ArtCats

Both extensions are free to download on the website...enjoy!
ArtCats is a module that can automatically list Articles from within a designated Category or can list Categories from within a designated Section. Compatible only with Joomla 1.5 and later. Not for use with Joomla 1.0.xx. Based on Categories 1.5 module created by Rich Dorfman which was created with inspiration from Module - Content Categories version 1.0.1 by Boris Komraz.
2.5.0 version announcement:
http://www.orware.com/product-news/free-extensions/artcats-2.5/artcats-2-5-0-beta-released
New version 2.0.4 with "Exclude Current Article" ability now available!
Read the release announcement here:
http://www.orware.net/home/item/artcats-for-joomla-204-released.html
Please post questions there in the comments section or email me!
Additional Information (Please feel free to visit the Demo/Documentation Pages as well):
When set to auto mode this module functions contextually, meaning that it will only return the expected links when on the appropriate type of page.
For example, let's say you had a Section named Section 1, with Categories named Category 1, Category 2, Category 3. Let's say you also have another Section named Section 2, with Categories named Category 4, Category 5, and Category 6. In auto mode the module would automatically show links to Category 1, Category 2, and Category 3 when you visit the Section 1 page and show links to Categories 4, 5, and 6 when visiting the Section 2 page.
For Categories the functionality is similar. Let's say you had a Category named Category 1 with Articles named Article 1, Article 2, and Article 3. Let's also say you had another Category named Category 2, with Articles named Article 4, Article 5, and Article 6. If you visited the Category 1 page the module would automatically show links to Article 1, Article 2, and Article 3. If you went to visit the Category 2 page the module would automatically show links to Articles 4, 5, and 6.
Pretty nifty huh? I figured this would be a nice way to have a semi-automatic menu system.
Your ideas are welcome!
I really appreciate the effort you have gone to to make this, and to release it freely.
It does exactly what it says it does, and so far I have had no problems with it.
Regards,
Luke
Will there be a artcats plugin made for Joomla 1.7? I really hope so as a few of my new sites are made with the new Joomla!
Also it seems to me that there should be a way to limit the number of articles displayed. For example if you have a category with 3 articles and one with 15, you will have a very short module in some cases and an extremely long one in others (in auto mode). So it would be nice to be able to set a limit of, say, 5 articles per category.
Also there doesn't seem to be any option to display articles by date???
Otherwise, this module is truly excellent.
Hi there! I'm not sure what you mean about there being no uninstall available for the module and faulting my module for that reason?
The only way I know of to delete a module is to go within the Install/Uninstall area within the Extensions tab, then going to the Modules area and selecting a module to uninstall (if you want to completely remove it). If you just want to delete an instance of the module you can do so within the Module Manager by checking the checkbox next to the module instance and then clicking on the Delete button. If a module isn't "registered" properly upon installation then you won't be able to use it so if you are able to use the module then you should definitely be able to uninstall it without any issue.
I'll look into your other suggestions though :-).
Thank you!
-Omar
There are plenty of parameters so I could get just what I wanted for my menu. It seems to me that the code in this module must be very good because it was super-easy to install, with great results immediately. I was actually surprised it was so easy.
I wonder if ARTCATS is ready for Joomla 1.6 because it appears to allow nested categories too.
Very nice! All thumbs up!!
Thanks for this module!
Thank you for sharing!
I installed the latest version (2.03). However, there are so many problems with it that I've had to uninstall it. Problems are:
1) It doesn't work with Joomla Core SEF.
2) The expandable facility doesn't work. When I go to a section, all the categories plus all their articles are listed in the menu. What should happen is that only the category with the article you are reading should be expanded, the others should be closed.
3) The subcats patches have something wierd in them. After installing them, errors start appearing within core joomla!! Luckily I backed up my site before installing the patches so no harm done.
4) Other people had mentioned some of the same problems I am having on the support page, but there is no reply given to them and some of those comments are 3 months old
I appreciate the developer is offering the plugin for free and this is not a go at him. It's just very frustrating because this plugin would be amazing if it worked.
If it worked, I would even pay for it because the functionality is just what I want! I am wondering what I have done wrong because evother reviewers have idently managed to get it working.





