Welcome back, Joomla users! It's time for our second monthly product news update, where we bring you the latest and greatest features of our Joomla extensions. In case you missed it, we announced our plans for a monthly blog post series last month, so check out our January issue for a recap. This month, we're excited to share updates for three of our Joomla apps, Convert Forms, Advanced Custom Fields, and Google Structured Data.
Convert Forms 4 brings a game-changing feature called Tasks. This feature allows you to create automations and workflows that trigger specific events based on your form submissions conditionally. The Tasks addon also comes with two new integrations, the User Account app and the Webhooks App, expanding the possibilities for automating your form processes.
For Advanced Custom Fields, we have two new exciting updates to share. First, the ACF Articles Field provides an easy way to connect articles with a dropdown input and create relationships between them. Second, the ACF File Upload field is now more powerful than ever with 4 new features, including the ability to rename uploads with Smart Tags, re-order uploads with drag and drop, and set a title and description for each file upload.
These updates will help you improve your Joomla websites and streamline your workflows. Stay tuned for more updates and improvements next month!
Table of Contents
Convert Forms 4
Say hello to the long-awaited Convert Forms 4! This update brings exciting features and improvements, making creating and managing contact forms in Joomla much easier. Let’s see some of the key highlights of this new release.
Automate Your Workflow with Convert Forms Tasks
This release features the highly-anticipated Tasks addon (Previously announced as Actions). You can conditionally connect your forms with external apps without coding knowledge using this new section!
You can add a user to your MailChimp audience only when a checkbox is checked; you can send an e-mail to the site’s administrator based on a dropdown selection; you can connect with Hubspot or GetResponse only when certain criteria are met in the submission data and more.
These recipes can save you hundreds of hours yearly by automating sales, marketing, administrative, learning, and other processes that would otherwise be impossible to connect.
To learn more about the Tasks feature, check our announcement blog post.
More options to customize the PDF Form Submission
The PDF Form Submissions addon allows you to create customizable PDFs based on the form data whenever a form is submitted. Convert Forms 4 introduces two new options in this feature.
- Paper Size: This option lets you select the size for the generated PDF from popular formats like letter, half-letter, A3, A4, and more.
- Orientation: This option lets you decide whether the PDF should be portrait or landscape.
Are you missing a customization option for this addon? Let us know.
Field Calculations now run 3x faster
We've significantly improved the Field Calculations addon to make it faster than ever before. We understand that field calculations is an essential feature of any form builder. Still, it can sometimes strain the browser's resources, especially in large or complex forms.
We've re-engineered the Field Calculations addon to address this issue, resulting in a 3x performance improvement. We achieved this by streamlining the front-end script’s code, optimizing the evaluation process, and reducing the work the browser must do when processing field values.
If you’re wondering how to calculate a total based on the option the user selects from your form, visit our documentation page.
Release Notes - Changelog
In addition to the new features, Convert Forms 4 includes over 10 bug fixes and improvements. These fixes address issues related to PHP 8.1, conditional fields, and form submission generally, ensuring that your forms run smoothly without hiccups. Below you can find the full release notes.
Advanced Custom Fields 2.3
This year, we are focusing on enhancing Advanced Custom Fields and are excited to announce new features every month. In January, we released two new fields; the Address Autocomplete and Chained Fields. And now, we are pleased to introduce the Articles Field and 4 new features for the File Upload field in the latest version, Advanced Custom Fields v2.3.
Introducing the Articles Field
The Articles Field is the new custom field in our collection that makes it easy to connect articles. With a dropdown input that offers filters, you can select articles and create relationships between them. You can choose which articles appear in the dropdown by filtering them based on categories, authors, and tags.
It has exciting features, including filtering selectable articles, limiting required and allowed articles, setting the order of articles displayed in the dropdown, and rendering articles using pre-defined layouts. In addition, you can create custom layouts using HTML and Smart Tags.
Please check out our documentation page to learn more about using this new custom field.
Improvements to File Upload Field
The File Upload field is likely the most popular custom field in our Joomla collection, and we take great pride in it. As a result, we consistently enhance it with fresh features and options. In this new release, we have added 4 new features that enhance the file upload user experience.
- Rename Files: You now have more control over the names of the uploaded files. With Smart Tags, you can add a prefix or suffix to a filename, change the file’s extension, or even add an index (count) number to all uploads. In addition, all common Smart Tags can also be used to customize even further a filename.
- Dynamic Upload Folder: You can now store your file uploads in different folders based on Smart Tags. For example, if you set the upload folder to /images/{month}, the files will be uploaded to /images/04/ and /images/05/ folders in April and March, respectively. Additionally, if you set the upload folder to /uploads/{user.login} the files will be uploaded to a folder named after the logged-in user's username.
- Re-order Uploads: You can now arrange them in a specific order for the uploaded files with drag and drop.
- Title and Description: Each file upload can have a title and a description. This is useful when you display the uploaded files with a custom layout. You can pull both values in your layout using the {acf.file.title} and {acf.file.description} shortcodes, respectively.
If you’re a Joomla custom fields fan and want to learn how to add a file upload field to Joomla articles or the Joomla registration form, visit our documentation page for more details.
Release Notes - Changelog
We are excited to announce these new features and improvements to our Advanced Custom Fields extension. We hope they will enhance your experience and provide more valuable tools. Below you can find the full release notes.
What’s next
We are excited to share our plans for the next month. Let’s see what is on the roadmap for March.
- Justified Layout for Gallery Field: We know our users love the Gallery Field, and we are delighted to announce that we will add a new layout option - Justified Layout. This layout will help users to display their gallery images in a beautiful and orderly way, making them look more attractive.
- Countdown Timer Field: We are working on a new custom field, Countdown Timer, which will allow users to add a countdown timer to their website quickly. This field will be perfect for creating buzz around upcoming events or sales. It will be customizable to meet the users' needs, and we can't wait to release it.
- Product Page Redesign: We know how important it is to provide an intuitive and engaging experience, and we are excited to announce that we are working on redesigning ACF’s product page. We aim to make it easier for our users to navigate and find the information they need about our product, and we can't wait to unveil the new design.
We are excited about these upcoming updates and hope they will help our users take their websites to the next level. Stay tuned for more updates!
Google Structured Data 5.1.8
The Google Structured Data extension has been updated to version 5.1.8. This update includes bug fixes and improvements to the Product and Local Business schema. Below you can find the full release notes.
In addition to the recent update, we are excited to announce that we plan to add two new integrations for the JEvents and iCagenda Joomla extensions in March. Stay tuned for more updates on these new features!
Spread The Love
We are thrilled to have the opportunity to develop and provide Joomla extensions that cater to your needs. Our team puts in a lot of hard work and dedication to ensure our products meet your expectations.
As our valued users, your feedback and support are incredibly important to us. We would love your thoughts on our Joomla extensions and how they have helped your website development journey.
That's why we would like to encourage you to take a few minutes to share your experiences by leaving a review on the Joomla Extensions Directory. Your feedback will not only help us improve our products but will also assist other users in making informed decisions about which extensions to use.
Your reviews will also motivate us to keep developing and improving our products. It's a win-win situation!
So, let's spread the love for your favorite Joomla extensions by leaving a review. Thank you for your support, and we look forward to hearing from you soon!
