We have been busy the last few weeks adding new features to some of our modules. The Hot Simple Contact now supports hCAPTCHA for better spam protection. In Hot Maps, besides Google Maps, you can now select Open Street Map (100% free) as a map provider. Last but not least, the Hot Film Tape module now allows you to add an unlimited number of slides and re-order them easily.
Better spam protection in the Hot Simple Contact v1.2.0 with hCAPTCHA
Although our Joomla contact form module has Google reCAPTCHA, as well as a custom anti-spam protection system, the most persistent spam bots on some websites, could find a way to override it. Therefore, we listened to the recommendations from our users and added the third layer of anti-spam protection in this module.
hCAPTCHA is an anti-spam protection service that's free for most users. Before the form submission, it displays graphical challenges (one or more of them) that are very difficult for spam bots. You should create a free account on their website and add the keys to the module settings to activate this protection.
Open Street Map is now available in the Hot Maps v4.3.0
In the early days, our Joomla maps module worked perfectly with Google Maps. However, later Google started limiting this service to busy websites. Finally, all websites became forced to obtain API keys. In some cases, users had to leave payment details even if their websites were eligible for the free tier.
Again, we listened to the recommendations from our users and added the Open Street Map service to the Hot Maps module. This service is 100% free. You don't need to enter API keys or provide payment details. However, for the busiest websites (ones with thousands of map calls per hour), OSM may limit access to their maps to protect their infrastructure from overloading (and that's perfectly understandable). However, for 99.99% of websites, this map solution will be perfect!
The Hot Film Tape v4.2.0 slides management is improved
In the earlier versions, you could add up to 20 slides to the Hot Film Tape module. Also, the re-ordering of the module was not possible. Therefore, following the modern features of Joomla core, we upgraded this module and improved the slide management significantly. As a result, you can now have an unlimited number of slides. You can also re-order them easily. At the same time, the module settings page looks simple and neat.
Important upgrade notice
The users with active Hot Film Tape modules will be forced to re-enter the slide data after the upgrade. Therefore, please export all your slide data to any plain text editor before upgrading the module. You will need to re-enter them after the upgrade.