Papa Mike's Creations

Day By Day

Look here to get the day by day progress:

9-02-2026: The build is pretty much complete. This morning I am working with the css themes.

I'm Building a Blog

Be a Part of the Action

I am always open to suggestions.

I finally got TinyMCE and elFinder talking again. I have found that what works on one system may not work on another. I've used both applications together for years in several projects I have designed. And TinyMCE has always been a problem. But, anyhow, they seem to be getting along now.

blue-thumbs-up-md.png (12 KB)

Okay, what I'm doing here is building a blog. It will be safe, secure, easy to work with, and just a lot of fun to have around. And I am slowly getting there. I am usually a fast coder, but this project has slowed me down. And it's the usual stuff. Editor problems have been the biggest pain in the butt. And you wanna know how I finally fixed it? I went back to a tutorial I did at Coders Junction (my main site), copied a block of code and pasted it in, and voila, the sucker gave in.

Anyhow, as I said above, I am using TinyMCE version 8.5.0 and elFinder 2.1.65. I integrated elFinder with TinyMCE, and it handles all of the media. Images, videos, that kinda stuff. I am coding it in PHP 8.5.10 and PHP Data Objects (PDO). I am using MariaDB version 10.11.18 as the database. That version of MariaDB isn't the newest, but it is what my online VPS uses, and I didn't want to take the time to back up all the databases just to upgrade. Finally, I use WAMP as my home base server and it's running all of the same versions of everything I described.

What's Being Done?

If anyone wants to keep up with what's being done, you can look here.

done-- Article builder

done-- Menu system

done-- Style sheets

done-- Comment box

done-- Messaging system

done-- Login/registration

done-- Drag and drop article repositioning

done-- Article quick editing feature for the admin

done-- Block builder

done-- Sidebar(s) settings

done-- General settings

Still In The Works

-- Pages (requested item)

-- Photo album (requested item)

-- Lightbox (requested item)

Some Worthy Features

*Security Inactivity Timer: One of the next things I have done is to add an Inactivity Timeout. Here's how it works. If the admin is logged in and working on something, then suddenly has to leave the computer, the timer starts a countdown. When the preset time expires the screen freezes and turns dark. There is a notice that pop-ups telling the admin that the timeout was reached and the admin's session is logged out. The admin can choose to either log back in or close the dark screen and return to the index page logged out.

I spent a lot of time perfecting this feature and it is well worth the time I spent on it. I designed it to meet my need for security. I may add an auto save feature to it so if the admin is working on something before suddenly leaving the computer that work will be saved. I have tried a couple of ways to achieve this but neither worked well enough to suit me.

*Admin Quick Editing: When the admin is logged in, an Edit and Resposition icon can be seen at the bottom of articles and blocks in the sidebars. When the admin clicks on one of these icons a window will slide in from the right side of the screen. In that window is the article or block that was choosen to be edited. The admin completes the edits, clicks the update button, and closes the window. All without leaving the index page.

*Drag-and-Drop Repositioning: This feature allows the admin to reposition articles and blocks just by dragging them into their new position. To do this the admin clicks the arrow icon. The right slide in window will open. Inside of the window are the small blocks that represent the blocks and/or articles. The admin Left clicks and holds the mouse button down and drags the block into its new position and it is automatically saved. When done, the admin can close the window.

Onward and Upward

What is the process?

done-- Article builder is up and running, but the styling sucks. Gotta finish that today.

done-- Starting to build a theme and I plan to get deep into it today. I'm starting with Crescent, my favorite. But new project, and I have to start in the basement and work my way up with any theming system. That's just the way things work.

done-- Sorted all of the files into the directories that I favor

done-- Block builder, when completed, will be used to add content into the sidebars.

done-- Menu system. I use the best menu in the world. It has never let me down. And I can't for the life of me remember where I got it.

I've either finished a lot of this stuff or at least know where I'm headed with it.

cms.jpg (108 KB)

Like this:

done -- Seriously need to finish the sidebars and general settings pages.

done-- Need to finish the theme system ( have one theme "crescent" and will be completing another "midnight". The admin sets the active theme in the settings dashboard.

done-- Will be uploading a lot of files today (Sunday 8-30-2026) that I finished up yesterday.

done-- The place may look ugly for a couple of days, but you gotta start uploading files early in a project because what you design locally may need some adjusting when turned loose on the web.

done-- You've probably noticed a lot of entries about the theming system. I'm gonna sit down this week and finish it Themes can be edited on the fly, new ones created, and themes can be shared.

- About The Themes -

All themes are css based meaning they are created using stylesheets. To create one, give it a name and use one that is already made and change the color values. Drop it in the themes folder and it automatically will show in the settings dashboard.

In the near future I am going to add a feature where members, when logged in, can choose the theme they want to use.

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Recent Activity (1)

Mike Aug 30, 2026 - 5:35 PM

Welcome! Glad you stopped by.

Features

This is a partial list of the features:

-- Auto Installer

-- Themes

-- Articles

-- Blocks

-- Sidebars

-- Admin quick edit feature

-- Inactivity timer (security)

-- Articles and blocks repositioning using drag-and-drop.

My Other Creations

Here are some of my other creations:

-- HomePage CMS (updating code base)

--- See HomePage in Action

-- MegaMenu (updating code base)

-- Content Slider

I will be offering these for download later this year. I am updating everything to PHP Data Objects (PDO) programming language. And that's a slow process especially with HomePage CMS because it has over 300 files.