ListingResources Add-on Manual

Last update: January 28th, 2015

Copyright © 2010-2015 ClickFWD LLC

Chapter 1 ListingResources Overview & Installation

The Listing Resources Add-on for JReviews allows submissions of 3rd party resources (affiliate links, news, articles, awards, ...) in the listing detail pages. It can handle any resource that you want to include that doesn't require a separate listing.

1.1 Features

Define different resource types for specific listing types.

Choose which user groups are allowed to submit/edit/delete resources.

Track visits to resource links.

Enable resource link cloaking.

Create a menu item for displaying resources (newest, most visited, ...).

Publish a resources module for displaying resources in module positions.

1.2 Usage Examples

Affiliate links on product listing detail pages

If you plan on generating income from affiliate links, the add-on provides a very simple way to do this and even allows you to cloak your affiliate links.

News and Critic Reviews for Movies, Games...

Easily complement the information in your existing listings with resources from other sites. Adding new resources is simple and they can be neatly organized by resource type.

1.3 ListingResources Installation

The add-on can be installed via the Remote Install & Update menu in the JReviews administration.

To install or update the addon you must have previously purchased it, your JReviews version needs to match or be greater than the one specified for the addon and you must have a valid "Upgrades & Support" package for your JReviews license.

If you purchased the addon, but it still says "addon not active for this license", go to the JReviews admin license screen, clear the local key text area and re-submit the license number. This will fetch a new local key that includes the addon information.

On the Install & Update page, check the Updates checkbox, and click on the Install button next to the ListingResources Add-on like on this image:

Reload the page to see the ListingResources Add-on link appear under the Add-ons header on the left sidebar:

Chapter 2 Defining Resource Types

The first step is to define the types of resources in the Resource Types add-on menu:

When you assign a specific resoure type to listing types, the "Add New Resource" button will appear in all listings that use the selected listing types and you can begin adding resources on the listing detail pages.

Chapter 3 Adding Resources

Users that are allowed to submit resources will see the Add New Resource button on the listing detail pages:

After clicking the button, a modal form will appear where users can enter resource details:

Chapter 4 Configuration

The add-on comes with many configuration options where you can choose how the resources are displayed, which form fields are required and which user groups are allowed to submit resources.

Add rel="nofollow" attribute to resource links - Enable if you don't want googlebot to follow resource links.

Cloak Resource links - If enabled, the links to resources will have example.com/resource?r=JGX4S format and redirect to the original URLs. Create a Link Cloaking Placeholder menu item to set the menu alias for cloaked URLs (more info in the Menus chapter).

Display Position - Select a position where the resources will be displayed on the listing detail page.

Resources Ordering - Choose how resources will be sorted.

Resources Display Mode - If you choose Separate resources by type, resources will be grouped by resource types.

Display Resource Type - This setting is used on both listing detail page and resource list pages.

Display 'Submitted by' - This setting is used on both listing detail page and resource list pages.

Display Submission Date - This setting is used on both listing detail page and resource list pages.

Display Resource Description - This setting is used on both listing detail page and resource list pages.

Display Resource Date - This setting is used on both listing detail page and resource list pages.

Display Resource Visits - This setting is used on both listing detail page and resource list pages.

Add Resources button to listing header - If enabled, "Resources" button will appear in the listing header next to "Add Media" and other listing buttons.

Display Listing Title - Enable if you want to show the listing title in resource details on resource list pages.

Display Listing Thumbnail - Displays listing main media next to the resource details.

Thumbnail Mode - Choose Scale or Crop mode for thumbnails,

Thumbnail Size - Enter thumbnail dimensions in WIDTHxHEIGHT format,

Resource Link - Resource link can be made optional or hidden if you want to allow resource submissions as listing "notes" without links.

Description - Description of the resource.

Allow HTML in Description - If enabled, simple html tags can be used in the description textara (including the img tag).

Resource Type - Resource type select list can be made optional or hidden.

Date - This field can be used if the resources have their own publish date (i.e. books, articles, ...).

Expiration Date - The resource will no longer be displayed on the site after the selected expiration date.

Submit New Resource - Choose which user groups will be allowed to submit resources.

Registered Group - Select All if you want registered users to be able to subimit resources to any listing, otherwise they'll be able to submit resources only to their own listings.

Moderate (Hold for approval) - Resource submissions of selected user groups will be submitted unpublished.

Edit Resource - Select all groups allowed to edit resources. Registered and Author groups are allowed to edit only their own resources.

Delete Resource - Select all groups allowed to delete resources. Registered and Author groups are allowed to delete only their own resources.

Chapter 5 Listing Resources Menu

The Listing Resources add-on provides these menu item types:

Resources List - For displaying a list of resources (i.e. newest resources, most visited resources, etc.).

My Resources - For logged in users to see the list of resources they submitted.

Link Cloaking Placeholder - The alias if this menu item will be used in cloaked resource URLs. For example, if you use "visit" as the menu alias, the resource URLs will look like this: example.com/visit?r=JGX4S.

To create those menu items, go to one of your Menus and click New in Joomla toolbar. In the menu type modal dialog choose JReviews -> Listing Resources:

In the Resources tab select the type of menu that you want to create and configure the parameters:

The menu parameters are used only if you select Resources List or My Resources menu types.

Order - Choose how the resources will be sorted.

Filter by Resource Type IDs - If you want the menu item to show resources from a single resource type, enter the ID number of that resouce type. The ID number can be checked in the Resource Types page in add-on administration.

Page total - Total number of resources to be shown.

Limit per page - Number of resources per page.

Theme suffix - Allows you to create a custom suffixed resources theme file that will be used for the menu item.

Example of the resources menu:

Chapter 6 Listing Resources Module

The Listing Resources Module allows you to display resources in any of the module positions of your site.

The module is installed automatically with the add-on installation. You can find it in the Joomla Module Manager where you can configure and publish it.

The module comes with many parameters:

Order - Choose how the resources will be sorted.

Display Listing Title - Enable if you want to show the listing title in resources.

Display 'Submitted by' - Shows which user submitted the resource.

Display Submission Date - When was the resource submitted.

Display Resource Type - Displays resource type label.

Display Resource Date - Displays the resource date.

Display Resource Visits - The number of clicks on the resource link.

Display Resource Description

Trim Description (# words) - Choose the number of description words that will be shown.

Theme suffix - Allows you to create a custom suffixed resources module theme file.

Show Listing Thumbnail - Displays listing main media next to the resource details.

Thumbnail Mode - Choose the thumbnail position in relation to the rest of the resource content.

Thumbnail Mode - Choose Scale or Crop mode for thumbnails.

Thumbnail Size - Enter thumbnail dimensions in WIDTHxHEIGHT format.

Resource Type IDs - If you want the module to show resources from a single resource type, enter the ID number of that resouce type. For resources from multiple resource types, separate IDs with commas. The ID numbers can be checked in the Resource Types page in add-on administration.

Positioning of Pagination - Choose the position of slider arrows when the module has multiple slider pages.

Page Transition - Choose the transition type for the slider pagination (Horizontal sliding | Vertical sliding | Fade effect).

Enable Slideshow - If enabled, the module will automatically advance slider pages.

Slideshow Interval (sec.) - Time between pages in seconds.

Max. number of results - Total number of results that will be displayed.

Results per page - How many results will be displayed per slider page. If you enter the same number as for Max. number of results, then the module slider will be disabled and all results will be displayed at once.

Columns - Choose how many results per row to show.

Show numbers - Adds numbers before each result.

Chapter 7 Theme Customizations

The ListingResources add-on theme files are located in this folder:

/components/com_jreviews_addons/listingresources/views/themes/listingresources/

These theme files should not be customized in the default location, instead copy them to your custom JReviews theme in jreviews_overrides.

7.1 Overriding add-on theme files

For example, the /themes/listingresources/resources/resource_layout.thtml theme file that is used on listing detail pages can be copied to your custom JReviews theme like this:

/templates/jreviews_overrides/views/themes/your_theme/resources/resource_layout.thtml

The theme file of the resouces module /themes/listingresources/modules/listingresources.thtml would go to:

/templates/jreviews_overrides/views/themes/your_theme/modules/listingresources.thtml

7.2 Overriding add-on css styles

CSS styles of the add-on are located in /themes/listingresources/theme_css/listingresources.css file, but this file should not be copied to your custom JReviews theme. Instead, only copy individual css styles that you want to customize from this file into the custom_styles.css file in your JReviews theme:

/templates/jreviews_overrides/views/themes/your_theme/theme_css/custom_styles.css

7.3 Overriding add-on language strings

The add-on language file is located here:

/components/com_jreviews_addons/listingresources/locale/eng/LC_MESSAGES/default.po

If you want to customize specific language strings, copy those individual strings into your main JReviews language override file:

/templates/jreviews_overrides/locale/eng/LC_MESSAGES/default.po