Developer vs. Designer, Module cost, Payment Gateways, etc.

I am considering purchase of your software, but have a number of pre-sales questions, as follows:

1. Is this forum in fact the only way to communicate with the developers for customer support?

2. I would like to use SecurePay, which has been designed to work exactly with the authorize.net php forms -- the only thing that must be changed is the destination URL for the gateway; otherwise you can use the Authorize.net system -- will I easily be able to edit the necessary php files to change the URL for sending cc info?

3. That leads me to my main question - the exact difference between the designer and developer versions. In other words, what functionality is governed by the core files which, if encrypted, would be inaccessible to me? For example, I do not plan extensive code rewrites, but I would like to be able to add google analytics to the footer template file. Is that one of the encrypted core files? I'd like to be able to alter text links in the footer and header of pages -- does this require access to core? And see #2 above, I'd like to change payment gateway address for the authorize.net module which, if I understand correctly, is included in the current package. Can CSS files be edited outside of core to change overall appearance? Is there a list of what files are governed by core and therefore inaccessible if I go the less expensive route?

4. In the demo site, users can be charged a fee to place listings or featured listings, or to have their listing in bold or highlighted, etc. Can I employ a different pricing module - a monthly subscription that allows for unlimited featured listings?

5. The demo limits user to 3 photo attachments; in admin can I change this value?

6. Do you support the upload of video files as well, or only photo formats?

7. Can additional content pages be added as a service to visitors? For example, if I were running a classified site selling kitchen products, could I include a static page that is a buyer's guide to blenders? In other words, can the main nav bar easily be modded to accommodate additional static page content? If so, is this a matter of extensive scripting, or something easily achieved in the backend?

8. This is more of a comment than a question -- I've reviewed dozens and dozens of online classified software packages, and for most criteria I've found 68 Classifieds to be superior; however, the one genuinely off-putting aspect of your offering is that you charge $40 for URL-friendly rewrites -- once this code was developed, it should have been offered as a free upgrade to the core software for your registered users; likewise the $30 charge on the zip code functionality - a functionality that many rivals include (as well as search-engine friendly URLs) as part of the software price. These are both critical modules, so I'm looking at doubling the software cost from the get go. It makes me nervous that if you make additional upgrades, instead of providing them for free to your users, you will write them as additional premium modules -- and I'm only interested in investments for which I have a good sense of the total cost from the start, rather than having to budget for additional charges. I'd encourage you to change this -- so far, it's the single item causing me hesitation in purchasing your product.

That said, I am still interested in exploring 68 as a promising option.

I look forward to your reply.

Sorry - forgot one other question -

Is RSS supported? I'd like visitors to have the option to subscribe to RSS feeds for a specific category of goods, so that they can receive instant updates when new items are posted to their desired category. Is this supported?

Thanks again!

[Maffo +]

Hi and welcome to the site. Hope these answer your questions. Please note that I dont work for 68

1. Is this forum in fact the only way to communicate with the developers for customer support?

I would say all of the developers for 68 frequent this board and are normally happy to answers your questions. This doesnt include your standard 68 support for which you can submit tickets.

2. I would like to use SecurePay, which has been designed to work exactly with the authorize.net php forms -- the only thing that must be changed is the destination URL for the gateway; otherwise you can use the Authorize.net system -- will I easily be able to edit the necessary php files to change the URL for sending cc info?

If you are sure its only a simple URL change then you will be able to do this yourself. You would need the Developers edition.

3. That leads me to my main question - the exact difference between the designer and developer versions. In other words, what functionality is governed by the core files which, if encrypted, would be inaccessible to me? For example, I do not plan extensive code rewrites, but I would like to be able to add google analytics to the footer template file. Is that one of the encrypted core files? I'd like to be able to alter text links in the footer and header of pages -- does this require access to core? And see #2 above, I'd like to change payment gateway address for the authorize.net module which, if I understand correctly, is included in the current package. Can CSS files be edited outside of core to change overall appearance? Is there a list of what files are governed by core and therefore inaccessible if I go the less expensive route?

The majority of code is generated in PHP and then parsed over to the 'smarty' template system. With the designer version you can change the lookout and general feel of the site. To alter the code thats being sent to the template files then you need the developers kit which gives you access to the compete source code.

4. In the demo site, users can be charged a fee to place listings or featured listings, or to have their listing in bold or highlighted, etc. Can I employ a different pricing module - a monthly subscription that allows for unlimited featured listings?

This system doesnt currently support subscriptions

5. The demo limits user to 3 photo attachments; in admin can I change this value?

Yes you can

6. Do you support the upload of video files as well, or only photo formats?

The system supports file uploads. You would probably need to fiddle with the code a little to get it to actually display the videos.

7. Can additional content pages be added as a service to visitors? For example, if I were running a classified site selling kitchen products, could I include a static page that is a buyer's guide to blenders? In other words, can the main nav bar easily be modded to accommodate additional static page content? If so, is this a matter of extensive scripting, or something easily achieved in the backend?

You can add as many pages as you like via the admin. Links are easy to change and manage. Also for your categories you have the ability to write some promotional text.

8. This is more of a comment than a question -- I've reviewed dozens and dozens of online classified software packages, and for most criteria I've found 68 Classifieds to be superior; however, the one genuinely off-putting aspect of your offering is that you charge $40 for URL-friendly rewrites -- once this code was developed, it should have been offered as a free upgrade to the core software for your registered users; likewise the $30 charge on the zip code functionality - a functionality that many rivals include (as well as search-engine friendly URLs) as part of the software price. These are both critical modules, so I'm looking at doubling the software cost from the get go. It makes me nervous that if you make additional upgrades, instead of providing them for free to your users, you will write them as additional premium modules -- and I'm only interested in investments for which I have a good sense of the total cost from the start, rather than having to budget for additional charges. I'd encourage you to change this -- so far, it's the single item causing me hesitation in purchasing your product.

This is only my personal opinion but I feel that 68 classifieds is already too cheap. The amount of work that has gone into the basic product warrants a price tag a whole lot more than is currently charged. 68 then make a little bit on top by selling some add-on modules at once again very low prices. I really dont see this as an issue. 68 are very clear on their prices. $99 for designer, $199 for developer, + $70 for the two modules you require.

Is RSS supported? I'd like visitors to have the option to subscribe to RSS feeds for a specific category of goods, so that they can receive instant updates when new items are posted to their desired category. Is this supported?

RSS is supported. There is an external.php file that allows other websites to connect to yours. If you want it customising to do exactly what you want, you would need the developers edition.

[Lhotch +]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

6. Do you support the upload of video files as well, or only photo formats?

No offense intended when I say this but the SEO mod is far from required and same with the zip code mod, especially since a large number of people buying this script are not from the US. With the above in mind the 68 team opted to just have those that needed those features pay for their development.

On a side note, if you are balking at a one time $70 cost of a couple modules then your jaw is going to hit the floor at what its going to cost you monthly for a server that can properly host a site that makes use of user uploaded videos.