JV-LinkDirectory 4.8 Release Information

Now here is something that everyone is waiting to hear about JV-LinkDirectory - JV-LinkDirectory 4.8 is ready and we plan to release it on 21st January 2012. JV-LinkDirectory 4.8.930 has been released today. We have now installed it on our Joomla 1.5 and 1.7 demo websites and you can see it in action there.

JV-LD 4.8 is a feature packed release after a gap of almost 5 months from us. We have spent a lot of effort in getting this together for our customers and following are the features being introduced in JV-LD 4.8:

• New Mootools Requirement - Mootools 1.2.5+ will be required, for JV-LD 4.8+ to work on Joomla versions. We use Mootools extensively and this new requirement is to enable proper working of mootools functionality across browsers. It is also a direction to move on with newer versions of mootools, as Joomla does. More info on this new requirement @ http://www.jv-extens...ls-version-125/
  
• Joomla 2.5 compatibility - We have tested JV-LD 4.8 with beta-2 of Joomla 2.5, which wass available at the time of writing this blog post. We dont foresee any issues with JV-LD once Joomla releases the final version of 2.5.
  
• Huge performance improvements - You will find JV-LD very fast in page loading, even with SEF turned on. We have tested loading 1000 categories and it loads in less than 3 seconds! We have fine tuned our sql query usage, optimized lots of queries, set new indices and we are sure you can see a marked difference now!
  
• Relational tables and new MySQL engine type - We have moved all our tables in JV-LD from MyISAM to InnoDB engine type. InnoDB tables provide atomicity and ensure that, queries can be run as a part of transactions. InnoDb also is very fast and very efficient engine for MySQL. We have created new foreign keys to establish relationships between tables, to enable faster operations.
  
• Import Utility Changes - We have made changes to the formats of files used in Category Import and Link Import utilities. Link import utility is now paginated with auto loading enabled. Keywords can now be imported via category import utility for each category! too
  
• Comprehensive Advertisements Feature - Define advertisement slots, sell slots in site frontend, enable customers to buy ad slots and earn money. This is a very powerful feature which should increase your revenue generation options. It is also integrated with Paypal IPN. For more info, please refer to blog post @ http://www.jv-extens...ry-advertising/
  
• Facebook widget integration in link listing and detail pages - Integrate your facebook comment and like/recommend widgets in link detail and category pages in JV-LD now.
  
• URL-less Entries - One of the most asked for feature, which enables JV-LD to be used as a yellow pages or website-less directory as well. With this feature, you can have a mix of both url and url-less entries in your directory.
  
• Custom Backup Manager - We have revamped our JV-LD backup manager utility in JV-LD such that, it no longer needs system functions to be enabled in php.ini! Its easy to take backup now!
  
• Related Articles in Joomla content - This feature integrates Joomla Core Content component with JV-LD. It enables Joomla! articles previews to be displayed in JV-LD category listing and link detail pages. The articles are chosen based on keywords configured in articles and in JV-LD categories and links.
  
• New RSS Feed Links - JV-LD 4.8 can automatically generate feeds for popular links, featured links, recent links, random links, highly rated links, most voted links, most rated links and most viewed links based on options in RSS Configuration in admin back-end. These feeds will be available in the browser for users to subscribe to. Additionally, these feeds can also be displayed in the front page of the directory, for users to subscribe to them!
  
• Exclusive views and pages for links - Just like how you already see special pages for popular links and featured links in the directory, you will now have exclusive pages for recent links, random links, highly rated links, most voted links, most rated links and most viewed links as well. The "More" Links from modules will now point to one of the appropriate specific pages which will list all of that particular type. For example, the "More" link in Recent links module, will take you to the first page of recent links pages. And it will be SEF URLed too
  
• RSS Feeds for all link views - Each view type (recent links, random links, highly rated links, most voted links, etc...) of page will have it's own RSS Feed generated automatically. A user who visits the page can now view or subscribe to that page feed!
  
• Alphauserpoints Integration - The integration lets you configure the number of points that you want to award for each action in JV-LD at Alphauserpoints Joomla component. JV-LD 4.8 introduces a new plugin and a set of rule files as a part of this integration to get this nice little feature for your directory
  
• Advanced SEF URLs for Link Pages - Admins can now set search engine friendly urls for every link when they add or edit them. If allowed in configuration, visitors can also choose a part of the sef url.
  
• Category name can now include upto 250 characters and category description can hold unlimited number of characters
  
• "My Favorite Links" - A new interface has been added to JV-LD called "My Favorite Links". A menu for this will appear in the existing menu in JV-LD pages, when a user is logged in. The user can view all his bookmarked links in this page. Additionally, when bookmarking links (also called as "adding a link to his favorite list"), he will now be able to provide a comment. These comments will be visible in his "My Favorite Links" interface as well.
  
• Advanced Search Utility - An advanced search which will enable searching inside extra fields information, title, description, keywords etc... has been implemented. For more info please visit http://www.jv-extens...search-utility/
  
• "Add to Featured Listing" Simplified - A user can search for specific keywords and JV-LD will show him the results instantly using AJAX. He may then click on either his link in the first option or any link in the search results of the second option. He will then be taken to the payment area for further processing (assuming you have configured a fee for featured links).
  
• "Claim a Link" Simplified - Claim a link process has now been simplified with an email verification process implemented using Mootools Ajax.
  
• Websnapr - Alternate Thumbnail Provider Integration - We have now introduced support for fetching thumbnails from websnapr.com, to fetch thumbnails and display them. A new plugin has been created to implement this. This can serve as an alternative to those customers who wish to look at options outside of shrinktheweb.com

There are also lots of bug fixes and other small enhancements too in JV-LD 4.8. JV-LD 4.8 is a minor version upgrade, but it essentially has changes that you would see in a major version upgrade itself. We plan to update our product tutorials with the new features and update existing tutorials with modified steps in the next 2 days. We are quite thrilled about the impending release and are waiting to hear from you....

We look forward to your suggestions and ideas for improving the software in our JV-LD support forum. We heavily rely on feedback from all of our customers to shape the future of our software, and even if we don't reply to every topic, rest assured they are all read.