The 'de facto' content solution for Joomla! professionals!
Fotis Evangelou
K2 Project Lead
02 April 2012
in Blog
This is the new K2 demo site.
After almost 3 years of the previous design, it was time for an update. A more "practical" update, almost a real-world site. And this is the result :)
As we announced on Twitter some months ago and just recently, this new demo website will be fully open-sourced so that people can learn by example. But there's another reason as well... Once the site is released as an installable package with its K2 setup and sample data ready, we will launch a small contest for the best redesigns of this website. The goal is simple. Keep the same sample data and work your magic. This contest is obviously targeted at experienced designers/developers and template clubs. The best 3 contributions will also be available on demo.getk2.org along with full credits to the designers/developers involved. K2 pros get ready! More
After almost 3 years of the previous design, it was time for an update. A more "practical" update, almost a real-world site. And this is the result :)
As we announced on Twitter some months ago and just recently, this new demo website will be fully open-sourced so that people can learn by example. But there's another reason as well... Once the site is released as an installable package with its K2 setup and sample data ready, we will launch a small contest for the best redesigns of this website. The goal is simple. Keep the same sample data and work your magic. This contest is obviously targeted at experienced designers/developers and template clubs. The best 3 contributions will also be available on demo.getk2.org along with full credits to the designers/developers involved. K2 pros get ready! More
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20 March 2012
in Blog
A few months ago we launched the revamped K2 website at getk2.org which integrated a new Community forum, located at https://getk2.org/community.
We decided to move to an "all Joomla!" solution for more flexibility and better integration with the new features launched for the K2 site, like the ability to submit extensions or templates for the new K2 Extensions Directory. This new K2 Community has grown tremendously these few months and it's continuing to grow day by day.
So it's now time to shut down the OLD K2 community site at community.getk2.org, which was hosted on the (proprietary & restrictive) Ning platform. We plan to take down the OLD K2 community located at community.getk2.org on March 30th 2012.
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We decided to move to an "all Joomla!" solution for more flexibility and better integration with the new features launched for the K2 site, like the ability to submit extensions or templates for the new K2 Extensions Directory. This new K2 Community has grown tremendously these few months and it's continuing to grow day by day.
So it's now time to shut down the OLD K2 community site at community.getk2.org, which was hosted on the (proprietary & restrictive) Ning platform. We plan to take down the OLD K2 community located at community.getk2.org on March 30th 2012.
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17 February 2012
in Blog
I'll keep this short... Although we kept the version numbering inside the 2.5.x series, 2.5.5 brings some new uber-cool features:
K2 version 2.5.5 will be released next week on Friday, March 2nd March 7th 2012. Sorry for the sort delay folks but we decided to add a couple of new features in this release. More
- Smart Search integration for Joomla! 2.5
- integration with anti-spam service StopForumSpam.com to stop real, human spam - available upon user sign up and for flagging spammers in comments
- native support for jUpgrade (both versions) makes upgrading a Joomla! 1.5 site to 2.5 a piece of cake
- integration with the Joomla! updater (v1.7+). Using the built-in extension updater in Joomla! you can check if there's a new K2 release and instantly apply the update
- Community Builder integration for user profiles/pages
- the K2 Media Manager has been upgraded and now supports image resizing as well! Just drag and drop images from your desktop inside the K2 Media Manager to upload them on your server, then resize and use them anywhere in your Joomla! site. The K2 Media Manager, already a full Joomla! media manager replacement, just got better!
- (new) Added support for Falang, the JoomFish fork currently working on Joomla! 1.7 & 2.5 (JoomFish is not yet ready publicly for J2.5 - but that will come soon).
K2 version 2.5.5 will be released next week on Friday, March 2nd March 7th 2012. Sorry for the sort delay folks but we decided to add a couple of new features in this release. More
31 January 2012
in Extensions
IAKI (short for Import As K2 Image) allows you to use Joomla! article images (from imported Joomla! content) as K2 images. So you can make use of the options in K2 for sizing and showing/hiding images on demand per category, item or other view.
This plugin is useful after you have imported Joomla! articles into K2, where images used to exist inside the content blocks (introtext and/or fulltext). IAKI will fetch the first image from the article body (usually your main image) and assign it to the image positions used by K2 in all the K2 views (templates). That means you can now control these images as if they were K2 images.
If for some reason you want to move your old article images into a new folder (perhaps away from /images or /images/stories) e.g. so you clean up your folders, but you don't want to re-edit all your articles (in K2), you can simply move the images to the new folder and specify this folder in the plugin parameters, along with the old path. So if we wanted to move all images e.g. from "images/stories/blog" to "images/archive/blog", we would physically moved the images first and then specify these 2 paths in the plugin parameters.
Please note that this plugin will not dynamically resize your Joomla! article images as K2 images. The "resize" is done using HTML attributes on the K2 tag that is output. We plan to add resize options in a later version of the plugin.
If you browse to any category (e.g. http://www.cinemad.gr/news) and navigate (using the pagination links) to some of the oldest articles, you see that any embedded images are now K2 images for both K2 listing and item pages.
To install this Joomla plugin, download the file in your computer and then head over to the Joomla installer and choose to upload the file you just downloaded.
An older release for Joomla 1.5 can be found here: https://github.com/joomlaworks/k2-iaki/releases/download/v1.0/plg_k2_iaki-v1.0_j1.5-2.5.zip More
This plugin is useful after you have imported Joomla! articles into K2, where images used to exist inside the content blocks (introtext and/or fulltext). IAKI will fetch the first image from the article body (usually your main image) and assign it to the image positions used by K2 in all the K2 views (templates). That means you can now control these images as if they were K2 images.
If for some reason you want to move your old article images into a new folder (perhaps away from /images or /images/stories) e.g. so you clean up your folders, but you don't want to re-edit all your articles (in K2), you can simply move the images to the new folder and specify this folder in the plugin parameters, along with the old path. So if we wanted to move all images e.g. from "images/stories/blog" to "images/archive/blog", we would physically moved the images first and then specify these 2 paths in the plugin parameters.
Please note that this plugin will not dynamically resize your Joomla! article images as K2 images. The "resize" is done using HTML attributes on the K2 tag that is output. We plan to add resize options in a later version of the plugin.
FEATURES
A K2 plugin for Joomla that converts the first found image inside your article's content into a K2 image. Handy for migrating sites from the default Joomla article system into K2.DEMO & SHOWCASE
This plugin has been extensively used in many Joomla sites where the content was moved from the default Joomla article system into K2. Such an example is: http://www.cinemad.grIf you browse to any category (e.g. http://www.cinemad.gr/news) and navigate (using the pagination links) to some of the oldest articles, you see that any embedded images are now K2 images for both K2 listing and item pages.
REQUIREMENTS
This is a K2 plugin for Joomla and the only basic requirements to use it are:- K2 v2.5.x or newer installed
- Joomla 2.5 or 3.x installed
LICENSE
This is a Joomla! extension developed by JoomlaWorks and released under the GNU/GPL v2 license.ADDITIONAL INFO
Some helpful links:- K2 - https://getk2.org
- Joomla - http://www.joomla.org
DOWNLOAD
You can grab the latest release here: http://goo.gl/KnZHqJ (v2.1)To install this Joomla plugin, download the file in your computer and then head over to the Joomla installer and choose to upload the file you just downloaded.
An older release for Joomla 1.5 can be found here: https://github.com/joomlaworks/k2-iaki/releases/download/v1.0/plg_k2_iaki-v1.0_j1.5-2.5.zip More
08 December 2011
in Blog
We have just issued v2.5.4 of K2, a maintenance release fixing/adding the following...
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28 November 2011
in Blog
We have just released v2.5.3 of K2, fixing primarily minor glitches in 2.5.1 and a small (but significant) JS error that appeared in the short-lived 2.5.2 release (which we issued past Friday). If you are using K2 v2.5.1 you can safely upgrade to v2.5.3 by installing the 2.5.3 zip file on top of 2.5.1. As always, it's good to grab a backup just in case (you can use the free Akeeba Backup for that).
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27 October 2011
in Blog
We have just released v2.5.1 of K2, a maintenance release, fixing some minor issues as reported by the K2 Community.
This release maybe "maintenance", but we have gone through some "bigger" changes regarding content setup workflow and frontend editing.
In v2.5.1 we have improved the "friendliness" of frontend editing. E.g. when you edit an item via the frontend and close the editing window, the page will refresh, revealing the applied (or not) changes. Frontend users who don't have "publishing" rights will see a notice displaying at the top of the editing window and they will not see the published/featured controls. Additionally, only users with "editorial" rights (but not necessarily publishing rights), aka users with the permission "can edit any item" in their K2 group, are the ones who can now see and change an item's author. Previously anyone with some editing rights could do that. So all in all, frontend editing is a bit more tied up and informative to your frontend users.
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This release maybe "maintenance", but we have gone through some "bigger" changes regarding content setup workflow and frontend editing.
In v2.5.1 we have improved the "friendliness" of frontend editing. E.g. when you edit an item via the frontend and close the editing window, the page will refresh, revealing the applied (or not) changes. Frontend users who don't have "publishing" rights will see a notice displaying at the top of the editing window and they will not see the published/featured controls. Additionally, only users with "editorial" rights (but not necessarily publishing rights), aka users with the permission "can edit any item" in their K2 group, are the ones who can now see and change an item's author. Previously anyone with some editing rights could do that. So all in all, frontend editing is a bit more tied up and informative to your frontend users.
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24 October 2011
in Blog
I'm glad that after more than a year of constant development and improvements (and a rock solid v2.4.1), K2 version 2.5.0 is now available to download.
The major upgrade to 2.5.0 is that K2 is now a native Joomla! 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7 extension. But upgrades don't stop there. We have significantly improved performance, measuring up to 500% in complex sites with complex structures and pages with lots of items on them (portals, magazines etc.).
Version 2.5.0 also marks the switch to the jQuery library, as it's one (better) JavaScript library to maintain the code for, without needing to resort to hacks in Mootools in order to support all Joomla! versions.
Let's take a closer look at all the changes that version 2.5.0 brings. Sit back, relax and start reading (will take time). :)
More
The major upgrade to 2.5.0 is that K2 is now a native Joomla! 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7 extension. But upgrades don't stop there. We have significantly improved performance, measuring up to 500% in complex sites with complex structures and pages with lots of items on them (portals, magazines etc.).
Version 2.5.0 also marks the switch to the jQuery library, as it's one (better) JavaScript library to maintain the code for, without needing to resort to hacks in Mootools in order to support all Joomla! versions.
Let's take a closer look at all the changes that version 2.5.0 brings. Sit back, relax and start reading (will take time). :)
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21 October 2011
in Tutorials
In this short tutorial, we're going to explain how K2 templating works.
Note: If you're just starting with Joomla!, I highly recommend you first have a look here: http://docs.joomla.org/Beginners
As you may know already, Joomla! 1.5+ is an MVC content management system and provides you with the means to "override" default HTML layouts within your template's folder. All you have to do is usually copy the "tmpl" folder of a component's view within your Joomla! template's /html/com_componentName/ folder. In K2 version 1.0.x we did the same thing, but it was limiting for the potential of this component, if you wanted to use K2 for different things, like blog, magazine, catalog etc.
So we had to implement a different way to utilize sub-templates, within the templating capabilities of Joomla!. What we did is even simpler compared to current Joomla! templating: all you have to do to override K2's views is COPY THE CONTENTS of the folder /components/com_k2/templates/ and PASTE it into /templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLATE/html/com_k2/. Judging from the first folder path, it's clear that we do not use Joomla!'s logic, but it's for the better.
After you have copied this folder over to your /templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLATE/html/com_k2/ folder, you will notice that some "views" are right at the root of that folder (e.g. generic.php or user.php) and some other views are located within a subfolder, called "default". These are located in: /templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLATE/html/com_k2/
The "views" that are located at the root of that folder are the ones that cannot be themed into variations and this is normal, as you won't need to have different layouts for the registration page or the user page or the page that shows search results from K2 content! If you want to override K2, just go ahead and edit these "views".
Now, the "views" that are located within the folder "default" are the ones that can be themed into variations and these "variations" can be selected from K2's backend, when editing categories or "menu items" to K2 categories. Let's try this example: We're still inside /templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLATE/html/com_k2/. If you copy (duplicate) the folder "default" and change its name to "blog" (for example), this new folder containing views to the item and categories will then be picked up by K2, without having to exist inside /components/com_k2/. How cool is that, right? Repeat the process and you can create groups of "views" (sub-templates in K2 lingo) which can then be used for different parts of your K2 based site. To edit each sub-template just edit the files contained in each folder. If you edit the item.php view in the folder "blog", for example, then only the categories or menu items using this sub-template will pick up your changes.
So if your website had 3 major areas, say a news section, a knowledge base and a catalog of products, you create 3 copies of the "default" folder, rename them to something relative to these areas (e.g. news, kb, catalog) and then you create your create each parent category, assigning the respective sub-template each time. Then you edit each sub-template and get the desired layout for your site.
As you can imagine this opens a whole new way of skinning K2 based Joomla! websites as you only have one component yet different views per functionality. So your K2 blog is different to your K2 catalog or your K2 news/magazine section and so on.
Template developers have already grasped the potential of K2 sub-templating and many new and exciting templates are on the way from major template vendors.
More
Note: If you're just starting with Joomla!, I highly recommend you first have a look here: http://docs.joomla.org/Beginners
As you may know already, Joomla! 1.5+ is an MVC content management system and provides you with the means to "override" default HTML layouts within your template's folder. All you have to do is usually copy the "tmpl" folder of a component's view within your Joomla! template's /html/com_componentName/ folder. In K2 version 1.0.x we did the same thing, but it was limiting for the potential of this component, if you wanted to use K2 for different things, like blog, magazine, catalog etc.
So we had to implement a different way to utilize sub-templates, within the templating capabilities of Joomla!. What we did is even simpler compared to current Joomla! templating: all you have to do to override K2's views is COPY THE CONTENTS of the folder /components/com_k2/templates/ and PASTE it into /templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLATE/html/com_k2/. Judging from the first folder path, it's clear that we do not use Joomla!'s logic, but it's for the better.
After you have copied this folder over to your /templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLATE/html/com_k2/ folder, you will notice that some "views" are right at the root of that folder (e.g. generic.php or user.php) and some other views are located within a subfolder, called "default". These are located in: /templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLATE/html/com_k2/
The "views" that are located at the root of that folder are the ones that cannot be themed into variations and this is normal, as you won't need to have different layouts for the registration page or the user page or the page that shows search results from K2 content! If you want to override K2, just go ahead and edit these "views".
Now, the "views" that are located within the folder "default" are the ones that can be themed into variations and these "variations" can be selected from K2's backend, when editing categories or "menu items" to K2 categories. Let's try this example: We're still inside /templates/YOURJOOMLATEMPLATE/html/com_k2/. If you copy (duplicate) the folder "default" and change its name to "blog" (for example), this new folder containing views to the item and categories will then be picked up by K2, without having to exist inside /components/com_k2/. How cool is that, right? Repeat the process and you can create groups of "views" (sub-templates in K2 lingo) which can then be used for different parts of your K2 based site. To edit each sub-template just edit the files contained in each folder. If you edit the item.php view in the folder "blog", for example, then only the categories or menu items using this sub-template will pick up your changes.
So if your website had 3 major areas, say a news section, a knowledge base and a catalog of products, you create 3 copies of the "default" folder, rename them to something relative to these areas (e.g. news, kb, catalog) and then you create your create each parent category, assigning the respective sub-template each time. Then you edit each sub-template and get the desired layout for your site.
As you can imagine this opens a whole new way of skinning K2 based Joomla! websites as you only have one component yet different views per functionality. So your K2 blog is different to your K2 catalog or your K2 news/magazine section and so on.
Template developers have already grasped the potential of K2 sub-templating and many new and exciting templates are on the way from major template vendors.
FILE & FOLDER PATH EXAMPLES IN K2 MVC TEMPLATING
| Within the component | Within our template |
| /components/com_k2/templates/ | /templates/YOURTEMPLATE/html/com_k2/ |
| /components/com_k2/templates/user.php | /templates/YOURTEMPLATE/html/com_k2/user.php |
| /components/com_k2/templates/default/item.php | /templates/YOURTEMPLATE/html/com_k2/default/item.php |
| /components/com_k2/templates/newsubtemplate/category.php | /templates/YOURTEMPLATE/html/com_k2/newsubtemplate/category.php |
| (does not have to exist) | /templates/YOURTEMPLATE/html/com_k2/differentSubTemplateNotExistingInComponent/category.php |
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