WOX (World of XOOPS) Newsletter # 16 (January 2009)

After couple of rough years, 2008 was a first good solid year for XOOPS, where we got our focus back and moved forward. I'm looking forward to 2009 - it will be great! But it will be AMAZING one if we all pull together and commit to make a difference for XOOPS - each of us in the areas where we can help. Remember that every little help will count!

As a community, we need to get together in 2009, get energized, and do more support for each other. We have here few amazing people like Ghia, JAVesey, Sailjapan, Stefan88, Mowaffak, Trabis, Burning, and several others, who dedicate their precious time to help our fellow XOOPSers, but we need more people to get involved and help. If you don't have skills to help with programming issues, you can write documentation, a short tutorials, or you can help beginners by guiding them to the right answer in Wiki or FAQ. There are so many opportunities to get involved and help.

Remember - XOOPS is powered by YOU!!!!

01. New XOOPS developments

Current Releases

02. XOOPSers of the Month

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 Susheng Yang (ezsky), the Webmaster of XOOPS China Website. It's the Webmasters of XOOPS local support sites who make the difference for all the people who don't speak English, and is sometimes their only entry to the wonderful world of XOOPS.

Where are you from, and where do you live now?

I live in Beijing, China.

How long have you been programming?

For about four years. I started with java and after I got to know XOOPS, I have been studying php to develop or hack XOOPS modules

What is your expertise?

I'm more familiar with user experience, front-end development and web design.

What got you to XOOPS?

Google! When I was taking a course on PHP web development in 2006, I googled and compared many different CMS, including XOOPS, joomla, drupal and so on. After some research, I found XOOPS provided the best support for multi-byte languages such as Chinese. XOOPS caught my eye also because it looked so ugly. But the most important reason was one of the founders and main developers was from China too.

What do you like the most about XOOPS?

I'm very lazy! So I really like the modulized framework and object-oriented design of XOOPS, which allows developers to focus on module design and enable fast development.

In what area of XOOPS do you contribute and why?

I'm now maintaining xoops.org.cn. I also participate in improving user experience and testing for XOOPS.

What you you major achievement in programming that you're most proud of?

2008 is the most exciting year in my programming experience. I not only maintained XOOPS China but led the redesign of its website and participated in the user interface design of XOOPS 3. I'd love to continue my work in all these exciting projects.

What are your hobbies, when you're not coding?

Billiards, mountain biking, and some other outdoor activities. I love playing guitar.

You favorite dish and drink?

I like green tea and vegetarian dishes.

What about movies and music?

I prefer comedies. I can't live without music. I listen mostly to rock, e.g. slipknot and David Gilmour.

Who is the person that you would like to meet and why?

No specific choice but I would really like to meet my friends from the XOOPS community.

03. 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 the award goes to Hong Kai Wu (tad) from XOOPS Taiwan for his work on various Tad-modules and his contributions to X School System !! Hong Kai Wu is also author of the "Easy Creation of Websites with XOOPS"

Where are you from, and where do you live now?

I am form Taiwan and live in Tainan County ('south Taiwan').

How long have you been programming?

When I became a teacher, my school was located in the mountains and I had only 3 students. So...I had a lot of time to learn other skills. I started to learn PHP by myself during that time. So all together I have been programming about nine years.

What is your expertise?

I am a elementary school teacher in the daytime, but now I work at the Educational Network Center of Education Department of Tainan County Government. At night I am teaching a XOOPS class in Tainan Community College.

What got you to XOOPS?

We needed a CMS software for School System in 2005. So I tested most of the major CMS systems at that time. We needed a system that can work in Chinese language and XOOPS was one of the few that offered this.

What do you like the most about XOOPS?

Double-Byte Character Support!

Why did you decide to develop School System ?

Because that is one of my work projects. In fact, the School System has two programmer - me and JRH. I developed the modules for school website like Tad News (News Module), Tad Cbox (Chat Widget like cbox for XOOPS Site), Tad Gallery and Tad Player...etc, and JRH has developed modules for students information that contained student profile, score...etc.

How is it now popular in Taiwan?

I am not totally sure about it. Maybe about four hundred or five hundred schools in several counties are using our School System.

What is your major achievement in programming that you're most proud of?

The fact that many people in Taiwan now use the modules that I've developed. I'm also proud that I could create a XOOPS module in a very short time.

What are your hobbies, when you're not coding?

I like to read comics and novels when I'm not coding.

You favorite dish and drink?

My favorite dish is "sashimi" and black tea.

Your favorite movies and music?

Yes, I like movies, I watch at least two movies a week with my family. It can relax me.

If you would have a chance for a 30 seconds commercial with a message to the world, what would you say?

If it's true, I would be dumbfounded.