OPN 100 comes with several new settings. Here, I will be explaining the access to the “filesystem”.

Problem: there are hundreds of ways how you can configure an Apache-Server. Especially with Linux there seem to be endless variations. This will give us a headache when we try to make directories for OPN for example. Linux assigns a “user” to the PHP process, e.g. the process that takes care that a PHP script is run. It can be for example the user "wwwrun" or a general user or a specific user etc.. In case of a general user problems arise when you host your web on a shared server, so that a simple PHP script could actually “spy” on the “neighbors’” data. That is why a not too “mighty” user is assigned to the PHP process. Now this includes the problem that this user himself cannot access the data of any (not even his own) web.



To provide you with some helpful tools here, OPN recognizes four variations at admin->settings->Server:

Variation 1: PHP Data system-functions
We use the usual PHP data system functions here. With Windows-systems this should not give you any problems at all. If these functions perform well with Linux while you are using a shared server, I would start to worry.

Variation 2: mkdir.pl
Basically, the core of the problem lies in the directory creation. The server “prohibits” that PHP creates directories, whereas Perl-scripts are permitted to create directories – that’s why OPN comes along with a mkdir.pl in your cgi-bin folder. If you want to use this script, you have to upload it to the cgi-bin folder of your web (caution: check the upload mode!). The cgi-bin can also lie outside the OPN directory. Just make sure that the script is accessible via a URL.

Variation 3: PHP FTP functions
If 1 and 2 fail, we can still use a trick: With this trick OPN performs as if you created the respective directories using your FTP program. Thus the Linux-User is recognized as correct etc.. Disadvantage: the PHP FTP functions are available only if the respective PHP module is available or compiled accordingly. Check this with phpinfo(). If you use this variation, you will have to adapt the settings form, otherwise OPN doesn’t know which data to use when it logs into the FTP server. The encrypted password is of course saved in the database.

Variation 4: Emulated FTP Functions
If you want to use variation 3 and don’t have the PHP module, you can choose this variation. All that is true for variation 3 applies here, except that PHP does not provide the FTP functions; instead OPN emulates (imitates) them.

(Originally written by xweber at openphpnuke.info /translated by xtreme)