I've spent the last several weeks trying to get up to speed on the open source CMS movement. There is an unbelievable amount of effort being applied to projects such as xoops, postnuke, phpnuke, etc etc.

I've noticed one thing is consistent across all of them.

They are all academically elegant in that they manage plug in modules, plug in themes, unlimited content items. and so on.

However I have yet to find one that make it easier for me to management my content. Let me explain. I'm a programmer. Have been fo many years so I can reverse engineer php if I have to. I did so to pug some graphc design elements into themes for all the OS CMS. But every time, it was more complicated and took more time than if I had just editt the content in, say, dream weaver for example (or notepad [or VI or emacs] for that matter)

Now, I see the value in letting users add/edit/delete their own content an dhavng plug in extension. Don't get me wrong, that is why Iv'e invested many weeks in looking for a good solotuon.

So, now the question: Wha do all these open sourc CMS projects.. like xoops. Focus on the framework instead of the basic CMS function. When I say basic function I mean "Add HTML to my web site and allow me to manage it" In very OS CMS I've seen so far I had to find some have baked extension to allow me all a simple HTML page. And in most cases I need to be a php programmer to enact the change.

The floor is open... who wants set me straight> Is their a funtion in XOOPS I'm missing? Is there another CMS that fills this gap?

Go ahead and flame me... I'm ready to learn what I'm missing here.

It's simple task. You just need the module for wraping HTML into Xoops. Here is the link for such modules on a french site.

If you are looking to create many pages and organize them by content, you probably want to use the reigning champ, WFSections.

There are many other content modules. Originally, these HTML wrapper modules were made to wrap existing HTML content in your XOOPS Theme, but, many go beyond that now.
FreeContent 3.0 says it now has knowledge management:
https://xoops.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1215

There is also TinyContent and CJayContent.

I hope that gets you started. I guess to answer your more general question, XOOPS uses modules to deliver content in various forms... so, you want to match a module to the type of content you are trying to manage. In the case of WFSections or the "Wrapper" modules, many include WYSIWYG editors to make adding a page as easy as copying and pasting from a word processing document.

Likewise, while you are a programmer who can handle dreamweaver, etc., imagine if you want someone to add content who only knows (for example) email and word processing. With Xoops, they can add content without understanding HTML, FTP, etc.

Welcome to Xoops.

The framework for web developement, and the unlimited blocks power, and ability to have "any set of blocks" show in any module makes XOOPS the definative CMS for me. Blocks/user permissions are set using a one click job. For theming, XOOPS themes also uses files with html extensions rather than php. You can also create your theme in dreamweaver by converting say an existing theme's layout-- no need for programs like "autotheme" or others parsers to convert php coding to HTML.

As sunsnapper stated in the previous post, the big brother of all the content modules for XOOPS is Wfsections. It is a superb module and a content manager in itself with a wysiwyg editor and unlimited categories. A new version is on the way--I also have a latest version for download at my site if that is of any help.

Imo you are right if you say there is no single module that can handle ALL content and also has a good frontend(clear display for the users what content you have on your site), but I think WF-section will/can be that module. The management 'engine' inside is great, it can display html files with background, the only thing is that it can't display news articles as if they were made inside WF-section and a kind of template design system to make this frontend the way you want it. If you are familiar with php this will be an easy job.

This question of managing content was heavy on my mind for some time. I really expected to be able to wrap my existing html site within the XOOPS framework. Or at least import the directory structure and files. If this had been possible, I would ultimately have been very dissapointed, because I would have missed the integration and interactivity that XOOPS offers through the core system.

In the end I took the plunge and reinputed my whole site using a dedicated content module (wf-section) 456 articles took me 3 months of long evenings and tedious work. BUT ... It really has been worth the effort!

Because my site is now part of the core system rather than wrapped within it, its totally manageable and interactive through my administration section. All my content is inter-related rather than meta-related.

On reflection, if someone made a 'golden module' that allowed complete site import, but without the core features that XOOPS offers, I would say politely, this defeats the object of what XOOPS is all about. We may then have a great content tool but NO MANAGEMENT and no system either!

Richard