XOOPS
Encyclopedia
XOOPS (ˈzuːps) is a free
open source
content management systems (CMS), written in PHP
. It uses a modular architecture allowing users to customize, update and theme their websites. XOOPS is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License
(GPL) and is free to use, modify and redistribute.
Due to its popularity all over the world, there are several books written about XOOPS in many languages.
's 2006 Community Choice Awards in the Development category, it was selected due to its reputation as Open Source CMS for testing by eWeek, and the latest in Awards/Recognitions in 2008 being from Germany's Chip Magazine (5 Stars), Adobe Edge Magazine(Top 3 content management system
), and ONDD (one of top Open Source CMS for Medical Professionals). It also received the 2009 Grand Prize in OSS Challenge in Korea and receives the China-Japan-Korea Open Source Software Contest Award successively since 2008.
It consistently ranks as Top 5 CMS in the Open Source CMS Awards organized by Packt
Publishing. In 2008 it ranked Top 5 in Best PHP Open Source CMS, and was Top-5 finalist in 2009 Best Overall CMS Award category. Onokazu, a founder of XOOPS and Taiwen Jiang, Development Lead, won the title of "Open Source CMS Most Valued People" at the Packt awards in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
: Because XOOPS is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) the growth and development of XOOPS is dependent on the contributions of a worldwide community effort.
Database : XOOPS uses a relational database
(currently MySQL
) to store data required for running a web-based content management system.
Advanced access control layer : Administrators have the ability to grant specific groups of users specific access rights to content and features such as edit, delete, upload, add attachments, publish content, and so on.
Modularized : Modules can be installed, uninstalled, activated, and deactivated using the module administration system.
Core features usable by modules : XOOPS possess a number of core features that can be used by modules like permissions, comments, notifications and blocks features.
Personalization: Administrators have the ability to set specific permissions for user access and control of individual elements of their websites.
User Management : The ability to search for users by various criteria, send email and private messages to users through a template-based messaging system.
International language support : The XOOPS community has official support sites around the world for non-English-speaking users. Additionally XOOPS itself supports multi-byte character sets for languages that use characters not in the Latin alphabet
, for example Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, etc. The multi-language support is also available on the PDF generation feature provided by the TCPDF
library.
Theme-based skinnable interface : XOOPS uses themes for page presentation. Both administrators and users can change the look of the entire web site by selecting from available themes.
Templates : XOOPS uses the Smarty
templating engine which allows many benefits such as easier separation between business logic and presentation logic as well as content caching.
Built-in LDAP authentication
Some SEO add-ons : A number of XOOPS modules contain features to facilitate the indexing of a website in search engines, like metatags, title tags and occasionally some URL rewriting. However, XOOPS does not give its users full control over their URLs. Where URL rewriting is possible, XOOPS often uses redirects that may confuse search engines. In addition, some XOOPS modules create duplicate content by making the same information available on more than one URL while in other cases (especially in case of multilingual sites), several sets of content may be made available through the same URL.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
content management systems (CMS), written in PHP
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
. It uses a modular architecture allowing users to customize, update and theme their websites. XOOPS is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
(GPL) and is free to use, modify and redistribute.
Overview
XOOPS is an acronym of "eXtensible Object Oriented Portal System". Though started as a portal system, it is now developing as a Web Application Platform towards a application engine for web and mobile. It aims to serve as a web framework for use by small, medium and large sites, through the installation of modules. For example, a small XOOPS installation can be used as a personal weblog or journal, but this can be expanded upon and customized, for example users might add the appropriate modules (freeware and commercial) to store content in news, forums, downloads, and more. Constantly updated and improved, it draws praises from reviewersDue to its popularity all over the world, there are several books written about XOOPS in many languages.
Awards/Recognitions/Achievements
XOOPS received numerous awards and recognitions, among them the First Runner-Up status in the SourceForge.netSourceForge.net
SourceForge is a web-based source code repository. It acts as a centralized location for software developers to control and manage open source software development. The website runs a version of SourceForge Enterprise Edition, forked from the last open-source version available...
's 2006 Community Choice Awards in the Development category, it was selected due to its reputation as Open Source CMS for testing by eWeek, and the latest in Awards/Recognitions in 2008 being from Germany's Chip Magazine (5 Stars), Adobe Edge Magazine(Top 3 content management system
Content management system
A content management system is a system providing a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based...
), and ONDD (one of top Open Source CMS for Medical Professionals). It also received the 2009 Grand Prize in OSS Challenge in Korea and receives the China-Japan-Korea Open Source Software Contest Award successively since 2008.
It consistently ranks as Top 5 CMS in the Open Source CMS Awards organized by Packt
Packt
Packt, pronounced Packed, is a print on demand publishing company based in Birmingham, UK.-Company:Packt published its first book, Mastering phpMyAdmin for Effective MySQL Management, in April 2004, and continues to specialize in publishing focused books on specific technologies and solutions...
Publishing. In 2008 it ranked Top 5 in Best PHP Open Source CMS, and was Top-5 finalist in 2009 Best Overall CMS Award category. Onokazu, a founder of XOOPS and Taiwen Jiang, Development Lead, won the title of "Open Source CMS Most Valued People" at the Packt awards in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
Key features
CommunityCommunity
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
: Because XOOPS is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) the growth and development of XOOPS is dependent on the contributions of a worldwide community effort.
Database : XOOPS uses a relational database
Relational database
A relational database is a database that conforms to relational model theory. The software used in a relational database is called a relational database management system . Colloquial use of the term "relational database" may refer to the RDBMS software, or the relational database itself...
(currently MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
) to store data required for running a web-based content management system.
Advanced access control layer : Administrators have the ability to grant specific groups of users specific access rights to content and features such as edit, delete, upload, add attachments, publish content, and so on.
Modularized : Modules can be installed, uninstalled, activated, and deactivated using the module administration system.
Core features usable by modules : XOOPS possess a number of core features that can be used by modules like permissions, comments, notifications and blocks features.
Personalization: Administrators have the ability to set specific permissions for user access and control of individual elements of their websites.
User Management : The ability to search for users by various criteria, send email and private messages to users through a template-based messaging system.
International language support : The XOOPS community has official support sites around the world for non-English-speaking users. Additionally XOOPS itself supports multi-byte character sets for languages that use characters not in the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
, for example Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, etc. The multi-language support is also available on the PDF generation feature provided by the TCPDF
TCPDF
TCPDF is a free and open source software PHP class for generating PDF documents. TCPDF is currently the only PHP-based library that includes complete support for UTF-8 Unicode and right-to-left languages, including the bidirectional algorithm....
library.
Theme-based skinnable interface : XOOPS uses themes for page presentation. Both administrators and users can change the look of the entire web site by selecting from available themes.
Templates : XOOPS uses the Smarty
Smarty
Smarty is a web template system written in PHP. Smarty is primarily promoted as a tool for separation of concerns.Smarty is intended to simplify compartmentalization, allowing the presentation of a web page to change separately from the back-end...
templating engine which allows many benefits such as easier separation between business logic and presentation logic as well as content caching.
Built-in LDAP authentication
Some SEO add-ons : A number of XOOPS modules contain features to facilitate the indexing of a website in search engines, like metatags, title tags and occasionally some URL rewriting. However, XOOPS does not give its users full control over their URLs. Where URL rewriting is possible, XOOPS often uses redirects that may confuse search engines. In addition, some XOOPS modules create duplicate content by making the same information available on more than one URL while in other cases (especially in case of multilingual sites), several sets of content may be made available through the same URL.
See also
- Content management systemContent management systemA content management system is a system providing a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based...
- Free softwareFree softwareFree software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
- Open source software