I have now published a test release for the place here module for Joomla 1.6. The purpose of this release is to establish what works and what doesn’t work. I would not recommend to use in on a production site (unless you own tests show that the module is fit four you intended purpose).

On the other hand it has in some places probably less bugs than previous releases – since I had difficulties to locate updated developer documentation  for 1.6 I had to look into the source code to see what parameters are expected by Joomla functions.

However there is at least one issue that might be a showstopper for you. I haven’t quite figured out the routing – if you display links to articles in the module (via readmore or linked titles) the links will work but are a little malformed. Which means that you suddenly have different links to the same content which isn’t very good for SEO.

This has been tested with a current Joomla 1.6 on XAMPP (with PHP 5.3) on Windows 7.  I had a few problems when no articles showed up at all, but this has always to be turned out to be a problem with the test data, not  the module, so make sure the content you’re trying to display does actually exist.

I’m getting married next week, so don’t expect any quick progress on this. Still your feedback is very welcome.

And of course the link: Module for 1.6

I have been rather busy lately – I’m currently in the finishing stages of my transition from freelance bachelor to married employee – with absolutely no time for module developement. However by popular request I have finally started on a 1.6 version for the place here module.

This will take a long while. There is no download for 1.6 yet.

In theory it would be possible to write a version that runs on both 1.5 and 1.6. However since I’m already putting time into this I want a fresh start on the thing. So the conversion to J! 1.6 comprises two stages.

There will be a patched up version that removes references to all the stuff that is thankfully gone in J!1.6 – namely the difference between “sections” and “categories” and some rather unnecessary database tables. But even so the code will be a mess. Joomla by now offers a rather nice API to construct sql queries. The queries in mod_placehere however are generated by some not-so-nice string concatenation. So the second stage will be a complete rewrite to bring my code in line with Joomlas coding standards.

I guess it will take eight days or so before I will release a developement version that provides at least the basic functionality of  the module (but don’t stake your career on this, I’ve broken promises before). Then – well, we’ll see.

My current employer does not use Joomla ( and I don’t use it much anymore either) so I will have to rely pretty much on your feedback. I’m also thinking about opening a public repository in an attempt to attract co-maintainers. We’ll see about this, either.

Anyway, the module is not dead (unless the feedback indicates that it is no longer needed).