Portal Software - [Chris] Classifieds

Classifieds
by Christos Teriakis
aka ChrisTERiS

Please note that from
11 Aug 2013
you can get support only in my site
http://www.teriakis.com

Demo: http://www.christeris.net/dev42/classifieds.php
Demo Accounts:
demouser1 / demopass1
demouser2 / demopass2
demouser3 / demopass3

1.- What's this mod?

Is better to say what is NOT this mod . For those who have used MarysClassifieds, I can say that they are 2 products which you can't compate. MarysClassifieds had dozens of features, but when I installed in my site I realized that I need only 10% of those features. Maybe less. This is SL Classifieds. A minimalist version of MarysClassifieds, but I bet that 70% of the webmasters will find this one more pretty, more usefull.

• It supports 4 types of Classifieds:
  • For Sale
  • Wanted
  • For Trade
  • Free Offers
• Supports unlimited categories
• Supports Extra fields (but not searchable)
• Has PM templates for:
  • PM user when admin approves his Classifieds
  • PM user when admin rejects Classified
  • PM seller when a user Makes an Offer
  • PM seller when a user clicks Buy it
  • PM seller when a use uses the contact form
• Supports 5 statuses:
  • Open
  • Hidden
  • Reserved
  • Expired
  • Sold
  • Please note that unlike my old mod, here nothing is automatic. The seller has to take care to switch between statuses.
• There are listings for:
  • Category classifieds
  • Timeframe (What's New) Classifieds
  • Seller Classifieds
  • Search Results
• In view Ad page the visitor can see also:
  • Other classifieds from the same seller
  • Similar classifieds from the same category
• In all pages there are available the follow blocks having the appearance of widgets:
  • Category Menu
  • Search Form
  • Statistics
  • Latest classifieds
  • Popular classifieds
  • Soon to expire classifieds.
• Version 1.5 additions:
  • Facebook Like Advanced (Shows users who liked it)
  • RSS Feeds of last 10 Classifieds
  • Seller has the ability to not mark a classifieds as reserved when a user clickc BuyNow, in case that he has stock of the same items and he wants to keep classifieds active.
  • Added description in extra fields appearing as help text in add/edit form.
  • In case that a category has no subcategories, beside the "No more categories" added an icon/link to previous category level.
    

2.- How you can make (a bit) money with it.

Using vBulletin's Subscriptions Manager you can set subscription which will upgrade the subscribers to a higher usergroup with more privilenges in SL Classifieds. eg:

• To restrict post in specific categories. The system works such a way that for each category you can set who can post:
  • All usergroups
  • None usergroup
  • Specific usergroup(s).
• To allow more days for postings. eg usergroup A can set a maximum of 15 days before the Ad will remove from the system, while usergroup B can set the Ad's duration for 45 days etc.
• Concurrent Ads. eg Register users can have only 1 active ad, while your VIP usergroup can has 5 ..or 10 ... or whatever you want.
• More photos per Ad

3.- Installation

1. Download and unzip the file Classifieds_XXXX.zip
2. Upload the content of upload folder to the directory where your vB installation is. As a check: classifieds.php must be on the same directoru as global.php, forum.php etc. SL Classifieds are not working out of vB installation directory.
3. CMOD 777 the directories:
   1. christeris/classifieds/photos
   2. christeris/classifieds/photos/thumbs
   3. christeris/classifieds/photos/tmp
4. Goto Admincp and import product-classifieds.xml. Double check before if you have another product with the same name.
5. Set the various settings in Classifieds->General settings
6. Set usergroup permissions
7. Check and modify if you want PM templates.
8. Set categories
9. Set Extra fields (in case that you want them).

4.- SEO URLs

• If you're using vbSeo open the file Classifieds_vBSEO_Custom_Rewrite_Rules.txt and add them to your vbSeo installation.
• If you're using .htaccasse file copy the contents of htaccess.txt and add it to your current .htaccess files. If you don't have such file and your server is compatible with such files, upload htaccess.txt to your vB directory and rename it to: .htaccess

5. CMS Widget / Forum Sidebar Block for Latest Classifieds

1. Shows latest 5 Classifieds. If you want to change the number to another value change at 1st line: $maxitems = 5;
2. Installation as CMS Widget
   1. Goto Admincp-> vBulletin CMS-> Widgets
   2. Click "Create New Widget" at the list bottom
   3. Set Widget Type: PHP Direct Execution
   4. Give a Title which appears at the widget. eg Last Classifieds, or.. Last 5 Classifieds etc
   5. Click SAVE
   6. Find in the list the new widget and click configure at the right side
   7. Replace the example code, with the code from Widget_Latest_Classifieds.txt
   8. Click Save
   9. Goto Layout and add it in any section you want
   10. Click Save (Layout)
3. Installation as Forum sidebar Block
   1. Goto Admincp-> Forums & Moderators -> Forum Block Manager
   2. Click Add Block
   3. In the next screen "Select block type: Custom HTML/PHP"
   4. Click Continue
   5. Title: Latest Classifieds
   6. Content Type: PHP
   7. Content: Copy & Paste the code from Widget_Latest_Classifieds.txt
   8. Click Save. The block will be now visible to your forum sidebar

6.- Copyright Link

Since the time that DBTech released their Copyright Manager, I've removed my own copyrights. I found their action insulting me to maximum. Their wording "Site is powered by vBulletin AddOns and Modules by Dragonbyte Tech" (and not "Some parts of this site"), means that everything there is their own work, ignoring on the worst way the fact that there are 100's of other coders and designers who are supporting this community for years. So, I'm letting the glory to them. No copyrights from my side.

Enjoy it
Christos Teriakis
aka ChrisTERiS

[Rich]

First things first, I upgraded to the latest version and the style issue was resolved. Thanks! I have a small team beta testing this on my site so I am going to add any issues I find. Hopefully i can locate them all for a final release.

When viewing an ad and similar classifieds are shown, the title doesn't link to the classified ad. It links to my sites homepage.

Someone posted a "Wanted" ad and when I view it I have the option to "Make Offer". There is nothing to make an offer on since they are seeking a product or service. The same is true for posting a trade. There should be either a different form for trades and the wanted section, that caters to that type of listing, or should we remove the "Make Offer" entirely for those?

Under the "Make Offer" form there is a spelling error. It says "Conatct Phone" which should read "Contact Phone". (I manually corrected the phrase but am pointing it out for the next release.)

I have attached a screenshot to show another small style issue.

I also have a request, though I will understand if you don't do it. Could you please pass titles in the url. Instead of it saying "category-2" it would be better for SEO if it said "cat-title-2". The same is true for products. By passing the title into the url vBseo and .htaccess can pass it as a keyword rich link.

[penguinboy888]

Works great. So what do you think of changing the GET RSS to a button to match the rest of vbulletin? /images/misc/rss.png

Also on a side note I have had a few testers use it and did not notice the Make Offer link at first. What do you think if that was a button too?

[sadiq6210]

Thanks Chris to support RTL.

I noticed two bugs in the navbar.

1- For RTL, the arrow should be in the another direction.






2- In the main page of classified, this arrow should be deleted.




It is not important

[migratoria]

Hi Chris

It's possible to make a legend with the statistics of the old ads?
When an ad has been sold no trace remains in the market.

New users do not realize the old sales that have occurred.
Finding statistics or an area containing the old ads you could entice utentoa d use the system.

[Christos Teriakis]

Originally Posted by sadiq6210

Thanks Chris to support RTL.

I noticed two bugs in the navbar.

1- For RTL, the arrow should be in the another direction.



2- In the main page of classified, this arrow should be deleted.


It is not important

Added to my ToDo list.

[Christos Teriakis]

Originally Posted by migratoria

Hi Chris

It's possible to make a legend with the statistics of the old ads?
When an ad has been sold no trace remains in the market.

New users do not realize the old sales that have occurred.
Finding statistics or an area containing the old ads you could entice utentoa d use the system.

Do you mean something like: Sold: xxxx . It can be done but only for Ads that the seller has marked as "Sold" but didn't deleted them from the system. Otherwise, still can be done by adding a counter in database, but it''s not that easy.

Added to my ToDo list

[Disco_Dave]

It mite have already been asked, where can I change the time and date format?

Sorry found it!

[migratoria]

Do you mean something like: Sold: xxxx . It can be done but only for Ads that the seller has marked as "Sold" but didn't deleted them from the system. Otherwise, still can be done by adding a counter in database, but it''s not that easy.

Added to my ToDo list

Exactly.. Tanks

[Toorak Times]

Hi Chris,

Nor sure if this has been addressed or asked for.

I have had several Trades people ask if they can list in the classified directory. But there ad would need to stay their for a contracted period, usually 3,6 0r 12 months.

Cheers

[Christos Teriakis]

Originally Posted by Toorak Times

Hi Chris,

Nor sure if this has been addressed or asked for.

I have had several Trades people ask if they can list in the classified directory. But there ad would need to stay their for a contracted period, usually 3,6 0r 12 months.

Cheers

How long will be the maximum duration is up to you. You can setup on per usergroup basis the maximum duration.

Christos