High Quality Extensions - Components, Modules, Plugins and Mambots for Joomla and Mambo

We are glad to announce the next release of JV-LinkExchanger Standard Edition. As this release involves major security implementations, we have moved several of our objectives of v3.2.0 to v3.3.0. Nevertheless we have managed to add a couple of new features in this release as well!

This release contains major changes to JV-SE component and modules. Major changes given in this release include a new security framework for JV-SE, email communication facility from with in the link information screen to get in touch with the respective partners, implementations of a few suggestions from our customers and several minor bug fixes. The module has been enhanced with 2 new feature that include display of thumbnails instead of title and displaying the description along with title in module based on configuration options.

Release Type: URGENT, PLEASE UPGRADE ASAP.

New Features:

1. Implementation of new security framework
2. Creation of a new extension for Artio JoomSEF 3.x series which is compatible with Joomla 1.5
3. For every link, a new communication facility has been added using which you can write to your partner from with in the edit link screen itself. You may use this communication facility to get in touch with your partner anytime. Typically this is used for writing to your partner about the exchange before or after approval, or for reminding him about the reciprocal link etc
4. Default value for "Generic reason for link rejection" in backend during new installations
5. "There are no sub categories in this category" message will not appear anymore when there are no subcategories for a category
6. sef_ext.php: Better SEF URL generation for OpenSEF and SEFAdvance users
7. JPromoter will produce lower case SEF URLs by default - SEO advantage
8. Minor changes to template regarding alignment and h1 tag
9. Module:
   1. Description can be shown along with title in the module, based on configuration
   2. Ability to show image thumbnail instead of text/banner. This requires a free account at www.shrinktheweb.com.

Bugs Fixed:

1. Minor bug fix in scheduled reciprocal link checker.
2. Bug fix for line break problem in the block in templates
3. Fixed bug in display count of links in category when links of all statuses option is enabled
4. Fixed a bug where link details are not removed when link profile insert fails
5. Module - Fix for problem when categories field is blank

Fresh Installation Instructions:

The way JV-SE is packaged has been modified from v3. The package file that you download will have the component zip file, modules zip file, Artio JoomSEF extension zip file and a migration pack.

For fresh installation of the component on Joomla 1.0.x, please do the following:

1. Unzip the downloaded package file to a temporary location in your PC
2. Extract the downloaded package zip file to a folder
3. Go to your Joomla backend using admin login
4. Go to Installers->Components
5. Browse and select the com_jvse_v320_j10x_j15xL.zip from the downloaded folders and click on the Install button.
6. You should see a successful install message on the screen. By now, all the JV-SE files are installed on your Joomla installation!
7. The message will ask you to run the Post Installation Manager
8. Click on the "Run Post-Installation Manager" link and proceed to run it.
9. Running the post-installation manager will install the database tables necessary for JV-SE!

Thats it!. The installation is done and you are now ready to configure your JV-SE settings at backend to proceed.

For fresh installation of the component on Joomla 1.5.x, please do the following:

1. Ensure that, legacy plugin is enabled in Joomla 1.5.x
2. Unzip the downloaded package file to a temporary location in your PC
3. Extract the downloaded package zip file to a folder
4. Go to your Joomla backend using admin login
5. Go to Extensions->Install/Uninstall
6. In the "Upload Package File", browse and select com_jvse_v320_j10x_j15xL.zip from the downloaded folders and click on the Install button
7. You should see a successful install message on the screen. By now, all the JV-SE files are installed on your Joomla installation!
8. The message will ask you to run the Post Installation Manager
9. Click on the "Run Post-Installation Manager" link and proceed to run it.
10. Running the post-installation manager will install the database tables necessary for JV-SE!

Thats it!. The installation is done and you are now ready to configure your JV-SE settings at backend to proceed.

Upgrade Instructions:

PLEASE TAKE A BACKUP OF THE EXISTING JV-SE FILES AND DATABASE TABLES BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO UPGRADE. DO NOT UNINSTALL THE EXISTING VERSION TILL YOU ARE ASKED TO DO SO, IN THE INSTRUCTIONS.

CASE-1: PROCEDURE TO UPGRADE COMPONENT FROM JV-SE v3.x.x to the latest version:

If you have already installed and using any version of JV-SE v3 series, then please do the following to upgrade to the latest version of the component:

1. Login to Joomla backend
2. If you are using the JV-SE Traffic System Plugin/Mambot installed, please disable/unpublish it first.
3. Uninstall JV-SE v3 component using component installer. Uninstallation will remove only installed files. It will not remove data in database and files in /images/com_jvse folders. So your data is safe! Please ensure that you take a backup of JV-SE templates that you changed in JV-SE as these files will be overwritten during the upgrade.
4. Download the latest version of JV-SE v3 from downloads section (extract the package file after download)
5. Using the component installer, just install the latest com_jvse_vxxx_{...}.zip file into Joomla
6. Run the Post-Installation manager without fail to synchronize the database tables with the files.
7. If you are using the JV-SE Traffic System Plugin/Mambot installed, you may enable/publish it now
8. Thats it!. You have completed the upgrade :)

CASE-2: PROCEDURE TO UPGRADE COMPONENT FROM JV-SE v2.x.x to the latest version (greater than or equal to 3.1.0):

1. YOU MUST FIRST UPGRADE TO v3.0.2 USING THE MIGRATION TOOL.
2. v3.0.2 OF THE COMPONENT IS AVAILABLE IN THE DOWNLOADED PACKAGE OF JV-SE. The filename is com_jvse_v302_j10x_j15xL.zip
3. Following the procedure given below to upgrade to v3.0.2
4. Once you migrate successfully, please upgrade from v3.0.2 to the latest version using the steps given above.

JV-SE v3 is a completely re-designed product when compared to JV-SE v2. New database tables have been created, existing database tables have been modified and lots of new files have been added. Hence it is not as easy as just uninstalling and reinstalling to upgrade from v2 series to v3.x.x To ease the process of upgrading to v3, we have provided you with a migration script in the downloaded JV-SE package zip file. Please do the following to upgrade:

1. Unzip the contents of the migration_v3xx.zip that is available in the extracted contents of the downloaded package zip file.
2. You will find two files upon extraction - migration_vxx.php and README.txt
3. Please read the README.txt carefully to proceed to upgrade.
4. Follow the instructions given in the README.txt and subsequently when you run the migration script.

Language Files:

The language files have changed drastically from v2 to v3 series. So none of the existing language files will work with JV-SE v3. Please translate the user_english.php and admin_english.php supplied with the component and translate it to your language.

Once you translate and create the translated files, please follow the procedure below to install the language files

1. You will need two files (frontend and backend) files.
2. Upload the user_{lang}.php file to {Joomla}/components/com_jvse/lang folder
3. Upload the admin_{lang}.php file to {Joomla}/administrator/components/com_jvse/lang folder
4. Make sure that you are using the appropriate language setting in Joomla
5. When you start using JV-SE at frontend or backend, JV-SE will automatically detect the language in use (from $mosConfig_lang) and load the appropriate language file

JV-SE Traffic System Mambot/Plugin:

JV-SE traffic system mambot or plugin is used to monitor, trace, parse and log incoming visits from your partners to your website. This plugin must be installed using the Installers->Mambots (in Joomla 1.0.x) or using Extensions->Installers (Joomla 1.5.x legacy mode) at backend. Once installed, please publish it without fail. If you do not want to monitor incoming traffic, then you may unpublish this mambot.

Module Information:

There are 7 modules developed for JV-SE v3 series. These modules are now merged together into one module zip file and this is available in the downloaded package. You need to create a copy of the module using Module Manager or Modules for each instance of functionality

The modules are,

1. Recent Links Module: Displays n number of links which have most recently been added to the directory
2. Random Links Module: Displays n number of links chosen from the directory randomly
3. Featured Links: Displays n number of links from the set of featured links of the directory
4. Favorite Links/Bookmark Links: Displays n number of favorite links of the logged in user
5. Highly Visited Links Module: Displays n number of highly visited partner links
6. Highly Rated Links Module: Displays n number of highly rated partner links
7. Link Categories Module: Displays the list of top level category names in a module

Installation Procedure for Modules:

1. Download the package zip file for v3 of JV-SE from www.jv-extensions.com
2. Unzip the package file into a temp folder in your PC
3. Go to Installers->Modules, browse and select the mod_jvse_v3xx.zip and click on Install.
4. Go to Site->Modules and configure and publish the module to the desired location.
5. For more modules for other functionalities (like recent links, random links etc...), create a copy of the published module and configure the copied one.

ARTIO JoomSEF Extension for JV-SE:

We provide two JV-SE extensions that need to be installed and compatible with Artio JoomSEF. One of the extensions is compatible with Artio JoomSEF 2.x series (for Joomla 1.0) and another extension is compatible with Artio JoomSEF 3.x series (for Joomla 1.5) Please refer to http://www.jv-extensions.com/docs/jv-se/install-artio-joomsef-extension-for-jv-se.html for information on installation.

Other Information:

Note about Scheduled Reciprocal Checker(SRC):
Please refer to documentation at http://www.jv-extensions.com/docs/jv-se/configure-and-run-src.html

Note about CAPTCHA usage:
GD2 library is a pre-requisite to have this feature in action. Normally now-a-days, all apache installations have this library compiled into it by default.

Note about SNAP usage:
The SNAP shot feature in JV-LinkExchanger utilizes the services rendered by www.snap.com. For more information on SNAP, please visit www.snap.com. To configure SNAP in the directory, please refer to documentation at

http://www.jv-extensions.com/docs/jv-se/steps-to-enable-display-snap-shot-of-links-in-jv-se.html
 

Note about Automatic Upgrade Facility and Automatic Link Exchange Service:
The automatic link exchange service requires that CURL is installed and configured on the webserver which is normally the case in most of the websites

Note about thumbnail usage in modules:
This feature uses the free services offered by www.shrinktheweb.com. Please create an account for free at www.shrinktheweb.com.