I am trying to create a website, and after actually buying software to help me I still can't figure it out. I wrote it up as a loss and installed xoop. Here is what I need, again I have NO experience. No html, no php, no mysql, no programming experience whatsoever.

1. First page I need is a simple login page that allows users to register. After they log in it needs to take them to one specific page because I have a very specific set of users. All I am doing is putting a google docs document on the page after login for them to get info off of.

2. Once logged in somewhere on the page needs to be an option for chat, and a link to forums.

3.How do I set up the forums?

4. Once I have all this done, how to I make it visible on my web site.

I feel like slamming my head into the wall. I am not sure why I don't understand this stuff but I just don't get it. I know the answers to the stuff I need are on this site somewhere but I can't find them. Would someone please help me?

Brian

Hello Brian
Welcome to Xoops!
Let me ask you a couple of questions so that we can better tailor some responses:
-Have you installed xoops yet?
-was it installed through your hosting provider or did you install it yourself?

There are a couple of basic definitions you will have to learn to use xoops:
BLOCKS - Think of these as little pieces of your webpage (such as login, news or articles). Using blocks you can display a login block on diferent parts of your xoops site.
MODULES - A module extends the functionality of xoops. If you visit the module repository you will see modules for forums, news, articles and many more.
THEMES- Xoops was built with a clear separation of content from presentation. In practical terms this means you can change the "look" of xoops and still keep all your information intact. You only alter the design.

meanwhile you can start browsing the wiki, faq to start getting some answers.
There are also some very good video tutorials..I'll see if I can find the links... if anyone else has them handy please post them

Hello,

Thank you for the quick reply. I already have Xoops installed and I had it installed through a hosting account on Godaddy. I have managed to download the theme I want, and ftp'd it to the site in the proper folder. Everything seems to be ready to go. I have also went into preferences general settings and set to where the login is the only thing that would show. That is far as I have gotten. Video's would be awesome, and again thank you for the quick reply.

Brian

Great!
Here's a couple of pointer's:
If you acidently turn off the login block and logoff, you can always access it through:
http://yoursite.com/user.php

So I'm assuming your site is up and running with 3 blocks:
- A login block that displays only to anonymous users
- A user block that only displays to users logged in
- A main menu

Go ahead and try changing your theme.

Another Definition:
GROUPS- This is the way xoops separates different types of users. By default there are 3 groups:
ANONYMOUS -Any user that's browsing your site and isn't logged in
REGISTERED USER- When a user register's, this is where xoops automatically places him.
WEBMASTER- This is the SUPER user. The one person who has access to EVERYTHING on the site.
You can create as many groups as you like and give them permission to access only certain parts of the site.
Practical example:
Say you have a forum installed and you want to give some users permission to access the administration part of the xoops forum module. You could create a group called "Forum Moderators" and give that group admin access to forum.

Hey again,

If I go to www.mysite.com/xoops I can see that the only thing displaying is the login screen with the register button below. Only problem I am seeing is that it says Xoops at the top but I can probably figure out how to change that. It doesn't show anything on www.mysite.com.

Brian

Hello,

How do I link the login page to the google doc that I am going to upload? Plus after I am done how to I publish the page? Sorry guys, again I know nothing about this at all.

Brian

Looks like you need to slow down just a hair.

Take a break, then go over to Packt Publishing (http://www.packtpub.com) and look for the book Building Websites with XOOPS. You should be able to get the e-book version fairly cheaply.

Bearing in mind that the book was written for XOOPS 2.0, it still contains a lot of valuable information for the new XOOPS user. It should cover a lot of the basics and some of the most popular modules of the era. The interface is a little dated, but the operations are more or less still applicable.

Hi Brian,

Welcome to xoops.

As others have mentioned here, you need to slow down a bit. Before you try the live site, you can install the XOOP on XAMP server on your local machine. Get all the module & theme and make them work on your local machine and then FTP it to your host. first try to work with a simple theme and then change your theme.

I am using Godaddy as well and can tell you that they are one of the best ( from a hosting point of view). I have my hobby site (www.aquariumhomecare.com) running on Xoops v2.3.1 for more than 18 months with no problem.

I would recommend you try all your modules on the latest stable version of Xoops v2.4.4.

I can understand your frustration however we need to know few basics to do anything.

I am with Xoops from 2 year and I know I have lot to learn on Xoops. And its continuously evolving and getting better.

I can certainly help you run the basic site.


Good Luck

Deepak