New Release: SEBLOD 3.16

Indeed, it's been a while... but we are ready to launch our latest major release! We've been working hard for this next step in the 3.x series of SEBLOD, and we are really happy with the result. Please welcome SEBLOD 3.16! :)

Firstly, this is a security release, so we do encourage you to update as soon as possible. Of course, be sure to backup your sites before upgrade, and please read the following details, as there are major changes.

JCckContent improvements
We've been continuing the work around JCckContent, with many new method implementations, various improvements and fixes.
One thing to highlight here is the support of class aliases. It makes it easier to use.
   ex: JCckContentArticle instead of JCckContentJoomla_Article.
And... we're glad to share with you the first version of the documentation from the Developer section of our manuals:

• Manipulating Content: Introduction
• Manipulating Content: Joomla! Article
• Manipulating Content: Joomla! Category
• Manipulating Content: List of "get" and "set" methods
• Manipulating Content: More methods, more capabilities

Many methods (or capabilities) haven't been included in the documentation yet, as some of them may require to be renamed.
We'll improve the documentation as soon as possible.

Guest Edition capability
Guests are now able to edit their content if you need to. This is useful for multi-pages form (when submitted as a guest). It works with the "edit.own" permission.

Router & SEO enhancement
Starting with SEBLOD 3.16, URLs not inline with requested setup (Search Types > Configuration > SEF URLs) are now disallowed (i.e 404), which was not the case before.
Then, a great feature that may please those who create multi-language sites is multi-language aliases (Search Types > Configuration). It means we can specify a different alias for each language within a single article ! Sounds great, right ?!
Example: domain.com/en/products/my-product-01 and domain.com/fr/produits/mon-produit-01 for the same content item.
Another nice addition is the ability to apply a canonical URL (Search Types > Configuration > List URLs) for the List pages. Useful to prevent URLs (parameters !) for search pages to be indexed.
Please note that the SEBLOD Canonical plug-in has been updated as well.

Some of you have concerns about the support of the new router. Indeed for now you must keep the URL routing mode to "Legacy" as this is the only mode supported by SEBLOD. Of course when we will need to (i.e. when the "Legacy" mode will be dropped from Joomla! core) we will make everything work with the "Modern" mode, but for now there is not point of doing it.
Please keep in mind that one of the key improvements of the "Modern" Joomla! router is the ability to remove the "id-" part (of an article URL)... which is something that is available in the SEBLOD router since 2013 !

A better Date Picker
As you may know, SEBLOD 3.11 introduced a new Date Picker plug-in called "JForm Calendar". A few fixes were applied since then, but various issues remained. The latest version shipped within SEBLOD 3.16 has been nicely improved. New parameters give the ability to customise both "Display" and "Storage" formats, "24 hours" time mode is now supported, and issues related to Time Zones or Variations are fixed.
Please note that the Date validation plug-in has been updated as well.

Extensive Cleaning - Part 2
We continued the extensive cleaning started with SEBLOD 3.9, with many classes or functions removed, deprecated stuff, and maintenance changes.  The plug-in called "42" has also been removed from the Core package. It is available on SEBLOD Store for those who need it, even if it wasn't supposed to be used for content creation (but only for some back-end scripts at the start). A "Legacy" parameter is available in SEBLOD Options for some parts as well, if needed.

You can find the full list of improvements and fixes on the changelog or on GitHub.

After upgrading your sites with the latest version of SEBLOD Core package, please make sure to update all other extensions. Some of them will need to be updated to be fully functional. Here are the most important updates across our additional products.

Updated Add-ons:

• Developer Add-on
• Exporter Add-on
• Importer Add-on
• Updater Add-on

New Plug-ins:

• Empty Validation Plug-in
• Form Breadcrumbs Field Plug-in
• Joomla! Menu Item Restriction Plug-in
• Search Breadcrumbs Field Plug-in
• SEBLOD Task Link Plug-in

Updated Plug-ins:

• Captcha Math Field Plug-in
• Captcha Recaptcha Field Plug-in
• Captcha Visualcaptcha Field Plug-in
• Checkbox Dynamic Field Plug-in
• Code Pack
• Custom Link Plug-in
• Date Validation Plug-in
• Download Link Plug-in
• File Field Plug-in
• Form HTML Field Plug-in
• Increment Restriction Plug-in
• Joomla Language Restriction Plug-in
• Joomla Menu Item Link Plug-in
• Joomla Menu Item Object Plug-in
• Joomla Message Object Plug-in
• Joomla Print Link Plug-in
• Joomla Redirection Object Plug-in
• Joomla Tag Object Plug-in
• Joomla User Note Object Plug-in
• Map (JS) Link Plug-in
• Phone Validation Plug-in
• Popover Typography Plug-in
• Search Pagination Field Plug-in
• Search Query Field Plug-in
• SEBLOD Canonical Field Plug-in
• SEBLOD Fields Restriction Plug-in
• SEBLOD Form & List Pack
• SEBLOD Options Restriction Plug-in
• SEBLOD Site Object Plug-in
• Select Dynamic Cascade Field Plug-in
• Slider Field Plug-in
• SQL Pack
• URL Live Plug-in
• Window Box Validation Plug-in
• Zip code Validation Plug-in

Please note that a new release of ANY other extension is also available with 2018 copyright changes.

The next updates to come real soon:

• Charts Template 1.4.0 including a fix for multi charts (on the same page)
• Event App for SEBLOD including the Calendar Template
• SEBLOD Form & List Pack 1.7.0 including the ability to pass value from the caller to the Form Field
• Tabs Template 1.5.0 including hash options

Feel free to leave your comments and thoughts below. And don't forget to share your latest sites with us on SEBLOD showcase.