History

Development of AMS started by it-hq.org before hand over to NovaSmart Technology later on.

The motivation behind AMS development is to produce Article management which is specially optimized for speed and ease the admin/article contributor job. Each feature added with performance in mind.

As a result, AMS is the best balance between good features and performance for large articles website compared to other XOOPS article modules. Read the detail study here

AMS actively develop by it-hq.org until 2005 before abandon. The development of AMS only takeover by NovaSmart and actively develop there start from middle 2007.


Features

WYSIWYG XOOPS editor integration : Your choice of using the default Xoops editor or any editor provided by XOOPS editor; selectable via AMS preferences and submission form (FCKeditor, Koivi, TinyMCE, etc).

NOTE: You MUST install XOOPS editor separately before this feature can be used here

Advanced Spotlight management : Choose your AMS spotlight block layout from 6 different template layouts, and add unlimited spotlight blocks with the option to display article mini stats including total articles, total article reads and total article comments. The all new spotlight block administration area allows you to configure exactly how and where to display your AMS spotlight item. From here you can add new spotlight items, selecting the latest article, the latest article in a topic, a specific article, or use the custom setting to display an image or banner using straight HTML code. You can also set things such as what image to display, wether to use an auto or manual teaser, how many characters the auto teaser should display, what text a manual teaser should contain, whether to display the spotlight item in the spotlight block or not, and item weighting where the lowest weighted item is treated as the main spotlight item.

Complete migration and upgrade script : This script enables you to migrate all content, permissions and comments from all presently released version of the News module. It also enables you to upgrade from AMS 2.2.

View by topic revamped : The view by topic view has undergone a huge overhaul and now presents itself with much more emphasis on navigation via topic and sub-topic.

New breadcrumb navigation system: viewable in the topic and article views for easier browsing.

Topics Manager : Topics manager now has a topic weighting system so you can set the listing order when using the view by topic mode.

Article image selection : You can now select to display the user avatar in addition to the topic or no image when viewing an article.

Article versioning system : allowing you to maintain several versions of the same article of which any one can be edited, deleted or set as the active article at anytime

Banner management with inheritance system : so you can enter banner code to be displayed at a topic, subtopic and article level

Searchable article ID system: for knowledge base like article reference * Article linking to any item within your own site as well as any external web resource with link hit counter visible only to site webmasters

Link topics to any NewBB 2 forum: which when set displays a 'discuss' button at the bottom of each article under that topic

Blocks listing: most read, most popular and most active authors displayed as an average or as a total. Each block with built in article spotlight feature in one or two column format

Article information header: which gives you author, audience, published date, version number, article ID and read counter at the top of each article

Powerful article management admin console: that displays all articles vital statistics, has powerful filtering, searching and sorting functionality, and gives you access to all the administrative functions you need all in one spot

Audience level system: allows you to specify what groups are able to read the extended article text of each article

All the features of the News 1.2 Module

Compatibility

XOOPS 2.0.x
XOOPS 2.2.x
XOOPS 2.3.x
XOOPSCUBE 2.1.x Legacy

AMS 2.50 Final vs AMS 2.42 Final

New Features

Added - Check latest version from server (admin->ams->about)
Added - Spotlight block (left/center/right) template can be choose.
Added - Spotlight template can be added straight into template folder and auto detected when install/upgrade
Added - Spotlight templace can have additional php command (see example ams_block_spotlight_ams_right)
Added - Spotlight template can have preview. Just put into XOOPS/modules/AMS/images/spotlight_preview.
Added - ????? support.
Added - FCKeditor, DHTML,HTMLArea,FCK,tinymce
Added - User can select their favourite editor at submit form
Added - Admin can choose to allow user to select their favourite editor or not

Enhancement

Enhance - Topic permission can be set in Topic Manager
Enhance - About page updated, and put at administration tab.
Enhance - replace some topic image with new image
Enhance - AMS now not depend on phpp/xoopsforge Frameworks anymore
Enhance - replace all deprecated function in xoops 2.3
Change - ams_block_spotlight_xxxx.html change to ams_block_spotlight_ams_xxxx.html
Enhance - some topic image replaced
Enhance - Republish & Expiry date-time box now auto check/uncheck

Bug Fix

Fix Bug - Submit return blank page if didn't install framework from phpp/xoopsforge.com
Fix Bug - Topic name with an ' (apostrophe) in it, cannot change the weight of that Topic
Fix Bug - After edit, article will disappear for 10 minute
Fixed bug - Republish article didn't reset expiration date

Language change:

Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_DHTML","DHTML");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_HTMLAREA","HtmlArea Editor");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_FCK","FCK WYSIWYG Editor");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_TINYMCE","TinyMCE WYSIWYG Editor");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_USER_CHOICE", "Enable Editor Choice To User");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_USER_CHOICE_DESC", "Enable user to choose which editor they want");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_CHOICE", "Editor Choices");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_CHOICE_DESC", "Choices of editors enabled to user");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_SPOTLIGHT_TEMPLATE","Spotlight Templates");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_SPOTLIGHT_TEMPLATE_DESC","Which template enabled to admin to be used in spotlight block");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_ABOUT", "About")
Remove - define("_AMS_MB_SPOTLIGHT_TEMPLATE_CENTER", "Minis Below Main");
Remove - define("_AMS_MB_SPOTLIGHT_TEMPLATE_RIGHT", "Minis Left of Main");
Remove - define("_AMS_MB_SPOTLIGHT_TEMPLATE_LEFT", "Minis Right of Main");

Known Issues:

- Image Manager not working in KOIVI. Work around is... Press "Image Manager" -> CHECKED "HTML" tickbox -> add image (from popup) -> UNCHECK "HTML" tickbox
- "Extended Text" WYSIWYG TinyMCE not working in PHP 4 environment. Its XOOPS Editor bugs, not AMS.


Roadmap

AMS 3.00 - SEO optimize with clean URL / SEF
AMS 3.10 - Additional SEO Features
AMS 3.50 - Cloneable
AMS 3.90 - Add modern article management features
AMS 4.00 - Speed optimization & enhancement

Current Developer/Maintain By

All future development of AMS will be handle by NovaSmart Technology. However, since the project is volunteered basis, this module only actively develop when PHP programmer in NovaSmart idling.

Visit NovaSmart XOOPS Module Development website