We'd like to start over with XOOPS and our requirements are growing by the minute. I'm posting this in this section because our version of XOOPS is really old and it will be like starting over for us.

We have a site with lots of "subsections" and our architecture looks something like this:

Main page (obviously)
General Info1
General Info2
[...]
General info 10 (yes we have 10 general info sections)

Lab1
Lab 2
[...]
Lab 59 (yes we have 59 labs)

Research group 1 -20
(Yes, those are different than the labs)

Each unit has separate content and needs a separate (local) menu structure

We want the overall site to look the same (live on the same site with the same theme)

Each module (hear unit) will have it's own menu structure (specific blocks shown under the module).

I get the concept of having a separate content module for each section and assigning groups rights to that module.

So which content module can we duplicate into that many "units?" Is there a "sections" module that will give us that flexibility?

Will having an Apache rewrite rule work to display that module?
site.org/lab1 <==> site.org/modules/lab1

Please let me know if you have better recommendation on how to organize a large site into that type of structure.

Thanks!

hi, what about a smartsection module by smartfactory.ca. it's an articles/content module with categories, permissions and stuff. it also has url rewrite features, so your content may look like http://www.yoursite.com/lab1/1-experimental-lab.html where 1 is the id of the article, experimental lab is the title of the article.

ps and it's really easy to clone if im not mistaken they have some kind of how-to for that.

example (may not work cos im currently working on upgrading to 2.4)

I think a module as News can also be cofigured like this. You need of course also a lot of user groups. In News you assign the categories to these user groups. The categories appear as submenunus under News. Only the dedicated user group can see this categorie (and its enclosed articles). You can also designate the blocks to display the latest or most popular articles from one category.

deka has right - for your needs smartsections module will be the best solution

Thanks all!

For the news and smartsection modules (both of which I've thought about), the ability to show a block under a specific lab's category does not exist. Or am I missing something? My initial thought is the menu for their lab.

That's why my initial post included the ability to duplicate /clone.

Is smartsection still the way to go and essentially cloning it 100 times?

As an example of a different block that will be shown, there may be a picture of the lab members or a list of the latest publications produced by that lab. Those would be important to show on a block when that lab is being viewed. What do you suggest as the content container for those types of pages and is smartsection still the appropriate module to use?

As I understand the blocks system; they can only be shown under a certain module; not necessarily to be shown under a section within a module. right?

Thanks for the ideas!

Chad