There Need to be Steps in Listing! and ability to go back!

[zman78]

Hi everyone,
I know there has been talk about this but i really think it NEEDS to be done at some future release and be standard! We need to have it show progress in steps until it is done! Also, a BACK/FORWARD button that doesnt screw things up between steps! Have it actually say on the page, which step you are on!

1. Pick a category
2. select a listing package
3. write header, descriptions, details
4. upload photos
5. Review ad
6. submit ad if free, or go to payment if not
7. thank you page

Is this possible?

[Lhotch]

Originally Posted by zman78

Hi everyone,
I know there has been talk about this but i really think it NEEDS to be done at some future release and be standard! We need to have it show progress in steps until it is done! Also, a BACK/FORWARD button that doesnt screw things up between steps! Have it actually say on the page, which step you are on!

1. Pick a category
2. select a listing package
3. write header, descriptions, details
4. upload photos
5. Review ad
6. submit ad if free, or go to payment if not
7. thank you page

Is this possible?

Yes its possible and its on the list of things to be added. Keep in mind your above list doesnt take into account ads placed via membership or via packages that dont allow pics.

[Eric Barnes]

Yes this is on the to-do list but right now I do not have a time frame when it will be added.

[Maffo]

This is a just a suggestion but I was thinking about it a lot last night (anyone else find it hard to switch off?)

What I was thinking was a checkout page that didnt have any steps involved at all.

Remember this is just a suggestion so feel free to knock it if there are any flaws.

If we create an two extra tables in the database, basket & products_pending.

When a user purchases an ad or a membership your details are added to your basket and some basic product details are added to the product table ie the listing package, expiration etc.

You then arrive straight at the checkout page which shows your address, payment options and whats in your basket and the details of the package you have bought.

Note: No advert details or images need to be enterend at this point. My idea was the person simply purchases their advertising space and once their payment is complete, they can fill in all of their details in the usermodifylisting area, add images etc.

The visitor doesnt have to submit there and then, they can add other adverts or memberships. The basket table updates amount owed etc and each new product gets a new entry inside the products_pending table.

As all of the info is stored in a database, the user could even leave the site and thier basket will stay the same. If they need to change their address or other details they can go to useraccountmodify and their baskets would remain the same.

When the visitor finally submits it fires off the information to your payprovider in the same way and upon completion transfers your products_pending into the main products table.

Well thats my idea, what does anyone think?

[juven14]

I have wanted a cart for the longest time - with the memberships it made that possible on some level. I think that many classifieds owners would at some point like to sell a product or two from their site and it would be nice if it could all be done in the same step.

A while back I attempted to make something that allowed you to create coupons for individual ads or ad types and it got really hairy (was way out of my league too). You have quite a few ad types:

featured ad
featured highlight ad
featured bold ad
featured bold and highlighted ad

free ad
free highlight ad
free bold ad
free bold and highlighted ad

photo ad
photo highlighted ad
photo bold ad
photo bold and highlight ad

And these are just the default - you can vary the number of photos and categories each of these apply to and create a pretty lenghty list. This would also vary based on each site's needs.

I think you would need to create a system to create ad products and then assign them categories. You could have a wizard with all the ad options and it assign it a product number (for coupon or something) then just allow the user to pick the availible categories from within that product. Another thought could be that bold/highlight/featured are themselves seperate products and could be added or taken away in the cart. This would reduce the complexity of ad types. Anyway just thinking out loud.... This is something I have wanted to do for some time, just never had the right kind of motivation. If you pick this up let me know, I'd love to help out.

These kinds of posts give me weird dreams, Maffo. When something like this peaks my interest I have a hard time thinking of something else.

[Maffo]

I see where your coming from Juven. In the case of what your saying you could have an option to create your own advert package. So not only can you have featured, highlighted etc, you can also let them pay for the amount of images they wish to use and the length of text in their description. And just a couple of default packages.

I dont know about me doing this, it would take a whole lot of time, but I think I could probably give it a go, at least up to the point of sale. I have no experience with the payment procedures but I could possibly get it upto a point where you submit to the PayProvider.

[juven14]

All you have to do is jump into the usercheckout.php (step 5 or 6) with the right variables and let the existing payment system handle that end. I agree, paying extra per photo might also be a nice option. You're right, this does sound like a lot of work - that's why I haven't made an attempt.

If nobody else picks this up, I probably will give it a try once I have enough time to invest.