I've been using XOOPS for a while now. I very much enjoy the simplicity and ease of use from an admin's POV.

I've also been wrestling with it, trying to make it do what I want and struggling. I posted questions about how to incorporate my own html, how to control blocks by category all to no avail. I finally figured out how simple it is to creat your own mini-module which gives me the block control I've been longing for. However...

Now that I can do it, I think I've figured out the problem. XOOPS is type-centric and I'm looking for a cetogory centric solution. What? OK...


Xoops is based on types like News - Downloads - Pictures - Links. TYPES of things. If you want something for a category you go to the TYPE of item, then select a category and find it.

I (and others I imagine) want to build a category-centric website. I want to go to a category and there be presented with a page which has all the related types of it. News, pictures, links, downloads. I don't want to have to search from one type to another to find all the category-related items that are available.

Boy I hope this makes sense. I'm a software designer/developer and I've been sruggling with this for awhile now. The XOOPS approach is a common one, I've seen it with ther CMS programs. I think it's backward from what most people want to see on a website, or how they use a website.

Am I missing something, or doing something wrong here?

I've tried to get this quetion answered a few times and got nothing but some comments like "Use News" which doesn't address the issue at all. I'd be happy to discuss this in depth with someone who really uses XOOPS for a commercial website. I'm curious to see how you solved the probem.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read and answer this post.

RIMark

You're absolutely right, XOOPS (still) is type-centric. XOOPS 2.4 will be the end of this, but this is still under heavy development. It's been on my list for a loooong time now, but for the system to become truly content-centric (and not ahve the complex data structres like drupal for instance), the XOOPS core needs some serious work. And this is a small part of what Skalpa is working on

Herko

This is one of the main important factors between XOOPS 2.0 (and derivatives) and 2.3 onwards...

Thanks Herko. I was beginning to think it was just *me*

I agree the structure of Drupal was overwhelming. XOOPS ease of use and yet content-centric? It would be great if you guys can pull it off!

Do you know why this was not done in the beginning? By that I mean why so many CMS seem to be built like Xoops. My guess is beacause they were designed inside-out rather than than outside-in. By that I mean like much of software it wa designed from the programmers view of what was possible rather than from the users view of what wa needed.

I'm starting to try to use my own HTML and custom mini-modules to sort of force it into what I want but I can see this is NOT what I want in teh long term as it will be a maintenance nightmare as it grows.

Assuming I want to stick with XOOPS until 2.4 is released, what's the best work-around for now?

Thanks so much for your insights and all the work of you and the other developers.

RIMark

Hello RImark ... all

It's reminding me a thread from a bit more then a year
take a look @ this thread from the end of 2004 .... I think it covers the whole subject.

Anyway, take a look at WebsiteBaker (http://www.websitebaker.com/), to see how well thought this CMS is (a true CMS that put content management before all) ... you can create page and choose the module in it.