OK--false alarm... or something... It's working now! I was worried because both of my other scripts on that server were working fine. A cgi script in another directory on that same domain and a php script running in a sub-domain. But Xoops, which had been working flawlessly, just wouldn't hit a lick. Then, after several hours, I tried it again and--voila!--it's working!

I am still interested in any insights people may have on this. Is it my server, my crappy dial-up connection (cable to be installed next week!), or sun-spots?

Also, I am still interested in the effect of register_globals being off. I have the following modules installed: News, Forum, Links, FAQ, POLLS, Contact Us.

Also, the item I mentioned in the earlier post that I had turned on in the general settings was this:

"Update module template .html files from themes/your theme/templates directory?"

FYI...

I had a problem with a blank screen when I first installed Xoops. Then I installed it successfully on a different server, but got the blank screen again when playing around with themes. Later, I reistalled it and this time didn't mess with things until I had a pretty good idea what they were for. And it's been working great! But today--out of no where--there's the blank screen again. Well, not exactly--this time it says 500 server error. The only life I can see is if I enter an admin url, a banner flashes up telling me I'm not allowed there.

Yesteday, I was changing the XOOPS poll to one of my own and then commenting on my own answers to the poll. It was working great. The only thing I can think of that I did that might have affected it was changing something in the general (?) settings that said "(x)yes" to updating something, but that it should not be turned on after the site went live. Any ideas?

I noticed today in my searches that someone said register_globals needed to be on. Mine are not on. What features does that effect? What about the security risks associated with it? Is it possible to use it with them off? Thanks in advance...

OK--in 2.0.6 the style sheet to edit for the font size is xoops.css in the root directory. For the column overlap, it's themes/default/style.css . For a summary of what worked for me, see this post.

This is a neat trick--and not a bad idea--but I would prefer, if possible, to accomodate the older browers. Perhaps a compromise would be to redirect them to the information about upgrading their browser, and then offer them a link back into your site to view it with the crappy browser if they really want to. Anyway, for the latest on accomodating IE5.5, see this post.XOOPS Official Site - Forum

96% worked pretty well for me (90% made it way too narrow--especially in Netscape 7.1). I also set the left column to " vertical-align: left" and that seemed to straight up the 2nd level menu items. And since the whole page was still noticibly narrower, I added " border-right: 1px solid #cccccc" to the right column (this shows up in Netscape, but not in IE 5.5). [BTW, I did this in themes/default/style.css, xoops2.0.6. Also, per jayjay's suggestion, I had previously added this code to the xoops.css in the root directory:

td
{
font-size: 11px;
}

That lowered the font-size in IE 5.5 (view text medium) to about the same size as in Netscape 7.1 (view text 100%).
]

Just a little update, here--the commercial product that I "reverted to" did not work out, so once again I went on a search for a suitable script. Finally, I realised that XOOPS is, indeed, the right solution, so I reinstalled it and it is working fine. Since my first attempt, I've had a number of successes and failures in my use of other scripts for various purposes and that made XOOPS much more intelligible to me this time around. In short, I'm back! ;)

I was happy to find this suggestion, but it doesn't seem to work for me (I'm using XOOPS 2.0.6 and IE 5.5). The font is very large (broswer set to view text "medium") and the columns overlap. The columns and the fonts display fine in Netscape 7.1. In another thread, someone suggested setting headers bars and center columns to 98%, so I am going to try that as a way of dealing with the overlapping columns. Let me know if there is any special positioning for that font-size code. Thanks!

Well, there were some problems--partly of my own making while trying to "fix it"--so I reinstalled. This time it gave me a red-flag on the database tables--something to the effect that they were already there and that was a problem--so I made "xoops2" the prefix and the install went fine. But still the blank screen and this time I'm pretty sure the path to the root directory was correct. So, I gave up on that server and installed it on another server--this time without a hitch! And I am very impressed with Xoops, but as I begin working with it, I realized that it is too sophisticated form my immediate needs, so I am reverting back to a commercial product that I've already been working with (before I discovered Xoops). However, I'm going to keep working with XOOPS and see if I can get it installed on the first server. If I can, I will use it for another project that isn't so time sensitive. I'll will return! ;) Thanks for your reply...

Here's the current situation:

"Fatal error: Failed opening required 'XOOPS_ROOT_PATH/class/template.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /homepages/23/d91492808/htdocs/header.php on line 62"

Here's the history:

1) Installed without a hitch (after I copied the files from the html directory into the root directory).

2) Blank page

3) double checked permissions & mySQL settings

4) edited include/common.php to allow for error reporting

5) edited path to domain in mainfile.php to reflect the path that showed up at my SSH command prompt (slightly different)

6) double checked path at server control panel and edited it again (slightly different still).

7) Retried index.php in my browser and received the fatal error, above.

The closest thing to this that I find on the forum is a "bug report" discussed at:

https://xoops.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=9067&forum=2#forumpost35776

FYI, another PHP script that uses the same database is running fine on this server--even after moving it into a lower level directory to make room for XOOPS at the top.

Is it possible to edit the header.php to include the path it's asking for? How do you find line 62--what constitutes a line? Any suggestions would be appreciated.