K2 Component

In order for K2 to inherit the styling from the template, and have the same appearance as the demo, you will need to go to Admin → Components → K2. Select Parameters from the button menu in the upper right of the administrator, and set Enable K2 base CSS to No then save.

K2 is a content construction component (similar to CCK for those acquainted with Drupal), which lets you create custom content types (items) for your Joomla! website. With K2, you can transform your Joomla! website to a news site with author blogs, product catalogs, work portfolio, knowledge base, download/document manager, directory listing, event listing and more, all this bundled under one component. Again, Affinity has styled support for this component to visually integrate the powerful component from JoomlaWorks.gr.

Note: K2 will not be available as part of the RocketLauncher.

Advanced Features

K2 is well beyond the capacity of the ordinary Joomla content component, allowing for multiple category levels, in contrast to the single section / category levels of Joomla; ACL control, allowing the creation of special permissions orientating on content control; Layout options, much more extensive options on controlling the exact layout. There are some of the key features of K2 and the ones which we will outline in some detail below. However, do note, the main avenue of help should be the JoomlaWorks site, as they are K2's developers.

Multiple Level Categories

A simple concept, but one vacant from the core Joomla content component. To understand the new feature, it is best to understand the limitations of the Joomla core. In Joomla, you can setup Sections, were you can have multiple child categories and in each category, you have your articles. In this setup, Sections are the top level grouping with sub-levels which are the categories, so this equates to two levels. Therefore, it should be apparent that there is severe limitations when it comes to deeper levels. You cannot, for example, have a Sports section with a category called Olympics then another subset, named Swimming and even another child group such as 200m Relays. With very large sites that have a main focus on content, this is a fatal weakness.

Luckily, K2 solves this concern by extending Joomla content beyond its current limits with effectively, unlimited level categories. The scenario outlined above pertaining to Sports sections / categories would be possible with K2, and incredibly easy to implement. This is a frequently requested feature in Joomla and K2 offers this functionality.

Setup

Creation of the multiple level categories is extremely easy, and any one familiar with the basics of Joomla will be home in the K2 dashboard. To access the Categories manager of K2, you need to login into the Joomla Administrator and go to Component → K2 → Categories. You will now be in the K2 Category Manager. From here, select the New button in the upper right of the screen to create a new category, simply setup the item to match your preferences. There are many more options than core Joomla here but only concern yourself with the basics for the purposes of multiple-level setup.

The primary focus is the Parent selectbox. From here, you can select which other category you wish for the one you are creating / editing to be a child / sub of. You can repeat this for all child items. Therefore, to echo the example above, you would create a Sports category as a top level item and Olympics you would set the parent as Sports and so on.

ACL Control

Joomla has several ACL types, these are essentially Public, Registered and Special. Special is sub-divided into the following roles, author, publisher, editor, manager, administrator and super administrator. However, the controls are quite limiting when it comes to advanced control over user activity. Although K2 is not an ACL solution, such as JACL, it does have advanced functions to allow you to control the competencies of K2, i.e. its content. With K2, you can create User Groups, where you can set which number of users have control over certain content items. For example, you may have 3 users who you wish to only create/edit in the Sports category on your site, out of 100 categories. K2 allows for this.

Go to Admin → Components → K2 → User Groups. From there, select New and setup your own group. You can set the controls that are typically assigned to the author, publisher, editor roles in Joomla but more diverse and interchangeable. For total ACL control, you will want to browse http://extensions.joomla.org

Configuration

K2 is a powerful component and has a plethora of options to configure the vast areas of the component. There are effectively 3 areas were you would want to control the specifics of the content, these are the Menu parameters, the Category parameters and singular Item parameters. In each area, there are many options to configure everything from author/creation date/modified date to the number of articles to appear per section, and how many per column and more layout controls pertaining to each row. Almost everything you would want to control from the comfort of the Joomla administrator are available to you.

JomSocial Component

JomSocial is a full online community component that runs natively on Joomla 1.5. JomSocial is a part of the Azrul.com network of products and is fully compatibly with MyBlog and JomComment.

Summary Features List:

• Customize profile fields.
• Create groups. Invite friends.
• Send private messages. Comment on walls.
• Share photos. Follow updates via activity stream.
• Video sharing including embedding and video uploads.
• Included applications for Twitter, RSS Feeds, and more.
• Integrate 3rd party components with our robust API.
• and much more...

JomSocial System Requirements

Beyond including all the necessary and fun community features that keep users coming back to check in, JomSocial is easy to install. There are a few system requirements to keep in mind before installing it on a live site. These requirements are pretty standard on most major webhosts but it doesn't hurt to check up on them.

System Requirements Checklist:

• Joomla! 1.5.7 or above
• PHP 5.1 and above
• MySQL 4.1 and above
• GD library (at least v1.8 with libjpeg)
• Curl library
• PHP functions: fsockopen and exec
• minimum of 16Mb memory reserved for PHP
• /components/com_community folder must not be used by other component
• PHP's max_execution_time should ideally be 60 (seconds) or more
• ffmpeg is necessary for video uploads but not for embedding videos

You may need to check with your host to verify some of these.

JomSocial Documentation Links

Be sure to make use of the JomSocial documentation.

• Documentation Index

Tips and Tricks

• IE7: Operation Aborted while viewing Profile page

Create your own social network.

Now everyone can create a thriving, unique and interactive Joomla! community... effortlessly!

• Customize profile fields.
• Create groups. Invite friends.
• Send private messages. Comment on walls.
• Share photos. Follow updates via activity stream.
• Integrate 3rd party components with our robust API.
• and much more...

Your community with your brand - Build your own social network with your own logos, graphics and themes. Customize the look of your community through CSS edits; or use the included templates to get your community up and running in no time.

Create groups and manage them - Create unlimited special-interest groups with Jomsocial and manage them all easily. Add more members to your groups by inviting your friends and hide any group you wish with our unique Privacy Settings.

Follow users activity stream - Get real-time updates on friends' daily activities through Jomsocial Activity Stream. Follow personal blogs and Twitter posts from one location.

Share photos - Creating photo albums to share with friends is as easy as 1-2-3! Get your friends to comment on your photos, and as an admin, delete the community photos you deem inappropriate. You have total control over your community.

Connect with friends - Chatting with old friends and making new ones is central to JomSocial. Members can send private messages to anyone and connect amongst themselves at any time.

Media Support - Jomsocial supports Youtube, Vimeo, and more on community user Walls with 3rd-party video apps such as Highwood Video and Seyret.

JomSocial Advantages

JomSocial has the convenience of using the standard Joomla user table so nearly any login module you choose will work. You can also link to the standard Joomla "forgot password" and "forgot username" pages. This improves compatibility greatly when using extensions like RokBridge with phpBB3. If you are using both systems in tandem, please consider editing phpBB3 registraton links as this will ensure that your user's login info stays synced (only available to phpBB3 club members). The current JomSocial phpBB3 plugin is designed around RokBridge due to it's non-invasive code structure and ease of installation.

If a user registers through Joomla's registration, this user will be registered with JomSocial and have access to all the user applications. This is also true for any user added by the Administrator of the site. JomSocial does have a customized registration that allows for custom profile fields to be added and then set as optional or mandatory. Registration links can easily be redirected to make sure all new users take advantage of the customized registration process. There is also an included "Hello Me" module with a login form and links as well as displayed user information and avatar once logged in.

An additional option is "Facebook Connect" which is part of the core download of JomSocial. If you are planning on using this feature, please read: Facebook Connect Documentation. Please also note that you should not sync a "Super Administrator" user with a Facebook account. This can cause you to lose login abilities.

Facebook Connect in JomSocial allows users who already have a Facebook account to seamlessly connect their Facebook account and information with your site with a single sign on process which does not require the user to remember multiple account information.

Community Builder Component

Community Builder is an iconic community platform for Joomla. It serves primarily as a profile extended to Joomla, allowing more substantive controls and options for user profiles. The extension is developed by JoomlaPolis.com. In Affinity, there is styling to adapt the Community Builder layout to the design of the template, such as the modified tabbed design, adaptations to the input areas.

Community Builder is a free 3rd party component for Joomla so you can download it without the need for purchase. However, JoomlaPolis do charge for their documentation so if you feel you need need their documentation, you will need to purchase a subscription with them.

However, in any instance, the template will still provide basic styling for the component.

Note: Community Builder will not be available as part of the RocketLauncher.

Main Features

• Works natively with all flavors of Joomla and Mambo
• Extended registration – add more fields to registration application, approval workflow via front -end moderation, add captcha for spam protection, real-time (ajax) email address checking, unique username (ajax) checking. Choose one of four available workflows.
• Field types supported: text, text area, single checkbox, multi-checkbox, radio, editor area, image, file, ajax text, rating field, integer field and delimiter field. Additional field types can be created and installed as CB plugins
• CB login module that displays member image, link to profile, private message integration, captcha integration, etc.
• CB Moderation module to present front-end moderation actions for CB Moderators
• CB Online module to display online members (also works with Joomla online module)
• CB Content module that displays CB menu items, CB Fields and CB Tabs in a module position.
• Create unlimited user lists to display specific data for each member. Sort and filter lists as needed. Create specific list menu item. Select which CMS group members should be candidates for user list. Specify if user list is searchable or not. Dynamic user lists transform themselves based on viewer (e.g., show all members that live in the same country as viewer).
• Enable profile image uploading and front-end moderation (via CB Workflow module) or allow avatar selection from given gallery avatar items
• Enable connections feature to permit members to connect to each other with or without approvals (configurable)
• Extend CB profile with CB plugins. Built-in plugins include PMS integration (e.g., uddeIM), forum integration (e.g., Kuena), article integration and newsletter integration (Yanc). CB Team released plugins include: captcha, autowelcome, gallery, profilebook (with blog and wall), privacy plugin.
• All front-end elements are language ready and can be modified or translated as needed.

For more information pertaining to Community Builder, please visit a FAQ page here

3rd Party Extensions

Affinity has support for many popular community extensions from 3rd parties. The styling support is as extensive as each application allows. You can see a list, with a short description below for each extension item.

Note: All the extensions below and their peripheries will not be included in the RocketLauncher package. You will need to download and install separately.

3rd Party Extensions List

• JomSocial Support
  JomSocial is a community / social networking component from Azrul. The extension is commercial and is available for Joomla 1.5.7+ only. The Affinity template has inbuilt support for the component, using the override feature of Joomla 1.5 to restyle the default variations to seamlessly integrated into the July template release. JomSocial is the perfect compliment to a community geared template. Note, JomSocial is not included in the RocketLauncher due to its commercial status.
  Live Demo
   
  Download
   
  Documentation
• Community Builder
  Community Builder is an iconic community platform for Joomla. It serves primarily as a profile extended to Joomla, allowing more substantive controls and options for user profiles. The template has individual styling for the Community Builder profile pages for seamless integration and similarly, the component is not included in the RocketLauncher but you can easily download from JoomlaPolis.com.
  Live Demo
   
  Download
   
  Documentation
• K2
  K2 is a content construction component (similar to CCK for those acquainted with Drupal), which lets you create custom content types (items) for your Joomla! website. With K2, you can transform your Joomla! website to a news site with author blogs, product catalogs, work portfolio, knowledge base, download/document manager, directory listing, event listing and more, all this bundled under one component. Again, Affinity has styled support for this component to visually integrate the powerful component from JoomlaWorks.gr.
  Live Demo
   
  Download
   
  Documentation
• phpBB3
  phpBB3 is a powerful forum, and is the platform of choice for Joomla.org as well as our very own RocketTheme forum. The Affinity phpBB3 style is a product of the RocketTheme phpBB3 styles club and you will need to be a member in order to access the theme. Note: Joomla Template Club members do NOT have access to this theme.
  
  However, as a community template, the joint launch of bother Joomla and phpBB3 counterparts is important, hence the synchronicity. Although, there are important Joomla elements that should be noted. Firstly, the Joomla and phpBB3 sites are synced via RokBridge, a free bridging component for the two platforms, and a series of modules to extract data from phpBB3 into Joomla are present, such as Latest Posts.
  Demo: Affinity
   
  Download: phpBB3
   
  Download: Affinity
   
  Documentation