After a whole summer of coding during the evenings and weekends, the GSoC project has finally come to an end. During the summer, I worked hard to build a contact component that would give flexibility while making it easier to add multiple contact and display them as a directory.

In the past couple of weeks, I have specifically been working on making it possible to import contacts from a CSV file. The CSV file format is a specially formatted plain text file which stores spreadsheet or basic database-style information in a very simple format. Therefore it will be easy to insert the contacts in a spreadsheet, save it as a CSV file and then import it into the Joomla! database. I have also been fixing bugs that you have reported and that I have found while doing some testing.

I have uploaded on the Web a new alpha release of my component with all the changes that have been made since the last release. It is available for download at www.chantalbisson.com/download.

Although the Summer of Code is now over, it is not the end for my project. I still have a tone of ideas to get the contact component even better, and I intend to keep working on implementing those ideas in the future. I will be providing some documentation on how to use the component (especially the import contacts functionality) in the next few days in order to help you get a better understanding of how my component works.

I have extremely enjoyed being part of the GSoC project this summer. It has been a great experience, filled with challenges to overcome, problems to solve and lots, lots of fun. It has also been a good learning experience where I have bettered my PHP skills, learnt how the Joomla! Framework works, bettered my understanding of databases, etc.

I have also enjoyed working with an open source community such as Joomla! where people all around the world help each other make the best software possible. I would like to thank all of you that have helped me In all kinds of ways by giving your support, sharing your great ideas, and helping me test the components to find bugs in my code. I would also like to thank all the Joomla! GSoC organizers, and mentors (especially Sam, my personal mentor) that have volunteered many hours to make this summer a success.