SermonSpeaker 4.4 has been released!
SermonSpeaker 4.4.2 adds support for multilanguage sites and checkout functionality as well as some batch processing.
SermonSpeaker 4.4.1 fixes a bug related to Frontend Editing if SEF Suffixes are turned off.
As always the new release can be downloaded in the download section or you can use the Joomla updater to get the newest version.
Main Features:
- Frontend Editing
- Filtering based on Scriptures
- New SiteMap view
- Sermon dates now consider timezones
- New tool function: Adjust time in sermon date
Frontend Editing
SermonSpeaker 4.4 introduces a new feature to SermonSpeaker: Frontend Editing.
Basically it's an improved "Frontend Uploader". The feature can be enabled or disabled in the SermonSpeaker options like the old Frontend Uploader. If enabled you will now be able to edit all sermons, series and speakers from the frontend. Of course ACL permissions apply here, which means the user needs to have edit permissions or he will not see the edit icon.
When you create a new sermon, you will now also be able to directly add a new series or speaker. This is true both in frontend and backend.
New Scripture References
I've redone how scripture references are stored in SermonSpeaker. The old way had the main disadvantage that it didn't allow for filtering, which was a featurerequest I heard often enough. The new system will allow this!
Advantages of the new system:
- Allows to filter a sermon list after a bible book.
- You can have as many scripture references as you want for a particular sermon.
- Scripture references are translatable. That means in english it will be "John 3:16" and in german it shows as "Johannes 3,16".
- Plugin tags for ScriptureLink or BiblelinkXT are automatically wrapped around a scripture. The tags used are still set in the SermonSpeaker options.
- You still have the possibility to enter a freetext which will show instead of the automatic generated scripture. Filters do not work on this freetext, it will always be based on the bible book field. But it will allow more freedom in how a scripture is shown.
All old scriptures are moved to a "freetext" in the new system. This means they will still show the same as before. Unfortunately it was not possible to automatically create the scriptures in the new format due to the wast possibilities how the scriptures could be entered in the old format. That means if you want to be able to filter after your old scriptures, you need to manually edit them. This is the only drawback I see.
For Layouters:
Since the scripture field is now gone your custom layouts will show a warning that the field is not available. There is a new helper function to create and show scriptures. Use it like this:
$scriptures = SermonspeakerHelperSermonspeaker::insertScriptures($item->scripture, '<br />');
echo JHTML::_('content.prepare', $scriptures);
The function takes two parameters. The first is the new raw scripture information, the second is a separator. The first one usually doesn't need to be changed, the second defines the tag or sign that should be put between the scriptures. <br /> is nice to put them all below eachother, '; ' would show them in a single row separated with a semicolon. Use what fits you best here.
New Sitemap View
There is a new view which shows an XML page with links to all sermon detailpages. This can be used as a sitemap for search engines. A even nicer Sitemap can be made with the Xmap component for which there is now also a SermonSpeaker plugin.
Sermon dates now consider Timezones
There is a change in how sermon dates are now stored and shown. So far SermonSpeaker stored the sermon date without respecting any timezone settings. Since Joomla stores dates always as "UTC", SermonSpeaker thus basically always threated dates "UTC" which meant it was shown the same like it was stored. With SermonSpeaker 4.4 it will have the same behaviour as core components have. That means the sermon date will consider the timezone settings of the user, and if it's a guest it will take the timezone settings of the server (taken from Joomla global configuration).
In most cases this change will shift your sermon dates by your timezone setting, meaning if your sermon date was set to 2012-03-25 10:00:00 and your from US West Coast, it could be 2012-03-25 03:00:00 now. If the timeshift is big enough or you have dates stored without time (00:00:00), it could even change the sermon date to the day before. Of course this is not good and has to be fixed. Since manually resetting the dates is no option as well, SermonSpeaker 4.4 has a new tool function which allows to remedy this problem:
New tool function: Adjust time in sermon date
This new function will allow you to shift the sermon date by a set time, basically adding or substracting hours from the sermon date. You could also just assign a new time (like 10:00) to all sermons.
Changelog
- Layouters: Serie and Seriessermon view has changed models. Check and adapt your layouts for this views.
- Archive view exists no longer. Functionality has been implemented into sermons view.
Requirements
- Joomla 1.7.3 or higher
New plugins
There are two new plugins available:
- "Finder Plugin" is a plugin for the new SmartSearch from Joomla 2.5.
- "Xmap Plugin" is a plugin for the Xmap component. It lets you generate nice SiteMaps of your site for search engines and users.
Questions and Bugs
As always if you have any questions or found a bug, please use the forums or the contact form to let me know. I'm also interested in feedbacks about what you like or hate in SermonSpeaker.
SermonSpeaker is also on Facebook and JED. Become a friend or leave a review on the respective network if you're satisfied with SermonSpeaker.