Issues and Suggestion For Cobalt in Current CCK Market - An analysis

I forgot to add a link in relation to gallery field which is in 1st position:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37540222.html

Any idea if I can use the gallery field as in above? Is it possible?

Brian

Brian,

to 1) First of all you have to understand the concept of Cobalt fields. They were conceptualized to be ultra flexible through their concept of input and output templates. The user can add as much functionality as he want to it by changing/adding new templates. This would also open doors to 3rd party developers in providing additional input/output formats to them. Your gallery display example can be achieved in just adding an output template to the existing gallery field.

Read more on field templates here and here

to 2) You might want to look into the normal text field filter, which has an autocomplete feature -> it will show you matching search results, while you type.

to 3) Even though i have not used the distance search, i remember there were settings for this in the geomap field.

to 5) Please read here and here

to 7) Not sure, if i got this correctly. In the Records Module is a template overwrite option, where you can define your template. Then based on the template and respective field settings, you will be able to define the number of columns or better the fields to display.

For this i would highly recommend the advanced table template, which provides a lot of additional functionality.

to 8) There are more than 30 fields available. Think again of the input/output template functionality which makes the fields so flexible. Even the list and article templates can make a difference in displaying content. Sometimes a certain functionality might be achieved by display templates rather than core field functions.

I dont think that Cobalt is behind in this area. Through its concept, I even believe it is ahead of the others ...

to 9) Don't get it. I can set any date i want. Present or future .. also in the date range search I can select any possible date range ...

to 10) The date time field will allow you to store dates. It even can overwrite the core record fields like creation/expiration date. To store additional information to the date, simply use and additional text field. You can then search or sort by the dates.

If you want it to be displayed in a calendar form, you will need a list template for it. As far as i know, there is an ongoing development of a calendar list template as of now ...

Hope this helps ...

3) Improvement to google geomap field. I think the geomap field needs to have a text box where people can enter the post code/address they want and then they can set the distance from the input field. Is it possible?

In most cases users are looking around their current location. And it can be detected automatically. The user may navigate map to needed place. Although technically it is posible to add address fields to geo filter, we probably will not do that because this input is uninformative.

What i mean is that when you enter address in article it i saved and later displayed. If you enter address in filter it is used only to reposition marker. I think that simply move marker over them map is much easier and address input will just confuse users.

3) Improvement to google geomap field. I think the geomap field needs to have a text box where people can enter the post code/address they want and then they can set the distance from the input field. Is it possible?

4) Improvement to google map view - Currently there is no button to look the listings in street view. You need to drag the little man icon to the location you want. But it would be nice and easier if you have already a button which will show street view once you click it

This is more complicated then it seems to be. I do not think we will be able to add anything more than orange man drag on the position.

3) Improvement to google geomap field. I think the geomap field needs to have a text box where people can enter the post code/address they want and then they can set the distance from the input field. Is it possible?

4) Improvement to google map view - Currently there is no button to look the listings in street view. You need to drag the little man icon to the location you want. But it would be nice and easier if you have already a button which will show street view once you click it

6) Import Functionality - It is not there in Cobalt - I would like to hear if there is any plan to have this in future.

I know it is taking too long but we are working on it. And we will deliver import yet with Cobalt 8.

3) Improvement to google geomap field. I think the geomap field needs to have a text box where people can enter the post code/address they want and then they can set the distance from the input field. Is it possible?

4) Improvement to google map view - Currently there is no button to look the listings in street view. You need to drag the little man icon to the location you want. But it would be nice and easier if you have already a button which will show street view once you click it

6) Import Functionality - It is not there in Cobalt - I would like to hear if there is any plan to have this in future.

10) The last thing is integration of calendar events/Appointment field in cobalt - It is not there in Cobal8

just confirm that we are working on calendar component. You can follow and see how it is developed here

Regarding StreetView...

This is more complicated then it seems to be. I do not think we will be able to add anything more than orange man drag on the position.

There seem to be Javascript methods to check and activate the street view. At least it needs a marker click or a starting point, otherwise it shows black.

e.g. jReview Demo - City Guide

The previous (none-responsive) jReviews Demo did handle it this way: On list view, there was checkbox above regular map area. Clicking on that checkbox/link activated the street view above the usual map. Resulting in 2 simultaneous views.

The latests jReview Demo seems to be updated to the new responsive Template and some new demo data. The streetview option in list is gone. Now, it is placed on details page in a tab. Again, 2 simultaneous maps/views. The street view is already active.

I slightly disagree with you on the geomap field. I think having that option to have a text field on the frontend for entering address to search is definitely a plus point.

I agree. And we have ability to enter address. You can select Country, then state, then city and search. I was tellink that enter address just to locate marker on the map (not search) is little bit overwhelming. :)

But anyway it is not hard to add. Since address fields are not acting in search but only to detect marker position, I thing on the level of field filter template anyone can add those fields there with minimum efforts.

Let's see what other s think and if it worth to be added there as core features.

Hi Brian,

nice sum up.

1) @Sergey: wow! I just tested this field and it is amazing! The gallery need some responsive templating though...

@Brian: > Gallery Field: Currently with the gallery field, all the images are shown in the article, which is not a nice idea to do. You are right, especially if you want to mimic typical real estate photo galleries. Setting a limit of preview thumbnails would be convenient.

2) Already answered by Sackgesicht

3) @ Sergey:> Gallery Field: Currently with the gallery field, all the images are shown in the article, which is not a nice idea to do.

In most cases users are looking around their current location. It really depends what the purpose of your website is. If you are traveling / moving you would like to explore the facilities in that area instead where you live. I really like the simplicity of Komento's input location field:

However, the beauty of Cobalt's location search is that you can only choose from listed locations, which is also very practical. I think searching by text input and autocomplete is the quickest. I use a map only for search results and for browsing purposes.

5) @Sackgesicht: Thanks for providing those links, especially the one about SEO optimization.

6) I'd like to see import/export of records from the backend

8) There are indeed some useful fields missing in Cobalt.

Seblod has an impressive amount of fields and I wish some of them will become available in Cobalt 9. I have to agree with Sackgesicht that sometimes you just need to be creative with the tools at hand to achieve a certain result. A CCK is more than a set of fields. I have used K2, Seblod, Pages and Items, Zoo, you name it. They all have their strengths and weaknesses.

Gallery Field: Currently with the gallery field, all the images are shown in the article, which is not a nice idea to do.

In most cases users are looking around their current location.

You can do anything you want.

Unless you have some decent programming skills (php, mysql, html, css) none of them will be completely satisfying if you want to make a smart, appealing, intuitive and user friendly web application. In the end I am glad I have stumbled upon Cobalt :-)

Best regards,

Jeff

1) We will add bootstrap carrousel template to gallery field.

Unless you have some decent programming skills (php, mysql, html, css) none of them will be completely satisfying if you want to make a smart, appealing, intuitive and user friendly web application. In the end I am glad I have stumbled upon Cobalt

Agree bun without word dicent. i think just beginner knowledge of php is required. And of course CSS and HTML - the better you know the better you markup.

Seblod has an impressive amount of fields and I wish some of them will become available in Cobalt 9.

What exactly do you miss? Please post here ;-)

1) We will add bootstrap carrousel template to gallery field.

Good option. Nice to have. (AFAIK, the script lacks the thumbnails row plus bigger image feature)

What about this templatable alternative? Seems to be very versatile:

http://galleria.io

Which leads me to the older question about "backend parameters" for field templates. I know, we agreed that it is overkill for most users and fields. But in regards of most gallery scripts and templates... it might be useful to set and pass parameters to the script. Maybe a UI is too much to ask for... but what about a quick-edit button to the field-template and its source? (like quick edit for CSS in J! backend)

1) We will add bootstrap carrousel template to gallery field.

:)

What exactly do you miss? Please post here

Perfect! :)

Sergey Romanov

1) We will add bootstrap carrousel template to gallery field.

I also need this functionality. May I know when will this be implemented?

Kind Regards

Brian

Great to hear this. What a fast response, Sergey. Guys, you rock!!Thanks.

http://galleria.io and bootstrap carrousel is implemented. Took me 2 hours :)

But there is a problem with bootstrap. Joomla has JS somewhere to toggle some dives on slide automatically. So it does not works good. And also Joomla has very old bootstrap file. You will have to update it.

http://galleria.io and bootstrap carrousel is implemented. Took me 2 hours

Great!!. Does that mean we will have it in this thursday release?

Does that mean we will have it in this thursday release?

Absolutely!

Absolutely!

Great and looking forward to that.

Guys you Rock, I don't have any word for appreciation in my dictionary. I am now think I wasted my time with seblod, k2 etc etc...all waste. You are so fast in implementation, YOU REALLY CARE FOR YOUR CUSTOMER. I AM GIVING YOU 5* may be more if there are in JED review.

The gallery field is great and working very good.

nice you are happy, in my case, i switch to seblog, it is better especially author profil and field concat, etc

There are still many space for improvements...

1 - i cannot limit the uploads fields according to J!Usergroup or Emerald subscription (gallery/embed/file upload fields)

2 - i cannot limit the search options (who can search by this field) according to J!Usergroup or Emerald subscription

3 - As already mentioned in this topic, import tool.

On the other hand Cobalt has fields and funcionalities that only a few have... so on the overall i'm a happy customer. But would love to see these options implemented.