simple-review.com

Simple Review 2.1 Alpha 2 has been released. You can download it from here, make sure you download com_simple_review_2.1.0_alpha2_joomla1.5.zip.

Changes:

• Languages have been cleaned up and moved into:
  www\administrator\components\com_simple_review\
  addons\modules\Language_Module\languages\
  Note that at the moment the language cannot be changed from en-GB, you are free to modify en-GB to test.
• The category layout has been moved into a separate file:
  www\administrator\components\com_simple_review\
  addons\modules\Category_Module\templates\Default
  Note that at the moment the template cannot be changed from Default, you are free to modify Default to test.
• Works on PHP 4
• Created By and Last Modified By are now being saved (broken in Alpha 1)
• {sr_categoryID} tag now works
• Can now submit a comment with rating 0
• Non-ASCII titles in URLs are now handled correctly i.e. non-ASCII character removed, temporary solution a new field will be added for the Url.
• The administration review listing now has a category filter.
• Provide alternating star image in review listing.

You can see a list of known issues here, please also post any new issues you may find.

The second alpha for Simple Review 2.1 will be released shortly. The current version does not work on PHP 4 due to get_class() returning a value in lowercase, as opposed to PHP 5 returning the correctly cased value. The category HTML has been completely separated into a separate and simple file (view), so now almost anyone should be able to easily change the layout of the category pages. The languages have also started to be migrated into a new format in a central place. I am not using the Joomla 1.5 ini format as it makes it more difficult to maintain compatibility with Joomla 1.0, however the new format for Simple Review will be just as easy for translators.

Version 2.0.1 of the component has been released. It works natively on Joomla 1.5. It is an alpha release so there will be issues – do not install it on a live site.
Please download it and report any bugs in the specific forum. There are some known issues which I will report in the forum. I have also re-opened registration on the forum.

The license has also changed from the MPL to the GNU GPL.

Existing modules and mambots do not currently work.

Special thanks to the the following sites which made the upgrade possible:
www.kanich.net
theartofjoomla.com

Simple Review now installs and functions on Joomla 1.5! I will be releasing an Alpha version this week for testing purposes.

Been a bit busy with my “real” work. All the back end is currently done bar configuration. So things are still getting closer and closer.

Progress is going well. I considered trying to finish a beta version this long Easter weekend. I have gotten close to a releasable version but it was time for me to take a break and have decided to spend the remainder of my holiday doing something more important/fun

I am still working on the administration screens, so far you can create Awards, Categories and Templates. Reviews are also nearing completion, so the end it definitely insight.

Currently working on the administration screens. There is a decent about of work removing references to the old Joomla 1.0 HTML helpers, luckily most of this was already wrapper up so it is not as painful as it could of been.

I am going to *try* and post a weekly update on the Joomla 1.5 upgrade progress. Hopefully this will keep me motivated on the upgrade and let you know that things are happening.

So far the progress is going faster and is less painful that I had initially thought. I will not be using the same Model-View-Controller design as Joomla (Simple Review has it’s own MVC thing happening), so the main problem is that there are global mosXXXX variables (and some function calls) everywhere which are now no longer used in Joomla 1.5. To prevent this problem occurring again I have created a CMS bridge for Joomla 1.0 and 1.5. All non Simple Review code must go though this CMS bridge, this makes it a lot easier to support older and newer version of Joomla (and possibly another CMS e.g. WordPress).

Currently Simple Review installs natively on Joomla 1.5 and does some stuff, there is still a lot of work getting it up to date so stay tuned.

Upgrading Simple Review to work natively with Joomla 1.5 is going slowly but well. It installs fine but there is still a lot to be done.
I will no longer be providing any new installers for Joomla 1.0.X. At this stage I intend to provide a patch for Joomla 1.0.X users to upgrade to Simple Review 2.1, but this may be the last official release for them. I would like to keep Simple Review compatible with both versions for as long as possible but it is too early for me to say how easy this will be, so I would encourage users to upgrade there Joomla sites as soon as possible.

Version 2.0.7 of the Simple Review component has been released. An upgrade for 2.0.6 users is also out.

Changes:

• Fixed Category bypass, now implemented
• Fixed paging for Joomla 1.5 review listing – has know issue with paging and review first letter filter.
• Fixed strange characters appearing at bottom of component.
• Fixed some undefined variable errors.
• Fixed missing text ‘You may only rate an item once.’ when adding multiple comments
• Fixed _SRL_COMMENT_NO_COMMENTS appearing instead of actual value.
• Fixed newline character in title breaking everything.
• Fixed incorrect category and subcategory listing/order.
• Fixed changing a reviews category.
• Fixed missing JavaScript files in backend.
• Added tooltips on fields in backend (e.g. configuration).
• Added Category option ‘Limit Top N to Current Category’.
• Added Category option ‘Number of displayed Categories’.
• Added Category option ‘Number of displayed Reviews’.
• Added option in configuration to not have title 2 and 3 as links to the review in the review listing page.
• Added Pager for top level categories.
• Language files Changes:
  Category_Module and Comment_Module.

Note that language files have a few new strings so current translations will not work.

Next release will be 2.1 and will a native Joomla 1.5 Component.