Got no idea how useful this might be to you but i just found this this link

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Cheers

Thanks Jensclas. This tool looks great and I believe someone else also showed a link to it above.

In reply to those that think developers don't need documentation:

- why waste time when you can spend it on coding a good module?
- I know studying other people's code and other modules is a good learning method, but it does not fill in the holes that you might miss. e.g. what if the particular module you look at is missing a key feature that you could have used? Or, a certain way of presenting something that would have saved you hours of coding effort if it was only documented?
- good documentation is needed, and this is why some of the best open source software out there, like WordPress, have such a huge following.
- I also realize this is all volunteer effort, but surely some of the volunteers can do some documentation.
- building things inside a CMS should not only be in the realm of programmers. Otherwise you are reaching only a small percentage of potential users.

Just my 2c. Thanks to all for responding! :-

Regards
S

Just to be clear, I also believe in the importance of good developer documentation. I'm just saying that it's not only the XOOPS core team who can contribute to this.

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You missed my point. Developers do need documentation. In this case it is not fully available. So I pointed you to your second best option, xHelp.

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xHelp uses pretty much every feature of Xoops.. and then some. That's why I recommended it to you due to its completeness.

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Yes, we know already...

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Yes, this is a volunteer effort. Care to volunteer to contribute the documentation once you've collected your information?

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Building a module is a programmers job. There are no two ways about it. To do anything beside a simple "hello world" module in XOOPS you would need to know about:

1. Relational databases (math set theory) and SQL
2. Three tier development in separating data access from module logic and information presentation.
3. Object oriented programming (inheritance and overriding methods in particular) in relation to PHP
4. Smarty theming engine.

I don't believe the average Joe has an intimate knowledge of all the above. Module development is a programmers job.

Xoops is extensible by modules contributed by developers. If a user needs a functionality that an existing module cannot cater for then it must be developed. By a programmer.

If you are looking for a CMS that is extensible outside of modules then that is not Xoops.

My recommendation of looking at xHelp for research still stands for your situation.

Just read this thread and thanks to Jensclas for the little plug on XBS Modgen which I wrote. There are a couple of issues I'd like to address:

Documentation
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One of the reasons I wrote ModGen, was because of exactly the problem that the initial poster has signalled, lack of documentation for XOOPS itself. As a developer, and perhaps unlike some, I don't have the time to wade through lines of code to try and figure out what the heck is going on. I have done with XOOPS <=2.0.13 and have written many mods which hopefully are of use to others as well as myself. I have also made the point of providing documentation with thos modules (CDM, SACC etc.) ModGen itself hasn't got much documentation yet because I released it earlier than I normally do in an Alpha stage. The Beta release will have documentation.

My experience with the Metatags module is also instructional. I deliberately left out documentation. Why, primarily to see the reaction. And it is enlightening. Most queries I have had on my support site could have been adequately resolved if I had provided the same level of documentation that I did with my earlier modules. The lesson: Mod devs should write good usage instructions explaining all features to avoid support issues. Time involved answering queries needlessly is time better spent with your family / down the pub or whatever.

Now go check the online documentation available for each of the modules that you have loaded to verify what I am talking about.

In the 2.0 branch of XOOPS the available documentation was sparse, but it was there (it has since disssapeared). In the 2.2 branch it is non existent, and with the uncertainty of where it is going, I for one have decided not to develop for the 2.2/3/4 branch until a/ the XOOPS core team have stabilised the development and b/ the documentation is available for it.

Xoops is now a grown up CMS, not the plaything of a few script kiddies. Serious businesses and serious citizens are depending on it to drive their web development.

Module Development
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McNaz is right. To write a XOOPS module is a developers job. ModGen can write the framework for you which can otherwise typically take a day to a week depending on your input capability (and once you know what you are doing), but it cannot write the application logic. You need to understand PHP and MySQL and all that involves. It took me 9 months to write my first module, primarily due to tracking down documentation and asking questions on a variety of forums (not just Xoops). PHP was a dialect that I hadn't used before. Fortunately programming in SQL and a variety of other languages (Pascal, C, C++, Modula2, Paradox, Assembler, etc etc) were a massive help. But if you haven't done that it is going to take you a lot, lot longer.

However I do see a partial way forward. I've just checked out Formulize and its hookup with Pagemaker. Whilst I haven't got it working yet on XOOPS 2.0.14 (cus they changed things under the covers again), the concept is intriguing and one that is at the back of my mind for the next version of ModGen, i.e the ability to create a module that includes forms and workflow by filling in boxes. You are never going to get away from the need to have a 'real' programmer around to sort out the business logic for the app, but it would be a start (a la Visual C++, VB, Turbo Pascal, Paradox etc.) But that is a huge effort to implement.

Anyone willing to pay my wages for the next year or so?

Regards
A

At this point, I've written about 10 modules.

One thing I find ugly is the number of various files it takes to create a module.

I haven't look at ModGen. Maybe it addresses that problem when first creating the module.

But when you need to revise the module, which will almost always happen, you're probably stuck with having to deal with all the individual files.

I wonder if it would be feasible to define a module using a single file, database, or some sort of single document. Then an external utility could handle both splitting the single document into the individual files that XOOPS requires, and also allow making changes to the module without having to edit the individual files.

Of course, the issue of testing/debugging the module would have to be addressed as well.

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This is essentially what ModGen does. I admit, in its first version it will overwrite all files it produces and it doesn't allow you to add or modify the code it outputs, but perhaps with support from others it may get there in the future

A

I've always liked XOOPS and been tinkering with it for many years. Unfortunately I've always found a reason not to use it.

Currently the reason is developer documentation (and maybe a little concern about the mutliple forks). I know there is info and docs to be found but one major problem is the lack of dates or more specific versioning of the information, as someone has already stated in this thread. It does make knowing what is current very difficult.

So with another project on my slate I'm looking to use XOOPS again. I have done some minor playing with ModGen and have to say it's excellent for getting that jumpstart on module creation. It definitely should be included as the first tool for developing Modules on XOOPS (and possibly become part of a XOOPS development package). Now if only it could create stand alone forms & processing it could save me a lot of work. :)

Good job Akitson. You're continued work should have a huge impact on helping along new XOOPS module developers.

I'm off to go look at some Xhelp code. Good luck all.

Hi Akitson:

Thanks for helping to point out that good documentation is a necessity and for your excellent XBS ModGen. I'm in the process of putting together documentation for those new to XOOPS and this would be a good starting point for them to create a new XOOPS module structure.

Regards