I was wondering how XOOPS compares to Java portals such as EXO or Jetspeed or Liferay.
What features do you think they have that XOOPS is lacking?
Any major differences?

What should XOOPS do?

Regards,
Amir

i wouldn't know as i use XOOPS and not those other portals..

as for features, maybe you could do the research yourself by going to each respective site and comparing them yourself with the features on xoops..

what should XOOPS do? well XOOPS does what it does!

read the FAQ and the 'All about xoops' info on this site if you want to know what XOOPS does..

My experience is that Java portals are much more complex to set up, and are thus more framework oriented or task specific. The Java based CMS I know best is mmbase, and that is so complex that you have to know exactly what you want and how you want it, to get the site you actually think you want (if that makes sense). They can have many better features then XOOPS or php based scripts, but their only real strong point is that software development is going towards java/ dotnet style services, and the portal function/service can be integrated into back offices much better then any PHP/MySQL app can. But then again, that also makes it much more complex to use and set up, which is where XOOPS is very good.

So IMO you're trying to compare an apple to a bakery. Both have their merits, but are in totally different leagues.

Herko

Herko's comments are on point. Most Java portals are a framework for portlets that interface to other back end systems. Jetspeed is a perfect example of this. Liferay does this too, but allows for some more coding within the portal itself.

The PHP portals are really less portals in this traditional sense, and more of an application framework. For instance, 90% of XOOPS modules use the XOOPS core classes, and keep their data in MySql in XOOPS controlled tables. As you see, you use XOOPS as a framework to create XOOPS assisted applications.

To some people (Big Corps) Portals are a way to bring disperate systems to a single user interface and signon. The Java portals are geared toward that. They often do not provide a core data access functionality. They may provide user authentication and session management, but this information is then passed on to other applications completely seperate from the portal. It is not uncommon for applicaitions in a Java portal to have existed prior to the portal being created and the portal is simply another way of accessing the data. Java is good for this because of it's strength as a web scripting language and as a robust traditional programming language. PHP does not have both options.

Java portal tend to be very complex to set up, and once set up, only a very minimum framwork to be expanded by custom development.

I want complete web apps not integrated legacy apps. Therefore I choose the simpler XOOPS to the Java engines. With that simplicity comes a complete out of the box system, but also limitations to what I can do.

Hope this helps.

A majour difference, you have much more chance to find an ISP wich uses Php than Java !