1
cre8d
Is XOOPS for me?
  • 2004/6/23 23:24

  • cre8d

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 29

  • Since: 2004/6/13


I've been trying out all sorts of CMS and trying to find a good solution for the community site I want to create. If anyone could help me out with how XOOPs could handle these features, that would be wonderful :)

* Users must register to add any comments to the site
* Categorised blog for the front page with comments. Archives by week/month/year. (I don't really get if "News" in your documentation = "Blog"). Ability to post to the future.
* Language filter (censoring bad words)
* Strong forum (how good is XOOPs one compared with Invasion?) with moderators
* FAQ
* Integrated Gallery
* Integrated Polls
* Not too many files to edit to get the design looking how I want it to.
* Ability to greatly simplify the features offered (lots of community sites are overwhelming and complicated for new people)
* Not too hard to be able to add my own PHP code into the site templates

Um, I think that's all off the top of my head. I've tried so many CMS it's crazy Any help would be totally appreciated :)

2
tjnemez
Re: Is XOOPS for me?
  • 2004/6/24 0:09

  • tjnemez

  • Home away from home

  • Posts: 1594

  • Since: 2003/9/21



3
Anonymous
Re: Is XOOPS for me?
  • 2004/6/24 0:20

  • Anonymous

  • Posts: 0

  • Since:


Which ones have you tried thus far? I am actually researching the other CMS myself. and my findings are interesting...


eq

4
cre8d
Re: Is XOOPS for me?
  • 2004/6/24 0:34

  • cre8d

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 29

  • Since: 2004/6/13


tjnemez I've read that one thanks and have gone through those 4 steps -

1. I have installed XOOPS and had a play. Wasn't put off at first glance, but it was a bit tricky figuring out where to go to make changes.

2. Made a list of things I need on my website.

3. Read quite a lot of posts on this website and others about XOOPs.

4. Quote:
Post a concrete question with your needs into their forum asking them whether their cms does fullfill you needs and for suggestions which add-ons would do the trick. Be as concrete as possible - the better the answers you get.
^^ that's this topic :)

5
cre8d
Re: Is XOOPS for me?
  • 2004/6/24 0:39

  • cre8d

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 29

  • Since: 2004/6/13


eq_image, I've tried:

pMachine Pro, Expression Engine, Mambo, Drupal, postnuke, plone, typo3 amongst others.

Some brief reflections: pMachine Pro is great at a lot of things but has poor forum capabilities. Expression Engine currently lacks modules. Mambo is more suited to CMS than community-driven sites. Drupal has no newsletter/email notification capabilities. Postnuke has so many features that it would take forever removing the stuff I don't want on the site. Plone looks nice but doesn't have a forum or blog. Typo3 more suited to CMS than community sites.

I'm also looking into adapting Invision Board (because it's such a nice clean and powerful forum) - has a gallery module and a thin portal front end...

6
Anonymous
Re: Is XOOPS for me?
  • 2004/6/24 0:52

  • Anonymous

  • Posts: 0

  • Since:


Post Nuke I am currently reading up on. One upside to post nuke, it has Noah Classifieds integrated. I need badly a Job Board system on my site.....If Xoops, had a Good Job board integration and also a module for apartment rental/homes for sale module..I would have no complaints. w

IMO what youi are looking for can be handle very easily with XOOPS though. I have been with XOOPS for a month now. I have learned EXTREMELY alot since. Still earning day by day also.

If you need help with something, If I can help. I will

eq

7
cre8d
Re: Is XOOPS for me?
  • 2004/6/24 0:57

  • cre8d

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 29

  • Since: 2004/6/13


Thank you :)

8
brash
Re: Is XOOPS for me?
  • 2004/6/24 1:06

  • brash

  • Friend of XOOPS

  • Posts: 2206

  • Since: 2003/4/10


Hi cre8d,

Man, I don't envy your position! I can remember going through the whole "which CMS should I use" phase about 18 months ago, and it was hard. One conclusion I came to was that no single CMS furfilled my needs, so it was a matter of breaking down my needs into a priority order and I made my selection that way. I have now invested SO much of my time in getting my XOOPS site to do what I want that it would take a very compelling reason for me to look else where. I'm no XOOPS expert, but I'll have a shot at answering your questions;

Quote:

* Users must register to add any comments to the site

This can certainly be done very easily using the group permissions function, and also by just disabling anonymous comments in your modules. All this is done via admin menu's.

Quote:

* Categorised blog for the front page with comments. Archives by week/month/year. (I don't really get if "News" in your documentation = "Blog"). Ability to post to the future.

Never got into a specific BLOG module myself, I just use the News module for this. It has archives by month/year, but not week as far as I am aware. News 1.2 is just out so it may, but I'm not sure. You can set articles to be published at a certain date and time (down to the minute) with the news module as well.

Quote:

* Language filter (censoring bad words)

Yes, there sure is. The filter is totally configurable which is done from the admin control panel.

Quote:

* Strong forum (how good is XOOPs one compared with Invasion?) with moderators

This was actually one of my sticking points with XOOPS originally. The forum module included with XOOPS (NewBB) while perfectly functional, is very basic, and looks somewhat lacking when compared to Invision or phpBB. There are ports of the phpBB and Invision boards for Xoops, but this is not officially supported by the XOOPS team. The great news is though that Predator has been working like crazy on beefing up NewBB for Xoops, and once it is released in the core it will be a truly great forum module. I personally woudn't advise using the XOOPS ports of the Invision or phpBB forum modules as it wil only complicate your upgrade path. I did for a while but moved back to NewBB.

Quote:

* FAQ

Yes, there are modules about specifically designed around providing FAQ functionality.

Quote:

* Integrated Gallery

Yes, again you have the choice of several here. I use XcGallery which is based on the Coppermine 1.10 core.

Quote:

* Integrated Polls

Yes, be sure to do a search for the polls hack. Adds a good deal of functionality for your polls (I don't think this functionality has been included in the core yet, but 2.0.7 has just come out).

Quote:

* Not too many files to edit to get the design looking how I want it to.

Should be good here too. Unless of course you consider 1 file too many . You should just have to edit the theme.html file of your selected theme to get your site looking pretty.

Quote:

* Ability to greatly simplify the features offered (lots of community sites are overwhelming and complicated for new people)

You can make your site as simple or as complicated as you like. The choice is upto the webmaster.

Quote:

* Not too hard to be able to add my own PHP code into the site templates

Nope, you just have to clone the default template from the template management system in XOOPS and you can start editing right there and then from within Xoops.



Hope these this was of some use

9
jmass
Re: Is XOOPS for me?
  • 2004/6/24 1:49

  • jmass

  • Friend of XOOPS

  • Posts: 524

  • Since: 2003/12/18


Ah the CMS question. Everyone has asked it. So many CMSes, so little done right.

That is what I love about Xoops. It is done right. I may not agree with the decisions about what features to include, but the code is quality. Everything is done with the right amount of abstraction. (Except the DB abstraction - a very important and frustrating except)

I think that XOOPS has real potential to be a premier CMS. I spent many many hours evaluating CMSes, including the Java offerings. So far XOOPS is the best. Not perfect, but the best out there.

JMass

10
Mithrandir
Re: Is XOOPS for me?

It is a very tough question depending greatly on your needs and understanding capabilities (for some the concept of modules and blocks is just too much, others may find XOOPS too simple )

I was a trip around e-xoops before XOOPS 2.0 was released and I went with that. Since then I have not looked back (except for a comparison of Mambo, Drupal, XOOPS and Xaraya for a university project)

Since I know XOOPS so well, what I need it to do and it cannot do, I know how to change. Knowing your needs, finding a CMS, which is as close as possible to those needs and (just as importantly) learning how to make it do, what you'll need it to do in the future is really most of what makes a happy CMS user.

The "bad" thing about XOOPS is that there are a lot of possibilities in modifying small bits of the core or modules but it takes programming to do so. Some other CMS's focus very much on taking all those things out of the programming and into the configuration - e.g. Xaraya and Drupal, which are very very dynamic and modular CMS's but also very difficult to setup for the first time. But once setup I am sure the possibilities are endless.
Xoops has a somewhat smaller flexibility in that area, but is (in my opinion) easier to modify code-wise.

Good luck and if you decide for XOOPS, don't be afraid to ask questions (as long as you give as much detail as you can to describing the problem and what you have already tried, which did not solve it)

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