Here's what's been added or changed in Simple Image Gallery Pro with the release of v3.8.0:

• Added support for Flickr "galleries", beyond the already supported "albums/sets". Additionally, you can now fetch all images at once from some Flickr gallery/album/set by setting the relevant limit in SIGPro's settings to 0.
• Added the option to override the default gallery layout in the SIGPro gallery insertion modal (frontend & backend).
• Improved support for PHP 7.4 (mainly notices in the settings).
• Fixed an issue where the gallery layout selector did not work with a Postgres database.
• Added an option in SIGPro's settings (under "Advanced") to disable the WYSIWYG editor button in one or more components.
• Properly filter multiline pasted text in the "description" field (in the captions). Previously, such pasted content would appear cut-off in the SIGPro modal/popup in the frontend.
• File uploads now use built-in Joomla libraries which should resolve any upload issues with servers running "Windows Server".

DEMO

The JoomlaWorks demo site has been updated to the latest Simple Image Gallery Pro release. See here https://demo.joomlaworks.net/simple-image-gallery-pro.

DOWNLOAD

If you have an active Simple Image Gallery Pro membership, just head over to the Member Dashboard at https://www.joomlaworks.net/members and grab your copy from your "Subscriptions" page.

Or purchase this latest release from just 19.90 EUR. More info at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/commercial/simple-image-gallery-pro

UPGRADING

Just upload the new version and it will overwrite the old one.

For more help, please visit the updated documentation page for the extension at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/support/docs/simple-image-gallery-pro

For support questions please use our Ticket Support System inside the Member Dashboard at https://www.joomlaworks.net/dashboard (active product membership required).

And as we venture into Joomla 4 territory, instead of seeing performance improvements (finally) for the entire database scheme, we actually witness new ways to mess up performance (if that was even possible). Apparently the Joomla core team likes to exercise who knows PHP's syntax better instead of actually building working code that doesn't break for extension developers every so.

Oh well, we're used to the mess.

Back to our topic.

Wanna improve the performance of the Joomla article system, especially in sites that filter/order content in various ways? Well, for starters add a few indices to the "content" table, e.g. using phpMyAdmin.

ALTER TABLE `#__content` ADD INDEX `idx_publishup` (`publish_up`);
ALTER TABLE `#__content` ADD INDEX `idx_publishdown` (`publish_down`);
ALTER TABLE `#__content` ADD INDEX `idx_modifiedby` (`modified_by`);
ALTER TABLE `#__content` ADD INDEX `idx_created` (`created`);
ALTER TABLE `#__content` ADD INDEX `idx_modified` (`modified`);

Just remember to replace #__ with your actual database prefix for Joomla.

But what's the measurable improvement? Well, something like this after you apply the above changes (on a really busy site that sorts articles by published date, aka 99% of Joomla sites)...

Yeap.

And that's performance tip no.1. We'll come back with more in the future as we delve into the software architectural wonder that is Joomla 4.

Or do yourself a favour & switch to K2 which recently passed 4 million downloads, yeah! :)

To those who might say, hey why aren't you contributing that back to Joomla, well, our answer is that if you've ever contributed in Joomla, you know the painful process & bureaucracy and you juuuust might wish to keep your sanity.

Until next time.

Here's what's been added or changed (in more detail) with the release of v3.8.0:

• Re-instated Joomla 1.5 support.
• Added new sub-template for rendering YouTube Playlist feeds as a list of videos. This sub-template requires the use of our free plugin AllVideos to render the videos in a responsive format.
• Swapped Mobify with Images.weserv.nl (powered by CloudFlare) since the former was bought out by Salesforce and subsequently dropped.
• Improved compatibility with PHP 7.4.

The next update will offer compatibility with the upcoming Joomla 4 release (currently in "beta") and will also be tested against PHP 8.

Simple RSS Feed Reader is fully compatible with Joomla 1.5 to 3.x & PHP versions up to 7.4.

DOWNLOAD

You can download this version by visiting the product's page at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/free/simple-rss-feed-reader

UPGRADING

Simply install on top of any other 3.x release. The update will also appear in the Joomla extension updater (for Joomla v2.5 or newer).

DEMO

You can see a demo of the extension at: https://demo.joomlaworks.net and https://demo2.joomlaworks.net (right column on both sites)

Here's what's been added or changed (in more detail) with the release of v3.9.0:

• Fix the installer for Joomla 3.x on new installations. The introduction of support for Joomla 1.5 all the way up to 3.x unfortunately broke the installer for 3.x (oh, the irony) for new installations. Upgrades from previous versions to 3.8.0 had no issues for any Joomla release.
• Improved the image parser/extractor. Removed support for .bmp type images.
• Fixed various warnings/notices.

The next major update (v4) will offer compatibility with the upcoming Joomla 4 release (currently in "beta" and soon going into "RC" status) as well as entirely new layouts. ranging from simple lists to more complex grid layouts utilizing CSS grid properties.

Simple RSS Feed Reader is fully compatible with Joomla 1.5 to 3.x & PHP versions up to 8.0.

DOWNLOAD

You can download this version by visiting the product's page at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/free/simple-rss-feed-reader

UPGRADING

Simply install on top of any other 3.x release. The update will also appear in the Joomla extension updater (for Joomla v2.5 or newer).

DEMO

You can see a demo of the extension at: https://demo.joomlaworks.net and https://demo2.joomlaworks.net (right column on both sites)

Here's what's been added or changed in Simple Image Gallery Pro with the release of v3.9.0:

• SIGPro will now read EXIF metadata from images that contain orientation details and properly rotate or flip images before creating thumbnails.. This means you won't need to process images using desktop software to correct their orientation before uploading them on your server. A handy feature especially for those who work with images coming from pro DSLR cameras.
• Replaced the Mobify image CDN with Weserv's, which is powered by CloudFlare. This will restore the option to resize the source image, as the Mobify CDN unexpectedly shut down a few months ago. Weserv's processing & delivery is also much faster.
• Updated Lightbox2 to version 2.11.3.
• Updated elFinder (used in the SIGPro Media Manager in the backend) to version 2.1.59.
• Fancybox can now be translated through the Joomla language manager (language overrides) or via custom language packs (a much requested feature from users).
• Gallery layout CSS files are now linked in the document <head> with an appended timestamp. This will allow you to perform live changes to a gallery layout's CSS even when your site is behind a CDN like CloudFlare's (so you don't have to purge the CDN's cache for that file everytime you do a change in it) or behind a server-side caching proxy (e.g. Nginx or Varnish).

SIGPro has also been tested to work on up to PHP 8 without any issues. If you have any custom gallery layouts though, you may have to slightly modify them to play nice with PHP 8. As always, send a ticket in our helpdesk system for assistance with such matters...

WHAT'S COMING NEXT

You may be wondering what coming next for SIGPro. Well, a lot for sure!

The next version of SIGPro is already being worked on and eventually it will have the following features:

• Custom ordering for images using drag and drop
• All-new gallery layouts using CSS Grid properties, with distinct options for responsive designs
• More slideshow-like (carousel) gallery layouts
• Updated backend UI that is fully responsive on mobile devices for gallery management on the go
• WebP support
• Dynamic image filters
• Support for AMP pages
• New JSON based format for captions
• More ordering options
• Less jQuery-dependant modals and layouts, which will also translate to improved Core Web Vitals scores for your pages with image galleries on
• Support for improved image conversion using Image Magick (when available on your server)
• Improved overall performance
• Joomla 4 compatibility when it's f-i-n-a-l-l-y released :)

Not all the features above will be available when SIGPro v4 is released, but they will be gradually included as updates come in.

DEMO

The JoomlaWorks demo site has been updated to the latest Simple Image Gallery Pro release. Have a look here: https://demo.joomlaworks.net/simple-image-gallery-pro

DOWNLOAD

If you have an active Simple Image Gallery Pro membership, just head over to the Member Dashboard at https://www.joomlaworks.net/members and grab your copy from your "Subscriptions" page.

Or purchase this latest release from just 19.90 EUR. More info at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/commercial/simple-image-gallery-pro

UPGRADING

Just upload the new version and it will overwrite the old one.

For more help, please visit the updated documentation page for the extension at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/support/docs/simple-image-gallery-pro

For support questions please use our Helpdesk system included in your Member Dashboard at https://www.joomlaworks.net/dashboard (active product membership required).

For a detailed look on the new features and changes in v3.9.0, please have a look here: https://www.joomlaworks.net/blog/item/309-simple-image-gallery-pro-v3-9-0-released

SIGPro v3.9.1 released today adds a check if support of EXIF related functions is already built into your server's PHP setup. If not, any new features related to EXIF metadata which were introduced in v3.9.0 will simply be ignored.

For the record, affected users account to less than 0.2% in total of those upgraded to v3.9.0.

DEMO

The JoomlaWorks demo site has been updated to the latest Simple Image Gallery Pro release. Have a look here: https://demo.joomlaworks.net/simple-image-gallery-pro

DOWNLOAD

If you have an active Simple Image Gallery Pro membership, just head over to the Member Dashboard at https://www.joomlaworks.net/members and grab your copy from your "Subscriptions" page.

Or purchase this latest release from just 19.90 EUR. More info at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/commercial/simple-image-gallery-pro

UPGRADING

Just upload the new version and it will overwrite the old one.

For more help, please visit the updated documentation page for the extension at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/support/docs/simple-image-gallery-pro

For support questions please use our Helpdesk system included in your Member Dashboard at https://www.joomlaworks.net/dashboard (active product membership required).

Here's what's been added or changed in Simple Image Gallery (free) with the release of v4.2:

• Resolves fatal PHP error in Joomla 4 caused when a notice is raised, for example if a wrong gallery folder path was provided in the plugin's "gallery" tags. This was caused by the removal of the JError class in Joomla 4.

Simple Image Gallery is fully compatible with Joomla versions 1.5, 2.5, 3.x and 4.x.

DEMO

The JoomlaWorks demo site has been updated to use the latest Simple Image Gallery (free) release. See here: https://demo.joomlaworks.net/simple-image-gallery

DOWNLOAD

You can download this version by visiting the extension's page at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/free/simple-image-gallery

UPGRADING

If you use Joomla 2.5, 3.x & 4.x (beta) releases, this new update will appear in the Joomla extension updater. If you're using Joomla 1.5 you can simply upload the new version and it will overwrite the old one. After that step, visit the plugin's parameters page, check if everything is OK or adjust as needed and save the parameters.