Hello,

I have been looking for a CMS for a simple Intranet web site for about 6 weeks now. I quickly stuck to Joomla/Mambo without much research in the market. Joomla lacked important features, such as multiple user groups and no decent forum solution (without hacking). On the contrary it also had way to many un-needed features (for my needs) that seemed to get in the way. Another major inconvienience is that each add-on 'component' required registration at the developers web site which has resulted in me having 20+ accounts.

This is just an opinion, but I think the reason that the Joomla website is so busy is because of the support forum. I was in there CONSTANTLY looking for fixes to bug after bug after bug. One good thing about it is that the answers are there, it just involves creative searching to locate. I have only needed the XOOPS forum maybe twice.

So, I stumbled upon XOOPS. I've been working with XOOPS for about a week now and it only took about 2hrs to get a decent understanding of this software. It looks like XOOPS will fill my needs perfectly for the moment (once I figure out the custom menus module).

NEWBIE NOTES
I did write down some notes hoping it will be useful to someone out there.

Things I liked about XOOPS (compared to Joomla)
1. Easy to learn - intuitive. MUCH easier than Mambo/Joomla
2. It has a more solid, reliable feel than Mambo/Joomla especially using the modules.
3. Multiple access levels/user groups
4. Automatic Menu links created with new Modules (helped me get started as a newbie)
5. Default Theme is very nice and efficient. Themes available from the main site (no 'template hunting' needed)
6. Notifications feature.
7. xHelp and PD Downloads modules

Nit Picks
1. no "quick" how to install/remove module directions in the admin section. This is the only thing I had to look up in Documentation section.
5. Don't like the floating hover menus in Admin section - difficult to use. I often pick an item from an adjacent module instead of the intended one.
6. There is a lot of scrolling needed in the admin section. I like joomla's tab feature better.
7. The 'tabs of menu items' displayed at the top of some of the 3rd party modules on the backend are difficult to understand/use initially
8. No custom menu links or hierarchy is possible from the core application that I have found.
9. No information about XOOPS ver. 2.2x. What is this and why would I use it?

-Congrats and thank you for XOOPS

Some good feedback and points... as for XOOPS 2.2.x ? Don't use unless you really need to

2.0.14 (Final) will be out in the near future, which includes features from the next release 2.3 - in the meantime, 2.0.13.2 is the best one to use for most users.

Glad you found the restored documentation site - we hope it will grow considerably in coming months!

Quote:
Agree 100% with that observation! Although thankfully, many module devs do provide the same menu options on a master config page if you just click the icon.

Other than that, I agree that the admin side of XOOPS 2.0 is very intuitive. It's graphical style is (IMHO) one of the primary reason XOOPS is easier to learn. I hope the core team resist the temptation to change it too much in future versions.

Quote:
Interesting.

IMHO, top factors making Joomla busy, or what XOOPS has/had been short of:
1 mambo is much aggressive in terms of promotion and ads, especially in various exhibitions/shows, while Joomla is considered as mambo or a mambo child by users
2 mambo/Joomla has more flxible/fancy themes
3 m/j provides users with finer details for some applications, more close to a finalized product. While XOOPS is more focused on architecture, more of a project than of a product.

i like the style of 2.2's backend, its more fashionable :)

Can i just piggy back here.

When can we expect XOOPS to have the simplified urls hack as standard, making php into html for better SEO? or at least as an optional admin setting?

XOOPS Version 2.3. -> it's in the roadmap.