It is a pleasure to announce that the J-BusinessDirectory extension, version 5.6.0 Beta, is now live. Our efforts have paid off and now we have the best version of the J-BusinessDirectory extension with an overall redesign and user experience improvements. J-BusinessDirectory is not only a directory extension now, it has been transformed into a marketplace where businesses meet their clients.



Let's take a tour to showcase some of the major features that have been added or improved.



Custom user registration mechanism

 

User registration was always breaking the user flows in the extension. In order to avoid this, we have implemented a custom user registration mechanism that assures a continuous flow. The user will be automatically registered but it will be required to confirm the email address. In the front-end control panel, a message will appear on the dashboard for the user to confirm the email address. This is necessary to make sure that the email address has been entered correctly to receive the system emails.



Improved design for the front-end business owner dashboard

A new modern design has been applied to the front-end dashboard that will make it more attractive. The business owner dashboard is available now in 2 styles. You can choose the one that fits best.


Improved design for the admin dashboard

A new modern design has been applied to the front-end dashboard that will make it more attractive.



Contact business popup with phone number

Contact form is an important communication tool between business owners and customers. For this purpose, the contact form has been divided into 2 parts to make it easier for end-user to contact the businesses.

 


New price list generated from offers

Selling products or services is one of the main attraction points for business owners. It is not enough to display the products or services but also to provide some means for selling them. Now with the help of JBD Sell Offers the business owners can create a list/menu of items that can be sold.

 


Database checkup

During the update process, we noticed that some unexpected errors can occur. To prevent all unwanted issues that may appear we have implemented a database check that will be run after an installation is performed. If we detect some issues a message will be shown on the admin dashboard to be able to fix the database structure.




The complete list of new features and improvements

Below, you can find the full list of new features and improvements that have been developed in the 5.5.0 version.

New features

  • Custom user registration mechanism
  • New contact business popup with phone number
  • New price list generated from offers
  • Loading animation for all sliders while loading
  • Related businesses for the listings module based on category
  • Popular and Most reviewed sort by criteria
  • Possibility to configure the order by fields on the listing search results
  • Possibility to add reviews to package features
  • New settings for default cover image for listings
  • Possibility to change the details view type by the business owner on the listing level
  • Possibility to export listings as PDF
  • Possibility to set an image for category (instead of an icon)
  • Possibility to manage currencies
  • Possibility to set the location map marker in the general settings
  • Possibility to charge a commission for all services (new settings are available on the general settings)
  • Database checkup - database structure is checked after installation to make sure it is up-to-date
  • New listing confirmation screen after creating the listing
  • PDF format for invoices
  • Batch processing for orders

Improvements

  • Overall design and usability improvements - all front-end views have been improved
  • Refactor the user and user groups mechanism
  • New user custom registration mechanism - users are now allowed to complete the process without any interruptions
  • Edit language page improvements
  • Reviews improvements
  • Added language translations for announcements
  • Linked cities with regions on billing details pages
  • Refactored the image upload mechanism
  • Restriction for appointments - it is not possible to book multiple sessions at the same time
  • Added the possibility to manage the payment status for all service
  • Upload image names on upload contain now also the item name
  • Simplified the claim process
  • New Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy mechanism
  • New setting for event price in the general settings
  • New settings for missing business listing fields
  • Message with pending payments in the business owner dashboard
  • New setting to show/hide the advanced search filter on the listings search results
  • Added average review score to offers

Design Improvements

  • Improved design for the admin dashboard
  • Improved design for the front-end business owner dashboard
  • Overall improvements for front-end sections
  • New dashboard view
  • Improved offer and event details pages
  • Improved payment plans/packages page
  • Improved shopping cart page
  • Improved billing details pages for all services
  • Improved payment process for all pages
  • Update all service payment page design

 


How to update?

At the moment you can only update manually. Download the latest version by log in to your CMSJunkie account and selecting the My Downloadable Products menu item on the left.



Bug reporting

Since this is still a beta version, some bugs may have eluded our QA team but they will definitely not get past you.  
We have created a dedicated section for reporting bugs
http://www.cmsjunkie.com/forum/jbd-beta-testing/?p=1





Download    View Demo

 




From our Joomla extensions category: Joomla Business Directory