Features

New Features

Custom HTML Template: Another new feature that we have introduced was a new custom HTML template system and code token system, there is now a new textarea field in the module's settings that lets you change the layout for each news item, for example we had clients that wanted to have the date show up first then the article title, to achieve this we would have to hack the module every time, now it's very simple to change this from the module's settings.

Category Images/Icons: Another new feature is the ability to have a different icon for news items that are coming from different news categories, for example if you have a section setup with 3 categories in it for latest news, latest videos, and latest press releases you may want to assign a different icon to each category so users know what category the article is from, a news paper icon if it's from the latest news, a video icon if it's from the latest videos etc.

Date Formats: We integrated a new date format to the list of available formats, the latest is BLOCK, if selected will split the date in to two parts (month, day) and wrap each in its own DIV tag. Two new classes have been added for both of the month and day DIV tags, with this new format you can do really cool date icon blocks (like the one to the right). We have also added the custom date format field back in so users can add their own custom format if one of the provided one will not fit their needs, you can read more about custom date formats over at php.net.

CSW Latest News includes all of the advanced features you would expect to find in a professional module.

Main Options

Sort articles by their created/published/modified dates, the article's ID/title/ or sort order, and set the sort direction by descending, ascending, or random.

Limit the number of articles to be displayed.

You can select to skip the first item.

Select one or multiple categories to pull articles from.

Custom module CSS class suffix.

Title Options

• Enable / Disable article title.
• Limit the characters in your article's title.
• Enable / Disable article title url
• If article url is enabled you can select to link to that specific article or the category in blog layout.
• Enable / Disable title overflow indicator, i.e. "..." at the end of the title if you have set to display a set number of characters.
• You can create a custom overflow indicator if you do not care for "...".

Content Options

• Enable / Disable article content
• Limit the characters in your article's content body.
• Enable / Disable content overflow indicator, i.e. "..." at the end of the content if you have set to display a set number of characters.
• You can create a custom overflow indicator if you do not care for "...".

Category Image Options

• Enable / Disable the category image, if an image has been asigned to the cateogry, in the category's settings.
• Select one or multiple categories to pull articles from.

Created by Options

• Enable / Disable article Created By: Full Name or Username.
• Filter articles to only show articles by a selected user's ID.
• Filter articles to display all articles except the user's ID selected.

Read More Options

• Enable / Disable the read more link or set it to auto.
• Change the "Read More" text.
• Alignment, left, center, or right.

Date Options

• Enable / Disable the articles create date.
• Select a date format, there are 11 different formats to choose from.
• Custom date format field.

YouTube Options

• Enable / Disable the YouTube feature, if enabled, it will look in the article for links to YouTube videos, if one is detected it will automatically embed the video for you.
• Enable / Disable embedding in article's body or using the custom HTML token.
• Set the video play's width.
• Set the video play's height.

JomSocial

• Enable user's avatar.
• Enable avatar link to user's profile if their avatar is enabled.

Other Options

• Select if you want to wrap each item in a DIV or a SPAN tag.
• Enable / Disable stripping of the HTML of the article content body.
• Enable / Disable article divider.
• Module prefix HTML, you have the option to display custom HTML befor the module.
• Module suffix HTML, you have the option to display custom HTML after the module.

Previews

• Scott Bruun for U.S. Congress (home page latest news)
• Hey Handyman (tips on the right panel)
• Shawn Lindsay for State Representative (home page news & multimedia)
• Ten Mile Lake Sailing Club (home page latest news block, and home page latest news section)
• SCA Community (home page latest news block on the right panel)

Screenshots

Help?

1. Make sure you have a section and or a category to pull articles from
2. Make sure you have articles in the category you are going to pull articles from
3. Make sure in Latest News module's parameters that you have selected a section or category to pull articles from
4. If you are wanting to display images in the module make sure that "Strip HTML Tags" under "Other Parameters" is set to "No"
5. If you are wanting to display YouTube videos make sure that "Enable YouTube" is set to "Yes" under "Advanced Parameters"
6. If the module is displaying two of the same video and some code in your module, make sure that the YouTube link is text only and not an active hyperlink

CSS Tags:
The following is a list of CSS tags used by our module.

• CSWLatestNews_wrapper (Used to wrap the module)
• CSWLatestNews_prefix_wrapper (Used to wrap module prefix HTML if added)
• CSWLatestNews_item_wrapper (Used to wrap each article)
• CSWLatestNews_item_category_image (Used to style the category image if added in the category settings)
• CSWLatestNews_item_avatar (Used to style the JomSocial avatar if added)
• CSWLatestNews_item_youtube_player (Used to style the YouTube player wrapper if added)
• CSWLatestNews_item_title (Used to wrap the article title)
• CSWLatestNews_item_title_link (Used to style the article title url)
• CSWLatestNews_item_date (Used to wrap article date)
• CSWLatestNews_item_date_month (Used to wrap article date's month if date's format is set to block)
• CSWLatestNews_item_date_day (Used to wrap article date's day if date's format is set to block)
• CSWLatestNews_item_created_by (Used to wrap created by text)
• CSWLatestNews_item_content (Used to wrap the article content)
• CSWLatestNews_item_read_more_link (Used to style the read more url)
• CSWLatestNews_suffix_wrapper (Used to wrap suffix HTML if added)

Custom Code Tokens:
The following is a list of code tokens/snippets used by our module.

• {TITLE} This will display the article's title
• {DATE} This will display the article's create date
• {AVATAR} This will display the article's author's JomSocial Avatar
• {CREATEDBY} This will display the article's author's real name or username
• {CATEGORYIMAGE} This will display the article's category image if set in the category's settings
• {CONTENT} This will display the article's content
• {READMORE} This will display the article's read more button
• {ARTICLELINK} This is the link to the article
• {PROFILELINK} This is the link to the author's JomSocial profile

Change Log

v1.3.5: on 04/30/2012 the latest version (1.3.5) of our Latest News Pro module for Joomla 2.5.x was released.We patched a critical bug that was caused when using more than one instance of the module on the same page at the same time; the bug would cause the site to crash!  Please update your version of the module to fix this issue.  We also fixed a minor bug that was displaying the old {YOUTUBE} tags in the module body even when the YouTube feature was disabled.  The module is now able to detect if you have added a read more button to an article and call the module’s read more button.

v1.3.4: on 02/17/2012 the latest version (1.3.4) of our Latest News Pro module for Joomla 2.5.x was released. Added a new function that looks for Open HTML tags and closes them when both the strip HTML option is disabled and limit characters is set.

v1.3.3: on 02/07/2012 the latest version (1.3.3) of our Latest News Pro module for Joomla 2.5.x was released. We added a new sort order feature/option, you now have the option to sort by publish date, so if the article’s date is in the future it will not be displayed in the module until the publish date even if the article is published.  We fixed a bug that was keeping the category images from loading correctly; we also took care of the issue with the sub categories from loading, now you have the option to select multiple categories.

v1.3.2: on 12/06/2011 the latest version (1.3.2) of our Latest News Pro module for Joomla 1.6.x/1.7.x was released. We fixed a bug that was causing the read more button link to redirect the user to the login page, the read more button script has been rewritten to correct this problem.

v1.3.1: on 11/23/2011 the latest version (1.3.1) of our Latest News Pro module for Joomla 1.6.x/1.7.x was released. We fixed a bug that was causing the HTML in the layout field to get dropped when saving the extensions settings.  Please make sure to download the latest version to correct this problem.

v1.3.0: on 08/07/2011 the latest version (1.3.0) of our Latest News Pro module for Joomla 1.6.x/1.7.x was released. We completely rebuilt the module from the ground up to work with Joomla 1.6.x/1.7.x.

v1.2.9: On 01/29/2011 the latest version (1.2.9) of our Latest News Pro module for Joomla 1.5.x was released. The latest version added a new feature and HTML token for the YouTube player. Most of the time you will only have one video per article and want more control over where that video gets displayed (ie. display it before the article's title), however in some cases you may have multiple videos per article in this case disabling this feature will embed the YouTube players in to the article's content body. NOTE:If you disable this feature make sure to remove the HTML token from the Custom HTML textfield within the module's parameter settings.

v1.2.8: On 01/18/2011 the latest version (1.2.8) of our Latest News Pro module for Joomla 1.5.x was released. The latest version addressed a bug with the YouTube player replacing the content with the player, now the module only replaces the YouTube URL, and keeps the content intact.

v1.2.7: On 12/03/2010 the latest version (1.2.7) of our Latest News Pro module for Joomla 1.5.x was released. The latest version addressed some minor bugs. We integrated a new date format to the list of available formats, the latest is BLOCK, if selected will split the date in to two parts (month, day) and wrap each in its own DIV tag. Two new classes have been added for both of the month and day DIV tags, with this new format you can do really cool date icon blocks (like the one to the right). We have also added the custom date format field back in so users can add their own custom format if one of the provided one will not fit their needs, you can read more about custom date formats over at php.net.

v1.2.6: On 12/02/2010 the latest version (1.2.6) of our Latest News Pro module for Joomla 1.5.x was released. The latest version addressed some minor bugs; the main major fix was adding the ability to upgrade the Latest News Pro module without needing to uninstall it first, in doing so retaining all of your module settings this was HUGE! We also changed the name of the category image token from "{CATEGORYICON}" to "{CATEGORYIMAGE}". We also integrated a new user ID filter feature, that if enabled; allows you to show only articles by the selected user's ID, or display all articles except the user's ID selected. We also rearranged and skinned the module parameters layout page.

v1.2.5: On 11/23/2010 the latest version (1.2.5) of our Latest News Pro module for Joomla 1.5.x was released. We completely rebuilt the module from the ground up; we have addressed several minor bugs with the previous versions. One of the new changes has been all new CSS class names so if you are using one of our older versions and have made changes to the CSS make sure that you see the list of new class names below.

License