BT CONTENT SHOWCASE JOOMLA EXTENSION User guide Version 2.1 Copyright 2013 Bowthemes Inc. support@bowthemes.com
1 Table of Contents Introduction...2 Installing and Upgrading...4 System Requirement...4 Downloading...4 Manual Installation...4 Module Upgrading...6 Uninstalling...6 Setting...7 Global Setting...7 Layout Setting...9 Source Setting... 17 Item Layout Setting... 19 Image Options... 21 Effect Setting... 22 Advanced Options... 26 Customizing Module Layout... 27 Getting Article... 28 Joomla Content... 28 K2 Component... 30 BT Portfolio Component... 33 EasyBlog Component... 35 Contacting Bowthemes... 38
2 Introduction With BT Content Showcase, you can build impressive Slideshow or Accordion that present featured contents of your website. Data is automatically extracted from chosen components. This is also a Responsive Web Design module. Related topics: Details View Demo Forum Product features Support from Content, K2, Easyblog, BT Portfolio Component BT Content Showcase helps extract articles automatically from these components. It allows you to add many modules to your website with articles from different sources as well. You have two options of choosing articles: by one or more categories and by article ID. More than that, you can also limit the number of selected articles, organize them and select featured articles from them. Multiple themes options Multi-themes: This module offers 09 different themes (Default, Accordion, Block News, Breaking News, Default, Frontpage Show, Hightlight, Metro, Metro Small, Simple List). With Responsive layout, you can easily apply Content showcase for responsive website. With Accordion layout, articles are grouped by small pages and display under accordion style, all pages will scroll as default template. Animation effects: Change from page to page with a fade or a scroll. Time setting is available. Page slider setting: Easy to customize width and title of slider. Note that we can add link to the title (title as a link). Colum numbers and Row numbers can be changed as well (enable in Accordion layout). Navigation Setting: You can control slider with Next, Back and other navigation buttons. Article information: Show and hide information of the article, including: intro-text, thumbnail image, author, categories, date of creation, price. Show and hide View details button. Smart image editing Thumbnail of article images can be automatically cropped from originals images If the image does not exist, a default image will take the place.
3 Cross-browser support Compatible with Joomla 2.5, Joomla 3.x and almost all web browsers: Firefox, IE7+, Opera 9.5, Safari, Netscape, Google Chrome, Camino, Flock 0.7+.
4 Installing and Upgrading System Requirement PHP 5.0 or above with GD library is enabled. Please follow this Server requirements link to check it MySQL 5.0 or above Joomla 1.7.x or above; Client requirements Firefox 2.x, 3.0.x, 3.5.x, Internet Explorer 6 or above. Downloading BT Content Showcase is a commercial extension. Become our membership is required to download the product. Register here. For Bowthemes member, please download BT Content Showcase here. You have 7 days to decide use the product or not. If the product can t makes you satisfied in these days, your money will be refund. Click here to send refund request email to us. Manual Installation Please follow these steps to install the product: Step 1: Go to Extension Manager Step 2: Browse the install package Step 3: Click Upload & Install
5 Illustrated image of successful installation:
6 Module Upgrading Upgrading of this extension to newest version can be easily done by following again installation steps above. But we recommend you to back up your changes of source code and language files in this module before starting any upgrades. Uninstalling For uninstalling the product, please follow these steps: Step 1: Go to Extension Manager Step 2: Click to Manage tab Step 3: Choose module style Step 4: Mark checkbox of the module Step 5: Click Uninstall button
7 Setting Back-end access: Choose Extension Manager from the main menu. Click Module Manager and start searching the product by using keyword: BT Content Showcase or using Joomla filter to quickly find. The parameters are divided into the following areas: Global Setting Source setting Item layout Setting Effect Setting Advanced Options Global Setting
8 Let's refer the detail setting in this section: Module Class Suffix Used to concatenate suffix for class mod_contentshowcase, it helps changing module skin easily with new class. Content Title Content Title Link Module Width Change title of the slide here Insert URL to link the title to another page Setup module s width here. You can type a number or let it in default by choosing Auto Item Height Right To Left Setup height of article s small page Specifies whether the content appears in RTL (Right-To-Left) mode Layout Setup theme of slide here. Preview is available by clicking Demo layout. Next &Prev Position Setup position of Next and Previous buttons Flanks: Display in the middle of two sides of the slide Top: Display at the top of the slide Bottom: Display at the bottom of the slide None: Hide the buttons Navigation Type Setup display mode of page bullets: Bullet: Display as small circles Number: Display as numbers Navigation Position Setup position of page bullets: Top: Display at the top of the module Bottom: Display at the bottom of the module None: Hide the bullets
9 Layout Setting This module has 9 different layouts. With each layout, you will see different parameters displayed in Grid setting. Default layout Number of rows Setup number of rows Default layout (Items appear on a slide) Number of columns displayed in Grid view Setup number of columns displayed in Grid view *Number of items displayed per page = number of rows * number of columns Picture 1 - Slide layout
10 Accordion Layout Items per page Number of items displayed per page Accordion layout (Slide is divided into multiple panes that can be expanded or collapsed) Show Arrow Show/Hide collapse and expand arrows Arrow Position Select position of arrows (Right and Left) Active First Item Expand first item of each page when the webpage is loaded. Picture 2 - Accordion layout
11 Block news layout Block news layout (Show list of items within blocks. First item is featured) With this current version, Block news layout doesn t have parameters. Picture 3 Block news layout
12 Breaking news layout Breaking news layout (Display news title in line with scroll effect) Module Width Next & Prev Set width of the module Show/Hide arrow buttons Picture 4 Breaking news layout Front page show layout Front page show layout (Display news title in line with scroll effect) Next & Prev Show/Hide arrow buttons to navigate news Picture 5 Front page show layout
13 Metro Layout Number of Rows Setup number of rows are displayed in grid Metro layout (Display news in Metro style with slide and flip effect) Number of Cols Item Margin Setup number of columns are displayed in grid Setup the gap between each item. Unit is pixel. Back Side Bg Setup color of back side background. Text Color Set color of text on back side. Picture 6 Metrolayout
14 Metro small layout Number of Rows Setup number of rows are displayed in grid Metro small layout (Similar with Metro, Metro small only has different back side style) Number of Cols Item Margin Setup number of columns are displayed in grid Setup the gap between each item. Unit is pixel. Back Side Bg Setup color of back side background. Text Color Set color of text on back side. Picture 7 Metro small layout
15 Simple list layout Simple list layout (Show list of items) In the current version, the layout doesn t have parameters. Picture 8 Metro small layout
16 Highlight layout Highlight layout (Show list of items and highlight item s detail when In the current version, the layout doesn t have parameters. mouse over) Picture 9 HighLight layout
17 Source Setting Source Form Article database can be selected from 02 criteria: Category and Article Id, corresponding to 04 components: Content, K2, Easyblog and BT Portfolio, which from now on are sources of articles. *With criteria as Category, there is a multi-select box to choose from which category you want to extract database. *With criteria as Article Id, you have to type at least 01 existing Article Id. Each Id must be separated by a comma,. *With source as Content, there are 02 more options: - Get Intro Image: Get introduction image from Article s link and image option of each article - Get link A: Get link A of each article and use it as default link
18 Number of Articles Limit for each Total number of articles extract from database. If Yes is selected, Number of Articles field means the number of articles that you want to extract from each category. Featured Articles Articles Sorted By Item ID If Show is selected, featured articles display first. Arrange the order of how articles appear Select active menu item (Item ID) to be marked on article page
19 Item Layout Setting This section allows you to setup Article information. Title Option Show title Limit Title By Title Max Chars Show/Hide article s title Choose whether the title s length is limited by words or letters Number of maximum characters in title Intro text Show Intro text Show/Hide article s introduction text
20 Option Limit Description By Description Max Chars Show Category Name Show Category Name As Link Show Read More Show Date Show Author Choose whether the introduction text s length is limited by words or letters Number of maximum characters in introduction text Show/Hide article s category. Link this category to a webpage. Show/Hide Read More button Show/Hide creation date of article Show/Hide author s name
21 Image Options Show Image Check existing Image Alignment of Image Auto Generate Thumbnail Thumbnail width / Show/Hide thumbnails image of article Check whether the image exist or not Choose to display image in: Left, Right and Center Allow thumbnail of image to be automatically generated by size below Setup width and height of image (pixel unit) height Default thumbnail If Yes is selected, non-existing image is automatically replaced by Default image.
22 Effect Setting This section is for configuration of slide effects. There are correlative parameters with each layout. Default and Accordion Layout Touch Screen Select Yes/No to Enable/Disable touch effect to control slide on mobile device Image Mouseover Effects Image Modal Box Effect On mouse over, the thumbnail image will fade out to 50% opacity smoothly Enable/Disable showing thumbnail image on modal box when click Slide effect Slide Direction Choose from 02 slide effects Scroll and Fade Setup direction of scroll effect. Items slide per time Pause Hover Animation duration Type a number here *(When the slide moves, a number of rows or columns move along the slider. We can setup this number here. Unit of this parameter is row or column depends on the value of another parameters (layout, slide direction) Stop slide when hover on the slide. Specify an animation speed in milliseconds Auto Start Interval Effects of the module start automatically when the page loads The length of time taken between each animation, in seconds
23 Block News Layout There is no setting for effect. Breaking News Breaking News Style Choose effect of the layout with 2 options: Slide and Marquee. Slide Direction Direction& 2 parameters allow you setup direction of scroll effect. There is 2 option for Slide direction: Horizontal and Vertical and 4 options for Direction: Top to bottom, Bottom to Top, Left to Right and Right to Left Marquee Speed Unit is second. Default is 5 Pause Hover Animation duration Stop slide when hover on the slide. Specify an animation speed in milliseconds Auto Start Interval Effects of the module start automatically when the page loads The length of time taken between each animation, in seconds
24 Front Page Show Layout Touch Screen Select Yes/No to Enable/Disable touch effect to control slide on mobile device Effect Type Pause Hover Animation duration Caption Speed Auto Start Interval Choose from 02 slide effects Scroll and Fade Stop slide when hover on the slide. Specify an animation speed in milliseconds Set speed for showing or hiding caption. Unit is milliseconds Effects of the module start automatically when the page loads The length of time taken between each animation, in seconds Page Transition Animation Choose an animation to play effect on slide Highlight Layout Image Mouseover Effects Slide Effect Mouse Effect Pause Hover Animation duration On mouse over, the thumbnail image will fade out to 50% opacity smoothly Choose from 02 slide effects Scroll and Fade Mouse event is used to navigate slide Stop slide when hover on the slide. Specify an animation speed in milliseconds Auto Start Interval Effects of the module start automatically when the page loads The length of time taken between each animation, in seconds Page Transition Animation Choose an animation to play effect on slide
25 Metro and Metro Small Layout Image Mouseover Effects Slide Effect Direction On mouse over, the thumbnail image will fade out to 50% opacity smoothly Choose from 02 slide effects Slide and Flip Choose direction for Slide Effect: Top to bottom, Bottom to Top, Left to Right and Right to Left Pause Hover Animation duration Stop slide when hover on the slide. Specify an animation speed in milliseconds Auto Start Interval Effects of the module start automatically when the page loads The length of time taken between each animation, in seconds Simple List Layout Image Mouseover Effects Image Modal Box On mouse over, the thumbnail image will fade out to 50% opacity smoothly When you click on thumbnail image, a modal box will be shown with a full image.
26 Advanced Options Strip Tags While taking introduction text of the article, there is HTLM tag included, that may affect module display. For this reason, we highly recommend selecting Yes on Strip Tags parameter. Allow tags You can keep some tags related to font and link by using this multi select box. Allowed tags are listed here: link (a), bold (b), italic (i), font (font) and new line (br) Open Link In Decide whether browser open new window, new tab or stay in current window while clicking to a link on this module Load Jquery Enable/Disable JQuery library to prevent conflict. Auto option is recommend, the module will detect if JQuery is already loaded Caching Cache Time Select whether you want to cache the content of this module. Module cache automatically follow setup time
27 Customizing Module Layout In this section we will go over editing module layout. You can even create your own one. *To create new layout, please refer for the following steps: Open file layout.php located in /admin/formfield, you will see a code identified module layout s name. Add a line to declare the name of your new layout. Code example: $options = array( (object) array('value' => 'default', 'text' => 'Slide'), (object) array('value' => 'accordion', 'text' => 'Slide - Accordion'), (object) array('value' => 'responsive', 'text' => 'Reponsive'), ) (object) array('value' =>'yourlayout', 'text' =>'Your Layout') Add the new name here Then, create a directory with the same name as string value value to place in tmpl/themes of the module. Below is the directory structure you can use: yourlayout _ css btcontentshowcase.css This file contains stylesheet of layout. You can change everything you want but don t rename it. index.html An empty html file but it is recommended _images This folder contains all images of the layouts _ js default.js You should copy your content from your old layout, rather than change layout content. index.html An empty html file but it is recommended *To edit module layout of a specific template, please follow these steps: - Create a folder named mod_bt_contentshowcase in the folder html of the template - Copy folder themes and file default.php to the new folder. - Change the content of the layout files as you want.
28 Getting Article In this section we will go to detail of getting items from source. Joomla Content Content Component is default in Joomla. If you want to learn more about how to create categories and articles with this component, please visit Joomla Official Documentation Site. After generating articles, you can choose Joomla Content as source by following these steps 1. Go to BT Content Showcase manager page 2. Open Source Setting panel 3. Choose Joomla Categories or Joomla Article IDs in Source From parameter. After selection, some relate parameters will be displayed 4. Choose categories from Joomla Categories parameter. If Joomla Categories is selected, please enter article s id on Joomla Article Ids parameter under this format: id1,id2,id3.
29 Choose Categories Enter Article ID(s)
30 5. Save the module With Joomla Content component as article source, you can configure to select thumbnail image from Image Intro option. If this parameter is empty, thumbnail will be gotten from first image in article content. K2 Component You can download and read document of K2 at http://getk2.org/ 1. Create K2 categories and items 2. Go to BT Content Showcase manage page 3. Open Source Setting pane 4. Choose K2 Categories or K2 Articles IDs from Source From parameter. After choose source, some parameters will be displayed
31 5. Select categories from K2 Categories parameter if you already chose K2 Categories as source. Afterwards, enter blog s id to K2 Article IDs under this format: id1,id2,id3. Choose K2 Categories
32 Enter Blogs ID(s) 6. Save the module With K2 Items, the module will get thumbnail image from main image first, if this image doesn t exist, the first image in item s content will be used instead.
33 BT Portfolio Component This is premium Bowthemes component. You can see the detail and buy it at http://bowthemes.com/joomla-extensions/bt-porfolio-component.html. Please follow these steps to get portfolios 1. Create BT Portfolio categories and portfolios using BT Portfolio component 2. Go to BT Content Showcase manager 3. Open Source Setting panel 4. Select BT Portfolio Categories or BT Portfolio Article in Source From parameter. After choosing, some parameters will display
34 5. Choose categories from EasyBlog Categories parameter if you chosen EasyBlog Category and enter blog s id to EasyBlog Ids with format: id1,id2,id3. Choose BT Portfolio Categories Enter BT Portfolio IDs
35 EasyBlog Component This is famous blogging component from Stackideas. You can have it at http://www.stackideas.com/easyblog.html and don t forget to visit its online tutorial at http://stackideas.com/docs/easyblog. After creating some categories and blog items, you can set up BT Content Showcase to display blog items from EasyBlog categories by these steps: 1. Create EasyBlog categories and blog posts. 2. Go to BT Content Showcase manager 3. Open Source Setting panel 4. Select EasyBlog Category or EasyBlog Post ID in Source From parameter. After choosing source, some parameter will display
36 5. Choose categories from EasyBlog Category parameter. If EasyBlog Post ID is selected as source, please enter blog s id on EasyBlog Ids under this format: id1,id2,id3. Choose EasyBlog Categories Enter Blogs ID(s)
37 6. Save the module With EasyBlog, the module will get Blog image to create thumbnail image first, if it doesn t exist, first image in blog s content will be used instead.
38 Contacting Bowthemes All Bowthemes products include forum support, email support and ticket support. Please refer your membership package to select the compatible kind of support, as we may be able to solve the problem without delay. Website: http://bowthemes.com/ Forum support: http://bowthemes.com/forums/28-bt-content-showcase/ Email support: support@bowthemes.com Ticket support: http://bowthemes.com/submit-a-ticket If you encounter any issues with Bowthemes extensions and templates, email us at support@bowthemes.com and we will be happy to answer your questions. This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Bowthemes Team.