Aim
NitroTech aims to provide a Content Management System (CMS) that is easy to use create websites in seconds. NitroTech aims to be a solution to small web sites, personal websites and businesses both small and large. With NitroTech's planned package management feature we aim to provide a solution for everybody with a community based approach. NitroTech aims to build an engine that is easy to learn and easier to use for third party development to be simple and efficient.
Users outline
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INI
(Initial NitroTech Installer) is a step by step program that installs
and sets up NitroTech ready for use. |
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All
you have to do is enter some information about your web host and you
are ready to go! |
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NitroTech
runs on a database so you can insert and modify information and
settings easily. |
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NitroTech
is powered by a Database Abstraction Layer (DBAL) which lets it run on
different database types. |
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In the
future NitroTech will support many databases, but for now, MySQL
is the only one supported. |
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Any
user or even guests of your web site can choose from a large list of
languages. |
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There
is more to the Language system then just having multiple languages. By
using the language system you, the Administrator, can edit
any sentence or word on your web site,
add more words, and even when posting new pages you can add it in any
language. |
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NitroTech
uses a powerful templating program that lets Users and Administrators
choose how the site looks. |
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The
template system also has the ability to run small commands (such as
if/else if/else) for the advanced
user to edit the way his or her site runs without touching the PHP code. |
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NitroTech
has an advanced authorization system that lets you choose which users,
or groups of users can see a page or item. |
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Global
permissions can be set for each user viewing your web site; You can set
if a user can do things such: reading, posting, downloading and other
options. |
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Your
users can also be sorted into groups for assigning permissions to a
number of people. |
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Every
single item in NitroTech has the authentication feature set to it. This
allows you to choose whether a certain user can view certain things,
such as: Links, Downloads, Pages and even Smilies just to name a few. |
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Each
person who visits your web page is a user. If a user isn't logged in
then that user becomes a Guest. Guests have the ability to register for
a new account in NitroTech so they can have access to more
features/items on your web site. |
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Once a
user has registered then you can change their permissions to view
"Members Only" pages. The default account "Guest" can also have
permissions modified to allow anyone to view your site. |
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Like
explained above you can set the permissions for each user to define
what they are and are not allowed to access. |
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With
NitroTech you can create groups for sorting your users into and to set
permissions for a number of people at one time instead of each user
individually. |
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Of
course you will want your members to be able to set things in their
profile. Users of your web site will be able to change their personal
details (such as their location and occupation) along with many other
fields including some options (such as "Allow Smilies in posts"). |
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NitroTech's
advanced and unique profile management allows you to set profile fields
(i.e. To add, edit and delete certain options). You can use this to add
extra profile fields such as "Real Name". |
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NTcode
is an implementation of HTML
used in NitroTech. NTcode is like BBcode in other forum software, such
as phpBB. |
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NitroTech
code can be modified by Administrators of the web site to create your
own special NTcode function. For example you can choose to make a new
NTcode for showing "flash"
files. |
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Anybody
with the right permissions on your web site can use NTcode in their
posts. |
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There
is also a bunch of specially made NTcode functions. These features let
you use "dynamic" data on your web page or post. Dynamic data is
information that can change depending on a bunch of variables. One of
the most useful NTcode functions is the user dynamic data one; This
function lets you output any information you like about the user that
is visiting your web page. For example "Welcome Guest" would
output: "Welcome Guest", or their user name if they are logged in. |
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Smilies
use the NTcode system for replacing smiley code [ e.g :) ] with an
image. Site owners of NitroTech can add their own Smilies along with
editing already existing ones. |
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One of
the main features of NitroTech is the ability to add and modify pages
and their content. |
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With
NitroTech adding new content to your web site is easy, all it takes is
one click; You simply enter your information and click "Add Page" and
that is it! |
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Of
course with the pages you can go into more detail by giving them
"dynamic" content using NTcode, images and much much more. |
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Down
the right side of the default NitroTech style there is a bunch of
boxes. These boxes are used to hold any information you like, for
example you may want to have a user panel with information about the
current user. |
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You
can also use additional "script" boxes to put other information down
the side of the page like the top ten news articles or the latest poll
just to name a few. |
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Like
everything else in NitroTech you can also put authorization on the
boxes to choose who you want to be able to view the box. You can also
choose which page(s) you want a particular box to be on using the
advanced page system. |
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The
Configuration panel of NitroTech lets you change every aspect of your
web site and every setting without modifying a file or folder. |
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To
make sure that NitroTech is easy understand and even easier to use
there is always a bunch or help pop-ups. Located next to every field,
page and anything else that may be confusing is a small question mark
that brings up information about that item. |
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Make
sure you never loose your unfinished work ever again. Next to every
text field and every place that you can enter information, there is a
little copy and paste button next to the box. These buttons let you
copy the information that is currently in the field, or paste data into
it. An unlimited amount of items can be held on the clipboard letting
you copy data from one text box to another. This feature can be used to
copy your unfinished work for completing at a latter time. |
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Occasionally
NitroTech needs to access files on your server for uploading your files
and photos. |
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NitroTech
uses an advanced file program to access your server via FTP
or using PHP's
file system depending on your servers settings. |
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In
NitroTech it is possible to make photo albums to upload your own
pictures to. |
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From
the Administration Panel you can set who can put pictures into what
albums and who can see the pictures. |
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Once
you have uploaded all of your pictures you can use them in your posts,
around the site, in fact, you can use them anywhere! |
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Most
(internet) programs use "Cookies"
to keep data on the viewer's computer. NitroTech however, let's you
(the Admin) choose if you would like to put "Cookies" on your clients
computers (i.e. the people that see your web site). NitroTech also
finds out if your client's web browser is allowing Cookies. By using
this system nobody will get any unwanted data on their computer! |
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By
using NitroTech's Import and Export features you are able to backup
your valuable data to your computer. |
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You
can also use the feature to copy data from one of your sites to another. |
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When
using the Export feature you can choose exactly what to backup (for
example: The whole site, all of the pages or even just one page).
Backups are put into XML
format for campatiblity in other programs in the future. |
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Every
page in NitroTech is done with precise care to make sure that the page
is a good and dynamic as possible. One of the things NitroTech does to
support this is sorting; NitroTech lets you choose how you view each
page and item and how you want it sorted. |
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Choice is an important part of this world, and to ensure NitroTech is as customisable as possible this package management system will give Administrators full control over what plug-ins are installed on their site. |
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The NitroTech plug-in system will work very much the same was as large Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Debian and Gentoo do. For example if you want a new feature for your web site all you have to do is browse a list of plug-ins, modules and modifications and select what you want installed and it is all processed automatically. |
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Lists of plug-ins for the package management system to download come from servers that act as repositories. |
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Repositories are editable in NitroTech and provide information about plug-ins in a database. Each repository should contain all the required information and files for the package management system to work from. For example it will hold plug-in names, versions, descriptions, files and more. |
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plug-ins also have dependency information held in their repositories. These dependencies are used to calculate and automatically install any required plug-ins prior to installing the selected plug-ins. |
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For example, if you selected "Forum Polls" to install (a possible future plug-in that will allow users to add polls to their forum topics) NitroTech will ensure that the forums are first installed. If they are not installed NitroTech will prompt the user that they must be installed in order for the forum polls plug-in to be installed and it should then automatically install the forums based on the users decision in regards to continuing. |
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Much in the same way as dependencies NitroTech also calculates recommended plug-ins to be installed. In the repository database each plug-in recommends other plug-ins that work with itself. |
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For example, if you selected to install "Forums" NitroTech would ask if you would also like "Forum Polls" installed as they go well together. |
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plug-ins, or packages, are XML based to allow for easy package creation and plug-ins to be made by developers easily |
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Each package consists of an install file and any extra files to be installed with the program. The XML based install file contains instructions for NitroTech to recognise how to install the plug-in |
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The commands install files may contain are numerous. They include SQL statements for NitroTech to execute, files for NitroTech to upload and even file modifications for NitroTech to make. |
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Because NitroTech can make modifications to these three things it is possible for any plug-in to exist. For example plug-ins may edit NitroTech files and modify the core engine directly. Whilst this example wouldn't happen often the support is there. But the primary task is for the package management system to upload new files (say forums.php for example) and run SQL commands (install the forums to the database). NitroTech will even make modifications to all of your installed styles to ensure that the new plug-in works on all your users accounts. |
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Because of obvious security issues with plug-ins being able to modify NitroTech code all officially supported NitroTech packages that exist inside the official NitroTech repositories will be thoroughly checked for security issues and bugs. |
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This will ensure that NitroTech has a list of proper ally functional plug-ins that work with each other. To guarantee this NitroTech will have automatic conflict notice (for example when two plug-ins modify the same line of code there could be problems and the user should be prompted for the appropriate response). NitroTech repositories will also be thoroughly checked to make sure that every plug-in works with every other plug-in or at least doesn't try to install a package that would conflict with another one. |
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Road Map - Milestones
NitroTech has a very large feature list which we wish to
complete over the course of the following milestones. These milestones
are set to help track the development and to plan releases.
Pre-Alpha:
FuriousFire
Released
(06/06/06) |
This
release was more a proof of concept but
provided a good engine to make websites in seconds. |
Alpha
1:
Twilight
In
development
(expected
September 06)
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This
release will be focused on usability and
user friendliness with admin panels to most of the back end, providing
dynamic data on websites in a very easy, yet advanced, fashion. |
| Alpha 2: |
Full user administration support and the
start of community based web sites. |
| Alpha 3: |
All core-engine features finished. |
| Alpha 4: |
First release of the NitroTech package management. |
| Beta 1: |
Full package management support. |
| Beta 2: |
Bug fixes and security issues attended to. |
| 1.0.0 |
The big party! |
Developers use
The developers list of features
are found in an external file. Please note that this file is for the
experience PHP user to understand (and even then it may make no sense).
You can find the features here: features.txt
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