XOOPS 2.5.x Operations Guide

Xoops Documentation Series
XOOPS 2.5.2
Operations Guide
www.xoops.org© 2011 XOOPS Project

XU-003 XOOPS Operations Guide
Last change: 9/26/2011 4:24 AM Page 2 of 77 XOOPS Documentation Team
All About XOOPS:
XOOPS is a Content Management System (CSM) and a Web Portal program that allows administrators to easily create dynamic
websites with great content and many outstanding features. It is an ideal tool for developing small to large dynamic community
websites, intra company portals, corporate portals, weblogs and much more. It can be installed on an Internet host with a PHP-
capable web server (e.g., Apache) and a database (e.g., MySQL).
The main Project websites is www.xooops.org
XOOPS is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) and is free to use and modify. It is free to redistribute
as long as you abide by the distribution terms of the GPL.
What XOOPS stands for:
XOOPS is an acronym of eXtensible Object Oriented Portal System. Though started as a portal system, XOOPS is in fact striving
steadily on the track of Content Management System. It can serve as a web framework for use by small, medium and large sites.
It is highly scalable, from a personal weblog or journal through a community website to an enterprise installation. It has numerous
modules that can be used to create all the basic functionality required of the system, e.g. News, Forums, Downloads, MyLinks etc.
Customized modules can also be developed by users and integrated seamlessly with the core to serve specific needs such as
eCommerrce.
Pronunciation guide
The standard pronunciation of XOOPS follows English rules, and is pronounced [zoo'ps].
Key features of XOOPS
Database-driven
XOOPS uses a relational database (currently MySQL) to store data required for running a web-based content management system.
Fully Modularized
Modules can be installed, uninstalled, and activated or deactivated with a click using the XOOPS module administration system.
Personalization
Registered users can edit their profiles, select site themes, upload custom avatars, and much more!
User Management
XOOPS offers users the ability to search for users by various criteria, and send email or private messages to other users through a
template-based messaging system.
Supported World-wide
XOOPS was created and is maintained by a team of several hard-working volunteers from all over the world. The XOOPS
Community has more than a dozen official support sites around the world for support of non-English speaking users.
Multi-byte Language Support
XOOPS fully supports multi-byte languages, including Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and Korean among others.
Versatile Group Permissions System
XOOPS comes with a powerful and user-friendly permissions system which enables administrators to set permissions by group.
Theme-based skinnable interface
XOOPS is driven by a powerful theme system. Both administrators and users can change the look of the entire web site with just a
click of a mouse. There are also over 60 themes available for download!!
XOOPS has received numerous awards:
It was a Finalist for the Best Project of SourceForge 2008 Community Awards and finalist for Best PHP Open Source CMS
organized by Packt Publishing. In addition, XOOPS received Awards from “Adobe Edge” as a Top CMS, received 5 out of 5 Stars
from Germany's CHIP Magazine, or placed as a top CMS on a list published by ONDD.
XOOPS has over 6,600,000 downloads from the SourceForge Website and is with that the #1 CMS (Content Management System)
on SourceForge.
Authors: XOOPS Documentation Team, updated by Michael Beck (Mamba)
Published 2011-09-25 Copyright © 2003-11 XOOPS Project. Released under Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 (CC BY-SA 3.0) license

1. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 6
1.1 THE XOOPS CORE 6
1.2 MODULES 7
1.3 BLOCKS 8
1.4 USERS AND GROUPS 8
1.5 CONTENT 9
1.6 LANGUAGE FILES 9
1.7 THEMES AND TEMPLATES 9
2. THE ADMIN INTERFACE 10
2.1 LOGGING IN 10
2.1.1 AS SITE ADMINISTRATOR 10
2.1.2 AS REGISTERED USER 11
2.1.3 INCORRECT LOGIN PROCEDURE 11
2.1.4 LOGGING OUT 11
2.2 CONTROL PANEL HOME 12
2.2.1 SOME PRELIMINARIES BEFORE WE GET STARTED IN THE ADMIN AREA 12
2.2.1.1 JavaScript 12
2.2.1.2 Cache 12
2.3 WORKING WITH THE NEW ADMIN GUI (OUR DASHBOARD) 13
2.3.1 HELP FUNCTIONS 19
2.4 AVATARS 21
2.4.1 ADDING AVATARS 21
2.4.2 EDIT AND DELETE AVATARS 21
2.4.3 SYSTEM AVATARS 22
2.4.4 CUSTOM AVATARS 22
2.5 BANNERS 24
2.5.1 WHAT ARE THEY? 24
2.5.2 CURRENT ACTIVE BANNERS 24
2.5.3 ADD NEW BANNER 24
2.5.4 EDITING BANNERS 25
2.5.5 FINISHED BANNERS 25
2.5.6 ADVERTISING CLIENTS 26
2.5.7 ADD NEW CLIENT 26
2.6 BLOCKS 28
2.6.1 OVERVIEW 28
2.6.2 EDITING/CONFIGURING A BLOCK 29
2.6.3 ADDING CUSTOM BLOCKS 31
2.6.4 CLONING A BLOCK 32
2.7 COMMENTS 34
2.7.1 OVERVIEW 34
2.7.2 MANAGE COMMENTS 34
2.8 GROUPS 36
2.8.1 OVERVIEW 36
2.8.2 THE DIFFERENT SETS OF RIGHTS 37
2.8.3 EDIT MEMBERS OF THIS GROUP 39
2.8.4 CREATING A NEW GROUP 40

2.9 IMAGE MANAGER 41
2.9.1 ADDING IMAGE CATEGORIES 41
2.9.2 EDITING AND DELETING IMAGES AND CATEGORIES 42
2.9.3 ADDING IMAGE FILES THROUGH THE CONTROL PANEL 43
2.9.4 ACCESSING THE IMAGE MANAGER FROM THE USER SIDE 44
2.10 MAIL USERS 46
2.11 MAINTENANCE 49
2.12 MODULES 50
2.12.1 ACQUIRING A MODULE 50
2.12.1.1 Module origins 50
2.12.1.2 Ancillary files 50
2.12.1.3 Copyrights and GPL notices 51
2.12.2 UPLOADING THE MODULE 51
2.12.2.1 Preparing the module files for upload to a remote server 51
2.12.2.2 Using FTP or browser file uploader 51
2.12.2.3 Upload the module package 51
2.12.2.4 Setting file/directory permissions 51
2.12.3 INSTALLING THE MODULE 51
2.12.4 SETTING MODULE VISIBILITY AND MENU ORDER 53
2.12.5 CONFIGURING MODULE SETTINGS AND OPTIONS 54
2.12.5.1 Renaming module 54
2.12.5.2 Display and position options for the module 55
2.12.6 SETTING USER ACCESS RIGHTS FOR A MODULE 56
2.13 PREFERENCES 57
2.13.1 GENERAL SETTINGS 57
2.13.2 USER INFO SETTINGS 60
2.13.3 META TAGS AND FOOTER 62
2.13.4 WORD CENSORING OPTIONS 63
2.13.5 SEARCH OPTIONS 63
2.13.6 MAIL SETUP 63
2.13.7 AUTHENTICATION OPTIONS 64
2.13.8 SYSTEM MODULE SETTINGS 64
2.14 SMILIES 66
2.14.1 USING SMILIES 66
2.14.2 ADDING AND EDITING SMILIES 66
2.15 TEMPLATES 67
2.15.1 THE DEFAULT TEMPLATE SET 67
2.15.2 CLONING AND DOWNLOADING TEMPLATE SETS 68
2.15.3 EDITING TEMPLATES 68
2.15.4 UPLOADING A NEW TEMPLATE SET 69
2.16 USER RANKS 70
2.17 USERS MANAGEMENT 71
2.18 FEEDBACK 77
Table of Figures
FIGURE 1: OXYGEN - XOOPS ADMIN SCREEN THEME..................................................................................................13
FIGURE 2: ADMIN GUI SHOWING SYSTEM INFORMATION .............................................................................................15
FIGURE 3: NEW EXTRA TABS .......................................................................................................................................15
FIGURE 4: SWITCHING TO "SILVER" SKIN .....................................................................................................................16
FIGURE 5: CONTROL PANEL MENU ITEMS ....................................................................................................................17

FIGURE 6: MODULE MENU ITEMS..................................................................................................................................18
FIGURE 7: PREFERENCES MENU ITEMS..........................................................................................................................18
FIGURE 8: LINKS MENU ITEMS .....................................................................................................................................19
FIGURE 9 VIEW OF THE BANNER...................................................................................................................................27
FIGURE 10 BLOCK MANAGER MAIN VIEW ....................................................................................................................28
FIGURE 11 BLOCKS FILTERING.....................................................................................................................................29
FIGURE 12 BLOCKS POSITION.......................................................................................................................................30
FIGURE 13 COMMENTS FILTERING...............................................................................................................................34
FIGURE 14 EDIT GROUP PAGE.......................................................................................................................................37
FIGURE 15 MODIFY GROUPS PAGE ............................................................................................................................38
FIGURE 16 MODULE ADMINISTRATION ........................................................................................................................52
FIGURE 17 UPDATE AND UN-INSTALL A MODULE ........................................................................................................53
FIGURE 18 MODULE ACTIVATION AND MAIN MENU VISIBILITY ...................................................................................53
FIGURE 19 DEACTIVATED MODULE. .............................................................................................................................53
FIGURE 20 MODULE MENU ...........................................................................................................................................55
FIGURE 21 TEMPLATE SET MANAGER ..........................................................................................................................67
FIGURE 22 EDITING TEMPLATE FILE ............................................................................................................................69

1. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
XOOPS is at the same time a software package, a network of Web sites and a very friendly and
supportive community spread all over the world. The tie that binds together software, sites and
community is the Web, the graphical face of the Internet.
To learn about the sites all you need to do is to point your browser to any of the XOOPS sites and there
you’ll feel the warmth and strength of the community. To learn about the software, your best bet is to
download the latest package and to begin playing with it. What? No documentation? Yes, we know
(remember? We’ve also been there). XOOPS suffers from a lack of enough good documentation, and
though this has been an effective incentive for many webmasters, for many more it has been a turnoff.
That’s part of the reasons behind this manual. It’s part of a really much wider and deeper collective effort
that goes under the moniker “XOOPS Documentation Project” and that is being tackled slowly but surely
by a team of dedicated xoopsers (or xoopers, as some others call XOOPS fans: xoopies?).
So this manual will explain, with enough detail to also serve as a reference guide, the main workings of
XOOPS, the software. Since there’s already another document called XOOPS Installation Guide (XU-
002), we’ll assume in this document that you’ve already installed your XOOPS package and have now a
live XOOPS site. We’ll deal here with that oh-so-very-common-question that comes up once an again:
what do I do after I install my XOOPS?
Ok. We’re ready to begin. If you’re set, let’s proceed at the beginning.
XOOPS is a tool to manage dynamic Web sites. This simple definition may serve you to have an initial
grasp of the usefulness of this singular package. But it’s so general that it’s almost as saying nothing.
Let’s try again. XOOPS is an open source set of scripts written in PHP that, when installed in an Internet
host that has support for PHP, a web server such as Apache, and a MySQL database manager, allows
the easy creation of dynamic, complex and content-rich Web sites, from personal weblogs all the way up
to corporate portals.
XOOPS means eXtensible Object Oriented Portal System, and even though some call it ex-oh-oh-pi-es,
the standard pronunciation of XOOPS is more like ‘zoops’.
Derived from other open source projects (XOOPS is a descendant of the venerable PHPNuke, through a
branch called myPHPNuke. A good part of the package was completely rewritten, although there are
inside the scripts pieces of old code that show their age when compared with the most recent parts.
As its ancestors, XOOPS is strongly oriented towards the construction of community sites. But it is flexible
enough to serve as a single-webmaster site (a blog, for instance) and as an enterprise content-oriented
portal.
In this introductory chapter, we’ll take a quick look at some of XOOPS main features. In later chapters
we’ll see in detail how is it that XOOPS does its magic.
1.1 The XOOPS core
An easy way to think about XOOPS is to think of it as a commercial mall. In a mall, many different kinds of
stores and businesses and services are lodged under the same roof, each with its own personality yet
within the general frame of the mall’s design. To the outside world, the mall has huge windows that show
some of the merchandise that can be found in the inside. To the individual store owners, the mall is like a
turtle’s hull: it provides not only the physical space, but also a lot of basic services: electricity, water, air
conditioning, some marketing, security, parking lot… the list goes on.
New let’s take a look at XOOPS under this metaphor. XOOPS is the mall; it’s the general hull that
provides services to its tenants. Have you seen a mall with no stores? There’s no reason to go there at
all; the same is true about XOOPS. If you see just the hull, there are not many reasons to visit the site.
Modules are this mall’s tenants. If XOOPS, the mall, is a bunch of scripts that provide the general
framework of a dynamic Web site, then modules, the tenants, are smaller packages made up of scripts
that provide a particular content offer to the site’s visitor. One module provides news; another, a picture

gallery; another one, a discussion forum; yet one more, an area to download files. All these offer reasons
for users to visit the site. And the general idea, as in a physical mall, is that the result is greater than the
arithmetic sum of the parts.
In what other way are modules like the mall’s tenants? Well, to get installed in the site they must follow
some rules. Some of them are coding rules: if a module doesn’t have a xoops_version.php file, XOOPS
doesn’t even know it’s there. If the module doesn’t take advantage of the mall’s services, it would need a
lot of code to accomplish common things. XOOPS, the mall, provides the modules things like user
management, security, structure, functions and classes, and so on. There are also some presentation
rules. Just as a mall’s store has to follow some of the building codes, a XOOPS module has to follow
rules to create blocks and rules to present content using the Smarty template engine.
In the outer wall, a mall showcases the stores within. In its homepage, a XOOPS site showcases the
modules within. The mall does it with shop windows; XOOPS does it with blocks. The mall administrator
decides what merchandise to highlight in the shop windows. The equivalent, which is the XOOPS
webmaster, decides what blocks to highlight in the home page.
Of course, a metaphor can only go so far before it gets s funny. Let’s not pursue this any more, or we’d
need to explain that XOOPS the mall has some advantages over the real mall: it can switch between
personalities to have a different look (using themes, called skins in other contexts); it can easily change
the structure of the home page, the labels of the modules, etc. But the general idea is useful, as it
separates clearly three basic components of the XOOPS system:
The core, where the general functionalities of the site reside. The core also provides some extra features
such as the notification options, that let users be informed about specific changes in a module’s content;
the commenting system, that lets users leave on the site comments about specific content items; and the
installation routine that makes sure a module complies with the elementary rules to be automatically
incorporated to the site.
The modules, which hold the actual content of the site, and which can be as simple as a block that
displays a daily quote, or as complex as a full e-commerce package that allows the webmaster to make
live commercial transactions on the Web.
The blocks, which are “windows” to a module’s full content, though some blocks have an existence of
their own.
The XOOPS core is actually a package of interrelated PHP files that in an appropriate setting provide the
functions needed to operate the website. Many of these functions are completely hidden from the end
user, and are only used by modules in order to work properly. Many more are visible to the user and to
the webmaster through the System module, which gives the user some essential functions such as the
login procedure, the main menu and the user menu, a hint of who’s online, access to the search function,
and some theme-switching capability, to name a few. The core and the System module also give the
webmaster the admin area, the place where most of the control over the site happens.
To sum up, then, the XOOPS core comprises a lot of power hidden under calls to classes or functions,
provides the functional framework, the templating engine, the handling of languages and much more. It
accomplishes part this through the System module, which is the only one installed in a default XOOPS
package, as it’s through this module that the webmaster decides what other modules will be part of the
live site.
1.2 Modules
As mentioned before, modules are the software constructs that, taking advantage of the infrastructure
that XOOPS provides, let the webmaster offer the site’s users dynamic or static content generated using
a Web interface that more often that not is very easy to use.
Part of the power of XOOPS resides in the way modules are managed. The webmaster can easily install,
uninstall, activate or deactivate any specific module (except the System module, for obvious reasons). It’s
also possible to rename modules, and to determine the order in which they will appear to the end user in
the site’s menu –if you want them to appear at all–, because you can also provide hidden functionality,
defining active modules that have no visible presence to the casual user. For instance, you could install a

News module, edit its xoops_version.php file so that the installation directory is something difficult to
guess (let’s say: gaeqhweas), and then define this module as not visible by defining its menu position as
zero (‘0’). Then you could send private messages to an elite bunch of your users and tell them to access
that directory typing the address in the URL field, something like http://www.yoursite.com/gaeqhweas.
They could access that News module as a regular News module.
XOOPS has been offered as a framework or operating core, and XOOPS webmasters will decide what
modules to install. There will be, on the other hand, a reviewing process that will serve to identify modules
built by xoopsers and that operate correctly under XOOPS framework. These modules will be marked
with an “approved” seal and as such will have the XOOPS core team endorsement as secure to use in a
XOOPS Web site.
1.3 Blocks
Blocks are like a newspaper’s front page: they are teasers that incite readers to read more complete
stories in the inside pages. Blocks offer small bits of dynamic content with links to the actual content
stored in the module.
Part of the things that happen under the hood or behind curtains when a module is installed in a XOOPS
site is that the module’s blocks are registered in the system so they can be used at will by the webmaster.
What can a webmaster do with a block? Well, mostly, decide about where in the site the block will be
shown (the equivalent of defining a shop window, which in this case can be in the outside, the home
page, or even in the inside: a block can be defined to be shown in other modules), and when shown,
where in a page will it be seen.
Every module that is installed in a XOOPS site registers its blocks in the system, and the webmaster can
decide where it will be shown, in what part of the page it’ll appear and what kind of relevance, weight or
position will it have. The site administrator can also edit the block’s label and, if knowledgeable enough,
can even edit the template that underlies the block’s presentation.
1.4 Users and groups
At the heart of XOOPS main functions is a robust user management system. Going back to our mall
metaphor, it’s like saying the XOOPS mall allows the mall administrator to present different visitors a
different mall depending on who they are. A XOOPS administrator can build a site that offers nothing to
some users, part of the content to other users, and all the content to still other users.
Since XOOPS was born out of systems designed to build online communities, its user functionalities
reflect this past. XOOPS allows the site administrator to define as many groups of users as deemed
necessary.
By default, XOOPS is configured with three groups of users: anonymous users, which have direct access
to whatever the administrator configures as visible for them; registered users, which usually have access
to more content once they log in the site; and webmasters, which have management roles over different
parts of the site. The site’s administrator can give users of this group differential control over some of the
modules.
The site manager can search for users by different criteria, as well as send mail messages or private
messages to groups or subgroups of users.
As to users, they have access to their profile, have some control over most of the information that will be
visible to other users, and have also an inbox to receive private messages from the site administrator or
from other users. They have besides control over what changes in the site will trigger personal
notifications. And depending on the permissions set by the site manager, they can see content and
participate in the site’s life by uploading content, writing stories or comments, rating content and in
general giving their feedback to what they see on the site.

Summing this up, XOOPS gives the site manager a lot of control over how the site’s users are grouped,
and also over what can specific groups see and do in specific areas of the site.
1.5 Content
Have you ever seen an unsuccessful mall? There are some. They have nice stores, an adequate
location, a nice infrastructure, yet visitors are few and they languish until the managers or owners give up.
The same thing can happen to a XOOPS Web site: it can have good modules, an adequate theme, all the
necessary functions, and still attract few visitors.
What’s the matter? That’s a tough question to answer, but more often than not the answer might lie in the
realm of content. In the Web, says common wisdom, content is king. If you have a nice News module but
you update once every two months, or if your news items are badly written, or if they have little relevance
for users, why should they visit often?
Content is the key to a successful site. And in the past many a webmaster complained about how difficult
it was to keep pace with the Internet’s frantic rhythm. Change a site’s content? Are you out of your mind?
Who has time to change all that HTML? The advent of content managers, Web interfaces that allow for
an easy update of the content changed all that. XOOPS’ infrastructure offers modules a lot of power to
define nice content management interfaces, so as a XOOPS webmaster you’ll be concerned with what to
show and not with how to show it.
A XOOPS site’s content is stored in a MySQL relational database, so it can be easily retrieved, stored,
archived or otherwise used.
1.6 Language files
Although XOOPS at the moment doesn’t offer multi-language capability in its core, we offer XOOPS
versions in several different languages, and if your language is not there, you can translate easily all the
site’s strings without needing to touch the code. Meanings are stored in language files that can be easily
translated to adapt XOOPS to your particular language. You can also use a specialized modules to have
multi-language capabilities
Unlike some other packages, XOOPS fully supports multi-byte languages, which means it can be used to
deploy sites in Japanese, Chinese (both simplified and traditional), Korean, etc.
Since the XOOPS community is spread all over the world, chances are there’s already a support
community for your specific language. There are at least a dozen support sites worldwide, and many
xoopsers have translated language files to many more languages. Just search and, if you don’t find what
you need, ask around.
1.7 Themes and templates
XOOPS allows for some separation between the actual presentation of the site (the “skin” or user
interface) and the code that runs in the back. The first one is handled by a sophisticated mechanism
based on graphical themes. A theme may include, in its basic form, the essential HTML templates that
define the visual interface of the site, as well as the style sheets and images needed to complement that
visual interface. Themes are switchable in the administrative interface, so changing the whole
appearance of a XOOPS site it’s just a matter of changing the value of a selector and clicking on
“Accept”. XOOPS also provides site administrators with the ability to let users choose among some
available themes.
Generally speaking, a theme is the high level visual framework of a site: the theme defines, for instance,
the general layout of the site; on the other hand, it does not usually define the specific distribution of
content within a block. This is handled by a different entity called a template set. A template set is an
ensemble of HTML templates that define the presentation of content within all the blocks that form a
XOOPS Web site. If we want a more clear metaphor for this, we could say that the theme is like the
architect of a house, while the template set is like the interiors decorator. The first one sets the walls and
defines the general distribution, but it’s the second one who’s in charge of “dressing” those walls.

If the active theme is a simple one that only includes a theme file, CSS files and some images, XOOPS
employs the default template set to define the presentation of blocks. However, some complex themes
like the one called Zetagenesis are sophisticated enough to include their own template set. In this case,
the site administrator must use the administrative interface to set both the theme and the template set.
How is the theme magic accomplished? That is, how can HTML templates include dynamic content? This
is done not with mirrors and smoke, but with a clever template engine called Smarty that makes the
function of what used to be called variable interpolation. Expressed in a simple way, we could say that the
XOOPS system uses PHP files to hold the logic of the modules (access to the database, allocation of
variables, management of rights...), HTML files with Smarty variables inserted to manage the actual visual
interface, and the Smarty engine to insert values and strings in specific places within the HTML that
builds the pages seen by the end user. All in all, what this means to you can be easily summarized:
thanks to its theming system, XOOPS lets site designers build more interesting and visually stunning sites
without much concern about what happens under the hood.
2. THE ADMIN INTERFACE
2.1 Logging in
The XOOPS content management system comes with an integrated membership
registration section. Once registered, users can login by entering their username and
password in forms displayed in a login block on the page. New registration is
accomplished by pressing the “register now” link. This opens a page where an
anonymous user may register by inputting basic details, like a user name and
contact email. Registration allows access to restricted content of the site as defined
by the site administrator. Site administrators can elect not to display the login form if
they wish, or simply disallow registration. However the form is displayed on the home
page by default on initial installation.
Login is required to access any restricted content of the site. Successful login is
accomplished by inputting a correct username and password as confirmed during the registration
process.
If an unregistered user submits a URL that deliberately or accidentally calls a file or page that is
designated as 'restricted content', then the login page is automatically returned by default. This defeats
the URL call until authorised access is confirmed by successful login.
Site administrators need to login to access the admin part of a site.
Registered users may login to access other parts of the site that have been designated as registered
members content. Registered users may also be given extra rights, such as posting in forums,
commenting and submitting news items etc.
Administrators of a site can also define extra-restricted areas (not accessible to registered members) that
display unique content. They can then assign any registered member access rights to that area.
All these access features are defined and controlled in the 'groups' section in admin and are discussed in
detail later in the manual.
For now let's describe the login procedure as follows:
o As site administrator
o As registered user
o Failed login procedure
o Logging out
2.1.1 As Site Administrator

During the installation of XOOPS you were asked to input an 'Admin name' and 'Admin password' Both
these strings are case sensitive and should be used to login to your site as 'site administrator'. A site
administrator has unrestricted access to the site and allows entry to the website administration section, as
well as the normal registered user section. Both usernames and passwords may be changed in the
administration>edit user section. Make certain your login strings are unique and secure, as they will grant
access to any user who inputs them!
Once logged in as administrator a new menu section appears in your home page sidebar with a link to
'Site administration'. This link appears because of your login status as administrator and is the link to the
main control center for your site. It is possible to promote any registered user to site administration level,
though for security reasons this is usually assigned to select trusted personnel only.
2.1.2 As Registered User
Any visitor may register with your site (if you allow site registration) granting access to restricted content,
interactivity and privileges, depending on how your site is configured. They will not have access to the site
administrator's link to the admin section, nor will they be able to gain access by inputting the admin URL
in the address bar. (Access is combined with a cookie function)
Users can only register using unique usernames and password combinations. As administrator you may
also assign certain usernames (in Site admin>user info settings) that you want to prevent new registrants
using. Once any combination of username/password strings has been used the system will not allow
duplication for security reasons.
Registered users can change their passwords at any time by updating their account information. Once a
registered member logs in successfully, they are returned to the site page they were viewing. Other
features and menus of the site may now be available to them, depending on how the site is configured.
2.1.3 Incorrect Login Procedure
If for any reason an unrecognised combination of username and password is used during login, the
system will return an 'Incorrect login' page. A subsequent page displaying the login form quickly follows
this. There is also an extra input form for requesting a new password by email should it be lost or become
insecure. Users should re-enter their login details and try again, or request a password replacement by
email. The login box also displays a “lost password?” link that goes directly to this page.
If a new password is required, fill in your email address in the appropriate form. A registration confirmation
email is sent to the address entered if it is recognised in the database. Click on the link in the email to
activate another email post containing the new password. Use the new password along with your original
username to login on the next visit. You will probably want to change the password back to something
more memorable in your account details.
2.1.4 Logging Out
When logged in it is always advisable to end your session by logging out before leaving a site or leaving
your computer unattended for periods of time. This is simply good security practice to prevent any
unauthorised access.

2.2 Control panel home
Having logged in successfully as a site administrator you are now shown a new menu called ‘user menu’
in the home page. Click on the link ‘Administration menu’. This link is unique to you the Webmaster, or
site administrator, as we shall refer to in these pages. Click this link to open your Control panel home
page!
The control panel home page is the nerve centre for your whole site. You will certainly be spending many
happy hours here creating content and administrating, so take some time to become familiar with the
functions and facilities available. That ‘rather empty home page’ will soon take on the appearance and
usefulness of a truly professionally built Website, providing you plan thoughtfully and experiment with
care and some background knowledge.
2.2.1 Some preliminaries before we get started in the admin area
2.2.1.1 JavaScript
JavaScript is used in various functions of the administration section, both to display menus and also
within scripts. Please make sure JavaScript is enabled on your local machine. If JavaScript is enabled
you will see pop-up menus appear when you hover over ‘system admin’ icon in the control panel home
page. If you decide not to activate JavaScript, simply click the icon to return a new page of menus as
detailed below.
2.2.1.2 Cache
Much of your site creation and administration will involve changing layout, images, text, and module
functions. If you want to see these changes immediately by visiting your web pages, it is important that
your browser displays fresh content from the server and not old cache data from your local machine! This
particularly affects images. Make certain your browser is set to ignore cache memory when updating your
site content.
Let’s begin exploring, learning and creating our site by working through the menus displayed under
‘System admin’ icon. We will work through these alphabetically for convenience, however you may decide
to visit the ‘preferences>general settings’ section first in order to review and set some important options.
There is no specific or recommended order for administrating your site, although you may wish to simply
create a content block and activate a module, just to see how things work!

2.3 Working with the new Admin GUI (our Dashboard)
XOOPS 2.5 has as a default a new Admin GUI – the “Oxygen”, developed by Voltan (Hossien Azizabadi),
and which is based on EXM created by Bit3CR0 (Eduardo Cortés).
Figure 1: Oxygen - XOOPS Admin screen theme
Our new Dashboard is a major move forward toward improved ease of use for XOOPS users, with nice
GUI and clear pull-down menus, as well with System Information and helpful Tabs.
1) On the very top you see a Toolbar (1) with several buttons:
that provide a direct access to the System Options:
 Avatars
 Banners
 Blocks
 Comments
5
4
3
2
1

 Groups
 Image Manager
 Mail Users
 Maintenance
 Modules
 Preferences
 Smilies
 Templates
 User Ranks
 Users
 Help
2) The System Options are also visible in the Pane (2)
3) The “Installed Modules” Pane (3) shows images of the currently installed modules
4) In the “System Overview” Pane (4), you can check your current System values (like PHP and Apache
versions, and most important configuration values, as well as more info about XOOPS, and links to our
Gift shop, in case you would like to purchase a T-Shirt or coffee mug with XOOPS Logo.

Figure 2: Admin GUI showing system information
5) New in 2.5.0 is the additional Pane with new extra Tabs:
Figure 3: New Extra Tabs

The new Tabs provide extra information for the Administrator:
 Help
 Waiting Content
 New Members
 Top Posters
 Recent Comments
XOOPS 2.5.0 provides couple of “skins” that you can change for a different look of the default theme, with
currently available: Dark and Silver:
Figure 4: Switching to "Silver" skin
Of course, you will be able to create your own skins, if desired.

Figure 5: Control Panel Menu items
In the Control Panel Menu you have following choices:
Menu Item Description
Home Page It will get you to your Homepage
XOOPS News It will pull latest XOOPS news from
www.xoops.org
Logout It will log you out from your website

Figure 6: Module menu items
The Modules Menu will show all installed modules, and in a submenu for each of them – their individual
options.
Figure 7: Preferences menu items
The Preferences Menu shows preferences for XOOPS as well as individual modules that you have
installed on your system.

Figure 8: Links Menu items
The Links Menu provides you with links to useful sites:
 XOOPS Website
 XOOPS modules repository
 XOOPS Themes gallery
 XOOPS Project location on SourceForge
2.3.1 Help Functions
Every screen in the Control Panel has now a Help function. When you click on the “Help icon”
The pane will expand showing Help content:

2.4 Avatars
Avatars are small graphics or pictures that can be used in various content settings around the site. They
are often used next to a user name to add a bit of ‘visual identification’. Typical applications are the forum.
The Avatar Manager allows the Site administrator to add, edit or delete System Avatars as well as
Custom Avatars. System Avatars are images uploaded by the Site administrator in the Avatar Manager
section. Custom Avatars are images directly uploaded by a user. For a user to be able to upload an
avatar, the correct option must be configured in the User Info Settings of the Site Preferences.
2.4.1 Adding avatars
The Site administrator can add an avatar by filing these fields in the Avatar Manager:
Field Description
Name: This is the name that the user will see when selecting an avatar.
Image File: The path of the file to be uploaded. The image file can be selected by
clicking the 'Browse button' This opens a selection box on your local
machine.
Display order in image
manager:
This is the value used by the image manager to sort avatars.
Display this image: If the item ‘No’ is checked, the avatar will not be display to the user in
the list of selectable avatars a user can choose.
Table 1 - New Avatar
2.4.2 Edit and delete Avatars

Selecting the ‘List ‘ next to ‘System Avatars’, the Site administrator can edit the name and the display
order of all the System Avatars, as well as deleting anyone of them. Note that if the Site administrator
deleted an avatar that is used by a user, this user will lose his avatar.
2.4.3 System Avatars
The System Avatars are avatars uploaded by Webmaster, and made available to the users for individual
selection.
The Webmaster can upload several avatars to /uploads/avatars directory, which will be then available for
adding to “System Avatars”, or he can upload a new avatar directly from his PC.
To preview available System Avatars, please click on the “System Avatars” icon to open this screen:
Under each of the Avatars, you’ll have four possible actions:
- Set the display of the avatar “on” or “off”
- Show how many people are using this avatar
- Edit info about the avatar (e.g. change the name)
- Delete the avatar permanently
2.4.4 Custom Avatars

The Custom Avatars are avatars directly uploaded by the users. For a user to be able to upload an
avatar, the correct option must be configured in the User Info Settings of the Site Preferences: “Allow
custom avatar upload?.”
In this screen the Admin can:
- Set the display of the avatar “on” or “off”
- Show who is using this avatar
- Edit info about the avatar (e.g. change the name)
- Delete the avatar permanently (currently not available)

2.5 Banners
2.5.1 What are they?
Banners are advertisements displayed in the top section of the page. They may be images or flash
movies, e.g. the wildly gyrating XOOPS banner that is part of the default installation. XOOPS has a built
in system for managing banners and creating accounts for advertising clients, which is found in the
System Module -> Banners. You can have multiple banners on a XOOPS site – the display area rotates
through each of the active banners in turn each time a new page is loaded.
Each time a banner is displayed to a visitor, this counts as one ‘impression’, which is the common trading
currency of banners. Clients typically pay for a certain number of impressions – i.e. to have their
advertisement displayed a certain number of times.
Please note: If you are in the business of selling banners based on the number of impressions there is
one important thing you should do: Go to System Module -> Preferences -> General Settings and fill in
the ‘Your IP Address’ field (if you have one). This will prevent your visits to the site from being included in
the impression count. Failure to do this could be considered somewhat dishonest (noting, however, that
many Administrators don’t have a permanent IP – e.g. those using dial up modems).
The Banner Administration section of the control panel is divided into several sections, described below:
2.5.2 Current active banners
A summary of the details of banners currently being displayed. ‘‘Impressions’ is the number of times the
banner has been displayed. ‘Imp. Left’ is the number of paid impressions remaining. ‘Clicks’ is the
number of times a visitor has clicked on the banner. This is used to calculate ‘% Clicks’ which is a useful
gauge of the effectiveness of a banner – the higher the better. ‘Client Name’ is the owner of the banner.
2.5.3 Add new banner
You can add new banners to your website by clicking on the “Add a new banner” button, which will open
this form:

The fields are as follows:
Field Description
Client Name: Assign the ownership of a banner via this drop down box. The client
must be registered first!
Impressions purchased: Enter the number of impressions the client has paid for here. Enter ‘0’
to give them unlimited impressions (this is useful for your own
advertisements, or arrangements based on time rather than
impressions).
Image URL: Enter the URL to retrieve the banner here.
Click URL: Clicking on the banner will open the URL assigned here. This would
normally be the client’s website or a page describing the product.
Use HTML? You may wish or need to use HTML in your banner. Check this box to
enable it (it is disabled by default).
Code HTML: If you want to use HTML, enter it in this box.
2.5.4 Editing banners
Click on the middle ‘edit’ icon to open a form that displays the banner and its details. The fields are almost
the same as above and may be changed freely. The only difference is that the ‘Impressions Purchased’
field is now called ‘Add More Impressions’; and the number of impressions already paid for / used is also
displayed. You can reduce the number of impressions purchased by entering a
negative number.
2.5.5 Finished banners
Banners are moved to this section of the control panel as they become inactive (i.e. when the number of
impressions left = zero).

2.5.6 Advertising clients
A list of your current clients and their details:
2.5.7 Add new client
Click the “Add Client” button and fill in the form to register new advertising clients.
This creates an account that the client can login to view the current status of their banner advertisements:
Field Description
Client Name: Normally the name of the company.
Contact Name: Your contact at the company.
Contact Email: Make sure you get this right. A summary of current banner statistics will
be sent to this address when the client requests a status report (see
‘Client banner accounts’ below).
Client Login: Assign a login name for your client here. You will have to inform clients
of their login and password manually. This is entirely separate from the
main site login system.
Client Password: Assign a password for your client’s account here. The client cannot
change this. Pick something secure.

Extra Info: A discretionary ‘notes’ field, enter anything you like in here.
Clients can check the status of their banners at any time by visiting http://www.yoururl.com/banners.php.
This presents a login screen where the client must enter their login and password (assigned by you via
the ‘add client’ form).
After login, clients are presented with a table summarising their banner statistics (described in ‘Current
active banners’ above), and a display of their currently running banners. The ‘Email Stats’ link enables the
client to send the current report, marked with a timestamp, to their contact email address. The client can
re-point the banner to any URL they choose via the ‘Change URL’ box. This enables them to redirect the
focus of their advertisement as needed.
.
Figure 9 View of the banner

2.6 Blocks
Blocks are discreet sections of content that can be created and configured in the admin interface. Custom
blocks can be created and are typically made up of text, graphics and pictures. The content in these
blocks may be formatted individually or inherit the site formatting. Blocks may also be part of a modules
display output. The blocks administration page is where all blocks are configured and administered.
Blocks are like a newspapers' front page: they are teasers that incite readers to read more complete
stories in the inside pages. Blocks offer small bits of dynamic content with links to the actual content
stored in the module. They are often used to place HTML content, banners or pictures, and the site
administrators can easily create their own blocks with the "custom block" feature.
Part of the things that happen under the hood or behind curtains when a module is installed in a XOOPS
site is that the module's blocks are registered in the system so they can be used at will by the webmaster.
What can a webmaster do with a block? Well, mostly, decide about where in the site the block will be
shown (the equivalent of defining a shop window, which in this case can be in the outside, the home
page, or even in the inside: a block can be defined to be shown in other modules), and when shown,
where in a page will it be seen.
Every module that is installed in a XOOPS site registers its blocks in the System, and the webmaster can
decide where it will be shown, in what part of the page it'll appear and what kind of relevance, weight or
position will it have. The site administrator can also edit the block's label and, if knowledgeable enough,
can even edit the template that underlies the block's presentation.
2.6.1 Overview
The Blocks Administration page allows the Site administrator to organize the blocks for every page in the
site.
Figure 10 Block Manager main view
In XOOPS 2.5.0 we have introduced for the first time “drag & drop” capability, i.e. you can drag individual
blocks and drop them at the desired location (see above).

The visibility of the blocks configured in the system is decided by four drop-down filter menu options at
the top of the table:
Figure 11 Blocks Filtering
The four drop-down combo boxes select options for “Modules”, “Pages”, “Group” and ‘Visible’. These
options control much of the content and functions of the site, so it’s really worth getting familiar with this
section.
Let’s look at Figure 11. By default, the table will display the blocks that are defined to appear for the
Registered Users and are currently set as “Visible”. Let’s have a look at some of the terms here.
Menu 1. “Modules”
This combo box selects which module we want to see. It shows all currently installed modules. We can
select all, and just individual modules.
Menu 2. “Page”
This combo box sets the page where blocks are displayed. For example, the Top Page is the home page
of the site. When a user types http://www.yoursite.com, the top page is what he sees. (This page can be
set in the General Settings of the site). The other choices of this combo box will list the different modules
of the site (Downloads, Web Links, Forum, etc…).
Menu3. “Group”
This combo box lists all the groups of the site. If the group ‘Webmaster’ is selected, the table will display
all the blocks for which the Webmaster group has access. Please note that the blocks permissions are
defined in the Groups section and discussed later in this guide.
Menu 4. “Visible”
The purpose of this combo box is simply to help the site administrator by filtering a specific visible status.
This combo box has 3 items: ‘Yes’, ‘No’ and ‘All’. The table will display the blocks that have their visible
property set to that value. If ‘All’ is selected, the table will return every block.
2.6.2 Editing/Configuring a block
Each block provided by XOOPS or its modules has three options:
- Visible on/off
- Edit
- Clone
In Custom Blocks you have also a Delete option:
When we click on the “Edit” icon, this will display the detail properties of the block and allow editing of
some of these:

Here are the properties and their descriptions:
Field Description
Name This is the name of the block. It cannot be modified here.
Block Type The position of the block. One of the eight ‘options’ must be selected for each
block. For an easier explanation you can see the image below:
Figure 12 Blocks Position
If no blocks are displayed in the right section of the page, the central section will
start at the end of the left section and will expand to the end of the page.
However, if no block is displayed in the left section, it will not affect the width of
the central section and the left section will just be blank. It is, of course, not

recommended to leave the left section with no block.
Also, the blocks that are defined with option “Center Block Center” will always
be displayed before the blocks that are defined with options “Center Block Left”
and “Center Block Right”.
Weight The weight is the value used by XOOPS to sort the display order of blocks in a
page. The sorting is done by section. This means that the weight of a block in
the left section will not affect the order of a block in the right section. The normal
page is divided into four sections;
1-The top panel, or banner.
2- The left hand section, or main navigation bar.
3- The centre panel, or main page content
4- The right panel, or second navigation bar.
The general principle is the following: the higher the number, the lower the block
will be. It is indeed exactly like weight in real life: heavier things go down faster.
It is useful to input your block weight in 5 or 10 increments. This allows for
inserting items later without needing to change other weights.
Visible For a block to be displayed, it has to have its visible property set to ‘Yes’.
Visible in This property sets the pages where the block will be displayed. In addition to all
the modules, the combo box items have ‘Top Page’ and ‘All Pages’. The ‘Top
Page’ will display the block only in the top page; the ‘All Pages’ will display the
block in every page of the site. Selecting multiple, non-consecutive pages is
possible by holding “Ctrl” on keyboard.
Title This is the title that will be displayed in the webpage for the block.
Content If this is a Custom Block that you’ve added, you can enter the content here (e.g.
HTML or PHP code), otherwise you’ll have a link to the Template Manager
where you can modify the template.
Options Many blocks have options that can be set to fully customize the block. As the
options are different for each block, we will not detail each one of them here.
Cache lifetime Cache lifetime is a useful feature for making a site run faster. If a block has
fixed content that is unlikely to change on a regular basis, it is possible to
instruct the browser to call the content from cache, rather than from the server.
This is particularly effective if graphics are part of the content. Use the settings
here to determine how long this content should be held in cache before
returning to server fed data.
Groups Select which groups you want this block to be visible for
Table 2: Block Editing
2.6.3 Adding custom blocks
As we said before, the Blocks Administration page allows the Site administrator to add custom blocks.
This is done by clicking on the “Add Block” button and filling the fields in the screen from

that opens. The properties are the same as the Table 2. Only one new property has to be set: Content
Type, which defines the type of content that is entered in the Content area: HTML, PHP, etc…
And, of course, the content itself:
2.6.4 Cloning a block

The last block feature that we want to cover is cloning a block. Sometimes, we would like to have a block
that is a variation of an existing block, so the question is – how can we “reuse” the existing one? It is done
by cloning. As shown above, as part of every block there is an icon to clone the block:
So let’s clone the Theme Block. After clicking on the “Clone” icon, we’ll get the block configuration screen.
Let’s only change the name of the block and make it visible:
And let’s see the user side:
As you can see on the left, both blocks are working just fine. Of
course, you can make more significant changes/modifications to the
cloned block.

2.7 Comments
Site administrators have the option of providing a comments section for users. Comments can be added
to many modules and displayed in a variety of ways. Comments can be screened, filtered, and made
available to selected groups. This provides quick easy interaction from site users, while maintaining good
moderation and security.
2.7.1 Overview
The Comment Manager allows the Site administrator to edit and delete any comment that has been
posted to the site, originating in any module that supports the comments feature.
Like the Blocks Administration page, some filters options are available to help the site administrator
manage the comments. New in 2.5.0: You can now select several comments and delete them at once
Let’s have a look at these filters operated from three combo box menus. :
Figure 13 Comments Filtering
a) Menu 1. Module
By selecting a particular module, the ‘List Comments’ will display the comments that were posted in the
selected module.
b) Menu 2. Status
By selecting a particular status, the ‘List Comments’ will display the comments that have the selected
status. Here are definitions of the possible status options:
Status Definition
Pending By default, when a comment is posted, it has to be activated by the Site administrator in
order to be displayed on the site. Comments that have not been activated keep this
status. Note that automatic activation of comments can be set in the settings of each
module that supports comments.
Active Comments that have been activated by the Site administrator have this status. These
comments are now displayed on the website
Hidden The Site administrator can hide a comment by turning its status to hidden. A hidden
comment will not be displayed on the website.
Table 1 - Comments Status
c) Menu 3. Number of results
This is the number of comments that the Comment List will display on the page at the time.
2.7.2 Manage comments

The List Comment table displays the comments that correspond to the previous filters. Here is the
description of the different columns:
Column Description
Title The title of the comment. Clicking on the title of the comment will display the
actual comment.
Poster The registered username of the person who posted the comment. Clicking on
the username of the comment will display the profile of this user.
IP This is the IP address of the computer from which the comment was posted.
Date The date and time that the comment was originally posted.
Module This is the module from which the comment originated.
Status This column displays the status of the comment, as previously explained.
Action
You can View, Edit, or Delete the comment
Table 2 - List Comment
The Site administrator can delete a comment by clicking on the ‘Delete’ link in the last column of the
table.
The Site administrator can also edit the comment by clicking on the ‘Edit’ link. This action will display a
page where all the comment properties can be edited.
If you’re dealing with a spammer who posted many spam comments, you can click on the top checkbox
which will automatically select all comments, and click on the “Delete” button to delete them all:

2.8 Groups
2.8.1 Overview
XOOPS incorporates a member registration system - you can optionally require people to sign up to your
site in order to have access to certain areas or functions. For example, most sites require people to join
before they are allowed to contribute news or post messages in the forums Access and administration
rights to a XOOPS website are set through a flexible permission system based on 'user groups'. The
default groups include anonymous users, registered members and webmasters, but of course you can
define as many groups as you need to manage your site. Each group can be given a unique set of access
rights governing:
- Which blocks can be seen
- Which modules can be accessed
- Which modules can be administered
- Which aspects of system administration can be modified
You can change the name of these default groups, but, you cannot delete them. Other user groups can
also be set and defined as discussed later.
Custom groups can be created through the Groups Administration page
XOOPS provides a core system of user access rights through the 'Groups' settings. This allows the site
administrator to control and filter access on at least 3 different user levels. All modules and their
associated blocks must have their settings for visibility, rights and access correctly defined in order to
achieve correct display and function on the website. Put simply, if you don’t grant these rights for a block
to every available group, it won’t be visible on the page.
The three default user access groups are as follows:
o Anonymous users;
o Registered users;
o Webmasters (site administrators);
You can change the name of these default groups, but, you cannot delete them. Other user groups can
also be set and defined as discussed later.
Let’s explain the meaning of each default groups. Someone who visits your site is an ‘Anonymous User’.
If a visitor is registered AND logged in to your site, he will be recognized as a ‘Registered User’. The
‘Administrators’ group automatically contains the primary user you created during the installation.
In a typical web setup we may set group permissions as follows:
a) Anonymous users:
Anonymous users may be allowed to view certain content as displayed by a particular module, or groups
of modules. When anonymous users visit your site they will automatically see a default level of content for
this group without any action on their part.
b) Registered users:
Registered users of the site can be granted rights to view and interact with other modules not available to
the anonymous group. On initial site visit, assuming there is no auto-login function, they see the default
content like any other visitor. However, when they login with their correct user details, the page will reload
to include any links, menus and module content accessible to the registered group. The site administrator

can design a site to display totally different module content, or simply additional module content to
registered users.
c) Webmasters:
As the creator of the XOOPS site the Webmaster or site administrator has complete and overall rights of
access and administration. However, it is possible to promote any registered user to Webmaster status
and share your privileges. It is safer to create a custom group and grant module and administration
access for selected modules if you wish to allow others to administrate areas of the site.
2.8.2 The different sets of rights
Go to System admin>groups>”Groups” page.
The ‘Groups Manager’ page begins with a section called 'Edit Groups’ [Figure 14]. This allows you to
select a specific group to work with and modify. Initially 3 default groups already exist, as described
above.
Select a group from this list and click on the “Edit” icon.
Figure 14 Edit Group page
The modify group page is returned. [Figure 15] You can now change the name of this group and give a
meaningful description in the form boxes provided.

Figure 15 Modify Groups page
Looking further down the page you will see 4 sections, which represent the 4 sets of rights that can be
defined in the permission system. In every section, ticking a checkbox will grant this group the rights as
described. If the checkbox is unchecked, this group will not have access to the selected resource.
Note: Whenever you make changes to the settings on a page, you must click the 'Submit' button
at the bottom before changes take place.
Let’s look at each set of rights individually.
d) System Admin Rights
As their name says, System Admin Rights are rights that will control access to the System module. Each
item in this sections represent an item found in the Administration Menu>System Admin>Preferences
menu. In order to see the System Admin module in the Administration Menu>”Control Panel Home” page,
at least one item has to be checked in this section!
e) Module Admin Rights
Each item in this section represents a module that has been installed on your site. When a module is
checked, the group will have access to the administration page of that module. For example, let’s say that
a particular group only has the “Forum” and “Downloads” items checked in the Module Admin Rights
section. When a member of this group goes to Administration Menu>”Control Panel Home”, he only sees
2 modules displayed: “Downloads” and “Forum”. As mentioned in the previous paragraph that member

would also see a third module called “System Admin” if at least one item is checked in the System Admin
Rights of his group.
f) Module Access Rights
The same as for the Module Admin Rights, the Module Access Rights section lists all the modules
currently installed on your site. In order for a group to access a particular module, the corresponding item
must be checked in the present section. In addition to not being able to access a module which item has
not been checked, the members of the group will not even see that module through the Main Menu. For
example: if, for the anonymous users group, the ‘News’ module is checked, when they visit your site, the
‘News’ module will be shown in the main menu and they can access the content (pages) of ‘News’. If the
‘Forums’ module is unchecked it will not show up in the main menu, and they will not be able to access
any content in the ‘Forums’ module.
However, using the search function, a member of this group will be able to perform a search in module for
which his group does not have access. Of course, the member will only be able to see the title of the
items returned by the search and will not be able to actually access the item.
g) Block Access Rights
If a module has specific blocks that are available as part of its functionality, they will appear in this
section. Each block can be assigned a position on the page (this is detailed in the block section of this
manual) If we have already assigned a page position to a block, it will be seen in that position in the
“Block Access Rights” section.
Each block displayed is given a system ID number. The name is also a hyperlink to a 'block edit' page.
For further information on the Block Edit page, please see section 2.5.
2.8.3 Edit members of this group
You can also edit members of each particular group. The number of users in each group is listed in the
main “Groups Manager” screen:
By clicking on the link, you’ll be transferred to the “Users Manager” screen, which will filter out all
individuals belonging to that group:

You can make changes to the user’s group membership (add to or remove from any group) by clicking on
the Edit icon and making changes in the User Profile:
The XOOPS Core Development Team recommends that each user be part of only 1 group. Doing this,
you’ll be assured that no conflicts occurred.
2.8.4 Creating a new group
The final option you have is to create new group.
You can do it by clicking on the “Add new Group” button:
The Create a New Group section displays a familiar table that you have already seen in [Figure 15]
showing all the modules and blocks installed in the system. Notice they are listed against empty check
boxes, until you assign the settings for the new group.
Enter a name and description for the new group. Assign rights and access for each module and block
displayed, by filling the check boxes in the same way as the four default groups previously.
At the bottom you will see a button for 'Submit', click this to create the new group you have defined in the
page.
Your new group will now appear in the list of groups throughout the site administration pages. Note that
the newly created group does not have any members yet. You’ll have to click Modify and add the users
you want in the group, as seen on section 2.8.3.

2.9 Image Manager
The image manager is a tool that enables people to upload, organise and retrieve images for use
throughout the site. You must configure the image manager before you can use it (via System --> Image
Manager). This involves creating some categories to store your images and setting preferences on issues
such as maximum image dimensions, file size and user group access rights. Each category is configured
separately.
2.9.1 Adding image categories
You must create at least one category before you can upload images.
The configuration options are summarised below:
Field Description
Category name: Give your category an appropriate name. Keep it short, as people will select it
through a drop-down box.
Select groups for Select the user groups that you want to be able to access the images in this

image manager
use
category. These groups will be able to see and select images (for use in
submissions etc.) but cannot upload new images. The Webmaster group has
access by default.
Select groups
allowed to upload
images:
Select the user groups you want to permit to upload new images into this
category. The default is upload by the Webmaster group only. Typically upload
rights are given to trusted (administrative) groups only. Bear in mind that if you
allow the general public to upload images they may send in some offensive
ones.
Max size allowed
(kb):
It is useful to impose a limit on the file size uploaded images. This prevents
people from posting ridiculously large images that are difficult to download. The
default is 50,000 bytes (it is not KB as stated, that is an error).
Max width allowed
(pixels):
Set a maximum width on images to preserve the integrity of your layout.
Consider what would happen if someone uses a 1024 pixel wide image on your
800 pixel wide site! If you have a ‘standard’ size you like to use for your site this
is a good place to set it.
Max height
allowed (pixels):
As above.
Display order in
image manager:
You can set the order in which categories appear in the image manager drop
down box here. If you want to have some flexibility in ordering the categories,
assign them order numbers in (say) multiples of 10. That way you can always
come back and insert a new category between them.
Display this
category?
The default is ‘yes’. If you choose ‘no’, the category will be hidden when people
access the image manager from the user side. This can be useful for hiding
administrative categories from your users.
Once the new Category is submitted, we can see it in the list, and we can add images to it:
2.9.2 Editing and deleting images and categories
Once you have created some categories they will appear at the top of the image manager page in the
system module. Each category has three Actions associated with it:
o View: This will display a list of the images in the category, along with their details. You can edit the
name, display order of images here. You also have the option to reassign images to a different
category, to show or hide them, and to delete them.
o Edit: This opens the configuration options for the category so that you can change them.
o Delete: Select delete to remove a category. If you are storing images as binary blobs in the
database this will delete them permanently. If you are storing images as files in the 'uploads'
directory, your images will still be in the that directory (though they won’t be available through
image manager).

2.9.3 Adding image files through the control panel
You must create at least one category before you can upload images. Once this is done, you can add
images to it:
Field Description
Name: Give your category an appropriate name. Keep it short, as people will select it
through a drop-down box.
Category: Choose the category that you want the image to be assigned to here.
Image file: Press the browse button and navigate to the image that you want to upload.
Display order in
image manager:
You can set the order in which images appear in the category here. If you want
to have some flexibility in ordering the images, assign them order numbers in
(say) multiples of 10. That way you can always come back and insert a new
image between them.
Display this
image?
The default is ‘yes’. If you choose ‘no’ the image will be hidden when people
access this category from the user side.
Once submitted, we’ll have the image category screen with available images:

For each image you can:
- make the image visible or not
- view the image
- edit the details about the image
- delete the image
- vie the image’s URL
2.9.4 Accessing the image manager from the user side
The image manager can be accessed by the user in some modules such as news, downloads, links,
forums and many others. This allows people to illustrate news stories and other resources that they
submit. It is accessed by pressing the image manager button available in the submission forms of
relevant modules, using the DHTML Editor:
The Image manager opens in a new window where we can select a category:
Users can select image categories via a drop down box. The categories that users can see depend on
the group to which they belong (and on the access rights that have been granted to that group).

When a category is selected a list of images is displayed along with three ‘alignment’ buttons (left, centre,
right). Users choose an image to insert by selecting the appropriate alignment button next to it. This
inserts the tags and URL needed to display the image into the submission form the user is working on.
The window closes automatically.
If a user belongs to a group that has upload rights, an ‘Add Image File’ link is also available in the Image
Manager window. This displays an upload form that allows users to name and browse to an image that
they wish to submit. It also displays the constraints on image dimensions and file size that have been set
for that category.

2.10 Mail Users
XOOPS has a built in messaging system that enables you to send a message to your entire registered
user base or subgroups thereof. This can be in the form of a private message (i.e. through the XOOPS
built-in messaging system) or through an email. A range of options is available for filtering out subgroups
of users from your membership:
Field Description
Send message to
users whose:
Group is: Select one or more of your registered user groups you wish to mail (select
multiple groups by holding down the shift or control keys). The default groups
are Registered Users and Webmasters. You can define additional User Groups
in System->Groups (refer section 2.3.6)
Last Login is after
(Format yyyy-mm-
dd, optional)
You can use this to filter out members that used the site after a certain date.
Last Login is
before
(Format yyyy-mm-
dd, optional)
You can use this to filter out members that have not used the site since a
certain date – this can be a useful way to help maintain contact / send
reminders to people who haven’t visited for a while.

Last Login was
more than X days
ago (optional)
You can use this to filter out members that have not used the site for a specified
period.
Last Login was
less than X days
ago (optional)
You can use this to filter out members that have recently used the site within a
specified period.
Send message
only to users that
accept notification
messages
(optional)
When people fill in the XOOPS registration form there is a check box they can
use to indicate whether or not they are willing to receive occasional messages
from administrators and moderators. Select this checkbox to respect the wishes
of your members (a good idea). If you do not select the checkbox (which is the
default), all of your members will receive the message whether they want to or
not. Some of them may not appreciate that.
Send message to
inactive users only
(optional)
Select this checkbox to target inactive users only. If you use this option all of the
other settings that lie above it in the table will be ignored. An inactive user is
someone who registered an account on your website, but never actually
activated it.
Registered date is
after
(Format yyyy-mm-
dd, optional)
This enables you to filter out your more recent members, i.e. those that joined
after a certain date.
Registered date is
before
(Format yyyy-mm-
dd, optional)
Filters out your older members, i.e. those that joined before a certain date.
From Name (email
only)
Enter the name that you want the message to appear to have come from here.
From Email (email
only)
Enter your email address here.
Subject Type the subject line of your message here. You can customise the message to
include the name of each user by using the tag:
{X_UNAME} will print the user name
For example, if you send a bulk mail with the subject line “Hello {X_UNAME}” to
users Bob and Sandy, Bob’s copy would say “Hello Bob” and Sandy’s would
say “Hello Sandy”, and so on It’s similar to doing a mail merge in a word
processor.
Body Enter your actual message in this field. There are a few more tags you can use
here to customise your message for each user that receives it (see above):
{X_UID} will print the user’s id
{X_UNAME} will print the user name
{X_UEMAIL} will print the user’s email
{X_UACTLINK} will print the user activation link (good for sending reminders to
inactive users – those people that have registered but not activated their
account)

Send to You can choose to send your message via email (in which case it will be
delivered to the email address the member’s personal profile), or by private
message (in which case it will appear in the member’s Inbox – accessible
through the User Menu - next time they log on).

2.11 Maintenance
Maintenance is a new addition in XOOPS 2.5.0. Its goal is to provide basic operations that are helpful to
keep your Website healthy and efficient:
- Clean Cache folders from old files, so there is no clutter there
- Empty Session tables
- Basic operation on tables:
o Optimize
o Check
o Repair
o Analyze
- Dump or Backup of your tables
In the past you had to use external tools for this (e.g. phpMyAdmin), but now we can offer you extra
convenience to do it from within XOOPS Admin.

2.12 Modules
Modules provide essential content for any XOOPS website. Once the administrator has installed the core
scripts and configured basic functions in the administration control panel, they will need to consider which
modules will fulfil the required content.
This needs some planning, both for the modules to be displayed and also the layout on the pages. It is a
good idea to review other XOOPS sites and see which modules are used to display various types of
content. This is easily done by opening any XOOPS site and hovering over the menu links on the left and
right hand side panels. At the same time look at the URLs displayed in the status bar on your browser.
You should see addresses like this: http://the_site.com/modules/news/.... All modules are stored in the
/modules/ directory, thus the following sector of the address (in this example 'news') shows the module
that will display contents of that menu link.
If you open the page for the link it will show an example of how the module is used and the type of
content it displays. Reviewing other sites like this will also give you some good insight into layout and
design capabilities.
2.12.1 Acquiring a module
2.12.1.1 Module origins
All modules need to be specifically designed for the XOOPS content management system. Currently
there are 3 grades of modules available:
o Official certified modules available from XOOPS parent sites;
o 3rd party certified modules;
o 3rd party uncertified modules.
The recommended guidelines for acquiring these are described elsewhere in this manual.
Modules are normally packed in a compressed file format such as .zip or .tar format. You will need a file
expander tool like WinZip or winrar to decompress the package and make the files useable.
After downloading and decompressing the module package, it is important to maintain the current
directory structure and distribution of all associated files.
Please note: It is not essential to upload ‘ancillary files’ such as readme/changelog/install and other non-
operational files. Likewise, you may wish to remove any language packs that are not required in your
installation. It is wise however to retain any index files in all directories, regardless of blank content. This
is a security measure. Leave files alone, if you are unsure.
Once the module package is unzipped, study the structure of the files in the local computer. Some
modules are ready for uploading to the root directory instead of just the /modules/ directory.
Normally you will need to upload the files into the /modules/ directory which will be a second level sub-
directory within your site root: e.g. http://your_xoops_site.com/modules/your_new_module_package.
However, some modules have extra files that need to be uploaded to other folders such as the /include/
and the /class/ directories.
It is important to upload ONLY the directory holding the main file set. Some modules are packed within
nested sub-directories 2 or 3 layers beneath the package root, like this:
my downloads V1.23/my_downloads/mydownloads/(this directory contains the main file set)
In this case be certain to upload the directory holding the main file set, NOT the root (my downloads
V1.23) If you upload the module file set within nested directories by mistake the XOOPS install system
will not register the new module package!
2.12.1.2 Ancillary files

Readme, install, changelog and other information files.
Always view any Readme, install or changelog files if included. They often give important details about
module installation requirements, setup and usage. If you require further information and assistance, they
may also contain the author’s website address and/or email contact.
2.12.1.3 Copyrights and GPL notices
You may also see files relating to copyright and The General Public Licence. These may be viewed to
verify the source, distribution rights, and conditions of use and authenticity of the module scripts within the
package.
2.12.2 Uploading the module
2.12.2.1 Preparing the module files for upload to a remote server
Many module scripts are self-configuring once installed. However, some require some initial configuration
as detailed in Ancillary files described above. Make sure you edit any files in a plain text editor, or
application suitable for the file type. It is unwise to use web-authoring WYSIWYG applications such as
FrontPage or Dreamweaver as they can add spurious code to your files. If you intend to make any
extensive edits, prepare a backup beforehand.
2.12.2.2 Using FTP or browser file uploader
FTP is the preferred method of file transfer as it allows you to transfer a whole module directory
automatically and maintain it structure.
If you use a browser upload with limited file transfers, be sure to maintain the original directory structure.
2.12.2.3 Upload the module package
When you are sure your files are ready, upload the file set complete in its directory to the ./modules/
directory on your server.
2.12.2.4 Setting file/directory permissions
You may need to change ‘read/write/execute’ permissions for various files and folders, if stated in
Ancillary files supplied with the package. Settings can vary between different server operating systems.
Some modules will only work correctly with register_globals set to 'on'. Please be aware of these
requirements when installing modules.
2.12.3 Installing the module
Once the file set is uploaded and permissions are set if required, you can now visit your Control panel
home page and install the module.
Go to system admin>modules. Module administration page [Fig.1]

Figure 16 Module Administration
This section displays a table with any installed modules. On top there is a button “Install Modules” with a
link to a section displaying any modules residing in the ./modules/ directory on your server that have not
been installed:

Your new module should be listed here with a ‘module’ under the module column, and an ‘install’ and
‘information’ icon under the 'Action' column.
Click the 'install' icon. This returns a confirmation page, click on the install button if you wish to proceed. If
all goes well, you will see a new page with a list of files and any database tables created for your new
module.
Click ‘return to module administration’ page.
You will now see your installed module in the top list of active installed modules.
After the module is installed, you’ll be able to Update it, and un-install it.
Figure 17 Update and Un-install a module
2.12.4 Setting module visibility and menu order
Figure 18 Module Activation and Main menu visibility
The modules administration table has headings for: Module, Version, Last Update, Active, and Action.
This page gives you options to ‘Activate’ the module in your website or keep it installed but hidden from
any menus or interaction. You can also deactivate the module from this page (or uninstall altogether, as
we will describe later.)
The green “checkmarks” in the 'Active’ and “Menu” columns indicated that the module is active in your
website and admin section and also visible in your menu systems. Remember, you still need to select in
which pages, position and groups the module will appear in. By clicking on the green checkmark will
change the status to “deactivated” indicated by the “off” icon.
The same is for “Menu”. But changing the status to “off” will keep the module active, but prevent any links
appearing in the page menu systems. This is useful if you utilize custom menus or links to display pages.
Figure 19 Deactivated module.
You can also change the order of the modules in the menu by simply dragging them up or down. As soon
as you drop the module, the new order will be reflected in the Menu. Here we’re dragging the “User
Profile” to be above “Private Messaging” and the change is reflected right away in the Menu:

Deactivating and uninstalling a module
While we are still in the module administration page, let’s complete the options here by describing how to
deactivate and uninstall a module.
o Looking at the table at the top of this page, you will see a list of your registered modules.
o Click on the Un-install Icon:
o You’ll go to a confirmation page:
Just press ‘Unistall” button to confirm.
o You'll see a page with the changes just made. What happens is the module has been now been
deactivated and disconnected from the XOOPS' system. However the physical files still reside on
the server in the modules directory where you uploaded them. Click on ‘Back to module
administration’ page
o The module you just uninstalled won't be on the registered modules list at the top of the page, but
now at the bottom of the page, among the modules that are available in XOOPS' modules directory
but haven't been installed. You are now back where you started after initially uploading the module.
Note: Uninstalling a module deletes all content associated with that module - the tables defined by the
module are dropped, and all blocks, templates, configuration options, comments, notifications, etc.
associated with the module are removed from the database. Now the module is disconnected from the
XOOPS core, if you wish to do so, you may safely delete the module files on the server manually.
2.12.5 Configuring module settings and options
Assuming you have not uninstalled your new module, let’s go back to
System admin>Modules. Modules administration page where your new module is displayed in the active
section and continue with the setup procedure.
2.12.5.1 Renaming module
Your new module will now appear in a table in the upper section of the module administration page
indicating a successful installation. [Figure 20]

Beneath the module icon you will see the module name in a small form box. You can rename the module
here by inputting this form. The name supplied here will be the name displayed your site’s main menu.
This can also be changed elsewhere in the configuration, as we will see later.
Figure 20 Module menu
When hovering or clicking on the module menu on top of the page, some Modules will display a menu
with links to specific settings and options only for that module:
Some modules do not have an administration menu, in which case no menu is displayed.
Each module has individual functions and display options. Unless you have documentation for a module,
you will need to experiment and explore the various options for using the module.
The following guidelines are for configuring the module within the system and not related to the particular
workings of any one module.
2.12.5.2 Display and position options for the module
Go to system admin>blocks administration page.
This next section assumes the module is correctly installed and that no error messages were
encountered during the install process.
Many modules share common properties with blocks, already described in section 3.3 in this manual.
These are typically:
o The position of where the block is displayed on the web page.
o Which pages the block will be displayed in.
o Which user groups are allowed to see the block
Please refer to section 3.3 above for configuring these options.
Some modules have different components for their operation. Thus, for example a news module is
divided into 4 blocks:

o Top news
o Big story
o Other news
o News topics
In these cases each block will be identified in a 'block description' and the module it relates to in the
'module column' of the blocks administration page.
2.12.6 Setting user access rights for a module
Many modules are interactive, that is they provide for user input and may produce display feedback and
information as a result of that input.
As mentioned in a previous section, XOOPS provides a core system of user access rights through the
'Groups' settings. When installing and configuring a new module, be sure to set the appropriate
permissions in Administration Menu>System Admin>Groups”.
However, when installing a new module, some default permissions are applied to the groups of a XOOPS
site.
h) The Webmasters Group
It is assumed that the webmaster always requires ultimate control of the site, so when a new module is
installed, the Webmasters/ Site Administrator Group is granted with all the access rights, in all 4 sets of
rights.
i) The Registered Users Group
On installation of a new module, the Registered Users Group is granted with all the Module Access
Rights and the Block Access Rights that are related to the newly installed module.
j) The Anonymous Group
When a new module is installed, the Anonymous Groups does not get any access rights on the newly
installed module. If you want the Anonymous Group to access this module, you will have to set the
permissions yourself.
k) Groups created by Site Administrators
All other groups that have been created by site administrators are not granted any rights upon the
installation of a new module. As for the Anonymous Groups, site administrators have to set these rights
themselves.
This concludes our first introduction to the XOOPS modules. There are many other refinements available
to the more experienced user. These will be described in greater detail in the ‘Webmasters guide to
XOOPS’

2.13 Preferences
The preference panels are where you configure your site-wide preferences. It is worth taking the time to
work through them as some settings can have a significant impact on the performance, security and ease
of use of your site.
2.13.1 General Settings
Field Description
Site name This will be used as the title of your site. This is what will be displayed in the
<title> html tag of your site’s pages (the name of current module is also
appended).
Slogan for your
site
The slogan of your site will be appended to your site name (title) if you select
‘none’ as the module for your start page (see below). It may also appear in on
screen in some themes.
Admin mail
address
Enter the email address you want to use for administrative purposes here.
Default language If you have more than one language installed you can choose which one you
want the site to display when a user first visits your site.
Module for your
start page
You can select any installed module to be the ‘home page’ for your site – for
example, many people like to use the news module. You also have the option to
select ‘none’ – this gives you a blank page that you can customise as you see
fit.
Server timezone Enter the time zone that your server is located in.
Default timezone Enter the time zone that you want to use for administrative purposes. This
would normally be the one in which the owner or main clientele of the site live.
Control Panel GUI Set the theme you want displayed in your Admin (if you have more than one
installed).
Default theme Set the theme you want displayed when people first arrive at your site (if you
have more than one installed).
Use jGrowl
redirect
This will show any messages from the XOOPS Core on top of the page you’re
in. In the past XOOPS would open a new page and close it.
Check Templates
for Modifications?
If this option is enabled, module template .html files will be updated
automatically if there are newer files under the themes/your theme/templates

directory for the current theme. This should be turned off once the site goes
public.
Selectable themes If you have several themes installed you can choose those that visitors are
available for visitors to select from.
Default template
set
If you have more than one template set installed you can select which one you
want to use for the site. See section 2.3.12 for more detail on templates.
Username for
anonymous users
Choose a name for visitors that are not logged in – the default is ‘anonymous’.
Use gzip
compression?
Gzip compression compresses files on server side. This means that files appear
quicker in browsers. However, it puts a slight extra load on your server and you
cannot have more than one script using it at the same time.
Name for user
cookies
This cookie contains only a user name and is saved in a user pc for a year (if
the user wishes). If a user has this cookie, their username will be automatically
inserted in the login box the next time they visit the site. The default is
‘xoops_user’.
Use custom
session
If enabled, this allows the site to ‘remember’ a member for a specified period of
time. Members can leave the site and return without having to login again so
long as they do not exceed the time limit (see session expiration below).
Leaving sessions open in this way may consume some system resources. The
default is ‘no’.
Session name The name of session (valid only when 'use custom session' is enabled). The
default is. xoops_session’.
Session expiration The maximum idle time permitted for a custom session, expressed in minutes.
This is only applicable if ‘use custom session’ is enabled, and it doesn’t work
unless you are using PHP4.2.0 or later.
Debug mode This provides several debug options that may be useful if you are experiencing
problems with your website:
i) PHP debug;
ii) mySQL/blocks debug;
iii) Smarty templates debug.
Debug offers important information for tuning and faultfinding. More detailed
guidelines are given elsewhere.
A running website should have debug mode turned off since notifications may
be displayed on your pages.
Activate banner
ads?
The default is ‘yes’. If you turn banner ads off the flash banners will no longer
appear on your site.
Turn your site off? If you select ‘yes’ visitors will be redirected to a ‘this site is closed’ message of
your choosing (see below). This is useful for gracefully closing your site to
outsiders while you build it or conduct maintenance.
Select groups that
are allowed to
access while the
You can allow certain groups to continue to access your site when it is closed.
Users in the default webmasters group are always granted access. Your “closed
page” will display a login screen for access to selected groups.

site is turned off
Reason for turning
off the site
Enter the text to be displayed to the public when your site is closed.
Your IP address This IP will not counted as impression for banners.
If you are charging customers to display their advertisements a certain number
of times you should exclude your own IP address from being counted.
Use SSL for login? Enable this if you wish to use a Secure Socket Layer login for your site.
SSL Post variable
name
The name of variable used to transfer session value via POST. If you are
unsure, set any name that is hard to guess.
URL where SSL
login page is
located
If you are using SSL, you need to enter the URL required the SSL login page,
otherwise leave it blank.
Default Comment
Display Mode
There are three options:
o Nested: Comments are displayed in the order in which they are posted,
and in full. However, child posts (replies to a particular comment) are
indented and placed beneath their parent. This allows sub-threads of
conversation to develop and makes it easier to follow them.
o Flat: Comments are displayed in the order they are posted and in full.
People can reply to any post in a thread but their reply will always be
displayed at the end of the list. This is the mode preferred by most
people. It also helps maintain the focus of a thread.
o Threaded: Similar to nested. The full text of top-level comments is
displayed in the order in which they were posted. Child posts appear in a
list of titles beneath their parents - the main difference is that their full text
is not displayed.
Default Comments
Display Order
You can choose to have the newest or oldest comments to be displayed first.
Enable IP bans? Users from specified IP addresses will not be able to view your site. This is
useful for banning troublesome members. However, it can only work if they
have a permanent IP address. It is not effective on people with dynamically
assigned IPs – for example, anyone using a dial up modem.
Enter IP
addresses that
should be banned
from the site
The syntax for entering IP addresses is as follows:
 ^aaa.bbb.ccc will disallow visitors with an IP that starts with aaa.bbb.ccc
 aaa.bbb.ccc$ will disallow visitors with an IP that ends with aaa.bbb.ccc
 aaa.bbb.ccc will disallow visitors with an IP that contains aaa.bbb.ccc
Separate each with a pipe character |, This features is case insensitive and
regex enabled.
Module-wide
Cache
You can enable the caching of module contents here and specify the cache
time for each module independently.
Caching reduces load on the server and enhances site performance. However,
changes to module contents will not be visible on the site until the cache period
expires and the contents are re-cached. This is a common source of confusion
for people setting up their site layout. Turn caching off while you are

experimenting with the site so that you can see the changes you make.
Setting module-wide cache will override module item level cache if any.
2.13.2 User Info Settings
Member registration preferences are configured in this area of the control panel. Some of the settings
have implications for the security of your website.
Field Description
Allow new user
registration?
This is enabled by default. Disabling it will prevent anyone else from registering
as a member of your site. A simple flash page is displayed showing a no
registration allowed message when the “register now” link is pressed.
Minimum length of
password required
The longer the minimum password the more secure it is. Short passwords are
more vulnerable to brute force attacks. The default minimum is five characters.
Minimum length of
username required
The username is the ‘nickname’ or ‘handle’ by which the member will be known
on the site. The default minimum length is five characters.
Maximum length of
username
The default maximum length is ten characters.
Allow users to
change email
address?
The default is ‘no’. Email addresses can provide an additional means of
enforcing bans on troublesome members – they cannot register a new account
using the same email address.
Notify by mail
when a new user
is registered?
You can elect to notify a particular user group whenever a new member
registers on the site. This may be useful if you would like to send a personal
welcome message or need to track membership for administrative reasons.
Select group to
which new user
notification mail
will be sent
See above. Notification messages should generally be sent to the Webmaster
group, other users might regard them as ‘spam’.
Select activation
type of newly
registered users
There are three options here:
i) Requires activation by user (recommended). When a user registers a
confirmation email will be sent to the email address they supplied. They must
click on a link in that email to activate their website account. This ensures that
the user has supplied a valid email account and gives some degree of
confidence that a human rather than a machine submitted the registration. This
is the default.
ii) Activate automatically. The user’s account will be automatically activated on
submission of their registration form, giving them immediate access to the site.
This is the user-friendliest option (as it is the fastest) but it is also the least
secure.
iii) Activation by Administrators. This is potentially the most secure option if
Administrators take steps to confirm the identity of the user. However, users will
probably be frustrated by the delay in having their account approved.
Select group to
which activation
mail will be sent
This setting is only valid only when 'Activation by administrators' is selected
(option iii) above). You can pick a user group to alert when a registration is
pending approval. This should normally be ‘Webmasters’, which is the default.

Select the level of
strictness for
username filtering
There are three options:
o Strict. This is the default; only alphabets and numbers are allowed in the
username.
o Medium.
o Light. This is recommended if your members are likely to want to use
multi-byte character sets (for example, Asian fonts).
Allow custom
avatar upload?
This enables members to supply their own choice of avatar, otherwise they can
only use those supplied by the Administrators (see 2.3.1). The default is ‘no’.
Minimum posts
required
Enter the minimum
number of posts
required to upload
a custom avatar
You have the option to give members custom avatar privileges only after they
submit a certain number of posts. This option is disabled by default (set at
zero).
Avatar image max
width (pixel)
You can constrain the maximum dimensions of custom avatars. This prevents
members from uploading large images that may interfere with the layout of your
site. The default is 80 pixels.
Avatar image max
height (pixel)
As above.
Avatar image max
filesize (byte)
You can also set an absolute file size limit on custom avatars to help keep the
size of your forum pages down to reasonable limits. A forum page can easily
have (say) 10 different avatars on it, so putting a limit on avatar size can make
quite a difference. The default is 35KB, which is quite large.
Allow users to
delete own
account?
The default is ‘no’. This can be useful to prevent banned members from deleting
and then re-registering an identical account.
Enter names that
should not be
selected as
username
You can use this to reserve important, offensive or misleading usernames.
Webmaster, and names beginning with XOOPS and Admin are reserved by
default. You may wish to add others such as ‘Editor’, Administrator’ or Director-
General ! Separate each entry with a pipe character ‘|’
This preference is case insensitive. It is also regular expressions (regex)
enabled. Regex is a pattern-matching language, you can use here to create
rules for filtering names. A “newbie guide” to regular expressions is available
from:
http://www.newbie.org/gazette/xxaxx/xprmnt02.html
The ^ character indicates that the matched string should be at the beginning of
a line and the | character is equivalent to a logical OR.
Enter emails that
should not be used
in user profile
You can prevent people from using certain email accounts in the registration
process. It may be useful to exclude ‘disposable’ email accounts as a security
precaution. The syntax to prohibit all addresses ending in homail.com, for
example, is homail.com$.
Separate each entry with a |. This preference is case insensitive and regex
enabled.
Display Select yes to display your disclaimer in registration page. Users will not be able

disclaimer? to register unless they tick a checkbox that says ‘I agree to the above’.
Registration
disclaimer
Enter the text of your registration disclaimer here. This has a default text that
you may edit or change completely.
2.13.3 Meta Tags and Footer
Meta tags provide information about your information – they describe the nature of your website. Their
main use is to help search engines and their robots to index your website correctly, i.e. to help the right
people find it. The information you supply is included in the header of each webpage. It should represent
the content of the site as a whole - the meta information is the same on every page, it currently cannot be
customised for different modules or pages.
Be aware that the major search engines use different strategies for indexing websites. They may place
different weightings on meta tags or even ignore them completely. Careful use of meta information may
help your website to gain better search engine rankings and it is useful to seek information on the
indexing strategies of your dominant referrers (see your website logfile). This may help you to optimise
your meta information or other aspects of your site design and content to improve your rankings.
Try to be accurate and honest in providing meta information. Don’t try to ‘manipulate’ search engines to
gain a better ranking – they may recognise this behaviour and your site may be downgraded or
blacklisted from their index.
The Meta Tags and Footer section of the control panel has the following options:
Field Description
Meta keywords The keywords meta tag is a series of keywords that represents the content of
your site. Type in keywords with each separated by a comma or a space in
between. (Ex. XOOPS, PHP, mySQL, portal system). Choose words that:
i) accurately reflect the content of your website and
ii) are likely to be entered as search terms.
Meta description The description meta tag is a general description of what is contained in your
web page, for example a short sentence. It should be accurate and concise.
Meta robots The Robots Tag declares to search engines what content to index and spider.
There are four options here:
i) index, follow
ii) no index, follow
iii) index, no follow and
iv) no index, no follow.
‘Index’ asks robots to include this site in the search engine index; ‘No index’
asks them to exclude the site. ‘Follow’ asks robots to also look at pages linked
from the site, and ‘no follow’ asks them not to. Note that these are requests only
- the behaviour and policies of a robot are controlled by its masters. Not all
robots will recognise - or obey - these tags.
Meta rating The rating meta tag defines your site age and content rating. Options are i)
general, ii) 14 years; iii) restricted and iv) mature. This may be used by content
‘filters’ as a guide to the appropriateness of your site for a given audience.
Meta author The author meta tag defines the name of the author of the document being
read. Supported data formats include the name, email address of the

webmaster, company name or URL.
Meta copyright The copyright meta tag defines any copyright statements you wish to disclose
about your web page documents. If you want to claim ownership of your site’s
content or preserve intellectual property rights you should provide this
information.
Footer The footer displays some information at the bottom of each page. Be sure to
type links in full path starting from http://, otherwise the links will not work
correctly in the modules pages.
2.13.4 Word Censoring Options
XOOPS can automatically censor undesirable words that may be posted by visitors to your site and
replace them with a generic, alternative term of your choice. The censorship function does consume
some system resources and may slow your site somewhat. It is disabled by default.
To implement censorship on your site select the ‘enable’ radio button. You need to enter a list of
unwanted words in the ‘words to censor’ box, separating them with the pipe character. This function is
case insensitive. Enter a suitable replacement term in the ‘replace bad words with’ box. The default is
#OOPS#.
2.13.5 Search Options
The search facility is one of the most important tools for locating information in a portal website. The
XOOPS search categorises results by module – records are identified as news items, downloads, links or
other types as per the modules you have installed.
Global searches of all resources on your site are enabled by default. If you disable global searches this
facility will no longer be available and the search block will become non-functional.
The default minimum keyword length for searches is five characters. Any terms that are shorter will be
ignored. This is useful for controlling the precision of searches, though not much use for terms like “site
map”. Short keywords tend to be more common so they tend to return a greater number of records, many
of which may be irrelevant. Longer keywords tend to retrieve fewer records but with a higher degree of
precision.
Searching is relatively expensive in computational terms and so excluding short terms will reduce the load
on the server. However, bear in mind that sometimes it is useful to be able to search for a short term.
2.13.6 Mail Setup
This section of the control panel is used to configure your email for the system. It is recommended that
you leave the Mail Delivery Method on the default setting “PHP (mail)”. You do not need to fill in the
Sendmail or SMTP fields unless you use an alternative mail delivery option.
Field Description
FROM address Enter the email address you want to use for administrative purposes
FROM name This is the name that will be used when you send mail
FROM user When the system sends a private message to a user, you can choose whom it
appears to have been sent from here.
Mail delivery
method
Choose the method used to deliver mail here. The default is “PHP (mail)”. It is
recommended that you do not change this unless you experience problems.

The other options available are i) Sendmail; ii) SMTP; iii) SMTPAuth.
Path to sendmail Enter the path to the sendmail program (or substitute) on the webserver here
(only if you use this mail delivery option). The default is “/usr/sbin/sendmail”
SMTP host(s) Enter a list of SMTP servers to try to connect to here (only if you use SMTP,
otherwise leave it blank)
SMTPAuth
username
Enter your username to connect to an SMTP host with SMTPAuth here (only if
you use this mail delivery option, otherwise leave it blank).
SMTPAuth
password
Enter your password to connect to an SMTP host with SMTPAuth (only if you
use this mail delivery option, otherwise leave it blank)
2.13.7 Authentication Options
This section is to help you set up your preferences for Authentication when you and your users login to
XOOPS.
The default is to store the password in the database.
2.13.8 System Module Settings
This section is new in XOOPS 2.5.0 – it combines various options of the System module into one screen.
Among the more important/interesting options:
Field Description
Help Online? This gives you tips and online help
jQuery Theme Select the theme that you like for jQuery
Editor for Blocks,
Comments, all
Modules
XOOPS comes with simple text editor, DHTML Editor, and TinyMCE (which is a
WYSIWYG Editor).
You can also activate/deactivate all sections of the Control Panel (e.g. Avatars, Comments, etc.), and
specify number of rows for individual sections.

2.14 Smilies
2.14.1 Using smilies
Smiles are little graphic symbols that people can use to express themselves . They can be inserted
anywhere in the text of an article, comment or post from both the user and admin sides of the system.
XOOPS ships with a collection of 17 smilies built in. Some of these are displayed on the submission
forms in various modules (including forums, news, downloads, links and others). Clicking on a smilie will
insert it into the post. Smilies can also be inserted by typing in their unique ‘codes’ (keyboard shortcuts),
for example typing :-D in a post will insert this smilie:
The full list of smilies available on your system and their codes is accessible through the Smilies section
of the System Module. Here you can add, edit and delete smilies, and control which are displayed on
submission forms (only nine of the 17 are displayed by default)
If you don’t want smilies on your system, you can either uncheck the ‘display in form?’ box (in which case
they won’t appear on submission forms, but will still be available via their codes), or use the ‘delete’ link to
remove them entirely.
2.14.2 Adding and editing smilies
You can add more smilies to your system using the form at the bottom of the page (there are many
websites where you can obtain new ones). Simply enter a shortcut code for your new smile (this should
be unique), a name for it, select the file you want to upload using the browse button, and decide whether
or not you want it to be one of those displayed on submission forms. Select ‘submit’ to upload it. Clicking
on the ‘edit’ link for an existing smarty will open up a form with the same options. You can even replace
the image file if you want.

2.15 Templates
If you want to tweak the layout of your site this is where you do it. The Template Manager (System
Module -> Templates) allows you to add, delete, edit and duplicate the HTML templates that control block
and module layout. Note that you specify the active template set elsewhere - System Module ->
Preferences -> General Settings -> Default Template Set).
XOOPS allows for some separation between the actual presentation of the site (the “skin” or user
interface) and the code that runs in the back. The first one is handled by a sophisticated mechanism
based on graphical themes. A theme may include, in its basic form, the essential HTML templates that
define the visual interface of the site, as well as the style sheets and images needed to complement that
visual interface. Themes are switchable in the administrative interface, so changing the whole
appearance of a XOOPS site it’s just a matter of changing the value of a selector and clicking on
“Accept”. XOOPS also provides site administrators with the ability to let users choose among some
available themes.
Generally speaking, a theme is the high level visual framework of a site: the theme defines, for instance,
the general layout of the site; on the other hand, it does not usually define the specific distribution of
content within a block. This is handled by a different entity called a template set. A template set is an
ensemble of HTML templates that define the presentation of content within all the blocks that form a
XOOPS Web site. If we want a more clear metaphor for this, we could say that the theme is like the
architect of a house, while the template set is like the interiors decorator. The first one sets the walls and
defines the general distribution, but it’s the second one who’s in charge of “dressing” those walls.
If the active theme is a simple one that only includes a theme file, CSS files and some images, XOOPS
employs the default template set to define the presentation of blocks. However, some complex themes
are sophisticated enough to include their own template set. In this case, the site administrator must use
the administrative interface to set both the theme and the template set.
How is the theme magic accomplished? That is, how can HTML templates include dynamic content? This
is done not with mirrors and smoke, but with a clever template engine called Smarty that makes the
function of what used to be called variable interpolation. Expressed in a simple way, we could say that the
XOOPS system uses PHP files to hold the logic of the modules (access to the database, allocation of
variables, management of rights...), HTML files with Smarty variables inserted to manage the actual visual
interface, and the Smarty engine to insert values and strings in specific places within the HTML that
builds the pages seen by the end user. All in all, what this means to you can be easily summarized:
thanks to its theming system, XOOPS lets site designers build more interesting and visually stunning sites
without much concern about what happens under the hood.
Figure 21 Template Set Manager
2.15.1 The default template set

XOOPS ships with one template set called ‘Default’. As a safety precaution you cannot edit or delete this
set (if you should mess up your templates you will always have the default set to fall back on). The
templates in each set are grouped together by module.
2.15.2 Cloning and downloading template sets
If you would like to create a custom template set you can make a copy of the default set (or any other) by
selecting the ‘clone’ link (you will be prompted to give the new set a name). Unlike the default, other
template sets can be freely edited. You can also save a copy of a template set to disk by selecting the
‘download’ link, or remove it with the ‘delete’ link. You may also sometimes see an additional ‘Generate’
link next to new modules for which templates have not yet been created.
2.15.3 Editing templates
You can see a full list of available templates by browsing the directory TreeView. When you select a
template, XOOPS will open it in an editor where you can edit it.
While editing templates you must enable a preference that automatically updates module template .html
files if there are newer files under the themes/your theme/templates directory for the current theme
(System Module -> Preferences -> General Settings -> Update module template .html files from
themes/your theme/templates directory? -> ‘Yes’). This should be turned off once the site goes public.
If you accidentally mess up a template don’t forget that you can retrieve a ‘good’ copy from the default
template set. If you are working with non-standard templates it may be a good idea to save a copy to disk
before you start modifying them.
Let’s modify one of the templates coming with the XOOPS Poll module. To do so, let’s select the theme
we want to modify the templates for (here: Zetagenesis):
As next, let’s select few of the XOOPS Poll templates:

When we click on submit, the original templates from the module are copied to the theme directory:
Now selecting in the TreeView the Zetagenesis theme and XoopsPool in the modules directory, we can
see the templates which can then be directly modified in an editor:
Figure 22 Editing Template File
The ‘submit’ button will save any changes you have made to the template.
2.15.4 Uploading a new template set
You can install new template sets very easily by uploading your templates to the appropriate theme
directory.

2.16 User Ranks
User Ranks allow you to give people some ‘status’ based on either their role or level of participation in the
community. It is important to note that user ranks are functionally irrelevant - they *do not* confer any
extra privileges or administrative rights at all – they are just titles. User access rights are actually
controlled elsewhere (through the Groups section of the control panel). If you assign someone the
Webmaster user rank but forget to also assign them to the Webmaster user group (a common mistake)
they may look cool but they won’t be able to administer the site!
‘Normal’ ranks are assigned on the basis of the number of forum posts and comments a user has made.
A user’s rank will change as they make enough posts to qualify for the next level. XOOPS ships with the
following default ranks: Just popping in; Not too shy to talk; Quite a regular; Just can’t stay away; and
Home away from home.
XOOPS also ships with two ‘special ranks’: Moderator and Webmaster. Special ranks differ in that they
can be assigned to users irrespective of the number of posts they have made. A typical use of special
ranks is to give recognition to people performing various administrative functions.
The ‘edit’ link allows you to change the name of a rank, to alter the minimum / maximum number of posts
needed to qualify, to designate it as a ‘special’ rank (or not), and to upload a new rank image. You can
remove unnecessary ranks (‘delete’ link).
You can create additional ranks through the form at the bottom of the user rank page. Simply assign a
name, minimum and maximum number of posts (if desired), upload a rank image and assign it as either
normal or special.

2.17 Users Management
You can add, edit and delete users through this section of the System Module.
To edit a user, select their user name in the first drop down box on the page. You may then choose to
either i) modify their details or ii) delete them using the second drop down box.

Selecting ‘modify’ will open the user’s profile which you may then change as you see fit (note that you can
also reach the edit profile page from the user side via the member directory, or by clicking on a username
anywhere in the site). The fields available are:
Field Description
Nickname Their Username
Name The User’s real name

Email The User’s email address. There is a checkbox that can be enabled to allow
others to view the address (disabled by default; it is good practice to avoid
posting your email address on websites as spambots will inevitably find it).
Note: If a user has contacted you complaining that they didn’t receive the
activation email for their account, chances are that they made a mistake when
typing in their email address.
URL This is the User’s website address
Time Zone The User’s time zone (relative to Greenwich Mean Time)
ICQ The User’s ICQ member number
AIM User’s America Online Instant Messenger username
YIM Yahoo Instant Messenger username
MSNM MSN Messenger username
Location User’s home location (usually a city or country)
Occupation Self-explanatory!
Interest Information about the User’s personal interests
Signature The User’s signature is text that can be appended to the end of a post or
comment. Tick the checkbox to always attach the User’s signature to posts
(note that forums are sometimes configured not to allow signatures).
Comments Display
Mode
This field sets the User’s preference for viewing comments. Choices are nested,
flat or threaded (display modes are described in section 2.3.10: General
preferences)
Comments Sort
Order
User’s preference for viewing comments – choose from oldest comments first or
newest first
Notification
Method:
Sets the User’s preference for being notified of events to which they have
subscribed (such as the addition of a new post in a particular forum, a news
story in a particular topic etc). Options are to be notified by private message (in
the User’s Inbox accessible through the User Menu), via email, or to temporarily
disable notifications.
Default Notification
Mode
Sets the User’s preference for handling notifications. Select from I) Notify me of
all selected updates (e.g. if two news stories are added in a category the User is
subscribed to, they will receive two notification messages); ii) notify me only
once (multiple events in the same notification category will only generate one
notification); notify me once then disable until I log in again
Extra Info Any extra information about the User
Rank You can assign a ‘special rank’ to the User here
Password You can enter (or change) the password for the user’s account here. Don’t
forget to inform them, and ask them to change it immediately.
Retype Password Confirm the password here

Receive
occasional email
notices from
administrators and
moderators ?
User’s can let you know whether they are willing to hear from you or not. You
can use this field as a filter in the Find Users section of the control panel. This
preference is advisory only – you can still send messages to people who have
selected ‘no’ (it may be necessary, for example, if a security issue should arise).
However, it is considered ‘good form’ to respect the wishes of your members.
The number of user posts is shown at the bottom of the page. If the number does not seem accurate,
there is a synchronisation button that you can press to update it.
Adding users
To add users simply fill in the registration form that comprises the second section of this page. The fields
are the same as described above.
Find Users: Simple Search
If you know the user’s name, you can just type that name (or just part of it) in the “Search User” field, and
press “Search” button. XOOPS will show you all users who meet the name criteria.
Find Users: Advanced Search
Find Users provides a wide range of options that you can use to search for specific users or to filter your
membership. You can also obtain a complete list of members by pressing the ‘submit’ button without
using any of the filters.

Most of the fields are self-explanatory but they are covered below anyway:
Column Description
User Name Search by user name. This is one of the best fields to use since it is mandatory
(everyone has a user name, but most people don’t bother to fill out the
discretionary fields in their profiles). You have the following options to refine
your search: Starts with (default); ends with; matches; contains.
Real Name Search by real name.
Email Search by email address.
ICQ Number Search by ICQ member number.
AIM Handle Search by America Online Instant Messenger username.
YIM Handle Search by Yahoo Instant Messenger username.
MSNM Handle Search by MSN Messenger username.

URL contains Search by website address field of user profiles.
Location contains Search by location field of user profiles.
Interest contains Search the interest fields of user profiles.
Last login is more
than X days ago
Use this to find people that have not logged in for a specified period. Bear in
mind that (depending on the group access rights you have set) people don’t
always log into your site to when they visit.
Last login is less
than X days ago
Use this to find recent users of your site.
Joined date is
more than X days
ago
Useful to filter out your more established members.
Joined date is less
than X days ago
This is useful if you want to filter out new members, perhaps to send them a
personal welcome message.
Number of Posts is
greater than X
Use this to find your top posters.
Number of Posts is
less than X
Use this to find infrequent posters.
Type of users to
show
There are three options here that you can use to filter your search results :
i) Only users that accept mail;
ii) Only users that don’t accept mail;
iii) All users (default). This relates to an option users selected when
they registered their account. Bear in mind that people who chose
not to accept mail don’t want to hear from you!
Type of users to
show
There are three options that you can use to filter your search results:
i) Only active users (the default, this means people whose accounts
have been activated);
ii) Only inactive users (people who have registered but not yet
activated their accounts) and
iii) All users.
Sort by You can use this to sort your search results. Available options are:
i) User name (default)
ii) email
iii) last login
iv) joined date
v) number of posts
Order Another field for sorting your search results, you can choose from
i) ascending order (default) or

ii) descending order
Number of users
per page
How many entries to show on each page.
2.18 Feedback
This concludes our “XOOPS Operations Manual”.
If you have any improvement suggestions, please post them in our Documentation Forums:
http://xoops.org/modules/newbb/viewforum.php?forum=52

XOOPS 2.5.x Operations Guide

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