Please help us spread the word 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!
Standard maintenance of the Website, and keeping it current.
Our
"XOOPSer of the Month" Award is given to XOOPS members who show extraordinary dedication to XOOPS, and go the extra mile for XOOPS. Sometimes they do something spectacular, but most of the time they just do something everyday, but by doing it day-in and day-out, they make a BIG DIFFERENCE in life of XOOPS community. And we thank them for that!!!
This month, we would like to recognize Cedric Montuy (black_beard) from France, for his work on TCPDF updates, and his contributions to XOOPS France.
Where are you from, and where do you live now?
I was born in the north of France, in a small town named Armentieres. I grew up in a city calling Hazebrouck still in northern France. After a few moves, I landed in southern Quercy. It is a beautiful region in the southwest of France. I live in the countryside, near a small village called Castelnau-Montratier.
How long have you been programming?
I program since I was 12 years old, I am 37 years old now, so it has been 25 years since I program. I started programming on Amstrad 464 by learning BASIC, then through my studies in electronics, I learned machine language and assembler. Since then, I learned C, Pascal, PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript, BASH, and other languages that fell into a little obsolescence. But my favorite is the PHP.
What is your expertise?
I have a lot of experience in marketing and especially programming. Sometimes I contribute to the Debian project. I'm good at securing networks and servers. In my work, I developed a lot of APIs, mobile applications, and I work on SEO semantic. Especially, I like having challenges in software programming.
What got you to XOOPS?
I was looking for a CMS, I've tried several and I ended up adopting XOOPS.
What do you like most about XOOPS?
I like XOOPS for the flexibility in object-oriented design, stability and security of the platform.
In what area of XOOPS do you contribute and why?
I contributes to XOOPS in several ways :
- I have created several modules for my clients. At the end of the year, I'm going to release some modules under a free license to XOOPS community.
- frxoops.org administrator, I am committed to revitalize and restructure the site.
- I test some modules and make corrections with the test team to CESAG.
You've been helping with many modules, incl. the TCPDF porting to XOOPS, in addition to helping the French XOOPS community. What are the biggest challenges and opportunities that you see for XOOPS?
XOOPS is good CMS, but it has not evolved with the new standards and new technologies as fast as its competitors. Progress has been made to make up for lost time since last year but it has been delayed. XOPS must quickly adapt to new standards (HTML5/CSS3, etc ...), new technologies (smartphone, tablet, ...), and prepare for the future (web 3.0).
If you could add one feature to XOOPS, what would it be?
I am currently developing a "XOOPS modules download platform" to download and install XOOPS module directly without going through the FTP (kind that exists on Debian or Eclipse). As soon as I finish developing this module, I would put at the disposal of the XOOPS community.
What is your major achievement in programming that you're most proud of?
My first site, it was 10 years ago (100% HTML) 
Since then I have come a long way.
What are your hobbies, when you're not coding?
my family, walks in the forest, nature, zen ambiance
You favorite dish and drink?
I love spaghetti bolognese, pizza houses, and lasagna bolognese. And to drink, I prefer to drink plain water.
What about movies and music?
Movies: The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Gladiator and Braveheart.
I listen to all kinds of music except Rap and R&B
If you would have a chance for a 30 seconds commercial with a message to the world, what would you say?
Learn to live in harmony with yourself.
Be happy and go after yourself
If you could choose a place and time to live, what would it be and why?
Anywhere and anytime, as long as the place is in harmony with nature and it is quiet
Who is the person that you would like to meet and why?
I always wanted to meet the great love that I've found 12 years ago in my wife. So now I have no preference - I meet people that fate makes me cross and I enjoy every moment
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 Martin Logan (playsome) from UK for his work on the Whitlawburn Community Resource Centre website.
Where are you from, and where do you live now?
I am from Glasgow in Scotland and that is where I currently live.
How long have you been programming?
I've been coding in HTML and CSS for over 8 years, I am more of a front end coder but I do dabble in PHP sometimes if I have to modify something.
What is your expertise?
My expertise is in HTML and CSS and front end design
What got you to XOOPS?
Back in 2004 I was wanting to build a website as a hobby, I did not know anything about CMS’s and at that point I didn’t know much about building websites so I needed a CMS that was easy to use and customizable, I tried a few different CMS but ultimately I stuck with XOOPS as it was the easiest for me to use and customize. That original website I built with XOOPS got very popular (a Michael Jackson fansite) and I have stuck with XOOPSever since for any project that requires a CMS
What do you like the most about XOOPS?
Its ease of use and how easy it is to customize themes and templates even with limited knowledge of HTML/CSS, I haven't found a CMS that is as easy to modify as XOOPS is and I think that it's one of XOOPS' great strengths.
Your recently redesigned Website for Whitlawburn Community Resource Centre looks very impressive. What was the main goal for the design?
The main goal for the redesign was to make a responsive website that looked good on a mobile device. Being a community based charity, it is essential that we can communicate with as wide a range of people as possible, as more and more people browse the web on mobile devices, it was important to create a website that was viewable on a wide range of devices, thanks to responsive design and the power of XOOPS templating, we now have a great looking desktop website and a great looking mobile website without the need for two separate applications.
What was your most important learning from working on this Website?
I learned a few things from working on the website, I learned a lot more about responsive design and HTML5. For me working on any new project is a learning experience as each new project has it’s own challenges, for example with the redesign I had rewrite module templates to use divs instead of tables for layout so getting all that working nicely was a learning experience.
If you could add one feature to XOOPS, what would it be?
Definitely URL rewriting in the core.
What is your major achievement in programming that you're most proud of?
Probably this recent redesign, it was a challenge for me to turn a fairly large website into a responsive site for mobile and modify a lot of templates. I am pleased that it turned out well.
What are your hobbies, when you're not coding?
Playing video games and guitar
You favorite dish and drink?
My favorite dish is probably pizza and my favorite drink is of course Scotland’s other national drink Irn Bru, which is a soft drink.
What about movies and music?
I like mostly sci-fi and comedy movies and as for music anything rock, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai and of course anything by Michael Jackson.
If you would have a chance for a 30 seconds commercial with a message to the world, what would you say?
Everyone just be cool to each other.
If you could choose a place and time to live, what would it be and why?
I would probably live sometime in the future, anywhere in the world would be fine because hopefully in the future the world will be a better place.
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
08. New Hacks
09. Security Issues/Alerts
10. YAXS, Sites using XOOPS
11. Tutorials/Add-ons/Documentation
12. New/Updated Themes
13. New Translations
XOOPS 2.5.5:
Earlier versions:
We are still looking for more translations!!! Can you help? See the list here
14. News from around the World
15. Local support sites
16. How to contribute
