Convert Existing PHP Apps into Concrete5 CMS

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I'm extremely new to Concrete5, and I'm only a beginner at PHP. I wrote several PHP applications to select and display data from a MySQL database. I was able to get these apps working in the CMS of our current website, but now our outside web vendor has revamped the whole website into Concrete5. He doesn't have time to get my apps working in Concrete5; he just gave me a few very basic instructions for trying it out.

I added a new page in the correct section on the SiteMap to first test the most simple app, which only involves one PHP file. I added a content block and then added a PHP block. (Oh, we purchased CodeBlocks.) I copied my code - which is a mix of PHP and HTML - into the PHP block, but I can't get it to work. When I click Update, it just hangs up and never does anything.

I've searched this site and Googled extensively for something that would help me, to no avail. Can anyone help or point me in the right direction?

Oh, and now I can't even add another page in the Sitemap to try other stuff - I get the "Unable to load sitemap data" error. I found a post addressing that, but my page has an entry in the Collections table and several in the CollectionVersions table, so that didn't help...

 
jordanlev replied on at Permalink Reply
jordanlev
You probably want to use "single pages" for your custom apps, as they provide a way for your custom code to run without any interference from the CMS:
http://www.concrete5.org/documentation/developers/pages/single-page...

It's very difficult to help with your specific problem without knowing more details or seeing the code, though, so unfortunately I don't know how to tell you to fix what's currently broken (although if you try it in a "single page" it might just work without any modification).
jaredquinn replied on at Permalink Reply
jaredquinn
I guess it all depends on the level of integration your app needs to have with C5.

I would also be inclined to look at what parts of C5 fit what parts of your app the best.

Sometimes a block may be the best place to have something, sometimes a single page.

As jordanlev said, it's really hard to give advice without any knowledge of the app you're talking about.