Architecture

High-Level Shape

the site is a classic folder-routed PHP app with a shared shell and file-based storage.

usual pattern:

1. session_start()
2. set $title and $description
3. locate the preferred template
4. load route-local content.html
5. inject dynamic placeholders
6. echo final HTML

Shared Building Blocks

• template.html

default desktop shell with sidebar, footer, placeholders, and global asset includes

• template_mobile.html

alternate shell for mobile-friendly view

• lib/render.php

shared helpers for upward file lookup and mobile template selection

• main.js

shared client behavior layer

• style.css

global styling and component rules

Template Selection

mobile/desktop template choice is centralized in lib/render.php.

mobile mode is enabled when any of these are true:

• host is m.fridg3.org
• cookie mobile_friendly_view is truthy
• logged-in account has mobileFriendlyView: true in data/accounts/accounts.json

if the mobile template is requested but missing, routes fall back to template.html.

Session And Auth Model

• logged-in state lives in $_SESSION['user']
• frontend admin awareness uses a non-HttpOnly is_admin cookie
• backend authorization is still done in PHP, which is correct and non-cursed

common session fields:

• username
• name
• isAdmin
• allowedPages

Persistence Model

there is no database. the app reads and writes JSON, TXT, HTML, and media files under /data.

main stores:

• data/accounts/accounts.json
• data/accounts/login_attempts.json
• data/feed/*.txt
• data/journal/*.txt
• data/journal/drafts/*.txt
• data/guestbook/*.txt
• data/newsletter/*.html
• data/etc/*.json

Important Couplings

• many routes still do literal string replacement on the footer account button to swap login/logout
• main.js assumes certain DOM ids exist across templates
• bookmarks are stored in accounts.json, but some old code paths still reference a legacy /data/users pattern
• page views are updated from shared frontend flow, so nav changes can silently break view counts