Solidres 0.6.1 is now available for download, this is a maintenance version with several bug fixes and a minor new feature.
New feature
Add quantity field for Coupon, now you can specify the quantity of each coupon, when the quantity reaches 0, it will be unavailable, you can leave the quantity field empty for unlimited usage.
Bug fixes
Fix 2-ways sync between Joomla’s com_users and Solidres’s customer feature.
Fix incorrect currency format pattern in Solidres’s options.
Fix issue that string “Room” in frontend confirmation (Step 3) is not translatable.
Make sure you are using Solidres 0.6.0. If not, you need to update your Solidres to 0.6.0 first.
Download 0.6.1 and install using Joomla Extension Installer, it will automatically update your 0.6.0.
If you are subscribers, make sure all plugins/modules are compatible with 0.6.1 by installing latest versions of them (for Invoice plugin, please install it again after upgraded to 0.6.1).
One of the most requested Solidres’s feature is the ability to serve multiple reservation assets or in short: a booking portal, today we are glad to announce the availability of Hub 0.1.0. You can see it in this live demo or download now (for subscribers).
Overview characteristics
Fast: since Hub is used for multiple reservation assets, it need to be extremely fast, this is the reason why we’ve done a large code re-factoring to keep the whole system cleaner, faster and more maintainable. In addition, in the search result page we use AJAX in filtering, sorting and pagination which doesn’t require a full page reload like other products.
User friendly: we’ve put a lot of efforts to make sure it looks and works nicely in desktop/mobile/small screen. The layout is organized cleanly with a right amount of elements in right positions and showed at right times, we try out best to avoid overloading user with a lot of information. Making booking process a comfortable experience is always our ultimate goal.
Modularity: we separate features into individual units and you only have to install what you want. At this point, Hub plugin comes with 3 modules (more to come).
Backend
Manage facilities.
Mange themes.
Manage filter price range for each currency.
New menu type to show the frontend dashboard.
New menu type to show the frontend search page. This menu type has 2 parameters: Location and Category Ids which allows creating a menu to show specific location and specific categories (one or more categories).
Frontend: 3 new modules
Advanced search: it is similar to the current Check Availability module but has an extra field to check availability by location.
Filter: a smart filtering module with self-update capability. Allows filtering by price range, category, stars, theme, facility.
Location map: it automatically display the mini map of current location, clicking on the mini map will show a nearly full screen map with all assets/hotels in that location, we load the larger map on demand for better overall performance.
Frontend: Ajax-based advanced filter module and pagination
Bookmarkable filtered results: for example you can filter for all 3-stars hotels in Rome which have the prices between $50 – $200 and have facilities like Wifi and Parking etc, then you can bookmark it for later reference or share it with your friend easily.
Filtered results do not lost after page refreshed.
Filter by price range (can be configured per currency, each currency has different range), can filter by one or multiple price ranges.
Filter by categories.
Filter by stars.
Filter by themes (eg: Business, Romance / Honeymoon, Family).
Filter by facilities (eg: Wifi, Parking, Pet friendly ).
Self-update filter module: the filter module will automatically updated itself to reflect the current showed results. For example if you filtered for 3 stars hotels, all other filters like categories, themes, facilities, prices will automatically adjusted accordingly for 3 stars hotels only.
Frontend: Ajax-based sorting bar
Allow sorting by stars, names.
Show results in grid view or list view.
Like the filtering feature, all sorted results can be bookmarked or shared easily.
Sorted results do not lost after page refreshed.
Frontend: Management
Registered users have dedicated front end dashboard: manage reservation assets, room types, coupons, extras, limit bookings, reservations. (very similar to same tasks in backend).
Each registered users is only able to mange their own reservation assets.
Notes
As mentioned in our previous blog post, all current active subscribers at this point will be able to download Hub without having to subscribe new subscription level.
Our template 7Start and BlueBee are not yet fully updated to run Hub, more information about templates updates will be announced later.
After 4 months of hard working, we are glad to announce that Solidres 0.6.0 is now available for download, this is a latest stable version of Solidres which contains many news features, bug fixes and improvements. A large section of Solidres code base has been re-factored to make it cleaner, simpler and faster. A full change log of Solidres 0.6.0 can be found below:
New features
Add infrastructure to support multiple assets via Hub plugin.
New menu type to select specific reservation asset.
Add loading indicator for Media Manager.
Allow HTML in custom fields.
Add new system page in back end for quickly observe Solidres information and Solidres’s plugins/modules status.
Add ability to re-ordering in the backend by drag and drop.
Add new option to show room’s price with/without tax.
Add new option to specify number of months to be shown in date picker (this is good for mobile to only show about 1 or 2 months in date picker)
Add confirmation dialog for Install Sample Data screen.
Add module class suffix for modules.
Add option to configure the start day of week.
Support deposit.
Add tax option for Extras.
Add option to show/hide child and smoking option.
Add tax option for asset.
Support deposit.
Replace current update feature with Joomla core update feature.
Improvements
Speed improvements: duplicate queries and memory usage are reduced significantly especially for large site with lot of assets.
Clean up unused Solidres’s configuration options. Use Joomla com_media’s parameters for Solidres’s Media Manager.
Replace change booking modal form with inline form for better mobile/small screen user experience.
Clean up unused Solidres’s configuration options. Use Joomla com_media’s parameters for Solidres’s Media Manager.
Clean up unused Solidres’s configuration options. Use Joomla com_media’s parameters for Solidres’s Media Manager.
Several 3rd libraries updates.
Bug fixes
Tariff break down only shows 7 days.
February missed in Availability Calendar.
Delete all related invoices before deleting a reservation.
Smoking options show incorrectly.
Extras and rooms are not deleted cleanly.
Fix rare routing issue in some server’s configuration.
Fix issue with incorrect customer group handling.
Extras (per booking) should not be shown in room type edit screen.
Geocoding only run one time only.
Reservation can still proceed with incorrect children ages.
Various small fixes regarding translation issues.
Note:
We are going to release Hub plugin (and it’s associated modules) within the next days. Hub plugin will require a new subscription level therefore this is your very good chance to subscribe and get the Hub plugin before a new subscription level is published.
PostgreSQL support is dropped from 0.6.0. If you need PostgreSQL support (or other DBMS), you can request a custom development service.
Make sure you are using Solidres 0.5.4. If not, you need to update your Solidres to 0.5.4 first.
Download 0.6.0 and install using Joomla Extension Installer, it will automatically update your 0.5.4.
If you are subscribers, make sure all plugins/modules are compatible with 0.6.0 by installing latest versions of them.
If you have old menu of the old type (showing default asset), you will need to edit that menu item and select the new menu type, then select specific asset for that menu item.
If you use Complex Tariff plugin, there will be a new notice message in tab Complex Tariff, when you have Complex Tariff plugin installed and enabled, Solidres will only use it to search for room’s rates, therefore please make sure that you have enough tariffs to cover all possible dates.
We are glad to announce the release of new Cielo payment plugin for Solidres, this plugin provides integration between Solidres and Cielo payment gateway, features are:
Supported capture mode: Authorization and capture, Authorization only.
Supported authorization mode: Do not authorize (only authenticate), Authorize only if authenticated, Authorize transaction authenticated and not authenticated, Authorize direct.
Support language for Cielo’s buy page: Portuguese, English, Spanish.
Support sandbox mode for testing purpose.
All Solidres’s subscribers can download this plugin from our Download section.
We are welcoming a great 2014 by releasing a next round of updates for both Solidres Core 0.6.0 and the Hub plugin. Change log from the previous EAP can be found right below:
Add an option to show room’s price with/without tax.
Improve user experience in mobile/small screen devices
Add an option to specify number of months to be shown in date picker
Clean up unused Solidres options (most of them are for the media manager which is now use options from component Media of Joomla)
Fix a rare routing issues in some server’s configuration.
Fix issue with incorrect customer group handling.
Add ability to create a new menu item to show all reservation assets from a specific location or category (or from multiple categories).
Add a confirmation dialog for Install Sample Data screen.
And other minors improvements for UI and languages.
Quick notes
Solidres Core 0.6.0 will be released for public download after we finish our EAP and at this moment there is no specific ending date for this EAP yet.
Solidres 0.6.0 and the new Hub plugin should not be used in live website. Please make a backup of your website first before install development version 0.6.0.
All current subscribers can download new Solidres 0.6.0 and the Hub plugin from the dedicated forum for subscriber.
