PD-Addon is an extension to the PhocaDownload (PD) component. It is only of any use if you have PhocaDownload installed on your site.  

It adds two new elements to the PhocaDownload data - a 'slug' or short description for the files and categories for the tags. Three new Admin views are provided - a tag editor, a tag category editor, and an improved file list view. 

PD-Addon has been built to my specific requirements for the Green-History site so you may find you need to tinker with it somewhat.

I use the standard description field for a full abstract, the features field for a contents list and the notes field for details of the original format. The slug provides a short text (160 chars) summary for display with the title.

Categories for the tags allow you to group them together according to different characteristics - for example I have sets of tags for different types of documents, for events, for sources, for campaigns and so on. 

Front-end Views

In the front end PDaddon provides five new views:

• Files Table. Provides a table of files. Optional default category and tag. 
• Single Category Files Table. Provides a table of files in a single category with option to include sub-categories.
• Single Tag Files Table. Provides a table files with a specific tag. 

These three file table views offer options to search the title text and filter by tag or category as appropriate. The tables have columns for Title, Year (from the PD Date column), Category, Tags and optionally an icon image which may be linked to a modal pop-up of the preview image.
A slug (short description) can optionally be displayed either as a tooltip on the title or as text beneath the title.
File titles, category names and tags can be optionally linked to other views including the relevant PhocaDownload views.

• File Tags Table. Provides a list of all the file tags in a specified tag category with their descriptions and a count of the files so tagged. The titles optionally link to either the Single Tag View from PDaddon or the Category Tag view from PhocaDowload.
• File Categories Table. Provides a list of all of the PhocaDownload file categories with description and file count. Also gives the parent category and a list of sub-categories for each category.

In the backend it makes two additions to the PD data tables and provides five new management views:

Data tables:

• #__phocadownload adds column 'slug' (varchar(160)) to provide short text only description for file
• #__phocadownload_tags adds column 'catid' (int(10)) to reference a category for the tag in the Joomla categories system.

Uninstalling the component drops the tags.catid column as the system automatically deletes the entries in the categories table when it is uninstalled. It also drops the slug column, though this may become optional.

Back-end Views:

• File Tags view provides a table of all the PhocaDownload tags and descriptions. Toolbar provides batch updating of tag categories.
  Columns: Status, Title, Descriptions, ID, Category
  • Title links to Tag Edit view
• Tag Edit view provides simple editing of tag including the new Category column
  • Does not yet fully replace PD version - no editing of alias, PD category link, PD Ext Link, Ordering.
• Tag Categories view. Table of the Tag Categories defined with options to create new and edit categories.
  • Title links to Category edit view from Joomla Category Manager.
• Files List view. Table of all files with search and filtering
  Columns: Status, Title & Alias, Tags, Date, Category, Path, Filename, ID
  • Path and filename are broken out into separate columns for easy of sorting and finding 
  • Title links to simple edit view and toolbar buttons to access PhocaDownload full editing and new file creation.
• Simple File Edit view. Simplified file details editing presenting only the fields that I use (including the new 'slug' field)
  
  • Fields: Title, Alias, Access, Slug, Category, Original Date (Date), Author/Source (Author), Description, Contents (Features), Format (Notes)
    Read-only display of Tags, Filename, Preview Filename, Icon (Special 1)
  • Cross link to the full PhocaDownload file edit view.

Roadmap

Improvements and bug fixes

• alternate modal pop-ups on icons (currently using Regular Labs modals, need to provide SigPlus at least as alternative for my own purposes plus possibly a native one)
• add all columns to back-edit tag edit view as additional tabs
• new backend view to manage slugs for files

Possible New features

1. Provide front-end view for tree of categories. Replacement for the PD categories view with better layout for including sub-categories and count of files
2. Provide front-end view for lists of files to replace PD versions using my layout overrides and improved styling
3. Provide front-end view for individual files with better layout for my purposes than can be achieved within PD

At this point it would effectively replace the need to use PD for the front-end in my case.

4. Implement editing of tags in back-end file edit view
5. Implement batch update of tags in backend file list view

From here we are really moving to a replacement DocLib component to replace PD for my specific needs.
NB This is not going to happen from me for a long while - first I want to develop ImgLib and finish RevewIt components. See blog posts for ideas on spec etc.

Changelog

v0.3.0.2 18th July 2018
    bug fixes
v0.3.0.0 6th July 2018
    alpha version - test _very_ carefully before using for production sites
    initial frontend table views working
v0.2.1 26th June 2018
    frontend proof of concept
    Bugfixes
v0.2.0 24th June 2016
    backend proof of concept