Sugar theme
Jun 29
Ever since the last few weeks, I’ve been working on something that I’ve called “Sugar”.
It’s my first theme based on the blank theme by Kris, which is a fantastic framework to work with!
Sugar is 100% XHTML 1.0 Transitional and uses some very modern techniques using CSS3 (such as: rgba shadow on the forum avatar, alpha transparency on hovering over images, rounded corners). This means that it won’t render as intended in older browsers like IE6 and IE7 – I don’t support these browsers anymore, but it degrades acceptable in IE7 (in IE8: the rounded corners aren’t working – IE doesn’t support it yet.)
Over the last few days I’ve worked hard to make the theme ready for release, and I think it’s nearly there – in a few days, it’ll be released – I just need to iron all small bugs out of it and it should be ready to go 
If you’d like to check out the Sugar theme already, you’ll need to install it to your own site. You can get it from my Github (which you can find here). I already have a ZIPPED version ready for you which you can download directly from here. If you’d like to use the newest version, the bleeding edge version (in other words, the last one I published), you can get it by pressing on the Download Source button and choose ZIP.
I hope you like the theme… a little preview of the theme:
XOOPS 2.5 Alpha VIDEO Review!
Feb 02
I’ve moved this post into a more suitable post type. You can find it at http://www.vampiretrix.com/video/xoops-2-5-alpha-video-review.
XOOPS 2.5 Alpha review!
Feb 01
Since some things didn’t really run quite good at my review (my test installation), I’m going to make a new review later today 
As promised earlier today, here’s my review for XOOPS 2.5 alpha 1, which seems to have some neat features
Instantly after opening up my local XOOPS installation after I upgraded, is that there are a few new icons added (and some switched from place):
If I’m correct, the newly added icons are File Manager (if you go over it, you’ll get this text: You can add some changes in any file in your XOOPS) but it didn’t work (got blank screen).
Another new icon is System Configuration which gives this result:
Seems the icons aren’t loading yet – but that could be a problem of my local installation.
The next point I’ve watched is the avatar manager:
This looks real neat (except the few typo’s). When you add an avatar and you click on the System Avatars, you’ll get to see this:
One of the best features in this is that you can see how many users are using a particular avatar. Could have been in earlier versions too, but that is something I never noticed than .
The banner manager is AJAXed, but looks exactly the same – not interesting enough for a picture ^^
With the next change, I disagree a bit – it looks a bit worse then before – and I can’t drag-’n-drop anymore:
And more good news now! XOOPS has a lightbox! This is what the image manager looks like now (well, with an image open). For the rest it’s the same as in my previous review, but the image now is scaled properly and doesn’t go outside the box anymore
When I try to go to the Maintenance part, I get a strange error:
The modules look fairly the same:
Now, when I go to my preferences, I get a kinda messy view. But it looks good for the rest 
AND NOW… the best of all… NEW SMILIES :
But this also gets close to the best…:
This looks very neat! We finally have an editor in XOOPS so we can edit files without using FTP. That’ll spare my FileZilla alot! (sorry for cutting pieces out of the picture it’s a theme for an unannounced project so I have to keep it a bit secret ^^)
And the last one (my bandwith isn’t endless xD) is the user manager, which looks a lot better now!
It’s easier to use, and that’s a welcome change… I’m ready for XOOPS 2.5… are you?
I hope you liked my 2nd review
Kevin
XOOPS 2.5 Pre-Alpha review!
Jan 06
Well, here is my promised review for XOOPS 2.5.
One of things I’ve always found lacking in XOOPS, especially the last time, is AJAX. It simply is used barely, and that’s a shame. But thanks to the new build of XOOPS, 2.5, things are going to change, starting with the system module. And that’s what I’m going to review here.
As I’m typing this paragraph, I’m still installing XAMPP, but I guess the install script isn’t changed.
Okay, XAMPP is installed, starting the XOOPS installation now.
Okay, XOOPS installed, installation is the same.
First thing that I’ve noticed in the system admin, is everything looks a bit nicer in a graphical way, like you’ll see here:
XOOPS 2.5 Banner Manager
Everything looks quite a bit more modern, and it feels quite a bit more speedy!
The blocks administration in this version is impressive, it really is, and I think you’ll agree when you see this:
XOOPS 2.5 Blocks Administration
I’m really impressed! Now, you can easily drag n’ drop everything to it’s place, which is wonderful!
Together with these changes, I can already see that XOOPS works much nicer. Everything seems a lot easier and it’s quicker to find and edit than before.
The image manager wows me! Just click the add category button, and it’ll expand so you’ll get this:
XOOPS 2.5 Image Manager
The same when you upload an image on the admin: simply click “Add Image” and it’ll expand!
Since I didn’t succeed in uploading an image to my XOOPS installation, I can’t tell how it’s like to use images in this new version.
The modules adminstration is awesome, simply that and nothing less! This new version introduces a new view for the modules, a line view (which will remove the module image). It also looks a lot more modern and feels awesome to work with. And it’s very fast too!
XOOPS 2.5 Modules Administration
Upon pressing the information-button, something like this opens:
XOOPS 2.5 Module Information
That’s simply awesome, and genious. It’s a lot better than the pop-up that has been used for years now . One minor point is that there is no X to close it, and some people won’t think of ESC xD.
Edit: Francesco pointed out to me that there is an X, but it’s hidden until you hover over it. Thanks for the info
One of the things I like the most is this:
XOOPS 2.5 Preferences
It looks awesome, and it is awesome. While clicking on an icon still points to another page, it truly is awesome.
The smiley menu on itself is genious, as simple as can be!
XOOPS 2.5 Smilies
And the template-settings are fully renewed… check out this screenshot:
XOOPS 2.5 Templates
UPDATE: Thanks Mamba for the tip!
Here’s an image of how it looks when you go into a category when you’ve got an image uploaded:
XOOPS 2.5 Image Uploaded
It’s a bit out of the block, but that’ll be solved
XOOPS + AJAX… it’s something we’ve all waited a long time for, and it’s great that it’s here
Well This is about it…
I’m sorry for being so short in text, but the images speak for itself
Thank you all for linking to this article, I’ve even got links from the French and Dutch XOOPS support, thank you guys
Kevin
XOOPS 2.5 review coming!
Jan 06
Well, XOOPS 2.5 pre-alpha is out, so I’m going to install it and review it, so anyone can see how it’s like, even without installing it!
Let it snow on your XOOPS site!
Dec 16
Well, you can all see that it snows on my blog, but how do you achieve the same thing in XOOPS? That was something I asked myself, and well… I made a quick guide how to do it (what follows below is a copy of what I’ve posted on the XOOPS website).
This way doesn’t require any module or hack and gives a nice effect (similar effect can be seen on my blog www.vampiretrix.com – same script but other config)
Download the files from http://www.nightquest.me/snow/snow.zip . Extract them and upload them to your site. (I uploaded them into root/snow).
Open /script/snowstorm.js and search for the line
var imagePath = 'image/snow/'; // relative path to snow images (including trailing slash)
and type in front of the image/snow the location of the files in your XOOPS installation (so, http://www.my.site/snow/image/snow in my case).
Save this and upload it to your site. (you can also modify general settings in this script, like if the snow should follow the mouse).
Then, go to your site, log in to the admin and open your blocks (http://www.my.site/modules/system/admin.php?fct=blocksadmin) and scroll down to “Add a new block”. Change visible in to “All Pages”, give it a random name (I named it Snow). Add this to the content:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.my.site/snow/script/snowstorm.js"></script>
Change the http://www.my.site/snow/script/snowstorm.js to your site and change the group access and select all groups. Then press submit.
Go check your homepage, you should see the snow falling now
If you want to let the snow stop falling (eg for people with slower pc’s, add this line somewhere to your site:
<a href="#" onclick="snowStorm.stop();return false">Stop the snow</a>
If people click that link, the snow will stop falling.
I hope you like this
Kevin
PS: Happy holidays!
