README

PHP-Mesh   - Page meshing framework for PHP.
Copyright (C) 2003-2009  Trejkaz

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
Lesser General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA

You can contact the author by electronic mail, which is presently
at the following address: trejkaz@trypticon.org


PURPOSE:

    There has been a wonderful project for a while, started by the OpenSymphony
    team, called SiteMesh.

    SiteMesh is a way to merge and style web pages, without needing complicated
    and hard to learn technologies such as XSL, and without needing unnecessary
    cruft such as header and footer includes.

    The goal of this project is to bring the convenience and simplicity of the
    SiteMesh approach to PHP, borrowing from the Java version where appropriate.

REQUIRMENTS:

    PHP 4.1.2 is known to work.  Earlier versions may work too but are untested.
        (I will add more to this list if you send me a report on what works
         and what doesn't.)

    An Apache web server environment is preferable, as it is the server which
    my sample configuration scripts are written for.  Other servers should work
    with the correct configuration (but does anyone really run anything other
    than Apache anymore?)

    For the php_value directives to work in your configuration, the web server
    requires the AllowOverride directive to contain Options.  To be able to
    decorate files whose extension is .html, you will need AllowOverride FileInfo
    as well.

INSTALLING:

    The following instructions will have you install a test page to check whether
    PHP-Mesh will work for you.

    Instructions will assume installation by an ordinary user, not for
    site-wide use.

    1. Extract the PHP-Mesh archive to a known location, such as ~/phpmesh .

    2. Copy the entire contents of the example/ directory to somewhere in your
       web directory.  In my example, I will copy the entire example directory
       into /var/www/localhost/htdocs/example .

    3. Edit the .htaccess file (/var/www/localhost/htdocs/example/.htaccess in
       my case) so that the placeholders point to the correct location where you
       extracted PHP-Mesh.

    4. View the test page in your web browser.  In my case the URL for the test
       page is http://localhost/examples/ .  You should see a red border around
       that page.  If you do not, then you should see an error message detailing
       what might be wrong.

INSTALLATION NOTES:

    On some default Apache installs, including that of Mac OSX, Apache is
    configured to allow no overrides.  In this event, you will need to add
    "AllowOverride Options" to your Apache configuration, so that the php_value
    settings in the .htaccess file work correctly.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

    For further information, I suggest checking out the docs/ directory for more
    detailed documentation.

TODO:

    I need to make some more documented examples, and write a tutorial.

FEEDBACK:

    Feedback and suggestions to trejkaz@trypticon.org