Akeeba Release System
In a nutshell:
- Performance -
ARS is designed to handle massive amounts of data. Tested with hundreds of download items and hundreds of thousands of log records, it groks through this vast amount of data in a heartbeat. Intelligent caching makes it blazing fast.
- Chameleon -
Tired of having to edit a book worth of CSS classes to make a component fit with the rest of your site? So do we. ARS is using Chameleon skinning. Using your Joomla! template's module chrome it will blend itself perfectly with your site. Setting it up takes zero to five minutes. Honestly!
- Control Freak -
Control who can download what. ARS integrates with AMBRA Subscriptions, Akeeba Subscriptions and Joomla! 1.6's custom view levels to fine-tune who can view and download anything.
- Perfect Logs -
ARS will log who downloaded what and when, or even who tried but failed. IP addresses, HTTP referrers and country statistics are all logged and can be used to filter the log display. The Control Panel offers a bird's eye view of how well your downloads are doing.
- Attention to detail -
Minute details make the big difference. From copied items defaulting to being unpublished and files you've already used being hidden from file selection drop-downs and from automatically naming and describing your files to zero-click file publishing, ARS has got you covered.
- Updates galore -
ARS can automatically create update streams in multiple formats. INI format which can easily be used from any software. Joomla! 1.6 XML format for extremely easy updates of the Joomla! 1.6 extensions you create.
- Amazon S3 Support -
Store your downloads on Amazon S3. Integrated S3 file browser and ability to upload directly to S3!
Experience the future in download components. Install and use Akeeba Release System. It's completely free of charge.
Note: The software is free of charge, its support is not. You need a valid subscription (starting at EUR 7.79) to request support. However, its documentation, the troubleshooting wizard and searching the forum is free.
You can use the update feature to easliy integrate in your components so users can update from the back-end easily. You can give the update option only to subscribers with download id or username / password combination. So it's perfect for distributing commercial Joomla! extensions and other commercial digital goods. But also perfect for free things.
In the end, I will go elsewhere to get what I need.
Thank you for your review, but there are some inaccuracies I'd like to address.
> it broke my database
It can't. It only reads and writes to its own database tables, clearly prefixed with _ars_. Maybe you changed or installed something else in the meantime?
> made the everything on the site rearrange
I'm not sure what "the everything" (sic) is, but I'll suppose it refers to either the menu items or the modules. Again, ARS does not interact with those site elements, so rearranging them would be downright impossible. I'm now convinced that you, someone else or something else modified something on your site.
> Documentation is just a dictionary, not instructions on how to get this to work.
I know the documentation is lengthy. It is lengthy because it is detailed. If you actually read it, you'll see that it does have instructions on using the component. For example, the single most important chapter in the entire documentation is titled "Understanding the structure of a repository" and has three practical examples: software distribution (exactly what ARS was built to do), community site and a personal site (blog). If, after reading that page, you still don't get how the software works, please use PhocaDownload or DOCman instead. BTW, I do mention these two components in this exact documentation chapter as alternatives.
Finally, let me reiterate that if you believe that you've found a bug or want to share your feedback about the component, the proper avenue is using the Contact link on our site.
It interfaces beautifully with Akeeba Subscriptions and the Joomla! ACL's (via an AS plugin which adds/removes users to the relevant groups when subscribing/expiring), and even allows you to create update streams for each item.
We've been using this since it's early days and it's been great to see it become a stable product, with new features being introduced and things being tidied up to make it a really solid system.
Any suggestions, feedback or support requests have been dealt with quickly and professionally, with releases being made available within an hour or two of problems being identified. Definitely the extension of choice for providing subscription/payment-driven software downloads.
And your support was also more then great!
Thanks a lot for your hard work!
This is THE download component, imho.
I plan to use it both as generic download component, and to release new firmwares for the machines my company sells. It seems perfectly fit for both uses. I am still making some fine-tuning, but it doesn't seem too difficult to customize everything exactly as needed. ;)
Absolutely suggested to everyone (everyone who is willing to spend a few minutes to get to perfection, at least... maybe the absolute noob could have problems)! And recently, i found here on JED even ARS plugins for Xmap and Joomfish. :)
