Joes Word Cloud
This extension is a joomla module displaying the words from your Joomla! core articles and displays them in a "cloud" of words displayed in a module. Font-size depends on the frequency of the word throughout your articles.
What makes this word cloud module different is that it takes its words directly from your Joomla! core articles instead of your meta tags which means less work to setup. It has been tested with various languages across the world and 3rd-party templates.
I wanted a module that doesn't need meta tags to be setup for it. I want a module which quickly installs and can work as is. I've added some CSS styling options because I'm just that lazy.
It's free as always, so enjoy!
Note: For Joomla! 1.5.x websites, please visit my downloads page for the previous version of this module.
Admin Options include:
+ module class suffix
+ module width
+ text alignment
+ underline override
+ background to each word
+ background text color
+ background color
+ background border color
+ background size
+ rounded backgrounds (css3 only)
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+ get words from title or introtext or both
+ from category
+ include restricted articles
+ include/exclude categories
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+ search URL can be changed
+ how many words to display
+ minimum word length
+ minimum font size (range)
+ maximum font size (range)
+ keyword inclusion list
+ keyword exclusion list
+ case-sensitive option
+ order words by
+ order words
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+ include "K2" content
+ include "Hot Property" content
+ include "Phoca Download" content
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+ display SQL query
+ display Powered By
Latest ChangeLogs:
v1.6.4 (13/06/2011)
- Added Joomla! Admin Option: Module Content Caching
- Added Joomla! Admin Option: Include content based on User Level
- Added Joomla! Admin Option: Include Category IDs
- Added Joomla! Admin Option: Exclude Category IDs
- Added Joomla! Admin Option: Sort Words By (shuffle, alphabet, frequency)
- Added Joomla! Admin Option: Sort Words Order (ascending, descending)
- Prefixed language file references with JWC to avoid conflicts with 3rd-party apps.
- Restructured extension into an MVC model (fixes H3 and Module Class Suffix issues?)
- Removed Joomla! Admin Option: Content Database Length
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VERSIONS 1.6.X ARE VALID FOR JOOMLA! 1.6.0 ONLY
VERSIONS 1.5.X ARE RELEASED IN TANDEM AND DEVELOPED SEPARATELY (for continued support for Joomla 1.5 websites)
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v1.5.3 (09/04/2011)
- Downgrade version of Module v1.6.4 for Joomla 1.5.x websites
It seems like the extension works only with simple search, not with the smart one, but they work together on my site without conflicting.
Customizable and easy installing feature - thanks a lot!
I am working on a site which will have a lot of texts from different writers (I mean litterature), so this module will really bring added value.
Support is also great : I wanted to connect Word Cloud with Mijosoft Search module and absolutely did not know how to do that (I am beginner in Joomla) : Joe solved that quite immediately.
Just one disadvantage to this approach: you cannot create combinations of words, which is often needed in tag clouds, so I cannot use it unfortunately, but it is a great tool nevertheless.
It works fine until I import 6000+ articles from my old site, after that it just hangs the site because it is not fast enough to generate the tag list: I end with a PHP fatal error of timeout kind after a while waiting for the page to be loaded when enabling the tags module.
I think this is a design problem without easy solution. For sites like the mine and bigger, probably a complexer component is needed, one with an option to generate the tag list through the backend if needed, and that updates it everytime an article is added.
Of course if your site has just some dozens of articles and you have not plans to grow fast, this module may be enough for your needs.
Alternatively you can tell the module to only scan the titles of your articles (I have over 2000 and it works fine).
If it is really really slow, you can put words in the "inclusive" text box and this does not even connect to the database if this is populated. You would of course need to let the module run first to generate the word cloud, then simply copy and paste this into the box.
The module also comes with a few cache-mode options so you can play with those. So many ways of getting this to work, in just a few clicks.
I'm sorry this module was of no use to you, I created it because no other module allowed me to simply install a module, and for it to automatically generate it's own content.
I can't use this extension until Errors found while checking this document as XHTML 1.0 Transitional!
Hi dejeansoftware,
The part the module can break in terms of validation depends on what you put for the search URL parameter (usually "?option=com_search&searchword="). Note that the ampersand is not valid XHTML 1.0. If you have used Joomla before, you will have noted that the Joomla CMS formats any HTML entities in module parameters; if I put "?option=com_search&searchword=" then the second I save this in Joomla it changes it to "/?option=com_search&searchword=". Had you read the comments and queries on the documentation page you would know that my workaround of typing "?option=com_search&searchword=" was the solution to yours and many others validation issue. The default install sets this but Joomla CMS will reformat it everytime you save the parameter.
An honest rating but perhaps a bit harsh for a cloud word module especially since your issue is addressed on my site. Done correctly this module validates to XHTML 1.0 Strict but I haven't found a way to force Joomla CMS to stop formatting the entities.
Hope that helps!
- Configurability (just as described in the description)
- Very easy to get running, in accordance with our Semantic and Design parameters
- Fast: no impact mesured on the website's perfs (YSlow mesured).
Please keep it up!
The support is as quick as Lucky Luke. And efficient too : a problem on sunday solved on monday afternoon...
Thanks Joe !
My only wish is that it will not use words form articles marked as Registered or Special. Or better, it uses the settings of the logged in user to determine the type of articles it should use.
Thanks,
Patrick
As this was asked for from several others, I released version 1.6.4 which includes the feature to "Use access levels".
There are some added benefits of using Joe's Word Cloud too! The module generates the tags from the content (as opposed to generating from the article's metadata) so our editors don't have to worry about this extra step. It also alleviates the mass confusion presented by developing a standardized list of keywords. And the final benefit? It's FREE! What more can I say except, thanks Joel Lipman!
One small feature request though: add RSS feeds for tags. Otherwise my tag headaches are finally gone!
Hi nniiccoollee,
Thanks for the review! The module was intended for minimal setup. As a webdeveloper equipped with notepad, I've always envied Joomla developers who can create websites overnight complete with user forums and content management. I'm not a fan of extensions that take an age to setup because I find these defeat that purpose. So this one does it all automatically. Even included the style overrides because I'm that lazy! For any questions, comments, suggestions please visit my website and maybe search the questions already asked just in case yours have already been covered.
Thanks again,
Joe
Hi Jlaner,
Forgot to say, I released v1.6.3 of this module on the 14th April 2011 which along with other changes allows you to specify the width of the module.
Glad it helps!
Kind Regards,
Joe
www.joellipman.com
