Raptor Services

I've finally launched JustJoomla.com which has traditionally been the site I use to distribute software that I license under the gnu gpl compatible licenses - and EZ Realty version 6 has been released over on this site too today.

A lot of clients have asked me about the changes that have taken place in EZ Realty version 6, and I suppose these changes can be classified as new features and changes, and performance changes. So, I'll go through the differences you'll see with EZ Realty version 6.

1. Performance changes

EZ Realty version 6 has some significant improvements in memory over version 5, and this has been one of the biggest benefits of rewriting the code base into the new MVC code structure. The data listed below has been derived by using the core Joomla debug function, to get a reading of the memory in bytes used during page loading. In the far right column is the difference - and all areas examined showed significant improvements.

Remember these are just fairly baseline readings though, so the memory consumption will change as you enter more data.

2. New Features and Changes

EZ Realty version 6 has been coded to make use of payment system plugins now - rather than being tied to the payment processor code that was a part of EZ Realty. This will provide a more flexible means for users to select a payment processor that suits them, as not everyone has access to PayPal. A PayPal payment plugin will come standard with EZ Realty, and alternative payment processors can be obtained from Rob Joyce at osdcs.com.

The old system of generating decimal coordinates for google mapping during the save listing process had the occasional problem for some users, as some web hosts didn't permit the method used to connect to google. In light of this, I've replaced the old coordinates generation system with an embedded clickable map, so you'll only need to click the map to find the necessary coordinates - and the coordinates will populate the necessary fields. The old popup coordinates finder has gone as a result, so there's now one consistent system which should be trouble-free for all users.

Gone are the tabbed pages in the admin area add/edit property listing form, and they've been replaced by a more compact page layout with 2 columns and sliders. It's a complete change to how it used to look, but I'm sure you'll find it far easier to add listings using this layout than the previous layout.

The admin property listings manager has also had a number of changes as a result of the rewrite - the first being the column headers are now clickable and will order/re-order the columns. The delete listing link is also gone - to be replaced by a delete button at the top - which will allow you to delete individual or multiple listings. One other link to have some changes is the admin print listing link. It used to open a popup browser window, and this has been replaced by a Moodle popup - so the printable page opens on a nice darkened background.

When you enter EZ Realty for the first time, the biggest change you'll notice is the admin cPanel has been redesigned. It has new larger graphics and a cool green colour scheme, so it's much easier on the eyes to look at. It's also less cluttered, as a number of functions have been integrated, and others removed for various reasons. For example - the export subscribers function is no longer available, as I've simplified many areas to simply integrate with something else - rather than provide secondary backup systems. So, rather than having the choice of saving newsletter subscribers to an EZ Realty table, receiving a notification that someone would like to be added to your newsletter, or the option to save subscribers to ccNewsletter - there is now the single choice to save subscribers to the ccNewsletter system. The external site feed exports for google, propsmart and other sites have also been removed from EZ Realty, as I'll be writing a new component to handle these types of feeds.

The frontend of the site has also had a number of changes. The first is the view profile page - it used to have a link to view the seller's listings - but now those listings are contained on the same page as the profile details. The frontend member's EZ Panel has had some minor design changes and new graphics, as has the frontend add/edit property listing page. It too now has sliders rather than tabbed pages, and this has resulted in a more compact layout too. The "wanted" properties page has also had some minor design changes.

All sales for EZ Realty version 6 will now be managed via JustJoomla.com, and if you're after EZ Realty Lite - you'll be able to access it there too.