A while back, I extracted some of the old XOOPS downloader-related classes into a standalone package.

At the time, I wasn't exactly sure what their original use case was. Recently, I revisited the code and finally figured it out - they were used for building and serving downloadable archive files. That led me to create a modern, fully rewritten Composer package based on that idea.

What is it?

imponeer/archive-download-builder is a PHP library for creating and downloading archive files (ZIP and TAR.GZ), with support for multiple file sources via the Flysystem abstraction layer.

It’s a modern replacement for the old XOOPS downloader classes:
- downloader.php
- zipdownloader.php
- tardownloader.php

Key improvements:
- ✅ Rewritten with modern PHP (requires PHP 8.3+)
- ✅ MIT licensed
- ✅ Composer-compatible
- ✅ Cleaner, modular structure
- ✅ Uses Flysystem for flexible file source handling

I hope this can be useful for you too.

Thanks for the warm response!

Honestly, I didn’t think it would even be possible to integrate this into Xoops, especially since it’s missing support for Doctrine and LDAP-related methods.

If anything were to be included, I think the best candidates would be the Smarty v5 - related extensions I’m currently working on. They’re designed to make upgrading Smarty easier and could potentially replace most of the current Xoops Smarty v3 plugins. That said, they probably won’t be ready for at least another month.

Thanks for the response, but the problem I see is:
https://xoops.org/modules/publisher/thumb.php?src=https://xoops.org/uploads/images/img680f07df742b6.jpg&w=500&h=500

From my understanding, there is no option for scaling using the 'contains' method (which means the image should fit within the required dimensions). As a result, images in these blocks sometimes appear very stretched.

Currently this block looks like:




But if you add for each image


I think, everything becomes better:

While writing my previous post, I discovered that if you wrap the message_hidden_data class in the preview, everything displays correctly ;)




I’m not sure if there’s more to it, but if not, it should be an easy fix.

P.S.: this bug happens when pressing first Preview button after the editor (when post has long lines).

idk if this is best practice, but there was a time when I dreamed of splitting some XOOPS functionalities into mini libraries that could be reused with more permissive licenses. One of such cases was this library – Criteria.

If I remember right, this helper was originally spun off sometime around the XOOPS 2.4 era. It was already standalone in v1.0, and the idea was to preserve the XOOPS-style query-building logic in a form that could be used outside the CMS.

Now, with v2.0, it’s been updated to run smoothly on modern PHP (8.3). This isn’t a full rewrite - just a cleanup and upgrade, using some newer language features and best practices. The public API is still the same, so if you’ve used the original, it should feel familiar.

A lot has changed in the XOOPS world since then (and honestly, still not sure why the current version isn’t called 3.0 or 4.0 - it’s clearly evolved a lot), but maybe this little library could be still useful.

Criteria v2.0 on GitHub

MIT licensed, Composer-ready, and designed to work even in non-XOOPS projects that want something XOOPS-like.

P.S.: long time not posting here; I hope everyone here is still fine ;)

Because this version is usable more for testing purposes only, I posting news here... :)

Code-Plus is yet another XOOPS fork, based on 2.0.x series. It differs from others forks, with some unique features, and modes how it works... :)

Code-Plus 1.0 alpha features:
Simple urls
Simple urls feature is included now in system core.
Multi-language
All site content can be in different languages. User can translate language files from admin area.
Coppa registration
New Coppa area deal with content for minor or at an age that you specify. This information will be used to filter content to not show to those under age users. Much of this area is configurable.
Build-in AJAX support
Build-in AJAX support allow developers even easier to create new modules, which use AJAX.
Content administration
Is an new way for working with site's content. It's more centralized than bevor: create, edit, update, delete content categories and content (ex. articles)
Media administration
With media administration You can work with site's media. You can also work there with mimetypes.
Modified templates system
Now every module, or script can modify header part of template from any time bevor output. There are some minor changes in templates too.

There are many ideas and some work done which was not included in first public version of Code-Plus. So, more changes will come with next release of Code-Plus.

Now, when you have read all this, you can:
* see working demo
* visit Code-Plus home page
* download Code-Plus 1.0 alpha version

Big thanx goes to all of you for interesting about Code-Plus... :)