A XOOPS man has some questions

[nachenko]

Hi everyone.

I've built a bunch of sites using XOOPS. I'm happy with it, but sometimes it's simply NOT the right tool. Then, looking around I found this, and I love the slogan.

This is the problem:
A friend of mine asked me for a good CMS for his personal (he's a pro guitarist) site. I know clearly what he needs, and I'd like to know whether CMSMS could be the right tool:


· He wants to stream and sell MP3 downloads through Internet.
· Events / calendar system to promote his shows.
· Photo gallery with categories.
· Notifications system, so users can subscribe, and receive notices about events, gallery updates, news, etc.
· Contact form with some sort of anti-SPAM (very important in these difficult times)

So this is it. Is CMS Made Simple the right tool for him?

Thank you.

[cubix]

welcome to cmsms nachenko

With alittle work, all of what you have suggested can be achieved.

have a browse around the forge, things like album, calender, nms, formbuilder, captcha etc modules.

depending on how complex you want the streaming and mp3 download system you could use some of the embed/streaming modules and uploads etc..

hope this helps.

[cyberman]

but sometimes it's simply NOT the right tool.

Not only sometimes ... most times  ... in cause of this reason I've moved completely from xoops to CMSms . It's a lot easier to handle ...

[nachenko]

Thanks both for the replies.

I've been surfing here for a while and yes, there are modules for usual stuff. I discovered CMSMS uses Smarty, which is really good news to me, as Smarty is one of the things I like most on XOOPS. Now I'm in a better position to ask:

· XOOPS has a good debug console that shows PHP errors, MySQL queries and Smarty variables and templates. This is one of the best things it has. Has CMSMS something like that?

· In PHPNuke-like systems, modules are "black boxes", they can't hook or communicate with other modules the way Drupal or Xaraya do. This makes it more simple to understand, but also limited in functionality. How's CMSMS about this?

· Does CMSMS work in a architecture of main content / blocks like PHP-nuke? You know, left column, center column, right column, main content of the module always in center column...

· Adding new fields to a publication type. Say we want our News form to have two additional text fields: Source of the Story and Location. In Drupal or Xaraya, you can do it via control panel, no code required. In XOOPS, you have to code and modify the database. How is it in CMSMS?

Thank you again.

[cyberman]

· XOOPS has a good debug console that shows PHP errors, MySQL queries and Smarty variables and templates. This is one of the best things it has. Has CMSMS something like that?

There are some options.

To the first you can set the debug mode in config.php to true so you'll get a more detailed view (You have to clear cache after that change).

For getting Smarty variables CMSms has an own tag named {get_template_vars}. Place it in template or in content (where you want) and you will see all available Smarty variables. But you can use the {debug} tag of Smarty too.

For connecting database CMSms use a database layer named AdoDB lite. It supports mysql and postgresql. If you need ful sqlite support you can/must switch to ful AdoDB (see config.php too).

The database layer has a debug console too and it's easy to activate it

http://adodblite.sourceforge.net/debugconsole.php

· In PHPNuke-like systems, modules are "black boxes", they can't hook or communicate with other modules the way Drupal or Xaraya do. This makes it more simple to understand, but also limited in functionality. How's CMSMS about this?

Nothing it's easier like that - CMSms is based on interaction between modules.

For example default CMSms install comes with a module named CMSMailer. It does ... nothing , means nothing for frontend users. It brings functionality of phpmailer to CMS made simple and can be used from all modules like News module, Comments module, Guestbook module and some other does.

Or another example. Default CMSms install has a News module and an index based Search module. If there's a new article posting from frontend, News module interacts with Search module to index the new entry.

Code: Select all

$module =& $this->GetModuleInstance('Search');

Interaction made simple  .

Another way of interaction it the Event Manager. There are some predefined events which can be used to react/answer. An example from default install - if you add a content page Search module get a sign to index this one. It's like a specialized cron job ...

· Does CMSMS work in a architecture of main content / blocks like PHP-nuke? You know, left column, center column, right column, main content of the module always in center column...

No, thats too limited. Create the templates like you want (yes, every page can get an own template!) and place the modules and tags where you want - it's so simple ... free your mind.

· Adding new fields to a publication type. Say we want our News form to have two additional text fields: Source of the Story and Location. In Drupal or Xaraya, you can do it via control panel, no code required. In XOOPS, you have to code and modify the database. How is it in CMSMS?

Basically that's similar like xoops.

But some modules (for instance News and Calendar module) supports the adding of fields. And with FormBuilder/FormBrowser you can built your own database inside CMSms.

And if there's a function you want it for CMSms but it doesn't exist you can add php snippets via admin panel (user defined tags).

Hope, that helps and I forgot nothing ...

[cubix]

impressive post cyberman, ever considered sales? 

[nachenko]

Great reply, thanks a lot.

So you can call any module from any template with just a line of code. Well, this is just amazing.

I think I'll download some docs and try a local installation to have a look.