This document explains phpGroupWare's infrastructure and API, along with what is required to integrate applications into it.
phpGroupWare is a web based groupware application framework (API), for writing applications. Integrated applications such as email, calendar, todo list, address book, and file manager are included.
We have attempted to make writing application for phpGroupWare as painless as possible. We hope any pain and suffering is cause by making your application work, but not dealing with phpGroupWare itself.
The phpGroupWare API handles session management, user/group management, has support for multiple databases, using the PHPLIB database abstraction method, we support templates using the PHPLIB Templates class, a file system interface, and even a network i/o interface.
On top of these standard functions, phpGroupWare provides several functions to give you the information you need about the users environment, and to properly plug into phpGroupWare.
These guidelines must be followed for any application that wants considered for inclusion into phpGroupWare deluxe:
Each PHP page you write will need to include the header.inc.php along
with a few variables.
This is done by putting this at the top of each PHP page.
<?php
$phpgw_info["flags"]["currentapp"] = "appname";
include("../header.inc.php");
?>
Of course change application name to fit.
It is fairly simple to add and delete applications to/from phpGroupWare.
To make things easy for developers we go ahead and load the following files.
You will need to create the following directories for your code
(replace 'appname' with your application name)
`--appname
|--inc
| |--functions.inc.php
| |--header.inc.php
| |--hook_preferences.inc.php
| |--hook_admin.inc.php
| `--footer.inc.php
`--templates
| `--default
To make the application aware of your application, add your application details to the applications table. This can be done via the GUI administration screen, or via a SQL script.
insert into applications (app_name, app_title, app_enabled) values ('appname', 'The App name', 1);
When a user goes to the Administration page, it starts appname/inc/hook_admin.inc.php for each application that is enabled, in alphabetical order of application title. If the file exists, it is include()d in the hopes it will display a selection of links to configure that application.
Simple Example:
<?php
$img = "/" . $appname . "/images/navbar.gif";
section_start("My Application",$img);
echo "<a HREF=\"" . $phpgw->link("myAdminPage.php") . "\">";
echo lang("Change myApp settings") . "</a>";
section_end();
?>
Look at headlines/inc/hook_admin.inc.php and admin/inc/hook_admin.inc.php
for more examples.
Things to note:
There are 2 functions to coordinate the display of each application's links, section_start() and section_end()
section_start($title,$icon_url) starts the section for your application. $title is passed through lang() for you. $icon_url should be page-relative to admin/index.php or an absolute URL.
section_end() closes the section that was started with section_start().
The mechanism to hook into the preferences page is identical to the one used to hook into the administration page, however it looks for appname/inc/hook_preferences.inc.php instead of appname/inc/hook_admin.inc.php. The same functions and variables are defined.
phpGroupWare attempts to provide developers with a sound directory
structure to work from.
The directory layout may seem complex at first, but after some use,
you will see that it is designed to accommodate a large number of
applications and functions.
.--appname
| |--inc
| | |--functions.inc.php
| | |--header.inc.php
| | |--hook_preferences.ini.php
| | |--hook_home.inc.php
| | `--footer.inc.php
| |--manual
| |--setup
| | |--baseline.inc.php
| | |--droptables.inc.php
| | |--newtables.inc.php
| | |--upgradetables.inc.php
| | |--config.inc.php
| | `--register.inc.php
| `--templates
| | `--default
| | `--images
| | `--navbar.gif
| |--preferences.php
|--docs (installation docs)
|--files
| |--groups
| `--users
`--phpgwapi
|--cron (phpgroupware's optional daemons)
|--doc (developers docs)
|--inc
| |--phpgw.inc.php
| |--phpgw_info.inc.php
| |--phpgw_common.inc.php
| `--etc..
|--manual
|--setup
| |--baseline.inc.php
| |--droptables.inc.php
| |--newtables.inc.php
| |--upgradetables.inc.php
| |--config.inc.php
| `--register.inc.php
|--templates
| |--default
| | `--images
| | |--home.gif
| | `--preferences.gif
| `--verilak
| `--images
|--home.gif
`--preferences.gif
`--themes
`--default.theme
The translations are now being done thru the database, and will be configurable to use other mechanisms.
We are completing a program called Transy, which will provide developers/translators a nice GUI for building and updating translations.
In the mean time you will need to create a SQL script yourself and name it lang.sql. You can copy the one in doc/lang.sql and use it as a template.
phpGroupWare attempts to provide developers with a useful API to handle common tasks.
To do this we have created a multi-dimensional class $phpgw->.
This allows for terrific code organization, and help developers easily identify the file that the function is in. All the files that are part of this class are in the inc/core directory and are named to match the sub-class.
Example: $phpgw->send->msg() is in the inc/phpgwapi/phpgw_send.inc.php file.
$phpgw->link($url)
Add support for session management. ALL links must use this, that
includes href's form actions and header location's.
If you are just doing a form action back to the same page, you can use it without any parameters.
This function is right at the core of the class because it is used so often, we wanted to save developers a few keystrokes. Example:
<form name=copy method=post action="<?php echo $phpgw->link();?>"> /* If session management is done via passing url parameters */ /* The the result would be */ /* <form name=copy method=post action="somepage.php?sessionid=87687693276?kp3=kjh98u80"> */
$phpgw->phpgw_header()
Print out the start of the HTML page, including the navigation bar
and includes appname/inc/header.php
$phpgw->phpgw_footer()
Prints the system footer, and includes appname/inc/footer.php
$phpgw->common->appsession($data)
Store important information session information that your application
needs.
$phpgw->appsession will return the value of your session data is
you leave the parameter empty [i.e. $phpgw->appsession(``'')],
otherwise it will store whatever data you send to it.
You can also store a comma delimited string and use explode() to
turn it back into an array when you receive the value back.
Example:
$phpgw->common->appsession("/path/to/something");
echo "Dir: " . $phpgw->common->appsession();
$phpgw->vfs->read_file($file)
Returns the data from $file.
You must send the complete path to the file.
Example:
$data = $phpgw->vfs->read_file("/some/dir/to/file.txt");
$phpgw->vfs->write_file($file, $contents)
Write data to $file.
You must send the complete path to the file.
Example:
$data = $phpgw->vfs->write_file("/some/dir/to/file.txt");
$phpgw->vfs->read_userfile($file)
Returns the data from $file, which resides in the users private
dir.
Example:
$data = $phpgw->vfs->read_userfile("file.txt");
$phpgw->write_userfile($file, $contents)
Writes data to $file, which resides in the users private dir.
Example:
$data = $phpgw->vfs->write_userfile("file.txt");
$phpgw->vfs->list_userfiles()
Returns an array which has the list of files in the users private
dir.
Example:
$filelist = array(); $filelist = $phpgw->vfs->list_userfiles();
$phpgw->msg->send($service, $to, $subject, $body, $msgtype,
$cc, $bcc)
Send a message via email or NNTP and returns any error codes.
Example:
$to = "someuser@domain.com";
$subject = "Hello buddy";
$body = "Give me a call\n Been wondering what your up to.";
$errors = $phpgw->msg->send("email", $to, $subject, $body);
phpGroupWare attempt to provide developers with as much information about the user, group, server, and application configuration as possible.
To do this we provide a multi-dimensional array called '$phpgw_info[]', which includes all the information about your environment.
Due to the multi-dimensional array approach. getting these values is easy.
Here are some examples:
<?php // To do a hello username echo "Hello " . $phpgw_info["user"]["fullname"]; //If username first name is John and last name is Doe, prints: 'Hello John Doe' ?> <?php // To find out the location of the imap server echo "IMAP Server is named: " . $phpgw_info["server"]["imap_server"]; //If imap is running on localhost, prints: 'IMAP Server is named: localhost' ?>
$phpgw_info[``user''][``userid'']
= The user ID.
$phpgw_info[``group''][``group_names'']
= List of groups.
$phpgw_info[``server''][``server_root'']
= Main installation directory
It is unlikely you will need these, because $phpgw_info_db will already be loaded as a database for you to use.
$phpgw_info[``server''][``db_host'']
= Address of the database server. Usually this is set to localhost.
It is unlikely you will need these, because most email needs are services thru core phpGroupWare functions.
$phpgw_info[``server''][``mail_server'']
= Address of the IMAP server. Usually this is set to localhost.
$phpgw_info[``server''][``nntp_server'']
= Address of the NNTP server.
Each application has the following information available.
$phpgw_info[``apps''][``appname''][``title'']
= The title of the application.
phpGroupWare is built using a multi-language support scheme. This means the pages can be translated to other languages very easily. Translations of text strings are stored in the phpGroupWare database, and can be modified by the phpGroupWare administrator.
The lang() function is your application's interface to phpGroupWare's internationalization support.
While developing your application, just wrap all your text output with calls to lang(), as in the following code:
$x = 42;
echo lang("The counter is %1",$x)."<br>";
This will attempt to translate ``The counter is %1'',
and return a translated version based on the current application and
language in use. Note how the position that $x will end up is controlled
by the format string, not by building up the string in your
code. This allows your application to be translated to languages where
the actual number is not placed at the end of the string.
When a translation is not found, the original text will be returned with a * after the string. This makes it easy to develop your application, then go back and add missing translations (identified by the *) later.
Without a specific translation in the lang table, the above code will print:
The counter is 42*<br>If the current user speaks Italian, they string returned may instead be:
il contatore è 42<br>
lang($key, $m1="", $m2="", $m3="", $m4="", $m5="",
$m6="", $m7="", $m8="", $m9="", $m10="")
is the string to translate and may contain replacement directives
of the form %n.
is the first replacement value or may be an array of replacement values (in which case $m2 and above are ignored).
the 2nd through 10th replacement values if $m1 is not an array.
An application called Transy is being developed to make this easier, until then you can create the translation data manually.
The translation class uses the lang table for all translations. We are concerned with 4 of the columns to create a translation:
The key to identify the message (the $key passed to the lang() function). This is written in English.
The application the translation applies to, or common if it is common across multiple applications.
The code for the language the translation is in.
The translated string.
Currently all applications, and the core phpGroupWare source tree have a lang.sql file. This is the place to add translation data. Just add lines of the form:
REPLACE INTO lang (message_id, app_name, lang, content) VALUES( 'account has been deleted','common','en','Account has been deleted');translating the content to reflect the message_id string in the lang language. If the string is specific to your application, put your application name in for app_name otherwise use the name common. The message_id should be in lower case for a small increase in speed.
If you browse through the phpGroupWare sources, you may notice a pattern to the return codes used in the higher-level functions. The codes used are partially documented in the doc/developers/CODES file.
Codes are used as a simple way to communicate common error and progress conditions back to the user. They are mapped to a text string through the check_code() function, which passes the strings through lang() before returning.
For example, calling
echo check_code(13);Would print
Your message has been senttranslated into the current language.
phpGroupWare is built using a templates based design. This means the display pages, stored in tpl files, can be translated to other languages, made to look completely different.
Some instructions on using templates:
For Further info read the PHPLIBs documentation for their template class. http://phplib.netuse.de
The newest version of this document can be found on our website http://www.phpgroupware.org as lyx source, HTML, and text.
Comments on this HOWTO should be directed to the phpGroupWare developers mailing list phpgroupware-developers@lists.sourceforge.net
To subscribe, go to http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=7305
This document was written by Dan Kuykendall.
2000-09-25 documentation on lang(), codes, administration and preferences extension added by Steve Brown.
2001-01-08 fixed directory structure, minor layout changes, imported to lyx source - Darryl VanDorp
Copyright (c) Dan Kuykendall. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
A copy of the license is available at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
Thanks to Joesph Engo for starting phpGroupWare (at the time called
webdistro). Thanks to all the developers and users who contribute
to making phpGroupWare such a success.