News July 2019
NEW - xbFootnoteTag Package Release
v1.0.1 now available. The package contains a content plugin and and editor button. The button inserts and {xbref...} shortcode and the plugin converts the specified tag description into either or both a popover or a footnote.
So collect all your references for your site into tags and then you can use them as footnotes in any article. Or use it for definitions and acronyms - define them once and add in any article. Plus many other features.
Footnote Tag Package
15th July 2019
xbFootnoteTag was originally created to assist with creating and maintaining references, or other recurring snippets of information in articles. As well as generating conventional footnotes (linked by either a number or a citation title) since we are in a hypertext environment it makes sense to provide an option to have the reference appear as a popover either instead of or as well as a footnote (footnotes work better if the article gets printed).
Truncate String Plugin
23rd June 2019
Joomla JHtml::string.truncate() function has a couple of minor but annoying bugs. See previous article TruncString Bugs and blog post for details. The new System Plugin xbTruncString provides an override for only this function rather than having to override the entire string.php library code (eg by using the mvcoverride plugin) and then maintain it when any part is updated in the core.
Tip Pop Button Plugin
4th January 2019
The Joomla editor extension plugin TipPop Button provides a quick and easy way of inserting Tooltips and Popovers using Bootstrap. Clicking the button brings up a dialogue that allows you to set the text and various parameters for the tip or pop. If you have text selected in the editor the tip will we wrapped around it, or you can enter the text in the dialogue.
Article Manager
31st January 2019
xbArtMan is a component to provide some additional tools for backend administration of Joomla content. Initially it focuses on three areas that I have had difficulty with - seeing what tags are assigned to which articles, seeing what links are embedded in articles and defined as related item links (and checking that they are valid), and seeing what images are used in which articles.
AutoSave Plugin
17th February 2019
The Joomla content plugin xbAutosave allows for timed automatic saving of work whilst editing an article or triggering a save with Ctrl+s or Cmd+s keystroke.
The autosave interval can be set in seconds (minimum 30sec) and timed save and keystroke save can be enabled separately.
Autosave only works on the backend (admin) site and only when editing an article (com_content). It is disabled on a new article until you have saved manually to give you a chance to set category, status, access etc before your work-in-progress gets automatically revealed to the world!