Creating of a Community Website Forum - Research Paper Example

Introduction : Websites become very important to different types of users nowadays. Developing a forum to MasterKey Linux was the main part in this project, but after developing the forum and comparing it with a complete community website and discussing it with my tutor Dr. Qin Zhou, the main part of this project has changed to make it comprehensive. As a result, a community website forum for support to MasterKey Linux has been developed in this project, while looking for any website security issues and doing marketing and advertising. This website is important to support MasterKey Linux users using different support tools. Developing a community website and forum depends on designing, databases, scripts, some programming languages and other website skills. The designing was one of the most important parts because the design gives positive or negative impressions to visitors. Website security issues involves testing the websites with different security testing tools and using certain security methods. The marketing and advertising parts were done by a campaign in different places, using different methods. According to these three parts in the project, I can see that there is a close relation between this project and the area of the computer because the project depends on many computer arts. The aims and objectives are located at the end of this project; the results, which are establishing the community website and the websites, are ready to receive any comments, share works or any problems to solve from the users. This report will show step by step instructions to each part done within this project . What was done : Main change in the project. When the practical work started after reading and searching certain parts, the phpBB3 forum was chosen to be used in this project as there are many advantages in this type of forum, such as: it is open source, free, secure, fast and easy to deal with. The forum has been installed and tested on a Linux server on the internet. Here are some of the installation steps taken to install the forum : Creating MySql Database One of the installation steps (phpMyAdmin )DB after the installation finished The forum after finished the installation ( other installation steps in the Appendix ) After that, Dr. Qin Zhou decided to make the project more complete and successful and this was done by developing a community support website for MasterKey users, making the forum part of the community website; this was a great idea because by developing complete website, there is more space to work, to provide quality work using different tools that allowed the visitors and users to enjoy by learning useful information on this website, as well as making the browse much easier. Comparison between different data control scripts and choosing the website name. This step is one of the main steps because choosing good content management scripts will provide good community websites, otherwise the websites will not be powerful and reliable. There are many ways that the person can prefer something to another and the points that were used to choose the best content management scripts are : What is the level of security this script has? Is it open source? Is it free? Does the script reliable? powerful? Which program language does this script depend on? Which environment does this script use? How complex is it to deal with this script? Are there enough resources, support and extras to this script? The comparison has done to 5 different content management systems : 1. Joomla 2. Drupal 3. Plone 4. Xoops 5. Typo3 There are many websites that did the comparison between these types of content management systems and the comparisons are a little bit close between these websites; most of these comparisons conclude that these websites are similar with smaller differences and that what is preferred between them depends on the type of website and the kind of content the website contains. http://bloghouse.org/en/Joomla_in_comparison_to_other_CMS http://www.idealware.org/articles/joomla_drupal_plone.php After this comparison and research using many different resources, Joomla has chosen to be used in my project because it is free, open source, secure, powerful, reliable, and there are lots of resources to support Joomla; it is also easier to use and deal with. “Joomla strives for power in simplicity. Its programmers believe that anyone with a bit of technical know-how should have no problem setting up and maintaining a website. They have created a tool that is friendly, comparatively easy to get started with, and prioritizes ease of use. “ http://www.idealware.org/articles/joomla_drupal_plone.php Installation part The time to install Joomla has come, amd the following pictures show the installation process step by step : 1. The first step is to prepare the environment that the work will be done on. The environment that the work needs to be done on should include : Domain Name. Linux Server. MySQL Database ( by using phpMyAdmin ). All of these are done by choosing the domain name, which is ( http://www.MasterKeysupport.com ); the reason to choose this domain name is because the project is about community support websites for MasterKey users, so to make it easy to write and easy to remember, the domain should become MasterKeysupport. The installation part should be done using MySQL DB, depending on the Linux server, or could be done online on my own server, so the full control to adding, editing, deleting and updating anything becomes easier; it is also better to test the website step by step online instead of installing the website using the local server. 2. Joomla version 1.5 has downloaded from the Joomla website and it was checked to get all of the files. The following picture shows Joomla 1.5v files : Joomla Files 3. Now, it is time to upload the files from the computer to the online server using ftp client software, FileZilla; FTP is a free client used to upload the files. The following pictures show how to create the ftp user and the uploading processes : Creating FTP account Uploading files from the computer to the online server ( the left panel represents the files that are stored in the computer and the right files represent the online files on the server, the bottom files represent the queued files that will upload from the computer to the online server 4. After that, the MySQL database version 5 was created to install Joomla on it. The following pictures explain this step : Before creating the database, the first step is to check the system requirements that are required. These are the minimum system requirements to installing Joomla : Software Minimum Version Recommended Optimum Php 4.3.x 4.4.7 5.0.x series MyAQL 3.23.x or above 4.1.22 5.0.x series Apache 1.3 or above 1.3.9 2.0.61 MySql database v5 created This picture shows the MySQL database based on phpMyadmin v3.0.1 5. After all preparation steps are finished, it is time to install Joomla. The installation steps that follow depended on Joomla's installation manual file. (http://downloads.joomlacode.org/docmanfileversion/1/7/4/17471/1.5_Installation_Manual_version_0.5.pdf ) Here are the installation steps, and step by step pictures will be in the Appendix part in this report : a) Choose Language ( English United Kingdom is selected). b) Pre-installation check. (This step shows whether the server meets all of the necessary criteria to successfully complete the installation). c) License agreement. d) Database Configuration. (This step is done by entering database information) e) FTP Configuration. (This is an optional step; this will be the FTP Account that handles all file system operations when Joomla requires FTP access to complete a task). f) Main Configuration : “There are three sections to the Main Configuration screen; the first of which is the Site Name. Whilst this may appear obvious it does bear pointing out that this is also the name that will be used when site e-mails are issued, or when error or access warning messages are issued from the Front-end of the Web site. Unlike in earlier releases of Joomla!, and its predecessor, the Site Name will not appear in the User's browser title bar. This entry can be edited at a later time in the Global Configuration->Site page of the Control Panel. The second section relates to key information concerning the primary Super Administrator, you! Enter your e-mail address, or the one that you want all site warnings, messages, and e-mails to be sent from and that incoming contact methods will be directed to. It will appear as the From address on all Site outgoing e-mail messages. There are also two text fields into which you should enter and confirm the password that you will (as the primary Super Administrator) use to login to the Web site, in combination with the default username, for the primary Super Administrator, of admin.” Pdf g) Finish : (The installation has completed, and before testing the website and using the control panel, the installation folder must delete). One the installation is finished, the configuration.php file, MySQL database and the website should be checked and tested to make sure that everything is working fine. Checking configuration.php file by looking at the content of the file (the code) and making sure that all of the connection information is okay, and changing anything that needs to be changed, the following code shows part of configuration.php code : As it is appears in the original header code, the header should include the website logo, which is called (blank.gif) and is in the images folder; part of the header includes the banner module, and, depending on our website arrangement, we are looking for a single header logo that covers the whole header space, which is done by disabling the banner module from the control panel and editing the code to be suitable to receive the new header logo with the size of : 962 pixels for width and 129 pixels for height. This is the header code after editing the necessary changes : From the new header code, we can see the name of the new logo, which is called heard.jpg; we also see the responsible code to the banner still available because the banner module was only disabled from the control panel, so it is still possible to be enabled anytime; maybe we will need it in the future. The design part was done by designing the following parts : Redesign the MasterKey logo to make it suitable to the MasterKey Support website : Any website needs a logo, so that everybody can recognize the website advertising by seeing the logo. Logo idea : the idea of designing the MasterKey support logo was taken from the MasterKey website logo, as well as from three resources, the first resource being Linux, because MasterKey is a Linux operating system, so the first element in the logo is the standard Linux logo, which is a penguin; the second is a key picture; the third one is the domain name, and this is the result : MasterKey Support logo The second part is the header, which was designed to show the specific name of the MasterKey support website, as well as to show the logo and the domain name. MasterKey support website header The header was designed by using these following tools: Polygonal lasso tool, Brush tool and gradient tool. The brushes that are used in this header were taken from http://www.brusheezy.com . Furthermore, the layer style options used to design this header were from the aforementioned website. After the header had been designed, Dr. Qin Zhou decided to change the default website color from the mixed color (blue and green) to green. This was done by changing the color value of the default style. The below picture shows the Style Variation which contains the color values : Style Variation ( Control Panel ) This is the new code after editing the color values : Blueberry Lime:overlay-stripes-vert,#418519,#E4F3DA,#7A8F1E,#ffffff,#6E916F,#E1F0E5 Advertising designing : Advertising is important for marketing to make the link between the MasterKey community support website and related websites much easier, so three advertisements were designed for this purpose, using different tools and ideas. The first one is a small graphic banner that shows the name of the website with the logo : MasterKey support banner ( W: 445 pixels, H: 89 pixels ) The second one The second one is a gif banner (animated). This banner includes four pictures that were designed using Adobe Photoshop. The first picture is empty in the bottom right side, the second picture includes (powerful), the third picture includes (powerful and secure) and the forth picture includes (powerful, secure and reliable) words. GIF ( animation ) banner The third one Installing and adding extra advantages to the website : 1. Color chooser : First, I would like to mention one of the amazing advantages in this template, which allowed each visitor or member to change the color of the website's sides, such as the background, menu bar, header, etc. That means that each visitor or member can browse the website with special colors that he already chose or is going to choose. The main file for this feature is called : mooRainbow.js. which is located in /templates/rt_chromatophore/js/ directory. The following code is a part of all available themes, and we can change the name of the them, as well as their colors : var themes = new Hash({ "Business Casual": ["overlay-gradient2", "#688ba0", "#ffffff", "#001d30", "#d5e1ed", "#ff672d", "#ffebde"], "Borealis": ["overlay-spirals2", "#657d2d", "#e3e6cf", "#acb588", "#2f3d19", "#07232e", "#d3dee6"], "Blueberry Lime": ["overlay-stripes-vert", "#263248", "#d1d4de", "#95ad2a", "#ffffff", "#6e7791", "#e1e3f0"], "Cherry Cheesecake": ["overlay-spirals", "#4c1b1b", "#ebdad8", "#bf9971", "#3d1814", "#b9121b", "#f0c9c9"], "Classic Green": ["overlay-blocks", "#2f5c24", "#e1f2df", "#333333", "#dddddd", "#bab829", "#ffffff"], http://www.redrosefoundation.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=61 This picture was taken from the MasterKey support website of the color choosing feature. 2. onlinedestek v1.1 : This component allows visitors or members to chat with the administration freely by clicking on the MSN chat button. It will also show that if the administration is available or not. (This component was developed by beydagi.net). 3. Visitors counter : This component shows a detailed visitors statistics; it shows today, yesterday, this week, this month and all visitors. (This component was developed by vinaora.com). 3. Newsletter Subscriber : It is a form to subscribe to a newsletter. When the user clicks on the button, it sends an email to the recipient specified (by the administrator). All subscribers will be updated with any changes in the website by the administration. 4. Downloads : This component is called jDownload and it was developed by (joomlaaddons.de). This allows the administration to upload files and then add the links of these files in this component, so all visitors / members can easily download these files. In the MasterKey support website, there are two categories, which includes eight files, such as : MasterKey Linux for CD - Latest Stable Release Version: 0.1, MasterKey Linux ( for USB device ) Version: 0.1, etc. 5. Forum : The forum is important in our support website because it allows members to communicate with the administration much easier. Members can write their suggestions, any problems they have with MasterKey Linux, general inquiries and so on. These are the forum categories : MasterKey installation support General help Security Discussions MasterKey graphics Forums Comments/Suggestions Forum Usage Support & Information This forum component is called (kunena ) and was developed by : kunena.com. 6. Graphics : Graphics are very important in any operating system because it makes it much nicer and all of the members like it. The graphic section will include different kinds of graphics related to MasterKey Linux, like backgrounds, icons, screen savers and so on, but right now it only includes two MasterKey CD labels. This graphic component is called (JoomGallery) and it was developed by : joomgallery.net. Look after security issues in the website. There are many ways to make the website safe and protected. Some of these ways have been done to the MasterKey support website : A. Upgrading Joomla version to the newest version will make sure that any problems are solved and that any security issue solved. The following steps show the upgrade operation : The Joomla version that I installed is : 1.5.2, and the newest version that was available for Joomla website is : 1.5.9. First, Joomla_1.5.2_to_1.5.9-Stable-Patch_Package.zip download. After the download is finished, one of the upgrading ways that was mentioned on the Joomla website used is done by extracting the zip file, allowing the file to upload using the FTP client software to overwrite the files. Now, once the upgrade has successfully completed and the new version appears in the website control panel, make sure that the website has been checked and that it is working fine. B. Delete the installation folder to make sure that nobody can use the installation folder to create new administrations or any other hacking issues. C. Backup early and often. D. Use well-formed passwords. E. Follow a logical and rigorous recovery process. F. Protect directories and files. “Increase the security of the critical configuration.php file by moving it outside of the public_html directory”. http://docs.joomla.org/Security_Checklist_4_-_Joomla_Setup G. Adjust file and directory permissions. “write-protect critical directories and files by changing directory permissions to 755, and file permissions to 644”. H. Remove unneeded files. “Remove the compressed archives (xxxx.zip for example)”. I. Marketing and advertising. A. Meta Tag : “Metadata is information about data. The tag provides metadata about the HTML document. Metadata will not be displayed on the page, but will be machine parsable. Meta elements are typically used to specify page description, keywords, author of the document, last modified, and other metadata. The tag always goes inside the head element. The metadata can be used by browsers (how to display content or reload page), search engines (keywords), or other web services.” http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_meta.asp After reading different resources about the meta tag, http://searchenginewatch.com/2167931 http://www.addme.com/meta.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metatag http://www.MasterKeysupport.com B. Search Engine Submission : MasterKeysupport.com has been submitted to up to 20 search engines using the add-me website (http://www.addme.com/submission/free-submission-start.php ). Moreover, the website was also submitted to Open Directory Project (http://www.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/add.cgi?where=Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Linux/Support/FAQs,_Help,_and_Tutorials ), which was linked with many search engines and directory websites. C. Problem and solutions : working on the local server : There are some problems that have happened when the local server was installed on my laptop, due to the server needing high specification and a good environment to work on. One of the problems is that the error message appears after working for a period of time; the access to the project files are only in the laptop, so it is important to carry the laptop everywhere, otherwise there is no way to work on the project. The solution was taken to Dr. Qin Z, who suggested to work on the online server that I already had; that server has high specifications features, and the online server allowed to work on involves using my laptop, university labs or anywhere I can find the internet with some necessary programs that I have in my mini external hard disk drive. Some requirements are not clear : This was done by asking Dr. Qin Z in the weekly meetings or by emailing her anytime in the weekdays. I always get fast responses with enough solutions. The home page becomes blank : One of the problems that I had involves the main page on the website (home), which becomes blank, and after careful reading about problems and solutions in Joomla forum support, I found that the cause of this problem was from installing one component (forum component), which is sometimes affected on the index page. The solution was to re-upload the index file (index.php) and the problem was solved. Also to make sure that the problems do not happen, they put advice to everyone that has had this problem to upgrade Joomla version to the newest version and this has been done during my project. Read More