SOBI2
Sigsiu Online Business Index 2 (also known as SOBI2) is an open source web directory component for the Mambo or Joomla! content management systems (CMS). SOBI2 is written in PHP and requires the MySQL database environment for storage. It is best suited for low to medium level traffic web-sites.
Sigsiu Online Business Index 2 is an addon to Joomla that makes it possible to run and manage a directory in your Joomla website. The core Joomla system offers a link component it is limited. SOBI2 on the other hand has many features that makes it stand out from other directory components. You can use it strictly as a web directory or as a directory to physical locations, like golf courses. It has built in integration with Google Maps (API key from Google is required) and it has additional plugins available just for SOBI2.
SOBI2 - The Directory Component for Joomla (by Ken McDonald)
SOBI2 (Sigsiu Online Business Index 2) is an open source directory component for Joomla, the very popular open source content management system. Using SOBI2 a Joomla user can have a fully functioning directory of contacts, members, distributors, manufacturers, locations, products, or whatever very quickly with little or no "coding" - most or all of the set-up May Be done using only the configuration interface. Add your data, and you have a working directory on your Joomla web site. SOBI2 is also designed to be very flexible, and with that flexibility comes some complexity. The flexibility is a powerful feature which enables users to use SOBI2 in many different ways as you will see on the webs sites listed in this publication.
History
SOBI2 has been designed as the follower of the Sigsiu Online Business Index (SOBI or SOBI1) component but it is not based on SOBI. It has been build up new from the bottom. This was necessary because the table structure of SOBI1 was not suited for the features "sub-categories", "one entry in multi-categories" and "user definable fields". SOBI2 uses a relational database structure. SOBI2 is build up almost object oriented, but still runs under PHP4 and MySQL4.
Features
Sigsiu Online Business Index 2 (SOBI2) is an addon to Joomla that makes it possible to run and manage a directory in your Joomla website. The entries are divided into categories, which can contain subcategories. One entry can be entered in several categories. The companies/clubs/persons enter themselves in the index. Registered users can modify or delete their entries. Entries can be renewed by the user if they expire.
A Fields Manager can be used to configure each field entirely. This concerns the ordering, obligatory fields, fees, field length (width of field and number of characters), field type (textfield, textarea, checkbox, checkbox group, select list, text code or calendar), search methods, in which view a field should be shown (Category View and/or Details View), and much more. An unlimited number of new custom fields can be added.
For each entry two images can be uploaded (besides the linked images in the description). The images will be resized to a predefined size. With the URL field "image" it is possible to add fields for linked images.
An alpha index is available to show only entries starting with a specified letter. Also only the most popular entries and categories, the recently updated entries, the new entries or entries by tags (mata keywords) can be shown. [3]
You also have the option of making certain features of the listing paid for or free. You could make listings free but charge for links to the websites. You have the option to decide all of this when you setup and manage the component. [1] This is an extremely powerful component that could be used more many functions and is frequently updated.
SOBI 2 is divided into three views: the General View (SOBI2 main page), the Category View and the Details View. A category view shows all subcategories and entries of a category. A Details View shows only one entry. The views are almost entirely configurable within the back-end and additionally by changing the view templates.
- In the General View all main categories can be shown together with an image and a short description.
- Already in the general view all entries can be shown as V-Cards.
- A Category View shows the corresponding sub categories and the entries within the category as V-Card.
- The sorting order of the categories is adjustable within the back-end.
- The sorting order of the fields is also adjustable (e.g. to change postal code and city for some countries).
- For each entry two images can be added. One small picture (icon/symbol), which will be shown by default in the V-Cards and the logo image, which will be shown by default in the Details View.
- The sorting order of the entries is adjustable in the back-end.
- Templates, editable within the back-end, for Details View and V-Card to design the appearance individually.
- CSS file, editable within the back-end, for changing the layout easily.
- Connection to Google Maps possible and routing function.
- Details View can be configured to be shown only to registered users.
[3]
Since version RC2.9.0 SOBI2 includes the Joomla! 1.5 Semi-Native mode implementation. It means that basically SOBI2 works in Joomla! 1.5 without the legacy plugin enabled. However, installation of the component has to be done with Legacy Plugin turned on. After the installation the legacy plugin can be disabled again. The Joomla! 1.5 FTP-Layer won't be supported.
The SOBI2 Development Team provides also a special bash script called "SOBI2 Cloning Tool". It is simple script to clone SOBI2 and all possible add-ons. It allows to install multiple instances of SOBI2. The official SOBI2 demo site uses a clone called com_extensions (similar to Joomla Extensions Directory). This SOBI2 clone (and all add-ons for it) has been created with this script.
Plugin Interface
SOBI2 plugins enhance the functionality of SOBI2. There are plugins available to add an image or media gallery or to use SOBI2 as a download directory. [3]
Some of the plugins to SOBI 2 include a Review & Rating Plugin and Gallery Plugin. They make it possible for you to create and run a complete rating and review directory where people can submit listings, submit reviews and upload photos. Even if you don’t run the Community builder component SOBI2 can allow people to build entire web pages about their listing. [1]
Available plugins:
- Auto Geocoding Plugin - a plugin to geocode automaticaly SOBI2 existing entries from the address set in each entries.
- Download Plugin - a plugin to upload and download files.
- Gallery Plugin - a plugin to show an "unlimited" number of uploaded images in Details View (horizontally or vertically) with Lightbox effect.
- Featured Listings Plugin - a plugin to show entries on a featured position.
- Flash MP3 Player Plugin
- Import and Backup Plugin - a plugin for SOBI2, to import and export data into/from a CSV file.
- Media Plugin - a plugin to show audio or video files (Youtube support).
- OpenSEF Plugin - a plugin to generate SEF URLs with OpenSEF component.
- Payments Plugin - a plugin to view payments that have been done by users on their website.
- Radius Distance Search Plugin - a plugin to search within a radius of cities.
- Report Listing Plugin - a plugin which allows visitors or users to send a report (e.g about SPAM or rules violation) about an entry.
- Review & Rating Plugin - a plugin to vote and comment an entry.
- SobiSEF Plugin - a plugin which creates Search Engine Friendly (SEF) URLs for SOBI2 in Joomla 1.5 (without 3rd party SEF components).
Templates
SOBI2 has three different templates for showing the details view, the V-Card in the category view and the add/edit entry form.
Since version RC 2.8.3 of SOBI2 the details view template is located in /components/com_sobi2/templates/default/sobi2.details.tmpl.php and the V-Card template is located in /components/com_sobi2/templates/default/sobi2.vc.tmpl.php. Prior to this version the template files are located in /components/com_sobi2/.
The add/edit entry form is available since version RC 2.8.4. It is located in /components/com_sobi2/templates/default/sobi2.form.tmpl.php. All three template files can be edited within the administration panel of SOBI2. To modify the template files, at least HTML skills are necessary. For some extended operations also PHP skills are necessary.
The description of possibilities of this template engine can be found on the official homepage in the article Template Commands
Since the version RC 2.9 SOBI2 templating system has been extended significant. It is possible now to select individual templates for each category. Therefore also a template installer has been implemented.
Languages
The following language packages are available for SOBI2: Arabic, Basque, Brasilian-Portuguese, UTF-8, Bulgarian UTF-8, Catalan, Croatian, Czech UTF-8, Danish, Dutch, English (included), Farsi (Persian) UTF-8, Finnish, French, French UTF-8, Galician, German, German Language formal, German Language informal, German Language formal UTF-8, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian UTF-8, Polish, Polish UTF-8, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbien, Simplified Chinese, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Swedish UTF-8, Thai UTF-8, Traditional Chinese, Turkish
Requirements
- Joomla! 1.0.x (>=1.0.12) or Mambo (>= 4.6.2) or Joomla! 1.5.x.
- PHP 4.4.x or above - recommended: PHP 5
- MySQL 4.1.2 or above - recommended: MySQL 5.0.x
- Apache 1.13.19 or above - recommended: Apache 2.x
- GD Library installed
- ECMA standard encoding (ISO/IEC 8859 and UTF-8)
- For Non-UTF-8 sites with special characters: Iconv library or mbstring module installed
- Javascript
See also
- Joomla
- Mambo (CMS)
- MiaCMS
- Open Source Matters
- VirtueMart
- Joomsef
- UddeIM
- web directory
- List of web directories