Product News
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- Written by Omar Ramos | Admin
- Category: ArtCats
- Hits: 7527
Thank you to everyone that's been supporting the ArtCats for Joomla! project over the last 2 years. It was my very first Joomla! Extension and I was really happy with the positive responses it received from users around the Joomla!sphere.
Today I'm happy to announce the immediate release of ArtCats for Joomla! 2.0.4, which includes one new feature sponsored by Christopher Urban of Tetra Strategic Communications of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. That feature is the new ability to Exclude the Current Article from being displayed in the article list (for those situations where you have the module set to be displayed on an article page and you'd like to keep the current article being visited from being shown in the list...this comes in handy when the article in question is actually the leading page into a series of other articles within the same category and it just doesn't make sense to include it within the list).
This comes along with the release of a new website and extensions club for the Joomla! community, which will include extensions I've put together for various projects over the last two years since creating ArtCats for Joomla!.
But don't worry! ArtCats for Joomla! will remain FREE.
I hope you enjoy the new commercial extensions and the ArtCats for Joomla 2.0.4 release (I've got some features already planned for the 2.0.5 release)!
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- Written by Omar Ramos | Admin
- Category: Very Simple Image Rotator Plugin
- Hits: 8326
If you want to read about the new 2.5.3 version of DOCman List released on 09/01/2012, that announcement article is just below this one!
This announcement is for a little pet project of mine I've been thinking of tackling for a while since I believe it will be very useful at work and which I haven't found a good extension for on the Joomla Extensions Directory.
I've seen a number of modules out there which allow you to specify a folder and then get a slideshow out of it, but I haven't seen too many plugins which offer the same thing. What I had been looking for was a content plugin where I could specify my own images folder, some custom parameters if needed, and just have a simple slideshow output on the page.
In my search, I found a module that was pretty close in terms of what I was looking for: Very Simple Image Rotator Module by Jesus Vargas.
I took that module and used it as the basis of the plugin I wanted to build so a lot of credit goes towards the work Jesus put into building the module above.
That has resulted in the Very Simple Image Rotator Content Plugin now available from the Downloads page!
Here's a look at some the features/additions (and below are a few demos of the plugin in action!):
- Fixed issue with the JavaScript performing the image transitions (z-index: 1 needed to be set to prevent a jumpy, awkward looking transition for the upcoming slide)
- Added in image resizing using the GD library and Resize class from: http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/image-resizing-made-easy-with-php/
- Added ability to create a custom links.txt file in the same directory as your images which contains a line for each image, along with a custom URL, title, and alt text to use (e.g. 01.jpg|http://www.imperial.edu|Imperial Valley College|Picture of IVC Board Member)
- Added Limit to the Random parameter
- Added per instance customization options for just about everything! (Example Keys that can be used: includeSubfolders, ignoreSubfolders, randomizeImagesYes, randomizeImagesNo, setRandomLimit 5, directImageLinksYes, directImageLinksNo, setLinksFileName some_other_file.txt, setWidth 640, setHeight 480, setDelay 3000, setTransitionDelay 2000, resizeImagesOn, resizeImagesOff, setResizedImageQuality 80, setFolderPermissions 0755)
- Added center images in HTML option (centerImagesOn, centerImagesOff)
- Very simple usage: { vsir setResizedImageQuality 100 directImageLinksYes includeSubfolders setDelay 5000 setTransitionDelay 2000 setWidth 320 setHeight 180 images/resized} (please remove the space between the starting { and vsir when you use this example on your site)
Example 1 with Image Resizing Turned On:
Example 2 with Image Resizing and Center Images Options Turned On:
Example 3 with Custom Width/Height and Image Resizing Turned On (first image has a custom link provided by a simple links.txt file you add into the directory you're pulling images from!):
- Details
- Written by Omar Ramos | Admin
- Category: ArtCats 2.5
- Hits: 8118
Over the past two weeks a few people have submitted tickets requesting a verion of ArtCats that works with Joomla 2.5 and I'm happy to say I have something ready now!
Version 2.5.0 Bug Fixes/Features
- Added code to make the module output styling similar to mod_menu, which template companies support better.
- Added ability for dynamic category and article listings
- Added dynamic module title capability
- Don't let the beta tag fool you...this is definitely production ready software, but since it is a beta version it might not have every bell and whistle you might want included...if there's something you'd like to see, please let me know via the Support section in the main menu above.
I hope you enjoy using ArtCats 2.5 (I know it's saved me a lot of time and headaches since I don't have to create specific modules for every Section on my site and I can just use a single instance of ArtCats 2.5 to do it all)!
Want to see ArtCats 2.5 in action?
Just browse to the Products, Blog, or Changelog sections in the main menu above to see ArtCats 2.5 in action in the right-hand sidebar area! I've done my best to make the module mimic the output from the main menu module, which template developers style really well so ArtCats 2.5 should inherit those styles automatically in most situations.
- Details
- Written by Omar Ramos | Admin
- Category: DOCman File Listing Plugin
- Hits: 9337
The new 2.8.0 version is now live on the Downloads page and brings in support for DOCman 3.0 RC1 from Joomlatools!
There were some issues with the new format for the Primary Menu Item check that I do so that the plugin can correctly create its SEF URLs for you, along with some new locations for where Joomlatools placed its JavaScript files that needed to be brought into the plugin (this JavaScript is needed to correctly support the Delete operation within the Plugin's output).
Version 2.8.0 Changelog
This release should still be compatible with DOCman 2.x if you are running it.
2.8.0 2016-10-06 / Omar Ramos + Added minor changes for DOCman 3.0 RC compatibility in our Primary Menu Item ID check for DOCman (this is needed for the plugin to correctly generate SEF URLs for you). + Added extra code so that new JavaScript locations for DOCman 3.0 Koowa JS files will get loaded properly (these are needed for the File Delete capability to work correctly within the plugin output).
Quick Tip: Setting Up the Default Menu Item Needed for the Plugin
After installing the plugin and DOCman 3.0, you will need to make sure you have a default menu item setup for DOCman otherwise you will see the plugin output some error info that looks like this:
NOTE: If you upgraded from DOCman 2.x to DOCman 3.0 you may have to open up your existing DOCman 2 menu item and resave it (to save the new URL structure and help the plugin work).
In order to fix this, you need to create a Default Menu Item for all categories so you need to create a DOCman "(Default Hierarchical List" menu item set to show All Categories (it can be located in a hidden menu if you don't wish it to be a part of your site's Main Menu) and it is allowed to be in any of the List, Table, or Gallery layouts currently available in DOCman 3.0 (in previous versions of my plugin it only supported the List layout menu item).
Once you create this menu item, the plugin should be able to create it's output as expected :-).
Enjoy!
Want to see what other features DOCman List has? Check out the Features page! Want to see the plugin in action? Check out the DOCman List Plugin's Example page on our Demo Site (unfortunately I haven't created a new demo site to feature newer DOCman List Features available in version 2.6.0 and newer of the plugin) and our new DOCman List How to Video Series on Youtube!
- Details
- Written by Omar Ramos | Admin
- Category: DOCman File Listing Plugin
- Hits: 4642
The new 2.7.9 version is now live on the Downloads page and brings in some minor bugfixes!
There was a small CSS issue that was being noticed with certain templates so an extra CSS rule was added into hopefully remedy that automatically for others.
Additionally, there was an issue for anyone trying to use the Category Inclusion/Exclusion Filters and needing to use single character wildcards (which in SQL are denoted with the _ character). Because of the way I had initially set things up, I had documented that the underscore could be used in lieu of a space character, but the drawback with using the underscore is that it would prevent you from using those single character wildcards (you could safely use a % symbol to do a mass wildcard, but not the single character ones).
So I added an option where you can change this previously hardcoded space separator to another character when needed so that you can use the underscores if you need to use the single character wildcards.
Version 2.7.9 Changelog
Please note again that this release DOES NOT work with the older DOCman 1.6.x version since DOCman 2.0's architecture is much different and I wasn't able to share the codebase easily.
2.7.9 2016-08-24 / Omar Ramos ! Happy Birthday Mom! # Fixed an issue limiting the functionality of the Category Inclusion/Exclusion Filters. # Fixed a CSS issue being noticed on newer templates that set images to be displayed as blocks which affected the display of the DOCman List output.
Want to see what other features DOCman List has? Check out the Features page! Want to see the plugin in action? Check out the DOCman List Plugin's Example page on our Demo Site (unfortunately I haven't created a new demo site to feature newer DOCman List Features available in version 2.6.0 and newer of the plugin) and our new DOCman List How to Video Series on Youtube!