In our continuous efforts to improve the J-BusinessDirectory extension, our team is excited to announce the availability of version 4.8.0.

We've dedicated our time to understanding the problems and difficulties that you experience as a result of your posts on our forum and ticketing system. As a result, we have developed J-BusinessDirectory v.4.8.0, an advanced directory extension, with new features and improvements to provide the best experience.

There have been multiple improvements added but we want to share with you some of the most important changes.

Payment plans (packages) improvement

Packages have been enhanced by introducing the package type and user access based on user groups. 
Now you can create different types of packages, fixed term or recurring with a trial that can be available to the users based on their user group.
The packages will work as they have before. The packages features will be available on business listings only when the associated order is set to paid.
The trial period will become effective only when the subscription is created.

When a package expires the business listing will be automatically associated with a free package of type "lifetime". If there is no such package the business listing will not be shown anymore.

SEO improvements

As you know Joomla is associates a menu item for each page that it display. If the menu item id cannot be extracted from the link, a default menu item is associated, usually the home page menu item. On some templates, this can cause some issues when trying to display a business listing, for example. In order to fix that we have provided the possibility to enter the menu item id on the general settings but that was enough since the directory extension contains multiple items. All items (listings, offers, events) were associated only with one menu item.
The 4.8.0 version allows the possibility to set a menu item id for each directory item on the JBusinessDirectory URL Translator plugin.

Rating & Reviews

It’s no secret that when it comes to searching for a new business, many people rely on ratings & reviews to determine which company to choose. Usually, the rating is backed up by an explanation in order for the rating to be validated by the end users. Otherwise, the rating will not have much value. 
Starting with version 4.8.0 the review details are mandatory when submitting a rating. This will make the listing ratings more accurate and trustworthy.
In the 4.8.0 version, the business owner will receive the notification email only after the review is approved.

Cache system

An integration with Joomla cache system has been implemented to provide better performance.
As you know a high number of items in the directory extension can lead sometimes to a longer response time in displaying the results. With the new cache system when the search is done the second time, the result will be displayed much faster.

Code refactoring

The search module and the latest business module have been renamed to avoid confusion. The latest business module is not used to show only the latest business, it can be used for many other purposes.
mod_jbusienssdirectory was renamed to mod_jbusiness_listings_search
mod_jbusiness_latest was renamed to mod_jbusiness_listings

The different view styles files have been standardized and renamed properly. We have named the files in the same way as the view option.
E.g. Business listing details view 3 has been changed from default_onepage.php to default_style_3.php

Also, most of the javascript code has been refactored to clean up the code.
After updating please clear your browser cache and check also your views override if you face some issues.

How to update?

You can update automatically using the update section of directory extension or manually. If you choose the second alternative you can download the latest version by login on your CMSJunkie account and go to My Downloadable Products section.

Bug reporting

Since this is still a beta version some bugs may have dodged our QA team but they will definitely won't get past you.  
We have created a dedicated section for reporting the bugs
http://www.cmsjunkie.com/forum/jbd-beta-testing/?p=1

Complete list of new features and improvements

Bellow, you can find the full list of new features and improvements that have been developed on 4.8.0 version.

New features

  • Add the possibility to set custom fields based on category
  • Add the possibility to assign a user group to a user that creates a business listing
  • Add cache on search pages
  • Add secondary locations on search filter
  • Add meta description for categories
  • Add the possibility to add images to reviews
  • Add videos to event and offers
  • Add new recent reviews module for business listings
  • Add a to do list for business listing on front-end control panel
  • Add statistics on user front-end control panel
  • Add 2 new address formats
  • Add discount percent on offers list and detailed view
  • Add a logout on user control panel
  • Add module positions to all search view and item details view
  • Add minimum number of letters for keyword search on the listing search module
  • Add attachment for events
  • Add nearby to latest business module
  • Order the latest business by review score
  • Link review criteria for different categories
  • Display all upcoming events within a time period on the events menu item
  • Add search and filter by emails type on email section on admin
  • Create back to search results link
  • Add street number and postal code for offers and events address
  • Add map clustering for offers and events
  • Add link follow on package features
  • Add type on latest event module   
  • Add menu items id on J-BusinessDirectory URL Translation plugin setup for each directory item (listing, offer, event)
  • Add slider settings on categories modules
  • Add translation for Chinese simplified
  • Add new business listing fields
  • Add user groups for packages
  • Add sounds to listings



Improvements

  • Improve packages mechanism - new package types have been added
  • Extend directory statistics
  • Improve front-end reviews section
  • Image upload improvements
  • Improve business hour for business listings   
  • JS code refactoring
  • Display the company name on offers & events modules
  • Improve offers & events keywords search   
  • Add view all on all modules and all views       
  • Improve keyword search on admin for listings, offers & events       
  • Add captcha to all front-end forms that do not require login
  • Improve add a business listing flow
  • Add a print icon for offers
  • Show a message when a coupon is applied
  • Add the possibility to enable/disable event join
  • Apply the business listing attributes configuration also for offers and events
  • Improve display of secondary locations text
  • Improve search filter on offers & events           
  • Improve import/export for business listings
  • Refactor file names (file names on search results and item details view have been changed to be more suggestive)
  • Save user email when adding a review   
  • Send the review email when review is approved
  • Search module has been changed to J-BusinessDirectory Listing Search
  • Latest business module has been changed to J-BusinessDirectory Listings
  • Do not show thumbnails if only one image is present
  • Translate price to MySQL format on saving       
  • Offer display improvements
  • If offer price and special price are 0 show free text       
  • Update font-awesome library           
  • Select by default the currency set on general settings       
  • Show offer base price on more button  
  • Send an email also when a listing is disapproved
  • Show if a business is open or close when viewed     

 

You can download it from our store:
http://www.cmsjunkie.com/j-businessdirectory

You can view the demo on
http://demo.cmsjunkie.com/j-businessdirectory/

From our Joomla extensions category: Joomla Business Directory