SOBI2 is just the Greatest I have every come across as it is so flexible and easy to work with.
I also found the folks in the support forum to be very helpful as well.
If you need a construction kit for your Joomla website that can be configured for many different types of sites then SOBI2 is for you.
By the way it easy to install also.

SOBI 2 is what I've been looking for! The reason why it only received 3 stars is for the following:

1. NO WHERE to send emails if you have questions and you cannot write to their forums unless you buy something.... That is HUGE.

2. The ONLY thing it is lacking is the ability to print invoices from it!

Great work but giving it away, and making you purchase something before you can ask questions is well ... Not what I would do.

This module let us connect the world easier everyday!

SOBI2 is an excellent directory/listing component and very easy to use. The Support at the forum is very good and the guys are funny.

Thanks a lot to all SobiFreaks and special thanks to Neo & Trinity for this great work!

Makes the Joomla World a Better Place :)

In the beginning I need to understand more about the system to get it in shape for my client needs.
After big support (Robert) the system let's it self easy to adjust and it is not slow. Even fast.

My client realy want's a lot adjustments and for so far... all where possible. With the css possebility's, the costum layout and small adjustment at modules it is much better than the client had without the system of Joomla and Sobi2.

A new client has the Joomla virus!

This is one of my favorite extensions to install. It's not an extension I install on every Joomla site, however, if you need to allow visitors to list there website or business on your site you should use SOBI2 first before any other extension.

This Component made the the best use of the joomla! in action.. truly a Jommla!'s pride! ://

Hello to all folks who use SOBI2,
I'm using it for a long time and to be honest it's exactly what I need for any of my projects. This component is so flexible that you can do almost everything with it. If you need a content manager for a real estate site, some kind of online shop or just for personal use well SOBI2 is exactly what you need. Hope that the great developers in the kitchen of this component will continue their work because I'm sure that thousand like me are using it.

Keep in that way guys!!!

I just installed it and customization is very intuitive and offers a lot of possibilities. When facing a little problem with one of the plugins the support in the forums was very quick and helpful. I can fully recommend SOBI2

I'm currently developing a site for a client and they require a paid for Business Directory. I looked around and tried a couple with no success. I then stumbled across SOBI ... absolutely perfect! I had it installed, configured and live on the site with absolutely no problems at all. Highly recommended.

Well What can I say. I have been developing joomla sites for a long time and have consistently used Sobi2 and its associated plugins, modules and 3rd part add-ons in many business indexes, directories, jobs sites, Band sites, Restaurant/cafe reviews, wedding registries etal...

The beauty IMHO is not only that this wonderful piece of coding is free ( I would happily pay) but the extensibility ( that is you can modify code to meet specific functionality if not included) and the wonderful forum in which your questions are diligently answered by some very knowledgable people using this all around the world.

This is a very comprehensive and robust component that can do a varied amount of jobs for a developer if you take the time to learn its many features.

Great Job Neo!!!


Cheers
Michael

I'm using this component for my website and I'd recommend it to web professionals. In rare cases you can find a such component with wide range of plugins, modules, support... Great!

First, if you have had an issue, its likely someone else has and the answer is in the forum. If you have an idea, i bet you sobi2 can achieve it.

This component is good at what it does: As a catalog or business listing with custom fields. As an experienced developer I found a couple of major weaknesses though: First of all, the backend is ugly and does not make use of the normal Joomla buttons. This is bad when creating websites for customers, as you want a streamlined backend. The second and biggest issue is the programming of the component. If you want to customize the code, it's a nightmare. It doesn't make clear use of the MVC pattern, and most of the Joomla coding guidelines are not used.

So if you want a component out of the box: go ahead. If you want to customize it in just a minor way: stay away.

We initially evaluated SOBI 2 when we were looking at rolling out a directory system, but ran into snags as we were 1.5 early adopters and it wasn't 1.5 compatible yet.

We were also a bit put off by the costs associated with several of the plugins/modules, and really didn't get a warm/fuzzy feeling that development would continue at any kind of pace/support level.

Well, we went with a non-J! directory system, and the upgrades and hoop jumping we've had to go though has been a total nightmare. Looking to re-invent the directory in a new form as a more integrated part of the rest of the site, we took another look at SOBI2 and it's a lot better than I remembered :-). The ability to define listing templates for individual categories, and the new ability to create a custom entry template are quite nice. The overall flexibility is excellent, and though we will probably have to use multiple installs to handle functionally different parts of the directory (for entry creation purposes more than anything else), I think it's going to work well for us, and be a substantially better solution than the "Dedicated" directory system we've been using.

:-)

This is a great component for joomla, it's core and the code is easy to work through and alter to your needs, the community at jobdone.ie is helpfull and gratefull for the sobi component.

Thanks again

There's nothing else better for the price tag of FREE! The Sigsiu gang is awesome and knows how to write a good solid component for Joomla!

I tried SOBI2 now for a couple of weeks to figure out what it can do for me. And I must say that I am astonished! After trying some other so called cck extensions I must say that there is no alternative to SOBI2 (not for me).

I started with the standard installation. Later I tried to build some kind of microblogging component. And in the meanwhile I am building a multilingual community webpage with a product catalog and reviews like the Joomla! extensions directory, a weblog and an address directory. All the mentioned applications are based on only one component besides Community Builder and Joomfish! - SOBI2.

A very big advantage is the possibility to build almost everything with only one component which will help you to save many hours of time that you would need to learn different interfaces and rules for a weblog component, a directory component and more.

The flexible template system allows you to integrate almost everything in your SOBI2 pages. In my case I display some informations from Community Builder on the entries - but, with some php and database knowlegde you can even build relational database applications that combine two or more clones of SOBI2 with other extensions' data if you like.

A big advantage is that you can get many many additions that will help you to form your site as you wish.

Last, but not least I must confess, that I would not be able to use it like I do without the great community of SOBI2 users. There seems to be no unanswered question in their forum and it contains so many great ideas... :)

SOBI2 is an excellent directory/listing component and very easy to use. Support at forum is very good as well (due to that support I am able to run Joomfish with sobiSEF and SOBI2 successfully). Search module when coupled with Qtabs worked prefectly I can have different search modules (with different createria like yellowpages have) in one module position. Allover a great contribution.