Overview:

The XOOPS software is technically classified as both freeware and open source. It has a system designed to allow high customization for updates and for CMS XOOPS Styles. You can distribute or modify this software in any way you like. XOOPS is an acronym that stands for eXtensible Object Oriented Portal System. They have an extensive user guide and documentation, as well as community forums.

Advantages:

XOOPS is a software that is constantly in development, and new features are being added and developed continually. It includes a good deal of customization of modules, and you can personalize the access of it fairly well on a level most administrators would be satisfied with. It has a great search functions, and supports many world languages, not just English.

Disadvantages:

My personal opinion of this CMS software was that it was mildly cluttered. It seemed to have too many features, if that was at all possible, as if the developers tried to cram a lot into it. I’ll let you decide for yourself. In addition to this, with the growing market of content management systems, XOOPS does little to stand above their competition. There is nothing wrong with them - no blunt disadvantage - but them not standing above could be a disadvantage in itself. All in all, to summarize the potential disadvantages of XOOPS, I’d say that they were too mediocre.

Best Uses:

The greatest feature of XOOPS is that it can be modified for any type of website. Smaller “out-of-the-box” site should be good for a blog, but with a few modules you can make it into a full-fledged website or business. As far as I could determine, it wasn’t created for any specific type of site or platform, so this decision should be made by yourself.

Platform:

XOOPS, like the majority of content management systems, is run with PHP and MySQL, powered by standard web hosting.

Templates and Modifications:

XOOPS seemed to have a good variety of pre-made templates you can select, download, and install in their theme library located on their website. They also have a “module repository” that lists various feature modifications. The actual templates and ease of modification to the themes seemed fairly easy. There wasn’t anything too difficult when comparing it to competing open source content management systems. After a few tries, you’re bound to get what you’re after.