amoTools

Hi the amocourse module is great. However it would be even better if the amocourse can integrate with jevents as I'm using jevents for my calendar.

Many thanks in advance. And Thumbs Up for the amoCourse.

Thanks for your idea!
I've downloaded JEvents and will try to integrate amoCourse Course in it.<br />When i have implemented it, i will write again on this post.
Best regards
Renzo

Many thanks for the prompt responds. I shall be your 1st customer should this module goes commercial.

amoCourse component has been implemented well and suit almost all my requirements as a course module. Shall vote a 5star for it.

The following are some of my suggestions to improve this component further:

Backend:

1. Instead of always setting a 'default' for additional fields for shorttext, longtext & additional text area, you can give a note on the 'default' beside the field. This is because should anyone leave this field empty, the system would not set it back to the default the next time they enter the parameters config again.

2. When implementing to the menu in joomla, some of this component parametes values such as course states, confirmation mail, etc should just take from the amoCourse Component Global config then to allow the user the ability to reconfig them again.

3. There is a little bug on the {coursedetails};

When implementing it on the confirmation email subject field:

i. There is a '&nbsp' appearing on the subject field;

ii. There is a little problem in the spacing between 'CourseName' & Startdate & between Startdate & 'from'

When implementing it on the confirmation email body:

i. There is 3 extra spaces after the {coursedetails}

4. There is a little bug at the backend when creating a menu item to display the courses via section:

XML Parsing Error at 1:30. Error 18: unknown encoding

XML Parsing Error at 1:30. Error 18: unknown encoding

XML Parsing Error at 1:30. Error 18: unknown encoding










5. There is a display bug for section->multiple. Nicer to implement a <br> in between each course title.

6. Suggection: Change the section->multiple to display as follows with only the Course Details clickable:

Course Title :: Course Details ::

Looks neater with less clickable areas as it seems as the whole page is clickable with all text becomes links by default.

7. Suggestion: a PHP Cron job to send auto reminder emails to the registered registrations. An additional option to set nohours before the commerces of the course like 24hrs or 48hrs or 72hours.

8. Suggestion: a new toolbar option to send mass email. Send to checked registered registrations at backend

9. Suggestion: a new toolbar option to export checked registration to CSV format

10. Suggestion: Implementation of CaptCha for the registration form. Cos I do ahve some spam registrations coming in.

11. Suggestion: Capture the incoming ip for the successful registrations



I hope this don't scare anyone in trying this fantastic module. And to be frank, compared to most of the course registration systems out there for joomla, amoCourse is the most easiest to implement and configure. And personally, I have tried a couple including some paid commercial ones but eventually give up on them. Now I'm a happy amoCourse user.



[renzo.meister 2009-06-10 09:31:57]:

Thanks for your idea!

I've downloaded JEvents and will try to integrate amoCourse Course in it.
When i have implemented it, i will write again on this post.

Best regards

Renzo

Hi sykestang

Wow! You're the first user who has tested amocourse so hard

Thank you very much!

That's the feedback i need to make amoCourse stable!
I will fix all bugs of your mail in next release.
Some notes on your list:
2. It's also a bug with default values of amoCourse like your message on #1.
6. You've got right... At the moment there are too much links in it. My consideration was that its more simple to remove a link then adding a link. But for next release i will remove some links.

7. Can you explain the second part of it a little bit more? I didn't understand it... thx
Realization notes:<br />
6, 9, 10, 11. Will be implemented in next release.
8. I'm linking the amoCourse registrations with joomla! users. So they can see her registrations when coming back to site and other modules (like Massmail, e.g.) can be used to contact registrars. This is the first step. Maybe in next step i will include a Mail-Sender function, but it's not planned for first stable version.
xx. Next release will include a calendar view of courses. Maybe you also have some ideas for this? I ask you, because i was very fascinated of your comments!

Perhaps you will help me to push amocourse forward and joining the project group of amocourse as tester? If you're interested, you can reach me on rm@amotools.ch

Regards and many, many thanks!
Renzo

Many thanks for the offer. Yes, I'd love to join your team to make amoCourse a better Course Management system. Have already added you in my skype contact pending your approval.

Item 7:
It is quite common for some application to have an automated task running making use of the server cron job facility. Thisi is how they are done normally:

i. Create a module with configurable parameters like how many hours/days in advanced for auto reminder email etc.
ii. This module when triggered will look into the database based on the setting set in it and it will send out reminder emails.
iii. This module must be published/enabled at backend but now necessary to display in any pages of the website.
iv. Configure the server cron job facility and set a time to trigger the url connecting to this module which in turns trigger the auto reminder email based on the setting in the parameters of this module.

An example of this method of running an auto-reminder is by www.resourcebookingpro.com where the commercial version comes with a free auto-reminder module.

Item 6:

What I meant earlier is instead of having the whole course title as a link to the course details, maybe include a logo/link as 'details' and only this logo/link is clickable. At least will make the screen looks a little neater. Actually there is also a little bugs on this view screen, the course title is too close to the last schedule of the previous course. For my website, I actually edit your 'multiple.php' in the view->section to added additional line-breaks, etc and it looks very very much neater. Maybe in our private message I shall share with you the url of my website.

Item xx.

In my opinion, for those user out there who requires a good course management application like amoCourse, most of them them would also have their own 3rd party calendar system. As such it may not be 'nice' to display 2 different calendars on the same website.

But for the benefit to those who might need a calendar veiw, maybe design as module so there is a option whether they want to install this mod or not.

Whats more useful function is to integrate the amoCourse to the few popular calendars like jEvents! and JCal. Most of this calendars will comes with a title field, a body field and either a 'extra info/remark' field. As such when we create a new schedule in the amoCourse, the system will add a new calendar entry with the course title as the Caneldar entry title field and the calendar body field will have serveral links to 'Course Details' and 'Register Now'. You can tag a unique ID to in the calendar entry's 'extra info/Remark' field for easy future referencing backwards for deletion or editing.



Hope the above is understandable. We shall be in touch in near future and looking forward to your next release. Do feel free to contact me, kawei@singnet.com.sg

Regards.