The Joomla! Extensions Directory ™

I wanted more on my site than the regular calendar display that shows events when you hover on a date. I tried out a few such extensions
before coming across EventList. Since it was non-commercial I went ahead and tried it as well. It was fairly easy to get up and running. Once installed just access the backend and you will be presented with a well organized control panel. Everything is right where it should be so you shouldn't have a problem figuring out how to make changes.
There are a large number of add-on extensions for EventList. At first I was disappointed because EventList didn't have a calendar display,
but after checking the extension specific section of JED, I found just an add-on. So, really if you go with EventList you can get the best of both worlds with the extensions available to you. It handles the backend event management stuff really good and if you need a fancy calendar display on your page it is available as an add-on.
There are a few things I did not like about Eventlist. First, you can filter on title, venue, city, and type but they left out a way to filter on State.
With a event system like this it would also be nice to enter a zip code and do a range search. I've had a few users ask why they couldn't do this.
There also needs to be a way in the backend to turn stuff off, like the venue, or at least make it optional when submitting an event. Each
event being added to my site doesn't have a venue but something needs to be entered for it to function properly. Also, during front end
submissions the extra steps to add a venue are not user friendly. I've had several people contact me to fax their events because it was too confusing to add them directly to the site.
I'm presently setting up EventList on another site and had a couple of questions. I went to the support forum a couple of days ago and
noticed spam posts in the forum regarding converting and ripping a dvd and Blu-ray video converters. I believe this is why the forum was
shut down before. If they cannot find the time to update their forum to something better to prevent this type of spam then I doubt if time will be devoted to updating EventList itself.
This extension has the capability to be a great component if only the developers would update some of the short comings in it.

I've been using Kunena for almost a year now and quite pleased with how well it works. I tried all of the other free forum and for one reason or the other promptly uninstalled them. I did like one of the other forum extensions that is marked popular in JED eventually passed on it. Kunena is quick to get up and running and it shows that someone put some actual thought into layout the backend configuration and settings. At first I didn't like the layout of the forum but after a couple of days it grew on me and now I find it more pleasing than most of the other forums.

The Kunena forum is really good and helpful. I was able to find answers to each of the question I had regarding configuration and setup. I haven't needed to post on their forum but viewing several topics it looks like they are fairly quick in responding to questions. The "other" forum I liked didn't support search engine friendly URLs, but Kunena does. It also integrates with Joomla really well.

I'm quite happy with the whole setup of Kunena and will be installing and using it on future sites.

This is one of those extensions I'm still not sure how I feel about. After checking out the demo I went ahead and purchased it just so I could start adding business lists to a map. It only costs 14.95 so if it turned out to be a flop then it wasn't that big of a deal.

It is fairly easy to use. The feature of being able to have different categories and assigning a different color map marker to each category was a big plus for me. Not only can you have categories, but sub-categories as well. I dreaded the notion of adding lots of map locations and it taking a long time to load like I've seen with other products. If you plan your category setup correctly you can then set a default category in the backend which prevents all of your listings from loading on the first instance of the map displaying. This makes it much faster than other extensions I've tested.

I did have one issue with Webmap...I wanted to turn off the display listing on the left side beside the map. For something claimed to be highly customizable you would think a simple on/off feature in the setup would accomplish this. After setting everything associated with the display listing to hide I thought it would do just that. Nope, the info was hidden but the box to display the info was still there. I used the ticket system on the developer's site asking about this. Two days later I received a reply that instructed me to add code in the CSS file. That solved the problem, but it was a simple feature that should have been available in the global configuration section.

Another issue I have with Webmap is the Search Form and Category Filter. They need to be integrated. You can use the search form to enter a zip code and range and get results, but the category filter to the right of the search form has no bearing on your search results. The same in reverse, if you use the Category filter to filter your results...you cannot select a range to narrow down based on distance. This is the only flaw in Webmap as far as I'm concerned. I've received too many emails from users asking why they cannot filter their results based on the range they have selected.

All in all it is a really good map extension. It is the best one I've tested so far. If the developer would update the search/filter feature and make some of the things which need code modifications were added as check box options in the global configuration, it would be an outstanding 5 star rated extension.

First off, I very seldom give any form of review a perfect score. I feel there is always room for improvement, whether it be with the product itself or more than likely with the service or support. Yet, here I am giving out a 5 star rating for JV-LD, which has quickly become my most favorite component.

After checking out every directory component for Joomla, lots of head scratching, and late nights testing some of them, I went ahead and purchase JV-LD. Right from the start I was impressed with this component. It seemed rock solid and contained the basics of what I was looking for in a link directory.

I'm sure when anyone is looking for a particular component to fit their needs each component will come up short in some area. The more I used it, the more I wanted it to do. Not a problem as you can just send them your requests and if it is something simple, they normally get back with a solution in a matter of minutes. If it is a little more complicated, they will tell you they will check on it and see if it is possible. If so, it will make it in an upcoming release. They seem truly interested in improving and making JV-LD one of the best link directory components out there.

You also cannot give a proper review of something like this unless you have a problem. Then you get to see what type of support you receive from a company. I kind of expect to receive crappy support from free components, but when you pay for a product you at least want problems to be addressed. Every single problem or question I've had has been promptly answered and fixed in a timely manner. I've never had to wait and wait only to ask the same question again. Niranjan has always been quick and professional in his responses...even when I've had problems and they were not a result of their component, but the template I was using. I've had them send me custom code changes, log into my site to check and/or change things, etc. Each time a solution was found that I was happy with.

Thanks for the great product and service you provide. I highly recommend anyone looking for a directory component to give JV-LD a try.

Pros:
Top notch company to deal with that has great support
Extremely stable and feature rich component
Best link management features of any component I've tested
Easy an intuitive front end submissions
Back end management features
Easy to customize

Cons:
Spending way too much time coming up with new directories to use this on.