Xanadu

Web App Framework.

A PHP framework for database-driven business apps, with quick module generation, optional hosting, and Source Code access.

Why Xanadu?

Open-Source

Open-source gives you control in ways closed-source platforms often do not. When a product is proprietary, you can be limited by its pricing, licensing changes, development priorities, hosting requirements, and the features the vendor chooses to provide. With open-source technology, you have far more freedom to adapt, extend, host, and maintain your app on your terms, reducing lock-in and giving your business more long-term flexibility.

Flexibility

A PHP web app can do far more than display pages. It can provide API endpoints, power secure customer portals, run a web store with a shopping cart, and even connect to existing systems such as the FileMaker Data API. That flexibility makes PHP a practical choice for building everything from internal business tools to customer-facing platforms and online services.

Development Ease

Adding a module in Xanadu is straightforward. Start by creating a MySQL table with the fields you need, then run the table schema update so Xanadu can recognize the structure. After that, customize the schema details to control how the module should behave and display, run Module Generate to create the module, and then refine the list view, cards, and business logic to match your app’s needs.

CampSoftware Support

We can help at every stage, whether you need support by email or Zoom, web app hosting, custom development, or someone to build the entire app for you. We can add features to an existing system, assist with specific technical challenges, convert data from sources like Excel, FileMaker, or Xojo, and provide one-on-one coaching so you can move forward with clarity and confidence.

Xanadu Overview

Modules

Home

Home is where users go after login. It's the perfect place to include important information to the user.

Elements:

Navigation Bar for each Module with a website link on the end.
Module Name "Home"
Welcome Home Card with Buttons. The "Contacts Active" and "Contacts Not Active" will go to the Contacts Module and Find Contacts.
Portal of Contacts. Portals are Cards with Related Records.
Portal Cards generally have a "New Record" Button, a "Database Actions" dropdown for Selected Records, a "Zoom Card" Button at the top. For each Record, there is a "Go To" Button, Contact Info, and a Select Checkbox. At the bottom is are "Record Page" Buttons. By default, 50 Records are shown per page.

Contacts

This Contacts web page is a multi‑card CRM-style layout that consolidates detailed information about an individual contact, their business relationship, and related records.

The left sidebar shows a searchable, scrollable list of all contacts with status indicators and role tags, while the main workspace is divided into resizable Portals for product pricing, contact/account details, communications, addresses, projects, sales history, documents, embedded files, links, and contact tags.
Each Portal supports inline editing, plus/minus controls to add or remove rows, and quick “zoom” icons to open related records or lookup dialogs.
The page also embeds external content such as a W‑9 PDF and image files directly in context, allowing you to view and manage forms and assets without leaving the contact screen.
Overall, it provides a dashboard-style view that lets you manage customer data, pricing, sales, and project activity for the selected contact from a single, organized web interface.
With this design, users can easily navigate and manage contact information, while also accessing related records and external content seamlessly.
Almost everything is customizable and easy to add and remove Cards.

Activity Messages

We always want the user to know what is going on with either success or failure. Here we edit Contact fields, including a dropdown and two text fields.

When modifying and then exiting a field, a "Floppy Disk" icon appears to indicate saving the change. After the server responds, the field Label and a "Thumbs Up" icon is appended.
In addition to the Notification, similar info is logged in the Browser Console plus the time it took to run and the server time spent:
There is no "Save" Button! Instead, data is saved per field. If two users edit the same record, the last field value change is stored. During each save, all fields are returned and compared to the current values, if different the field is updated.

Projects

A Project has Portals for Items and their Tasks.

The Project Card stores info about the Project, Owners, Dates, and Items Grand Totals for Estimated and Actual Hours.
Items Portal stores Task Totals for Estimated and Actual Hours.
Documents Portal is to keep Documents handy related to the Project.
Tasks Portal keeps track of Tasks and their estimated and actual hours.
Other Projects Portal shows Projects that are related to the same Contact for the Project.
The Projects PDF Action generates a PDF with the Project details and lists of Items and Tasks.

Sales

Sales are Invoices, Returns, or any other transactions.

The Cards Sale, Contact, Addresses store info about the Sale.
Projects Tasks shows Billable Tasks that potentially could be billed to the Sale.
Sales Items are the Line Items followed by Totals and Payments.
Special Instructions, Notes, and Documents help keep track of the details.
Products Pricing is a Portal of specific pricing for this Contact which overrides the default pricing.
The Sales PDF Action generates a PDF with the Sale details.

Products

Products lists inventory items, pricing, images.

The Cards Product, Detail and Pricing store info about the Product.
Products Pricing is a Portal of specific pricing for Contacts which overrides the default pricing.
Vendor Products is a Portal of Products from the same Vendor.

Vendors

Vendors contains supplier contact details.

The Cards Vendor, Address, and Notes store info about the Vendor.
Products is a Portal of the Vendors Products.
Documents Portal is to keep Documents handy related to the Vendor.

Documents

Documents stores files, PDFs, and attachments related to records across the system.

The Cards Sale, Contact, Addresses, and Notes store info about the Sale.
The Document Card has details about the Document file.
The Bucket Card can store files, images, and other media related to records across the system.
The Cards Related and Related Sales store info about related records.

Calendar

Calendar shows events, appointments, and holidays.

Views for Month, Week, Day, and List.
The Edit Event Modal allows for editing event details.

Calendar

Events shows events, appointments, and holidays.

Event Card shows the Event details..
Calendar Events Portal is to show related Events, currently showing itself. :)

User and Admin Menus

User and Admin Menu

The User Menu is for specific options for the logged in user.

Link Shortener and Links help with create short urls and tracks the number of clicks.
Contacts and Calendar Tags can be created to assign to Contacts and Calendar Events for categorization.
Password Change.
Logout.

The Admin Menu contains Xanadu Settings and much More.

Stats
Settings
Companies
Users
Access Roles
Access Permissions
API Requests: Module for managing API requests and responses.
Schema and Derived Update: Adds and updates Table and Columns the sql schema table attributes.
Nav Update: Update the navigation menu using the sql modules table attributes.
Massage Update: Runs the recMassage function for each Table Based Module to update column calculations.
Xan Labs: Playground for testing and development with example code.
File Browser: Web File Browser for managing files and directories. Great for Power Users to upload, download, and manage files and directories.

Stats

Stats is where you can see a bit into what is going on in the server.

Versions of the OS, PHP
PHP Linux User Name.
RAM Usage.
Disk Usage Totals.
Disk Usage for each folder.
Processes Info
cmdDo Log. cmdDo can run terminal commands when called. Generally used for resetting permissions.

Settings

Settings is where you can customize Xanadu.

Backups: On Server Zipped Backups that includes MySQL and Xanadu Code.
App: App Name, Logos, Email, and Default Company
Companies: Portal of Companies for organizations that have more than one brand.
Locale: Language Code, Country Code, Timezone, Currency Symbol.
Features: Auto Logout Seconds, Enable Two Factor Authentication.
Formats: Formats for Date, Time, and Timestamps.
Sales: Sales Type Names.
Products: Product Attribute Labels
Email: IMAP and SMTP Settings.
Twillo: API for sending Text/SMS Messages.
Stripe: API for Payment processing.
Other APIs: APIs Settings for Bing, Google Maps, Open Weather IP Stack, OpenAI, BlueSky.

Users

Users include info for Logins.

User: Name, Email, Image, and related Contact.
Roles: Portal of Roles where many Roles can be assigned.
Privs: Account Registration info. "Is Admin" and "Is Member" are the older version of Roles.
Comms: Phones and SMS.
Email: SMTP and IMAP settings.
Account: Login Cookie and Password.
2FA: User settings for Two-Factor Authentication. Can either send a Code or a Time Based One Time Password.
Documents: Documents related to the User.

Access Roles

Access Roles defines roles and their Permissions used across the application to control access.

Roles have a Name with assigned Users and assigned Permissions.
Unassigned Permissions show what is available to be assigned.

Code: Contact Record Load

Module Generation

Add Database Tables

Add MySQL Tables for Tickets and Tickets Messages to create a Bug Tracking Ticketing System.

Tickets will have a related list of Ticket Messages.
Record Modification fields begin with "Mod".
Xanadu Keys begin with "UUID". The Primary Key is "UUID{TableName}"

Update Schema

Run Schema Update

Found under the Developer Menu.
Updates the Modules Table from the SQL Tables.
Updates the Schema Table from each SQL Table for each Column.

Edit Schema

Edit the GroupName for each Column (boxed in red).
Format is Card Order, Card Title, Column Order.
On generation, Columns with the same Card Title will be placed on the same Card.

Generate Module

Define the Tables with the Module Name, Table Name, Plural Name, Singular Name, and Defined Font Awesome Icon.
Generate Modules for the Parent Table and Related Table.
Check the Result Log.

// Modules
$tableContacts = new \xan\khan( 'Contacts', 'Contacts', 'Contacts', 'Contact', "FI_CONTACTS" );
$tableTickets = new \xan\khan( 'Tickets', 'Tickets', 'Tickets', 'Ticket', 'FI_TICKETS' );
$tableTicketsMessages = new \xan\khan( 'TicketsMessages', 'TicketsMessages', 'Tickets Messages', 'Ticket Message', 'FI_MESSAGES' );
	
// Generate
$tableTickets->generate( [ $tableContacts ], [ $tableTicketsMessages ] );
$tableTicketsMessages->generate( [ $tableContacts, $tableTickets ], [] );
	
// Result
$khanResultMsg[ '$tableTickets' ] = $tableTickets->result;
$khanResultMsg[ '$tableTicketsMessages' ] = $tableTicketsMessages->result;

Load Module

Below is the generated Tickets Module after populating some fields.
The Ticket List and Ticket Detail come from Tickets Module.
The related Tickets Messages come from the TicketsMessages Module.
TicketsMessages wouldn't normally be included in the Navigation as a related table.

Schema Attributes

Once a SQL Table is created, you can run the Schema Update which will set many of the following:

TableName, DatabaseName, IsDefined, ColumnOrder, GroupName, ColumnName, LabelEN
EleFormatAs, EleType, EleAlign, InputMode, DataType, LengthChars, LengthInteger, LengthDecimal
LabelENTooltip, EleChoicesValues, EleChoicesDisplay, EleOtherLabel, EleClearLabel, EleWidth, EleHeight
IsFindable, IsIndexFullText, IsMod, IsKey, IsKeyPrimary, IsKeyForeign, SelectAs
UpdatedTS, ModTSCreated, ModFlag.

Xanadu Pricing

Free with Hosting

$100 per month hosting for most apps.
Large databases or documents may require additional hosting costs.
Includes MySQL database, backups, a Xanadu subdomain, and server maintenance.
Includes Development and Production Apps so we don't break your live app.
Source Code is not included.

Self‑Host / Buy Source

$900 for first year access for self-hosting.
Additional years, $450/year.
Keep the latest accessible version forever.
Can use for as many apps as you'd like.
Includes 2 hours of Zoom assistance.
Includes Unlimited Email & Discord support.

Development and Support

We can help with every aspect of development.
$150 per hour.

Our Process

Together discuss via Zoom to determine needs.
We provide a Ballpark Estimates for development time.
We develop and test on Development Server.
Together demo changes via Zoom.
We push to Production Server with your approval.

Recent Updates

View Xanadu updates on GitHub.

Xanadu Change Log

Questions & Answers

Have a Question?

Can you add a feature for me?

That depends on what you need! Seriously, just ask and we'll try!

Why don't you use FileMaker?

We did use FileMaker for years! Unfortunately, the licensing made selling apps with FileMaker too expensive. We used FileMaker Runtime, but it was deprecated. We hoped to use FileMaker WebDirect, but FileMaker changed the WebDirect per user price to the same price as FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Go user. FileMaker just priced it self out.

Why don't you use Xojo aka REAL Studio aka REALbasic?

We tried Xojo. While developing Desktop Apps [ Mac, Windows, Linux ] works well, not so much for Web Apps. When developing Xanadu with Web 1.0 would encounter a Xojo bug here and there, the IDE wouldn't crash too much, but over time the quality decreased. Xojo deprecated Web 1.0 with the release of Web 2.0. We were excited for responsive apps and a refresh. Unfortunately, it took Xojo a while, and once released, Web 2.0 sure didn't feel ready. I love Xojo and the pricing model. I'd pay double or even triple, but there are too many bugs in Xojo to deal with. Check out the forums at https://forum.xojo.com and https://ifnotnil.com to read more.