Free Extensions
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- Written by Omar Ramos | Admin
- Category: ArtCats
- Hits: 7967
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)!
- Details
- Written by Omar Ramos | Admin
- Category: Very Simple Image Rotator Plugin
- Hits: 8902
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: 8476
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.