RO CSVI 8.9.0 release
The RO CSVI 8.9.0 release is not only to support Joomla 5 but we have also added some big new features alongside the usual bug fixing.
Joomla 5
A few weeks ago the Joomla project released their new major version of Joomla 5. This release brings new opportunities but also means extensions will have to adapt to keep working on the new major release. RO CSVI 8.9.0 is doing exactly that. We have gone through all the parts of our code to test it against Joomla 5 to make sure all works as expected. Feel free to give it a test run and let us know if you find any issues.
Separators
Throughout the entire system of RO CSVI we use a lot of delimiters to make it possible to import all kinds of nested data. There are |, #, ~, / and even commas. These separators have always been set in stone until now. You are free to choose which separator you want to use where.
There is a special tab now where you can configure separators as you like. The default values will always be the values we used to have before.
Cronjobs
Running cronjobs is an integral part of most websites. RO CSVI has supported this from very early on and will continue to support this. Since Joomla 4 there is a new way of running cronjobs via the Joomla CLI. RO CSVI has it's own script to run cronjobs however this can throw issues with Joomla 4 installations. As of now, you can also run your cronjobs using the Joomla CLI, we have included a new plugin called Console - RO CSVI. Check our cronjob documentation on how to use the new cronjob commands.
The old way of doing cronjobs in RO CSVI is still supported as this is not removed from the package.
The CLI options are available for import, export and maintenance tasks.
The usage of the new Joomla CLI support has been added to the Setting up a cron job document.
Running Processes
RO CSVI used to have a page called Running Processes to show you which processes were actually running. Turns out, the quality of this page is worse than fake news. You could not count on it being reliable as jobs which died while running would remain in the list forever. Alongside the Running Processes page we also have the Logs page. These two pages share a lot of information, so the decision has been made to remove the Running Processes page and add the column Last Updated to the logs list. This way you can see when an entry has been last updated. This is then an indicator if a process is still running or not.
JSON
Recently we added the JSON format as import option, now JSON is also available as an export option. The layout of the JSON file is a simple one and does not contain any nested values. However if needed, you can export your data as JSON as well.
Wait time
Whenever you run a large import you may want to wait between batches as not to hammer the server too hard. This works perfectly fine when running the import via the browser. If you are running the import via CLI, there is no wait time because system limits generally do not apply. This is all dandy until you are also importing remote images for example. The import will fire off a lot of requests to the external server to download all those images. There is no way to slow it down until now. We have added an option to allow batch processing via CLI so to make it wait after a number of records so you are not sending too many requests to the external server.
Migrating rule settings
In many places you can configure the access control settings for articles, categories, modules and so on. Now migrating these settings is quite a bit of a hassle due to the number of options there are. We already have the rules_raw field for that in some places but they are not also available for content, categories, and modules. This field can be used as-is to export and import rule settings for an item.
Image support
RO CSVI has had extensive image support for VirtueMart products for example, this has now been extended to Joomla categories and Joomla contacts. The Joomla content sees the addition of downloading remote images and the option to delete image relations.
Custom Fields in Joomla Content
The Joomla Content import now has the option to skip empty custom fields during import. This makes it possible to import only a set of custom field values assigned to an article.
Changes in RO CSVI 8.9.0
Check the full list of changes in this release:
- Fixed price check on HikaShop Product import
- Fixed price check on HikaShop Price import
- Removed the Running Processes page
- Added JSON format as export type
- Fixed Stockable Custom Fields not imported in Custom Fields for All in VirtueMart Product import
- Fixed remove leftover values from Custom Fields for All
- Added publish_up field in tags processing on Joomla Content import
- Added publish_down field in tags processing on Joomla Content import
- Fixed customsforall_value_label does not have a default value in Custom Fields for All
- Fixed params field is ambiguous in K2 Item export
- Added export of custom fields based on override disabler status in VirtueMart Product export
- Added export of custom fields based on override disabler status in VirtueMart Order export
- Added option to delete image relations in Joomla Content import
- Fixed missing notes, tag and featured fields not included in template backup
- Added rules_raw to allow export of ACL rules in Joomla Categories export
- Added rules_raw to allow export of ACL rules in Joomla Categories import
- Added rules_raw to allow export of ACL rules in Joomla Content export
- Added rules_raw to allow export of ACL rules in Joomla Content import
- Added rules_raw to allow export of ACL rules in Joomla Modules export
- Added rules_raw to allow export of ACL rules in Joomla Modules import
- Fixed Sort By in Custom Table export
- Added option to download remote images to Joomla Content import
- Added image options to Joomla Categories import
- Added image options to Joomla Contacts import
- Fixed fatal error if dependent custom fields base plugin is disabled
- Fixed fatal error in VirtueMart Google export
- Fixed missing language strings
- Fixed time conversion where time is set to 00:00:00
- Fixed Test FTP button on PHP 8.1 or higher
- Added option to skip empty custom fields in Joomla Content import
- Fixed to clean custom parameter field for Custom Fields for All in VirtueMart Product import
- Fixed to update only custom fields in the import file and not all custom fields in Joomla Content import
- Added example template for HikaShop Order import
- Added example template for HikaShop Order Product import
- Changed to check for Google token only if template is of Google type
- Fixed handling custom field media inside a subform in Joomla Content import
- Fixed handling errors when changing template type from Custom Table to SQL
- Fixed warnings on PHP 8.2 with VirtueMart Google export
- Changed to use component_id field from import file if present in Joomla Menu import
- Fixed restoring template with one custom table
- Fixed export prices with target currency set to something else than default VirtueMart currency in VirtueMart Google export
- Fixed Save & New button in Template Fields page on Joomla 4/5
- Added Joomla native CLI option for import operations
- Added Joomla native CLI option for export operations
- Added Joomla native CLI option for maintenance operations
- Fixed parent values not set in Multi-variant field in VirtueMart Product import
- Fixed showing options for parent product in Stockable Custom Fields in VirtueMart Product import
- Added wait time as option in CLI import
- Fixed duplicate custom fields created for Dependent Custom Fields in VirtueMart Product import
- Changed handling images in custom field Imagelist to skip non-existing images instead of stopping
- Changed to use PDO driver for Phocacart Product export
- Fixed checking prices using too many decimals in HikaShop Price import
- Fixed checking prices using too many decimals in HikaShop Product import
- Fixed core_metakey has no default value in Joomla Content import
- Fixed handling empty nodes in VirtueMart Google export
A full changelog of all changes is available on the download page of RO CSVI 8.9.0.
This release is available for free to everyone with an active subscription from the Download section. If you do not have a subscription yet, you can subscribe here.