As you might already know, the folks over at 'Azrul' have just released the latest version of JomSocial, V1.6 code named 'Brillo'. .
Whats with the code name Azrul ? Hope the cleaning guys don't sue you for using it !
Our development team has been keeping a close eye on the development & has been trying out all the Beta releases that were available & we definitely have been impressed with everything that we saw :)
Edit : Reply by JomSocial to What does Brillo mean , @techjoomla It's a spanish word for luster, shine and brilliance  http://bit.ly/bMVfo1

What does it mean for users of Techjoomla Products ?

Q : " I use a lot of Techjoomla Products. Do i need to upgrade for them to work with the new JomSocial ? "
A : The happy answer is no ! We have tested all our products & they work just fine with the new versions !

Q : "What does this mean for future releases of Techjoomla products ?"
A : Quite a lot ! The improved JomSocial API introduces a lot of new possibilities which will add quite a lot more to our extensions. Read on to know the possibilities.

Read on to know what the release of JomSocial 1.6 brings for developers & users !

 

 

So Whats under the hood ?

Watch for my comments on what you can expect from each feature between the lines..

Amazon S3 Storage support

Why not utilize one of world's cheapest cloud storage solutions to host your photos and videos, while at the same time reducing your server access load? With JomSocial 1.6 [Brillo], you can do just that! JomSocial 1.6 allows you to use Amazon S3's highly scalable, reliable, fast and inexpensive data storage infrastructure-- the same infrastructure Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites! With this, your site can easily handle traffic spikes and your visitors can experience a fast-loading community...no matter where they are!

JomSocial finally goes on the cloud with this new addition. Storage of the massive amounts of media had always been the bane of many Joomla Social networking sites & it wasn't easy to manage that or add Support for a cloud. This meant using local storage on your own servers & additional hardware to match the reliability needed.  Believe us , if you have a large Social network in mind , this is one of the biggest boons you could hope for ! We were one of the first companies to incorporate Amazon into a Joomla network when the service became available. See Blog post

The best part about this is that even extension developers needing to use storage can now leverage the API to push their data as well to Amazon !

Massively enhanced privacy support

Sometimes you just want to post something private for your closest friends. We understand. That's why we now have an enhanced privacy system in JomSocial 1.6. Activity streams, for example, will now accurately show streams from public and friends' activities only. If you want to keep things for yourself, others won't be able to view it. This applies to all private group activities as well. Private groups stay private!

Following facebook aren't they ? Well its definitely a good idea since most of the people using JomSocial will face privacy issues at some point.

What does it mean for our products ? JBolo!, Network Suggest & People you may know in their upcoming versions will have changes which will respect these new privacy settings.

Improved activity stream

We have made our activity streams more informative and a lot more useful in JomSocial 1.6. We have strategically included content preview within each stream which allows admins to automatically hide unwanted activity from ever being shown. A few redundant activities are also unpublished by default. Activity streams not only look much nicer, but we’ve also organized and displayed them in a way that helps site members discover new information and be kept up-to-date easily.

New API for new possibilities

We always strive to give more control and flexibility to 3rd party developers. In JomSocial 1.6, we have added some ambitious new APIs to give 3rd party developers even more empowerment. Plugins now have the ability to override any controller or even an ajax output. Giving more control to developers means that they can be more creative in developing new modules and plugins, opening a whole new world of possibilities for JomSocial.
Now this, in my opinion in the most important part of this announcement as far as the developers are concerned. When i read this on their blog a week or so ago, i was very excited about the possibilities due to this new addition. Controller or AJAX overrides in the simplest form mean that default JomSocial behavior can be now changed without any code hacks ! It will be possible to extend functionality or make minor changes .. all via plugins ! Wait a go JomSocial !

Modules everywhere

You can now easily load any Joomla! modules within JomSocial content in this new version. We have now added a number of strategically located module positions inside JomSocial. For example, making an announcement on top of all profiles is now easier than ever. Just create a new html module and assign it to "js_profile_top" module position. You can read more about this at http://www.jomsocial.com/docs/Built-in_module_positions

Well this is really AMAZING.. We had a lot of requests to create applications of our Network Suggest & People you may know modules.. But with this feature its not needed any more.. With the ability to show modules in Profiles itself or rather in a lot of places within JomSocial, all modules automatically get a great amount of flexibility of position. So all you people who wanted to put Network suggest right on the profile go right ahead !
Well thats all for now folks ! Keep watching this blog for more sneaks & peaks :)