The component is much more then I expected after trying out lots of others. It works great, and the Commercial-Version is cheap (15 Pounds). So you get much value for your money.

But, honestly, let´s face the truth. The component is not yet doing everything. There are some parts that are not yet perfect.

1. The Templates are not too nice. Well, believe me, the templates you can choose are much nicer then the default ... I think the default template is one of the most ugliest. But I would prefer to have some more templates to choose.

2. The navigation. There are some tabs on the top, that are not Ajax-driven. It drives me wild, when I click on a tab and the the whole site reloads.

3. The languages are not really good translated, some words are missing, special charakters are misspelled.

4. Integrating a commet-component is a good Idea, because it brings the best way to leave comments. But bad luck ... the component I use for comments is not integrated. The GPL-one they offer is not working on my site (problem with mootools) and the other one that can be integrated is charged (and not so nice as the others).

There are some other small things, that could be done. But the truth is also: It already has lots of components. You can integrate the Flow-Player also in articles with a plugin, you ca ... uh, you got a lot of things.

So come to the truth-trugh: I will ALWAYS find things, that I don´t love yet. If the little things would be done (most important: Templates / Second important: Control over playlists for the Admin), then I would instantly pay 100 or 200 Dollars for it, ´caus it´s worth that.

For having a 15-Pound-Software, you are getting a damned good piece of work, which is already worth much more money!

As far as I know the developement of playlists is already going on, so maybe in the next months this software is the software of my dreams.

And, guys, take me by the work: If you integrate the playlist-things and if you set up at least one really good template, I will pay you that for. You deserve it!

Best wihes, Julian!

The Module has some little bugs and minor issues, that can be solved quick. As soon as they are it will clearly get 5 stars. ;-)

-> I had problems that my navigation and other modules dissapeared. After installing the jQuery Tools (as described on the flowplayer-site) everything is ok with the navigation.

-> The Plugin-Code is not explained in the plugin itself. Well ... just two lines of plain text would be enough, but when you are searching for them you will get mad. ;-)

That´s it. That´s the onliest issues and this two, specially the first one, reduced it to four stars. But believe me: The four stars are really worth it!

Here a feature-request for the next version:
The playlist-plugin, which is on the FlowPlayer-Site.

It´s got nothing to do with the rating, because it´s an extension for flowplayer. But I would love to have it. ;-)

Best wishes, Julian!

I am owner of the commercial version. I also tested the 5$-Flashchat-Script and some other chats.

The 123flashchat is the best chat from the users point of view that I found. I have it hosted by the company and it is quick, easy to use, the Joomla-Integration (free version) is quick and easy.

The whole system is a little bit more complicated in the installation itself, because it´s a whole different system then Joomla and there is a need to connect two different servers, the chat-server and the Joomla-installation. While the free chat is installed quickly, there may be some difficulties in installing the full version. The Joomla-Module is installed the same, but you have to put some codes of your own or hosted chat-client in, in the moment the chat always directs to the free version, no matter that I bought it.

Even more complicated is the integration in vBulletin: Here you have to edit some of the php-files, which can be anoying in every update.

But ... remember two important points:

- The important point is the users point of view, and from this point this is the best chat I found. Once it is installed it works brilliant.

- I bought the script about 3 years ago and I see very good improvement in the developement of the integration. While it was a two-hour-process editing masses of php-files that time, now it is only the upload of some files and the edit is just some little code-snippets, few of them. And the rest ... adjusting paths until it works.

When you want to integrate a really good chat and nut "just a simple script", you will have to do some work. And if this is your goal, 123flashchat is maybe the best you can get (I didn´t find a better one.

As soon as the integration works "out-of-the-box" I will change my rating to five stars. ;-)

Best wishes, Julian!

... what it should but it´s not really to clear. I bought JUGA and realized, that JUGA is not a penny worth for me, because it doesn not do what I like.

Here in the description it says, that I should consider JUGA if I want to have the ability for registered users to submit content. That simply doesn´t work, JUGA seems to be only good for if you want to give other users Access to the backend and then limit it. But you have to do it for every single user manualy.

Back to Content Submit: It makes no sense for me that a server-error is shown when a "normal" User klicks the link. Couldn´t at least an information-site be shown?

I tried to contact support and I didn´t really get answers. The main problem I see in the documentation. The one point, that seems to be not really clear:

CONTENT SUBMIT and JUGA are worthless when you want to handele rights or submissions by normal users. CONTENT SUBMIT is only usefull to work with at least publishers. JUGA is usefull only for restricting access to other Administrators.

When you hit this requirements the software could be usefull. If you don´t ... you should read bouth really carefully so you understand, what the software does and what not.

Best wishes, Julian!

First of all: The Extension may do what it was planed for. The Rating is based on what I thought it "should" do based on the (spare) descriptions on theire Homepage.

I bought it because of that and it seems like it can´t do anything for me, so the rating is correct based on my goals. Two questions to the support just brought me short answers pointing out what´s "not" working. A one-liner with a link to the manual (that I didn´t find before) showed me, that JUGA will never work for me.

So what´s about it? JUGA may be great to limit access to Backend-Users. To adjust the rights for Components and so on. But it has no value for me on the front end.

What I was searching for was a component where I can give rights to the front-end-users so they can submit articles. Thes was the onlies real thing I needet and this is how I understood JUGA: Give my Front-End-Users the rights to create articles. But ... no way!

I can´t give without touching each and every user by hand. I have at least to take him into an JUGA-Usergroup, and this can´t be done in a batch, with a search or whatever, I have to do this for each and every single user.

But still, when I do it, the access to writing articles is not working. Because in the Front End he is still a "User" and a User can´t access to the "submit-article-things". So I also would have to change all "Users" to "Authors".

In Fact, JUGA could be a great component to manage the rights between different Admins. And if this would be described will it would have been fair. But in fact, let´s face the main line that JUGA is described with on theire own website:

"JUGA is a Joomla Extension that allows additional control over what content is available to which users."

That´s not right. It is worthless if you want to handle access for users. It´s for Administrators.

My Business is Seminars, so an extension for Registration to Events is one of my most needs. Because of that I bought bouth of the Components (DT Register and Event Registration Pro) to test them ... I did choose DT Register.

Honestly: It does not everything I would love it for and it has some things leaking, but all of them are "just personal issues", it would not be fair to rate it. Nearly everything it is planned to do it does extremly well. So I will try to point the most interesting points out here for you in the most fair way that I can think of. ;-)

--> Support

The support is one of the most interesting things. On the one side, mostly I get no answer. There are many customizations I would like to have, I offer to pay for them, but even when I post them in the highes priority in theire ticket-system I get no answer.


This may sound bad, but in fact: Whenever I post a real bug, the answer comes instantly and also a patch. No discussion, no delay, the service is brilliant.

How to say? If you need some individual customizations you will ned an external coder. If you "only" want to have the standart features it is great!

--> Registrations & Calendar

There is nothing to say. The registrations work brilliant, everyting is nice. The view of the calender is improving with every upgrade, and it starts to get to the best level.

Well, but it´s not yet. I am missing for example some way to insert "Informations to the seminar". Something like "klick here to register" and "click here for more information", where I can put an individual link to the "more information". Sure, for expensive seminars I have some articles about the seminar, I would like to link to them from the Events-List. But I can´t.

Also in the overview the link to register is in the name of the event. That sounds logical, but in fact some users already mailed me, because they couldn´t find out, how to register.

So for me the two columns would make sense: "Informations" and "Registration".

However, because the overview improved that much from the first version I think this developement will go on.

--> Combination with JEvents
The Features-List from Event Registration PRO points out that they have an "own" calendar, so you have to take care about two extensions. In fact, I don´t use the JEvents, it´s just installed that DT works. But it´s okay. The bad thing is only, that I have to first create a new event in JEvents, then in DT register. But that´s it, no other problem. So it´s not really "bad".

But here I am also missing the "linking between". I could for example write lots of information for a seminar into JEvents, but there is no link from DT Register back to JEvents, so the information in the calender wouldn´t get seen.

--> Hopes for the Future

There are two things that I would LOVE to get in future. The one is something that I guess others will like also, the other one is more "special", but possibly ...

-> Information-Button Mambot

There is a hack to put a "register-link" into JEvents. But it´s nothing more then a link.

I would prefear a mambot which calles a special seminar and gives information to that. So in the seminars-description I place the mambot, and it adds me a little table with the Name of the event, the price, the number of participants registered, free places, things like that.

Users like to have information, they don´t want to click on the event, then go back to the "overview" and then see how many free places are left. I like to have the information "free places" on the main description-site, and the easiest would be with a mambot.

-> I like to execute a script on the last page. FacileForms allows this, and this is the feature I am already begging the coders to do that, I offer them money but they don´t answer.

DT Register gets many (great) updates, and to have a script in the right moment I always need to pay an external coder to do that for me. It would be great (for me) to have a feature "execute this script after a registration is done.

Then things can be done like adding somebody to a newsletter, running an affiliate-script or whatever. Would be nice ...


---> Comparison with Event Registration PRO

Today the 1.5 Version of Event Registraion PRO is published, so I wanted to use it for a compairson. About two years ago the Registration PRO event was useless and DT Register was "in the begining". Now it could be time to look at the competitor again.

First of all: They compare theire Component with DT Register on theire Registration-Site. This, for my opinion, is not a good choose. They pointed out everything that "could" be bad in DT Register, but for sure they "forgot" to point out the good things. For my opinion, a competitor is never the person who could do a compairson, just trying to do so already has a "bad taste" in it.

One thing they point out is the updates. Event Registraion Pro is "Free for Version purchased" and DT Register is "only for 1 Year", so they say. In fact: For this one year I got ALL Updates, no care on the version. And it is cheaper also.

When the Upgrading is "free for version purchased" it simply means: New version, new price. This is more complicated, because I have no Idea how many upgrades are comming. Once yearly? Once every five years? When 5.2 is out, will 5.2.1 already be a "new version".

I am a little suspicious, because I couldn´t download the new version (seems like the one I bought is an "old" version), and there is also no Demo for the new version. I have no chance to look into it.

The Feedback in theire Thread is not the best, DT Register has much better reveiws. So ... well, I mailed the Coders if I can also get the "new" version for testing, and if I get I will test it and write how it works. If there is no way to test it, this is also some kind of a message, and I am not really willing to pay more money, I already have two of theire licenses that I don´t use.

Possibly (!) the new Event Registraion PRO is better then the old one. I would love to test it. But in fact: DT Register is working very, very nice and I would suggest to stay with that. With DT Register you will get a very stable and good-working component, Event Registration PRO is like an experiment: It can be something good, but there is no proof yet.

Let´s see how it works!

Best wishes, Ju lian!

The software is not bad. But unfortunately it isn´t good yet. So it is very difficult to write a review or to give a fair rating. I will write some details, please keep in mind, that there is no other extention that serves this kind of needs, so I am hoping that the developement continues and this Component will be the burner after the next updates.

First of all, the Features, they are great:

- Creating different Events with about all functionality that I could dream about.

- You can set up different "forms" to register, and each event can be connected to one form. But the forms can be used in different Events also. So there is no need to built up a new form for each event, but if one event "differs" to much you can simply create a new form and assign it to the event.

- The "Tickets" are great: Each Event can have different pricing-options, like "executive seating" and "normal seating", or to have "including lunch" or "excluding lunch". The registrant can choose the options while signing in.

- The categorys of events are nice. You can set up differnet categorys and they will be sorted togehter. Nice!

- Non-Users (guests) can sign in for an event. Or not, as you choose. Nice!

- Each event has it´s own confirmation-page. In the confirmation-page you can use the variables from the site before. Nice!

- Same with the eMails, you can sent confirmation-eMails to the registrants, you can freely built up a new one for each event. Nice!

- The module beside it, showing the "newest Events", nice.

There are many more features. I hope you see, my hope is on that component to get the basic stuff done also, because in that part it leaks in the moment. The limits are obvious:

- There is NO way to manage the registrants in the backend. You can´t change the name, the eMail, you can´t add a registrant manually in the backend, you can´t even correct a typo without directly changing it in the database.

- You only get a single Mail with "Firstname, Lastname registered to the Event XX" when somebody registeres. There is not other information in the Admin-eMail. When you go to the backend you can watch the list with all registrants but only the built-in fields (Firstname, Lastname, eMail), you cannot see other fields like "street adress" or "age" or whatever. The onliest way to get this informaition is ... the next point.

- Only the complete-registrants-list shows all data of a registrant. There you can´t change it, it is a simple html-popup with all registrants and theire data inside.

This leads into an absurd registration-process, if you for example like to write an Invoice. Each time a registrant signs in, you get the admin-eMail. Then you print out the complete participants-list (any other list hasn´t all needet data) and take the data from the one new registrant. You can imagine, when you are having an event with 100 participants, that sucks!

- The online-payment (paypal) is nice, but there is no way to let the user choose his way of payment. When you set paypal on, users ONLY can pay with paypal. When you set offline-payment, only offline-payment is possible. The one you choose in the backend will be the one and onliest, for all users, for all events.

- By not being able to insert a participant manualy there is no real way for me to start with that component. Í have some events where participants already registered, so where to switch to registration PRO? Import directly into the mysql-database? Uh ... I don´t feel save in doing that!

- The ticketing is a little weired. You remember the options "including lunch" or "Executive seating"? The weired thing is, that this are all AND-Options. So a user can choose all options togehter.
That would make sense, when this only would be "add-ons", but they aren´t. There is no "Basic-price" for the event, the price is only (!) saved in the tickets.

An Example:
When I put in "Normal Seating" for 100 Dollars and "Executive Seating" for 150 Dollars, then the user can check bouth of the options, the system charges 250 Dollars. But for what? He doesn´t need two seats of different categorys with just one name of the participant.

On the other hand let´s put in "LUnch" and "Dinner" als options. Lunch for 30 Dollars, Dinner for 25 Dollars. Now the user is still forced to choose at least one option and the event has no "basic price". So it doesn´t seem logical for me.

The solution would be simple: Just change the checkboxes to the OR-Option. If the user can Choose:

- Normal seating without Dinner for 100 Dollars
- Executive seating without Dinner for 150 Dollars
- Normal seating with Dinner for 125 Dollars
- Executive seating with Dinner for 175 Dollars

... this would make sense, when the registrant can choose ONLY ONE OPTION! Simple change, but IMHO very necessery!

- The module shows the "newest Events". Well ... for a new user who wants to see the events it makes more sense to have the Events sortet by "upcomming Events".

- The Events-Overwiew shows the maximum occupancy, but it doesn´t show how many free places are left. This is a really, really bad point. It makes much more sense for me to show the information like "Free places: 17 of 80". In fact, in this component it only says "maximum occupancy: 100". No information, if it is "nearly sold out" or "all free" at the moment. Uh ... it doesn´t make sense to me, because it would be so unbelivable easy to change that!

Hopfefully you see, the Component has the potential to get something really great, but there is definitely work needet at the base. Let me simply bring out a little wishlist:

- Changing the ticketing-option to "OR"-Options, so that a registrant can only choose one of the options.

- Putting the complete registration-data into the admin-mail, so whe have one mail for each single participant with all needet data in it.

- The module-option to show "upcomming events" instead of "new events".

- Showing "free places left" instead of "maximum occupancy" in the overview.

- Having some kind of "registrants-management" in the backend.

The first three points of the wishlist are easy and quick. The fourth I guess is a big one. For my opinion that points are definitely needet, in the moment I cannot really use the component in a productive system. However, I hope that the developement continues and will get more and more stable. I also think ... a little to weak for the price. Well, I don´t care too much about the price, but I would like a little more logic in a commercial license.

I contacted the coder also and the reactions where the following:

- Real Bugs where solved in 24 hours! Great! Well ... I did mention the "refund-policy", so there was a need for him to react on the real bugs. ;-)

- Most other things where answered with "We will work on that". No deadline, no more comments on that. Now I am courious what is going to happen in the next weeks.

I will keep you informed about any updates in the software. And I will delete any critical point in this review as soon as it is solved. Possibly this motivates the coder to check on some of them. ;-)

In the meanwhile I saw another Component named DT Register. From the first view it seems to me like not that complex, not that many features, but more stable in the basic-needs, half of the price (35$). I would prefear to have a good woring Registration-PRO, but I will also have a look at DT-Register and let´s see how it continues.

Best wishes, Julian!