can anyone help / suggest anything for a classifieds section

[Maya]

this is comin along really well T...

[alecoddly]

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

[Avinash]

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?

[Thurnok]

@alecoddly
No, 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.

@Avinash
Ads 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.

[alecoddly]

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

[Avinash]

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!

[Thurnok]

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 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

[Thurnok]

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.

[alecoddly]

tested and working very well - looking forward to this now

thanks for all your time and effort

[Avinash]

Excellent work! I cant wait!