Hi there
im really REALLY new to all of this and have made it this far following the Fantasico / SMF / TP route.
I am looking for recommendations for an easy to configure (fantastico click and run) alternate to Noahs Classifieds which I just cant seem to get working to add on to my fledgling housing estate community site.
Also down the line I was thinking of adding a seachable business directory if anyone can give advice there too.
Of course if these things can be integrated into an existing TP theme in anyway that would be AWESOME.
Thanks
Alec
This sounds like an interesting block code snippet in the works.
hmm...
Small, Medium, Large size ads selectable by user and cost for each set by the site admin. A picture, plus text description. Contact information. Ads allowed to be run for x period of time set by admin. User allowed to edit own ad up until its expiration period.
I'm just rambling thoughts of what I would put in it. Perhaps I'll look at doing one next week when I have some time. Any other ideas for features?
Well you seem to have hit all the initial requirements bang on the head there Thurnok :coolsmiley:
Additions which would be cool but not essential not mentioned in your pre-ramble would be
Catagories defined by admin and the facility to organise them, a keyword search function.
If your talking pricing structure small text only ads which was originally all i was imagining.
If you would like any help *cough* testing I can offer you my time :up:
a suggestion: for user submitted adverts - admin / moderator approval required or not set by admin
- advert ratings (in case someone wants to use it for a personals site, like rating the persons profile)
- buyers / sellers ratings (good at payment or not like in ebay)
Good code suggestion Alec and potential for a great mod Thurnok
I have played around with Noahs too, but gave up after a time. Just not happy with what it could be I guess.
If I could jump in and add my two cents... ;)
I have been looking into different classifieds/directory solutions myself( to which as of yet my search has been unsuccessful). Some things have come rather close, but only if you took a bit of this and a touch of that...
On my wish list,
sub-categories are a must ( unlimited would be ideal)
alphabetical browse ( like in the members area)
searchable by city/area option
Some mods already made might be of help in this venture...both can be found at SMF, but neither has it all... One is LinksSMF, and the other ( for reference) is Music database.
Links is not bad.. no subs though and thats a big issue when dealing with hundreds of links. This on also take lots of real estate with the spacing between each submission
Music database has the right idea but just needs that little extra.
I don't have the time to code something like this myself.. but *cough* I could also be at your disposal for testing....
btw- both work with 1.1rc2 and tp ( most likely rc3 now too)
Quote from: Maya on September 02, 2006, 09:20:16 AM
Good code suggestion Alec and potential for a great mod Thurnok
I don't have the time to code something like this myself.. but *cough* I could also be at your disposal for testing....
LOL
I am currently working on the searchable business directory, which can go into a block or a php page, (or seperate html/php page). I cant promise it will be what you are after though!.
It uses a seperate database, which so far I have been manually adding businesses to... I should really make a form for that too!
Hi JRW I am also looking to add a business directory so would be more than interested in this as a separate section ;D
Apart from the local shops takeaways etc there are lots of little home run businesses in the area which would be able to use this to advertise on.
THe easier it is to administer the better.:up:
Hi Thurnok / JRW - dont want to be cheeky but .........
any progress ?
I haven't had a chance to start yet. Been working on TP 0.9.5 bugs first along with a few websites I had to get up recently as well as about 10 others that I am still in the process of moving from one server to another. Hopefully next weekend, but depends on how my gum surgery goes today. Supposed to be a 48 hour recovery time, but I might take the weekend as well to recover.
If I'm feeling well enough, I might be able to get started this weekend. I'm not sure yet whether this will be a block snippet or mod. My goal will be to keep it simple enough to fit in as a snippet, and perhaps later expand it to become a mod.
no worries ;) gum surgery eh :buck2: sounds v painful :-\ good luck with that ;)
well yes, and no. I can get the search to work, but the results dont/wont display on the same page... (ie they wont do it in an article). If I do the search on a seperate html page, it works.
for example, type australia into http://www.techdomain.com.au/shop.php That page is not generated by TP/SMF at all... but I want to get the content showing on/in an article or block.
hi jrw
the search looks good and if it were to open in its own new window this im sure would be preferable as they are full blown sites and not adverts.
is there a way what you have done so far can display a full list of current businesses alphabetically or by type/catagory ?
Ok.. just an update, I'm starting to feel a bit better though my gums feel like they've been in the ring with the UFC!
Anyway, I've started (sort of) on this project. I've written down some rough drafts of the design after some thought. This will be a relatively large block snippet. It is going to be broken into 5 peices:
Admin Config
An article that you should call from a menu link - Provides a screen with the configuration information for Classified Ads. Multiple configurations will be supported and you will be able to save as many configs as you like as well as select what the active config is. Config items include:
Config Name: Descriptive name for you to keep track of your various configs
Config Active: Set for the active configuration
Require Approval: Set whether Ad posting requires approval before display/charge
Approver Groups: List of groups that can approve any Ad.
Auto-approve Groups: List of groups where members are auto-approved (Bypasses Require Approval).
Buyer Can Owe: Flag that determines if you will allow a user to buy an Ad even if they do not have enough in their bank. In otherwords, they will "owe" you. Individual users will have to have the permission set along with this flag being active.
Buyer Can Edit: Flag that allows any buyer to edit their own Ads up until the expiration date of the Ad.
Ad Cycle: Amount in days each Ad purchase is good for.
Small, Medium, Large Ad Enable: Flag for each that determines what size Ads are available for purchase
Small, Medium, Large Ad Size: Maximum size in characters for each Ad type.
Small, Medium, Large Ad Price: How much each Ad type costs per cycle.
Buyer Maintenance
An article that you should call from a menu link - Provides a means to modify buyer information.
Buyer Bank Balance: Amount a buyer has available for purchasing Ads.
Buyer Auto-approve: Set a Buyer to auto-approve to bypass Require Approval config setting
Buyer Can Owe: If set, and if the Config Buyer Can Owe flag is set, this buyer can purchase an Ad even if they don't have enough money in their bank. They will owe you the money (as reflected by a negative balance in their bank).
Category Maintenance
Provides a means to manage Categories/Subcategories. Allows the Admin to set:
Categories/Subcategories: Admin will be able to create any number of Categories and any number of Subcategories/Levels. Create/Rename/Delete/Move functions will be included.
Ad Maintenance
This should be an Article that is called from a menu link when adding a new Ad, and also called from the Edit Ad button displayed next to the Ad in the Ads Block. It will allow you to edit / add an Ad. Following all the prerequisites of course. Ads will have:
Category: Selectable Category or Subcategory the Ad goes in.
Size: Small, Medium, Large based on content. Actual size of each defined by Admin Config.
Price: How much an Ad of each size costs - not editable here, just displayed.
Contact Name: You can enter a real name here or otherwise. If left blank will use your SMF username.
Contact Address: Your mailing address (assuming you want someone to mail you a check). Leave blank if it doesn't involve direct mail selling.
Contact Phone: Your phone number if you want someone interested in your Ad to call you.
Contact Email: If you want someone to email about your Ad.
Ad Title: A title for your Ad.
Ad Contents: The meat of your Ad.
Ad Approved: Admin and Approvers can mark your Ad approved here.
Ad Expiration: By default this is auto-set by the Config settings for Ad Cycle and the date/time your Ad is approved. Admins / Approvers can modify manually.
Ads Block
This should be either a Center block or an Article (either on frontpage or called via menu) - Displays all non-expired, approved, ads. Contains mechanism for Buyer's to edit their ads, as well as Admin/Approvers group to Edit/Expire/Delete/etc. any ad. Ads display the various Ad info from above.
There are multiple tables that are created by the Admin Config block for the rest of the Classified Ads blocks. None of the blocks will have configurable parameters since all parameters will be kept in the database. Use the blocks for configuration. I think creating a Classified Ads category and placing the 3 article blocks in that category will be a good idea.
Reason for being multi-blocked and all config done in database - Going this route will make it easier for me to convert it to an actual TP Mod in the future. Anyway, that's my basic plan. Now as far as how much time it will take, well, that depends on how much time I'll have to put towards it.
:coolsmiley: Gum surgery and all...this is coming along just super...( I just went through major dental work a few days back too, so I totally/ literally feel what your going through..oowwwww ;) )
Sounds like this is going to be something really fantastic, and good to hear you are feeling better....
looking forward... :up:
btw - I think a center block would be the way to go imho :)
WOW I am really impressed - this is what you come up with when your not 100% - INCREDIBLE !!!
I look forward to your progress :)
and Thankyou :D
yeah, we think he's a keeper. :)
Absolutley :) hes one of a kind and he found his way into our family, and the godfather is nothing in compared to us here, so he can run now >:D
UPDATE:
I've pretty much gotten the Admin Config portion done. It is the easiest porton. LOL
I just need to add some javascript for dynamically populating all the controls when selecting a different config from the pulldown. I don't want to have to do a submit unless you select to Set Active, Delete, or Save.
Here's 2 screenshots of the simple config page:
looking very niiice
Well, javascript is officially a pain in my butt. hehe
Anyway, I guess I'm a bit rusty on it. Why can't it be more like php? :)
I have to figure out the best routine for setting the various groups checkboxes based on the array I have in php for them. It's easy in php, I set the names up as the array[element] in each of the input tags, but javascript doesn't want to play ball for me to assign checks to them the way I set it up. All the other checkboxes and editboxes work fine. bah.
Ok, I'll figure it out eventually.. hehe
Well... well.. well...
I just wasted most of my day due to a BUG!!!! in Javascript. The for...in statement does not work properly under certain circumstances. It apparently runs off into never never land when working with object elements, but not always!
hehe... well, so much for that... :knuppel2:
Update:
Finished the Admin Config section (the easiest part). Now that my javascript woes are behind me, I'll work on the rest this week as I get bits of time here and there. Gotta go to work in the morning.. gah...
:)
While I have you here....how are things goin' Thurnok??? ^-^
This is another piece to my ever growing puzzle.... just thought I would maybe get an update... no pressure of course :knuppel2:
:2funny: kdg ;)
hehe.. haven't done any more work on this yet... it was gaming weekend, plus other development projects during most of last week. Oh, and I did get off my rump and do a couple quick TP bug fixes today.. LOL
I will be working on it more this week however... will keep up the progress report ;)
:) Cool... a little here, a little there... it all adds up... :up:
looking forward to it :)
Just an update, during the course of development, I've decided to seperate the Buyer maintenance functions from the Category maintenance functions. I've updated the post where I listed the various pieces.
Currently, I'm 50% finished with the Buyer Maintenance block. I've gone through a few different iterations of this, not liking the format on the first couple.
I've decided to make a multi-list box display current Buyers, and not simply fill it with every member of the forum for efficiency sake. When someone wants to purchase an ad, they will be added to the Buyer table during the purchase request.
You will be able to "set" or "add to" the bank amount for one or more Buyers in a single submission. In otherwords, selecting 10 different buyers, putting $20.00 in the Bank edit box, checking the "add to existing" checkbox, then submit will add $20.00 to the existing bank amount for each selected Buyer. Without checking the "add to existing" checkbox, you will set those 10 buyers bank amount to $20.00 regardless of what they were before.
Current slow-up: Trying to find a good tri-state checkbox code somewhere.
Ohhh, sorry I almost missed this thread :uglystupid2:
not sure i fully understand whats going on but i hope this will be able to be ported to any country or at least UK ;)
ahouldnt be hard since all u will need to do is change the $ to pound symbol (dont have it on m pc sorry lol)
There will be no monetary symbol. Just values. You can tell your users what the monetary system is in the Block and/or on your site.
Example:
Bank (in USD):
300.00
or
Bank (in Euros):
300.00
etc.
cool cool, it was more the tri state reference you made that concerned me ;)
Quote from: Thurnok on September 24, 2006, 06:26:19 PM
There will be no monetary symbol.
Couldn't that be done with a $txt[currency] = 'USD'; or similar?
Quote from: nokonium on September 24, 2006, 06:39:14 PM
Couldn't that be done with a $txt[currency] = 'USD'; or similar?
Yep, but I'm strictly speaking about the value box. As far as labels, doesn't really matter. The value box for amount of purchase, how much a user has in the bank, etc. will just be a number value for simplicity sake.
Quote from: alecoddly on September 24, 2006, 06:30:18 PM
cool cool, it was more the tri state reference you made that concerned me ;)
The tri-state checkboxes are for multiple selected users. In other words, if you have 3 or 4 users currently selected that you want to update a setting for (like adding a certain amount to all of their banks), you don't necessarily want to change all of their settings.
Here's some samples.
First one: This shows a single user selected - bank amount, and checkboxes will be set to reflect current state for that user.
Second one: This one shows multiple users selected - bank amount initially will be blank, checkboxes will be initially set to mixed mode (mixed mode means - don't change).
Third one: With multiple selected, checked (and unchecked) boxes change for each selected, mixed mode doesn't change that setting for the selected.
Sweet work! I was really looking forward to something like this :D. Any idea of a possible release date or beta?
Probably sometime in October. Depends mostly on my workload with other things.
Nice work, keep it up. This will definitely be a useful feature for us all.
Both the Admin Config and the User Config blocks are complete. You can demo them at http://tpblocks.ccs-net.com in an Admin mode to see their operation.
Once I get all 5 peices done, I'll clean up the look-and-feel of them a bit. I can only dedicate about 10% of my time towards it, so it will still be a couple weeks before complete.
More to come...
great!! looks very good - just checked it out :up:
this is comin along really well T... ;)
it looks very clean and easy to use but will it be possible to disable elements? my intended usage would not include / need there to be a buyers section currently. i wanted it to be purely like a newspaper based classifieds section with browseable catagories where either an email address or telephone number can be included for contact - this looks like it can go waaay beyond this which is not a bad thing ;)
looking amazing bro! :up:
One question, how will ad's be displayed? On the front page in a centre block? Or will they be in an article? Will there be different category of sales, such as "auto", "books", "cds" etc?
@alecoddlyNo, it will not be possible to
disable elements, however, the
Classified Ads Display "subblock" (which I'll probably develop last out of the 5 subblocks in the Classified Ads block) will contain any number of optional information that the Ad "buyer" can supply (email, phone, address, etc.) via the
Ad Purchase subblock. In other words, the "buyers" are those that are "buying" ad space from you. Just like when you buy ad space in a newspaper classifieds section. Whether you intend to charge real money, some sort of website credit system, or nothing at all is up to you and configurable.
- You can set the price for ads to 0 and then it will not cost anything.
- You can set membergroups (or even individual users) to "buyer can owe" and they'll be able to place ads even if they have no money in their "bank" and it will still count up charges against them internally, whether you intend to use those charges for something or not.
- You can turn on/off ad approval in the Classified Ads Configuration subblock to determine whether an ad must be approved before it is visible
- You can set approval groups - those membergroups able to approve ads
- You can set membergroups/individuals to "auto-approved" and their ads will become visible immediately, where those not set to "auto-approved" will require approval if you set Approval Required in the Classified Ads Configuration subblock.
So, it will be configurable to you desire and still cover free ads, etc.
@AvinashAds will be displayed where you put the ads block code. The two recommended places would be a center block, or an article, phpblocks obviously. So you could use an always displayed center block, a frontpage displayed article, or an article that you must click a menu item to bring up. Basically, up to the webmaster.
There will be unlimited categories/subcategories configurable in the
Ad Category Configuration subblock.
Quote from: Thurnok on September 30, 2006, 08:11:00 PM
In other words, the "buyers" are those that are "buying" ad space from you. Just like when you buy ad space in a newspaper classifieds section.
got it now, thanks for the explanation :)
Thanks Thurnok. Any updates on this project? You can see an example here:
http://www.joomster.com/index.php?option=com_marketplace&Itemid=31
of what I meant by subcategories. Like will people be able to browse the ads like an online store kinda? Or will the ads just be all displayed on one page? Keep up the good work bro!
First run will definately not be as elaborate as the one on that site. I'm not including photos in the first release but plan to eventually somewhere down the road. I haven't really decided on the "display" layout yet for the "viewer" of the ads. It will be the last module of the set, so it is open for discussion at this point.
However...
Categories will definately be (virtually) unlimited. As long as you don't nest more than about 150 subcategories anyway, because depending on the version of php you have running on your site, you could blow the stack with the recursion function I'm using to sort categories/subcategories for the way I want the lists in the Ads Category Config block.
A Main Category
- a subcat of above
- a subcat of above
- a subcat of above
.... - no more than 150-200 of these
Another Main Category
- thousands of subcategories at the same level is fine
Thousands of Main Categories is fine
In otherwords, you can have an unlimited number of categories and subcategories, but don't nest more than 150-200 subcategories.
Anyway, progress report is updated on my TPBlocks site (http://tpblocks.ccs-net.com) as I go along, and previews there as I get the individual subblocks complete (or semi complete - functional but perhaps look and feel changes for later). I might have some time tonight to work on it, so maybe I can finish the Category Config block tonight. No promises.. heh
Category Config block is basically done (90%), I have a working copy of it available for preview on my TP Blocks site. No docs for it yet, but you can play with it to figure some things out. ;)
tested and working very well - looking forward to this now :)
thanks for all your time and effort :D
Excellent work! I cant wait!
hi thurnok - any progress ? ;)
A little bit, but I've been tied up with some server moves... including my TP Blocks site ;)
Also a few other ventures taking place I'm involved with that have been taking up some of my time above and beyond the normal projects.
I'll update the progress soon. :)
Its all good Thurnok...
Nothing before its time.... don't feel pressured ;)
any updates on this???
I doubt it, he is extremely busy at the moment.
No updates this week. Been pretty busy unfortunately. However, you can see a progress report on my TP Blocks site (http://tpblocks.ccs-net.com) to see where I am at day to day with it.
I'm going on vacation for Thanksgiving (heading out tomorrow morning) so I probably won't get anything going on it this week until Saturday or Sunday. But I do plan to work on it one of those days, so I might get the purchase block done, which would really only leave the main display block for the classified ads.
I cant wait (but I have to) Enjoy thanksgiving :)
From Thurnoks site - Progress Report:
Classified Ads Configuration block - Complete!
Buyer Configuration block - Complete!
Category Configuration block - 90%
Ad Purchase block - 80%
Total Progress: approx. 70%
have tested catagory block and can
create new catagories
new sub catagories
rename existing catagories
only section not implemented yet is deletion from within a catagory that i can see :)
I notice that there arent any changes yet :( I am looking for something that has similar functions (or will eventually) to photopost classifieds without the $100US price tag
http://www.photopost.com/class/
anyone have any ideas?
At the moment the best idea will be. patience, and good things will come your way :)
Yes... I'm definately lagging behind on this project as I had intended to already have it complete. Unfortunately, other priorities have come up that have made progress on this slow down. Now that the holidays are over, and some more of my time will be freeing up soon, I'll be getting back on this.
YAAAY good on you Thurnok, Thankyou and Happy New Year ;D
Quote from: Thurnok on January 12, 2007, 07:54:03 PM
Yes... I'm definately lagging behind on this project as I had intended to already have it complete. Unfortunately, other priorities have come up that have made progress on this slow down. Now that the holidays are over, and some more of my time will be freeing up soon, I'll be getting back on this.
awesome news!
hey thurnok, is there any more to report bud? ive taken a look over at your site and cant see there has been an update in a loooong while.
has anyone seen anything else that could possibly serve as a classifieds section please as i made promises i shouldnt have three months ago and am on the verge of being force fed humble pie.
totally my own fault and not a pop at thurnk btw just new to this and way too enthusiastic ;)
I got sidetracked by a few things. That and Maya hasn't been around to break out the whip. hehe
Been spreading myself too thin, trying to do too many things at the same time. I definately plan to complete the thing, though I might not include everything I had planned for the first release, just so I can at least get some working version of it out.
It's not overly complicated as it is now, just hadn't really put as much time into it as needed to get it completed. There will be a progress update on it tonight.
awesome, thankyou :)
...and another bump because I'm about ready to use exactly something like this. :)
I put this on hold pending the module interface for TP 1.0 to be finalized. Instead of making this a series of (5) blocks, it will become a TP module instead.
The end of this month is going to be a big relief as I will have a bunch of time freed up, so there will be progress on this again. Look for this to be a free TP module in the future.
Thanks Thurnock,
Your time and effort is appreciated - looking forward to this module, it will be VERY popular.
Regards,
Wilsy.
If you need somewhere to beta it Thurnock, drop me a line. :)
search geek at g mail dot com will reach me - no spaces. ;)