Last few days I spent on optimizing, improving and a bit debugging my code. I reckon it works quite smart now, but I still have a few ideas how to develop the project in the future and I'm going to do it I made small screencast, showing how to tag and review content. It's available here.
What is more, I runned Demo Site, so you can test it on your own.
To log in as an author please use:
login: demo, password: demo
To log in into back-end section please use:
login: admin, password: admin
The newest JTags package is available here.
I hope you will like it.

After discussion with a few persons from Joomla! Community (thanks Ercan  ), but not only, I decided to simplify the way of inserting new tags.
Previously editor had to click editor-xtd button to open a new lightbox window, and after that, he could tag his content.
Now it looks much easier.
While editing, below the article text box, there is a new text field "insert tags" like in the picture:

User is able to tag content without clicking on Insert Tags button.
I also took advantage of new trigger function onAfterContentSave. Thanks to this, tags are saved automagically just after article is saved, so everything is saved after clicking on the main Save button.
This function was added in Joomla 1.5.4 so it is indispensable to upgrade Joomla, if needed. The newest package can be downloaded from here.

I am proud to announce, that JTags project is coming to the end
Here is what I have recently done:

• search tags plugin - just to allow searching articles by tags (it's also indispensable for component and module full functionality)

• tags cloud module - shows the most frequent used tags in smart cloud - specific algorithm calculates font size depending on how many times tag was used to tag articles

It's fully customizable - you can determine font size range or number of tags to show in module - all by single mouse click

Whole package can be downloaded here. If you find any bugs please let me know. Rest of remaning time I plan to spend on adding ini files to make possible creating new language translations, improving graphics and scrubing up the code. I am glad you like my project!

Today I finished developing the next part of JTags project: content plugin. It allows to display submitted tags in the head of each tagged article. Since now, it is possible to see all related to article tags, just like in the following image:

The next step to achieve is to write a search plug-in to scan the tags along with the results for content. This will simplify searching tags a lot.

I like JTable function store() very much. It saves a lot of time while coding and prevents from making mistakes! I just want to share with you my thoughts about store(). So, from wiki we know that it

"Inserts a new row if id is zero or updates an existing row in the database table."

But how does it know, if it is a new row, or we just want to update one? Actually it is very simple - Joomla! binds all fields in POST form to database fields. If there is any field whichs name is exactly like primary key field in DB (with auto_increment option) then it knows, that there is existing record in database :-)

I would like to announce first part of JTags project has successfully come to the end I learned a lot, got to know few tricks to simplify working with Joomla! To sum up, what have been done:

• component front-end: here user can see the most frequent tags (based on this, i will create tag cloud module after mid-term)
• component back-end: here admin can manage added tags, see how many times tag was used and modify tag name (e.g. "joomla" to "joomla!")
• editor-xtd "insert tags" button: when editing article, user can use "insert tags" button to tag article, or modify existing tags. This plugin is connected with jtags component and can not works by itself

What I want to do after mid-term deadline:

• plug-in displaying submitted tags in the head of article
• tag cloud module to enable visual tags represantation (the more frequent tag means bigger label)
• search plug-in to allow users searching articles by tags
• a little component modification in front-end, just to link most frequent tags with search plug-in
• multiple translations

Any comment is appreciated :)

I am just in the most crucial stage of development. Editor-xtd button is working now, it is connected to jtags component to allow saving typed tags to database. Here is my short to-do list:
- create editor-xtd plugin button (engine is almost done, just needs interface improvement)
- enable showing tags list and quantity in admin panel to get know, how many times tag was used (it is already done, but there will be also functionality to modify existing tags - just to change many tagged articles in one click)
- list of all tagged articles in front-end (engine is done, but needs interface improvment too)
- multiple translations (right know, english is only one available)
- little code clean-up
After mid-term deadline I will create new plugin to show tags in tagged article, and two modules: one responsible for searching requested article, the second one - tag cloud for tags visual representation).

Almost whole last month I spent on wondering how the project should be done in technical way. Everybody knows the worst thing, developer can do is to start coding without any sensible idea how project should be created. Mistake made in early project stage involves many unnecessary changes, that could have been avoided. But now I know what exactly I need to develop this. I created entity relationship diagram to help me understand the idea of storing data. This can be also helpful, when I would back to it in the future.

The first thing I need to do is editor-xtd plugin button in administrator panel. This provides very comfortable interface (it's using modal-button class) to tag content. You can download alfa version of it from here. Right now, it shows "Insert Tags" button, when we want to add tag to existing article

or "You have to save content before tagging" otherwise.

The reason of it is obvious: Joomla! can't predict what will be new article ID (it doesn't exist yet in DB), so it just can't tag it.
Inserting (i mean: storing in database) tags is the next step I want to follow. After that I will start to provide admin back-end interface to manage added tags.

Thank you and stay in touch!

I am quite new to Joomla! Community as well as new to blogging, so forgive this post to be a bit chaotic.

First of all, I'am glad, I'am here, I can participate in GSoC. It is beatiful to think that I have a possibility to develop something that can be used by many people from over the world . This encourages me the most not only to create flexible and functional solution, but also keep it smart & simple. Thanks to it, I have an additional motivation to make regular code comments and describe every function. Some time ago I thought "OK, I know what this code is for, I will comment it at the end", but obviously I forgot about it (what a shame to admit, but nobody is perfect ;))

To say something about my beginnings with Joomla!... I got know about this CMS in December 2006, when I met some guy, who asked me and the friend of mine to create Joomla! component. I was quite new to CMS's and to be honest I had completely no idea what to do and how exactly is has to be done, but I thought "why not? I can handle that". We created out first real application component! :) Our satisfaction was indiscribable. That is how I started to familiarize with Joomla!. I am the living example that you learn the most when you are obliged to complete some task, when you have to struggle with every smallest detail.

OK, so much for the introduction, let's say a few words about what I am going to create. The general idea of my project is to enable users inserting specific labels to tag any Joomla! content. Some time ago I was browsing some site and looked for articles related to "iPhone". Unfortunately I was forced to browse every page and stare at text just focused to find requested label. I guess many of you was at the similar situation, so you know how it is tiring and frustrating. If only I could just select/type "iPhone" tag, I would find requested articles just in eye blink. I have a few free ideas what exact functionality would be, for instance, I wonder, is there a need to enable single, even not logged in user adding tags to article, or only specified users are able to do so. What is more I have idea to create something called "tag cloud". Depending on how many times tag label was clicked, the label size in cloud would be larger. This box would contain for instance 10 most clicked tags. This would be quite useful to see what is the most popular.
That is it by now, any your comments or hints are kindly appreciated.
Thanks for reading it :)

Jacek Zielinski is an undergraduate Computer Science student at the Poznan University of Technology in Poznan, Poland. Jacek enjoys working with Web applications and has strong skill in PHP, Ajax, CSS, XHTML, ASP.NET, C#, and Java. He has worked with Joomla! for over two years having built numerous Joomla! Web sites and many extensions, including components, modules, and plugins. Jacek also has strong DBA skills in both MySQL and Oracle.

Mentor: Dr. Paul Ambrose has a Ph.D. in information systems, and is an assistant professor of Management Computer Systems at the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater. Paul teaches client-server systems development and uses Joomla! in his classes and to build web applications for small business and non-profits. He also co-manages the Wisconsin Center for IT Services at UW-Whitewater, which specializes in providing open source solutions to regional businesses.