I am redesigning our department website and would like to use xoops. However, I am confused as to how to accomplish my goals because I don't know how to configure xoops. I've read through the user's guide athttp://wiki.xoops.org/wakka.php?wakka=HomePage. The main layout of the site will consist of the following pages:

Home page
Course syllabus page (dynamic php page filled from MySQL db depending on the course code passed to it)
Faculty page (dynamic php page which gives info on a faculty member. Also filled from MySQL db.)
Degree information (static html page)

If I understand what I've read, I need to pick a module to use as my home page.

I finally understand what "blocks" are and where to configure them but I don't know if I need to reconfigure a current module for each page listed above, or use a different module for each, or to just use blocks.

Could someone just kinda give me a push in the right direction as to how I should go about configuring/setting up the main pages above? I'm hoping that after I get that done I will be understand XOOPS better and be able to configure other pages I haven't mentioned.

Sorry if this question is confusing. I tried to phrase it clearly but unfortunately I don't understand enough about XOOPS to better phrase my question.

I've also installed iMenu and created a couple of links but nothing shows up anywhere so I don't know what iMenu is supposed to accomplish. I also installed the Freecontent module and uploaded a basic html file to the content directory as per the instructions but I don't know what I'm supposed to do to display that page.

Thanks.

I have include a general overview of configuring XOOPS Here

I also included a link to wfsections, which I think is a module you might need, it is the most comprehensive content module around. Wfsections comes with its own blocks and wysiwyg editor, you can also include HTML pages.

I have not used freecontent, so can't help much there, but I imagine the menu's work on a similar principle

In wfsections you first create a "section", and related sub categories if you wish--then then you create "articles" related to the category or section. (means the same thing)

Then go to "Article Management" and "Create New Article", here you add your html or whatever. A lot of it is intuitive.

If you have a wfsections block set up like "recent articles"--your article heading will automatically appear in the wfsection menu. "Articles" are really HTML pages

I am working on a quick introduction to wfsections, also try the wfsections site forum

I will include some documentation soon here and on my website forum.

In wfsections remember to go to the "Path management" link, and check at the bottom of the page if relevant files and folders are writable, if they are not they will be "red"

If you install this module I (or any other user) can guide you through setting up a category, config of wfsections, and creating a page to get you going?

I found the download for the module. It was listed as version 1.01. Is this the latest version?

When the user clicks on the link for Faculty from the main page, I want them to go to the page which will display all the faculty. This page however uses a php script to access a MySQL db and pulls information from a couple of tables. Would I put that script in an "Article"? I experimented a little and found that the "Article" section produces another link. I really don't want that. I want the user to go directly to the list of faculty members, not to another link which then goes to the faculty page. This would seem an unnecessary extra step.


Thanks.

When creating an article choose "No Show Article", then set up the "article link" block, say on the "side block left" using "weighting" to have this menu show first, you can call this block anything you wish. The "No show Article" allows the article links block to include the article.

There also is a recent content wfsections block you can use in a similar way

The title of the article i.e. "Faculty" will automatically appear. This is a direct link to the article. Also, if you choose "No show info", when creating or editing the article, it will just be a plain HTML page without any other info.

I have a little example on a site I am building Here

Or, create custom links in a custom block, the paths to your articles of course appear in the browser address bar.

The php part I can't help with, no a coder, but if you do a search there is hacks or modules which allow you to add or include php scripts somewhere

You can hide the wfsections link in the Main Menu by going to modules in system admin, and go to the "order" column for wfsections, and change the order to "0". You can also rename the modules here, and the new names appear in the main menu. Any block can also be renamed in blocks admin

To take out the logo in the main index page you can go to the index page manager and choose "blank" but this leaves a space where the image would be, so

Go to yousite.com/modules/wfsections/index.php

and look for
echo "<table border='0' cellspacing='1' cellpadding ='3' align = center width = 100%>";
echo "<tr><td align = center><h4>".indexmainheader()."</h4></td></tr>";
echo "<tr><td align = center><h3>".sprintf($wfsConfig['indexheading'])."</h3></td></tr>";
echo "<tr><td align = center><h4>". _WFS_MAININDEX ."</h4></td></tr>";

taking out three of these lines removes all the logos and index info, but try them one at a time to see what it does i.e.

echo "<tr><td align = center><h4>".indexmainheader()."</h4></td></tr>";

this one removes the logo space, and so on

Thanks so much for taking the time to explain this.

Kind regards,
Chris