Introduction

Welcome to the ccHost version 5 Documentation. Here you will find a general overview of ccHost, a FAQ, and detailed descriptions of the various settings available to the administrator.

ccHost is Creative Commons' open source (GPL licensed) media content management system project that powers ccMixter and is the winner of the Linux Journal LinuxWorldExpo Product Excellence Award for Best Open Source Solution. Read more about ccHost here.

FAQ/Cookbook

How do I change the banner (logo)?

Log in as an administrator and go to the "Manage Site" section. If running multiple sites make sure you select the site you want to edit from the dropdown menu on top. Click on the "Banner Logo" link, click on the "Browse" button and select your preferred image. Hit Submit and enjoy!

How do I restrict file types users can upload?

Log in as an administrator and navigate to "Global Settings." Each filetype which is desired to be blocked should be set to "(D)isabled." The "(S)ignature" and "(V)erify" options allow uploads with either a simple check of signature or full file verification using getID3, respectively.

How do I restrict licenses?

Log in as an administrator and go to the "Manage Site" section. If running multiple sites make sure you select the site you want to edit from the dropdown menu on top. Click on the "License" link. On that page you can select which supported licenses the users are able to assign to their work. When you are satisfied click on "Submit."

For information on the Creative Commons Licenses see: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

How do I add administrators?

Log in as an administrator and go to the "Manage Site" section. If running multiple sites make sure you select the site you want to edit from the dropdown menu on top. Click on the "Settings" link. On that page you can add more registered usernames to the list of Admins. Simply separate them by a comma and space, eg: admin, fourstones, rejon, greg

How do I edit the navigation tabs at the top of the page?

Log in as an administrator and go to the "Manage Site" section. If running multiple sites make sure you select the site you want to edit from the dropdown menu on top. Click on the "Navigator Tab Sets" link. Click on the "[Edit tabs]" link for the associated tab set you want to edit.

To create a new tab click on "Add Tab." Give it a name (internal only), Display Name (what is displayed), Help Hint ("tooltip" when hovering over with mouse pointer), define its action, and set access level.

On that page you are also able to remove unwanted tabs and edit what all of the current tabs' functions are.

How do I manage page and topic content in ccHost?

For the complete howto, see Content Manager Howto.

How do I repair a broken configruation (A.K.A. HELP!!!!)

If you get into 'trouble' with your system you might be able to salvage your site by browsing to either:

• http://your_server/admin/edit
• http://your_server?ccm=/media/admin/edit
• http://your_server/cchost_lib/cc-config-repair.php

If you are not logged in as an administrator when trying this you will have to:

• Open the cchost_lib/cc-config-repair.php file in a text editor
• Remove the two forward slashes '//' before the word 'return' in the line at the top of the file
• Save this file to disk
• From your browser, go to 'http://your_server/cchost_lib/cc-config-repair.php'. This should bring up a configuration editor
• Click on the word 'media' to open the configuration settings and see if you can spot the error
• After you have fixed (or decided you can't fix) the problem make sure to the put the '//' back into the cchost_lib/cc-config-repair.php file otherwise you will leave a large gaping security hole in your site

How to Configure the Query Browser

ccHost 5.0 includes admin configurable query brower. You can see examples of the browser in action at http://ccmixter.org/browse and http://fourstones.net/browse

This browser is a query builder (see http://your_install_root/query for documentation on ccHost Query API). The browser can configured with option sets (optset) that determine several visual features.

In order to create an optset:

1. Click on 'Global Settings' ( admin/site/global )

2. Click on 'Query Browser' ( admin/browse )

3. Here you can edit the default optset and create different optsets for the browser

   Name - The 'name' is important because it will be used in the browse URL's 
          'optset' parameter. If no optset parameter is in the URL then the 
          optset called 'default' is assumed

   Template - Select the template that will be used to show results 

   Style    - Select the style sheet

   Def. limit - Enter the initial amount to display in the results area

   Playlist but. - Check this if you want to have the 'Save to playlist' button 
                   (this only applies to sites with playlists enabled).

   Req. tags - These tags will be added to every query made, the user 
               can NOT edit these.

   Types - Click on the "Edit types" to bring up a popup that allows you edit what 
           the user will see in the 'Types' select box and what tags they map to.

   Filter on: User - Check this to include the 'User' look up field

   Filter on: License - Check this to include the 'License' look up field

Click on 'Add Option Set' to create new, custom option sets.

4. Once you have saved your optsets you can then see the results by specifying them in the 'browse' URL. Examples

To use the 'default' optset simply browse to: http://your_install_root/browse

To use a different optset browse to: http://your_install_root/browse?optset=your_optset_name

5. You can specify 'start-up' values based on the Query API

   http://your_install_root/browse?tags=hip_hop&limit=15

   http://your_install_root/browse?user=teru

The user can then change these values once in the browser.

This can be very useful for menu items and navigation tabs.

Customizing the Query Browser (Developers)

To make your own custom styles for the entire query browser:

     a: Copy ccskins/shared/css/qbrowser_narrow.css to
        your_cchost_files/skins/css/my_browser_styles.css

     b: Edit the 'desc' line at the top to something meaningful to you

     c: Edit the import urls to point to ccskins versions of
        those files

     d: Browse to admin/browse and select your stylesheet
        in the "Style" 

To make your custom results templates:

     a: Copy ccskins/shared/formats/simple_qbrowser.tpl to
        your_cchost_files/skins/formats/my_browser_results.tpl

     b: Edit the 'desc' line at the top to something meaningful
        to you

     c: The current dataview for that template is 'playlist_line'
        which has limited information per record. If you like 
        a more full record of information change the dataview 
        line to 'default'

     d: Browse to admin/browse and select your template in the
        "template" section

Administrative Settings

There are two Administrative Settings sections: Manage Site and Global Settings.

To view the Manage Site documentation see Manage Site

To view the Global Settings documentation see Global Settings

Understanding ccHost URLs

Understanding how URLs work in ccHost is a very important concept that you should understand before doing anything else.

URL Parts

ccHost URLs are composed of four main parts:

1. Root URL of installation

• This is the URL address of where index.php lives. For example: http://example.com, or http://example.com/cchost

2. Virtual Root

• Don't worry if you don't know what a 'ccHost virtual root' is, we'll get to it here but for now assume it's the word media.

3. Command

• This part of the URL maps to an internal command in ccHost. This can be anything from a request for a submit form, a feed, a record listing, etc. Examples are people which shows a listing of the latest registered users who have uploaded or files which lists the latest uploads.

4. Parameters

• Many if not most commands accept and even require parameters. For example, adding a specific user's name to the people command will display the user's main page, e.g. people/rejon

You should refer to the ccHost Command Reference for a listing of all available commands.

If you have enabled 'pretty URLs'(more info) in your installation then all the elements are strung together into one URL:

http://example.com/media/people/rejon

If not, then everything starting from the virtual root is prepended the following way:

http://example.com?ccm=/media/people/rejon