JoomlaWorks just released version 2.3 of their free CCK component for Joomla: K2.
The new version has a large number of new features. K2 extends the functions of the Joomla! core and makes it easier to submit and manage large content driven sites. Additionally, it makes it easy to manage users and give access to certain content items. You can also create custom content templates for the purpose of blogs, catalogs, news sites and much more.
Another great feature of this release is the improved SEO functions: K2 will now auto-append the first 150 characters of the item's text onto the "description" meta tag, if none is specified. It will also use any tags added for the "keyword" meta tag.
In this post, Fotis Evangelou and Lefteris Kavadas speak about the new version of K2.
Read on to see the video interview
K2 won the award for «Best Joomla! component» during the J!Oscars awards 2010 in Wiesbaden, Germany.
New features in K2, version 2.3
- New view called "latest items by selected users or categories", ideal for magazine layouts
- New module mod_k2_users which fetches a list of users by some filters along with X latest items of theirs (see it running on http://jandbeyond.org additionally to the demo site)
- Consistency in content editing workflows, templating, CSS logic and more
- Media browser for images & videos in the item edit form
- New "lock tags" option so you can build your site/community around preset tags
- New WYSIWIG option for "textarea" type of "Extra Fields". CSV data uploaded via "extra fields" can now be deleted.
- mod_k2_content now has new content filters, e.g. the ability to fetch items with a video in them
- New K2 plugin events allow for overriding the default K2 comments system with an external one
- All component templates as well as mod_k2_content & mod_k2_users templates are now all based on the concept of "on-the-fly" MVC templating (which JoomlaWorks introduced first!), which means you can create folder overrides just inside your Joomla! template!
- More neutralized CSS, easier to style, easier to override. Template developers can copy the /css and /images folder from /components/com_k2 and put them inside their templates to fully override K2's CSS!
- br elements which caused unnecessary vertical spacing on WebKit based browsers like Safari and Chrome are now gone from all module and component templates.
- Joom!Fish translation in the frontend is now back and properly working (thanks to Alex Kempkens at http://www.joomfish.net for his great help)
- New "keep-alive" editing means you will never be logged out from the admin (or frontend) when editing a K2 item!
- sh404SEF compatibility has been tested extensively and successfully above all!
- IE CSS files are now gone!
- User avatar settings on modules can now be fully controlled.
- Rich HTML commenting is now available. URLs will also be converted to HTML links.
- Better URLs (without ?itemlist or other queries, as created in some cases inside modules)
- K2 Tag cloud can be filtered by category
- Experimental JomSocial avatar integration (Azrul, we need a copy! :) ). Community Builder integration coming in v2.4.
- Better SEO! K2 will now auto-append the first 150 words of the item's text onto the "description" meta tag, if none is specified. It will also use any tags added for the "keyword" meta tag.
- You can now choose to completely hide the generated RSS feed link as appended in the <head> of the document. This is a separate option to the RSS feed icon which remains unchanged.
- You can now enable or disable K2 or Joomla! plugins parsed through mod_k2_content. Useful when you want to "mute" plugins ;)
- K2 now generates RSS feeds from any content generated practically from all modules and the component of course. There is a built in mechanism in K2 that also allows to fetch content in a REST API fashion (but more on that on later blog post!).
- Refinements in the frontend and backend forms now make content editing a joy!
I've been playing with the SVN releases of K2 2.3 for a while, and it looks really good. I'm using it on this blog for my Quick Look section.
Live demo and how to upgrade K2
You can see it running on the official demo site at: http://demo.getk2.org
If you're upgrading from a previous 2.x version, simply upload on top. If you're new to K2, install the package and then import some content from Joomla! by going to Components >> K2 in the backend and then hitting the content import tool in the top right corner.