes it easy to prevent local settings from being pushed to other devices.
The global_config.php is for settings that need to be the same on every device that runs this website. This file can easily be transferred from device to device making sure the settings are synced without overwriting local settings

if your website is inside a folder (www.example.com/my-website/ for example) read the Setup guide > Website inside a folder (Important!) below.

Setup guide > Website inside a folder (Important!)

Only necessary if your website is inside a folder like www.example.com/my-website/

Inside the local_config.php file there is a variable called $site_folder.
Set the variable to the folder(s) with a starting & trailing / at the start & end.

So the example www.example.com/my-website/ would be $site_folder = '/my-website/';

Why? This is to make sure the $url_array variable is set correctly. Without it $url_array[0] would always be 'my-website'.

Setup guide > Optional values

These variables are optional but are recommended you declare them as it improves SEO. All these variables can be found inside global_config.php.

• $debug_ips: All ip addresses in this array can view dumps and run ip checks in the code.

• $display_name: The name of the company or organization

• $theme_color: A css color notation of the website theme color

• $default_seo_title: The default title that will show up in search results if there is no title set for that page.

• $default_seo_description: The default website description that will show up in search results if there is no description set for that page.

• $locate set this value to a value of language_TERRITORY format. (nl_NL or en_US for example, see the complete list)

• $logo_path The path to the logo of the website. This logo is used by default for the SEO metatags image

DataBase variables

If you want to use a database you can fill in these variables inside local_config.php.

    $host       = '';
    $db_name    = '';
    $user       = '';
    $password   = '';

    $db = new PDO('mysql:host='.$host.';dbname='.$db_name, $user, $password);

Setup guide > Other optional settings

A list of optional settings you can change to improve SEO.

• favicon.ico: Replace this with your own website logo
• robots.txt: make sure that you configure your robots.txt when the website is finished. (Set to allow all by default)

How to use

This template is easy to use once you know the trick ;)

How to use > The $url_array variable.

Set the current url split into a array on the /. Everything after the domain name will be included in this array

For example. If the url is https://example.com/account/login the $url_array will be:

array(2) {
  [0] =>  "account"
  [1] =>  "login"
}  

You can use this variable to load different content based on the url.

note: Url parameters and # will automatically be filtered from the array.

How to use > links on the webpage (Important!)

To create a url you can use the url function.
The url function returns absolute path to the page you want. The advantage is that the url will always be correct. Even if you change domain names or put your website inside a folder.

All you have to do is give the page/path as a parameter.
So taking the example url('account/login') it will return https://your-domain.com/my-website-folder/account/login

Why use this? Using relative paths in links can give wrong url's. See the table below.

The current url in this example is https://example.com/my-website/shop/item-x and you want to set a link to https://example.com/my-website/account/login

Html notation	Result	correct
<a href="account/login">Link</a>	https://example.com/my-website/shop/account/login	no
<a href="/account/login">Link</a>	https://example.com/account/login	no
<a href="<?= url('account/login') ?>">Link</a>	https://example.com/my-website/account/login	yes!

How to use > Set pages in page_builder

To assign urls to load pages you can use page_builder.php inside the assets/php/ folder.

You can create pages inside the get_page_info function. Inside the switch case you can load php, js and css files.
The switch case will use the first item after the / of the url. So with the url https://example.com/my-page the switch case will use my-page.

To create a page you simply add a case. (Make sure you don't forget the break;)

case 'my-page':
    break;

To load a php page on that url you simply add the name of the php file to the $php variable.
Using the .php file extension is optional

case 'my-page':
    $php[] = 'file_name';
    break;

It will automatically include the file_name.php file from the /pages/ folder. If you want to load a block you can add /blocks/ to the beginning of the file name. (like this /blocks/file_name)

Inside the /pages/ folder you can create your file_name.php file and put your content inside
note: The php files are loaded directly inside the <body> element.

To include CSS of JavaScript files for the page you can use the $css or $js variables and use them the same way. The CSS and JavaScript files will be fetched from the /assets/ folder (/assets/css/ for css and /assets/js/ for JavaScript) and will be included in the <head> element.

case 'my-page':
    $php[] = 'file_name';
    $css[] = 'my_style';
    $js[] = 'my_script';
    break;

You can include as many files as you want.
note: Files will be loaded in order in witch they were added.

case 'my-page':
    $php[] = 'file_name';
    $css[] = 'basic_style';
    $css[] = 'my_style';
    $css[] = 'header_style';
    $js[] = 'my_script';
    $js[] = 'mobile_menu';
    break;

If you want to load a CSS or JavaScript file on every page you can include them manually inside the <head> element inside index.php

How to use > Title and Metatags in pages

To set a title for the page you can use the $title variable. You can set it manually like

case 'my-page':
    $php[] = 'file_name';
    $css[] = 'basic_style';
    $js[] = 'my_script';
    
    $title = '<title>Hello World</title>';
    break;

Or you can use the generate_title function.

case 'my-page':
    $php[] = 'file_name';
    $css[] = 'basic_style';
    $js[] = 'my_script';

    $title = generate_title('Hello World!');
    break;

note: When using the generate_title function a vertical line (|) and the defined display title will be added to the title by default. To turn this off set the second parameter to false.

$title = generate_title('Hello World!', false);

To define the meta tags for that page you can use the generate_meta_tags function.

case 'my-page':
    $php[] = 'file_name';
    $css[] = 'basic_style';
    $js[] = 'my_script';

    $title = generate_title('Hello World!');
    $meta_tags = generate_meta_tags(
        'SEO title',
        'description',
        'assets/img/my-logo.jpg',
        'Image alt',
    );
    break;

Note: Enter the image part from the root. This will automatically be converted to a full url.

If you dont want this page to be indexed simply set $no_index to true;

case 'my-page':
    $php[] = 'file_name';
    $css[] = 'basic_style';
    $js[] = 'my_script';

    $title = generate_title('Hello World!');
    $no_index = true;
    break;

And that is how easy it can be :)

How to use > Canonical urls

You can also define canonical urls inside page_builder.php. By default its set to the same page without the url parameters.

So example.com/my-page?section=2 will by default have a canonical url to example.com/my-page.

To manually set a canonical url use the $canonical_url variable and the generate_canonical_url function (just like the meta tags & title)

case 'my-page':
    $php[] = 'file_name';
    $css[] = 'basic_style';
    $js[] = 'my_script';

    $title = generate_title('Hello World!');
    $canonical_url = generate_canonical_url('my-original-page');
    break;

Note: generate_canonical_url by default uses the url function. To turn that off set the second parameter to false. Like this:

$canonical_url = generate_canonical_url('https://examle.com/my-original-page', false);

How to use > Set redirects

To set redirects you can use the /assets/php/redirects.php file. Here you can set conditions for your redirects. This file is run after the $url_array variable is defined, So you can use the url values inside your conditions.

if ($url_array[0] == 'search' && !isset($_GET['order'])) {
    redirect('redirect_url_from_root');
}

Use the redirect function to redirect to the new url. This function uses the php header function and executes a exit; after it.

How to use > Form processing

Since all the requests run through /assets/php/process_form.php you can put all your form processing inside this file.

To clear the post after you are done processing use the redirect or refresh function.

Note: I recommend using the create_form_id & check_form_id functions to identify your forms and prevent Cross Site Request Forgery. (Read below on how to use)

How to use > Security features. (Useful!)

This template currently has 2 easy-to-use security features implemented. All these features are optional to use.

Security features > safe_echo.

The safe_echo function that works like echo but runs everything through the htmlspecialchars php function making it safe (and easy) to safely print user input.

Security features > Cross Site Request Forgery.

To deal with the Cross Site Request Forgery there are 2 functions are defined in assets/php/functions.php:
set_form_id & check_form_id

To secure your form processing pick a name for your form ('delete-form' for example)

Use that name for both setting and checking the form.

Setting the form id:

<form method="post">
    <?= set_form_id('delete-form') ?>

    <p>Are you sure you want to delete this?</p>
    <button type="submit" name="yes">Yes</button>
    <button type="submit" name="no">No</button>
</form>

Checking the form id:

if (check_form_id('delete-form')) {
    // form processing goes here
}

Note: the set_form_id function will return a hidden checkbox with the picked name set as the name attribute. and the code as value, So make sure there are no other inputs with the same name attribute.

Default files & settings (Important!)

Files & settings that are defined by default. Keeping/Removing them is optional and will not break the template

• The file assets/php/debug_functions.php contains useful debugging functions:

  • dump: A custom readable var_dump with ip check.
  • check_debug_ip: Checks if current user is listed as a debug ip.
  • start_timer: Returns a value that can be used for timing the processing time
  • end_timer: Takes the start_timer value and returns ago it was (in milliseconds)

• The pages/blocks/header.php and pages/blocks/footer blocks are by default included inside index.php

• All url's that do not have pages assigned to them in assets/php/page_builder.php will load the pages/404.php file.