JomSocial 2.6 RC One, good news in a package

The first RC version of JomSocial 2.6 is now available (download link at the end of this article). The amount of hours, spilled coffee and littered pizza boxes that have been sacrificed into making this release compatible with numerous extensions and templates out there is massive!

YooTheme Warp templates + Zoo CCK + WidgetKit compatibility

First of all, we have updated our jQuery library to work hand in hand with the popular and highly versatile Widgetkit tools from Yootheme. In older versions of JomSocial, enabling any JomSocial-related modules on the same page with WidgetKit-enabled articles would cause the javascript library to crash. This would also affect Zoo CCK (Content Construction Kit) articles and numerous Warp-based Joomla templates distributed by Yootheme. Our hearts broke knowing about this clash in JomSocial 2.4. Good news is, these potential clashes have all been fixed once and for all! If you are using WidgetKit, Zoo or any of the nicely done Warp-based templates from Yootheme, rest assured that these clashes are a thing of the past.

The development site dedicated for JomSocial-Yootheme compatibility issues can be found here. JomSocial 2.4 + Yootheme users may get this compatibility update as part of next week’s JomSocial 2.4.3 release. Again, the compatibility update will affect WidgetKit / Zoo / Warp-based templates from Yootheme.

GCalendar Zend Library compatibility

Now, let’s go to the second good news of the day. We have found out not so long ago that a popular Google Calendar component, GCalendar (available here) is having some problem with JomSocial, particularly with regard to the declaration of Zend library. The fix has been incorporated in this JomSocial 2.6 RC One release, and for JomSocial 2.4 users, it is scheduled to be packaged together with JomSocial 2.4.3 release next week. If you are adventurous enough, you may get the file over here. High five laoneo (G4J developer)!

onProfileAvatarUpdate API fix

This release of JomSocial 2.6 RC One and next week’s JomSocial 2.4.3 will also see an important API issue being solved. In JomSocial 2.4, we utilize a new Avatar upload method that triggers the cWindow which accidentally renders one API responsible to inject watermark into uploaded Avatars to fail. This unfortunate event affects a number of third party extensions. :(

New module + updates of existing ones

I am sure everyone is eager to try out the much improved notifications feature in JomSocial 2.6. Well, it would be a waste if the new notifications are only available in core JomSocial area. Hence, we have updated mod_hellome to include notification bubbles, and plan to create a sole mod_notifications is already in the pipeline!

We are also updating mod_latestevents to be able to filter events according to specific categories and groups!

Two new Applications!

Whats next? Some would wonder how many awesome stuff we could pack in just one RC release? Be surprised, complementing a new cool feature in JomSocial 2.6 (user tagging in videos), we have provided a plugin to show user’s tagged videos. The plugin still lacks some styling, but it is already functional and for those who are fluent in PHP, HTML and CSS, you may find this vanilla plugin beneficial to create your own unique design. Oh, we also have a new plg_myvideos plugin.

Compatibility updates for JomSocial 2.6

The cream of the cake would be our on-going, almost round the clock update of popular Joomla templates to support the upcoming JomSocial 2.6, as mentioned in our previous blog. At the time of writing, we have completed compatibility update for Joomlart’s JA Social and Rockettheme’s RT Affinity. As Yootheme does not have any special overrides, solving exisiting jQuery error is sufficient and all their templates are now ready for JomSocial 2.6. It is going to take us quite a while to update Gavick’s extremely nice overrides for JomSocial, but it will sure be worth it! 

What are you waiting for? Grab the latest JomSocial 2.6 RC ONE package now!

Note: We are currently a sudden surge of users on our Development Site. You may want to download the component at a later time today. We are sorry about that.

Note: If you have used any of our previous Beta/Alpha, please run this query in PHPMyAdmin first before attempting to upgrade from previous 2.6 Beta/Alpha.

/* Add params field for group-discussion */
ALTER TABLE `jos_community_groups_discuss` ADD `params` TEXT NOT NULL /* Add params field for group-bulletin */
ALTER TABLE `jos_community_groups_bulletins` ADD `params` TEXT NOT NULL

Playgrounds

JomSocial-Rockettheme Development Playground – About RocketTheme
JomSocial-Joomlart Development Playground – About Joomlart
JomSocial-Gavick Development Playground – About Gavick
JomSocial-Yootheme Development Playground – AboutYootheme

That’s all for now. Have a good weekend everyone!

PS: Say in JomSocial 2.8 we were going to improve JomSocial-Kunena integration, what would you have in mind?