Import ads from XZERO

[gstar]

Ok I think most of my questions have been clarified....

Last but most important...

I have listings on my current site (with XZERO script) that I do not want to lose. Could someone quote me on importing these to the current script?

[Lhotch +]

Thats not a simple task to quote and even more complex to implement.

Taking ads off one site and putting them on another is one thing but 68C attaches ads to specific ad owners. This means that realistically all your ad owners would have to come over as well first before the ads can be brought aver and tied to the ad owner.

This can be a HUGE project. Aprox how many ads do you have?

Honestly I think the best way to do this is to send out an e-mail to all your current members and ask them to register at the new site. If your site is a pay site, then give them all coupons to allow them to report their ads for free on the new site.

[gstar]

I understand what you are saying... Its no that many ads actually: 700. If you could quote me on this I would really appreciate it.

The other solution you mention is not bad but it would mean that probably many ads wont be republished. Most people are lazy you know...

[Lhotch +]

Originally Posted by gstar

The other solution you mention is not bad but it would mean that probably many ads wont be republished. Most people are lazy you know...

Yea, I hear you on the lazy part but I bet custom code to import users, ads and all the goodies from your old site to the new site would cost you in excess of $1,000 is that in the budget?

[gstar]

Wow that is huge....

I had my listings exported to a partner site once for $50 I cant imagine why this would cost so much... There should be a way to automate this no?

[gstar]

Just found this:

Bulk Upload System v4 | Classified Software | Maffo

Wouldn't that be a simple way forward?

[Lhotch +]

Originally Posted by gstar

Wow that is huge....

I had my listings exported to a partner site once for $50 I cant imagine why this would cost so much... There should be a way to automate this no?

How can you automate something when you dont know what the options are?

For example 2 classifieds sites may have 2 totally different ways of managing extra fields, ad packages and user details.

One classified may have the user details lumped in with the ad details, another may have a table for the user and a table for the ad.

Another example is extra fields, one may have them built into the ad and have a fixed amount. Sites like 68c allow for unlimited extra fields and they can be specific to each category so because of this just the extra field definitions, their names and values are stored in 3 different database tables.

Dumping data from a database isnt too tough but adding the logic to understand whats dumped and properly place it in the new database is where things get complex. Especially since the data in a variety of tables links to data in other tables.

Total automation can be extremely complex and the more complexe and feature rich the sites the more complex they become.

Like anything prices will vary depending on who you ask and its imposible for anyone to give you an accurate estiamte without knowing more about the underlying source site. You can probably find some kid in india who is happy to work for $5 an hour to do it as well and then it may only cost you $100.

[gstar]

Do you think this would be a solution:

Bulk Upload System v4 | Classified Software | Maffo

[Lhotch +]

Thats for bulk uploading many ads for a single user. You have to export the data from your current database and the fields you export need to match specific columns on the csv file. Lastly you wont have any of your users brought over so what user do you tie all the ads to?

[Mike-N-Tosh +]

I did some conversion from Xzero for another client a while back. The database structure is completely different. The user base, ads, extra fields, etc. are a real bear to deal with. If I recall correctly, I believe Xzero even allows the same email addresses for different users and that was their username (the email address). It ended up taking me almost twice as long as I thought it would.

-Mike