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I will be aggressively working on this Starting this weekend.
I am headed towards a 1 button install for basic installs.
The link in the first message is active but you won't see any changes to the code until I have worked on it some this weekend. Because of my current schedule I will be doing the majority of work on the weekends.
Gone will be a lot of the messages about requirements and such. The install script will just take care of these and if it finds a problem will contact the user.
The main screen will allow the most basic settings to be chosen. At the bottom of the page the user will choose if they want a "Basic", "Advanced" or "Expert" install.
Basic install will use the settings from the main screen and assume defaults for everything else. Thus simplifying the install dramatically for first time users.
Advanced installs will be similar to the current system but will be far shorter.
Expert installs will allow a variety of extra settings to be selected with the intention of being able to set a bunch of functions we now normally set in the admin menu after an install.
The intent is to greatly reduce the learning curve of installing a system for most users, have the script do most of the work for us and let us know when there are issues. This should reduce a huge number of newbie questions and allow xoops to look like a more solid platform.
I will be making extensive use of javascript for validation to smooth out the user interaction.
Hopefully will be able to provide a screen shot of the first page this weekend for comments.
Also, for those that do a series of installs there will be support of an unattended install which will just install and provide an ending status screen when finished.
Since this system will be totally new I will also rewrite the install guide to reflect the changes. However with included "tool tips" I do expect that the reliance of an Install guide to be minimal.
Support for Additional themes and Languages have already been added but I will wait until it is in RC status before looking for translations.
Attending College working towards Bachelors in Software Engineering and Network Security.