Since the first release of Matukio we have been working hard on a new stable version with awesome new features and many bugfixes. We have released some alpha versions, which showed some of the new features and bugfixes. Yesterday we then released the final development version, which is feature complete. This means we are only going to fix release critical bugs and other problems found in it and not going to add new features. We changed and added around 20.000 lines of code, so everyone is invited to help searching for bugs and problems.
So in this blog post i want you to show some of changes and optimizations we've made. Let's start with the frontend, where some of the most noticeable changes took place:
1.) Search Engine friendly URLs and no more JavaScript for Navigation:
We made a lot of efforts to optimize Matukio for Search Engine friendly URLs. There for we had to completly remove the old JavaScript Navigation (which also caused many problems for other users). As part of this we reorganized the whole frontend code into modern MVC-Codedesign and optimized the code for high performance. Now the URLs look like this yoursite.de/events or yoursite.de/myevents/event/78-testcategory/1-eventname and are directly accessible.
2.) New menu item Types:
Related to the new MVC-Codedesign you have now more menu types to use - you can create links to the known event overview (now including the option to set a category etc.), to a single event page, to an upcoming events page or to the "create event" form for your organizers. With the next version we will also add a new full calendar view and an location overview menue type.
3.) New dynamic booking page:
We added a new 100% dynamic booking form (you can also still use the old one if you like). It offers a modern and user friendly way to book an event and also includes payment integration (currently Cash, Banktransfer, Invoice and PayPal) for non-free events.
If your event is free the booking page has only two steps. The complete form is mootools driven and the user input is automatically validated. If you have some terms and conditions to confirm the will be displayed on page three. You can easily modify or add fields, thereby you can choose between seven field types (text fields, select boxes, text areas, spacer elements, radio- and checkbox and boolean selectors), add your own CSS-Styles and classes and much more, like a captcha System, request driven validation etc.
4.) Joomla 2.5 ACL Integration
5.) Coupon codes
Together with the payment system we added the possibility to use the new coupon system. With it you can easily create individual or group coupons (percent or cash value) for you events.
6.) Another new event display template
Fitting to the new booking form we added a way to display and promote your event. The focus of the new template is now on your long description, giving you the ability to present the event the way you like it. Additionally the new template comes with some nice (optional) social media features (facebook, google+, twitter etc.) and an easy to customize Stylesheet.
7.) A countless number of other small improvements, bug and security fixes and so much more
Now according to the new frontend features and improvements we rewrote many parts of the backend, making it much easier to manage your events and participants. I'm going to write a seperate blog post about the biggest changes there in next couple of days.
Update (17.06):
You can see the newest version live in action at our new project dothewebinar.com
