Congrats guys. You are doing a wonderfull job.
We choosed K2 as our main article system and we rely our entire business on it.
K2 is driving our entire portal with more than 50 categories.

I can't express my gratitude to see that this project is not gonna die and you guys developed a partnership model for sustaining the development and support for the product.

All my best wishes for delivering and mantaining such great products!

Keep the project alive! It is by far the best CCK for Joomla! Top Notch!

You are best, guys
Don't stop, keep going.
Best wishes.

Hi,
I saw now the new k2 site and comunity. REALLY AMAZING!! and imho needed for such component.


Thnaks guys
rgds
olsen

Finally made it on here.

Well done guys

Congratulations for the new release,

This project is looking great, signed up to the greek translation team and contributed there, it definitely looks like a very handy extension...

I have been experimenting with two-three CCKs the last couple of weeks for a news site I am building, and I am trying to find the one that would maximize production efficiency for me while still offering all the extra options and customization...

K2 is absolutely top for ease of use/ small learning curve - at least of one is happy with the layout and the readily offered options...

What I think is missing greatly, apart from absolutely needed documentation, is:

1)user friendly customization....
...this is where K2 lags far behind ZOO...
Editing and customizing layouts is a straight-forward process in ZOO, even if one does not read the documentation and simply starts playing with the backend options (this joomla-template conception of the article, category layout is genius, and dragging-dropping feature makes it really easy) .
Doing something similar in K2 seems to necessitate coding skills and experience and it's not something that is even accessible from the backend...

But besides this type of customization, more options should have been more readily available, from the most simple like, e.g. choosing a font for the title, choosing the font weight for the introtext etc...
In general, I believe much is needed to make several customization options more readily available to the user...

Since I had tried the previous version for Joomla 1.5 and taking into account the intervening period, I had much higher expectation for K2 for this new release...

2) I don't think it is really nice that it demands the purchase of the PRO version of Simple Image Gallery to make use of the gallery feature.

3) It would be great to have percentages too for the article images for the various views (category, article etc)
Have not tested it yet with the new release, but with 2.4.1, an image of smaller resolution than that set for XL, would get stretch beyond its native resolution....that is quite unecessary...

4) I would have liked the option to integrate K2 with the default article administration system...the reason would be to avoid the extra paths in the url, if this is a valid reason for you...

Welcome aboard.

A couple of quick responses.

1) Customisation. K2 code is one of the best I have come across, its all modular and chunks of code can easily be moved around. I am no php coder and I find it easy, but dont ask me to right code for you :)

Something that has been released in the last couple of weeks is a new K2 Template Manager extension which allows backend editing of code and css. But its not at the drag n drop stage yet. It also allows new templates to be installed.

Changing font sizes and colours of elements of K2 is not something it was originally intended for.
This is not a template framework where the customisation of style is expected, its a content creator, the focus being the content which of course can still be modified any way the user wishes via the WYSIWYG editor.

Styling of elements would be down to the template designer not the user/content creator and its all easily done using css. Perhaps thats a consideration though.

Not sure what the expectation was for 2.5 as it always been billed as the version for J1.7 with a few tweaks and no major new features.

2) SIG Pro, some may see it as demanding, but its only 12 euro for the full version and its pretty feature packed. It was also released before K2 in the free and Pro versions and K2 is free anyway. There are a lot of users that dont use the gallery, but in comparison, what price could be put on K2?
You dont even have to use it, there's always the ability of creating your own galleries inline with the content, but then weigh up the cost of the extra time to do it.

3) Images can be a problem if they are not resized before upload or if thought hasn't been put on the needed sizes in the design. A little trial an error might be required in the design stage, but it is then a known factor of what is required for further images. Simply, if your going to want to upload a 100px image and display it at 600px, the results are obvious.


Keep the feedback coming.

Simon

Simon, K2 code is not too bad when you have a clue what is going on and where but it could be made much simpler for general users for templating and customisation. Adding and removing different templates can seriously add to loading times and the default K2 css file is huge to begin with.

I am with you on SIG pro though, I have used the extension for years and prior to K2 being released so i see no problem having to pay a small fee for the inclusion of a gallery, I do not know the code implications but there is a free alternative called SIGE that you might be able to work as the native gallery in place of SIG Pro.

What is the situation exactly with K2 compatibility with general joomla content plugins?
- Is it necessary for all extension developers to make specific changes from their end alone?
- can K2 developers facilitate the process by providing some basic compatibility?
- Moreover, Is there a policy on this?...to have 'K2 extensions' or regular joomla extensions? I don't know...

Regarding the necessary use of SIG Pro for gallery features in K2, I believe a different policy could have been applied, the same that distinguishes between a free and a commercial Joomlaworks product, the SIG and the SIG Pro...by buying SIG Pro you get all the extra features, but it doesn't make much sense to deny functionality for the free version...

If you run a commercial website, purchasing the commercial version of SIG is no big thing, it well deserves its money, no doubt...but otherwise, it's a shame to choose to use K2 for your website and not be able to make use of the gallery features...

I guess it would be possible for a developer to create another tab there / replace the existing one / make the current compatible with other gallery extenions?
Sigplus is my personal favorite...had been a huge fan of SIG, but I kept having trouble with the display of the popup and no update was coming so I switched over to sigplus...

More thanks from me, great extension, much appreciated!