World of Xoops (WOX): WOX (World of XOOPS) Newsletter # 51 (October 2013)
Posted by: MambaOn 2013/10/19 10:50:00 19965 readsWelcome to the October 2013 issue of WOX (World of XOOPS) Newsletter (see here previous versions).
It's been a while since the last issue, and a lot of things have changed since the last issue.
Work continues XOOPS 2.6.0. You can read more about latest development in this article: XOOPS is back, and with a vengeance! :)
Recent Highlights:
Ricardo Costa (Trabis) and Nicolas Andricq (ForMuss) Inducted into XOOPS Hall of Fame
- XOOPS Innovation Award - for people who create something very unique and innovative for XOOPS. This time the award goes to Charly Cobben (chco2) from Netherlands for his work on the QRCode and CuErPa modules.
==> You can see our previous winners here
- XOOPSer of the Month Award: is given to XOOPS members who show extraordinary dedication to XOOPS, and go the extra mile for XOOPS. This month, it goes to Rodney Fulk (redheadedrod) from USA, for his work on MySQLi Connectors for Xoops 2.5.6 and 2.6 and continues support of our users on the XOOPS Forums.
==> You can see our previous winners hereCongratulations to all of our Winners. Starting this year, all Winners will receive a free book of their choice from O'Reilly. Also a free copy of PHP Storm from JetBrain.
Summary
Please help us spread the word about XOOPS!! .
If you are a happy XOOPS user, let the world know - please blog about XOOPS, share your experiences with others, rate and review us on SourceForge and other Websites. We need to let the world know about XOOPS!!!
And if you're not happy with something in XOOPS, please let us know so we can fix it and improve! Better yet - help us fix it and improve it!
Remember - XOOPS is powered by YOU!!!!
01. Donations
If you like the XOOPS system, and would like to give something in return, you can make a donation to the XOOPS Foundation! Simply use the XOOPS Donation System and use your PayPal account or your Credit Card to donate .
As mentioned above, your donation will be used to cover the cost of our dedicated server, and to promote and advance the use and development of the XOOPS system. The XOOPS Foundation is a registered not-for-profit organization in the USA, dedicated to promote XOOPS! All donators will get the Friend of XOOPS rank here on this website. Thanks to all the Friends of XOOPS for their donations and continued support!
Donations we've got this month so far:
Thank you very much for your support!
02. New XOOPS developments
- Security Patch for XOOPS 2.5.6
- XOOPS is back, and with a vengeance! :)
Ricardo Costa (Trabis) and Nicolas Andricq (ForMuss) Inducted into XOOPS Hall of Fame
Current stable XOOPS Releases
XOOPS 2.5.6 Final (with security patch)
03. Team Reports
In 2010 we've re-introduced monthly Team Reports from our XOOPS Teams.
Core Development Team
Work continues actively on XOOPS 2.6.0, with several new additions:
Please view the progress on GitHub
You can follow the development on GitHub.
Documentation Team
- Presentation "OOP Adventures with XOOPS"
- several Tutorials
Module Team
- Several new modules have been updated to XOOPS 2.5.6 Admin GUI. We are slowly getting closer to release of Basic Module Pack:
XOOPS Module Packs Overview- Draft 1
Basic Module Pack for XOOPS 2.5.5 (recently updated Final releases)
You can follow the Module development on SourceForge SVN, GitHub, or you can subscribe to our SVN mailing list to receive updates.
Theme Design Team
Community Coordination/Support Team
Standard maintenance of the Website, and keeping it current.
International Support Team
For list of existing Support Sites, please visit our International Support page. To create a local XOOS Support Site, see Support Site Guidelines. If you would like to start and maintain a local XOOPS Support site, which is a lot of fun and is helping XOOPS by spreading our great CMS to your area and language, you can apply for official status, by using this form (login required).
XOOPS on Facebook: join the main XOOPS group on Facebook
Communication/Marketing Team
WOX newsletter, keeping press informed about XOOPS. Visit us on Social Media:
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
YouTube
Ohloh
04. XOOPSers of the Month
This month, we would like to recognize Rodney Fulk (redheadedrod) from USA, for his work on MySQLi Connectors for Xoops 2.5.6 and 2.6 and continues support of our users on the XOOPS Forums..
Where are you from, and where do you live now?
I live in Grand Rapids, MI, USA. I was born here and have live pretty much within 50 miles of Grand Rapids since then.
How long have you been programming?
I started programming back in the 1980's in BASIC on my Atari 800xl. Before I had games I wrote my own and had to type them back in because it would take a half hour to load the games in using the Audio Cassette players we had back then. I have since programmed at least a hello program in just about every language in existence.
What is your expertise?
I don't necessarily have an expertise but I am very interested in computer security and making things do things they wouldn't normally do. Using Atari 8bit computers and Basic I spent the late 80's automating a laboratory with robotic samplers and equipment that had never been automated before. The companies didn't automate the equipment until 10 years after we did.
What got you to XOOPS?
A co worker turned me onto Post-Nuke back in the early 2000's and I ended up finding XOOPS through that connection. I have been hanging around Xoops since probably prior to 2005 but haven't gotten involved until much more recently.
What do you like most about XOOPS?
The ability to add modules to the main program to make whatever you want with XOOPS.
In what area of XOOPS do you contribute and why?
My biggest contributions to date have been making a few suggestions that made it into 2.6 and my ongoing contribution to the Database related code in 2.6.
You've done a great job with your MySQLi Connectors, and now helping Richard with Doctrine. What was your biggest challenge?
My biggest challenge right now is staying focused on Xoops while I work a full time job 40 hours a week, attend school towards my Bachelors and being a Single Parent. Going through the code of 2.6 some of the different programming styles by the different authors has been a little interesting as well. Some of the code is done really nice and some not so nice. Trying to figure out what some of the code does can be a challenge.
What are you working on now?
As much as I can I am helping Richard update the 2.6 code base to work with Doctrine and some bug fixes along the way. When finished Xoops core should be able to run with any Doctrine supported database. At some point I may also be updating the Install script to run smoother than the one we have now and make it support Doctrine as well.
If you could add one feature to XOOPS, what would it be?
I have really 3 big features I want to add to Xoops over the next year or two.
- Remote installation of Modules - this will allow you to download and install modules directly from the admin menu.
- Update to the Groups/Permission system. There are some features I want to add that should make Groups/Permissions more powerful but still compatible with what currently is in place. Things such as an ACL, group based themes, and time based group memberships.
- Rewrite of Profile. I want to make this much more flexible and based on a plug in system to allow easy improvements not requiring rewriting of the core code to add new functionality.
What is your major achievement in programming that you're most proud of?
The programs I wrote back in the 1980's that were a decade ahead of their time. The main program was mentioned in a chemical industry magazine and my boss put it in for a contest where it won 2nd place for program of the year in the same Chemical industry magazine. All written in Basic on an Atari 8 bit computer at the time.
What are your hobbies, when you're not coding?
I enjoy playing video games with my teen aged Daughter on our PS3. I also do all sorts of cycling in my area. I have a mountain bike and have road tires too so I can go wherever I want both on and off road, on and off trail. I also weight lift and when I have the spare time I have played Semi-pro football and Rugby. I am 6'3" and just over 300 lbs so when I play football I play as a lineman, in Rugby I play #1 or #3 and Tight Prop.
You favorite dish and drink?
I would have to say standard Beef and potatoes would be my favorite thing to eat. I may drink some pop but otherwise I am not much of a drinker of much outside of water.
What about movies and music?
I tend to like stupid humor movies or anything that makes me laugh without having to think too much. Music wise as long as it is not country I will likely listen to it.
05. XOOPS Innovation Award
Our XOOPS Innovation Award is given to people who create something very unique and very innovative for XOOPS! We are clear that XOOPS can only succeed, when we push the limits of our creativity, imagination, and innovation to "infinity and beyond" . And therefore we would like to recognize people who create this "WOW!" effect, when we see what they've done. The XOOPS Innovation Award is not a monthly award, i.e. theoretically, there might be a month where we won't give one, but we certainly hope that this will never happen
This month, we would like to recognize Charly Cobben (chco2) from Netherlands for his work on the QRCode and CuErPa modules.
Where are you from, and where do you live now?
I live in the south of The Netherlands ( not Holland as it only part of a province here :) ) in a city called Oosterhout.
How long have you been programming?
Web programming started about ten years ago. Starting with Perl and then PHP. Programming in general dates back to machine language on my Commodore 64 :)
What is your expertise?
I answered that in detail in the WOX newsletter from April 2011. What has become part of my core business is 3D (modeling mostly) together with video editing. This takes about 50% of my work. the other 50% is Web development and Desktop Publishing (magazines, company brands, etc..)
What got you to XOOPS?
Let's turn that question into "What keeps you with XOOPS"
All the things I answered in the WOW newsletter of April 2012 are still very valid and what amazed me is the fact that XOOPS is so versatile and rock-solid that some websites I made have over 300 pages of content and a news archive dating from 2007 and XOOPS still flies. Without a glitch. Also some websites got a complete cosmetic overhaul that most people think it has been built again from scratch, while all I've done is create a new theme. This is what makes me keep using XOOPS. Just marked my 70th XOOPS website just yesterday
In what area of XOOPS do you contribute and why?
Mostly module development and some Theme development. If I get a customer that wants a custom module or theme I always try to get them to have the result over to the community. This is how the QRCode module came to be (Wuth the start of the Xurl module) and also the Responsive theme.
You've done a great job with your new responsive theme. What was your biggest challenge?
Thank you!
Well it was done for a customer and creating the theme for XOOPS was not even challenging, it was straight forward and went very smoothly. The only challenging is to get the modules to behave the way I wanted them within the Theme. Luckily most can be fixed with just changing CSS rules. The Smarty variables allow to check what blocks are used and allow for physical change to the Theme. Very handy!
If you could add one feature to XOOPS, what would it be?
For the future: Great development manual. And only one manual that covers it all with tutorials. Allowing developers and semi-developers (like me ;)) to get into XOOPS development with only one download!
What is your major achievement in programming that you're most proud of?
In regards to XOOPS it would still be the Xurl module. As it was my learning curve for XOOPS module development and it spawned the QRCode module and many more.
What are your hobbies, when you're not coding?
Still my kids. Gaming is still hot on my list (old skool ;)) and cooking!
You favorite dish and drink?
Nothing changed there from April 2012 :) Still too much whiskey though
What about movies and music?
Also the same, although I did add Hugh Laurie to my musical collection with his two new Blues albums. Great stuff!
If you would have a chance for a 30 seconds commercial with a message to the world, what would you say?
Gonna quote my previous one as I still stand by it : "That only takes 5 seconds: "Make religion your guide, not your goal or prophecy. Do not be a fanatic about it and appreciate others in their way of thinking." Many of the world's problems relate to religion, it should not control your life and especially give you control over somebody else's life!"
If you could choose a place and time to live, what would it be and why?
Also still the 20's. But I'm loving this time and place very much as well!
Who is the person that you would like to meet and why?
Still go with William Shatner
Congratulations to all of our Winners. Starting last year, all Winners will receive a free book of their choice from O'Reilly. Also a free copy of PHP Storm from JetBrain.
07. New/Updated Modules
- CuErPa module 0.9 beta
- QRCode 1.2 module for XOOPS
- WF-Downloads module 3.23 beta ready for testing
- Module for stunning Presentations coming soon to XOOPS
- xNewsletter 1.1
- WeBlog 1.47 Beta 1 available for testing on XOOPS 2.5.6
- Portfolio 1.31 Final released for XOOPS 2.5.6
- Shoutbox 5.01 Final released for XOOPS 2.5.6
- Lexikon 1.51 Final Released
- extCal 2.37 Final is released
- Mylinks 3.11 RC4
- UHQ_GeoLocate v0.94 Released!
- Xoopspoll v1.40 Beta 1 - Ready for Testing
- gwiki 1.0 beta
- Classifieds 2.53 Final Released 05/05/13
- Userlog 1.01 Final released
- Smallworld 1.15 RC 12
- gwreports v1.1 RC available
- Extension Rating 0.1 Beta 1 for XOOPS 2.6.0
- SmartClone 1.10 Beta 1 and cloning of XOOPS Modules
- AdsLight 2.2 Beta 1 - Ads & Classifieds with Payment Options
- Common Utilities RC and xThemes RC available
- Sports Pack (Football/Soccer, Cricket, Darts) converted to XOOPS 2.5.5 Admin GUI
- SpeechSearch V1.0
- New Frameworks: WideImage_for_xoops
- D-Transport, new module by Xoops Mexico
- FBComment 1.0 RC Available
08. New Hacks
09. Security Issues/Alerts
- fixed in XOOPS 2.5.6 Security Patch - please update at your earliest convenience
10. YAXS, Sites using XOOPS
- DecoTrend Xoops
- New website Montecarlo-records.com
- Panel Kapılar
- Bulgarian Black Sea Website powered by XOOPS
- World of Tattoos
- Evolution of vistaide.com
- ClubGallos.com.mx Reloaded!
- XOOPS selected to power TQM department in the Saudi Ministry of Education
- Online Games Promotion Site
- Complexedusahel.org: a website powered by XOOPS
- Car Owners Manuals
- French Website for Mountain Biking powered by XOOPS
- Xoops site about the legendary Commodore 64
11. Tutorials/Add-ons/Documentation
- Tutorial: add a nice frame around your pictures
- Highlighting non-empty alphabet listing in XoopsTube
- YouTube plugin Installation in the TinyMCE editor
- XOOPS API documentation upgraded
- Tutorial: How to update tables to follow XOOPS' new naming scheme?
- Tutorial: New design for block comments, step by step
- Using templates pages in modules
- Multilingual features of XOOPS - White Paper
12. New/Updated Themes
- FREE Enzyme Theme for XOOPS
- Responsive theme for XOOPS
- Dedicated Theme for AdsLight module
- Xoops Food Theme
- [Free] Serenity Orange Theme for XOOPS!
- XDGreenCor: template FREE for Xoops
- Xoops AcidTech Themes Released!
- Free Design Sd-099-Noname-Green
- Free Xoops Theme Sd-099-Noname
- New version of Xoops Demo
- Theme Factory 7 - My new theme model to XOOPS
- Xoops Saka Theme Free
- Free XOOPS - Theme Sd-094-Blue-Print
- News template Bootstrap FREE for Xoops
- Premium theme for eorthodontie.com
- Xoops-2103 Theme Free
- A new HTML 5 and Responsive Theme for XOOPS!
- XDResponsive: Free Responsive template for XOOPS
- News Theme for Publisher Module
13. New Translations
XOOPS 2.5.6:
Earlier versions:
- Arabic for 2.4.0
- Bosnian for 2.4.5
- Croatian for 2.4.4
- Japanese for 2.4.5
- Swedish for 2.4.3
- Bulgarian for 2.4.0
We are still looking for more translations!!! Can you help? See the list here
14. News from around the World
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Brazilian Support (guxbrazil)
Chinese Traditional Support
Croatian Support
Czech Support
Danish Support
Dutch Support
Francophone Support
Greek Support
German Support
Italian Support
Japanese Support
Korean Support
Norwegian Support
Nordic Support
Persian (Farsi) Support
Polish Support
Russian 2 Support
Slovak Support
Spanish Support
Turkish Support
Vietnamese Support