simple-review.com

Some things coming up in version 2.2:

• Configuration is now more robust and is easier to backup, all configuration files live in www/administrator/components/com_simple_review/config/.
• The old web-based review template system has been renamed to Default Content as this better reflects what it does. Reviews can now have a file based template as well as default content.
• Templates now live in www/components/com_simple_review/templates/.
• Captcha has been fixed and now works with Security Images 5.1.2.
• I have started work on user submitted reviews. Reviews submitted from the front-end cannot contain any HTML, but they can enter BBCode which will probably be provided via the yvBBCode plugin.

I will most likely release a beta version in 1-2 weeks.

A native version of the search plugin is now available.
Please remember to enable it else it will not work.
It only works with Simple Review 2.1.2 and higher.

A user is reporting an issue after upgrading to Joomla 1.5.15. I believe that it is to do with changes to the WYSIWYG editor. If you are unable to save reviews after upgrading please respond in this thread. I am unable to reproduce the issue on a fresh installation of Joomla 1.5.15, but it does seem to be a known issue with some components. In the meantime please try some of the suggestions or try turning the Joomla ‘Default WYSIWYG Editor’ to no editor.

I have released version 2.1.2C which fixes this issue.
If you already have 2.1.2 you can either patch it yourself or just download 2.1.2 and upload the mentioned file CategoryForm.php.

I have temporarily unreleased version 2.1.2 due to a bug where you cannot add new titles to a category.
In the meantime you can apply the fix yourself.
Directory: www\administrator\components\com_simple_review\addons\
modules\Category_Module\templates\Admin
File: CategoryForm.php
Line: 89
(insert a new line after
var tm = new CategoryTitleManager("tm", "title", "", 20, tmLang);)

Add the following:

jQuery("#addTitle").click(function(){
tm.AddTitle('', tm.GetNextNumberedTitleName('Title'), 0, 'Text', 0);
});


Version 2.1.2 has been released. There is also an upgrade available for 2.1.1 users, please read the instructions carefully before upgrading – especially the part about adding missing names to your reviews (for pre 2.1.1 users). There are a few new features but it is mostly a bug fix and clean-up release. Special thanks to forum user NRyan115 for his assistance.

Full list of changes:

• Added a new tag {sr_name} to display the name of the review.
• Added pathway/breadcrumbs.
• Added new language strings:
  Category_Module.php:
  • FormTemplateCategory
  • FormTemplateCategoryTip
  • Error404Title
  • Error404Description

  Review_Module.php:

  • Error404Title
  • Error404Description

  Language_Module.php:

  • ConfigPluginFooter
  • ConfigPluginFooterTip
  • ConfigPluginHeader
  • ConfigPluginHeaderTip

  Tag_Module.php

  • TagReviewName
• Added frontend 404 error pages to be displayed if a review or category is not found or not published.
• Added a template for categories. This will be used when the user visits a category i.e. clicks your reviews menu item and sees the list
  of categories and their reviews.
  The templates are found in:
  www\administrator\components\com_simple_review\addons\modules\Category_Module\templates\Front\
  To modify the template copy the ‘Default’ directory and give it a name e.g. ‘MyTemplate1′.
  Edit the HTML in MyTemplate1\Template.php (editing area is marked with START EDITING).
  Edit the CSS in MyTemplate1\Template.css
  Go to the Category administration page and change the ‘Category Template’ to your new template ‘MyTemplate1′.
• Changed the HTML and CSS for the rating boxes – they will now be displayable horizontally (and inside P tags) rather than the forced vertically.
  To revert to vertical change the css in:
  www\administrator\com_simple_review\admin\addons\modules\Review_Module\templates\Front\Default\Template.css

  to (from display:inline-block;):
  .scoreBox, .userScoreBox
{
display:block;
text-align:center;
}

  The new HTML looks like – note that the class names have changed and the divs have been replaced with spans.
  
<span class="scoreBox">
<span class="ratingHeadingContainer"><span class="ratingHeading">Rating</span></span><br/>
<span class="ratingContainer"><span class="rating">0.0</span></span><br/>
<span class="ratingTextContainer"><span class="ratingText">out of 5</span></span><br/>
<span class="ratingFooterContainer"/>
</span>


• Changed Administration Review listing to now use the review name instead of title 1, 2 and 3.
• Changed and improved the plugin selection configuration.
• Fixed a bug where if Joomla ‘Search Engine Friendly URLs’ was turned off a user will be redirected to the main page rather than the review after adding a comment.
• Fixed a bug where you could not view a review if ‘ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY’ was turned on in MySQL.
• Fixed star rating not being shown on category listing.
• Fixed configuration options:
  
  Category:
  • Sort options. Added “Review Name” as the default sort field.
  • Limit Top N to Current Category
  • Removed option ‘Show Review Count’ (edit via category template see here)
  • Removed option ‘Show Reviewer’ (edit via category template see here)
  • Removed option ‘Title 2 is Review Link’ (edit via category template see here)
  • Removed option ‘Title 3 is Review Link’ (edit via category template see here)
• Moved:
  www\administrator\components\com_simple_review\addons\modules\Review_Module\Review_Module.css
  to:
  www\administrator\com_simple_review\admin\addons\modules\Review_Module\templates\Front\Default\Template.css
• Moved:
  www\components\com_simple_review\images\
emptystar.png
emptystar-alt.png
fullstar.png
fullstar-alt.png
halfstar.png
halfstar-alt.png
  to:
  www\administrator\com_simple_review\admin\addons\modules\Review_Module\templates\Front\Default\
www\administrator\com_simple_review\admin\addons\modules\Category_Module\templates\Front\Default\

  The reason for moving into both Review and Category folders
  is incase you want smaller or different coloured star icons in the review listing (category page) or review page.

• Removed file Category_Module.css and merged it into the Default template.
  If you have made changes to this file copy them into the template.
• Removed directory:
  www\administrator\components\com_simple_review\addons\modules\Review_Module\images
  and merged the contents in:
  www\administrator\com_simple_review\admin\addons\modules\Review_Module\templates\Front\Default
• Removed directory:
  www\components\com_simple_review\frontend\css.
  File Simple_Review.css has been merged into the Default Review and Category template CSS files.

Version 2.1.1 of the component and modules have been released; an upgrade is also available for 2.1.0 users.

Notable changes:

• Works with PHP 4.
• Reviews now have a name field. This will be used in the page title and as the displayed text in the top and latest modules.

If you are upgrading from 2.0.7 you will need to perform the database upgrade from patch 2.0.7 to 2.1.0 first, then you can apply the full 2.1.0 to 2.1.1 patch (file and database).
If you are upgrading make sure you backup your files and database first. Once upgraded make sure your review created dates are correct and check that each review has a sensible name (new field).

Full list of changes:

• Added ‘Name’ to review which will be used in the page’s title and by the top modules.
• Added strings to languages files Review_Module.php (FormName, FormNameTip).
• Added new CSS classes to the review rating boxes.
• Added a default timestamp to the review dates as in somecases without it ‘on update CURRENT_TIMESTAMP’ was being applied.
• Changed category name and description to be a database text field rather than varchar(255).
• Changed review image URLs to be a database text field rather than varchar(255).
• Fixed the comment email link.
• Fixed issues with PHP 4.
• Fixed superfluous spaces in review character filter.
• Fixed Tag table not being deleted.
• Fixed Admin Pagination.
• Fixed Comment form float clearing.
• Fixed review form text inputs being too small.
• Fixed review title quote escaping while editing .
• Removed Category configuaration options (now done via templates in ‘www\administrator\components\com_simple_review\admin\addons\modules\Category_Module\templates\Front\’):
  • Show Title 1
  • Show Title 2
  • Show Title 3
  • Show Rating
  • Show Reviewer
  • Show Date
  • Title 2 is External Url
  • Title 3 is External Url
  • Title 2 is Review Link
  • Title 3 is Review Link

There are a few issues in PHP 4 which will causes errors such as:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_OBJECT_OPERATOR in
I am working on a fix at the moment. PHP 5 is fine.

Joomla 1.5 only. Joomla 1.0 is no longer supported.

The upgrade was released last week but since the site was down I have been unable to post about it here … until now.
You can download it here, but there are important and possibly breaking changes so continue reading on before attempting an upgrade.

-=Important Notes=-

1. Backup your Joomla site and Database (important!)
2. The old links to your Simple Review categories and reviews will NO LONGER be valid.

Instead a page will be displayed informing visitors of the new link.
You can change it to automatically redirect users by editing the file:
files\frontend\controller.php
and changing line 87 to:

if(SimpleReviewController::_displayLegacy($addonManager, true))

However if you make this change and in your Joomla settings Search Engine Friendly URLs is turned off the Urls may become escpaed e.g. & turns into &

Example old URLs (with Search Engine Friendly URLs turned off) :
http://mysite/joomla/joomla1.5.blank/index.php?option=com_simple_review&Itemid=54&review=1-t1-t2-t2

http://mysite/joomla/joomla1.5.blank/index.php?option=com_simple_review&Itemid=54&category=2-Test-Category

Will change to:
http://mysite/index.php?view=review&cat=2-test-category&rev=1-t1&option=com_simple_review&Itemid=54

http://mysite/index.php?view=category&cat=2-Test+Category&option=com_simple_review&Itemid=54

If you have Search Engine Friendly URLs turned on they will change to:
http://mysite/reviews/2-test-category/1-t1

http://mysite/reviews/2-Test%20Category

IMPORTANT:
The URL redirection assumes that you are using the default URL configuration i.e.:
index.php?option=com_simple_review&Itemid={sr_itemID}&category={sr_categoryID}-{sr_catName}

index.php?option=com_simple_review&Itemid={sr_itemID}&review={sr_reviewID}-{sr_titles}

If you are comfortable with editing your .htacess file and I would recommend doing a 301 redirect via mod_rewrite instead:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles3/spiders-301-redirect.htm

-=Upgrade Steps=-

1. Backup your Joomla site and Database (important!)
2. Run the following SQL script to update your database database\upgrade_2.0.7-2.1.0.sql.txt
3. On your Joomla site delete the CONTENTS of www\administrator\components\com_simple_review
   and replace it with files\admin
4. On your Joomla site delete the CONTENTS of www\components\com_simple_review
   and replace it with files\frontend
5. Any questions/problems please post at http://simple-review.com/forum

The site’s server encountered a serious hardware problem and is now back after being down for four days. Unfortunately it has only been restored back to the 15th of November, so any posts in the forum since then will have been lost, sorry