Jomres  10.6.0 has been released, and the 18th release of the year brings a host of new functionality for you to enjoy.

All of these improvements are in Jomres Core. You don't need plugins to use them.

Slideshows in property lists/module output

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An old friend returns to the stage, updated for BS5 : Slideshow images now show in property lists and basic module output areas. Works best with the BS5 carousel plugin installed. Works ok with the native Galleria slideshow plugin, but the slideshow heights aren't exactly right, slideshow images are cropped by Galleria. This slideshow feature can detect if more than 1 Main Property Image has been uploaded, and if so, then a slideshow is shown where previously just an image was shown. A new card_image.html template is the fallback template.

We had slideshows in property lists in older BS3 based sites but a lack of time meant that they'd taken a back-seat in the last couple of years. This change re-adds them to Bootstrap 5 flavoured sites, and they look gorgeous (take a look here see them in action on the landing page). Note, the share feature in this screenshot is unique to the Quickstart, it's not available in Core.

Property Switching Dropdown (re)added

Property switching dropdown re-added to Jomres, and significantly updated. This allows us to switch properties quickly when administering properties. This is a useful older feature that has been reintroduced and updated to be context sensitive.

This feature makes management of multiple properties much easier because it allows us to change the currently active property really quickly but keeping us on the same page (e.g. editing tariffs page, or the media centre), somenthing the older version of this feature couldn't do well.

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Shortcodes can now define custom template names

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This is a solution I've been trying to find for some time, the ability to have a custom template file for a given jomres script without needing any complex code. It allows you to build highly unique landing pages and sections of your site(s) by copying a template file used by a script to the override directory, renaming it, and then customising it. It's simple, elegant and effective.

All you need to do is identify the Jomres template file you want to customise, copy it to /THEME-OR-TEMPLATE_DIRECTORY/html/com_jomres and then configure the shortcode. This is really useful because often a Jomres shortcode will use a handful of different template files to build output and you may want to just override one template file in one specific scenario. I used this quite a bit in the new Joomla 4 Quickstart.

Example Shortcode that uses this solution : {jomres asamodule_random &asamodule_random_listlimit=3&basic_module_output.html=basic_module_output_circular.html}

Language strings in template files

I've added a new feature to patTemplate (the library used to render template files) where if the unused vars setting ( e.g. patTemplate:tmpl name="pageoutput" unusedvars="import" ) is set to import, then any missing definitions will be checked to see if they're language file definitions. If so, we can automatically replace them. This means that we don't need to add language definitions to scripts that call a template file, the definition will be automatically added. Older templates (including BS5 templates) will not have this "import" flag set. It's possible they contain items that should be set in the script, but it's now an option to use this import ability in new template files. I have been trying for ages to find a way to not constantly need to define language strings in calling scripts but all of the things I tried resulted in too much memory usage. This solution is smaller and subsequentially faster.

 A straightforward example : Make sure that your patTemplate template file has unusedvars="import" where patTemplate:tmpl name is set, and then you can put anything from a language file, such as {_JOMRES_COM_MR_EB_GUEST_JOMRES_MOBILE_EXPL} (Capitalisation is mandatory) and the patTemplate library will pull in the string from the language files, or the database if they've been customised in Admin > Jomres > Translations > Translate Lang File Strings. This example would put "Mobile number" in the rendered template output.

Super useful.

Micromanage Tariff Editing mode is default

Tariff configuration mode switching has been disabled for properties using Micromanage, and all new properties will be using micromanage mode from now on. The big OTAs are moving to using rate plans just like Micromanage mode, and having more than one tariff mode was making the booking engine overly complicated. So, now the old Guest Types functionality is disabled, every new property uses the newer Adult and Child types and Occupancy levels and moving forward I only need to maintain the one mode. With this change, I can now create more features for that mode. Having multiple modes was making the booking engine far too complicated to maintain, so this simplifies things no end.

Existing properties can continue to use whatever tariff editing mode they were using before, however Micromanage is by far and away the most popular editing mode due to it's ability to have multiple tariffs for different numbers of guests.

Image uploading tweaks

Image uploading now defaults to using just max width settings from the Site Configuration > File Uploads tab, and implemented cropping for images. This gives us more uniform image ratios in the list properties/module layout pages, leading to easier to manage markup.

Template markup improvements

This version was developed in conjunction with the release of the new Sunbearu Joomla 4 Quickstart, so there have been a whole slew of markup improvements added, particularly with respect to small screens.

Other changes

Updated Joomla shortcode functionality so that WP style shortcodes can be used. Both older {} shortcode braces can be used, as well is [] (WP style) braces. I'm getting old, sometimes I forget which braces to use in WP or Joomla. This change allows the use of both, meaning that the documentation can be simplified, and if you're old, like me, it reduces the brain-load a bit.

Added new menu options to Joomla plugin : Guest Bookings & My Profile. You still MUST have a link somewhere in the Joomla menu to the default Jomres page, but it can be hidden/viewable to super managers. This allows us to have menu options in Joomla for Guests that we couldn't have before. See the side menu in the Joomla Portal Quickstart demo.

Add canonical link tag to pages where the property header is shown (currently just the property details page).

Added a new script that allows site admins to show a property widget for a single property wherever they want, through a shortcode. The various asamodule, featured properties and BS5 plugins are great, but sometimes you just want to show one property's output, in basic_module_output.html (or a custom template, see "Shortcodes can now define custom templates" above). Example usage {jomres property_widget property_uid=12}

Added occupancy, property description, property features, room features and booking link to basic_module_output.html  For the purposes of the Quickstart these aren't visible because my goal is to keep the Quickstart nice and clean, however I recognise that developers may want to use them.

Lots of changes that address PHP8.x depreciation notices. If you don't use the Jomres debugging > Development mode you probably haven't seen these notices. They give us developers a chance to catch changes to PHP before they cause actual errors in upcoming versions of PHP.  If you use Development mode you'll still see a notice generated by the Logger class. To resolve this go to Admin > Jomres > Tools > Library Packages to update those packages. I've also added adjustments to account for upcoming PHP8.2 dynamic class variable to Jomres Core code, however I suspect that the Library Packages will also need to be updated. Watch this space for more information.

Preview page no longer includes the Jomres main menu on the page. Long story short, I wanted full screen header images for the property details page, but the Jomres main menu is constrained by a BS "container" style that I wanted to keep. Full screen header images use container-fluid in the Quickstart, so switching off the top and bottom templates (main menu is included in top.html) on the Preview/View Property page makes sense.

 

 

Jomres releases, Quickstarts

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ABOUT US

vince picDeveloped and maintained by Vince Wooll, Jomres was initially conceived in early 2005 as a Mambo based solution to a client’s hotel management needs. While it wasn't originally expected to be an online booking system it quickly morphed into one as users requested more and more features.

As the number of feature requests grew Vince knew that he would need to dedicate more time to the project and in July 2005 Jomres was released as a commercial project. Since then Jomres has become the world's oldest online booking plugin for any PHP CMS. It has been used in Joomla 1.0, 1.5, 2.5, 3 & 4 and WordPress 4, 5 & 6.

Aladar joined the project in 2010 after using Jomres for his own projects. He was active on the forum, helping other members of the community and eventually Vince invited him to join the team. Between 2010 and 2018 he was an integral part of the project and made many significant contributions.

Whilst not formally part of the Jomres project, Rodrigo Rocco and Vince have become firm friends. Rod is a freelancer who specialises in doing custom work for Jomres users and developing custom plugins for the system that take advantage of it's modular design. He has built many useful extensions including his fabulous Valentina Template Override Package.

Jomres and the Jomres Logo is trademarked and can't be used without written consent from the owner.

www.jomres.net is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Joomla! Project, Open Source Matters or the WordPress project. The Joomla! & WordPress names and logos are used under a limited license granted by Open Source Matters and the WordPress Projects.

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