I've posted this in another section but thought it may fit better here:

I have a client with the typical sit layout...Menus, sub menus going to pages.

I'd like to replace his site with an XOOPS based site. I've tried using the Article Managment Systems Module (AMS) to create articles that basically equal the pages of the current site. In the Block menu set the Navigate By Topic to viewable (which basically equate to the menu tabs of the old site).

My question is does anyone know of a better approach to this with regards to modules. I'm only on my fourth (4th) day of working with XOOPS. It's been a quick setup and easy to use so far.

Thanks for any advice.

That seems to be a fairly common approach. One such way I see in use is to also make use of the Multimenu module to create those custom menus that won't quite display the way you want them to in another module for instance.

Sorry for the run-on sentence, I'm at work and on limited time.

Not a total solution, but something to keep in mind for pointing to those odd pages that don't quite fit in.

I agree with Stew in that your current approach is the most common. I've had to migrate HTML sites several times and there are 3 basic approaches I've had to take...

1. If the site uses a lot of images with text in the actual images...

You better be good at typing because you're going to be doing a lot of transcribing.

2. If the site uses a lot of crappy table-based HTML...

Your best friends will become Firefox, Dreamweaver and the Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V keyboard shortcuts. This is the most common and can turn out great results, but it does take a lot of time. My prefered module for this is Smartsection, but modules like News and AMS work well too.

3. If the site makes extensive use of CSS and table-less design...

You've hit the jackpot! All you have to do is past the HTML contents between the body tags in a module like Smartsections and add the classes and ids into your style.css file and make the needed adjustments. You can import several hundred HTML pages this way in less than a day.

I wish I could say such migrations could be handled in an easy way, but they can't, regardless of what CMS you use.

I wish you luck and the patience of Job in your project.

HTH.

James

Thanks all for the replies. My client's site is very text heavy with a few images. It's a union that needs to spread a lot of info with the ability to allow others to post content. A nice looking graphic banner and some nice css color changes to the page should do the job.

Thanks for the pointers!

Tom