Well, I own two sites that are powered by Xoops. One of my sites is a progressive political magazine, and currently, we're searching for a better article manager. We've even been hacking IPBoard portal (included with the IPBoard module from Koudanshi) to work as a minimal front page article block for Xoops.

I found that the native article module was quite obselete by todays standards and went seeking xoops.org for a better mod. I ask you to post your experiences with the article modules built to replace the internal XOOPS article manager too please, so we can all form a very informative topic about this. So far, my search for a good mod hasn't ended.

Here are the mods that will be reviewed - (Please note, I am being straightforward and honest about how I feel about these mods, don't get offended if I don't like an option and you do.)

ARMS - This mod currently serves the articles on my site. The only problem with ARMS is that it is the opposite of user-friendly. I'd like to let go of this mod once I find a better mod. It doesn't support linking comments to a forum thread (ipboard, newbb) or posting with XMLRPC either. Another con to this module is that it doesn't support printing either. The articles are presented in a clunky, non-appealing way. The only good thing with this addon is the ability to crosspost. Too bad further development on this mod has been canceled too. No recent updates.
Location : Xoops News

Soapbox - It looks awesome! I haven't installed it on any of my sites because it's unfinished. The creator has released a stable version, 1.4, but it doesn't have many features and I've seen numerous threads on xoops.org complaining of bugs. I like the way Soapbox presents articles, and how it supports printing. Another con with this module is that the development on it is very slow, and the creator promised an update to it's release candidate 3 months ago and it's still not here. No recent updates.
Location : Xoops News

WF-Sections - I have the latest WF-Section on my site and I hate it! First, the allarticles.php problem eliminates the need to maintain it (/sarcasm). It's very buggy. Second, it's not administrator friendly. I have to go through lots of configuration options just to make a section, and the documentation is no help. It does support printing, and it does have a so called feature that allows you to close comments and direct the comments to a forum, of which I haven't tried yet. A good thing this would be if this actually supported ipBoard though! Most mainstream sites have ditched newbb for IPboard or PHPBBboard. Another complaint, the template features are exhausting. I don't want to spend a night or two configuring the template! Although in an earlier version WF-Section actually supported XMLRPC, it does not now. You can't even find the XMLRPC hack for WF-section anywhere on the internet anymore. I think there is also a search result bug with this mod that lists the module name, but not the description of the article in the search result. Trust me, I've looked. Last, the development on this mod is lackluster and it hasn't been updated for months. No recent updates.
Location : WF-Projects
Review Update : There is a fix for the allarticles.php problem, however I can't find a link to it anywhere. Once I find it, this will be updated. Some elements will be removed because of false tales.

XF-Section - This was a development fork in WF-Section. XF-Section is based on old WF-Section code and supposedly has some new features. It has many bugs though, and who knows if it supports XOOPS 2.0.7. No XML-RPC support either. It doesn't have an official site, but I believe development has been halted on this project too. No recent update.
Location : Xoops Downloads

Articles - A simple mod of the built in Articles module. This doesn't have any new features, just some additions that make it standalone to the existing article mod and it has a vague description.
Location : Xoops News

As you see, none of these modules actually break the mould.

Me and a friend are working on a way to trim the IPBoard IP Dynamic Lite portal and use it as a front page module (php include?) and article block for xoops. In other words, it's going to show the latest article from the respected forum and display it fully with a link to the thread in the forum. This will allow the discussion to be more accessible in the forum and ultimately allow nice debates and etc. The articles from the respected author will be displayed as threads in the forum category (The category name is the authors name.) This idea is only available to those who have the IPBoard mod. Sadly, there will be no XML-RPC support for this unless there is an Invision hack that allows it. In a brief description, this will make XOOPS look like Newgrounds, because the articles are based in the forums.

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Just goes to show you that you have not been keeping up to date at the wf-project website, if you had been, you would have seen for a start the reason why the allarticle.php does not work and there is a fix for it.

It shows how people’s perception changes over modules, some you win and some you don't, well I guess we don't on this time. But I would suggest again, before you write something else regarding the use and development on wf-sections, check your facts first.

The development of this module is A: far from being lack luster and B: this module is not only being worked on and we are fixing many bugs, but we will shortly start working on WF-Sections V3.

Regarding the newbb link, first, which other article management module does this or the many other features that it has? If again you had been keeping up with the development at our website you would have known we were going to be updating this for other forum modules in all our modules.

XMLRPC, maybe you would like to use the one that is already there, wfsections/backend.php no?

If you believe that there is problems with the templates then I would rather you told us about this so we can improve them in the future, we are and always have been open to suggestions.

I would like to mention that we are aware of many of the WF-Section bugs and quirks and have been trying to fix them since we have taken over development and we are close to a public beta.

WF-Sections is a very complex module compared to others of the same type and it has a learning curve with many hidden features that are not documented yet (we are working on documentation right now) but I believe that once you actually spend time on this module you WILL see the benefits in the long run.

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sounds like been down the same path
would suggest have a look at the wordpress XOOPS module

many features, cloneable , multi cats
and so on
hacked it fairly easy to use smarty, so can use comments etc etc

its not ideal solution, however its the best one I have come across that fits my needs

I also looked at the Wordpress mod and me and my friend ruled it out. It's integrated but, "not integrated", and what I mean is that the posts on the Wordpress mod aren't linked directly to the authors profile. Am I wrong or is there a way to do this?

To the WF-Project person.
I apologize for being shortsighted in describing your module. I've only been scoping the XOOPS forum for experiences for a while. I will make corrections to my argument. However I've been scoping your forum and site and can't find the fix anywhere. I've combed your wf-section and it seems it isn't easily accessible. Where is the link to the fix?

What you mean in your post,is that XMLRPC for 2.0.7 is included with your mod already?

I tried connecting to it with w. bloggar and it doesn't interface.


Frankly, I've jumped from one CMS to another and to another, and once I found XOOPS and it's large plugin community, I decided to switch everything to XOOPS and settle in.