Ok people, a few common observations here from someone new to xoops.

How about,

Somewhere on the site it says "faqs" or perhaps "Help" or even, heaven forbid... "How to install" other alternatives could be start "start" "getting started".

I clicked "All about xoops" nothin there... support forums.. kool... i find someone with a dummy guide link in their sig.. wkd.. that will be it...

Hold on, file has to be in tar.gz format... great, how do i do that.. it downloaded as a rar file so theme wont upload... i undo theme, no tar.gz file..

How about a basic intro to installation. What we need to run xoops..?

yeah???

so i uninstall winrar... now its a winzip file...

do you know how many people have asked me about this place...lol... ???

How many folk have just given up on your portal system just because they can't get it to change themes.
These people are not stupid. They just can't be bothered with vague support. Its delivered to us as part of an server package, it comes with one theme. Although Linux applications are what you use.. 80% of home users use windows.

Do you not think you should make it compatible to the majority?

tried installing smarty template creator... guess where the install guide is.. cuz i don't have a clue. Using php files though so i guess its a web based application, not an exe file for your pc. You think they would mention that...

pants
The new install guide athttp://docs.xoops.org/modules/xdocman/index.php?doc=xu-002&lang=en
is great.

for unzipping I use filzip, when you download xoops, right click green folder - select open in ... and it will open it. Keep double clicking on the folders until you get the HTML one.
Then open up FTP, open up HTML file select all and transfer it to your server

After that follow the install

If you are not sure about CHMOD read this guide:
http://www.evolt.org/article/A_quick_and_dirty_chmod_Tutorial/18/541/

I have tried heaps of themes and not had any problems 0 which one did you try.

xoops was my first attempt at anything on the web, Over the last 5 months I have played, read, asked lots of questions and "won some lost some"
cheers

I don't understand what you having a hard time with. Winrar, winzip 'et-al' are decompression programs. Most people have a basic understanding of this long before venturing out into webdesign because they download 'stuff' all the time that is compressed in these formats. It's a given. tar.gz files are the same way. If you have almost any decompression tool installe, it doesn't take a wizard to figure it out.

Most people firs see tar.gz format when they venture out onthe web in search of scripts, and guess what. Almost every davailable script on the net is tarballed, or gz compressed. Sure, most script creators offer .zip versions of their scripts, just like XOOPS does.

Themes being in .rar, or gz format is not the fault of XOOPS, but is done by the theme developers themselves, so maybe it's them you need to get in touch with. Yes, the templates are downloaded and upload in tar.gz, but that thats it.

You don't have to install smarty creator, it's not needed for XOOPS, period. If you do need support for that, then go to their forums for support as we don't support that here.

80% of home users might use Windows, but 95% of web developers use Linux. This is why script makers offer many different types of compressed files for distribution, XOOPS is no different.

We're here to help, so ask questions instead of questioning the efforts of others.

In summation, reinstall winrar if you want, and tell it not to be your default compression tool during installation. This is a basic windows thing and is not supported more then that here. When you do get a /rar or .gz file, just right click and unpack.

Once your theme is unpacked, upload to your server, you should know how to do this at least. If not, consult your FTP documentation. Once uploaded, configure XOOPS to use your theme.

If you want more information, follow the links in "my" signature and read everything you can get your hands on. You WILL be up and running in no time if you have the patience and time. IT's not hard or cumbersome and no other CMS will be as simple to use, period.

kool.

xoops is preinstalled on my server, as a power tool. I have downloaded themes from here, and i get the same error message that other people have told me about. It wont accept cuz its a zip file, wrong format message.. I get an error message

Choose a template set package to upload
Must be a tar.gz/.tar file with a valid XOOPS template set structure

i try uploading the compressed file i get this






Media Upload Errors
MIME type not allowed: application/x-zip-compressed


Back to template set manager


so i unpack and try and upload...

its unpacked into its own folder and you can't select an whole folder to upload. it has to be a file...

You want to try???

If people suggest to read something, the whole community expect from you that you read that (or at least parts of it) before asking another question, wich is clearly answered in the docs.

Answer on your question:
There is a difference between templates and themes. You're trying to upload a theme through the template manager. You should unzip the theme, and upload the folder to /themes/ map. Good luck.

Sounds like you are getting themes and templates confused. I did at first too. The templates are uploaded through your system admin in xoop as tar.gz files. Themes must be uploaded via ftp to the themes folder on your server. And you need to make sure that you upload from the correct folder. Sometimes the actual them folder might be 2 or even three levels deep in the unzipped file that you download from here. Most of the probs we newbies have are easily answered and the support her in the forums is brilliant. You just need to leave your frustration behind and be polite and you will get all the info you need. I have asked many very basic questions all of which have been answered quickly,graciously and willingly by fellow xoopers. Failing that search this site for your answers and there is a fantastic XOOPS for dummies here. Hope this helps.