CB with PRINT + EXPORT TO EXCEL + MASS EMAIL

hello joomlapolitan citizens!

FIRST, i dont know if this is the right forum to post this,.. if it should be moved to the plug-ins section,.. please feel free to do so.

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we are currently developing a project that is based on the CB core.

the project that we are developing is not a plug-in but a component to add extended functionality to the CB core.

see below for visuals:



where:

A - Feature to download the list being viewed as MS Excel File

B - Extended Functionality of tick/check boxes to email a particular record(user/member)

C - Extended Functionality of printing the particular/individual record(user/member). once the button/icon is clicked the the fields being shown in the userlist record will be printed out(print page pops-up)

D - Extended Functionality to check ALL the boxes in the email so that once clicked email will be sent to all the users/members being shown in the list.

we plan to release this extended functionality to the community(open source) once the project is done.

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QUESTION:

1. is there a project similar to this in existence? if yes, please lead us to what plug-in or add on is it. since we plan to add this in the joomla forge.

guilliam

Hi Guilliam,

first of all this is my personal opinion - I am sure Beat will respond when he gets a chance.

I like the description.
You can probably accomplish this with a new component that feeds off of the core CB tables (hopefully these won't change - at least I see no reason for them changing). It would also be nice to allow front-end searching of the database and formatting of the output list. I like the idea.
We have also discussed a similar component with Anytime (see other forum post) - at least the search part.

I would also like to see some 'opt-in' type functionality to allow end-users to chose whether or not to allow the mass mailing features to spam them (some feel this is spam).

To conclude - I have no problem (Beat should also comment on this) and I feel that if done correctly it will supplement the core CB functionality nicely.

Post edited by: nant, at: 2005/12/26 11:08

hello nick!

thanks for taking time to reply. will see what Beat's insight on this. so it is confirmed that there is non existent functionality yet(3pd add on) with:

1. individual print
2. individual and mass email via check boxes
3. export the (current/being viewed) list to excel

??

happy holidays!


- g

Post edited by: guilliam, at: 2005/12/26 11:21

Hi Guilliam,

Very cool ideas!

What other kinds of things will your component do? Are you planning to release a fork of CB?

If this is the extend of your improvements I'd love to see you submit this for inclusion in our next major release instead of releasing any time of fork...I think they are features that everyone in the community would really benefit from.

hello joe!

thanks for the warm reply.

when we got into this project(for a commercial project here in PH).. it took us time to assess in which path we will be taking.. as you pointed out the possibility of a FORK version in which this WAS supposed the path we are going to take.

HOWEVER, since you have mentioned the POSSIBILITY of having this modifications and extended features that we are developing to be added to the CB core then we might reassess are plan to make a it as a core contribution instead. that way future updates can also benefit the client we are developing this extended functionalities.

YGPM, please check.

looking forward.

- g

guilliam wrote:

hello joe!

thanks for the warm reply.

when we got into this project(for a commercial project here in PH).. it took us time to assess in which path we will be taking.. as you pointed out the possibility of a FORK version in which this WAS supposed the path we are going to take.

HOWEVER, since you have mentioned the POSSIBILITY of having this modifications and extended features that we are developing to be added to the CB core then we might reassess are plan to make a it as a core contribution instead. that way future updates can also benefit the client we are developing this extended functionalities.

YGPM, please check.

looking forward.

- g

- Cool ideas (definitely in need of some sort of ACL btw ).

- We are aiming at modularity as much as possible, leveraging the plugin API.

- When you evaluate how to implement these features, try to think plugins as much as possible. There may be a few APIs missing for that, that we will happily integrate into the core, and others which are almost there.

You can email me with contact form for coordinating design and API definitions.

Please PM also to Nick to be added to the 3PD here, on the test-site and on developer.joomla.org.

Welcome to the dev-party