What is Parasite?

Parasite is a simple web utility that allows a site owner to create, edit, and display dynamic content in the form of text/html, news/blog posts, swappable images, thumbnails, file downloads, or PHP scripts with a great potential for expansion through the development of additional modules.

Modules

Why use Parasite?

Parasite can be far easier to set up and configure than most web content management systems and relies on files to store all information so no database access is necessary. As a result, Parasite is lighter on the features than the other systems but, true to its name, Parasite is intended to be injected and used to generate content components in an already fleshed out website. Parasite is a great tool for web developers or site owners who need a simple way to alter content for their website from anywhere.

How much does Parasite cost and what are the restrictions?

Parasite is made available under the MIT license and therefore costs nothing. Feel free to use it for any purpose (commercial and non-commercial alike), redistribute, and alter. The only stipulation is that my copyright information must remain in the headers of all source files. I appreciate any and all feedback so don't hesitate to send praise, criticism, feature requests, or questions. Donations are appreciated and all offers for work are welcome and will be considered.

Requirements

• PHP 5.2 or greater.
• Client must have javascript and cookies enabled.

Feedback

As stated previously, Parasite is free of charge and can be used for commercial and non-commercial purposes alike. I wrote it to fulfill some of my own specific needs but with the intention of someday providing it for download to the general public.

I appreciate any and all feedback so don't hesitate to send criticism, feature requests, bug reports, or questions to O1001111@gmail.com. Donations are appreciated and all offers for work are welcome and will be considered.

Installation

Download the parasite package and the 01001111 library and unzip the contents of both packages.

Upload the two directories to the root of your site.

Initialization

initial setup screen

Open a web browser and go to http://your-site-address/parasite to bring up the parasite setup screen.

create your account

Enter in your desired username and password then hit create. Your account should now be registered.

Logging In

Go to http://your-site-address/parasite after registering your account to bring up the parasite login page.

login screen

Enter in your username/password and click login.

Adding Content Modules

initial management screen

To add a content module, go to the management section of the parasite administration application.

modules menu

Chose the type of content module and provide it a unique name. This name should help you uniquely identify the component or intended content and will not be shown in the modules output when included on your webpage.

management screen with modules configured

Click create and the new module should be added and awaiting configuration.

Configuring Content Modules

When configuring the individual modules you have created you will see a series of expanded or collapsed sections. Click on the collapsed title of the section to expand it and then click again to collapse.

Most modules have the following sections:

• Add/Edit/Upload: Add, edit, or upload content depending on the module.
• Display Code: Copy and paste this code into the desired location on your web page, the content you have created will now be included (for ParasiteImage, you must paste this code into the source tag of an image, everything else just treat as though you're pasting the content itself).
• Settings: Alter specific module settings. The two common settings to all modules, READ_LEVEL and WRITE_LEVEL, allow you to set access levels for the editing and viewing of content. It is probably best to leave them as the defaults, guest for READ_LEVEL and admin for WRITE_LEVEL but feel free to change them if you require more tiered permissions.
• Preview: Preview what the output of the module will look like on your web page (note: this will not reflect any of your site specific styles).

ParasiteContent

Parasite Content is just a plain piece of text or html (scripts work too as long as they are contained in script tags).

add and configure ParasiteContent

To alter content simply type the content into the textarea in the module configuration screen and click set.

ParasiteBabble

Parasite Babble is a basic module for creating news posts/blogging, hence the strange name. The default settings make this very simple and basic with the inclusion of a title, the body of the entry, and an automatically generated time stamp.

add a post using ParasiteBabble

To add an entry, enter a title and body then click add. Your new entry has been added to the parasite.

edit/delete entries

To edit or delete past entries, simply expand the entries section of the module configuration screen and click the edit or remove button.

alter settings for this module

To further control the look and capabilities of the Babble module, there are a series of settings that can be altered.

• YEAR_FORMAT: The year format for the archive browser.
• MONTH_FORMAT: The month format for the archive browser.
• DATE_FORMAT: The date format for the time stamp and archive browser.
• TIME_FORMAT: The time format for the time stamp and archive browser.
• BROWSE_FORMAT: (in development)
• DISPLAY_FORMAT: How to format the post. When blank it uses the default setting.
  See below for a detailed explanation of how to customize the display.
• DISPLAY_COUNTS: How many posts to display at a time.
• INPUTS: What inputs to provide for the post.
  Right now only text inputs and text areas are supported and the defaults are:
  text:title,textarea:entry
  To add more inputs add the type (text or textarea) followed by a colon and then the desired ID. Separate these type:id pairs by a comma and sort them in the order you wish them to appear in the module management screen. The values supplied for the inputs when adding an entry will also be displayed in the order they appear. The values will automatically be enclosed in a div tag with a class attribute set to the id of the input. In order to further manipulate the display of the values supplied to the inputs you've added you must alter the DISPLAY_FORMAT, which is described in detail below.
* NOTE: ParasiteBabble requires the prototype.js framework for the pagination feature and this ought to be included automatically with the display code. If you encounter problems then try re-installing the lib directory from the 01001111 library package to the root of your site.

Changing the DISPLAY_FORMAT

The Parasite Babble module is fairly simple when using all default parameters but the display format property can be a little confusing for non-developers. When the property is left blank it dumps the values in div tags with the class attribute set to the input's id. For the default inputs (text:title,textarea:entry) this would result in a format of:

		<div class="title">[:title:]</div>
		<div class ="timestamp">[:timestamp:]</div>
		<div class ="entry">[:entry:]</div>

Note, the timestamp is added automatically after the title. The [:id:] markers tell Parasite where to put the values of the inputs. Adding a new input, text:mood for example, between the title and entry would result in the following format:

		<div class ="title">[:title:]</div>
		<div class ="timestamp">[:timestamp:]</div>
		<div class ="mood">[:mood:]</div>
		<div class ="entry">[:entry:]</div>

But say you weren't happy with the default or simple CSS styling wasn't providing you with enough flexibility, you can easily alter the format by adding elements. For example:

		<div class ="title">[:title:]</div>
		<div class ="entry">[:entry:]</div>
		<br />
		<div class="poweredby">This post powered by Parasite</div>
		<hr />

This would omit the time stamp from the output, add a "powered by Parasite" message to the bottom, and separate the entries with a horizontal rule.

This method of formatting may be a little confusing to casual users but to even novice web developers it shouldn't pose any problems.

ParasiteFiles

The Parasite Files module allows you to upload files to your web server and to provide them for download as a series of links of specified names separated by a delimiter.

upload files using ParasiteFiles

To upload a file, select it with the file browser, enter a name, and click upload.

Set the LINK_DELIMITER property in the settings to alter what separates the links from one another (default is a space).

ParasiteThumbnails

Parasite Thumbnails is an extension of the Parasite Files module but, instead of providing a list of links to files, a series of image thumbnails are displayed which are linked to the original, full-size images.

upload images using ParasiteThumbnails

To add an image choose it with the file browser and click upload.

review/remove uploaded images

Expand the image tag to preview and delete images.

alter settings and preview thumbnails

Alter the MAX_WIDTH and MAX_HEIGHT settings to change the thumbnail sizes. Images will always be scaled with respect to the original proportions so the longest side will be scaled to the maximum width or height.

Set the THUMBNAIL_DELIMITER property in the settings to alter what separates the thumbnails from one another (default is a space).

ParasiteImage

The Parasite Image module differs from the other current modules in that it doesn't output the content of what you are looking to display, in this case an image, but instead outputs the source path. This allows you to upload a series of images and select which one should appear in the source attribute of an image tag on your website, allowing you to keep the same layout, proportions, and style.

upload images using ParasiteImage

To add an image choose it with the file browser and click upload.

review/remove images and select one to display

Expand the image section to preview, select, and delete images.

Insert the display code into the source attribute of the desire image tag on your web page. It will look something like this:

		<img src="<?php include_once('/parasite/include.php');
			ParasiteImage::display('myImage'); ?>" />

ParasitePHP

Parasite PHP allows you to inject the output of a script into your page and is one of the simplest modules for seasoned web developers but ought to be avoided by anyone not familiar with PHP.

add/edit PHP scripts using ParasitePHP

Write or copy the PHP script you wish to evaluate in the content textarea and hit set. Don't forget the <?php ?> markers as they are not implied.

User Management

Open the Users panel to add, edit, or remove user accounts.

user management screen

To add a user, assign a username, password, access level, mark as active and click add.

To edit a user, click the edit button next to their row in the users table, alter the appropriate information, and submit the changes.

To remove a user, click the remove button next to their row in the users table.

To change your password, enter your current password and new password in the text inputs at the bottom of the users panel. Click the change password to submit the changes.

Global Settings

global settings screen

The global settings panel allows you to tell parasite where to store and load the content as well as where to move "deleted" content (the content is actually not deleted in case you may need to rescue any information so it is moved out of the content directory) and where to store the temporary zip files when backing up content.

Logs

Launch the log file viewer by clicking on the logs link.

Downloading/Backing Up Content

download all/individual modules

To download and backup content, go to the management screen where you can add new modules and click the download buttons next to the individual modules or the "download all" button to get all content. Parasite will zip up the appropriate directories and files and provide them for download.

Including Content In A Web Page

To include any content from Parasite in a web page simply copy and paste the display code shown in the configuration page for the target module. If you have multiple Parasite modules on one page then you might want to put the command to include Parasite at the top of the page.

		<?php include_once('/parasite/include.php'); ?>

Now you can omit that portion of the display code for each of the modules on that page.

If you're using a standard header template or include file and use multiple Parasite modules throughout your site, it may be wise to put the include statement in one of those files rather than calling it every time you want to display a module.