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Abstract: Contact Directory
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Contact Directory
Written by Chantal Bisson   

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.

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6 Comments

  1. Dario Barilà makes this comment

    What do you say to give the possibility to end users to send a contact with chosen fields from administrator... Gain up more flexibility to a core component. Greetings from Italy!

    Mon 05 May 2008 13:28:28 EDT

  2. Dario Barilà makes this comment

    Ajax power for front-end listing directory?

    Mon 05 May 2008 13:32:17 EDT

  3. Dan makes this comment

    Everything listed above sounds good. The two main shortcomings that I have found with the current Contacts component are: 1. The ability to make specific contact information available based on user rights. That is to say, I would like a directory where only part of the contact file information is available to non-registered users, but all of it is available to registered users. This would allow certain information within a contact file (e.g. cell phone # ) to remain semi-private, while still maintaining a public directory derived from the same contact file that might only list the persons address and office phone number, for example. 2. The ability to import from an address book. This would instantly allow me to establish an organization wide phone directory of contact I (and others) have living on our individual computers.

    Tue 06 May 2008 14:57:26 EDT

  4. Julian Zimmerle makes this comment

    It would be great if the new contact directory had captcha plugin interface, with a ReCaptcha plugin provided as standard.

    Sat 17 May 2008 01:29:19 EDT

  5. jared makes this comment

    Contacts XT for Joomla 1.0 had a critical feature enhancement over the basic contacts component, the ability to view contacts on a blog view. I strongly recommend this be included. for an example, see http://honorcode.byu.edu/index.php?option=com_contxtd&task=blog&catid=401&t=About+Us Thanks and good luck

    Wed 28 May 2008 01:39:07 EDT

  6. muddauber makes this comment

    I've seen a need for a specific stylesheet and more control of layout i.e margins, tables, font size, etc with integrated images as part of an improved contact directory. Part of the improvement in the Contact Directory would require the categories of members be more extensible.

    Wed 28 May 2008 20:38:20 EDT

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