- Details
- Written by Mike Feng
We just released a brand new version of ProfileURL. ProfileURL allows your users to customize their profile page URLs, group page URLs, and personal dashboard URLs of various extensions. Version 4.1 includes the following new features:
- Build all routing when site is generated. This means generated links show the customized URLs without the need to click them.
- SIMContests added to list of integrated community extensions.
- Frontend demo so users can change and test different integrated community extension
- Full support for Bootstrap 3+
- Display JomSocial or EasySocial (if installed) toolbar.
- Details
- Written by Mike Feng
SIMBunch is very proud and super excited to announce an all new extension: SIMContests!
SIMContests lets your create and hold contests for photos and/or videos, with a TON of features to make them the complete and perfect contest solution.
The unique points system and integrated online store also allows you to earn money, by selling points that lets your users enter contests and earn/exchange prizes.
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- Create contests that allow photos and/or videos submissions.
- 5-points scoring system for entries.
- When contests ended, entry results information include breakdown of each score, scores total, and average score.
- Informative and detailed user dashboard lets other users and fans know more about you.
- Intuitive search interface allows users to search for entries based on search words, contest status, and tags.
- Up to 5 configurable prizes, includes points (automatically awarded) and custom prizes, which can be anything you want.
- Earn money by selling points through the SIMContests shop. Points can be used to enter contests and/or exchange for prizes if you wish.
There are a ton of other features, like the sophisticated plugin hooks and API system, and it's impossible list them all here. Please refer to the full documentation for a more detailed description, or go straight to the demo and have a look!
- Details
- Written by Mike Feng
The next major release of SIMGallery is finally here! Version 5.2 has gotten major revamp, with some brand new features:
- Theater Mode Upgraded
- Next/Previous browsing loads medias immediately. Images are now pre-loaded into browser cache to further speed up loading.
- Mobile Interface for Theater Mode
- Theater mode interface has been fully updated to be completely responsive - it displays on mobile devices beautifully, with icons replacing text buttons
- SIMGallery Content Plugin
- All new content plugin to display albums, photos and videos galleries on Joomla content articles.
Content Plugin example:
- Greater Support for 3rd Party Extensions
- Plugins for JomSocial, EasySocial, and Community Builder have been upgraded to display media upload buttons on users' profiles. Activities with deleted/missing media will also not be displayed (EasySocial and JomSocial only).
- JomWall 4
- Added support for JomWall 4
- Improved Backend Categories Management
- Multi-level drag and drop support for categories management
- Reduced Server Load
- Scrolling Pagination now loads new medias a lot faster, especially for websites with very large galleries. Same for browsing between photos/videos.
- Various Interface Fixes
- Issues such as the wobbly spinning loading icon and overlapping elements have been fixed
It is really difficult to appreciate these improvements by reading about them. I strongly recommend testing out the full demo to see how everything comes together. You need to login to create your own albums and upload photos. Also check your profile to see how SIMGallery interacts with community extensions like JomSocial, EasySocial, Community Builder, and JomWall.
- Details
- Written by Mike Feng
Integrating Joomla! with SendGrid's new Email Marketing Campaigns .
SendGrid is a email delivery and transactional email service. In a nutshell, it allows you to send emails through their servers, with value added services like letting your track your delivery, opens, and clicks. SIMBunch uses SendGrid for all Joomla! transactional emails (registration confirmation, purchase confirmation, ParaInvite invites, SIMAnswers notifications, etc). It ensures our emails are never sent to spam folders, and that delivery is immediate. It also reduces server load significantly, especially when sending bulk email (like ParaInvite invites).
Recently, SendGrid announced and released their new email marketing campaigns program. Among other things, you can now create and send responsive marketing emails, manage contacts and lists, and send mass marketing emails. Essentially, it is like other email marketing campaign programs - like MailChimp or Campaign Monitor - but at a fraction of their prices .
SendGrid Auto-Subscribe is a new SIMBunch product that subscribes your Joomla users to your SendGrid contacts list. It does this in 3 ways:
- Auto-subscribe new user registrations (frontend and backend).
- Export existing user emails to SendGrid.
- A module that lets your users signup to your mailing list.
Need help integrating SendGrid's transactional email service with your Joomla website? Contact us for a free quote!
- Details
- Written by Mike Feng
Earn Money by Selling Points for Your Q&A or Forum
We are thrilled to announce the release of SIMAnswers 5. Among the countless improvements made, SIMAnswers now come with its own online shop, where your users can buy points to upgrade their levels.
The new online shop allows you to create multiple plans of different prices and points value. You can also create multiple discounts, either fixed price or percentage.
SIMAnswers also keeps and lists a history of all payments made for you to track your sales. With its immense amount of configurations, you can use SIMAnswers as a Questions & Answer solution, a forum, or a support ticket. The possibilities are endless!
The new SIMAnswers also comes with many improvements. These include massive javascript and SQL optimizations to reduce load times, user interface improvements, and improvements to backend categories (drag-and-drop reordering!) and questions management.
SIMAnswers will always be the best, most interactive, and most configurable Q&A/forum system for Joomla. Why? Because we use it for our support ticket system ourselves! It is virtually impossible to list all its features here, so please go ahead and check out its documentation.
