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DataForce CMS

Legacy PHP admin panel / CMS engine, written 2004–2016 by Olexander Bunke. Preserved here as a historical pet-project and as a reusable admin for a few of my own sites. Not production-ready by modern standards — see the security notice below.

What it is

A table-driven admin panel for MySQL. You describe each entity as a PHP class with a list of Field objects (type, label, relations, validation), and the CMS auto-generates:

  • catalog / list view with tree of rubrics
  • add / edit form with image and file upload
  • sort, search, filter, bulk delete
  • multi-language fields, tags, dynamic per-domain texts
  • admin users, groups and access menu
  • action log

Field types (.readme has the full list): numeric, string, rich text, hidden, checkbox, tree dropdown, static dropdown, file, date, color, subquery, etc.

Requirements

  • PHP ≥ 5.6 (designed for 5.6–7.x; not tested on 8.x)
  • MySQL / MariaDB
  • Apache with mod_rewrite (uses .htaccess)

Install as a vendor package (recommended)

This package is not published on Packagist — it lives at https://github.com/bunke/dataforce-cms and is consumed as a VCS repo. One-time setup per host site:

composer config repositories.dataforce vcs https://github.com/bunke/dataforce-cms
composer require bunke/dataforce-cms:dev-main
vendor/bin/dataforce-install

Equivalent composer.json fragment if you prefer editing directly:

{
    "repositories": [
        { "type": "vcs", "url": "https://github.com/bunke/dataforce-cms" }
    ],
    "require": {
        "bunke/dataforce-cms": "dev-main"
    }
}

Then composer install + vendor/bin/dataforce-install.

The installer scaffolds four files in the host site:

file purpose
config/dataforce.php paths + table names (no secrets — getenv() reads creds)
public/admin/index.php 3-line entry point
public/admin/.htaccess rewrite all *.php → index.php
cms-models/AdminExample.php commented skeleton of a project-specific model

and copies static assets (css/, js/, img/, fonts/, plugins/) into public/admin/. The PHP core stays in vendor/bunke/dataforce-cms/src/ and is never edited locally.

Installer options:

--public=DIR              web root (default: public)
--config=DIR              config dir (default: config)
--models=DIR              project-specific models (default: cms-models)
--files=DIR               uploads dir (default: <public>/files)
--mount=URL               URL prefix (default: /admin)
--project=NAME            project name shown in UI
--force                   overwrite existing files
--skip-assets             don't copy css/js/img
--skip-example-model      don't scaffold cms-models/AdminExample.php

After install:

  1. Edit config/dataforce.php — fill DB credentials.
  2. On first run open /admin/login.php?crt=1 to create base tables.
  3. Default login: admin / admin — change immediately.

Updates: composer update bunke/dataforce-cms + re-run vendor/bin/dataforce-install --skip-assets (or with --force to refresh generated files). Local config is left untouched.

Migrating an old DataForce-style admin to this package

If you have an old PHP site with the pre-2016 flavour of this CMS (loose admin/ directory, PHP-4-style classes, mysql_* calls), the path to the modern composer layout is mechanical. This section is the recipe refined on the popov migration — follow it top-to-bottom.

0. Take stock

ls admin/                    # old CMS root
ls admin/models/             # your admin_* classes
cat admin/config.php         # DB creds, $TABLE_* names

Figure out what's project-specific (every admin_* class except admin_admins*) vs what's CMS infrastructure (admins, admin groups, menu, menu assoc, log).

1. Backup

# DB dump
mysqldump -h HOST -u USER -p DBNAME > db-backup-$(date +%F).sql
# move the old admin out of the way, don't delete it yet
mv admin admin.legacy

2. Install the package

composer init -n --name=you/your-site
composer config repositories.dataforce vcs https://github.com/bunke/dataforce-cms
composer require bunke/dataforce-cms:dev-main

# For a non-Symfony site where admin lives at /admin/ at project root:
vendor/bin/dataforce-install --public=. --files=. --mount=admin --project=YourSite

# For a Symfony-style site with public/ as web root:
vendor/bin/dataforce-install --project=YourSite

3. Adapt old models to the new API

File naming and class declaration

// Old (PHP 4-ish, no namespace, no base class)
<?
class admin_docs
{
    var $fld;
    ...
}

// New
<?php
class admin_docs extends AdminTable
{
    public $fld;
    ...
}

Field constructor signature

// Old — 8 positional arguments
new Field("rub_id", "Rubric", 9, 0, 0, 'docs_rubs', -1, 'name_1');

// New — 4 arguments, last is an options array
new Field('rub_id', 'Rubric', C_LIST, [
    'showInList'       => 0,
    'editInList'       => 0,
    'valsFromTable'    => 'docs_rubs',
    'valsFromCategory' => -1,
    'valsEchoField'    => 'name_1',
]);

Field-type integer constants are still accepted, but the named C_TEXTLINE / C_TEXT / C_NOGEN / C_CHECKBOX / C_LIST / C_FILE … constants read better.

Class-as-constructor (PHP 4 style)

// Old — method named after class, fatal in PHP 8+
class BunTempl {
    function BunTempl($src) { ... }
}

// New
class BunTempl {
    function __construct($src) { ... }
}

Deprecated mysql_* calls inside your hooks

// Old
mysql_query("UPDATE docs SET ...");

// New — use the CMS mysqli wrapper that's in scope
mQuery("UPDATE docs SET ...");

Drop the new cms-models/AdminFoos.php files into the host site's cms-models/ directory (or wherever paths.extra_models points in config/dataforce.php). Delete cms-models/AdminAdmins.php — the CMS ships its own and will refuse to load both.

4. Migrate the admin DB schema

Old DataForce used different column names in the CMS-core tables. Write a single SQL migration that runs once, before the new code lands:

ALTER TABLE `admins_menu`
    CHANGE `name_1`  `name`          VARCHAR(250) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
    CHANGE `crtdate` `creation_time` BIGINT(20)   NOT NULL DEFAULT 0;

ALTER TABLE `admins_groups`
    CHANGE `name_1`  `name`          VARCHAR(250) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
    CHANGE `crtdate` `creation_time` BIGINT(20)   NOT NULL DEFAULT 0;

ALTER TABLE `admins`
    CHANGE `name_1` `name`           VARCHAR(250) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
    CHANGE `under`  `group_id`       INT(11)      NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
    CHANGE `crtdate` `creation_time` BIGINT(20)   NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
    ADD COLUMN `email`        VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' AFTER `passwd`,
    ADD COLUMN `passwd_rec`   VARCHAR(64)  NOT NULL DEFAULT '' AFTER `email`,
    ADD COLUMN `deny_tables`  VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' AFTER `group_id`,
    ADD COLUMN `deny_scripts` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' AFTER `deny_tables`;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `admins_menu_assoc` (
    `menu_id`  INT(11) NOT NULL,
    `group_id` INT(11) NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY (`menu_id`, `group_id`),
    KEY `group_id` (`group_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

-- admins_log uses table_name/rec_id/creation_time in the new schema
ALTER TABLE `admins_log`
    CHANGE `table`   `table_name`    VARCHAR(50)  NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
    CHANGE `recID`   `rec_id`        INT(11)      NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
    CHANGE `crtdate` `creation_time` BIGINT(20)   NOT NULL DEFAULT 0;

Set admins.email for existing users or password recovery will have nowhere to send to.

5. If the legacy frontend still includes files from admin/

Old sites often include("admin/config.php") / admin/connect.php / admin/lib/*.php from root-level index.php. The new admin/ is a minimal composer entry, so those includes break.

Two options:

a. Keep a compatibility layer under admin/ — copy the needed files (config.php, connect.php, lib/ifuncs.php, lib/buntempl.php) from admin.legacy/ back into admin/. Rewrite connect.php to use mysqli_* and re-expose the removed mysql_* functions as thin wrappers so the legacy frontend still works on PHP 7/8. Rename PHP-4-style constructors to __construct.

b. Modernise the frontend — replace admin/config.php includes with a dedicated frontend/bootstrap.php that reads from .env and opens its own PDO connection. Rewrite frontend SQL to use PDO directly.

Option (a) is the smaller diff; (b) is cleaner but touches every frontend file. The popov migration used (a).

6. Rebuild the admin menu with sensible icons

The legacy admins_menu rows are worth rebuilding after the schema rename. Glyphicon names work out of the box; pick from https://getbootstrap.com/docs/3.3/components/#glyphicons.

TRUNCATE `admins_menu`;
TRUNCATE `admins_menu_assoc`;

INSERT INTO `admins_menu` (`id`, `icon`, `name`, `url`, `under`, `sort`, `creation_time`) VALUES
    (1, 'glyphicon glyphicon-text-size', 'Pages',    'catalog.php?tabler=docs_rubs&tablei=docs&srci=items.php&under=-1', -1, 100, UNIX_TIMESTAMP()),
    (2, 'glyphicon glyphicon-cog',       'Settings', '#', -1, 10, UNIX_TIMESTAMP()),
    (10,'glyphicon glyphicon-tower',     'Admins',   'catalog.php?tabler=admins_groups&tablei=admins',  3, 60, UNIX_TIMESTAMP()),
    (11,'glyphicon glyphicon-flash',     'SQL',      'query.php', 3, 40, UNIX_TIMESTAMP()),
    (12,'glyphicon glyphicon-log-out',   'Exit',     'exit.php',  3, 10, UNIX_TIMESTAMP());

INSERT INTO `admins_menu_assoc` (`menu_id`, `group_id`)
SELECT `id`, 1 FROM `admins_menu`;

7. Deploy + verify

  1. Upload vendor/, cms-models/, config/, admin/, .env, composer.json, composer.lock via SFTP (or git pull + composer install if the host is under git).
  2. Turn on 'error_display' => true in config/dataforce.php once for the first load — any remaining PHP-8 strictness warnings will surface immediately.
  3. Open /admin/login.php, log in, click through catalog.php for each migrated model. Trigger CKEditor image upload, save a record, delete a record — the three paths that touched filesystem.
  4. When clean, flip error_display back to false.
  5. Remove admin.legacy/ from the server.

Gotchas seen in the field

  • White screen after migration → $admin_xxx class didn't load. cms-models/ wasn't uploaded, or paths.extra_models points at the wrong directory.
  • Failed opening required vendor/autoload.php in public/admin/index.php → installer was run against an older version without the normalizePath fix. composer update + re-run the installer with --force.
  • Cannot redeclare mb_ucfirst() → Symfony's polyfill collides with the CMS's helper. Upgrade the CMS — it's guarded with function_exists() since commit eaac5b9.
  • Undefined array key blizzards on PHP 8 → mostly harmless and already silenced in the controllers in main. If a new one shows up, wrap the faulting expression with ?? '' and send a PR.

Standalone install (legacy layout)

If you prefer the original "drop into /admin/" layout:

cp config.sample.php config.php
# edit config.php — set DB_HOST / DB_NAME / DB_USER / DB_PASSWORD

Point a vhost at the parent directory so /admin/ resolves to this folder, then open /admin/login.php?crt=1 to create the base tables.

Security notice — read before deploying

This project is a legacy codebase that was first written long before today's PHP security practices. Several entry-point hardenings have landed in main (request-variable filtering, LFI-safe routing, class whitelist on dynamic instantiation, scoped password-recovery tokens, CKEditor upload MIME checks, etc.), but parts of the core inevitably reflect their era.

Don't expose /admin/ to the open internet without at least:

  • HTTPS (browsers will refuse the login form over plain HTTP anyway)
  • An IP allow-list, HTTP Basic auth, or a VPN gate in front of it
  • A strong admin password — change the default immediately after install
  • Regular MySQL + uploads backups

If you're running the admin strictly for trusted operators behind one of the above gates, you're in the intended deployment envelope.

Code style

A .php-cs-fixer.php config lives at the repo root with a conservative ruleset (whitespace, indentation, short arrays, single quotes — no structural rewrites). To format models/, inc/, controllers/, ajax/, src/:

curl -sL https://github.com/PHP-CS-Fixer/PHP-CS-Fixer/releases/latest/download/php-cs-fixer.phar -o php-cs-fixer.phar
php php-cs-fixer.phar fix --config=.php-cs-fixer.php

lib/ (PHPExcel) and plugins/ (CKEditor etc.) are excluded — third-party.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later. See LICENSE. Copyright © 2004 Olexander Bunke and co-authors.

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