3.0.2 Released

Posted on January 15, 2011 by row1

Simple Review 3.0.2 has been released (download). An upgrade is available for 3.0.1 users (download).

There is a small breaking change for those that have edited the comment display template.
To fix it we need to remove the directory path in the avatar URL, in the template file commentdisplay/template.php find the line which looks like this:
<img align='left' src="components/com_simple_review/images/avatars/<?php echo $c->avatar;?>"/>
and change it to this:
<img align='left' src="<?php echo $c->avatar;?>" width="48px" height="48px"/>

The biggest new feature is there is now limited support for Community Builder and Kunena. At the moment Simple Review only supports using their avatars in comments, but you can post your requests here.

Full list of changes:

  • New. Added basic avatar support in comments for Community Builder and Kunena. Comment display template changed.
  • New. Tag configuration: can specify the default template for tags.
  • New. Tag configuration: can specify the replacement character for non-Latin characters in tag aliases.
  • New. Placeholders can now be used in the tag review listing template. See this guide to upgrade your template (if applicable), be sure to use the tag template instead of category.
  • New. Cleaned up main administration page.
  • Fix. Error when editing a review with no titles.
  • Fix. Quotes in meta information not being escaped.
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Help Updated

Posted on January 9, 2011 by row1

Three new/updated help topics:

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3.0.1 Released

Posted on January 8, 2011 by row1

Simple Review 3.0.1 has been released (download). An upgrade is available for 3.0.0 users (download).
Please note, if you have created your own template or edited an existing category template please make a small update by following this guide.

Changes:

  • New. Placeholders can now be used in the category review listing template. See this guide to upgrade your template (if applicable):
    http://simple-review.com/389-upgrading-template-3-0-0-to-3-0-1.html
  • Fix. Frontend tag filter not working.
  • Fix. Widget configuration not saved on some PHP setups.
  • Fix. A new user review could not be given the max rating.
  • Fix. Joomla plugin warning in newer PHP versions (tested on 5.3.1) “Parameter 1 to plgXYZ() expected to be a reference, value given in…”.
  • Fix. Tags could not be deleted from the tag administration page.
  • Fix. The last tag could not be removed from a review on the review administration page.
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Upgrading Template 3.0.0 to 3.0.1

Posted on January 8, 2011 by row1

This guide also applies for the tag template.

Simple Review 3.0.1 has a new feature for category templates which allows you to use placeholders when creating your review listing template. This change will allow you to easily add custom fields to your review listing without having to resort to using PHP. You can ignore this guide if you are using an unmodified category template that comes with Simple Review e.g. default or dark. If you have created your own template or modified the existing category review listing template (template.reviewlisting.html.php) the below will show you the difference and what to change.

Old template code to replace (~line 109-124):

<?php
$isAlt = false;
foreach($reviews as $r):
$css = $isAlt ? 'odd' : 'even';
$isAlt = !$isAlt;
$reviewName = Simple_Review_Common::RemoveSlashes($r->name);
$reviewName = "<a href='$r->url'>$reviewName</a>";
?>
<tr class="<?php echo $css;?>">
<td><?php echo $reviewName;?></td>
<td><?php echo $r->rating;?></td>
<td><?php echo $r->averageUserRating;?></td>
<td><?php echo $r->createdByName;?></td>
<td><?php echo $r->createdDate;?></td>
</tr>
<?php endforeach;?>

New template code:

<?php
$isAlt = false;
foreach($reviews as $r):
$css = $isAlt ? 'odd' : 'even';
$isAlt = !$isAlt;
ob_start();
?>
<tr class="<?php echo $css;?>">
<td><a href='{Review:Url}'>{Review:Title}</a></td>
<td>{Review:Rating}</td>
<td>{Review:RatingUser}</td>
<td>{Review:Author}</td>
<td>{Review:Date}</td>
</tr>
<?php
$tableRow = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
echo $this->Replace($r, $tableRow);
endforeach;?>

As you can see the table row’s cells (<td>) no longer contain any PHP.

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3.0.0 Released

Posted on November 21, 2010 by row1

Simple Review 3.0.0 has been released (download). An upgrade is available for 2.2.4 users (download), please note that the new templates are not compatible with 2.2.4 templates (template upgrade guide).

What’s new in 3.0.0:

  • New. Review templates support the hReview microformat. You can test what your review will look like in Google search here (example).
  • New. Can sort reviews.
  • New. Can now select a specific category when creating a menu item.
  • New. Reviews can now be tagged.
  • New. Reviews now have meta keywords and descriptions.
  • New. Option to require comments to be approved before being published.
  • Fix. Place holder {Review:Date} now works (from 3.0.0 beta 1).
  • Fix. User reviews are now working and have a redesigned template (from 3.0.0 beta 1).
  • Fix. Pager and filter.
  • Fix. Bug where the user’s real name was always displayed instead of the user name.
  • Change. The review template file has been renamed from template.html to template.html.php (from 3.0.0 beta 1).
  • Change. Place holder {Review:AwardImageUrl} has been renamed to {Review:Award} (from 3.0.0 beta 1).
  • Change. Place holder {Review:ModifiedDate} has been renamed to {Review:DateModified} (from 3.0.0 beta 1).
  • Change. Template system has changed. Old templates are no longer compatible.
  • Change. Simple Tags have been renamed to Place Holders. The place holders have a new easier to remember format and provide additional features – the old format is still supported. They are no longer case sensitive.
  • Change. Editing content is now more consistent with Joomla. The layout is now simpler and provides things such as an image selector.
  • Change. Category & review titles are now called fields. Fields are now optional.
  • Change. Include jQuery locally by default and upgraded to 1.4.3.
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3.0.0 Templates

Posted on November 21, 2010 by row1

Template in Simple Review 3.0.0 are not compatible with previous templates 2.2.4. Templates in 3.0.0 are not that much different from 2.2.4 and should not take too long to convert them.

New templates important folders/files:
www/components/com_simple_review/templates/TEMPLATE_NAME/css/MODULE_NAME.css
www/components/com_simple_review/templates/TEMPLATE_NAME/MODULE_NAME/
www/components/com_simple_review/templates/TEMPLATE_NAME/MODULE_NAME/template.php
www/components/com_simple_review/templates/TEMPLATE_NAME/MODULE_NAME/template.html.php

Old templates important folders/files:
/www/components/com_simple_review/views/MODULE_NAME/tmpl/TEMPLATE_NAME.php
/www/components/com_simple_review/views/MODULE_NAME/tmpl/TEMPLATE_NAME/
/www/components/com_simple_review/views/MODULE_NAME/tmpl/TEMPLATE_NAME/Template.css

As an example we will convert our old review template into the new template format.
We will base our new template on the default one.
Steps:

  1. Create a new folder:
    www/components/com_simple_review/templates/example/
  2. From the default template
    www/components/com_simple_review/templates/default/
    copy the following into www/components/com_simple_review/templates/example/:

    • index.html
    • css
    • images
    • js
    • review

    You should now have the following:
    www/components/com_simple_review/templates/example/index.html
    www/components/com_simple_review/templates/example/css/
    www/components/com_simple_review/templates/example/images/
    www/components/com_simple_review/templates/example/js/
    www/components/com_simple_review/templates/example/review/

  3. Open:
    www/components/com_simple_review/templates/example/review/template.html.php

    Delete everything inbetween: <!––review template start––> and <!––review template end––>

    Open your old template file
    /www/components/com_simple_review/views/review/tmpl/TEMPLATE_NAME.php

    Copy everything inbetween <!–– START EDITING––> and <!–– STOP EDITING––> and
    paste it into your new template (replace the deleted text in template.html.php).

  4. You can optionally update your old Simple Review tags with the new Place Holders.
    You can see a list of the new place holders on your place holder admin page:
    http://YOUR_SITE.COM/administrator/index2.php?option=com_simple_review&task=list&module=PlaceHolder_Module

    Example update:
    {sr_name} = {Review:Title}
    {sr_createdBy} = {Review:Author}
    {sr_createdDate} = {Review:Date}
    {sr_rating} = {Review:Rating}
    {sr_maxRating} = {Review:RatingMax}
    {sr_avgUserScore} = {Review:RatingUser}
    {sr_imageURL} = {Review:Image}
    {sr_title1} = {Review:Field:1}
    {sr_title2} = {Review:Field:2}
    {sr_scoreBox} = {Review:Rating:Box}

    <?php echo $vm->content;?> = {Review:Body}
    <?php echo $this->Widgets->Display(‘CommentForm’);?> = {Widget:CommentForm}
    <?php echo $this->Widgets->Display(‘CommentDisplay’);?> = {Widget:CommentDisplay}

    Once you have updated all your templates you can go to your Simple Review configuration and
    on the Place Holders tab change the mode from ‘Legacy’ to ‘Enabled’.

  5. Copy your images into:
    www/components/com_simple_review/templates/example/images/
  6. Add your CSS to:
    www/components/com_simple_review/templates/example/review/review.css

    Note that css classes starting with ‘srTitle’ are now ‘srField’.

  7. If you want to convert other templates such as a category template then create a new folder:
    www/components/com_simple_review/templates/example/category/
    Then repeat steps 3 to 6. Note some templates such as category have had JavaScript or structural changes to fix bugs or add features, so apply step 3 carefully and only if needed.
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3.0.0 Beta 1 Released

Posted on October 31, 2010 by row1

Beta 1 of Simple Review 3.0 has been released (download). As a beta release you should install it with caution on a live site.

The main change is the new template and place holder (formally called Simple Tags) system.
Templates are now found in www/components/com_simple_review/templates and are not compatible with previous versions. The place holders format is now more logical and easier to remember, example {Review:Field:1} and {Review:Title}.

I wanted to get some more features and fixes (e.g. missing translations) into this first beta but due to a hardware failure it may take a week or two to get it back up and running. Below is the list of changes in 3.0.0 Beta 1:

  • New. Option to require comments to be approved before being published.
  • Change. Template system has changed. Old templates are no longer compatible.
  • Change. Simple Tags have been renamed to Place Holders. The place holders have a new easier to remember format and provide additional features – the old format is still supported. They are no longer case sensitive.
  • Change. Editing content is now more consistent with Joomla. The layout is now simpler and provides things such as an image selector.
  • Change. Category & review titles are now called fields. Fields are now optional.
  • Change. Include jQuery locally by default and upgraded to 1.4.3.
  • Fix. Bug where the user’s real name was always displayed instead of the user name.
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Version 2.3 Status Update

Posted on September 10, 2010 by row1

A quick update on the status of Simple Review 2.3. First of all the changes are are quite big so the next release will actually be version 3.0! I have implemented the new template and tag system and they are proving to be a huge improvement. In the upcoming weeks I will release a preview version of 3.0 to showcase the new features and gather feedback.

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2.2.4 Re-Released

Posted on July 17, 2010 by row1

The previously released 2.2.4 had some installation problems. Both the main installer and patch have been corrected.

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2.2.4 Released

Posted on July 10, 2010 by row1

Version 2.2.4 has been released (upgrade). It is another small release and fixes the category order being ignored as well as new lines in user reviews not being preserved.

Update: There is currently an issue with the 2.2.4 installer. Please install 2.2.3 and then apply the above 2.2.3 to 2.2.4 patch.

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