I'll check. I haven't seen anything that i really love for xoops. There is much more for phpnuke, but the actual administration of that seems like a pain. Can't select what pages I want blocks on, no user groups, and no easy way to modify the main menu.

Anyway, I have to disagree that charging people for something 'easy' is ripping them off. That goes against the very nature of 'society' and what it means.
Delivering newspaper is easy, but there is more value in one person bringing it to 50 people and getting paid for it, than 50 people disrupting their lives to go pick it up.

I am a software developer (COBOL, java/jsp and .net) and I find development FUN and EASY but also, I get paid by charging people to do it. This feeds my family and puts a roof over my head!! So certainly I'd pay someone to make me a great theme, since I'm no designer, and there is more value in paying someone that is an 'expert' in design, then me being a jack of all trades making mediocre things.

THANKS for all of your help tho!!!

Have fun guys, and hopefully I'll get XOOPS up and running today!

That's a good explanation. Cool. Also, do you know where there are any high quality themes for purchase.
Something along the lines of these

Go to www.templatemonster.com and there is a tab for phpnuke themes. They seem really cool, with flash headers and all.

Are there any along these lines for xoops, or would anyone be able to adapt them for me, and if so, how much would it cost?

Thanks again.

I was looking at a custom theme. Iam totally new to xoops. But here goes. I noticed in this theme there were a bunch of templates, including news, and others.

So if I install a custom theme, will it work with any new custom modules in install.

Like if I have a theme I buy from someone, and I install a new paypal cart module someone writes, must I create a new template for that theme/module combination?

Or will the new paypal module pick up the look of my site?

I hope I explained this well, thanks!!

Thanks for the info CBLUE But if I put those things
**********************************
<?php
include('mainfile.php');
include('header.php');
$xoopsOption['show_rblock'] = 1;
?>

<?php
include('footer.php');
?>
**********************************
, will it include the blocks on the side, the menus etc? Will it integrate well with my other XOOPS pages?
I was thinking of making the page use all of the normal blocks, etc, but ONLY put my content in the middle.

I guess since I have never installed and played with XOOPS it's hard, since I don't understand the concepts. But there is no manual I can find.

WOW guys thanks. That seems reall cool. I actually am gonna redo a site I did for a customer in the past that stinks. The bad thing was having each customer register for forums and again for the shopping cart. Hopefully this will do away with the need for multi-registrations.

As long as I find a suitable shopping cart script to hook up to this. And learn a little php.

I currently am an amateur jsp and asp.net!!! programmer.

With a long background in IBM procedural mainframe languages (rpg and cobol). So it shouldn't be toooo bad.

Thanks for the killer quick response. That isn't hard at all.

One more question. Are these 'template' things only for xoops? I don't remember seeing when I was demoing the nukes?? But i'm not 100% sure.

I have a question. I want to use XOOPS for a customer site because he wants forums and a couple of other things. I think there is great value in not having customers sign on multiple times for different scripts.

But I have a question. Is there a way for me to have a few free form pages with a menu on the left for them. Or am I locked into the modules here. In other words......

If I want a forum, and news. But I want one page that is html like an 'about us' page. And another page that has info for our auto dealer customers, and another that has dates and times of our auctions. etc. Can I make a few free form pages, and include their links in the menu?????

If not sticking to html would be my option. THANX!!!