A new release of the last download manager you'll ever need has arrived! Package with some great new features and fixes. Check out the details below!
Are you managing Joomla client sites? Need to deploy new versions of custom extensions painlessly? Now you can with built in support for Joomla download keys!
This new feature uses the existing Site Key functionality to authorize site keys to be used as Joomla download keys. Joomla download keys are a part of Joomla's update server XML specification allowing authentication for downloads. This is a perfect way to maintain control over client access to download updates. CB Package Builder already includes support for Joomla version XML output automatically too so even that is also automated! Simply adjust your extensions XML and you're good to go!
A great example of this is using CB Paid Subscriptions to limit access to an extension download. That subscription is the clients monthly maintenance fee, which includes custom extension updates. Now you can configure their download key or they can configure it themselves and receive update notifications and install updates automatically without your intervention!
We're not quite done yet though. I've noticed a lot of people are needing custom API endpoints for getting profile data. We've now made this easy with the built into authorization API. It first and foremost is meant for getting a access token to utilize for downloads, BUT it can be extended to output any substitution or Joomla content plugin content that you want.
This can also optionally verify domain or not just like Joomla download keys. The API Data sent in response is where you can supply as many key/value pairs as you need for whatever you may need this for. It completely handles authenticating the Site Key sent to it for you! The endpoint will always reliably output JSON unless the API call is invalid in which case an appropriate HTTP error response will be output.
The built in limits feature lets you limit how many sites they can activate. You can pair this with a Community Builder field to also have paid activation limits! Then all they have to do is conveniently toggle a site key activated as needed.
Site Keys enable/disable state was always restricted to moderators, but now you can grant users the permission to manage their site key state themselves. You can even impose limits that can be based off a field as well which can of course be based off a subscription for paid site key limits!
We hope this opens new possibilities for those with clients or are managing their own Joomla extensions themselves.
Download history has always been relatively limiting in that it only tracks package downloads by package id and not much more. History now however also keeps track of the CMS the package was downloaded for. This currently is purely for statistical purposes, but gives you a quick at a glance view of what people are really using. Keep in mind CMS selection in CB Package Builder is ENTIRELY customizable so whether your download CMS is Joomla, WordPress, or not even a CMS at all you can simply configure that as needed.
This tracking is then neatly bundled into a new statistics view which you'll find the button for at the top to give you a nice chart including download counts for each CMS.
Presets can now verify access and conditions on a per-package basis to allow for dynamic packages. What this allows for is assigning 2 similar packages to a preset, but only 1 of the packages is ever authorized at a given time. This is great for creating dynamic downloads with a single entry point. Simply toggle on the new parameter and you're done!
Presets also have been substantially improved to allow for better version selection. Previously version selection was restricted to Nightly, Stable, etc.. only. However if only 1 package is available to download in a Preset it will now inherit version selection from that Preset further enhancing the dynamic download functionality.
That's it for now! I hope everyone can make great use of all these new features. As always we've included multiple fixes as well. You can find the full details on our forge below.
https://forge.joomlapolis.com/projects/cb-cbpackagebuilder/issues?query_id=262
If you'd like to know more about CB Package Builder check out its add-ons page below.
https://www.joomlapolis.com/addons/cb-package-builder
Should you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask on our pre-sales forums below!
https://www.joomlapolis.com/forum/presales
I'd like to also add we here at Joomlapolis GREATLY utilize our own products. This gives us a much stronger drive to deliver top of the line stable features and fast bug fixes far more than other developers. We will continue to strive for a better tomorrow with all our products and hope to bring even more amazing things in the days to come!