With all this talk of CCK for Joomla, I remembered only after reading their intro in the JED that, in fact, 3 or 4 years ago I used SOBI to build an Exact clone of the Joomla article system using SOBI so that I could also display some custom fields with those articles and search them separately.

Also, SOBI has an undocumented feature whereas with a bit of alchemy it can be duplicated, renamed and you now have 2 directories in your site. Completely independent from one another.

An excellent extension

A component that can be plugged into a site and immediately provide an income!

As a South African I am pleased that it is possible to use local payment gateways.

I will recommend this to anyone that wants a directory feature on their site!

Although still listed as a "Directory" extension and the name itself means Sigsiu Online Business Index its really much more than that. It's incredible of how many applications for SOBI2 you can think of once you get to know it! Sure not all thing to all people, but it really opens whole new horizons for what you can do with Joomla! extended with SOBI2.
It works and it works great.
It has extensive and always updated documentation and quite a big and nice community.
It is extendable not only by design, but in reality - there are quite many SOBI2-specific extensions which make it even more powerful and usable.
It's open sourced under GPL.
It's actively being developed.
Only thing I would like to see in SOBI2 is some graphical redesign of the administrator backend which just a wish, nothing to complain about once you get used to it.
Many thanks to all core and extension developers for making their great work freely available to the community.

What I love about Sobi is that is easy to use, works out of the box and I get the feeling its getting better with all those great specific addons that are growing up too.

If I get really exigent I would like a better way to change CSS, because is a little harder than usual to change it for beginners like me..

Other than that I think is just one of the greatest extensions for Joomla!

If you are looking for an application that allows you to list businesses / venues - you have found the perfect Joomla component. Beside the java issues this is the component to have. Waiting for the PRO version??? When is it available??? Thanks Dan

WOW I love the Joomla Community. I am in the process of developing a site using Joomla / Community Builder / SOBI2.
The SOBI2 extension is exactly what I was looking for:
A flexible business / venue listing application
A payment module
A module to email users when their listing is expiring
A module allowing listing to be displayed in Google Maps

SOBI2 is so flexible and has so many options
Can't wait for SOBI Pro
THANKS

If you looking for a good directory extension go with SOBI2.

SBOI2 Pros:
Free
It works - great
Possibility to buy one of the hottest modules out there - search by location..sweeet

SOBI2 miss:
Multilanguage, Joomfish, support (it possible with tweaking)
Old fashion GUI
Not so many modules

This probably will only be memories when SOBI Pro comes along (late this year?)

This for a long time was my favorite extension ever. You can list and describe endless amounts of things with 2 different pictures for each item, and put them into specific categories on your site. You can put things into multiple categories. When you click on the item, you can have it expand to show another picture and more text. You can get the free ratings and reviews extension too. The most appealing part of this to me was the search capabilities it offers. (one downside is that when the user presses "search", it only shows 1 search box. But if you press "extended search", your whole advanced search system comes up). You can include endless amounts of dropdown boxes and radio boxes etc in your search. That's why I loved this component. Plus it never gave me any trouble. It always works perfectly. Thumbs up.

I have to say I was left rather unimpressed by this extension and confused as to why it is marked "popular". Perhaps because it's free?

I found the component to be very clunky and the support painfully slow. Too bad, because there is a lot of potential here. My suggestions to improve this component include making it more user-friendly on the admin side (it seems there is an assumption that users have advanced programming skills) and also to add some more attractive templates (no offense but I found the standard one quite hideous).

Aside from that - if you're looking for a free extension, this is not a bad option.

I am using this extension for a few weeks and I think it's wonderfull.
It is quite easy if you take a short time to understand the options and configs.
Of course there are things that I miss, but there is a very good forum in its site

This is probably the best extension for Joomla in my opinion. With a bit of creativity you can turn this component into anything you'd like.

I've used it for customer listing's, gallery component's, portfolio component, real estate component etc.

Great forum for support as well, with active moderator's and developer's.

Definately a five+!

Sobi2 is a fantastic CCK and directory! It is scalable so you can add as many custom field inputs, text areas , radio buttons plus there are some standrd inputs like title, meta keys, as you need to create your template with the exact needs. Yhe inputs are can be css styled individually as well.The template is completely open ie no derminined layout, so you can create basically any configuration you need. With all the other modules and plugins by third party and sobi to there is virtually every possibility covered to make a great directory. With the help of the forum and freelance lists it is customizable too... Thanks Guys !

Great extension.
need improvement in text editor. especially as making table

This is one of the best products I've ever tried out!

Easy to install, easy to understand and easy to implement. I like :)

I am now using Sobi2 on four of my websites that are listing directories. The templates are a bit tricky if you want to have something custom but, well worth the time spent when you have exactly what you want. The component has more flexibility than most people will ever use which caters to the masses.
I have not even tried another listing component. Sobi2 was recommended to me by a programmer. It’s great finding the perfect component for my needs on the first try.

awsome component easy to instal configure and so many addons makes it almost to good to be true

tank you

This is a truly great component, well engineered. I do have one comment, I see that you are limited to being able to add an entry to just 5 categories. For my 'expat' site in France, I need entries (ie members) to be able to join an unlimited amount of categories - any chance of an update to cover this ?
Many Many thanks
Phil Ross

Excellent Extension to use. I have cloned the same for about 4 different times to use for the site and it worked like a gem..!!!

Great component....i realy like to use it

I have been working on a site which is intended as a directory of UK & Eire butchers (finest butcher). SOBI2 is the core of the site. I had read the reviews here before installing the component, so I treat it with due respect. However I think the less than favourable reviewer are either not fully understanding the function of this component, anticipating that it will perform functions outside it’s remit, or possibly are new to Joomla!. I found it simplicity itself to install. Extremely easy and logical to configure and with the addition of a couple of 3rd party modules it does everything I couple possible want. Impressed, very impressed. Thanks for a great extension!