I am trying to make my XOOPS testbed display a list of members (users) with a few selected items from each: name, avatar, extra info.

I'm trying to shove http://www.bizconnectep.com/ into a CMS, and I picked XOOPS for a start. I did the top-nav menu and most of the static pages using the Content module, with some adjustments. (The image that extends into the left column defeated me, but I just made the images fit in the center.) But the "Categories" page is where I'm stuck at the moment. Can anyone suggest an approach? I haven't been able to find an existing module that will create just the right block for this; I've looked at cloning a block from the system and editing Smarty in the templates. A custom block with PHP code in it? (Examples have eluded me.) Some magic Smarty in a Content page (doesn't seem to work)?

In the longer run, I want not only to have officers of the club be able to create open "categories" and assign members to them (one each), but to build a database of referral slips that members give each other, and show metrics about that, etc. Quite a bit of logic, perhaps, and more than a CMS really offers?

Any advice welcome.

Yes a CMS is, as is the name, a Content management system....

Now that in some cases means limitation...in XOOPS case it means added ways....

You see you can add anything into XOOPS it is what we do all day...

It is very easy to make a Xoops_version.php and index.php a header also and an image and you have your very own module...

Now php can echo or print html....

So for html content like your old site was, you can echo it in a basic php module and you have your very own XOOPS module for the old work you have done...

You can download any of my modules and use the base as they are very simple and do that...
Our webhosting page took moments to copy an old module, then just copy and paste the code direct into the index.php; where it is echoed between a XOOPS header and footer and thats it old content with XOOPS frame...