ochBlog (package)

All component and plugin configuration is done via the ochBlog component options. The Settings tab holds the generic settings that will be used throughout the component, plug-in and module

• You control which Joomla! articles should be displayed as blog with the 2 settings below:
  • In- or Exclude categories
  • Categories: the Joomla categories
• To identify which users are actual bloggers or probloggers you select the groups these users are member of.
  If you do not want to distinquish between bloggers and pro-bloggers, you can configure the same Joomla groups for both options:
  • Bloggers
  • Pro-bloggers (= Bloggers + about text under article, avatar and name links to Author profile page, Author Bio is shown)
• Author Avatar Provider: select the provider for the Author Avatar > ochBlog (via Custom fields), Easy-Profile, Kunena, Gravatar (via author email), cjBlog 1.x / 2.x
• Author Profile provider: select the component that provides the Author Profile page > ochBlog, Easy-Profile, Kunena, Gravatar (via author email), cjBlog 1.x / 2.x
• Author About text provider: select the provider for the Author About text > ochBlog (via Custom Fields), Easy-Profle, Kunena (about / signature), Gravatar (via author email), cjblog 1.x / 2.x
• Canonical provider: Select the Custom Article field (Joomla 3.7) that holds the canonical URL. Important: the URL must be absolute!

You can use any combination of Avatar / Author Profile / About text provider!

Configuring ochBlog as Avatar and About text provider

ochBlog uses default Joomla Custom Fields to provide the avatar and about text.

1. In the Joomla User manager add a new Fields Group:
   1. Title: e.g. ochBlog
   2. Permissions: set 'Edit Custom Field Value' to 'Allowed' for group 'Author' (if you forget this, then the fields in this group will be read-only
2. In the Joomla User Manager add a new Field for the Avatar:
   1. Title: e.g. Avatar
   2. Type: ochImage (but this can be any image type like 'media')
   3. Set the field group (right side) to the group you created in the previous step)
   4. Leave Image (crop) width and Height as default (200)
   5. Select a Default image (used when the user does not provide an avatar), when empty a smiley is used :)
   6. Select the Image upload path (where to store the avatars (default images/ochImage)
   7. Enable image download: provide a download button that the user can click to download the cropped image
   8. Instant edit: after uploading an image should the crop function be called instantly or should the user click a button?
   9. Auto save cropped image (after cropping the image should the cropped image be saved automatically or should the user save the image before saving the field)
3. In the Joomla User Manager add a new Field for the About text:
   1. Title: e.g. Author About text
   2. Type: Editor (or any other text type)
   3. Set the field group (right side) to the group you created in the previous step)

When the Author is logged in he has a new tab in his account settings with the two fields in it. Now he is able to upload the avatar and create the About text.
In ochBlog settings you can select ochBlog as avatar provider and select in the drop-down box the field for the avatar (title), same for the ochBlog About text.

ochBlog uses default Joomla Custom Fields plug-in to provide the Follow Me buttons for an author. This plug-in (ochFollowme) needs to be enabled.

1. In the Joomla User manager add a new Fields Group:
   1. Title: e.g. ochBlog
   2. Permissions: set 'Edit Custom Field Value' to 'Allowed' for group 'Author' (if you forget this, then the fields in this group will be read-only
2. In the Joomla User Manager add a new Field for the Follow Me buttons:
   1. Title: e.g. Followme
   2. Type: ochFollowme
   3. Set the field group (right side) to the group you created in the previous step)
   4. Select a the maximum displayed icons to the number of buttons you want to display

The user can now add profile links in his user profile. All links are possible. For the following links a logo and color for the button is defined:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Linkedin
• Google+
• Youtube
• Pinterest
• Tumbl
• Snapchat
• Reddit
• Flickr
• Medium
• SoundCloud
• Skype
• Vimeo
• Github
• SlideShare
• Blogger
• StumbleUpon
• About.me
• VK
• Mastodon

When the link is not listed, a generic button is displayed.

Display the Follow Me links in the user About info and Author profile page

In the ochBlog config add the user field in 'Author Info' tab in the Author Bio field in the form {user:[fieldname]} in the example above this would then be: {user:followme}

For the Author Profile page you can do the same in the 'Author Profile' tab in the Author Bio field.

Article Info is the block of (article) information on top of your blog.

• Enable Article Info: set to yes to enable and to show configuration fields
• Avatar size: select the avatar size in px
• Enable avatar: yes / no
• Social Sharing Custom tag: ochBlog doesn't have build in Social Sharing buttons but builds upon extensions (like the free jsSocials). Leave empty to disable the Social Sharing buttons under the Article Info block
• Article Badges: here you can configure the badges for the article. You can configure as many badges as you seem fit
• Show category: show the category name (show, link (to the category view) or hide)
• Show Parent: if the article is in a subcategory, show the parent category as well (show, link (to the parent category), hide)
• Show Create date
• Show Modify date
• Show Publish date
• Show Hits: show the article hits
• Class for the hits label: set a css class that you want to use to show the article hits in
• Show hits minimum: here you can set the minimum number of hits the article must have before the hit count is shown
• Disable Template Article info: some templates have build in Article info, with this setting you can disable the templates info so you will not see some information twice

Article Credits are the blocks of (article) Credit information on top of and / or below your blog.

Set the top or bottom credit information text. You can use Content Construction fields so this makes this a real dynamic and powerful tool!

Author Info is the block of (author) information below your blog.

• Enable Author Info: set to yes to enable and to show configuration fields
• Avatar size: select the avatar size in pixels
• Display height About text: some author opt to have an About text that has more text then an average blog. With this setting you can limit the visible part of the About text. When the About text block is smaller, it will be displayed complete. When the About text is larger the visible part of the about text will be limited to the number of pixels configured and a cool [Read full Profile] button will appear
• Read-More button class: set a CSS class for the button
• Social Sharing Custom tag: ochBlog doesn't have build in Social Sharing buttons but builds upon extensions (like the free jsSocials). Leave empty to disable the Social Sharing buttons above the Author Info block
• Social Sharing call2action: configure whether to show the Social Sharing call2action text before the buttons (text can be changed via a language override)
• Pro-Blogger badge: configure the badge that will be shown for pro-Bloggers (or leave empty to disable)
• Blogger Badges: here you can configure the badges for the Blogger. You can configure as many badges as you seem fit
• Influencer rate: default 365 days. This value is used as ratio for the calculation of the Influencer score. Blogs older then the set value will weight less in the score.
• Influence badge: here you can configure the 'influencer' badges for the blogger. You can configure as many badges as you seem fit.
• Author Bio: set the Author Bio text, you can use Content Construction fields! Because the Author Bio text will be displayed in the article, the entered text will be parsed by content plug-ins!

Notifications are email that will be automatically sent when configured notification triggers are triggered!

• Enable Notifications: set to yes to enable and to show configuration fields
• Limit to Pro-Bloggers: limit the notification to Pro-bloggers or sent to all bloggers
• Notification triggers: here you can configure the notification triggers. You can configure as many notification triggers as you seem fit
• BCC System Emails: sent a BCC to all users that have configured to receive system email in their profile (site admins)
• Article age in days: configure the age of the article in days after which NO notification will be sent anymore (for that article)
• Message Body: Here you can type the message body. you can use Content Construction to customize the message sent to the author. e.g:
  'Dear {user:name}, your blog { article:title} just received { article:hits} page views!' will be mailed as 'Dear Ruud, your blog 5 tips to avoid website outage due to hack attempts just received 1000 page views!' when one of my blogs triggers a notification

Author profile is the ochBlog view for Author Profiles: before enabling make sure you create a (hidden) menu item Type = ochBlog > Authorprofile

The Author profile page has two module positions: authorprofile-bottom1 and authorprofile-bottom2. Both positions can be assigned to any Joomla module! when you assign more modules to one position they will be laid out next to each other (max 4 per row)

• Display height About text: some author opt to have an About text that has more text then an average blog. With this setting you can limit the visible part of the About text. When the About text block is smaller, it will be displayed complete. When the About text is larger the visible part of the about text will be limited to the number of pixels configured and a cool [Read full Profile] button will appear
• Read-More button class: set a CSS class for the button
• Social Sharing Custom tag: ochBlog doesn't have build in Social Sharing buttons but builds upon extensions (like the free jsSocials). Leave empty to disable the Social Sharing buttons
• Author Bio: set the Author Bio text, you can use Content Construction fields!
• Prepare Content: configure whether the Author Profile page should be parsed with content plug-ins

The extra module positions give your great flexibility. I use it to display two modules: one with all the author his latest articles and one with the authors most read articles. They will love to show case their blogs this way and it will trigger them to write even more valuable content!

Blogmanagement is the ochBlog view for managing all your blogs via the front-end. Create a menu item Type = ochBlog > Blogmanagement. Please remember to configure the access for this menu entry to minimum author (Otherwise it will show an empty overview).

• Display Column Language: select whether you want the language column in the overview and as search filter
• Display Column votes / ratings: select whether you want the votes and ratings column in the overview
• Filter Categories: configure which categories the user will be able to select in the category filter. Leave empty for all.

Authors overview is the view that shows all your authors. Create a menu item Type = ochBlog > Authors overview. In the menu entry you can configure:

• Limit to groups: set the groups that should be used or leave empty to display all authors
• Limit to authors with articles: select whether to only display authors that have at least 1 published blog
• Ordering: set the ordering of the list
• Direction: set the ordering direction
• Pre-text: here you can set the text that you want to add before the first author (on top of the overview).

In the components options you can configure the generic settings (Authors Overview tab):

• Avatar size: set the size of the avatars for the Author overviews
• Display badges: yes or no
• Display height about text: the height of the about text. The text will fade on the bottom
• Display divider: set a divider between each author.

The Articleslist overview enables you to create highly configurable Article overview pages. Create a menu item Type = ochBlog > Articleslist overview. For a 'demo' click here.

The Articleslist view uses Global settings. That means that all settings can be generic set in the ochBlog options and then can be refined on an individual menu entry level. In the menu entry you can configure:

• Layout:
  • Pre-text: the text you want to show above the articles. This text is triggering content plug-ins, so the sky is the limit!
  • Select Categories: Select the category (or multiple) from which you want to display the Articles. That's right: you are not limited to one category!
  • Featured Articles: Show, Do not Show, or show only featured articles
  • Article IDs to Exclude: Set article ID that you want to exclude from the list
  • Included Groups: Leave empty to show all articles or select one (or more) groups of authors whose articles you want the list to limit to
  • # Leading Articles: The number of leading articles you want to show in the list
  • # Intro Articles: The number of articles you want to show below the leading articles
  • # Columns: The number of columns you want the articles to be shown in. Can be 1, 2 or 3
  • # Links: The number of links you want to show at the bottom of the articles list
  • Multi Column Order: sort the articles in the columns down or across the columns?
  • Category Order: When you have multiple categories selected, do you want to sort according to these categories?
  • Article Order: How should the articles in the list be sorted? Featured, date, title, author, hits, article order, random, votes, ratings? Ascending or descending?
  • Date for Ordering: creation, modification or publication date?
  • Show Article image: Leave empty to disable showing images, set the prio order to select which Article image to show (and when not configured in the article, what image should be shown then. Supports Intro image, Fulltext image, first Text image and of course a Custom Article Field (type media)
  • Custom image field: Select the Custom Article field to use
  • Leading Image Float: Set the float type for the leading images: none (= above), right or left
  • Image Float: Set the float type for the article images: none (= above), right or left
  • Pagination: Show pagination?
  • Pagination Results: Show pagination results
• Options:
  • Show Titles
  • Linked Titles
  • Show Introtext
  • Strip Introtext: Select yes if you want to strip the introtext from HTML markup (like headers, images, etc.)
  • Introtext Limit: set the limit in # characters for the introtext
  • Show Category
  • Link Category
  • Show Parent: show the parent category (if present)
  • Link Parent
  • Author: show the author name
  • Link Author: link the author name to the author's profile page
  • Avatar: Show the author's avatar
  • Avatar size: size of the avatar
  • Link Avatar: link the avatar to the author's profile page
  • Date: show article date
  • Date field: Created, modified or published date
  • Date format: set the format of the date display
  • Show "Read More": show a read more link
  • Show Title with Read More
  • Read More Limit: limit the read more with title to # characters
  • Hits: show the article's hits
  • Show Hits minimum: set the minimum # of hits. If the article has less hits, the hits counter is not shown
  • Show Article badges: show the article badges as they are configured in ochBlog (e.g. new, hot, trending, evergreen, etc.)
  • Show Reading Time: Show the total reading time of the article (configured in ochBlog)
  • Show Tags: show the tags set for the article
  • Show Unauthorised Links: set to yes to show link that are only available for registered users.