CineBase - PHP Movie and TV Discovery Platform

🎬 CineBase — Movie & TV Show Discovery Platform

Full PHP Application with Content Management, Monetization & Security Suite

🚀 Overview

CineBase is a complete, self-hosted movies-and-TV-shows discovery website built in plain PHP and MySQL — no framework, no build step, and no Composer dependencies. It runs on ordinary shared hosting (developed and tested on Namecheap shared hosting) as easily as on a VPS. The site pulls live data from TMDB and enriches it with ratings from OMDb (IMDb score, Rotten Tomatoes, Metascore), caching everything in its own database for maximum speed and minimal API overhead. A background sync process keeps Trending, Popular, Top Rated, and Upcoming lists fresh automatically. On top of the public-facing site sits a full Admin Panel — no phpMyAdmin or file editing required for day-to-day operation. Every piece of content, API key, and visual detail (logo, menus, footer, item counts) is editable directly from the browser.

Features

Demo : https://cinebase.nbiliboss.space/login.php Admin : Demo / Demo@123

🌐 Public Site Features

🔍 Browsing & Discovery

• 🏠 Homepage: Featured hero banner, Trending Now, Popular TV Shows, Top Rated chart, Coming Soon, and a manually curated Editor's Picks row
• 🏷️ Quick Filters: Genre quick-filters on the homepage
• 📄 Dedicated Browse Pages: Movies, TV Shows, Top Rated, and Upcoming (all paginated)
• 🎛️ Advanced Live Filters: Filter by Year, Minimum Rating, and Sort By (Most Popular / Highest Rated / Newest)
• 🔎 Live Search: Instant dropdown searching the local catalog first, backed by a full search results page that falls back to live TMDB queries
• ⚙️ Custom Layout Counts: Admin-configurable item counts for every homepage row and browse page

📑 Detail Pages

• 🎬 Comprehensive Metadata: Full movie/TV detail pages with backdrop, poster, overview, genres, runtime/seasons, and release status
• ⭐️ Multi-Source Ratings: TMDB score, IMDb rating, Rotten Tomatoes %, and Metascore side-by-side
• ▶️ Trailers: Embedded YouTube video player
• 🎭 Top Cast & Filmographies: Cast member profiles (person.php) displaying biographies, birthplaces, and verified movie/TV credits (automatically filtering out talk-show appearances, awards cameos, and uncredited archive footage)
• 💡 Smart Recommendations: "You Might Also Like" section
• 📲 Social Sharing: Direct integration for X (Twitter), Facebook, WhatsApp, and Copy Link
• 🔍 Automated SEO: Open Graph tags and meta descriptions generated directly from each title's metadata

👤 Accounts & Personalization

• 🔐 Authentication: Email/password registration and login with built-in spam protection
• 🔖 Personal Watchlist: Quick add/remove functionality from any detail page or homepage hero
• 🌐 Public Shareable Watchlist: Opt-in toggle generating a public, read-only link (profile.php?id=...)
• 🔑 Account Recovery: Password reset flow via emailed token (valid for 1 hour, single-use)
• ✉️ Newsletter Module: Popup form with admin-configurable display delays and frequency caps

📄 Content Pages

• ✉️ Contact Form: Includes a self-hosted math CAPTCHA (no third-party keys required)
• 📝 Custom CMS Pages: Create/edit pages (About, Privacy Policy, Terms of Service) via rich-text editor
• 💰 Monetization Placements: Fully optional ad zones across homepage rails, browse, and detail pages

✨ UX Details

• 🌙 Dark/Gold Theme: Fully responsive layout with mobile navigation and live search
• ⬆️ Navigation: Scroll-triggered back-to-top button
• 🛠️ Maintenance Mode: Customizable maintenance screen bypassable by logged-in admins

⚡ Admin Panel Features

All operations live behind a single, unified admin login (/admin/).

IconSectionFunctionality📊DashboardLive statistics, most-watchlisted titles, sync history, and one-click manual sync/enrichment tools.🎬TitlesSearch, filter, paginate, manually add by TMDB ID, edit metadata, and perform bulk deletion or resyncing.⭐FeaturedHand-curate an independent "Editor's Picks" row with manual reordering controls.📝PagesFull CMS with rich-text editor (headings, formatting, lists, images) and per-page SEO controls.👥UsersUser management suite: view registered accounts, manage admin permissions, or remove profiles.📬MessagesDedicated inbox for contact form submissions with read/unread tracking and direct email reply options.📧NewsletterView and export subscriber lists to CSV; adjust popup delay and re-trigger conditions.📢AdsZone-based ad management (Homepage, Browse, Detail) supporting embed codes (e.g., AdSense) or custom banners with rotation.🎨AppearanceBranding controls: upload/scale logo, adjust header menus, configure 4 footer widgets, and manage item display counts.⚙️SettingsIn-browser configuration for TMDB/OMDb/Free-Movie-DB API keys, sync secrets, and maintenance mode toggles.🔒SecurityConfigure and enforce two-factor authentication (2FA) for admin accounts.🔄Sync EngineAutomated or on-demand background synchronizer pulling catalog lists based on custom item limits.

🔒 Built-In Security

• 🔑 Password Hashing: Native password_hash() (bcrypt) standard.
• 🛡️️ CSRF Protection: Secure token verification on state-changing requests.
• 💉 SQL Injection Prevention: 100% prepared statements (PDO) across all database interactions.
• 🧹 XSS Prevention: Comprehensive output escaping across all dynamic views.
• 🤖 Anti-Spam Controls:
  • 🍯 Honeypot Trap: Invisible fields detecting automated bot submissions.
  • ⏱️ Timing Trap: Threshold checks rejecting inhumanly fast form completions.
  • 🧮 Self-Hosted Math CAPTCHA: Zero third-party tracking or external API dependencies.
• 🛑 Brute-Force Lockout: Throttles account access after 5 failed login attempts within 15 minutes.
• 📱 Native Admin 2FA: Native RFC 6238 TOTP support (compatible with Google Authenticator, Authy, etc.).
• 🎟️ Secure Token Handling: SHA-256 hashed password reset tokens with single-use expiration windows.
• 📁 Upload Safeguards: MIME/content validation on images paired with script-execution restriction rules in upload directories.
• 🔐 Session Isolation: Independent session checks securing admin paths from public user states.

Requirements

💻 System Requirements

• 🐘 PHP 8.0+ (with curl and pdo_mysql extensions enabled)
• 🗄️ MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.0+
• 🌐 Web Server: Apache (with .htaccess support), Nginx, LiteSpeed, or PHP built-in CLI server
• 🔑 API Keys:
  • Free TMDB API Key (
  • Get Key)
  • Free OMDb API Key (
  • Get Key)
• 📡 Outbound HTTPS: Access enabled on hosting server to reach TMDB/OMDb endpoints
• 📦 Zero Build Dependencies: No Composer, Node.js, or build pipelines required

Instructions

🛠️ Step-by-Step Installation

1. 🔑 Obtain API Keys Register at TMDB and OMDb to obtain your free API keys.
2. 📤 Upload Files Upload the repository folder to your web root (e.g., public_html/) via FTP or cPanel File Manager.
3. 🗄️ Provision Database Create a MySQL/MariaDB database and assign a user with full privileges.
4. 📥 Import Schema Execute and import config/schema.sql via phpMyAdmin to construct the database tables.
5. ⚙️ Configure Application Update config/config.php with database credentials and your SITE_URL. (API keys can be defined here or later inside the Admin Settings).
6. 👤 Initialize Admin Account Navigate to /admin/create-admin.php?key=YOUR_SYNC_SECRET using the secret defined in config.php.
7. 🔄 Trigger Initial Sync Access the Admin Panel dashboard and click Sync Now to populate initial titles from TMDB.
8. ⏰ Configure Cron (Optional) Set up a server cron job hitting the sync endpoint periodically to maintain automated list updates.
9. 🎨 Personalize Site Upload logos, customize navigation menus, format footer columns, create CMS pages, and set ad parameters.
10. 🚀 Go Live Deployment complete! Enable 2FA under admin security settings for additional system hardening.