WOX (World of XOOPS) Newsletter # 37 (October 2010)

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 .

Your donation will be used 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!

If you wonder what is happening with XOOPS money, please read the 2009 XOOPS Financial Report

This month it was very slow - we've got only one donation

Ian A. Underwood: $25

Ian has been a tremendous XOOPS Supporter, donating every month $25. Ian, thank you so much!!! We wish, there would be more like you...

Thank you so much for supporting XOOPS!!!!

02. New XOOPS developments

XOOPS is the 2010 Open Source Awards Finalist in the CMS category
Interview of Mage by ArabXOOPS Community
New logos for Packt's Open Source CMS Awards
XOOPS on Facebook fan list growing
"Web Tools" Package 0.9 is released
XOOPS Core Development Updates As Of August 1st, 2010
XOOPS 2.4.5 Final Is Released (incl. international versions, already over 20,000 downloads)

Current Releases

XOOPS 2.5.0 RC (see latest development on SVN)
XOOPS 2.4.5 Final
Documentation on the API
Modules working with XOOPS 2.4.x (Babylon by Xoops)

03. Team Reports

In 2010 we are re-introducing monthly Team Reports from our XOOPS Teams.

Core Development Team

XOOPS 2.5.0 RC has been released (see latest development on SVN)

DJ continues working on X3 - the latest news that he incorporated Smarty 3.0, which is a great news!

Documentation Team

Redheadedrod started work on cleaning up the Wiki. Due to workload, not much progress there.

Modules Development Team

No new team activities.

Theme Design Team

Great new theme manager from Algalochkin!

Community Coordination/Support Team

Standard maintenance of the Website, and keeping it current. Move to XOOPS 2.5.0 RC

International Support Team

no new Websites.

See Support Site Guidelines. Unfortunately some support sites do not anymore offer the quality of support we are looking for so these sites will have to be removed as official support sites and no longer linked to from the International Support page. This will however, open the opportunity for other webmasters in these regions to start and maintain a local XOOPS Support site, which is a lot of fun and you'll help a lot by spreading our great CMS to your area and language. To apply for official status, use this form (login required).

XOOPS on Facebook: join the main XOOPS group on Facebook

Communication/Marketing Team

WOX newsletter, keeping press informed.

04. 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 Philippe Masson (Philou) from XOOPS France , where he is one of the Webmasters, for all the support there

Where are you from?

I am French and live in the middle of the country, in a small town called Blois.

How long have you been programming?

I am falling in the code when I was young, in the beginning of the 80’s (I’m born in 1967)

What is your expertise?

I’m an IT guy, and my skills are especially turned in the production software, MRP II, Kaban,… but I like also installing server, maintain it. I find interesting the network admin part. For my job I have worked on many languages as Fortran, Basic, VB, Delphi, C++, windev, Unix shell… and of course PHP / MySQL

What got you to XOOPS?

At the beginning I needed to find a CMS to my work purposes. I wanted to build an intranet but after some tests with nuke-like I have discovered XOOPS and keep it !

In what area of XOOPS do you contribute and why?

It’s difficult for me to give a complete answer to this question.

Since 2002, when I had discovered XOOPS, I’ve made many different things.

First I have worked in themes with Befamao, a very cool guy, a friend now. I have worked with him to the site http://www.xoops-themes.org this website was the first multilingual support dedicated to the themes. It was for XOOPS v1 and after a while for XOOPS v2.0 It was also the first theme library. After one year I have worked to fill the theme library in http://www.xoops.org

In the mean time I have worked to merge frxoops.org, xoops-themes.org, xoops-modules.org… in one website to help the French community to find support and be more efficient. I was in the core team of xoops.org during few years. I push frxoops in a French meeting, the RMLL in 2004. The second RMLL2005 was in Dijon, many French team members were present (Chritian, Solo71, Herve, alain01, king76, vivi, foups, thecat). After this we decide with Solo71, Herve and Christian to represent the French community at the FOSDEM in Brussels I think it’s a very important to know others contributors. During this meeting we meet Skalpa, Herko, Mithrandir, jegelstaff and some other international users…).

Since the FOSDEM I’m working to build different team in frxoops, the open source is not so easy to manage and it’s very very difficult to see the difficulties for them to take their places. (Especially when we have to be cool when we have some relationship issues between major valuable users) In summary. It’s strange because I hate adversity ! but if no one take these problems in charge there is no future for our community .

I promote XOOPS every time I can ! There is a lot of website build with XOOPS in my relations (personal but also professional). I will say a big 'THANK YOU' to the other french team members because they are doing a good work, even it's difficult with some "specials" users. In an other hand I had produce some public themes and modules (formulaire, pictureurl, pages…) but also many non public modules created for my work. (industrial waste manager, hazardous product manager, technical data support, quality repository, after sales apps….) I work now to give these modules to the community but it’s not so easy because it was professional oriented. I have just finished also a new public module for car repair service.

If you could add one feature to XOOPS, what would it be?

at least a true WYSIWYG support everywhere in XOOPS without any hack or install, but also a ‘built in’ theme generator (as Dupral for example)

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

I’m very proud of the intranet of my work. It’s a useful tool for my colleagues and creating specific modules is always a true pleasure !

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

I love motorcycle rides, family WE.

You favorite dish and drink?

I have no particular preference for eating (it’s a problem ) and I like Jack Daniel’s and old bourbon an Irish whisky

What about movies and music?

I like special films as terminator, matrix, inception.. but I’m also fan of Star Wars, Star Trek.

I like all music (My first job was DJ when I was young). My preferences right now are rock and blues.

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

Don’t spend money in commercial apps only, take open source and discover a different world.

If you could choose a place and time to live, what would it be and why?

I’m very happy to live where I live now. I’m born here, found my wife here, works here. It take 5 minutes to go at work. I know I’m lucky !!

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

I’d like to meet Mamba because I like the way he takes care of XOOPS. I’d like also meet all French team members and take a time with 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 the Innovation Award goes to Alexander Galochkin (algalochkin) from Russia, for his innovative IXTFrameWork theme management module! This is his 3d Innovation Award!

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

I am from Russia, and live in Ekaterinburg. It's the third most important city in Russia (after Moscow and St.-Petersburg), and is is located near to border of Europe and Asia.

How long have you been programming?

If I consider coding in general, then for a long time, as I started programming in C in 1985. But if we are talking about Web-programming, then more recently - approximately in 1996. Although now I am involved more in the design of sites.

What is your expertise?

Mainly HTML, CSS, a little PHP and Javascript

What got you to XOOPS?

When I worked once on a site for one of my clients, it was required to provide high degree of dynamic interaction, thus the big capacity of a site, support of various languages and still possibility of connection of the modules. In the end, only XOOPS was able to fulfill these requirements!

What do you like the most about XOOPS?

I love in XOOPS its amazing flexibility when I develop sites of various complexity and direction. And, of course, its modular structure.

What made you to decide to work on the Theme Manager?

The big desire to make the life of users much simpler.

You just released the first version. What are the future plans for the Theme Manager ?

The further improvement of a code and addition of new features. And of course, all versions of this module will be free

What other new cool things do you work on?

As always there are a lot of great ideas, but not all of them will ever reach implementation. It is sometimes banal that ideas perish in the absence of financing or the sponsor.

If you could add one feature to XOOPS, what would it be?

I think, that properties of system should correspond to time requirements. Now I would like to wish to strengthen actions on advancement and popularization of XOOPS. It is more than articles about XOOPS, more than positive examples of use.

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

I think that it's still ahead.

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

My hobbies are quite usual, I take a great interest in sports. In the winter - mountain skiing. And in the summer, in the spring and in the autumn - the rollerskating.

You favorite dish and drink?

Coffee with a lemon. I am indifferent to alcohol.

What about movies and music?

I listen to different music from classics to rock. It depends on mood.

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

Now I have nothing to tell to the world. Let commercial time is used by politicians, it is their work.

If you could choose a place and time to live, what would it be and why?

We live during interesting time, therefore - here and now.

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

I can not tell why, but now I would like to meet Great Leonardo Da Vinci.