Building SEO HTML pages

Introduction

The purpose of the fCMSPro backend API is to enable the creation of custom HTML pages that can display content from your database (the same content which is displayed inside your Flash movie). The most common objective when creating these pages is to allow search engines to index your site more easily. By including the phpapi.php file from the fCMSBackend your php code will have access to a query mechanism similar to the one used by the fCMSPro inside Flash. As well as querying, there is an XLST based transformation capability which can be used to transform specific XML based database field values into valid HTML.

When you install the fCMSBackend code, you install both the necessary code to communicate with Flash and the backend API. The layout of the fCMSBackend installation is as follows:

index.php
index.css
swfobject.js
fcms_html.php
fcmsfull.php
fCMSBackend
fCMSBackend > config
fCMSBackend > transform
fCMSBackend > transform > default
fCMSBackend > imgRoot

fCMSBackend > admin
fCMSBackend > includes
fCMSBackend > modules

(The config directory contains the configuration files. The transform directory contains XSLT transformations that generate HTML based on the XML that Flash uses. The imgRoot directory contains the images and files uploaded using the Flash based admin mode. The admin and includes directories hold the code for the fCMSPro.)

As well as the configuration, you can also edit the XSLT transformations. The files on the site root that are needed to generate the HTML-based copy of the database information are index.php, fcms_html.php, index.css and swfobject.js, they are required if you want search engines to index the content.

Default templates

The default index.php file generates the HTML code that will insert the .swf file using javascript functions stored in the swfobject.js file (see SWFObject: Javascript Flash Player detection and embed script ). The Flash file should be named fCMSPro.swf and should be placed inside the site root (the location can be changed by editing the template). In the case that the Flash player is not available or javascript is disabled in the user's browser, the user (or the search engine spider) will see the html version displaying the database's content in place of the Flash version. Please note the following:

When editing the index.php file, you should not remove any of the existing content.
The div tag with id flashdiv will be the container for the swf file or the HTML presentation.
The first php tag will include the HTML content generated by the fCMSPro backend (fcms_html.php). Please see below:
The php function print_fCMS_parameters will pass variables to the swf file which will invoke the documentTrigger or indexTrigger events
If the skipflash parameter is passed in the URL, the HTML content will be displayed, regardless of whether the user has the Flash plugin installed
SWFObject constructor will create the HTML necessary for embeding the Flash content inside the page. Please edit the parameters to suit your needs.

There are 3 types of HTML content generated by the fCMSPro backend:

Home page html template
When the Flash plugin is present, the site visitor will see the Flash version of the site, otherwise an HTML page will be shown which will list all available document types in your database. Each type will be a link to the document type index page.
Document type index template
This page is displayed when the user or agent follows the link from the homepage. In this case, the parameter doctype is passed to the php which contains the document type. This page will include the Flash file and it will pass to it the doctype so that Flash can display the index template. This can happen if the site visitor used a search engine to navigate to the page. In the case that Flash and javascript are disabled the php code will display multiple pages displaying all documents using the content of the document's title field.
Full story template
This page displays a "fullstory" of a specific document. Flash will receive the document id and document type, and the HTML will display all the fields of the specific document.

The fcms_html.php file has some parameters at the beginning which you can change to customize the HTML output. By changing the css and php inside fcms_html.php you can completely change the appearance of the fCMSPro generated html pages.

If you require another presentation of the information in your document database using HTML, you can define it using the PHP backend API. If you only require the Flash site, you can delete the default templates and not use them at all. If you disable javascript in your browser, or add the skipflash parameter to the URL of your site (for example: http://www.example.com/index.php?skipflash=true) you will be able to see the HTML that is generated instead of the Flash movie. This way you can test your site the way that search engines will see it.

XSLT Transformations

The Flash fields "rich_text" and "file" are stored in XML format, in order for them to be displayed in the HTML they must be transformed. The fCMSPro system uses the standard XSLT language. Inside the 'transform' folder, each subfolder represents a specific transformation and it must contain an XSLT file for each Flash type that is stored as XML.

Only the transformation default is normally present and you should never change it. This transformation is used by the default 'index.php' template. You can create your own transformations by creating a subdirectory and inside creating XSLT files for each XML content type. If you define your own transformations, you can change (or create your own) 'fcms_html.php' file and use your own transformations.

fCMSPro PHP API

In order to access the document database from PHP, you must include the '/fCMSBackend/phpapi.php' file. This will create a global object called '$FCMSInterface', which you can then access in order to query the database and use transformations.

Interface Object Methods

getAllDocTypes($filter_special=True)

This function will return a list of all the document types defined in your database. By default, document types that begin with an underscore (_) are not returned. If the parameter is False, all document types with an underscore will also be returned.

transformString ($transfrom_name, $file, $xml)

This function will execute the XSLT transformation on the data passed by the '$xml' parameter. It will use the file named in the '$file' parameter from the '$transform_name' directory of the 'transform' directory. (For general use you shouldn't need to make use of this function).

newQuery ()
executeQuery ($query, $transform_name)

The first function will return the new query object. You can use this object to construct your query. You must then pass it to the second function, with the transformation name (the subdirectory in the 'transform' folder) you want to use for the XML transformation. The return value of the function is an array with the following keys:

"documents": the value is an array of numeric document ids.

"results": the value is an array that maps document ids to the array of field values this array maps field names to the fieldvalue array. The field value array contains the following keys:

"id": the field id.

"transformation_name": the transformation name used.

"raw_values": an array mapping page numbers (by default, there is only page number 0) to raw Flash values.

"values": an array mapping page number to transformed values.

The query object follows the same logic as the query object in flash. You must understand how the Flash query works in order to use these methods:

addFilter ($filter_array)

The filter array must have the following keys defined:

"fields": the string array containing field names used in the filter.

"operator": the operator for the filter.

"neg": should be True if the operator should be inverted.

"values": an array of values used for comparison.

"datatype": the datatype of the filter.

setSortOn ($field, $datatype, $isDescending)

This method will set "sort on" information for the query. You must pass the field name, its datatype and a boolean indicating if you want a descending or an ascending sort.

setLimits ($begin, $count)

Sets the limits for the query.

setFieldList ($fields)

The list of field names that should be returned, or an array containing an asterisk (*) which will cause all document fields to be returned.