More on EasyBlog 2.1
It's been a week since we posted some leaks on EasyBlog 2.1 and just thought that I should share more about the new features that we've added in it since we are getting near towards the beta release...
Refreshed blog management
The current back end has been revamped to ensure that you would get a clearer picture of all the rich features that comes with EasyBlog unlike the prior which looks a little congested. Oh yes, the refreshed back end works well with Mission Control from Rocket Themes now.
Category ACLs
The old privacy settings which you see when you create a new category would still work as-is but on top of the existing privacy we have also added another privacy option that allows you to configure the privacy to be based on the user groups.
Like illustrated above, you can now select the privacy for each of the category created on the site. It is per user group specific so that you could take full advantage of the user groups that are added in Joomla 1.6 and Joomla 1.7
New bloggers interface
The current layout of the bloggers isn't very social friendly so we took another step further by enhancing the bloggers page to have more social-ish elements.
Unifying login form
Only when you thought it was difficult to place a login form in EasyBlog, we've added a new quick login section that allows your users or bloggers to quickly login.
If you missed out on our earlier blog post, we had some more leaks for you to check out there as well.
About the author
Comments
Hey Muhanad,
Yep, per category. You can already create menu items that links to certain category actually in the current version of EasyBlog 2.0.x 
Jack im not seeing that option, which menu item type allows me to do so ?
there is no option to create a menu item to categories ( only one category )
The quick login sounds good, i'm always looking for a good looking login tab for my main site, since it's a bit cluttered.
The new blogger interface seems nice. Question tough: Is it connected to other 3rd party plugins like JomSocial (CB for those who use that instead)? For example for that "visit author's profile" link.
Also, i'm sure i saw on the board, but i think an official announcement here would be better: K2 import, is it implemented in v2.1? (i really need that)
And i really don't want to rush, i would rather wait 1 or 2 more months, but also want to ask: estimate beta release time (i know you said early this month, but perhaps you have a more precise date)?
Regardless of everything, really looking forward, i take off my hat for this wonderfull work.
Hey Pedro,
Actually if it's integrated with 3rd party plugins, the avatar will now link to the respective blogger's page.
K2 imports are still being constructed right now but I don't think we would be able to fill this in by 2.1 
(Will try)
We are scheduling for a beta this week if possible (Still tweaking the layouts). If there are no other issues, it will be next Monday (fingers crossed 
)
Hmm sad K2 import won't be able to reach us yet (i messed up and lost all my manual imports, evan the backup was messed >.anks Jack, wish you guys luck 
Hey Pedro,
Ouch, that's bad. If you need any help at all with the imports or any other issues that you might face please do contact us
Unless you know how i can import around 300 articles quickly, there's nothing to it :P
Thanks for the help, really appreciate it ^^ but i think i really gotta wait for the update, manually migrating again, now being nearly the double that i imported the other time, will be a pain, hehe ^^
Hey Pedro,
Are those articles pretty much just basic articles? I am actually taking a look at K2 currently to see if we can build a migrator for it.
Hey Muhanad,
Ah, unfortunately you can only link to specific category. Is there a need to link to multiple categories on a single page? Not sure if the current view can take that but perhaps we need to write a new view for it.
JAck, linking to more than one category is so good ( i like this option in k2) because it allows you with acl to have different blog sections one for student for example and one for teachers
example: you want your students to write blogs in the following categories, hobbies, studying, sports, ( you configure acl to only allow students to write in those categories and then you create a menu item that links to posts from those categories
then you repeat the same thing with teachers with different categories.. got me ? we need a menu item that links to posts from certain categories really
Hey Muhanad,
Ah, yes I see it now. I can try to push this into EasyBlog 2.1 or EasyBlog 3.
Pleaseeeee do it in 2.1 so i dumb k2, its the only reason i use k2 in the site along with easyblog and i hate that we need to use two blog components/two styles/two comment systems/two profiles/ .. Jaccck please
Hey Muhanad,
Will try to add this
jack, i was looking at the current ( link to categories option ) which filters posts from all categories, along with informations about the category itself, best writer.. etc ..
can the new menu item just pulls to blog posts from certain categories without all those information in other words, can we have it exactly how the "Frontpage Blog Layout" menu item works but with the option to chose which categories we pull blogs from..
sorry i know im asking for a lot .. Respect
hi jack,
i'm not sure if i understand the new Category Access Managment..is it possible to set some Categories as Default and let users create subcategories wich are assigned to this Default Categories?
Hey Rene,
The default categories behavior isn't something like that actually. The default category allows admin to set a default category for the user. Which also means that when the user writes a new blog post, the default category is selected for them.
so jack for the acl, in 2.1 we can restrict writing access per certain categories right ?
can we do like what we can in k2, create a menu item that links to blog posts from certain categories ?