Introducing AceSEF 1.5

Today I'm really excited to announce one of the most anticipated extensions for Joomla: AceSEF 1.5! I know some of you waited quite a while for this announcement. This is the start of a blog post series about the new AceSEF 1.5. Today I want to give you some insight into the AceSEF 1.5 development and changes in the upcoming version.

Actually the new AceSEF release was planned for summer 2010. We had some cool features implemented like “Updating URLs from backend” e.t.c. that improves the overall usability. But as always we had some new ideas and we did a brainstorming about how we could add essential improvements to the software architecture to make it more future proof. We didn't like some old features like "manually" XML sitemap generation. It was not convenient for active websites.

So let's take a closer look at the new user interface of the AceSEF administration area and all the new features we included.

Performance Improved

We've significantly improved the performance of AceSEF, up to 500%. On a clean Joomla! installation AceSEF 1.3 runs 170 queries to load the homepage but AceSEF 1.5 runs just 33 queries, with cache off.
We've also implemented an advanced and managable cache system so that you could delete even a single record from the cache.

Generate URLs from backend

Yes, this is the end of the necessity of browsing the website to generate SEF URLs. With it's new and advanced URL generation method, AceSEF 1.5 will browse your website itself and generate SEF URLs on-the-fly. You can also Update URLs from backend if you've changed any Global and/or Extension configuration related with URLs so that AceSEF will generate the new SEF URL + create a 301 redirection from the old to the new one.

"Quick Edit" mode

Here are continueing with the innovation of AceSEF. All SEF URLs can be edited from one central screen that will save 95% your time. We're the first that implemented such a feature for Meta Tags in SEF components.

On-edit-page Metadata

You don't have to go to AceSEF's Meta Manager to edit article's Metadata anymore, we've brought it to the edit page. Now you've a new slider just for AceSEF's Metadata. This feature is component based and currently it's available only for Content (Articles) component but we'll make such plugins for K2, FLEXIcontent and other components too. Of course, no hack.

Dynamic XML sitemap

The age of manually sitemap is closed. Now, just like other sitemap components like Joomap or Xmap, AceSEF generates dynamic XML sitemap so you just have to add your sitemap link to Google/Yahoo then get out of the way, it'll be updated automatically. Of course, no plugin obligation.

HTML Sitemap

That is the totally innovation of AceSEF 1.5, HTML sitemap with "no plugin obligation". You can create HTML sitemap like Joomap or Xmap components without any plugin obligation, even component based sitemap. Moreover, it can be paginated...

Tags, Internal Links, Social Bookmarks

Check the image in the right side, it's amazing, you cat tag ALL components without any plugin obligation. As you may've recognized all AceSEF and SEF URLs phrases are linked in this article, it's because of we're currently using AceSEF 1.5 on our live site. Again, no plugin obligation.


As you can see, this is not an "interface make-up" release like the others', there're tons of new features, automatic metadata/sitemap items generation from backend e.t.c but this post is going too long so I have take a breath for now :)

Release date and the future

The release date for the AceSEF 1.5 is set for 06-07. September 2010. After that, we'll be focused on releasing the Joomla! 1.6 compatible version.