68 Classifieds Blog

Frustration-Free Packaging

Just in time for Christmas, Amazon is now offering Frustration-Free Packaging.

This almost makes me want to do all my shopping from them. Fighting with the normal packaging is enough to make you go crazy.

Which leads me to a question. Why do you think most packaging is done in this way now? Does it prevent theft? Have higher sales?

Custom Administration Folder

For those security conscious individuals this post will out line how to change the name of your administration folder. Please note this is only supported with versions v4.1 and newer.

Step 1.

The first step is to rename the administration folder. For this tutorial we will name it “admintest”.

Step 2.

Now that the folder has been renamed. Next open the file “admintest/includes/params.php”. By default it should include the following:

/**
* @copyright 68 Classifieds
*
* @author $Author: suzkaw $
* @version $Revision: 12 $
* @package 68Classifieds
* @link http://www.68classifieds.com
*
* @Updated: $Date: 2008-09-10 13:41:06 -0400 (Wed, 10 Sep 2008) $
*/
/**
* This file is included in the init file before any
* other php coding has started. This is usefull if your
* host requires a custom setting that you can not change.
*/
error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_WARNING);
/* End of file administration/includes/params.php */


Just below the error_reporting line add this:
$base_dir = str_replace('admintest', '', dirname(dirname(__FILE__)));

The portion ‘admintest’ is the new administration folder name that we created in step one.

Now save and upload this file.

Step 3.

After the previous steps have been done you can now visit yoursite.com/admintest and should be able to login.

Troubleshooting

If you having troubles with step2 you can also define the full path to your classifieds root. For example:
$base_dir = '/home/name/public_html/';

The full path can be found by creating a phpinfo file.

Custom Changes

68 Classifieds was designed to be as simple and easy to use as possible. Even with it designed this way we still have a lot of customers that want to create custom changes and add in little features that do not come standard. In this post I will try and outline some of the methods you can use to make changes and not have to worry so much when an upgrade comes out.

First off 68 Classifieds comes with a module system, plugins, and custom templates. If at all possible it is recommended to use one of these three routes because they are independent of the core and make upgrading easier.

Code Changes

Code changes are little pieces you add in that enable new features to your site. When you make changes like these upgrading is harder because you need to make those same changes to the new files. We do try and make this easier by including a changelog between each minor revision so instead of the whole package you only have a handful of files you need to look through and edit.

Before making any custom changes it is highly recommend to make a backup of both your files and your database. Just in case any changes made cause problems. With a backup you can always revert back, otherwise you may have to do a fresh install which you would not want to do.

1. Text File - Create a text file and list the changes you make in it. If nothing else include the file so later you can use a file comparison application to spot your changes. For example you could create a file like this:

October 24, 2008 - Changed printer.php - Added new var for title.
October 19, 2008 - Changed contact.php - Added a new field.

2. Comments - Another good idea is to wrap comments around your changes:

// added by me for mysite.com on October 16, 2008
$my = 'customcodechanges';

When doing this it is best to use some sort of common term in your comment. That way you can search all the files for your comments.

3. Use version control - This is not really for the beginner because you would have to setup a cvs or svn server and then use it compare differences. I will not go in much detail about this because it can get complex.

File Comparison

With any of these methods you will need a good file comparison application and I will list some of the ones I know about here:

• Windows - WinMerge
• Windows - Beyond Compare
• Windows - Compare It
• Mac - FileMerge - Part of Developer Tools
• Mac - Araxis Merge

Project Searching

Beyond file comparison you will also want to be able to search all your files for the changes you made. Most ide’s will allow you to create a project and add all your files. Then you can use it to search the project and find all files that have a specific string in it. I use TextMate and Eclipse and both support this.

Hopefully this post will help those that are wanting to create custom changes and if you have a better method or a different method please post in the comments.

Save Time With TextExpander

Today I decided I should share with you the one Mac application that saves us so much time. Since we sale and support software a lot of common questions get asked a lot. For instance when someone purchases installation we have to email them and get all their details. It is pretty mundane and if we get a lot of installations then very repetitive.

Enter TextExpander, now instead of typing up the same response I write “68install” and it automagically becomes a three paragraph response outlining everything we need from the customer. But the magic doesn’t end there. You can add custom snippets and export them. We have one group that is shared between the office and we keep the common work related items in it.

I have lot of groups setup. My most common are work which is predefined emails. bbcode for use on the forums and coding which I have a lot of presets like ,a becomes the full link tag.

How can this help you? As a classified site owner I am sure you get emails asking the same questions over and over. Maybe advertising information, how to, or even someone contacting you on accident trying to contact a seller.

Hopefully some of you will find this useful and save you a few hours a month. (I have currently saved three hours of my life this month.)

v4.1 User Notes

A new feature I have been working on for v4.1 is a new user notes system. The current v4.0 line had user notes but it was not setup in the way I really wanted. So I totally redid it and added a few nice features.

The first step to utilize the notes system is to login to the admin and go to the user details page. At the bottom it will say “User Notes” with a paper clip icon. Click that icon to add a new note. On the screen that loads you can add the note text, flag it as important, and select the type.

The note flag determines where it is displayed in the administration. Important notes are shown at the top of the page so it is the first thing that is seen. This also shows on the listings page and the user page. Notes that are not important are shown at the bottom.

The type option is either public or private. Private means it is only seen from the administration where as public is shown to the user on the user index page. This should allow you to basically show a custom message to certain users.

Here is a video showing how to add user notes:

Google Maps Module

A lot of classified sites are now adding mapping systems where people can actually see where an item is located. This can be beneficial depending on the type of site you are running. For example it would be great for real estate sites, garage sales, or yard sales. That way a site visitor can quickly see how far away something is and get directions.

Even though it can be so useful actually integrating a map is not an easy process. Just take a look at some of the documentation for Google Maps API. You pretty much need to be a programmer to implement it.
Read more…