1. Overview
2. Features
3. System Requirements
4. Installation Guide
5. Configuration
6. Directory Structure
7. User Guide
8. Admin Panel Guide
9. Content Management
10. User Management
11. Comments System
12. Media Gallery
13. Backup System
14. Search Functionality
15. Analytics Dashboard
16. Sitemap Generator
17. Settings & Configuration
18. API Documentation
19. Security Features
20. Multilingual Support
21. Troubleshooting
22. Contributing
23. License

A powerful, enterprise-grade Content Management System built with CodeIgniter 4. This CMS provides a complete solution for managing websites, blogs, and online content with a modern admin interface, comprehensive features, and robust security.

• 🚀 Built on CodeIgniter 4 - Fast, secure, and lightweight framework

• 🎨 Modern Admin Interface - Responsive, intuitive, and user-friendly

• 🔐 Role-Based Access Control - Admin, Editor, Author, Subscriber roles

• 📱 Mobile-First Design - Works perfectly on all devices

• 🌐 SEO Optimized - Built-in SEO tools and sitemap generator

• 🔒 Enterprise Security - CSRF, XSS protection, SQL injection prevention

• 📊 Advanced Analytics - Real-time statistics and insights

• 💾 Automated Backups - Database and file backup with cloud storage

• 🔍 Powerful Search - Full-text search with indexing

• 🖼️ Media Gallery - Drag-and-drop image management with Quill.js integration

• 🌎 Multilingual - Built-in support for English and Portuguese (Brazil)

• 📊 Real-time Analytics - Traffic sources, device breakdown, user engagement

• 🔄 Automated Backups - Schedule backups with retention policies

• ☁️ Cloud Storage - FTP, SFTP, S3, Dropbox, Google Drive support

• 📱 Responsive Design - Works on desktop, tablet, and mobile

• 🔍 Advanced Search - Filter by date, category, author, and more

• 🖼️ Image Gallery - Bulk upload, delete, and image information with Quill.js integration

• 📧 Email System - SMTP support with test functionality

• 🔐 Security Features - Login throttling, session management, HTTPS enforcement

• 🌎 Multilingual - Language switcher with session persistence

• 🗺️ Sitemap Generator - Automatic XML sitemaps with image and news support

• mysqli - Database connection

• curl - API calls and remote connections

• json - JSON handling

• mbstring - Multi-byte string support

• intl - Internationalization

• gd - Image processing

• zip - File compression for backups

• xml - XML sitemap generation

• JavaScript enabled

• Cookies enabled

• Minimum screen resolution: 320px (mobile) to 1920px (desktop)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/andrexm/zerd-cms.git

# Navigate to project directory
cd zerd-cms

# Install PHP dependencies via Composer
composer install

# Copy environment file
cp env .env

# Edit .env file with your configuration
nano .env

CREATE DATABASE zerd_cms CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

# Run all database migrations
php spark migrate

# Seed default data (admin user and settings)
php spark db:seed DatabaseSeeder

# Set writable directory permissions
chmod -R 755 writable/
chmod -R 755 public/uploads/

# Create required directories
mkdir -p public/uploads/posts
mkdir -p public/uploads/avatars
mkdir -p public/uploads/gallery
mkdir -p public/uploads/settings
mkdir -p writable/backups
mkdir -p writable/cache
mkdir -p writable/logs
mkdir -p writable/session

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/zerd_cms/public
    
    <Directory /var/www/zerd-cms/public>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
    
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/zerd-cms/public;
    
    index index.php;
    
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }
    
    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.0-fpm.sock;
    }
    
    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

# Generate a random 32-character key
openssl rand -base64 32

# Add to .env file
encryption.key = hex2bin:your-generated-key

# Clear cache
php spark cache:clear

# Test installation
php spark serve

• Frontend: http://localhost:8080

• Admin Panel: http://localhost:8080/admin

• Default Admin Login:

  • Email: [email protected]

  • Password: admin123

#--------------------------------------------------------------------
# ENVIRONMENT
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
CI_ENVIRONMENT = development
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
# APP
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
app.baseURL = 'http://localhost:8080/'
app.forceGlobalSecureRequests = false
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
# DATABASE
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
database.default.hostname = localhost
database.default.database = zerd_cms
database.default.username = root
database.default.password = 
database.default.DBDriver = MySQLi
database.default.DBPrefix =
database.default.port = 3306
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
# ENCRYPTION
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
encryption.key = hex2bin:your-32-character-hex-key
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
# EMAIL
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
email.protocol = smtp
email.SMTPHost = smtp.gmail.com
email.SMTPUser = [email protected]
email.SMTPPass = your-app-password
email.SMTPPort = 587
email.SMTPCrypto = tls
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
# BACKUP
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
backup.path = writable/backups/
backup.retention_days = 30
backup.auto_cleanup = true
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
# GALLERY
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
gallery.max_file_size = 5242880  # 5MB
gallery.allowed_types = jpg,jpeg,png,gif,webp
gallery.thumbnail_size = 300x300

app/Config/Database.php

public $default = [
    'DSN'      => '',
    'hostname' => 'localhost',
    'username' => 'root',
    'password' => '',
    'database' => 'zerd_cms',
    'DBDriver' => 'MySQLi',
    'DBPrefix' => '',
    'pConnect' => false,
    'DBDebug'  => (ENVIRONMENT !== 'production'),
    'charset'  => 'utf8',
    'DBCollat' => 'utf8_general_ci',
    'swapPre'  => '',
    'encrypt'  => false,
    'compress' => false,
    'strictOn' => false,
    'failover' => [],
    'port'     => 3306,
];

app/Config/Email.php

public $fromEmail = '[email protected]';
public $fromName = 'Your CMS';
public $protocol = 'smtp';
public $SMTPHost = 'smtp.gmail.com';
public $SMTPUser = '[email protected]';
public $SMTPPass = 'your-password';
public $SMTPPort = 587;
public $SMTPCrypto = 'tls';
public $mailType = 'html';
public $charset = 'utf-8';
public $newline = "\r\n";

zerd_cms/
├── app/
│   ├── Config/              # Configuration files
│   │   ├── Database.php     # Database configuration
│   │   ├── Routes.php       # Route definitions
│   │   ├── Filters.php      # Filter configuration
│   │   └── Email.php        # Email settings
│   ├── Controllers/          # Controllers
│   │   ├── Admin/           # Admin controllers
│   │   │   ├── Dashboard.php
│   │   │   ├── Posts.php
│   │   │   ├── Categories.php
│   │   │   ├── Comments.php
│   │   │   ├── Users.php
│   │   │   ├── Gallery.php
│   │   │   ├── Backup.php
│   │   │   ├── BackupSchedule.php
│   │   │   ├── BackupRemote.php
│   │   │   ├── Search.php
│   │   │   ├── Analytics.php
│   │   │   ├── Sitemap.php
│   │   │   └── Settings.php
│   │   ├── Api/             # API controllers
│   │   ├── Auth.php          # Authentication
│   │   ├── Language.php      # Language switcher
│   │   └── Sitemap.php       # Public sitemap
│   ├── Models/               # Models
│   │   ├── UserModel.php
│   │   ├── PostModel.php
│   │   ├── CategoryModel.php
│   │   ├── CommentModel.php
│   │   ├── VisitModel.php
│   │   ├── BackupModel.php
│   │   └── SettingModel.php
│   ├── Views/                # Views
│   │   ├── admin/           # Admin views
│   │   │   ├── layouts/
│   │   │   ├── dashboard/
│   │   │   ├── posts/
│   │   │   ├── categories/
│   │   │   ├── comments/
│   │   │   ├── users/
│   │   │   ├── gallery/
│   │   │   ├── backup/
│   │   │   ├── analytics/
│   │   │   ├── sitemap/
│   │   │   └── settings/
│   │   ├── auth/            # Authentication views
│   │   ├── frontend/        # Frontend views
│   │   ├── sitemap/         # Sitemap XML views
│   │   └── emails/          # Email templates
│   ├── Entities/             # Entity classes
│   ├── Filters/              # Filters
│   │   ├── AuthFilter.php
│   │   ├── RoleFilter.php
│   │   ├── LanguageFilter.php
│   │   └── NoToolbarFilter.php
│   ├── Helpers/              # Helper functions
│   │   ├── language_helper.php
│   │   ├── settings_helper.php
│   │   ├── image_helper.php
│   │   └── visits_helper.php
│   ├── Services/             # Services
│   │   └── BackupService.php
│   └── Database/
│       ├── Migrations/       # Database migrations
│       └── Seeds/            # Seeders
├── public/
│   ├── assets/
│   │   ├── css/             # CSS files
│   │   ├── js/              # JavaScript files
│   │   └── images/          # Images
│   └── uploads/              # Uploaded files
│       ├── posts/           # Post images
│       ├── avatars/         # User avatars
│       ├── gallery/         # Gallery images
│       └── settings/        # Site settings images
├── writable/
│   ├── cache/                # Cache files
│   ├── logs/                 # Log files
│   ├── backups/              # Backup files
│   └── sessions/             # Session files
├── vendor/                   # Composer dependencies
├── .env                      # Environment configuration
├── .htaccess                 # Apache configuration
├── spark                     # CLI tool
└── README.md                 # This file

• Homepage: View latest published posts with excerpts

• Categories: Browse posts by category with filtering

• Search: Full-text search with auto-complete and advanced filters

• Single Post: Read full articles with author info, comments, and related posts

• Contact Form: Send messages to site administrators

The admin dashboard provides real-time statistics and quick access to all features:

• Statistics Cards: Total posts, views, users, comments, visits

• Quick Actions: Create post, manage gallery, view comments

• Recent Activity: Live feed of posts, comments, and user registrations

• System Info: PHP version, database status, cache status, disk usage

• Visit Stats: Today's visits, unique visitors, currently online

• URL: /admin

• Default Credentials:

  • Email: [email protected]

  • Password: admin123

Dashboard
├── Content
│   ├── Posts
│   │   ├── All Posts
│   │   └── Create New
│   ├── Categories
│   └── Comments
├── Media
│   └── Gallery
├── Users
│   ├── All Users
│   └── Create New
├── Analytics
├── System
│   ├── Backup Manager
│   │   ├── Schedules
│   │   └── Remote Storage
│   ├── Search Index
│   └── Sitemap
├── Settings
└── Language Switcher

1. Navigate to Admin → Posts → Create New

2. Fill in the following fields:

• Rich Text Formatting - Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough

• Headings - H1 to H6

• Lists - Ordered and unordered

• Blockquotes - For citations

• Code Blocks - For code snippets

• Links - Insert hyperlinks

• Images - Insert images from gallery

• Video - Embed videos

• Formulas - Mathematical expressions

• Clean Formatting - Remove all formatting

1. Click the gallery button in the Quill toolbar

2. Browse images by tabs (All, Gallery, Posts)

3. Select one or multiple images

4. Choose image size and alignment

5. Click "Insert Selected" - images appear at cursor position

• Top Level: Independent categories

• Subcategories: Nested under parent categories

• Unlimited nesting: Create complex category structures

• Approve: Make comment visible on site

• Spam: Mark as spam (moves to spam folder)

• Delete: Remove permanently

• Bulk Actions: Process multiple comments at once

• View Details: See full comment with thread

1. Go to Admin → Users → Create New

2. Fill in required fields:

   • Username (unique)

   • Email (unique)

   • Password (min 6 characters)

   • Role (Admin, Editor, Author, Subscriber)

   • Status (Active/Inactive)

3. Optional fields:

   • First Name

   • Last Name

   • Bio

   • Avatar (image upload)

• Total posts created

• Published posts count

• Total comments

• Total views across all posts

• Registration date

• Last login time

• ✅ Multiple Directories - Organize images in different folders

• ✅ Drag & Drop Upload - Easy file upload with progress bar

• ✅ Bulk Operations - Select and delete multiple images

• ✅ Image Preview - Thumbnail grid with hover effects

• ✅ Image Information - Size, dimensions, type, modification date

• ✅ Copy Functions - Copy image URL or HTML code

• ✅ File Validation - Type and size checking

• ✅ Quill.js Integration - Insert images directly into posts

• ✅ Featured Image Selection - Select from gallery for post featured images

uploads/
├── posts/       # Post featured images
├── avatars/     # User profile pictures
├── gallery/     # General gallery images
└── settings/    # Site logo and favicon

• Upload: Drag and drop or click to select

• Select: Click images to select (multiple selection)

• Insert: Insert selected images into Quill editor

• Delete: Single or bulk delete with confirmation

• ✅ Manual Backups - Create on-demand backups

• ✅ Scheduled Backups - Automated backups (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly)

• ✅ Retention Policy - Automatically delete old backups

• ✅ Compression - gzip compression for smaller files

• ✅ Download - Download backups to local machine

• ✅ Restore - Restore from any backup

• ✅ Cloud Storage - Upload to remote locations

• ✅ Dedicated Visits Table - Separate table for detailed analytics

• ✅ Real-time Stats - Currently online, visits today, last hour

• ✅ Device Detection - Desktop, mobile, tablet, bot

• ✅ Browser Tracking - Most popular browsers

• ✅ OS Tracking - Operating systems

• ✅ Unique Visitors - Count by IP address

• ✅ Bounce Rate - Single page visits

• ✅ Hourly Breakdown - Visits by hour

• ✅ Daily Trends - Visits over time

• ✅ Top Pages - Most visited posts

• ✅ Referrer Tracking - Where visitors come from

• ✅ Multiple Sitemaps - Posts, categories, pages, authors, images, news

• ✅ Automatic Pagination - Split large sitemaps (500 URLs per file)

• ✅ Priority Calculation - Based on content freshness

• ✅ Change Frequency - Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly

• ✅ Last Modified - Automatic lastmod timestamps

• ✅ Image Sitemap - Google Image search support

• ✅ News Sitemap - Google News support

• ✅ Ping Search Engines - Notify Google, Bing

• ✅ Admin Management - Generate, view, delete sitemaps

# Via admin panel
Admin → Sitemap → Generate

# Via CLI
php spark sitemap:generate

• ✅ Built-in Languages - English (en) and Portuguese (pt_BR)

• ✅ Language Switcher - Dropdown in admin panel

• ✅ Session Persistence - Language preference stored in session

• ✅ Translation Files - Separate files for Common, Auth, Admin

• ✅ Helper Function - _l('file.key') for translations

• ✅ Fallback Mechanism - Falls back to English if translation missing

• ✅ Extensible - Easy to add more languages

1. Create new directory: app/Language/es/

2. Copy English files and translate them

3. Add to get_languages() helper function:

function get_languages()
{
    return [
        'en' => 'English',
        'pt_BR' => 'Português (Brasil)',
        'es' => 'Español',
    ];
}

<!-- Using _l() helper -->
<h1><?= _l('Admin.dashboard') ?></h1>
<p><?= _l('Common.welcome_back') ?>, <?= session()->get('user_name') ?>!</p>

<!-- With parameters -->
<p><?= _l('Common.showing') ?> {start} {to} {of} {total} {entries}</p>

• Password Hashing: Bcrypt algorithm

• Session Management: Database sessions

• Remember Me: Secure token-based

• Login Throttling: Prevent brute force

• Role-Based Access: Admin, Editor, Author, Subscriber

• Route Protection: Auth filters

• API Authentication: Token-based (optional)

• CSRF Protection: All forms

• XSS Prevention: Output escaping

• SQL Injection: Prepared statements

• Input Validation: Strict validation rules

• Upload Validation: Type, size checks

• Path Traversal: Prevention

• File Permissions: Proper chmod

Error: Unable to connect to the database
Solution:

# Check database credentials in .env
# Verify MySQL is running
sudo systemctl status mysql

# Test connection
php spark db:connect

Error: 404 - File Not Found
Solution:

# Check .htaccess file exists
# Verify mod_rewrite is enabled
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2

# Check base URL in .env
app.baseURL = 'http://yourdomain.com/'

Error: File upload failed
Solution:

# Check directory permissions
chmod -R 755 public/uploads/

# Check PHP upload limits in php.ini
upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M

Error: XML declaration allowed only at the start of the document
Solution:

# Disable debug toolbar for XML routes
# Or run BOM checker
php spark sitemap:clean

Error: Language selector doesn't change language
Solution:

# Check session is working
# Verify language files exist in correct directory
# Clear cache
rm -rf writable/cache/*

# Fork repository
git clone https://github.com/andrexm/zerd-cms.git
cd zerd_cms

# Install dependencies
composer install

# Create feature branch
git checkout -b feature/your-feature

• PHP: Follow PSR-12 coding style

• JavaScript: Use ES6+ features

• CSS: Use BEM naming convention

• Documentation: PHPDoc for all methods

1. Update documentation

2. Add tests if applicable

3. Ensure all tests pass

4. Request review

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.

• CodeIgniter 4 - PHP Framework

• Bootstrap 5 - CSS Framework

• Font Awesome - Icons

• Quill.js - Rich Text Editor

• jQuery - JavaScript Library

• Chart.js - Charts

• CodeIgniter Team

• Open Source Community

Thank you for using our CodeIgniter 4 CMS! 🚀