New Version of Tags Component To Be Released

Ok, we admit it, the current Tags component is becoming a right pain, so we are scrapping it!

Gasp!

Before you die of shock we want to announce that (sooner than planned!) we will be releasing a new version of the Tags Component on Friday 13th April 2007!

This will be our first totally rewritten component to be released with our new bfFramework (A framework that allows us to rapidly build Joomla Extensions) and sports a whole new admin interface powered 100% by xAJAX and jQuery.

Whats more, we are aiming that the same component (already works, but will be announced proper in a later public version) will work in BOTH Joomla 1.0.12 AND Joomla 1.5 (And we have even tested it in Drupal!!!).

In an exception to our current policy on new components – all previous Tags Component Customers can get a FREE copy of the next Tags component without extra charge. This is not a change in our policy, but rather it is easier for us to do this with tags, we also want to see how the new bfFramework performs – so feedback will be welcome.

We are drawing a line under our old style components, and in bringing the launch of the new tags component forward we are excited to see your reaction…

… more news on this as soon as I can get it to you …

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A Tool We Cannot Live Without ! FireBug!

Many times I am asked what one tool do I use in developing PHP Applications that I cannot do without.  Up until recently I would answer and say the Zend studio is by indespensible application.

However Zend now has a rival for my top spot!  Bring on FIREBUG!

Firebug is a Firefox Extension for Web developers – I cannot even start to list the features, but the best feature must be the spying on AJAX calls and their responses! We cannot live without this, how did we ever develop applications without it!?

I have been using Firebug for a while now, but today I installed the Beta version – and was completely blown away! This is not a firefox extension for web users, but for we developers – I simply cannot say enough good things about it!

Check out Firebug Beta at: http://www.getfirebug.com/

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xAJAX Plugin For Joomla 1.5 – Developers Only

We are pleased to make public the SVN repository for the xAJAX Plugin for Joomla 1.5 that is being maintained by a group of developers and co-ordinated by ourselves.  This announcement is for PHP Developers only.  This version of the plugin is NOT for production use but should be used for testing only.

You can download the files from SVN repository at (Use your forge.joomla.org username and password):

http://scm.joomla.org/svn/repos/xajax4joomla/J15_trunk

These plugin files are almost complete and will not change much, we have left security, loading messages and other things down to individual component developers to implment in their components as this is the better way we think, and allows component developers the best environment in which to develop – basically allowing them to do what ever they want with the xAJAX incoming data instead of us imposing restrictions.

We already have 5 components running on this version of the plugin, and we are very confident in it.

The plugin also sports the very latest SVN version of xAJAX 0.5 – its almost stable and wonderful to use – be sure you read the xAJAX site to note the differences in commands – we will not be implmenting legacy mode as we want to move forward fast!  (The Joomla Plugin also doesnt require legacy mode!)

Please provide feedback in the Forum,  not in the commenting below.

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Special Chars in our xAJAX Components

As you may be aware we have been investigating why, under certain environments, non-latin based chars do not display correctly on websites when using our xAJAX based components such as Tags or mosKB.

xAJAX uses UTF-8 so we know it was not an issue with xXAJAX. Joomla 1.0.11 is not too UTF-8 friendly and even the Joomla Developers have blogged about the difficulties in acheiving true UTF-8 on a site.

After many weeks testing under different environments we are pleased to offer some more thoughts so that, if you are experiencing issues with the chars not displaying correctly, you can attempt these changes to your site to ensure the best compatibility. These changes have fixed every site we have personally seen that had problems so we hope that one of them will fix your site if you are having issues.

Credits and Thanks to the some great webpages

Read on tosee ways you can help yourself…

(more…)

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Joomla Component mosKnowledgebase 1.1 Released

mosKnowledgebase 1.1 has just been released, and is the second of our xAJAX components that requires and depends on my new project, the xAJAX Plugin for Joomla.

The reason for this change was to allow other component developers to develop xAJAX applications without conflicting with our own components

In order to run mosKB 1.1 you FIRST need to download and install the xAJAX Plugin For Joomla. You need to install it and make sure the xAJAX for Joomla Plugin/Mambot is PUBLISHED. (If you already have it installed then you do not need to intall it again!)
Then you can install mosKB1.1

To Upgrade from an earlier mosKB version

1) Uninstall any mosKB Mambots or Modules using the built in wizard in the existing mosKB version

2) Uninstall existing mosKB Component using Joomla Component installer (No data will be lost/deleted!)

2a) If you do not yet have the xAJAX Plugin download and install this (http://www.xajax-joomla.com)

3) Obtain the latest zip file from http://www.phil-taylor.com/cc and install this using the Joomla Component installer.

4) Republish any modules mambots using the built in wizard.

This version heralds a huge change in the way components work with xAJAX and leads the way to better integration in the future.

The Major Changes

We have made MANY smaller changes to mosKB, including many reported bugs, but somethings have had more major reworking. We have removed the flash graphs, the feedback we recieved about them was that you would prefer a table with the data. We have reworked and refactored the xAJAX into the plugin system.

mosKB will now also work well on Joomla 1.0.11 when following the security advice to turn of register globals. mosKB 1.1 also works with PHP Short Tags turned Off

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xAJAX and UTF-8 Server Configuration

Dear all Tags and mosKnowledgeBase customers,

We have been aware for some time that under certain circumstances some xAJAX applications encountered encoding issues. xAJAX uses UTF-8.

We have been unable to replicate the encoding issues on our live server or our local desktops – until today.

We have found a setting in php.ini that may help, there are other tweaks that we may be able to make to Joomla to further aid UTF-8. There is also a difference between using Internet explorer and Firefox (They handle things differently)

There are many things that need to be investigated in order to acheive UTF-8 in Joomla 1.0.x (In Joomla 1.5 these things are taken care of). Running a completly UTF-8 site is difficult in Joomla 1.0.x

We are happy to look at any Tags or mosKB sites that are having issues, we will attempt to work things out for free in our time if you send us the details using the form at http://www.phil-taylor.com/send-request

For the more advanced among you, try the following if your site has issues rendering tags/mosKB:

create/append .htaccess with:

php_value default_charset UTF-8

in php.ini change the line:

default_charset = “UTF-8″

in the default index.php Joomla files add after the < ?php tag:

header(‘Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8′);

.

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xAJAX Plugin for Joomla 1.5

You may be aware that we have worked with other developers to release a version of xAJAX for Joomla 1.0.x as a mambot. What you may not know is that we have a working version for Joomla 1.5 too!.

Joomla 1.5 brings some major changes to the way we write components with xAJAX, however the xAJAX plugin for Joomla 1.5 is still going to make development of xAJAX components for Joomla a lot easier. We have been able to clean up the way that xAJAX is made available to both the front end and backend component parts and the plugin can be harnessed from any installed component, even the core components can use it!

I think it is about time that the core developers stopped messing with bad implementations of xAJAX and started to take the xAJAX plugin seriously if they are to retain a library based platform on which other developers can build.

For example, currently in Joomla 1.5 we have complete xAJAX distribution files in the following locatons.

• \joomla1.5\installation\includes\xajax\
• \joomla1.5\administrator\components\com_menus\xajax\

What should really be done is that xAJAX is included in the core like any other of the 3rd Party libraries in the \libraries\ folder.

This would allow xAJAX to be called by any component, including the two instances above. If the core were to implement the proof of concept xAJAX for Joomla Plugin I have developed then there would never be any conflict between components – core or 3rd party.

As it stands at the moment, there appears to be no direction for xAJAX integration. However what has been done by including xAJAX in com_menus is that the developers are not following their own guidelines of including libraries in the libraries folder so they can be used globally. They have also hindered ANY use of ANY xAJAX component on the backend as any plugin will conflict with the xAJAX objects in com_menus and will stop the core features in com_menus from working.

I see no reason why the core deveopers should not look at the code I will provide them with.

If they do not entertain my idea then the future of xAJAX Components in Joomla 1.5 is seriously in trouble.

There needs to be direction for xAJAX in Joomla 1.5, either it is integrated correctly and reliabily with 3PD Developement in mind, or it is stripped from the core.

Lastly – Why on earth are there TWO full distributions of xAJAX in the Core Joomla 1.5 code – answers on a postcard please.

YOU CAN DISCUSS THIS IN THE JOOMLA FORUM THREAD:

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,96590.0.html

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xAJAX Based Components – Component Compatibility Statement

We have just updated our Component Compatibility Statement to include up to date information.  Here are snippets:
We are working hard on a FREE project at http://www.xajax-joomla.com which will provide the platform for all our xAJAX Based Components in the near future

Our Components that use xAJAX are:

• Tag/Tags                       (Updated to use the xAJAX for Joomla Plugin)
• mosKnowledgebase        (Update due soon!)

At the time of writing (and until this page is updated again) you CANNOT run these two components at the same time!

We are aware that there will be conflicts between components that use xAJAX and that is why we started the xAJAX for Joomla Plugin system which will allow more and more components to run xAJAX without conflict.

We will release a new version of mosKB soon to use xAJAX for Joomla Plugin.

Tags and jomComment
We are aware that jomComment (A Popular Comments Component) conflicts with Tags versions less than 0.9 and we have been working hard with the developer to develop the xAJAX for Joomla Plugin.  If you are running jomComment then you need to run a version greater than jomComment 1.65 beta in order for it to work on the same site as Tags

mosKB and jomComment
mosKB has yet to be refactored to use the xAJAX for Joomla Plugin – it will be soon!

Tags and mosKB on the same site:
Will not work until mosKB is refactored (Dont’ be fooled by our site, we are not running the latest versions -yet!)

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Tag/Tags v0.9.1 Now available, fixes a few small issues

Existing customers can download from http://www.phil-taylor.com/cc

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Tag/Tags v0.9 Now available!

Existing customers can now download at http://www.phil-taylor.com/cc

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