Creating a real estate website using Joomla

Joomla OpenSEF is Still Alive

"I'm glad this is still ongoing. Since I'm using it for our multi-site feature, it's very important that this component should be useful to other joomla version upgrades, most especially to the awaited joomla 1.5 stable version release"

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Submitted by geektips on Sat, 01/12/2008 - 19:29.

After several weeks without any words about OpenSEF continuity. Several days ago, Predator a.k.a Marko (OpenSEF developer) has posted a message in OpenSEF forum regarding OpenSEF project continuity.

Marko clearly stated that he will continue developing the OpenSEF component, he also wrote that the main reason he didn't post any message in the forum for so long is because he had just moved from Berlin to Bavaria in south Germany and he still haven't got a steady internet connection in his new place.

Good luck in your new home, Marko!

Beside this i have move now from Berlin to Bavaria (South German) and waiting since 5 weeks for my new internet connection which i will get on the 10. of April which makes a total of 8 week for a Internet connection in germany i feel myself back in the stoneage by this unbelieveable service in Germany.

So a lot has change in my private life, but if i'm able after i got full Internet connection to work again for the community and i will continue this project.

When all this probs are sorted out i sure will release a new version.

A hint for you: a lot open source projects dies because people only want want want but didn't want to give something back thats why a lot developers start asking themself is that the spirit of open source? I guess not, but i will continue the project - otherwise i would say right away now that i stop it or i had done this weeks ago.

Beside i'm also in the Coreteam of Joomla! so there goes also a lot free time november and december where gone for the 1.0.12 Release, just check the changelog.

I write this from a friend with Internet connection to give you an answer and what is the current status quo, hope this is explains a bit to you.

Predator

Joomla 1.5 Stable to be released soon - maybe!

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January 6th, 2008

It has been announced that there has been a trunk freeze on the Joomla 1.5 SVN server, this means that a release of Joomla 1.5 stable might only be days away (I guess they have to do all the marketing, packaging and preparation - as well as testing before the big release)

There are still a considerable amount of “normal priority” open bugs on the support tracker, so I dont see how the svn can be considered stable in its present state - I just logged another bug report just now (Unable to send Mass Mails to Super Admins.

But no matter what I think - it appears that the long awaited release of Joomla 1.5 is going to happen soon - well in the next few days or weeks!

However, do not fret! Joomla 1.0.x will be supported for a short while by the Joomla core team (they have said so) and there is also a community team gearing up to provide Long Term Support for the Joomla 1.0.x development track (as a fork if needed). So don’t be in any rush to (upgrade) migrate your sites to Joomla 1.5. Remember there is no upgrade path!

Joomla! 1.0.14 RC1 Released

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Monday, 14 January 2008

The Joomla! Project today announced the immediate release of Joomla! 1.0.14 RC1 [Daybreak], the first and hopefully singular release candidate for the 1.0.14 release cycle. Several security issues have been discovered and addressed for this release. While the required changes are not significant, the number of impacted files are significant and we need your help. Before this release is declared stable we need to ensure that it works as well for you as it does for us.

Those of you that are able and willing please download a copy of 1.0.14 RC1 and test it on a backup copy of your live site. Make sure that the system works as good or better than Joomla! 1.0.13, our current stable release. Any issues that you find please report in the 1.0.x Bug Tracker. If you have questions on how to report a bug you should read the how-to and then if you still have questions please feel free to ask them in our 1.0.x Quality and Testing forum.

Since this release fixes security vulnerabilities, once you have verified on a backup of your site that everything works as expected we suggest that you upgrade your live site to this release.

RELEASE NOTES

Joomla! 1.0.14 RC1 is a release candidate that addresses several security issues that have been discovered since our last stable release, Joomla! 1.0.13 . It is regarded as a mostly stable release and after adequate testing on a backup or sandbox version of your live site you should upgrade your live site to 1.0.14 RC1. As soon as we are comfortable that the required security changes for this release have not broken any functionality from version 1.0.13 we will package and release a 1.0.14 Stable release.

Along with the security fixes listed below there were several other issues fixed in this release. Ranging from fixing administrator session log out problems to media manager, pagination and web links all the way to improper search word highlighting in the search component this release looks to be our most secure and stable one yet.

Joomla! 1.5 RC4 --- Introducing Karibu

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Wednesday, 19 December 2007

Just a week and a half ago people from all over the globe gathered in various locations to do a little Bug Squashing... today the fruits of their labour can be revealed as we announce the release of Joomla! 1.5 RC4. This release is code named Karibu which is Swahili for nearby, close, close by, at hand... all terms that we feel reflect the nature of this release.

Karibu marks an important milestone in 1.5's development, as barring any major issues we believe it will be the last release candidate, with the next release being the big one... Joomla! 1.5 stable. When that happens will in part be influenced by the Joomla! community...

More so than any previous, this release really has been one of unprecedented community involvement with people from all the various Working Groups as well as others banding together to help increase momentum as we head for a stable release. There is an enormous amount of energy building up around the 1.5 release and it is inspirational being a part of the process.

How can I be a part of the stable release?

Testing

The first and most important thing you can do is test the software with us. Download a copy of RC4 and install it somewhere to test it. Go through all the different areas of the software looking for things that do not work. If you come across something that is broken then please file a bug report on our tracker. If you come across something that seems to not work but you are not sure, ask a question in our Quality and Testing forum. If you have the ability to solve the problem, let us know how you would solve it by fixing it and providing a patch.

Rule of thumb: a bug report is great, a patch is even greater.

Documentation

Almost as important as making sure the software works is making sure that people can learn how to use it. We try to make Joomla! as easy to use as possible, but even the easiest to use software requires documentation. Because Joomla! 1.5 is a complete rethink and rework of so much, the documentation for 1.0.x is no longer relevant. One of the things that we can use a lot of help with is writing documentation. At nearly every event we have gone to we have heard that people want to help but feel that they really do not have the expertise to do so... well this is your chance to help! We need volunteers to write up documentation on how to use nearly every part of Joomla! ... help screens ... development tutorials ... anything and everything you can think of to help people learn about Joomla!.

Teaser: Building on the huge success of the Bug Squashing event, in the coming weeks we will announce a Joomla! Documentation Boot Camp.... stay tuned for more.

How do I find more information on Joomla! 1.5?

Most of the resources with information on 1.5 is a work in progress, but that's where you come in. Help us make these resources better so that everyone that comes after you doesn't have the same problems finding information that you might have.

Joomla 1.0.12 or Joomla 1.5

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Currently people building websites with Joomla are in an odd situation.

There's no upgrade path from Joomla 1.0.12 to Joomla 1.5, so we need to make a choice. Do we recommend the current stable version or do we ask customers to be patient and wait for the new, shiny updated Joomla?

Well, if I had a dollar for every time I'd answered that question .... :)

In fact, its such a common question that I drew up a small list of the advantages and disadvantages for each option.

Current Status
1.0.12 : Currently stable. No security problems and bugs are few and far between.
1.5 : Currently it shouldn't be used for live sites. You'll need to wait for the Release Candidates in order to have a production worthy.

Future Prospects
1.0.12 : Only security upgrades will be made, which means you'll be tied to the current set of features.
1.5 : Very bright. It will take while for developers to update their products and take full advantage of 1.5's new features, but by choosing 1.5 you will have an easy upgrade path to future versions.

Components
1.0.12 : Currently all of the available components on joomla.org are compatible with 1.0.12.
1.5 : Quite a few components on joomla.org can run with Joomla 1.5 in legacy mode, but new components that take full advantage of the features on 1.5 are yet to be released.

Obviously this is not updated. A number of components are already updated and are compatible with Joomla 1.5 release candidate versions. Check out www.extensions.joomla.org

Templates
1.0.12 : All the free and commercial templates you'll find currently work with 1.0.12.
1.5 : No commercial and only a few free templates have been released to but expect a rush of designs when the first Release Candidate is issued.

There ARE commercial template clubs that have released versions compatible with Joomla 1.5 RCs. Check out www.RocketTheme.com

Why should I choose this version?
1.0.12 : If time is not on your side, go with 1.0.12. Also, if you have a small site, the migration to 1.5 should be relatively painless.
1.5 : If your project is not urgent, or if you're building a large, fully-featured site, its well-worth waiting the extra time to take advantage of 1.5's increased potential.

Configuring a web calendar

I am using a popular joomla calendar extension but it doesn't coincide with what our web calendar should be, since it is actually a gig calendar. We don't really need to display band names, venue, etc. But there is one function that we really wanted, and that is the hover function for their mini calendar module. As far as I know, other open source calendars don't have it. And one more, this calendar does not have a date range function. So if you have events that happen for a number of days, you have to repeat the input of event details for that day. Very redundant and inefficient. So I decided to use ANOTHER calendar. So I can make use of the minicalendar module for the latter one, and the full calendar and list module for the previous one.

This is the minicalendar module.



I configured the minicalendar module so that Dec 2007 and Full Calendar would both link to the other full calendar module.






To change the Full Calendar link, I configured Line 204 of mod_gigcal_minical.php located under the joomla modules folder:


to:

which is simply the link to the other calendar module, instead of it's own full calendar module of Gigs.



This is the FULL Calendar module of the other calendar extension.


I have modified the CSS styles of each calendars to fit the design of our web portal.