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Oldtimer55

Reviews(5)
 
byOldtimer55, August 4, 2012
JConverter
I was surprised at how effortlessly this component worked.

As others have written, it would be nice if 1) there was 2.5 version of the component and 2) it was able to read line breaks in Wordpress as the start and finish of paragraphs. The component also seems to input all tags as categories, which can be very cumbersome to deal with in Joomla. Eventually, I reconverted without importing my categories as I only had three (but tons of tags that I didn't need imported).

I also wondered to myself why the option to import comments is only available with a commercial Joomla comment component (Azrul's JomComment).

Here's what I did to end up with a pristine Joomla 2.5 conversion of my Wordpress blog.

1. I installed Joomla 1.5 and then this component, JConverter, and JomComment for 1.5 (fortunately, I had purchased a copy of this component some time ago).

2. Ran JConverter and imported users, posts, and comments only.

3. Installed JComments and then imported the comments from JomComments to JComments.

4. Uninstalled JConverter and JomComments.

5. Installed com_Jupgrade2.5.2 and converted the database from 1.5 to 2.5.2.

6. Installed version 2.5 of JComments and checked to see that the comments were still there (they were).

7. Copied all custom HTML from Wordpress to my Joomla template.css file.

8. You will need to copy and overwrite all articles from Wordpress into Joomla in order to redefine paragraphs UNLESS you have hard-coded HTML into your Wordpress articles (I had actually done so out of force of habit with many articles).

The process is cumbersome but, after two to three hours, I ended up with pristine Joomla 2.5 version of my former Wordpress blog. Not bad.

This component needs some tweaking and further development but when you consider that it's free and basically does what it says, that's a lot more than I can say for even some of the most expensive components on the market today.

Kudos and thanks to the developer.
Owner's reply

Thanks for your feedback. We are working on a 2.5 native version of JConverter with support for a free comments Joomla extension instead of JomComment.

JFacebook Registration, Integration & Display
It is simply inconceivable to me that there can be as many as eight prior, presumably legitimate reviews without any mention of the fact that this extension works by writing the Facebook User’s *email address* into the Joomla username field. Let me repeat this: When a Facebook member uses this extension to log into your Joomla site, his or her **full email address** becomes his or her Joomla site username!!?

When I questioned the developer about this obviously gross limitation, his response was to simply suggest that I change the logon module display from username to **real name**. So any Facebook member who uses this extension to log into your site will either have his real name (or whatever name he used to create the Facebook account with) or full email address exposed to public view. For any developer using social networking components, such as JomSocial, Community Builder, any Joomla forum component, OR a bridged registration system for phpBB3 (such as myself), this extension is TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY USELESS.

Aside from that, configuring this extension takes some doing as well as first creating a developer application from within Facebook. Those new to Joomla and/or Facebook will need a lot of handholding through this process. Finally, this extension does not integrate properly with RocketTheme’s Rokbox login option, i.e., you will either have to spend a good deal of time playing with the CSS stylesheets for the Rokbox module or completely disable it and simply use the extension’s login module or the developer’s alternate HTML mod login option (available as a separate download).

This idea cannot be properly implemented with the use of plugins alone that simply copy data from one field to another. The developer needs to embellish this idea into a component that takes the Facebook registration data and then writes a calculated Joomla username field based on some combination of first name + last name + number. For example, when John Smith users his Facebook account to log into a new Joomla site for the first time, his new username becomes, for instance, something like johnsm01.

Those developing Joomla sites for specific interest groups on Facebook may not consider the display of either the real user name or full e-mail address to be a major problem in limited instances where all Joomla users might be “Facebook friends” anyway. However, for any other type of site where anonymity is preferred or even necessary (such as mine where Western teachers in China are asking very sensitive questions about work contracts and culture), you will not be able to use this extension.

The developer needs to find a much better solution to generating the Joomla username field from a value OTHER than the Facebook member’s full e-mail address or you can plan on spending a lot of time responding to user complaints and manually changing everyone’s username from their full email address to something else.

If future versions were to incorporate a different method for generating the Joomla username other than from the Facebook email address, you could accurately change the rating from poor (i.e., virtually useless) to either very good or excellent.
Owner's reply

Hi Oldtimer55,

We have tried to keep JFacebook as simple as humanly possible for users/admins, and we will continue to do so. We use the email as the username because that a guaranteed unique key that Facebook uses.

In spite of this (and as Oldtimer55 is aware and even admitted prematurely posted this review) we have made available to all who want it the updated package which has provision for 'username' scheme selection.
Three choices are now available:
 email (default)
 first_name.lastname (as in Cameron.Barr)
 three.three (as in Cam.Bar, wrote this as a special favor to Oldtimer).
AND We have made it easy to add your own! Just look in the /username_strategies folder and away you go.

Regarding the Rocket Theme login popup, its not really a JFacebook issue, its more to do with the attempt to load a new Popup from the Lightbox popup. This would happen with any attempt to put a Facebook login button in that popup from any other Extension.

So as we definitely appreciate any constructive criticism, MMI must disagree content of this post and submit that it was done to Damage and not to give a reasonable opinion.

Kind regards,

Cameron @ MMI

byOldtimer55, November 12, 2010
Smart SEO
For those who aren't quite certain what this component and accompanying plugin do, a mini control panel appears on the front-end when you are logged in as a super administrator. You then navigate to the page you want to edit, click on a drop-down menu on the SmartSEO CP, which then displays that particular page's meta-description, meta-title, and meta-keywords. You can then customize each of those three meta tags if you desire.

This plugin is extremely valuable (I would add necessary) for removing the default site description that Joomla automatically dumps on all category and section list pages. With this plugin, you can successfully eliminate "duplicate description" warnings from Google's Webmaster Tools.

For only $8.95, this is a gift: a greatly appreciated one.
byOldtimer55, November 9, 2010
This extension proved to be the answer to my sidebar menu problem. I am *extremely* grateful to Dart Creations for not only developing it but offering it to the Joomla development community for free (you can make a donation if you are so moved, as I was).

Thanks to MOD HTML, I am now running PVII's PopMenu Magic widget inside a sidebar. Fantastic. Who would have thought?? I wish I could attach a snapshot of what I was able to achieve with this module.

Thank you so much Dart Creations!
byOldtimer55, November 2, 2010
2J Tabs
Oh how I wish all Joomla extensions were as well-developed and nicely documented as this product is.

As I am using a custom theme with plenty of slide-show and tabbed widgets, I purchased this extension in order to be able to be able to set up tabbed content within an article. It is perfect for that use.

The extension comes with 21 pre-configured styles and the ability to create your own custom style if by some chance one of the presets doesn't meet your needs. The extension is well-documented and if you are at all familiar with Joomla, you will be up and running within minutes.

I highly recommend this extension. It is well worth the purchase price and then some. This is a fantastic product.