Extensions Club Extensions Microblog
Microblog
The JB Microblog module is a very handy club extension that allows you to display your Joomla or K2 content in a module in a number of different ways. You can choose between the flat list layout, column layout, date and title and also the leading plus links layouts. You can also choose to display the intro and full text parts of the content item in a floating lightbox that sits above the main website.
demos
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The microBlog module is our own spin on the latest news module. The module has evolved into a versatile way to showcase your content in a popup box using the brilliant ColorBox Jquery script.
Dependancies
Joomla 1.5
features
- Works like the default latest news module, but adds more functionality
- Variety of layouts to display your content.
- Choose to use Joomla Articles or K2 Items as content source
- You can choose what order the items are displayed
- The first image of the article can be automatically included as a small thumbnail
- Displays the intro text for the article, or limit the text based on number of words
- Render plugins within the module
- Integration with lightbox, to open the content right there or links to the article layout page
- Comes with various themes for the lightbox to suit your template
- Can choose to show the date of the news
Instructions
First make sure you install the module using the Joomla Installer in the administration, and then that you've published the module into the position you desire. Then you will be ready to change and configure the settings. Please take the time to review the following information and see the documentation for your specific template for further information.
before you begin
Microblog doesn't work without some content, so the first thing you will need to do is create some articles or K2 items. If you have a quickstart package that includes Microblog, you can view the demo content for an example.
You should first create a new category or select one that you wish to display articles from. Then place new articles into it with your content. Make sure to provide intro text and if you wish an image, as these are what is used to display the snippets.
Once you have your selection of content ready, you can then start to work with Microblog.
general options
Module ID
You need to specify a different number for each module copy you create, especially if there are multiple copies on the same page. It helps prevent conflicts.
MicroBlog Content Source
This setting lets you choose between Joomla articles and K2 items as the content source for the module. Remember to change the image source further down to match this selection.
loading scripts and css
The settings in this block allow you to choose to load or omit individual css and script files used by the module. If you have other modules using the same styles and scripts on the same page then you can prevent them from loading twice in order to avoid conflicts. The ColorBox popup comes in many themes to suit your site.
general layout
This is where you can choose a layout for the module output. Choose between Columns, Flat layout, Leading Article followed by List of Titles or simply Dates and Titles
joomla content retrieval settings
This section controls how Joomla! content is retrieved.
Article Source
This option determines whether the articles are chosen by category, article id or both.
Category
This box allows you to select multiple categories from which to display articles
Article ID's
This is where you can specify individual article ids. The ids need to be separated by a comma and/or a space.
Ordering of Content
This is where you can specify the order in which content is output in the module.
Item Count
Specify the number of articles you wish to display in the module
Display Frontpage Items?
Choose whether you would like the module to include articles that are already published to the frontpage
k2 content retrieval settings
This section controls how K2 content is retrieved.
K2 Items
This option determines whether the K2 items are chosen by category, item id, both or just the featured items.
Category
This box allows you to select multiple categories from which to display items
Fetch Items from Children?
This allows you to include child categories for the above categories
Item ID's'
This is where you can specify individual item ids. The ids need to be separated by a comma and/or a space.
Ordering of Content
This is where you can specify the order in which content is output in the module.
Item Count
Specify the number of K2 items you wish to display in the module
Display Comment Count?
Choose whether you would like the module to display comment counts for the article
content display settings
This section controls how content is used and displayed in the module.
Plugin Behaviour in Content
This option allows you to render content plugins within the module. This must be used carefully with the Allowed Tags so the plugin output is not stripped.
Display Date
This option determines whether the date is displayed in the module output.
Date Format
This option determines the layout of the date if the date is enabled in the setting above. You can select from the following date formats: 15 Sep, 09; Sep 15, 09; September 15, 09; 15 September, 09; September 15, 2009; 15 September, 2009; 15/09/09; Tuesday 15 September, 2009; Tue 15 Sept, 09.
Display content item in ColorBox?
When set to yes each link in the content item will trigger the display of the content item intro and full text in a popup above the website. Please see the ColorBox settings below and the ColorBox theme above for further parameters for changing the appearance and behaviour of the popup.
Title as a link
This setting means that all content item titles also behave as a link.
Link Target
This setting allows you to choose where the items in the module should link to. This option is useful if you are not displaying the content in a popup.
Display readmore link
If set to yes then the readmore link will appear in column, flat list and leading layouts.
Text for readmore link
Lets you specify the text for a readmore link.
Introtext Word limit
This setting sets the maximum number of words to appear in the output. This setting is only relevant for column, flat list layout and to the leading article in the leading layout option. If set to 0, no intro text is displayed. If left blank, no word limits are enforced.
Intro Text Suffix
Lets you specify text to follow the intro text. This is useful to indicate truncated content.
Strip Tags?
This is where you can choose to strip the intro text of tags to sanitise the output. Use it in conjunction with the 'Allowed Tags' option below.
Allowed Tags
The html tags entered in this textarea are those tags that are included in the output of the intro text. You can use this to sanitise the output of the intro text eg remove tags that may become broken as a result of the introtext word limit above.
Items per row
This option relates only to the module when its in column mode and determines the number of content items that appear in a row before a new row is created.
colorbox settings
The settings in this block relate to how the colorbox popup behaves and appears to the user. These settings are only relevant if the content is set to display in a popup
Popup Gallery
When enabled this option links all content items for that module in a popup gallery that allows navigation between the content items.
Overlay Opacity
This option sets the transparency for the overlay. 1.0 is full opaque while 0 is no overlay.
Popup Width
Determines the width of the popup
Popup Height
Determines the height of the popup.
Scrolling?
Choose to have the content scrolling within the popup. If set to no, the height of the popup will adjust itself to the content height.
image settings
This block of settings controls the display of the image in the content item.
Display Images in the module
Choose the source for the images or exclude them. For Joomla articles, the first image in the content is used. For K2, you can choose between the first image in the item content or the item image assigned to that particular k2 item.
Width of the resized image
This setting specifies the width of the resized image.
Height of the resized image
This setting specifies the height of the resized image.
The width ratio of the image
This setting specifies the width ratio of the resized thumbnail image in relation to the height ratio.
The height ratio of the image
This setting specifies the height ratio of the resized thumbnail image in relation to the width ratio.
Main image fade on hover
When set to yes this setting enables a fade effect on the thumbnail when the image is hovered over.
miscellaneous module options
These two settings are general settings that you will find in most Joomla modules.
Module class suffic
This allows you to apply a unique CSS style to this module, if you desire and have the style set in the template.
Cahce module
Normally this should be set to yes, which means that it will save a copy of the output from the module rather than running the program every time someone visits. It helps to reduce load time, and unless your posts are changing by the minute, its good to leave this on.
troubleshooting
My images aren't getting resized, or are throwing errors
There are a few reasons that this might occur and its best to troubleshoot using the web developer toolbar in firefox or image tools in Safari. Please check if you can do any of the following:
- View the original file eg mysite.com/images/stories/image.jpg
- Check to see if the imagecache folder is writable. You can do this by navigating in your browser to modules/mod_microblog/image.php. If the file is writable you will get an error stating that there is no image specified. If it is not writable then you will get a 404 permissions based error in the browser.
- Right click on the alt text and try to view the image. If there is a permisisons mismatch then you will receive an error stating that the imagecache directory is not writable.
The popup does not work and page scrolls to the top.
This may happen if you have K2 installed. In K2 version 2.2 there is a declaration in the k2.js file which affects many lightboxes. This is a bug which we believe will be addressed in the next update to K2.
To fix this on your site, you will need to alter the following file.
/components/com_k2/js/k2.js
on line 47 you can remove the following bit of code.
