News 1.50 and Instant Zero
Date 2006/12/1 10:50:00 | Topic: Modules
| I am very pleased and very proud to present you a new version of the Xoops News module.
Contrary to what I had decided, this new version brings many new functionalities.
The first good news for you, users of this module, is that you will not have to wait
for the version 2.
I wanted to completly rewrite the module's code (in the version 2) before to add
some new functionalities but it requires a very important amount of work, that's
why I have decided to add some of them now to this new version wich can be
considered as an intermediate release.
As a result, it is labeled 1.50 and not 1.45
In a certain manner, I'm following the steps of the Xoops Core with its serie of
versions 2.0.x before the big new one.
The News module is coming with really many new and innovative features.
As used, there is a set of bugs corrections but you will see some very
interesting new possibilities in the module.
The second good news is that we have created our Open Source Internet company,
Instant Zero, and this one will assume the module's development, spread
and support.
Instant Zero is composed of four famous french Xoopsers, Christian, Marco,
Philou and myself 
My other modules, like Newbbex, Marquee, Shortcuts, MyIframe, iSearch, UserPage
and Boox will be also developped, supported and spread out by our company.
Now let's go back to the module.
First of all, and before to see the new features, we are calling for help for
the module's translations and for the documentation.
Translators, you will find an updated version of the file lang.diff at
the root of the module's archive.
Contact us if you have updated some translations or added a new one
Concerning the module's documentation, it has been modified and enhanced but
actually it is still "only" available in french. Like for the translations,
we are asking for help.
So if you can correctly translate the document in another language, please write us
(this will be useful for the whole community)
New features
Here is a "quick" tour of the new functionnalities added to the module (see the
file changelog.txt in the module for a full listing of all the modifications)
- First, I have added a block to show archives
- Secondly, all the module's blocks can be used as many times as you want
because you can use an "on the fly" function
- You have a new page called "Who's who" showing you a list of the authors of
your site (this page is only visible if you have activated the "news by this
author" option)
If you have a website with many contributors, that' an easy and interesting
way to place them under the spotlights.
- I have added support for Xoops 2.0.14 (and newer versions) for the meta
informations
- The module can use TinyEditor
- You can manage topics permissions from the topic's form (in the module's
administration) while you are creating or editing a topic.
- You can enter the authorized mime types to join files in the module's options.
- In the module's administration, where you can create a newsletter's content,
you can now select to remove html tags and you can add an header and a footer.
- You can display a block, called "Bookmark this article at these sites" on the
article's page.
With this "block", your users will have the possibility to bookmark your
articles on some very famous Web 2 sites like del.ioc.us or digg.it
- You have a new page to display a topics directory
- An enhanced metagen.
You can now customize more easily the way the module creates the meta informations.
- I have added a new feature "FootNotes".
This option is used for printable versions of your articles.
When it is activate and when you print an article , you can see, in the page's
footer a table with links from your document.
This is really usefull for your visitors because usually, when you print an
article, you "loose" the links because you can't see them.
- I have added support for the Dublin Core Metadata in the article's page.
Dublin Core Metadata are, as the name state, a set of meta datas used to
describe your documents.
Dublin Core Metadata is a, not really new, "meta language" wich can be
compared to RSS.
Some important programs used by the archivists, universities and some
commercial companies can extract and classify documents because of the
Dublin Core Metadata.
I really hope that a such feature will help xoops to reach a more
professionnal "population" with professionnal needs.
- Firefox 2 visitors of your site can use "Micro summaries" :
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Microsummaries
For those of you who don't know this, Firefox 2 has introduced a new kind of
dynamic bookmarks where users can have a bookmark's title who's title change
when your site's content change.
The objective of this is to keep your users informed and "captivate" by your
site.
- You can display advertisements (Google AdSense for example) in your articles.
There is a new module's option that you can use for this.
- In your articles, you can now replace the syntax used to separate pages with
a new one (thanks Bender)
To be able to use it, you must, in the modules option, select the suitable
option ("Use enhanced page navigator ?")
Then, to use it, inside your articles, you can separate pages like this
(imagine this is the content or your article) :
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit,
[pagebreak: Here is my page 2]
sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam.
Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper
nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
[pagebreak: This is the development]
Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse,
vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et
[pagebreak: Conclusion]
accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril
delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.
For a visual example, see this picture
- You can also, now, use, inside your articles, the new "meta variable" [summary].
This will automatically create a summary by using the pages titles you gave in
the [.pagebreak.] "tag".
Xoops supported versions
You can use this new version on all the recent versions of Xoops 2.0.
We did not tested the module with Xoops 2.2 but it should run.
Support
You can get support on the community website of Instant Zero :
http://xoops.instant-zero.com/modules/newbbex/viewforum.php?forum=1
How to upgrade
Copy all the files to your site (and be sure to erase the old files), then
go in the Xoops modules manager and upgrade the module.
In case of troubles, consult the file UPGRADE.txt present in the module.
Download
You can download this new version on the community website of Instant Zero :
http://xoops.instant-zero.com/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?cid=2&lid=8
Please don't forget to update backend.php and pda.php, they are at your
site's root :
http://xoops.instant-zero.com/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?cid=2&lid=23
We hope that you will like this new version and all the team of Instant Zero
wish you an happy Xoopsing,
Instant Zero
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