e-smith server and the php open_basedir restriction

I use the sme server (previously called e-smith) as a server (file, http etc...) and gateway to my private network (btw : it's working great for years now (since version 5) and really easy to install and reinstall).

I'm working on a file browser with extjs & php and I had to face the open_basedir restriction.

In order to get rid off this restriction here is what I did :

First I use the template(-custom) system to alter the way the httpd.conf is generated :

mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf/
cp /etc/e-smith/templates/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf/95AddType00PHP2ibays /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf/
#edit the file
vi /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf/95AddType00PHP2ibays

and replace

 $OUT .= "    php_admin_value open_basedir $basedir\n";

by

if($basedir eq 'NONE')
{
  $OUT .= "     #desactivated with 'NONE' value :  php_admin_value open_basedir $basedir\n";
}
else
{
  $OUT .= "    php_admin_value open_basedir $basedir\n";
}

If i want to disable the open_basedir restriction on an ibay, I just have to set 'NONE' value to the PHPBaseDir variable of the ibay as follow (for example on the 'Primary' ibay):

#change the value
db accounts setprop Primary PHPBaseDir NONE
#signal a modification to the e-smith templating system
signal-event ibay-modify Primary

The signal-event will actually update the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file

#restart httd server
service httpd-e-smith restart

Another tips :

To allow .htaccess file to be parsed by the apache, you need to allow the web server configuration to be overrided. It's disabled by default :

db accounts setprop Primary AllowOverride All
signal-event ibay-modify Primary
service httpd-e-smith restart

you can now us .htaccess file in your web directory with instruction like

#display php error
php_value display_errors 1
#allow the httpd server to follow file links
Options +FollowSymLinks