As I'm on the edge of beginning my project for GSoC and still in the conception phase, I would very much like if you, the community, help me to make the best contact and directory component possible this summer, by writing, down below, any comments you may have or functions you would like to see implemeted in the future component.

This project is basicly being created with the future prospect of being implemented in Joomla! itself and the more you get involved, better are the chances that the new component meets your needs and asperations. I will do my best to add as many of your ideas into the component, as long as it stays feasable during the time frame.

Thank for your help in making this project a successful one and I can't wait to read all the incredible ideas you may have.

Chantal Bisson is a sophomore in Software Engineering at Laval University in Quebec City in Canada. She is passionate about everything related to the Internet, from programming Web applications to designing templates, and is especially interested in working with free and open source software like Mozilla, Eclipse, and Joomla!. Chantal works at POPcliQ and has acquired advanced skills in xHTML and CSS through her experiences with Joomla! templates. She also has skills with JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, C, C++, Java, Flex and ActionScript 3.

Mentor: Sam Moffatt works for the Toowoomba Regional Council in Queensland, Australia where his responsibilities include application and Web development, server and database administration. Sam has a long history dating back to 2003 with Mambo and was a student in the first GSoC program in 2005. Due to his success, Sam was invited to join the Joomla! core and development teams where he advanced such initiatives as JoomlaCode, Migrator, and authentication. This is Sam's third year as GSoC mentor.

The project that I will be working on for GsoC is to build a new and improved Contact & Directory component for Joomla!’s core installation.

The current contact component has not changed since Joomla!’s early days and does not meet the current need of Joomla! users. My plan is to completely transform the current component into a new one that will give users much more flexibility for their sites.

The component will have two main parts to its making: a new & improved Contact component as well as a functional Mini Directory component.

The goal is to develop the current Contact component (information/form page) in which it will then be possible to choose the fields needed for the contact information and the layout (amongst a few layouts) that they want within the administrator.

Secondly, the component will also be a Directory of contacts in which all the contacts can be listed alphabetically and/or by category. It will also be possible to choose the fields that show up for each contact and the layout (amongst a few layouts). By clicking on a contact, the link will point to the contact information/form page for more details or to send a message using the contact form. There will be an option in the parameters of the directory to show a search box in which the viewer will be able to search for a particular contact if the directory has many contacts. A nice feature that I would also like to implement will be the possibility to add many contacts at the same time by uploading a spreadsheet or text file. This will help those who have many contacts to add to their site at once.