FLEXIcontent v2.1.0 r1781 for Joomla 3.1 is available,
This is considered stable for new J3.1 sites (J1.5/J2.5 too) and RC for existing J3.1 sites
Known Limitations for existing J3.1 sites:
1. Existing language association of articles translating same content are not imported/used
2. Existing tag assignment of articles are not imported/used
It offers exciting new features compared to v2.0.2 / v2.0.3 and important performance improvements mainly on FLEXIcontent universal module
Some of new features are:
-- Greatly improved appearance and functionality of FACETED field filters (tag-like selection, checkbox / radio selection with instant filtering, combination of filter values)
and some notable bug-fixes
-- Improved filtering module, more configurable with ability to target multi-category view
-- Featured categories support (e.g. for usage in modules / or receving content list markups)
-- Powerful Content list markups for ALL listing views (featured cats, secondary cat, access, access level obtained/required, timeframe of creation, etc)
-- Fully responsive multi-nested tabular design for items form redesigned for best appearance and best user experience, that can focus on invalid field even if nesting more that 1 tab
-- Improved item form, better workflow. content type selection according to ACL, support for captcha, many other imporvements
-- Togglable column support for items manager
-- Optimized SQL query of universal content Module for high performance
-- Optimized creation of FACETED filters
-- Per filter parameter for FACETED filter behavior, among other now it is possible to disable item counting, and to hide values instead of disabling, to set combination of filter values to be require ALL (=and instead of =or)
-- easier template layout editing by adding (a) content type filter, (b) field type filter, for both available and used fields
-- many other improvements (a more complete changelog will be added here soon)
* release v2.0.2 for J1.5/J2.5, (compared to v2.0.1):
(a) Fixed ordering groups in items manager when filtering with a specific category,
(b) Fixed directory view being broken when using top level category (J1.5)
(c) Fixed validation of CSV import being broken
(d) Fixed (CSV import) to allow multiproperty fields to only import main property (FIELDs: email, weblink, extweblink, image (existing image only))
(e) Fixed display Favourites Field
(f) Fixed URL slug not show in tags view , when using pagination
(g) Fixed JFile class not being loaded in category view
(h) Added better checks and messaging for unauthorized downloads/weblinks and also fixed a bug when ACCESS Level is not set
(i) Fixed default access level in File Editor being not set to Public
(j) Completed support for Content Type Access Level in all frontend views, and search plugins (TODO in modules)
(k) Optimized main query of category view to be 20x - or more faster in large sites , e.g. 10,000+, 50,000+ per category, will render in same speed, (this includes category,author,myitems,mcats layouts)
(l) Optimized filters of category view to be 20x - or more faster in large sites , e.g. 2,000+, 10,000+ per category (but these are still a bit slow for sites with more than 50000+ items per category)
(m) Made Loading of various libraries to be done by a common helper function (once), also these libs will be used in more FLEXIcontent views
(n) Added Component parameters for disabling loading of various JS libs (mostly JQuery libs: 'jQuery','image-picker','masonry','select2','inputmask','fancybox')
(n) Added ability to disable automatic form submission in category view (Component/category/menu parameter)
(o) Fixed blog template parameter headers not being displayed (in J2.5)
(p) Some minor other fixes that i forget and PHP 5.4 cleanups
# Some layout improvements and minor fixes,
(a) Fix parameter "Create Filter values" via Query being broken (it tries to treat them as elements),
(b) Fixed delete image for image field in folder mode,
(c) Added select2 jQuery Library in drop down select for fields for FIELDS: select, multiselect, textselect,
(d) various minor layout/CSS improvements for the item edit form,
(e) added check if site if offline and administrator is not logged (to frontend) to prevent execution of component in frontend
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NEW: XMAP v2.0.x plugin created (download separately)
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(a) Fixed date field not respecting "Ignore Editor Timezone" by adding a timezone offset (FLEXI_J16GE ? 'UTC' : 0) for function addCalendar() in flexicontent.fields.php files
(b) Fixed an issue for image field in folder mode and PHP <=5.1
(c) Fixed checking for zero Access Level to consider it as public (a bug that appears if content type has not been saved)
(d) Replacement for item properties in prefix/suffix/separator/etc field parameters
(a) Removed SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS from frontend category model (incompatible with 3rd party extensions),
(b) Fixed (item form) custom HTML tag parameters for text/textselect field,
(c) More responcive design (item form) and minor Layout/styling improvements for image, file, relation fields,
(d) Added select2 library to relation field
(a) Changed/Fixed Language Drop Down Selects to show enabled languages instead of installed ones
(b) Changed/Fixed ItemElement view to show selection of categories according to user's permissions
(c) Added usage of Content Type Access Level and Main category Access Level to the Universal Content Module
(a) Fixed favourites/tags views not respecting image resizing parameters,
(b) Adding missing ability for original image size option in 'blog' category template layout
(c) Fixed warning of comments when jcomments not installed in universal content module
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(a) Fixed multiselect field not to display the prompt inside selector when using iQuery select2, instead it is display before selector
(b) Fixed 2 recent bugs in image field, one is to count entered values correctly in DB-reusable mode and second the selection of image broken in folder-mode
(c) Moved validation of parameters in Universal Content Module so that it is placed before any parameter is retrieved, and also replace usage of deprecated JHTML image.site
(d) Some improvement for frontend item form styling and compacted code fields to take-up less space when secondary categories selector is displayed
(a) Fixed image field in folder mode not setting correct image container (instead, it sets the 1st one)
(b) Fixed relation field with single category not being able to display items,
(c) Fixed text field broken because of inputmask js lib,
(d) Fixed category description not being saved (broken when fixing using user-selected editor),
(e) Fixed a syntax error in HTML5 category common frontend layout
(f) added rss preview link to backend
(a) Minor fixes/cleanups (fixed missing rss icon in category manager, and an unused variable in filemanager, and a minor cleanup in FAQ template code)
(b) Fixed missing menu item META for views Directory,Search,Tags,Favourites
(c) Fixed category model not issuing not found error 404, when a single invalid url segment exists after a category menu item
(d) Fixed a bug in fields select,radio,radioimage when element value does not exist
(e) Adding nice marking for radio,checkbox form elements of fields: radio,checkbox,radioimage,checkbox
(a) Fixed performance of backend search index listing (the search record listing
used to examine what exists inside advanced search index)
* release v2.0.1 for J2.5, (NEW compared to v2.0.0):
- High performance items manager (regardless of number of items)
- Added ability of displaying non-selected element values to fields: select, selectmultiple, radio, radioimage, checkbox, checkboximage
- Added checkin (unlocking) button to all backend views not having already
- cleaned more PHP strict warnings
- Fixed second page of advanced search view, and cleaned/fixed the layout with proper HTML and CSS classes
- Language improvements, added displaying of associated translations in items manager listing and in item form
- Access Levels to Content Types now used in category view (todo for other views, do not use this feature yet) also added create (submit) privilege although not used yet.
- Bug fixes for date field, and also fixed image field setting wrong permissions
- Bug fixed of other reported bugs of v2.0.0, various other minor ones
USABILITY:
-- Powerful manual/automatic Work-flow, with ultra-flexible notifications email (Global, Per Content Type, Per category, featuring 4 basic workflow cases)
(please read online guide in Global configuration options)
-- Restructured/regrouped parameters everywhere to make them easier to locate and configure (parameters are 3x-5x more than before, in component/modules/plugins)
-- Added to Global Configuration almost all missed parameters of various views, so that almost everything can inherit from Global Component configuration
-- Fully faceted search with multiple filter appearances (single text/select, dual (ranges) text/select , single toggle buttons (radio), multiple toggle buttons (checkbox) etc, date as ranges with date picker or automatically grouped in year, months, days, etc)
-- Fully customizable Alpha-Index having custom character groups, character aliases, character ranges, and these per language or overridden per category or view
-- Language management enhancement, e.g. for content Items (articles) associations similar to J3.0 , with automatic switching for frontend
-- Multiple featured categories (To use these, Select categories in Advanced Route Plugin after reading our FAQ article)
(Of course a content can belong to many featured categories because FLEXIcontent allows multiple categories per content Item)
(TODO: allow easy selection in item Form ... since now you have to select them like other categories)
-- Many other minor/medium importance new features
ACL:
-- 3 more ACL rules to the Hierarchical inheritance of joomla (category > subcategory > … > content)
-- 40 more ACL options than standard Joomla
(most of them easy to use , some of them may need documentation to describe their usability, we are updating our site)
NEW -FRONTEND- VIEWS:
-- My items view (with all category options !!)
-- Multi-category view (with all category options !!)
-- Author view (with all category options !!)
-- Search view
a. with full faceted search with item counting and multiple filter appearances, see above !!
b. user interface with jQuery to offer a better user experience
c. display of custom fields
d. smart marking of multiple search words (it will not work for words with accents, but results will be always listed correctly)
UPDATED -FRONTEND- VIEWS (enhancements):
-- Display custom fields in tags and favorite views
-- Enhanced tags cloud module to be able to pass a detailed configuration to tags view
-- Enhanced category view with customizable fully customizable alpha index
-- Enhanced categroy view to be able to create more detailed subcategories listings with customized layout and thumbnailing
-- and more ...
PERFORMANCE
-- Big performance improvements for frontend views e.g :
a. up to 2x for items view (with many fields) and minor for tags / favourites
b. up to 20x or more for category view (and similar) with many items
-- The backend search indexer was built with speed in my mind and can index up 50-100 per second while them having 50 text searchable custom fields!!
NEW -BACKEND- VIEWS:
-- Search Indexes View
(handles rebuilding basic and advanced search indexes)
a. Basic index (that we had in v1.5.4) is now possible to be - REBUILT - when users ADDs/REMOVE searchable FIELDS
b. Advanced Search Index (NEW) which makes possible TEXT Searching otherwise unsearchable field e.g. image field, plus it allows searching per individual field !!
-- Author management View
a. easy manage your authors (Joomla users)
b. customize frontend author views of each author
c. allow more functionality than ACL allows (e.g. number of categories the author is allowed to assign an item)
-- Powerful CSV import View
a. can accept - ANY - type of CSV file (any format, but content is strictly specific)
b. can import fields that are both multi-valued and multi-property
c. can import various properties of items (e.g. state, owner, start/end publication dates, etc)
d. can import item with specific ID
e. powerful debugging BEFORE import process starts, that prevent mistakes in the process (and these without need to renter import configuration)
FRONTEND CONTENT FORM
(Form for submiting/editing FLEXIcontent items)
a. NEW rewritten Frontend CONTENT Form , that brings almost all backend options to the Frontend
b. Per Content Type customization of the Form with various new parameters
NEW MODULES
(compared to v1.5.4)
-- A powerful Universal content Module with
a. Detailed filtering: with more than 10 Filtering SCOPEs each with various further customization parameters.
b. Smart structure, so that despite the very long number of parameters, it easy the sub-section of a parameter
c. Can create category listing and / or group into categories
d. Templating, (built-in is the powerful "news" template to customize display of fields without editing any files)
e. Display criteria (when module will be displayed e.g. a given condition is true), note this is different than filtering SCOPE as it effects all module content
-- A filtering module
a. allows displaying any number of categories filters into a module position
b. Display criteria (like above)
ENHANCED MODULES
-- Tags Cloud
a. Module has been enhanced with tags view configuration and each tags cloud module is able to pass this configuration back to the tags view
b. Display criteria (like above)
UPDATED -BACKEND- VIEWS (major enhancements)
-- Item Manager
a. custom field display e.g. image fields (customizable per content type in content type configuration !!)
b. integrated Trash & Archive Management
c. Multiple item state change (needed since FLEXIcontent has more state than Joomla)
d. Power drag and drop reordering that works smoothly with all ordering Groups of the items
e. Better integration with language
-- Content Type Manager
(Numerous parameters for content types are customized:)
a. CORE fields per content type
b. ITEM Form per content type
c. Email Notifications per content type
-- Fields Manager
(New Field Properties) (common to ALL non-CORE fields)
a. Form Hidden (Backend and/or Frontend Forms)
b. Value-Edit ACL permission (subscription sites)
c. Untranslatable (field maintains value of master translatin item)
d. Text Search/Filter properties (to add remove field for search indexes on demand)
e. Unified parameter structure for almost all field for easier, more intuitive and configurative, e.g. structure parameters for filter appearance / faceted search
(Enhancements for fields in -Item Form-)
a. Inline Help (as baloons or as inline text)
b. Fieldsets and Tabsets via the new Field 'Form groupmarker'
(Backend Field Listing)
a. Power drag and drop reordering , to quickly group your fields (don't forget to use group marker field too)
b. Duplicate field with values
c. Easy handling of Text Searchable / Filterable fields, with marking of them as dirty until Search / Indexes are rebuilt
NEW FIELDS
-- An image gallery field
(merged with image field)
a. support reusable images via DB
b. support image from custom folder (item-ID + field-Id)
c. Powerful editing in item form, allows to enter multiple properties per image and easily select them (from our new image folder manager)
d. (new) automatic rebuilding of PHPThumb cached thumbnails when configuration of gallery fields changes
e. Parameterized display of the images as thumbnails by various (Javascript Popup) Galleries
f. Suggesting image to social websites (e.g. for linking from Facebook)
g. Text Searchable (its title and description texts, etc, can be entered in advanced search index)
h. numerous other customizations
i. sorry but despite this powerful gallery field, we still lack video field, for basic usage, use a text field that triggers a video joomla content plugin (see our docs)
-- A relation and Reverse Relation field
a. creates relations between content Types, e.g. Artist relates to multiple Albums
b. Powerful custom HTML with field replacements ITEM listing of Related items with any custom field, e.g. you can list Albums with images ,dates etc inside an Artist View
-- A form group marker field
a. groups fields into Tabsets
b. groups fields into Fieldsets
c. groups fields into custom HTML
EXISTING FIELDS
-- Unified / Restructured parameter of all fields to have a smoother configuration experience
-- More detailed customization of fields for the purposes of displaying, editing , search and filtering
e.g. date field can be grouped into year for the purpose of filtering your content in frontend !!
e.g. Load Module field can customize the parameters of displayable modules, thus you create a single Joomla module and each of your items will display this module differently !!
e.g. Voting field can have multiple voting types customizable per Content Type !!
... other that we will list here in our next update
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* 1.5.4 release: Security, performance, routing and new fields.
IMPORTANT: As this release contains two security fixes, all users should upgrade immediately!!!
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* 1.5.3 release: Frontend editing and many other improvements
Complete changelog available on the product download page.
* FLEXIcontent wins the special award of "Best innovation of the Year" and J and Beyond international developer conference
https://jandbeyond.org/blog/item/209-joomla-open-source-creative-and-artistic-recognition-award-winners.html
CONTENT MANAGEMENT
• Category Multi-mapping (Multiple categories assigned to an item)
• Advanced filtering [ NEW in v2.0: (a) faceted search + (b) multiple filter appearance e.g. toggle buttons]
• [NEW v2.0] Per Field search engine with fulltext indexing (Can search/filter fields otherwise unsearchable e.g. image fields)
• Usage of Joomla content and category tables for content backwards and forwards compatibility (this means it extends the com_content instead of replacing it)
• Trigger content plugins [NEW in v2.0 real -- selective -- plugin triggering inside FLEXIcontent fields, achieving high performance in category view while triggering content plugins, which normally is heavy to do in long listings !!]
• Allow usage of all com_content designed modules (because your main content is still stored inside Joomla com_content)
• Simple workflow with 5 hard coded states [NEW in v2.0: Automatic/manual Workflow with highly-configurable messaging]
• Advanced version control [NEW in v2.0: improved intergration with workflow, and more user friendly]
• Integrated aggregation system (tags)
• File manager for secure downloads and media files [NEW in v2.0: improved File management and improved FILE Field to allow more control over viewing and downloading]
SEO & TECHNICAL
• Perfect urls with the native SEF from Joomla
• native multilingual user interface [NEW in v2.0 association of content translations for J2.5 like it is for J3.0 and automatic switching in the frontend]
FRONTEND
• Ajax rating systems [NEW in v2.0, multiple voting types, and per Content Type customization of these !!]
• Ajax commenting system [via intergation with JComments or other]
• Favourites and update notifications [via favourites Field]
• Contents and Categories templates [NEW in v2.0: (a) 2 more templates (modular layout and tabbed in category view), plus tabbed positions in all other layouts]
• Article submission and editing [integrated document version and flow control !!]
CONTENT CONSTRUCTION KIT (CCK)
• Unlimited content types with associated fields
• Drag and drop templating
• Each field/element is a standard Joomla plugin and developers can easily create their own fields using our API
• Dynamically generated fields (with SQL queries)
• Universal Plugin support (more information)
ACCESS CONTROL - ACL [via Joomla's native ACL]
• [NEW v2.0] Adds 3 more ACL rules to the Hierarchical inheritance of joomla (category > subcategory > … > content)
• [NEW v2.0] Adding to more than 30 other ACL permissions to standard Joomla ACL
