XOOPS Project wins SourceForge award and releases XOOPS 2.6.0 Alpha 1

After winning the “Project of the Month” Award in August at SourceForge, world’s largest repository of OpenSource projects, the XOOPS Project is proud to present XOOPS 2.6.0 Alpha 1.

This is a brand new XOOPS series, with several major changes and enhancements to the Core. You can review the current XOOPS 2.6.0 Roadmap to find out additional information.

The main goal of the 2.6 series is to update the XOOPS Core and all classes to PHP 5.4, refactor old legacy code, and separate all HTML code from PHP.

Some of the main changes in Alpha 1:

• Central class "xoops" to simplify the development of XOOPS modules, giving developers direct access to XOOPS API
• Automatic loading of all XOOPS classes
• Removal of global variables
• Central folder for all multimedia public frameworks (jQuery, CSS, JS, images, ...).
• Module Class Admin to give the same admin interface for all modules
• Refactoring the system module.
• Adding a new feature: System Extensions
• Integration of CSS Framework: Bootstrap from Twitter.
• Removal of all queries for the block templates and modules.
• Reduction of queries in all pages.
• New theme in the Admin interface.

XOOPS 2.6.0 represents a major step to simplify XOOPS and make it more user- as well as developer-friendly.

In the current economic downturn, Open Source software has become increasingly attractive to users and companies, as well as to governments, as it helps them to save a lot of money. This is especially valid for young democracies, like Libya.

In April 2012, XOOPS was compared to several other CMS solutions, and after some rigorous tests, two high profile Libyan government agencies,  the LibyanMinistry of Defense and the LibyanHigh National Elections Commission have decided independently to use XOOPS to power their Websites. They felt that XOOPS provides the best combination of features, security, and support. They also liked the modular approach of XOOPS, and the ease of adding new functionality by installing additional modules. And they felt that with the continuous development of new XOOPS versions and a very loyal community, XOOPS will be around for a long time.

About XOOPS:  Founded in 2001 by group of international software developers, XOOPS quickly become one of world’s leading Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS). Known and loved for its ease of use and countless powerful modules, XOOPS received numerous International Awards and Recognitions, including being the Top 5 finalist of the 2008, 2009, and 2010 CMS Awards by Packt Publishing. In January 2009 it received the 2008 China Open Source Software Contest Award. More info at: http://www.xoops.org