We have been working hard this past month and are very excited to tell you about our latest release of Zap Calendar. Version 4.0.15 has "something for everyone", including one or two cool items that we think will make you smile. Read on to see if we were right.
Dark Sky Weather Add-on
For years Zap Calendar had two weather add-ons for displaying weather forecasts within a calendar. That number was reduced to one when Google decided to retire its weather API along with its iGoogle service in November 2013. Zap Calendar still provides the Zap Weather add-on (for use with our very own Zap Weather Joomla product), but this product only supports weather for USA locations and its territories. With the addition of the Dark Sky weather add-on, we again have 2 weather add-ons to choose from, and also have a weather solution for international users. Both weather add-ons are included in all paid subscription levels (this is a new feature for basic level subscriptions).
Fancy Color Style for Upcoming Events
We have added a fourth style option for upcoming events. The "Fancy Color" style is similar to the "Fancy" style, however, instead of using the default theme color for displaying the calendar date, the category color is now used. This can provide a colorful list of upcoming events for your web site. You can see a comparison of the fancy color style with all the other upcoming events styles on our demonstration site.
Custom Styles for Google Maps
OK, this one is high on the list of cool items. You can now use custom styles for your Google Maps add-on. What does this mean? This means you have control over how your Google Map will appear in Zap Calendar. What's cool is you don't need to know web design to do it. Just go to the site www.snazzymaps.com , select a map style and copy the JavaScript style array code and paste it into the style field in the calendar settings under the Google Maps plugin tab. From the wide selection at this web site, you can choose from vibrant color to monochrome map styles. You can also try out the Google Maps Style Wizard on the web to create your own custom style.
Support For JomSocial Events
The JomSocial add-on now supports the display of JomSocial events directly on a Zap Calendar. There is no conversion, importing or exporting, these events are displayed directly from the JomSocial database. You will see JomSocial events show up in the calendar, upcoming event lists and even on the map displayed from the Google Maps add-on. Enable JomSocial events for each calendar under the plugins tab.
Zap Calendar In-Place Upgrade From Joomla 2.5
Joomla has stated it will end support for Joomla 2.5 at the end of 2014. Beginning with this release of Zap Calendar, there are now two methods to upgrading Zap Calendar from Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x: Migrating from one site to another, and the new in-place upgrade option. You will find details on these upgrade methods here.
Improved Event Manager
Improvements to the Zap Calendar back-end continue in this release with an update to the event manager. Event categories are now color coded for greater visual appeal.
