Greetings -

1) The user account is being called "Account" in the menu entries used in the "User Menu" and it is called "Profile" on the form.

I would like to see that part of XOOPS called consitently by one name. The naming of one thing by two different names can cause confusion of some very "new" users.

2) I am looking at my top page with "Recent News", "Recent Downloads", "Recent Q&A", etc. And I was struct by the lack of consistency of dating display conventions. Some of the formats you can change. Some you can not change. Some have parenthesis "()" around them. Some have brackets "[]" around them. In some cases modules seem to apply the same formating to all blocks. In some cases they do not seem to be applying the same formating to all blocks.

If would like to see three fields added to the XOOPS preferences. Two (2) fields so you can add into them the beginning and ending parenthesis "()" or brackets "[]" depending on webmaster preferences. One (1) field so you can put a site wide date format that could be applied to everything. It would be up to the module writers to access these fields to format their dates.

Hope That Helps.

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that's exactly how it works at the moment. the module writers access them and format them accordingly if they need to, but the global XOOPS date format is customised in language/english/global.php

if you don't like the () or [] then you could try editing the templates and change them yourself. please remember that not every user is the same neither is every developer..

and the new XOOPS 2.1/2.2 release will have a lot more flexibility..

Greetings m0nty –

I do not think that I have communicated clearly since you have taken that one quote, and given me a response that made no sense to me in regards to the suggestion I made.

I will answer your post and explain in more detail to clarify my communication.

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And where exactly will I find these global date parameters in the XOOPS admin preferences so I can set them and have all the modules from all the different developers display their dates in the same format for my whole site?

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If you can show me where these global date parameters are in the XOOPS admin preferences then I will believe you.

However, the “Recent …” displays from the different modules on my top page all disagree with you. Different module writers use different formats for their dates. Some allow you to set the format. Some do not allow you to set the format. So the look of the web site is not consistant.

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Thank you, that is a good thing to know.

Let me see that I got this correctly, I have to go the language/english/global.php and modify this file as a developer to set the date preferences for my site for the XOOPS core modules.

That sure does not look like a global XOOPS parameter in the XOOPS admin preferences to me which is what I suggested in my previous post.

And if I was just a user with no development skills whatsoever I would be out of luck.

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And that is what I am planning to do. However, a non-developer would not have those skills and would not be able to do that. I made the suggestion from the users perspective not from the developers perspective.

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I am very much aware of that. I have been doing development in one way or another since 1975. That is about 30 years. I have worked numerous platforms, languages, and operating systems. From international banking and finance to online real time systems.

Since I am rather new to PHP and the XOOPS development environment I do not know where everything is, so I ask questions and make suggestions. I did not say that this should be done, or that it had to be done. The thread title is labeled as a sugestion. It was a suggestion for the core developers and module writers for their consideration. Nothing more, nothing less.

The reason that I made the suggestion like I did, is so every user can make a choice for their whole web site on how to display the dates. No development skills needed.

Likewise, every developer can make a choice to use the global setting or not, and/or to have a set of module date override parameters to the global XOOPS date parameters.

I believe the word choice covers everyone being different to some extend.

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This is good to know. Is there some document that describes the new upcoming features?


m0nty if I have offended you in any way, I apologize.

Every medium to large scale development effort that I have been involved with has a section for system wide parameters. These include date display.

While the XOOPS core is small, the interactive nature of it, and the possible size due to an ever increasing module count, makes it from my perspective, a medium scale development effort. So I made the suggestion for the date display options to be added in the XOOPS admin parameters.

I am considering doing some module development when I get a bit more knowledgeable. And as an experienced developer in languages and systems my preference have these parameters so a user can set them and all I have to do is react to it.

I made a suggestion. Nothing more, nothing less.



BTW: Nice sword. Do you train in iaido?

no u didn't offend me :) but maybe i came across a little ignorant for that i apologise.. i oughta really check my wording..

most of what you have said makes more sense now and i can agree, No there is no admin setting for date format, but i believe the next major release *might* have, i can't say for sure, but the developers are really working on making it more user friendly and flexible :)

i've seen a lot lately in the forums where people are requesting just the little things etc that tend to get missed in the stream of things.. your suggestion is valid.. if you're up for it tho, i'm sure the developers would welcome any small hacks in that respect :) which is 1 of the reasons i did the photo upload hack.. i don't think it's a perfect way of implementing it, but it works and that's what counts.. it could certainly be improved tho..

regarding the sword, i used to do a little bit of iaito and kenjutsu, karate, jujitsu & kyusho jutsu, but i haven't done any training or studying in the last 7 - 8 yrs not on a dojo level anyway.. just tend to practice a little at home these days.. i'm certainly not as fit or flexible as i was back then tho...

Greetings m0nty -

No harm. No foul.

I am finding XOOPS very robust and well written in many areas. And you are correct, it is just the little things, here and there.

And I have been "informed" by enough users about the little things that I have a tendecy to think about them a bit.

I have a lot of respect for the core and module developers here. The quality of the effort shows up in many ways.

As a person rather new to PHP and web development, it amazes me just how little effort it took to set a web site up. It is because of XOOPS that I decided to put one up to the public. Everything else I tried was unfriendly in some way or another.


I do believe that none of us are as flexible as we used to be. I just started Karate up again about a year and three months ago. This is after not being involved for 24 years. Talk about starting over and everything hurting. But it is getting better. And my overall health and stamina has improved.