Modules: Article Management System (AMS) 2.50 Beta 2 Released !

Posted by: NovaSmartOn 2008/8/25 10:30:00 7467 reads
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After 5 month of development, NovaSmart Technology proudly announce Article Management System (AMS) 2.50 Beta 2 to be released to the public.
AMS 2.50 main target is to incorporate all "must have" features for modern article management module without sacrificing performance.

Whats New In AMS 2.50 Beta 2:
This release focus on enhancement to spotlight features. User now able to add new spotlight template painlessly, can attach template preview image and given access to the template variable manipulation through php script attached with the template.

Simply put the template, template script, preview image accordingly and update/install the module, everything will be auto detect and setup accordingly.

Whats New In AMS 2.50 Beta 1:
With this release, user will have new experience in submitting and editing articles with 3 best wysiwyg editors (FCK Editor, TinyMCE and Koivi) and built-in xoops editor.

User also now have ability to choose whatever editor they like straight from the edit/compose form without admin intervention. For admin, they have full right to enable this feature and even to choose which editor they want to be available to user.

This release considered not stable. This is last BETA version of AMS 2.50 and new features freezed (except minor). If there is no critical bugs found, AMS 2.50 Final will be release in 2 weeks time.

Current Version

Latest Development : AMS 2.50 Beta 2 DOWNLOAD HERE
Latest Stable : AMS 2.42 Final DOWNLOAD HERE
Previous Stable: AMS 2.41 Final DOWNLOAD HERE

What Is AMS

AMS is a highly modified version of the News 1.2 for Xoops, and adds a huge amount of features to give the webmasters a lot more control over their content while still maintaining an easy to understand and use interface. AMS is highly scalable, and is geared towards performance, and as such is well suited to large article repositories that attract high amounts of users.


History

Development of AMS started by it-hq.org before hand over to NovaSmart Technology later on.

The motivation behind AMS development is to produce Article management which is specially optimized for speed and ease the admin/article contributor job. Each feature added with performance in mind.

As a result, AMS is the best balance between good features and performance for large articles website compared to other XOOPS article modules. Read the detail study here

AMS actively develop by it-hq.org until 2005 before abandon. The development of AMS only takeover by NovaSmart and actively develop there start from middle 2007.


Features

WYSIWYG XOOPS editor integration : Your choice of using the default Xoops editor or any editor provided by XOOPS editor; selectable via AMS preferences (FCKeditor, Koivi, TinyMCE, etc).

NOTE: You MUST install XOOPS editor separately before this feature can be used here

Advanced Spotlight management : Choose your AMS spotlight block layout from three different template layouts, and add unlimited spotlight blocks with the option to display article mini stats including total articles, total article reads and total article comments. The all new spotlight block administration area allows you to configure exactly how and where to display your AMS spotlight item. From here you can add new spotlight items, selecting the latest article, the latest article in a topic, a specific article, or use the custom setting to display an image or banner using straight HTML code. You can also set things such as what image to display, wether to use an auto or manual teaser, how many characters the auto teaser should display, what text a manual teaser should contain, whether to display the spotlight item in the spotlight block or not, and item weighting where the lowest weighted item is treated as the main spotlight item.

Complete migration and upgrade script : This script enables you to migrate all content, permissions and comments from all presently released version of the News module. It also enables you to upgrade from AMS 2.2.

View by topic revamped : The view by topic view has undergone a huge overhaul and now presents itself with much more emphasis on navigation via topic and sub-topic.

New breadcrumb navigation system: viewable in the topic and article views for easier browsing.

Topics Manager : Topics manager now has a topic weighting system so you can set the listing order when using the view by topic mode.

Article image selection : You can now select to display the user avatar in addition to the topic or no image when viewing an article.

Article versioning system : allowing you to maintain several versions of the same article of which any one can be edited, deleted or set as the active article at anytime

Banner management with inheritance system : so you can enter banner code to be displayed at a topic, subtopic and article level

Searchable article ID system: for knowledge base like article reference * Article linking to any item within your own site as well as any external web resource with link hit counter visible only to site webmasters

Link topics to any NewBB 2 forum: which when set displays a 'discuss' button at the bottom of each article under that topic

Blocks listing: most read, most popular and most active authors displayed as an average or as a total. Each block with built in article spotlight feature in one or two column format

Article information header: which gives you author, audience, published date, version number, article ID and read counter at the top of each article

Powerful article management admin console: that displays all articles vital statistics, has powerful filtering, searching and sorting functionality, and gives you access to all the administrative functions you need all in one spot

Audience level system: allows you to specify what groups are able to read the extended article text of each article

All the features of the News 1.2 Module

Compatibility

XOOPS 2.0.x
XOOPS 2.2.x
XOOPS 2.3.x
????? 1.0.x
XOOPSCUBE 2.1.x Legacy

AMS 2.50 Beta 2 vs AMS 2.50 Beta 1

New Features:
Added - Spotlight block (left/center/right) template can be choose.
Added - Spotlight template can be added straight into template folder and auto detected when install/upgrade
Added - Spotlight templace can have additional php command (see example ams_block_spotlight_ams_right)
Added - Spotlight template can have preview. Just put into XOOPS/modules/AMS/images/spotlight_preview.

File Changes:
Change - ams_block_spotlight_xxxx.html change to ams_block_spotlight_ams_xxxx.html

Enhancement:
Enhance - some topic image replaced

Bugs Fixed:
Fix Bug - After edit, article will disappear for 10 minute

Language Changes:
Added - define("_AMS_MI_SPOTLIGHT_TEMPLATE","Spotlight Templates");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_SPOTLIGHT_TEMPLATE_DESC","Which template enabled to admin to be used in spotlight block");
Remove - define("_AMS_MB_SPOTLIGHT_TEMPLATE_CENTER", "Minis Below Main");
Remove - define("_AMS_MB_SPOTLIGHT_TEMPLATE_RIGHT", "Minis Left of Main");
Remove - define("_AMS_MB_SPOTLIGHT_TEMPLATE_LEFT", "Minis Right of Main");


AMS 2.50 Beta 1 vs AMS 2.42

New Features:
Added - ????? support.
Added - FCKeditor, DHTML,HTMLArea,FCK,tinymce
Added - User can select their favourite editor at submit form
Added - Admin can choose to allow user to select their favourite editor or not

Enhancement:
Enhance - Republish & Expiry date-time box now auto check/uncheck

Bugs Fixed:
Fixed bug - Republish article didn't reset expiration date

Language Changes:
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_DHTML","DHTML");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_HTMLAREA","HtmlArea Editor");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_FCK","FCK WYSIWYG Editor");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_TINYMCE","TinyMCE WYSIWYG Editor");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_USER_CHOICE", "Enable Editor Choice To User");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_USER_CHOICE_DESC", "Enable user to choose which editor they want");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_CHOICE", "Editor Choices");
Added - define("_AMS_MI_EDITOR_CHOICE_DESC", "Choices of editors enabled to user");

Known Bugs:

- Image Manager not working in KOIVI. Work around is... Press "Image Manager" -> CHECKED "HTML" tickbox -> add image (from popup) -> UNCHECK "HTML" tickbox
- "Extended Text" WYSIWYG TinyMCE not working in PHP 4 environment. Its XOOPS Editor bugs, not AMS.


Roadmap

XOOPS 2.50 Final - Stable release
XOOPS 3.00 - SEO optimize with clean URL / SEF

Current Developer/Maintain By

All future development of AMS will be handle by NovaSmart Technology. However, since the project is volunteered basis, this module only actively develop when PHP programmer in NovaSmart idling.

Visit NovaSmart XOOPS Module Development website