Today, Anything Digital announced the immediate release of sh404SEF version 2.0, Release Candidate 1.
This version is the first major version of the extension since Anything Digital and the lead developer Yannick Gaultier started working together last year.
The version released today is a release candidate (RC1), and should work well for most sites. It is fully backwards compatible with sh404SEF v1.5 in case you need to roll back for any reason.
Loads of new features
I was lucky enough to be able to sit down with lead developer Yannick Gaultier during the J and Beyond conference in Wiesbaden. He showed me the whole system, and I must say I was impressed. I had some comments as well, and to my joy Yannick actually implemented some of my suggestions. sh404SEF has got a lot of new functions. The most important ones are:
- Visitors to your site using mobile devices such as the iPad, iPhone and Android-based phone can now automatically view your site in your optimized mobile site template.
- Automated tiny URL generation
- Version checker inside the component, including link to download any new version
- Ability to activate the security and SEF generation functions independently
- Advanced export / import functions lets you export your URLs, edit them in Excel and import aback into sh404SEF
- Vastly improved meta tag management makes it very easy to edit title and description tags for several pages at the same time
If you missed it, check out the video featuring Yannick and Victor talking about sh404SEF version 2.
Totally revamped interface
As a long term user of sh404SEF, I've come to like it a lot. However, there has been some strange things in the interface and methodology. For instance, the logic in purging your database after each and every change to the configuration was a bit confusing. In version 2.0 this has been improved, among several other user-interface issues.
A nice touch is that every setting is done in a modal box (light box). Normally, this would give you a save and cancel button in the upper right hand corner. However, Yannick has managed to put in the normal Save, Apply and Close buttons in the modal window. This is just one of several things that show this release has been worked on thoroughly.
Victor Drover, CEO of Anything Digital, is excited about the release:
sh404SEF users are very passionate, and we know they will be as excited as we are when they start using version 2
I want to congratulate Yannick and Victor on this release. I know it's been a lot of hard work.
First, the transition from free to commercial extension. Then working through over a year of backlog with bug fixes and feature requests. And finally the complete rework of the extension into what I now feel is a lot more complete and professional SEF URL package for Joomla.
Visit Anything Digital to learn more about sh404SEF
Stay tuned for a Quick Look at sh404SEF version 2.
I will also update my post on how to set up sh404SEF when the final version has been released.