Please forgive me for such a silly question, been a while since I been around, lol.

Ok I know XOOPS talked about seperating XOOPS modules from the main CMS download, now my question is how do we know which modules are the official ones and which ones are not?

I know the official news module is herve, or it was but what about other modules like xoopspoll, I think phpp is newbb, but this all seems a little confusing. lol

In XOOPS 2.013, the official modules are the ones packaged in XOOPS release.
In XOOPS 2.2*, there is no official module.

So in the future there is just 2.2 XOOPS and no official modules, this means in the future we may end up with just a CMS and nothing more.

Over the years you see great modules come by developers, they loose interest then you dont hear anything of the module again, except unstable versions which only work on old versions of xoops.

Will this now happen to the news, the polls the forums at some point, because there not official, 3 people might develop there own version, you then use one, they stop and your stuck, but which one to choose.

At least with the official ones you knew the path, you knew they would be update over time.

Maybe this has been explained elsewhere I dont knows.

Are there going to be any certified modules at all?

Compared to your experiences with XOOPS, I am a newbie -- the decision had been made when I got know of XOOPS for the first time: no more official modules but certified modules.

I had no chance to learn what caused the change but guess the major consideration is to let Core Dev Team focus on XOOPS kernel to provide module developers with a robust/trustable framework.

Apart from the expected adavantage, I feel that with the policy of "Official Module -> Certified Module" we lose something: less control or foreseeability for a specific module dev, less collaboration and team spirit, more personal projects and less real projects, more emulation less creativity.
On the other hand, users now have more options although we need do more homework in order to find the proper module to use.

Any thoughts?

Well I think another reason for the separation was due to problems updating. When you had modules included in the XOOPS core packages for updating invariably there were problems with the wrong version of module overwriting another. With no modules included this problem is eliminated.

When I was part of the team before I left, there was a clear path forward which was debated in great depth, There were many suggestions including certified modules which would be assessed by some one of the team then be awarded certification.

There where also suggestions that the core modules would still be developed but packaged seperate to the core of xoops, creating two developments at such.

I never imagined this would mean abandoning the core modules altogether, this creates uncertanty for members.

Does this also mean that because the profile and pm module are now not part of the core, they may also become discontinued if someone chooses not to continue development, then what are you left with?

A. A CMS shell with nothing to go in.

Personally I would like to see the introduction of a module development team, this team could focus on the main modules everyone would benefit from, maybe also commission a new module every 6 months, this way members would get what there asking for, the most common requests could be prioritised. When a say a new module, I don't mean to replace something else, I mean something which can be stable, then released and move onto the next one.

Hope that makes sense.

If we look at the XOOPS community in whole, fantastic we have a fair amount of users, we have a lot of members, but in comparison to other CMS's we have very little modules, very little themes.

There are many other CMS's out there that offer all the modules people want, subscription modules, shop modules, review module, etc, etc, so what really makes XOOPS stand out?

I still have faith in the XOOPS project, but sometimes it a little unclear, and uncertain were the project is heading, maybe I should look over the road maps again, lol

I asked a similar question on dev.xoops.org a while back, and it was pointed out to me that most of the core modules have been superceeded by third party modules that are much better. I think its true (eg. News, CBB, WF-downloads, various Smartfactory modules etc, definite advances there).

However, I share your view on having a long-term development path. This is an important consideration for business users or anyone trying to build up a long-term information base.

I like your idea about commissioning a module every now and then. It would be a great way to fill a few of the longstanding gaps like a shopping cart etc.

Ok, when I first started up the module development team. My whole idea was to take the current modules and bring them up to date. I had two teams working, one on the forum you are using now headed by the fantastic Predator and one by myself.

We where going to make some off the then core modules obsolete and change them with more powerful ones. There was no talk of just dumping all of them and releasing packs.

In my honest opinion, users should not have to go looking for modules to create content for their site, this should be available from the word go and sorry, but you core guys should have taken that issue into account. It’s like buying a car and told to shop for an engine.

Hello Tom,

First, that's nice to see you here after a so long time

To your questions, I will add a new one, what will happen when XOOPS 2.0 will be "dead" and if someone discover a security breach in a such module ?

What was important for me when I choosed XOOPS was those modules, they are what they are but someone was folowing them.

bye,
Hervé

John_N: The goal _is_ to have a wide variety of modules readily available. But packaging them separately from the XOOPS core allows more flexibility.