What you can build with MADLAB // Publishing

Almost everything a website for a business, a shop or a practice needs can be built with us – often more simply than you’d think. A lot works with an ordinary website without server code; forms, orders, a login or a database need the «Website – MADLAB hosting» plan with the «PHP» add-on. The best thing is to ask your assistant: it sees which plan your website has and tells you what your idea is missing and what it costs.

Works on every plan

• Several pages, images, text – the normal case. You upload images via Uploading files.
• Multilingual – one folder per language (/de/, /fr/), plus a language switcher that leads to the matching page.
• Keeping content up to date – you tell your assistant what’s new and it changes the page. Every change is a version you can bring back (Versions).
• Payments via a payment link – Stripe, Payrexx or TWINT offer links with the checkout on the provider’s side. One button per product, no server code needed.
• A search – for a small website it runs in the browser, without a server.
• Newsletter – through a newsletter provider with its sign-up form.

Needs PHP

With the «PHP» add-on, server code runs on your website and it gets a data area it may write to. In the preview PHP runs even before you book.

• A database – with us that means SQLite: a single file in the data area, with no server of its own. For enquiries, sign-ups and orders on a website it is exactly right. There is no database server like MySQL, and the website can’t reach someone else’s. A cloud database works if it is accessed over a web interface (HTTPS) – but then your data lives with that provider.
• A contact form – the enquiry is stored and sent through your mail provider’s mail server (SMTP). PHP’s mail() function sends nothing with us.
• Your own cart, orders, donations – through your payment provider’s interface, with the orders in SQLite.
• A login, a members area, protected downloads – the files live in the data area and are only delivered after signing in.
• Appointments and reservations – built yourself with SQLite, or with a provider’s embedded booking tool (that works without PHP too).
• Uploads from your visitors – applications, photos, up to 100 MB per file.

Configuration and keys

Most of these features need access details: your payment provider’s key, your mail account’s password. Those never go into the chat. Your assistant builds the code so it reads a config.json file from the data area and shows you a template. You put that file there yourself: in the portal on your website, «Data» tab – once under «Live» with the real values and once under «Preview» with test values. How exactly: PHP and the data area.

What we don’t have

• WordPress and other content management systems. An existing WordPress website can be taken over – as finished pages, without the system behind them.
• A database server, cron jobs, Node.js or Python. Recurring tasks run along with ordinary requests.
• Mailboxes. Your mail stays with your mail provider; you set the records for it on a domain with us in the portal (Managing DNS records).
• A backup of the data area. Your pages are versioned, the data in the data area is not. Download important data regularly in the «Data» tab.
• A form service of our own. It is in preparation. Until then: built yourself with PHP, or through an external service.

Third-party services and data protection

Every service you embed – a booking tool, a map, a video, a newsletter form – learns your visitors’ IP address and belongs in your privacy policy; some need consent. Your assistant tells you before it builds anything in. Where possible, your own solution on our hosting is the one that shares less data.