The Joomla! Extensions Directory ™

kaizen

Reviews(10)
 
bykaizen, September 12, 2010
xp MP3 Gallery
I don't know why there aren't any reviews for this plugin as it really works well. It was downloaded an running in minutes and was exactly what I was looking for. I'm doing a site for friend who is breaking into the VO/Narration business and wanted an easy way to catalog his demos and allow them to be played from the site without any extra scripting. This did the trick. While the deafult settings work fine, it is great that you can configure the colors and such to you liking. This is well worth the time to check out, nicely done and I thank the dev for sharing it with the community. Certainly makes me want to check out their other works.
Impacture
I like the idea of adding some simple image editing to the back end of Joomla! and this can be very useful for some of my clients.

But for more experienced J! users or devs like myself, there are many free online image editors out there that are easy to load into another tab on your browser and for the price asked, more cost effective.

I wouldn't count this one out though, as it is a great idea and the first of it's kind as an extension, so as more features are added it could become a compelling buy...especially at a slightly lower price point.
JComments
Being easy to install and having flexible options are not uncommon amongst JED entries, but the level of committment and support from the developer are what make this extension head and shoulders above the rest.

Many applications are well done but can become abandoned by busy devs whoa re volunteering their time and energies; this is definitey not the case here! I was in a bind and Serge immediately came to my rescue and figured out quickly what my issue was (and it was my own fault, of course). I can't thank him enough for his kindness.

The comments system is one of (if not *the*) best out there with flexible options and integrations with a large number of 3rd party applications out there. Well documented CSS classes allows for tight control of the look and feel, though out of the box it looks great.

I can't imagine using another comments system since installing on a production site, and look forward to whatever features come next!
bykaizen, April 26, 2010
but unless you know how to use regexp and know what to put in, you can't make use this. There's nothing on the website link to provide example or explanation, or means to contact the author.

It's a shame, because this would narrow down an annoyance that bugs many admins.
Owner's reply

Thanks for the feedback, I will make sure to provide some examples and some additional information. As for the regexp usage, the default setting should take care of the most common jquery include strings I believe.

myApi
This is an excellent way to integrate FB into your community based Joomla site, and is very extensible. Despite the power, it is quite easy to implement and the steps well documented. While it might seem daunting, my advice is to just follow the simple steps and go for it; it is much easier than you think. The author is very engaged and uses social networking to spread the app itself which shows he has a firm handle on the medium. I only hope that as with another FB connect plugin, he can bring data like location, etc, from the FB side to the user account. The comment was made that this is against FB terms, but there is a commercial product that is doing just that and is also on the FB developers wiki so it must be ok as FB listed it there. If you are running a community based website, I can't think of a single reason why you wouldn't try this out and support the developer.
Owner's reply

Thank you for your great review. And yes even though importing facebook users profile details into your joomla user database would be great, and even though plugins from the community builder team and others offer this feature it is strictly against the facebook terms and conditions section III found here http://developers.facebook.com/policy/ while facebook are not actively closing apps that break the rules action could be taken swiftly and without notice, deleting your facebook app and destroying your users confidence in you website.

myApi will never break the rules of the Facebook developer platform even if this means losing out on certain features, I believe Facebook have a right to lay down certain rules. And also as a developer I need to be trustworthy and not create applications that could harm your websites reputation.

This is a very important issue and some what of a grey area for facebook developers. However it will be followed closely in the hope that a legal alternative can be found.

bykaizen, November 30, 2009
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
PopFeed
This is an excellent addition to any J! website and in particular to any site where user interactivity is encouraged. It installs quickly and works first time out. There's a great auto mode that will just insert the feedback link in all content articles without any hassle.

Two tips:
1. The field for the title of the autolink accepts html and is not stripped; you can use this like I did to make a graphical button rather than just a text link. (e.g. )

2. If you don't want the program to render the feedback links on the front page in autolink mode, you can alter line 41 in the program to remove the frontpage rendering.

But I wouldn't be surprised if the developer added this in as a feature at some point. I worked with him on a couple of bugs and he was extremely receptive to addressing any issues and trying to make the plugin work even better.

A really friendly guy, a great program and it's FREE! What more could you ask for, download it already!
Owner's reply

Thank you so much.
I really appreciate this review.

bykaizen, October 19, 2009
RokQuickCart
This is a nice looking, easy to use simple cart and I was anxious to look at it for a project. Unfortunately, this component is based on simplecartjs and it is quite easy to change prices and such using Firefox and the Firebug plugin. While it may not seem like a big deal to the creators, it would require a number of reversals in accounting and either PayPal or Google Checkout - neither of which is a trivial affair. While the average customer may not know how to do this, the instructions are easily found on the web and therefore I wouldn't use it for any ecommerce project until this vulnerability was fixed. Pity, because it fits a niche that isn't filled by more complex products like VirtueMart.
bykaizen, September 4, 2007
0 of 1 people found this review helpful
CB Superthumb
I installed this as the 'demo' link doesn't really tell you what it does. And after I installed it, I am STILL not sure what it does or is suppposed to do...but I *did* note that it displayed users which I had NOT APPROVED nor were they confirmed (actually they were scripted spam entries!) and I think that's one bug that needs to be attended to immediately. But hey, thanks for alerting me to the fact that I hadn't deleted the spam users! I guess that's one point in your favor...
bykaizen, April 11, 2007
NiftyBox
Add me to the list here that can't seem to get this to work in either IE *OR* FF. At least with the older version I got a series of differnt colored square boxes...with the latest update I get ONE square box and a bunch of text. Even after putting it lower on the mambot list (and below tabs and slides as recommended....)

But I'll keep trying it becuase once it works, it's going to be a nice addition to the toolbox!
bykaizen, January 19, 2007
1 of 6 people found this review helpful
CiviCRM
Wow, I mean wow, what a disappointment. Based on the top billing and glowing reviews I truly expected a lot more; like a program that actually installed.

21 megs isn't a component, it's a stand alone program. And that's how this should have been packaged. Just like SMF and phpBB, this should have been packaged as a stand alone installation with a BRIDGE. I spent HOURS trying to get this thing to install following every thread I could read with no real results. And because the password on the demo site is not the one listed, I STILL have no idea what it even looks like.

To have a developer suggest that you "consult a professional to install" it (actually in one of the threads!) is counter intuitive - the largest demogrpahic of Joomla is people without extensive programming, PHOP and MySQL knowledge. Furthermore the target audience, non profits, are trying to do everything they can to AVOID such an extra expense. Many aspects, especially front end access, feel like 'hacks' instead of councious efforts to work in the Joomla framework.

I *am* a consultant and I've never had to give up on an install until CiviCRM. I hope they'll separate the app from the bridge and give each the attention they deserve because it seems like if you are lucky enough to get it to work, it's got an excellent feature set.

I'm moving onto trying others and keep hoping they'l work these things out. You shouldn't have to hack your config files and php.ini to get a real Joomla component to work.