iJoomla.com, the leading developer of Joomla extensions, is pleased to announce the release of iJoomla News Portal version 0.0.18. This new version is a significant update to the popular iJoomla News Portal and addresses a number of issues while adding several important new features such as automatic generation of thumbnail images, new methods for displaying images taken from content items, and support for foreign languages using JoomFish.

iJoomla News Portal is a Joomla component that allows users to easily create a website or section of a site into a live news portal that is based on the site's existing sections, categories and articles. Within minutes, users can create a news portal that's as professional and appealing as major sites such as CNN.com or FoxNews.com.

New Features in iJoomla News Portal version 0.0.18:

 Thumbnail generation:

 The thumbnail images are no longer a resized display of the original image – instead they are new thumbnails that are automatically created from the original image. Because the new thumbnails have a much smaller file size than the original images, pages will load much more quickly, giving a real speed boost to your News Portal.

 Automatic grabbing of images from content items:

 iJoomla News Portal version 0.0.18 allows images to be automatically grabbed from inside content items without requiring users to use the Joomla Image tab. iJoomla News Portal looks for an image inside the intro text section of that content item. If it finds an image there, it will grab the first image in the intro text section. If there are no images in the intro text, it will look for images in the full text section of the content item and grab the first image it finds there.

Since Joomla 1.5 will not have the mosimage feature included this new method of grabbing images from the content items will help prepare people for the upcoming release of Joomla 1.5.

 Multi-Language support with JoomFish:

iJoomla News Portal version 0.0.18 now supports the use of multiple foreign languages through the use of JoomFish. When a visitor switches from one language to another on the web site, not only will the article titles and intro text change to show the selected language, but also the headings of the different zones, the "Read more" link and anything other items that are part of Joomla or iJoomla News Portal. You can even specify the default language on the news portal back-end and upload as many languages as you would like your web site to offer.

Improved SEF Support:

iJoomla News Portal version 0.0.18 now works with Artio 1.4.0 and SEF Advance 4.9.0.Future versions of the product are expected to work with Open SEF.

Improved ordering of content items:

The new version of iJoomla News Portal provides a new method for arranging the order of content items. Users can go to Manage Content->Content Items and use the arrows or the numbers to order content items.

Path problems fixed:

There is now a workaround fix that improves the way the Joomla path is handled by iJoomla News Portal.

iJoomla News Portal version 0.0.18 is available now at iJoomla.com. The upgrade is free for registered users. The price for new customers is $69.95. The price includes free product upgrades for life, free support, and 20% off when you buy additional licenses.

About iJoomla: Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Long Beach, California, iJoomla is one of the leading developers of Joomla software, and offers a range of both free and commercial software add-ins for Joomla. iJoomla's goal is to set a new standard for the Joomla community by offering top-quality components with professional service and support, and offer their products either for free or for an affordable price.