Website Ideas » Sobi2

Ajax Availability Calendar

admin — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:55:55 +0000

An open source project available for all to use and develop. Using AJAX to update in real time an availability calendar. This script is great and is ideal for hotels or apartments. We at present are busy building a Sobi2 plugin using this module and will soon be available for download at Website Ideas.

Some great features that it has!

# A very simple php/ajax script that can be used as an availability calendar for hotels/apartaments etc.
# This panel would be the admin panel where the owner could update the availabilty for each day.
# It would be a simple matter of reproducing this without the links for the public availability calendar (ie without the possibility to modify the day status)
# It uses AJAX to change the days state without having to reload the page – just click on any day to change it’s state.
# The script with all the files including the images used can be downloaded in this zip file

Demo here! Download here!

Custom made plugins and web 2.0 effects for Sobi2

admin — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:25:44 +0000

The guys behind the Joomla accommodation directory SA STAY, have given us inside information on all the tools used and modifications made to there joomla system and sobi2 component. There use of extensive frameworks and WEB 2.0 effects is phenomenal. Today we take a look at some of these great features that they have applied to there Joomla system. The components used where Joomla and Sobi2 as there base system. There aim was to remove all Mootools frameworks and plugins and build Jquery into there base system and design some custom plugins.

We’re not going to go into full detail with regards to that, but will highlight some of the modification and plugins made there.

First one, which i thought was really useful for sobi2. It’s a view more listing plugin within a category, build upon Jquery scroller. This plug-in allows users to view other listing within there details page based upon the details page location. So if a listing sits in a certain state, only those listing will show.(As per image below) Once the arrow is clicked only then is a new instance fetched. This way all response times and headers sent remain small and you don’t end up with unnecessary query’s and slow responses.

Second effect which is great is the Google like style listing arranger. This allows users to remove listing from the list so that there favourites show, or add them to there favourits in there control panel. All sessions are stored either by user details or for non registerd users in cookies. Once again this function is also build upon Jquery.

Third plug-in is a slick version of a Jquery slimbox running Google maps in. Now i know you are all saying, that this has being done before, but this version only deploys the map function ( header fetch) once the map button has being clicked. This means that the map does not load in the details template only on submit, which once again reduces response time.

Now you’re asking the BIG question, will these plugins be available for download? YES they will be. The guys have informed me that once development on there site is complete ( In process of converting to joomla 1.5.x ) they will post updated versions of these plugins and give strict instructions on how to upload and implement them. Look Forward to it Guys.

View Site: Sa Stay

Captcha For Joomla 1.5.x and integration with Sobi2

admin — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:29:49 +0000

OK so we finally managed to crack this bad boy for Joomla 1.5.9 . This script allows users to add a Captcha form to there Sobi2 contact page, helping the prevention of spam. Snake was kind enough to modify and donate this script to us. This Captcha script can be used for any component in Joomla 1.5.x. If you need help setting it up please use our forum and we will assist with the setup and integration into your components. But this should be easy to setup.

This specific demo will show you how to set it up using joomla 1.5 and Sobi2. I’ve attached the files to be downloaded from here.

Firstly you need to download the Font file and Capctha file ( Download Here: Captcha (1231) ) ( This script is built of the one from Simon Jarvis ). Copy these two files into your root folder. Then open your details template “sobi2.details.tmpl” and copy and paste the code below. ( please note if you wish to use this function else where, you can ignore the sobi2.details.tmpl and add the form to your component of choice.

For Sobi2 Only ( Testing done in legacy mode )

$link = sefRelToAbs("index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid={$catid}&sobi2Id={$mySobi_id}&Itemid=2");
$task = mosGetParam( $_REQUEST, 'task', '' );
$mySobi_id = $mySobi->id ;

switch ($task) {
case 'email' :
emaillisting($mySobi_id);
}

function emaillisting($mySobi_id) {
global $database, $mainframe;
global $mosConfig_live_site, $mosConfig_mailfrom, $mosConfig_fromname;

$directory_email = mosGetParam( $_POST, ‘directory_email’, ” );
$directory_name = mosGetParam( $_POST, ‘directory_name’, ” );
$v_firstname = mosGetParam( $_POST, ‘name’, ” );
$v_email = mosGetParam( $_POST, ‘email’, ” );
$v_telephone = mosGetParam( $_POST, ‘telephone’, ” );
$v_comments = mosGetParam( $_POST, ‘comments’, ” );
$v_province = mosGetParam( $_POST, ‘province’, ” );
$number = intval( mosGetParam( $_POST, ‘number’, 0 ) );
$othernumber = intval( mosGetParam( $_POST, ‘othernumber’, 0 ) );
$sum = intval( mosGetParam( $_POST, ‘sum’, 0 ) );
$DIRECTORY_CONTACT_LETTER=(“
Name: %s

Email: %s

Telephone: %s

Province: %s

Message: %s”);
$query_text = sprintf($DIRECTORY_CONTACT_LETTER, $v_firstname, $v_email, $v_telephone, $v_province, $v_comments, $mosConfig_fromname );

//$session =& JFactory::getSession(‘captcha_word’);
$session =& JFactory::getSession();
$code = $session->get(‘captcha_word’);
if(($code == $_POST['captcha_word']) && (!empty($code)) ) {

$success = mosMail( $email, $mosConfig_fromname , $directory_email, “yourdomain.com Website Enquiry”, $query_text, 0, null,null,null,$v_email,$v_firstname );
$success = mosMail( $email, $mosConfig_fromname , $mosConfig_mailfrom, “Copy of yourdomain.com Website Enquiry for ” . $directory_name, $query_text, 0, null,null,null,$v_email,$v_firstname );

mosRedirect(“index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=sobi2Details&sobi2Id=$mySobi_id”, “Message sent successfully..”);

} else {
mosRedirect(“index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=sobi2Details&sobi2Id=$mySobi_id”, “Message sending failed. Please insert the correct details in security box..”);
}

}

Then you need to add the form of your choice, here is one that we made. ( change the fields to suit your needs )

id ); ?>”
method=”post” name=”emailForm” target=”_top” id=”emailForm”>Name:

Email:

Telephone number:

Province:

Message:

Security Code:

customFieldsData['field_email']; ?>” />
customFieldsData['field_contact_person']; ?>” />
” />
” />

If you wish to use the code above you need to alter it a bit to suit the component needs. The basics you will need is a simple function and a form:

function form () {
global $database, $mainframe;

//$session =& JFactory::getSession(‘captcha_word’);
$session =& JFactory::getSession();
$code = $session->get(‘captcha_word’);
if(($code == $_POST['captcha_word']) && (!empty($code)) ) {

echo “Great Success, very nice”;

} else {
echo “wrong code”;
}

}

Please don’t forget to add your form. The jfactory frame works had to be added to the function in order to make it work. For Joomla 1.5 sessions work differently to Joomla 1.0.

Feel free to use our forum for support, Snake and the moderaters will assist there.

Posting twitter posts with Curl using PHP, Sobi2 and Joomla

admin — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 05:09:31 +0000

Being experimenting with the API of Twitter. I started out playing with curl to send updates from a joomla directory, once a user added a listing. The concept was to have followers follow the updates live via twitter. Tools used: Joomla , Sobi2 and some basic PHP.

Firstly make sure your server supports curl and that the extension is active. A simple install to linux would look something like this.

sudo apt-get install curl libcurl3 libcurl3-dev php5-curl

Now you have PHP cURL installed, the next thing you need to do is to restart apache2, run the following command in your terminal:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

In the command terminal run the following command to test the connection to twitter. You can use the -v dump method to post any errors on the screen if connection fails. example curl -u -v ( and then the command )

curl -u username:password -d status="twittering from curl" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml

I then used the PHP curl features to do the same thing from PHP:


<?php

// Set username and password

$username = 'username';

$password = 'password';

// The message you want to send

$message = 'is twittering from php using curl';

// The twitter API address

$url = 'http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml';

// Alternative JSON version

// $url = 'http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json';

// Set up and execute the curl process

$curl_handle = curl_init();

curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL, "$url");

curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);

curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);

curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "status=$message");

curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$username:$password");

$buffer = curl_exec($curl_handle);

curl_close($curl_handle);

// check for success or failure

if (empty($buffer)) {

    echo 'message';

} else {

    echo 'success';

}

?>

This is just a basic layout, the twitter API allows you to do so much more. Now comes the fun part. If you are using joomla and sobi2 as a directory component, here is a way to place the above code to your sobi2 directory and receive live updates once a user adds a listing.

Open the sobi2.class file , then scroll down to line 533 and insert the above code just above the sql query. You can then use the variables within the sobi2 framework to display to twitter. Here is another sample of this:

function ShortenText($text) {
$chars = 140;
$text = $text." ";
$text = substr($text,0,$chars);
$text = substr($text,0,strrpos($text,' '));
$text = $text."...";
return $text;
}

$username = 'username';
$password = 'password';

$twitpost = $this->title." has joined your directory!";

$twitmessage = ShortenText($twitpost);

$url = 'http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml';

$curl_handle = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL, "$url");
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "status=$twitmessage");
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$username:$password");
$buffer = curl_exec($curl_handle);
curl_close($curl_handle);
// check for success or failure
if (empty($buffer)) {
$twitresponse = 'Deal not posted to Twitter';
} else {
$twitresponse = 'Deal posted to Twitter';
}

Just adapt it as you need to. you can go as far as adding the url to the post. ( incorporate tiny url to keep the url short ). Will post a seperate tutorial on this shortly.

South Africa Accommodation directory using joomla

admin — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:23:00 +0000

I’ve being following these group of guys for sometime now, We did a earlier post on there design and use of joomla and sobi2. Here they incorporate a slick new design and use of Jquery framework, sobi2, Ajax and many more cool features. This Accommodation directory offers a wide range of South African Accommodation based all over south Africa. They make use of interactive Google maps and plan to soon launch there beta3 stage with car hire and flights. Below we go in depth on the tools that where used and motives behind this slick professional design.

The Guys from Sastay where faced with a number of issues in there post discussion prior to this design. They not only wanted to make use of a user friendly website but also the use of rich and professional colors. Although this is just there beta stage, i am sure what’s to follow is going to be mind blowing. The use of Joomla and sobi2 here was a lethal combination. This by far is one of the nicest CSS design’s i ve reviewd in a long time.

Your comments welcome…

Website to Sastay.co.za

SOBI2 RC 2.8.7 has been released

admin — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:43:05 +0000

Well, we have been following this for some time now, SOBI2 RC 2.8.7 has been released. I’m personally a big fan of sobi2 and the sigsiu team. For those of you who dont know what Sobi2 is, It’s rated 1 of the top directory components for joomla.

Sigsiu.NET has developed this directory for Joomla! and Mambo which are published under the GNU/LGPL license. Additionally they offer a lot of free and paid addons for SOBI2 which enhance the functionality of the directory component. Great website ideas can spring to mid by using there component.

To Download this component please vist Sigsiu.NET

Building A Website Directory Using Sobi2 And Joomla

admin — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:11:35 +0000

Today we focus on building a show stopper website using Joomla as our primary CMS system and SOBI2 as our directory component. For a quick glance, we take a look at one of my favorite websites using this combination. www.weddingdreamers.co.za . Great example of pure design elegance. The use of light colors and baby blues, perfect for any wedding.

The web design material.

Joomla

For those of you who dont know,Joomla! is an award-winning Content Management System (CMS) that will help you build websites and other powerful online applications. Best of all, Joomla! is an open source solution that is freely available to everybody.

Joomla! in Action

Joomla! is used all over the world to power everything from simple, personal homepages to complex corporate web applications. Here are just some of the ways people use our software:

Corporate websites or portals
Online commerce
Small business websites
Non-profit and organizational websites
Government applications
Corporate intranets and extranets
School and church websites
Personal or family homepages
Community-based portals
Magazines and newspapers
the possibilities are limitless…

Joomla! can be used to easily manage every aspect of your website, from adding content and images to updating a product catalog or taking online reservations.

SOBI2

SOBI 2 – Sigsiu Online Business Index 2 is a directory component for the WCMS Mambo and Joomla! to show entries of companies, clubs, persons, shops, products, aso.
The entries are divided into categories, which can contain subcategories. One entry can be entered in several categories. The companies/clubs/persons enter themselves in the index. Registered users can modify or delete their entries. Entries can be renewed by the user if they expire.Using the integrated Category & Entry Manager in the back-end, all categories and entries can be managed comfortably. Entries and categories can be deleted, unpublished and moved.

A Fields Manager can be used to configure each field entirely. This concerns the ordering, obligatory fields, fees, field length (width of field and number of characters), field type (textfield, textarea, checkbox, checkbox group, select list, text code or calendar), search methods, in which view a field should be shown (Category View and/or Details View), and much more. An unlimited number of new custom fields can be added.

These 2 combinations can be a lethal. The ultimate website directory.

www.sastay.co.za , another joomal and sobi combination

Please feel free to add this list. More to follow….