AIB - Author Info Box - Kubik-Rubik Joomla! Extensions

JOOMLA 4.x JOOMLA 3.x FREE PRO

Name: Author Info Box - Version 3.1.5 / 3.2.3.0-PRO / 4.0.4.0-PRO - Type: Plugin - License: GPLv3
Description: Shows information about the author of the article - Author Info Box - Joomla! Extensions Directory

Overview of all downloads of the extension: AIB - Author Info Box Downloads

AIB displays information about the authors above or underneath the articles

Plugin: AIB - Author Info Box
Function: Shows information of the author (content provider) in an info box.
Supported 3rd party extensions: JomSocial, Kunena, Author List, Joomla! Profile Plugin and Joomla! Contact Component
Languages: English and German

Author Info Box displays important information about the author above or underneath the article. The plugin shows the following information: name, image (avatar), website, email address and description (about me). The author information are optional and can be activated in all possible variations. They are obtained from several sources: the name and e-mail address from the normal user profile, website and description accessing data from the Joomla! "User - Profile plugin" (Fields: Website and About me) or the JomSocial, Kunena and Author List profile. The image is loaded from the Gravatar service (gravatar.com) or the JomSocial, Kunena and Author List profile. In addition, a link can be set to the JomSocial, Kunena or Author List profiles.

The infobox may be displayed before or after the articles. The loading of the plugin can be limited on the article view and be controlled by 4 different ID assignments (author id, article id, category id and item id).

The complete output is defined by the included CSS file. The box should be adjusted to the own template using this CSS file!

Features

Author Info Box - show information about the authors
All fields are optional
Individual titles for the box and the description text of the author
Data are loaded from: Author Info Box Profile Plugin, Joomla! Profile Plugin, Joomla! Contact Component, JomSocial, Kunena, Author List and Gravatar
Name - real name or username
Set a link to the Joomla! Contact Component, JomSocial, Kunena or Author List profiles of the authors
Email Address - protected with the cloak functionality of Joomla! or in plain text
Description - short text about the author - is loaded from the "User - Profile" plugin or the JomSocial, Kunena or Author List profile
Website - is loaded from the "User - Profile" Plugin or the JomSocial / Kunena profile
Image of the author - Avatar - is loaded from Gravatar (free registration at gravatar.com needed) or the JomSocial, Kunena or Author List profile
Info box positon - before or after the articles
Article view - authorbox can be limited to the article view
The triggering of the plugin can be controlled by IDs of the articles
List with links to other articles of the loaded author
Languages: English and German

Installation

Install the plugin in the backend and configure it in "Extensions" - "Plugins" - "Content - Author Info Box"

Description from the language file:

Author Info Box - AIB

Show relevant information about the author under or above an article.

The plugin uses the data from the Joomla! plugin 'Users - Profile Plugin', the component JomSocial, the forum component Kunena or the author component Author List. Please enable the plugin and add the needed information in the profiles of the authors if you want to use the Profile Plugin solution.

You may adjust the complete output of the plugin with the included CSS file authorinfobox.css. Create your individual author info box!

Settings:

Title for info box - A title can be set for the complete info box. Leave blank if no title is desired.

Show name - The displayed name of the author can be selected here. You can select the real name, username or no name.

Link to the profile - Set a link to the profile of the author.

Use Avatar? - This option is used to display an image of the authors from Gravatar, JomSocial or Kunena. For Gravatar: The authors have to create a free account at gravatar.com with the same e-mail address registered in their profiles. They can upload an image to Gravatar. This image is displayed after few minutes in the info box. If the author has no Gravatar account, then a default image is displayed by Gravatar.

Show website - The website is loaded from the "User - Profile" plugin or the JomSocial / Kunena profile.

Show email address - Show the email address of the author? The email address is protected with the cloaking system of the Joomla! core function. You can also show the email address in plain text (not protected).

Title for description - A title can be set for the author description. Leave blank if no title is desired.

Show description - Show the description of the author? This information is loaded from the entered data of the plugin "User - Profile" or the JomSocial / Kunena profile!

Article view - Show the info box only in the article view? If this option is activated, the plugin is not triggered in the blog or featured view.

Position - The author box can be displayed before or after the article.

Exclude authors using their ID - Here you may exclude authors using their IDs. You may find the specific ID under 'Users' - 'User Manager' in the table on the right. Enter multiple IDs separated by commas: 42,69,666

Exclude articles using their ID - Here you may exclude articles using their IDs. You may find the specific ID under "Content" - "Article Manager" in the table on the right. Enter multiple IDs separated by commas: 3,5,43

Exclude articles using their Item-ID - Here you may exclude articles user their Item-IDs. You may find the specific ID under "Menus" - "Your Menu" in the table on the right. Enter multiple IDs separated by commas: 102,106,109

Exclude articles using their Category ID - Here you may exclude all articles of a category. You may find the specific ID under "Content" - "Category Manager" in the table on the right. Enter multiple IDs separated by commas: 2,5,7

Note: AIB uses data of the plugin "User - Profile" for the fields Website and Description. If these fields are required, then this plugin has to be activated and the corresponding fields (Website and About Me) have to be completed in the profiles of the authors in the user management.
The description field of the profile plugin is very limited. You should use one of the supported 3rd party extensions or modify the description field in the database (only for advanced users!) if you need longer descriptions!

Changelog

+ = Added - ! = Removed - ^ = Changed - # = Fixed

Joomla! 4.x

Version 4.0.4.0-PRO - 2022-09-23

+ Added Pro Security Token validation check. The Pro package contains a token file with an individual security token linked to the user account and checked against the validation server for authenticity.
^ Multiple internal code optimisations.

Version 4.0.3.0-PRO - 2022-07-31

+ Added an existence check for non-existing user objects. Thanks to Giuseppe M. for reporting it!

Version 4.0.2.2-PRO - 2022-03-19

+ Added "Open in new window" option for author website.
# Fixed path to the image files. Thanks to Jeff H. for reporting it!

Version 4.0.2.1-PRO - 2022-03-18

# Fixed path to the CSS file. Thanks to Jeff H. for reporting it!

Version 4.0.2.0-PRO - 2022-03-15

+ Added Filter articles out with an alias option. Articles with a custom alias creator will be removed from the list.
^ Added rel="noopener noreferrer" to external links (website and social media links)

Version 4.0.1.0-PRO - 2021-11-10

+ Added the built-in Download Key Manager support to enter your Pro Update ID without installing the update helper plugin.
Important: Please copy your personal Pro Update ID using the second copy button in the Pro ID Manager and enter the key in System - Update - Update Sites - Select the entry of the Pro extension and enter the ID into the Download Key field.
^ Code optimisations

Version 4.0.0.0-PRO - 2021-08-18

+ First Pro release for Joomla! 4.x based on PCE Pro version 3.2.3.0-PRO
+ Added Instagram profile option

Joomla! 3.x

Version 3.2.3.0-PRO - 2021-08-16

+ Frontend edit - With this option, the user may edit his profile data directly in the frontend in the profile settings.
# Fixed website value of the AIB Profile plugin

Version 3.2.2.0-PRO - 2021-06-09

^ Maintenance release
^ Changed the version number specification. The first number stands for the supported major Joomla! version. The following three numbers follow the Semantic Versioning Specification (SemVer), as it used to be previously.
^ Updated custom field
^ Code optimisations

Open/Close

Version 3.2.1-PRO - 2021-01-16

First release with increased technical requirements: Increasing Technical Requirements - Joomla! Core & PHP for Pro & Free Extensions
^ Updated language files and custom fields
^ Code optimisations

Version 3.1.5 - 2019-06-16

+ Optimized Regex Patterns
+ Custom Field - Pro Button
! Removed Google+ (Google Plus) support since Google+ is no longer available for consumer (personal) and brand accounts
# Option for amount of articles works as expected, not fixed to 5 articles

Version 3.2.0-PRO - 2019-04-24

+ First Pro release based on AIB version 3.1.4
+ New option: Avatar Width - The image width can be configured via the settings (not only via CSS)
^ Updated output of the default infobox
! Removed Google+ (Google Plus) support since Google+ is no longer available for consumer (personal) and brand accounts
# Option for amount of articles works as expected, not fixed to 5 articles

Version 3.1.4 - 2017-06-11

^ Gravatar image is not included over http:// only to avoid mixed content. Thanks to Michael R. (kuneze) for suggesting it!
^ Improved Authorlist support and compatibility for older Joomla! versions. Thanks to Alexandre G. for reporting it!
^ Small CSS improvement for article list.

Version 3.1.3 - 2017-06-06

# Fixed Category View - Changes for Custom Fields in Joomla! 3.7.x -> Trigger was executed twice which lead to an error. Thanks to Jan R. for reporting it!
# Updated ItemID Handling - Fixed Notice Error - Trying to get property of non-object. Thanks to Alexandre G. for reporting it!
^ Updated Custom Fields
^ Updated addStyleSheet Method Signature

Version 3.1.2 - 2016-02-13

# Execution in Media Manager - Plugin was executed in wrong component due to missing context check. Thanks for reporting this to Björn W.!

Version 3.1.1 - 2016-01-25

+ Multilingual support - You can use Joomla! language strings (e.g. AIB_TITLE in Extensions - Language(s) - Overrides) to use this plugin on a multilingual website. Create for each language the same language constant with the correct translation (see example). Enter the newly created language strings in the corresponding option fields in the settings of the plugin. You can translate the following fields:
- Title Info Box
- Title For Description
- Title For Articles List
- Description (User Plugin)
- Position (User Plugin)
+ Code Refactoring
^ Updated Language Files
^ Updated Donation Code Field

Version 3.1.0 - 2015-07-30

+ Donation Code Validation Process - Improved the validation process with a new server (HTTPS request) plus an independent, separated fallback server (HTTP request).

https://check.kubik-rubik.de/
http://check.kubik-rubik.eu/

+ New Download Server - Download packages are located independently of the project website on a new download server.

https://downloads.kubik-rubik.de/

^ Semantic versioning - Switched to semantic versioning, see http://semver.org/ for more details. Please update manually since the core update server functionality will not recognize the new version!

Version 3-3 - 2015-01-31

+ Feature: List articles of the authors - Displays a list with links to articles of the loaded author inside the author box with dates and hits (optional)
+ Update Server - Added the Joomla! core functionality for the update checks
^ Updated Donation Code field - Uses the HTTP API for the requests and calls the check script via HTTPS
^ Links in the language files - Updated outdated links to the JED (Joomla! Extensions Directory)
! Removed Version Check field

Version 3-2 - 2014-01-26

# Used deprecated function nameQuote instead of quoteName - this led to errors in database requests

Version 3-1 - 2013-12-19

First release for Joomla! 3.x.
This release is tested only with Joomla! 3.2 - do not use it in a lower Joomla! version. Do not report any problems with other Joomla! versions. Only the mentioned version is supported officially!
+ AIB User Profile Plugin - The profile plugin allows you to enter all relevant data for the info box. The data can be entered in the edit mode only in the backend due to security reason. This is a helper plugin for the main plugin.
+ Upload Avatar - With the new profile plugin avatars can be uploaded and used for each author without any external resources.
+ Social Media Links - Sets a link to the social accounts of the authors. Supported sites: Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.
+ Google Plus Author Association rel="author" - The articles can be associated directly to the accounts of the authors on Google Plus to improve the search results. For this the authors have to add the website to their profiles. See Google documentation for more information!
+ Field: Position - Shows the position of the author within the website, project or the company.
+ Gravatar Image Size - Changes the image size of the Gravatar image. This option only works if 'Gravatar' is used in the option 'Show Avatar'. Default size is 80. Valid values are 1 up to 2048.
^ CSS Instructions - Changed the default output slightly.
^ Updated custom fields

Joomla! 2.5

Version 2.5-8 - 2014-01-03

+ AIB User Profile Plugin - The profile plugin allows you to enter all relevant data for the info box. The data can be entered in the edit mode only in the backend due to security reason. This is a helper plugin for the main plugin.
+ Upload Avatar - With the new profile plugin avatars can be uploaded and used for each author without any external resources.
+ Social Media Links - Sets a link to the social accounts of the authors. Supported sites: Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.
+ Google Plus Author Association rel="author" - The articles can be associated directly to the accounts of the authors on Google Plus to improve the search results. For this the authors have to add the website to their profiles. See Google documentation for more information!
+ Field: Position - Shows the position of the author within the website, project or the company.
+ Gravatar Image Size - Changes the image size of the Gravatar image. This option only works if 'Gravatar' is used in the option 'Show Avatar'. Default size is 80. Valid values are 1 up to 2048.
^ CSS Instructions - Changed the default output slightly.

Version 2.5-7 - 2013-05-22

+ New profile link option - Contact form - the author can be linked directly to a contact entry with a form. If you want to use the option Contact Form, then you have to create a contact entry via the contact component and assign the author to this contact entry.
^ Updated version check and donation code fields

Version 2.5-6 - 15-Jan-2013

+ Support for Author List - tested with version 1.2.0 - further information: Author List in the JED
+ Exclude authors - using their ID
^ Use trigger onContentPrepare in article view - instead of onContentBeforeDisplay and onContentAfterDisplay. This is a workaorund to avoid sorting problems with other plugins which use this (wrong!) trigger (e.g. Disqus plugins etc.). Actually this trigger should only be used to manipulate the output and not to add data to the output. - see discussion

Version 2.5-5 - 21-Aug-2012

+ Implemented Versioncheck - Stay uptodate with the great new feature! The latest version can be checked once per session or on every load of the settings page.
^ Optimized Donation Code System - The entered donation code is checked only once per session.

Version 2.5-4 - 03-Aug-2012

+ Implemented support for Kunena - tested with version 2.0.1
+ Set a link to the profile of the author - JomSocial and Kunena profile

Version 2.5-3 - 02-Aug-2012

+ Implemented support for JomSocial - tested with version 2.6.2 Pro

Version 2.5-2 - 04-Jun-2012

+ Implemented donation model

Version 2.5-1 - 16-May-2012

+ First version for Joomla! 2.5