I just finished deploying my first XOOPS site. As a developer in another lifetime, I thought I could hit the ground running fairly quickly, however I ran into some hurdles that I think would make XOOPS "friendlier."
When I planned to relaunch my site (it was originally on Yahoo's Group site; I had out grown them), I searched for free or inexpensive framework that I could easily modify from a "control panel" and ultimately, get some of my non-technical members to help out with moderation. After a long search I chose Xoops. The idea of being able to upload and install modules, look at them, and uninstall them quickly and easily was the selling point. I really liked that.
However, on the journey I suffered some frustrations.
(1) "Support" - I think that support/feedback provided on Xoops.org was a B- and most times the information was close enough that I could make it work. But I am a DEVELOPER. Should it be that complicated? Further to this point a LOT OF POSTS, say "here's some code, try it out and see if it works." That is frustrating. I can't tell you how many code snippets ended up in the trash. I appreciate the effort, but the quality ends up making the experience "less friendly"
(2) Modules/Module Support - I love the fact that the modules can be (mostly) seamlessly installed, configured and uninstalled. However, I found that MANY module authors insist on providing support from THEIR WEBSITES. While I understand this, to me this is not "friendly." Especially when a LOT OF THESE 3rd party module websites DONT PROVIDE ENGLISH translations. Now I understand that English isn't everyone’s first language, but Xoops.org is able to provide "support" in English. I think to be "friendlier" you need to provide centralized help, with support that includes English. Googling and finding language translators for Chinese, French just to understand why the module is not functioning properly.
(3) Module Development - As I progress in Xoops, I'd like to tweak various modules and create new ones. I think that if the XOOPS technical experts could develop a framework that makes it easy to deploy modules would go a long way. For instance in OpenStep (created by Steve Jobs when he left Apple) was a great development framework. They used a framework (model-controller-view) and a library of system modules that hid a lot of the SQL and allowed users to create objects that natively updated themselves when the object was updated. This would go very far in XOOPS to allow people to easily deploy objects.
(4) Templates - while most of us have modified a template, the mere housekeeping that it takes when upgrading to not lose all the work is also frustrating. A more "friendly" deployment of baseline templates and user modified templates driven through the Admin panel would go very far in making XOOPS "friendly."
I'm still rooting for XOOPS and will continue to contribute assistance to others who are new as others have done for me
Just my .02 worth.
Kurt