I just decided to have a go with xcGallery 1.0 instead of MyAlbum 2.7, because I'm a fan of Coppermine AND because of the unresolved issues I've had with the whole "template_c folder thing" (see threads listed below)...

Strange problem with MyAlbum 2.7

Login problem and submit news problem

Lo and behold, no sooner do I upload xcGallery and try editing some of the templates, and the "Update module template .html files..." monster in the admin menu rears its ugly head again: Nothing was getting updated with the setting on YES.

I decided to experiment and saved the templates/xcgal_header.html I'd altered and then went into the admin menu for modules, unchecked the display of the xcGallery module, uninstalled it and deleted the whole module from my modules directory. I then re-uploaded the module via FTP (replacing the templates/xcgal_header.html with the the previously mentioned altered templates/xcgal_header.html), re-installed it, set the permissions, etc, etc (making sure the setting for "Update..." was set to YES) and guess what happened? The xcgal_header.html I'd altered appeared as I wanted...Makes sense that would happen, right? But wait, there's more:

Strangely enough, I even DELETED THIS FILE from the xcgal/templates directory and DELETED the one in the www/templates_c folder, all with the "Update..." setting on YES, and the previously altered template STILL APPEARED AS IT SHOULD HAVE ON THE SITE. Clearing my browser's cache (IE 6) and even having the option "Check for newer versions...Every visit to the page" set made NO difference. The file was missing from BOTH folders and it STILL displayed on the site.

Frustrated with it, I attempted to add two albums (in admin mode) to one of the six categories I'd just created in admin. I clicked on "Create/order my albums" and the albums I just created did not appear. Next, I clicked on the button "Modify my albums" and got the message "No album you can modify in the database". And as if that's not bad enough, when I clicked on "Upload picture", I got the message "Sorry, there is no album where you are allowed to upload pictures".

I readily admit I don't know very much about "Smarty syntax" but I think I DO understand its purpose in Xoops. The problem is, I cannot get past the fact that the only issues I have with the templates_c folder, et al, is with modules that are not integral to XOOPS itself. It's unnecessary for a caveat here because I'm intelligent enough to know that these kinds of modules aren't supported by Xoops, though their developers occasionally make appearances here and answer questions. I've posted issues at other module developers sites but have only ever gotten help from one of them.

Anyway, I cannot seem to get a straightforward answer from my webhost (who cannot seem to see the same errors I see when running PHP Debug---see other threads at top) nor am I finding help with this templates_c folder issue here.

Like a lot of other users, I'm on a tight schedule getting our site up-and-running but I will unfortunately have to go back to a non-CMS website if I can't get these issues resolved.
As much as I like Xoops, and as much as I've enjoyed working with it and learning the gist of it all, the outstanding and user-friendly aspects of XOOPS (the modules, mainly) that initially brought me here now seem fruitless and too time-consuming for my needs.

As one person suggested, maybe I should drop my Coppermine gallery into a iframe/custom block in XOOPS and be done with it...Only problem there would be having our users login TWICE (once for Xoops, once for Coppermine).

Well, there it is. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.