e-Classifieds Commerce Edition

e-Classifieds Commerce Edition

The Commerce Edition is our lowest priced version of e-Classifieds that contains support for real-time credit card processing that is completely seamless and automated. Your visitors will never have to leave your site in order to make a credit card payment. With the built-in features for electronic commerce, it's the ideal choice for newspapers, TV stations, corporations, and others seeking the very best classifieds program available. It is the only classifieds program on the market that supports real-time credit card processing through Authorize.Net, E-Commerce Exchange, and ATS Bank. If you choose to process credit card payments manually, the Commerce Edition can check the credit card information entered by the user to make sure that the number entered is in a valid format for that particular type of credit card, and it can also optionally compare this number against a list of stolen credit card numbers or numbers that should be rejected for some reason if you have such a list.

The Commerce Edition contains many other options for fee-based classifieds, such as the ability to charge for posting ads and/or for renewing ads. The distributed version of the Commerce Edition also allows you to charge for viewing ads in the full-size format only, for viewing ads in either full-size or headlines format, for replying to ads, for uploading multimedia files, for subscribing to the Auto-Notify feature, for adding maps to ads in the Housing section, or any combination of the above. It can even require all users to register before accessing any part of the classifieds and, optionally, to pay to register.

Both versions include Auto-Notify, which is a database-enabled personal search agent that allows your users to specify discrete price ranges or other features and have only those ads matching these criteria sent to them periodically. The program also features a checklist feature that allows users to "mark" certain ads for future viewing (the digital equivalent of circling ads in the newspaper). The distributed version of the Commerce Edition contains a two-way, fully secure private messaging system that is ideal for personals sites, as well as the ability to allow users to upload photos, sound clips, and/or video clips to their ads, while the hosted version allows users to include multiple photos with their ads. The distributed version also allows you to set up "affiliate" web sites that participate in your classifieds section.

Feature Summary (Hosted Version)

The following features are included with the hosted version of the e-Classifieds Commerce Edition:

Installation Wizard

Our six-step installation wizard guides you through the installation process with comprehensive web-based wizards for registering yourself as the administrator, defining system variables, and performing various diagnostic tests. It even contains progress bars to track your progress and the status of your installation.

Installation wizard automatically attempts to obtain certain system variables

Category/Subcategory System

Allows you to define all of your top-level categories, as well as the subcategories within each category, through a web-based interface.

Admin can also define unique data fields for each category.

User Registration System

Allows users to register using a unique username and a password of their choice. Users are not forced to use their e-mail address as their username, as in some systems, which would create security holes and limit flexibility in signing up for certain features.

Users can retrieve lost or forgotten usernames

Users can retrieve lost or forgotten passwords

Checklist Feature

Allows users to "mark" ads that they want to remember for future retrieval and viewing.

Users can remove ads from their checklist at any time.

E-Mail Ad To A Friend

Allows users to easily send ads of interest to their friends, which helps to boost traffic to your classifieds site.

Web Server Support

Portability to both Unix and Windows NT/2000 web servers (including PC-based Unix variants such as Linux and FreeBSD).

Scalability

Scalable to tens of thousands of ads (the program can hold anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 ads or more, depending on the processor speed, memory, and other aspects of your web server).

Photo Features

Allows users to upload multiple photos with their ads

Admin can specify maximum number of photos that can be included in each ad

Admin can set maximum file size of uploaded photos

Admin can set maximum pixel size (width and height) of uploaded photos

Program checks to make sure that uploaded photo is a valid .GIF or .JPG format

Admin can turn off photo uploading

Users can optionally search only for ads with photos

Photos can be viewed, printed, and saved as real .GIF or .JPG files (some other programs do not allow viewing, printing, or saving the photos separately, which appear as a bunch of computer gibberish)

Admin can choose how photos are displayed with the ads

Photos can initially be displayed full-size with the ads

Photos can initially be displayed as thumbnails with the ads

Intelligent scaling of thumbnail photos. Admin also has option of using Auto-Scale, which causes the program to intelligently scale all uploaded photos so that they are less than 100 pixels, or to set a percentage (from 1-99) that the program should use to scale photos.

Photos can be linked to from icons that are initially displayed with the ads

Photo display in ads can be turned off

HTML for photos is generated dynamically for smaller data file sizes, greater speed, and better scalability

HTML for icons that link to photos is generated dynamically for smaller data file sizes, greater speed, and better scalability

User Interface and Layout

Sophisticated and attractive interface that is also intuitive and easy to use.

Beautifully designed forms that are also intuitive and easy to use.

Counters are displayed next to all category and subcategory listings so that users will know which categories or subcategories have ads in them without having to waste time "fishing" through empty categories

Virtually all HTML output of the program is contained in a separate area, which makes it easier to translate to other languages. Graphics are also included.

Administrator can change the general HTML layout for the various pages displayed by the program

Includes "See Next X Ads" button below search results to help users move between different sections of their search results

Our exclusive context-sensitive help is always accessible from the Help link in the navigation bars along the top and bottom of each page. It's smart enough to know what the user is trying to do and displays a popup window with helpful information related to the specific action that the user is trying to take. Better yet, it doesn't require your users to leave the page that they were on.

Includes "Go Back" buttons on certain pages, such as error message pages.

Privacy Statement and Terms of Use pages

Guidebar at the top of the pages always keeps users informed of their location within the system.

Customization

Easy customization of appearance of program through variables and subroutines for defining the HTML layout of all pages created by the program.

Easy customization of categories through one variable.

Many variables for controlling the appearance of the ads, such as the table width, border size, background color, bar color, and various text colors and fonts.

Many variables for defining the colors of various tables, forms, and other displays throughout the program so that the administrator can change the appearance of the program much more easily.

Fee-Based Features

Includes our patent-pending, one-click, seamlessly integrated real-time credit card processing.

Flexibility to set up free or fee-based classified ads listings.

Granular fee-based system allows admin to define some categories as free categories while others are fee-based.

Option of charging users for posting ads.

Option to use credit card processing or e-mail invoices on fee-based systems

Can optionally charge for renewals and allows admin to set amount of renewal charge. Admin can define some categories to allow free renewals while charging for renewals in other categories.

Online Payments Manager allows admin to post payments received, post refunds received, send out past due notices to users who are behind in their payments, and to review all payment statistics.

Ad Display Options and Features

One variable defines the categories. The overall classifieds front page, ad posting form, and other pages are automatically generated using these settings, which makes it easier to change or modify categories without having to manually edit a number of HTML pages.

The administrator can set variables for whether to limit users' ad renewals, the maximum number of renewals allowed, whether to charge for renewals, and the amount of the renewal charge.

The administrator can set options for allowing users to choose from varying lengths of time that their ads remain posted on the system.

Ability for administrator to set the default method for displaying the ads ("full size" or "headlines").

Option for "headlines" display of ads to be displayed with or without the full text of each ad.

Administrator can determine whether URLs in ads should be displayed as clickable links or plain text.

Optional caption headers that can be turned on or off and have pre-set choices for the caption headers.

Administrator has option of whether to allow HTML in the ads.

Can display URLs and e-mail addresses as clickable links.

Can display photos in ads.

Ability to limit the number of words posted in each ad.

Support for uploads by users of photos to their ads.

Preview feature that allows users to preview their ad before it is posted.

Initial modification and deletion pages allow user to enter specific ad number to be modified or deleted.

Displays latest ads first

Users have the option of displaying their postal address and telephone number in the ad

Expiration of Ads

User can select from administrator-defined options for number of days before ads expire.

Optional notification by e-mail to users whose ads are about to expire.

Optional purging of ads that have expired.

Auto Notify

Our Auto Notify feature lets users set up their own personal search agent that will automatically e-mail them periodically with the new ads that match the search criteria that they specified when they set up their agent. Their search criteria can include not only keywords, but also specific categories and types of ads. They can even choose to be notified only of new ads with photos.

Users can choose how long their agent will last (from options defined by the admin) before it is automatically purged by the system.

Users can set up as many search agents as they want.

"Instant Auto Notify" option that causes program to run the Auto Notify program for each new ad immediately after that ad is posted. Subscribers receive notification immediately after the ad has been posted.

Allows multiple search agents under the Auto Notify service for the same e-mail address

Allows admin to specify whether the Auto Notify service should be run instantly each time a new ad is posted or periodically at timed intervals (the intervals can also be specified by the admin)

Program can automatically purge old Auto Notify profiles

Private Messaging

Ability for administrator to turn on or off the "Privacy Mail" feature throughout the classifieds. The Privacy Mail feature protects the e-mail addresses of users who post ads. Instead of displaying the poster's e-mail address in the ad, a "Reply to Ad" link is displayed. The person replying to the ad then sees a form and clicks on a submit button to send their reply to the original poster.

Searching and Viewing of Ads

Optimized search engine for six different types of searches: browsing, keyword searches, category searches, retrieval of a specific ad by its database ID number, retrieval of one specific ad for modification, and full database power searches.

Powerful searching capabilities that allow users to search for ads by several different fields.

Contains search options for searching by keyword, by ads posted within the last x days, or by all ads. Also contains user-friendly Boolean logic search options on the keyword search form.

Option to turn off full database searching in order to continue to scale the system once it has ten thousand ads in each database. Full database searching is limited to about ten thousand ads per database, but the other optimized searches can scale much higher (into the tens of thousands of ads).

Contains short results format for ads with links to details (long format).

Searches can be case sensitive or case insensitive.

Ability to (optionally) use pre-defined caption headers that are also searchable on the Advanced Search form so that users can find specific types of ads ("For Sale", "Wanted", etc.)

Newly optimized search engine that increases search speeds by a factor of 10 in some cases.

Boolean searching (any words, all words, or exact phrase)

Can display ads in short "Headlines" format or as full ads

Allows users to specify whether they want to view ads as "headlines" or full ads

Logging

Optionally logs all user actions, including posting, modifying, or deleting ads.

Additional User Posting and Searching Options

Auto Notify feature lets users set up their own personal search agent that will automatically e-mail them periodically with the new ads that match the search criteria that they specified when they set up their agent. Their search criteria can include not only keywords, but also specific categories and types of ads.

A Privacy Mail feature that allows users to post personal ads without having to reveal their e-mail addresses. Users respond to these ads through a form.

Users can modify or delete their own ads at any time. When modifying an ad, the current ad's information is automatically inserted in the modification form.

Users have option of whether to display their street address and telephone number in their ads.

Users have the option of searching only for ads with photos.

Users can renew their ads based on pre-defined options.

Users can choose from varying lengths of time that their ads remain posted on the system.

E-mail

Support for Sendmail on Unix servers

Support for Blat and Windmail 3.0 on Windows NT/2000 servers.

Support for connecting to SMTP mail servers on either Unix or Windows NT/2000 platforms (uses sockets).

Modular format for the e-mail routines that makes it easier to add support for other e-mail programs in the future.

Optional use or disabling of sendmail aliasing on the server.

System can automatically send e-mail notices to admin when users add, modify, or delete ads

System can automatically send thank you notices to users who post or renew their ads

System can automatically send invoices to users who post ads in fee-based categories

Send Ad To A Friend feature allows users to further promote your classifieds site

Auto Notify notices are automatically sent to users who have subscribed to this feature by creating search agents with pre-defined search criteria

Admin can send past due notices via e-mail

Ability to harvest names and e-mail addresses that are stored in a text file so that they can be used for a mailing list.

Ability to view harvested names and e-mail addresses.

Ability to clear list of harvested names and e-mail addresses.

Ability to send mass e-mails to harvested users who have signed up for the mailing list.

Admin can turn off all e-mailing by the program if necessary.

Anti-Spamming

Includes Spam Guard, which allows the administrator to block access based on partial or full IP addresses.

Ability to block spammers by blocking specific company names, telephone numbers, or e-mail addresses.

Optional duplicate checking. This causes the program to check for duplicate ads when someone is posting a new ad and give them an error message if it finds a duplicate ad. This is useful for blocking spammers and those users who seem to like hitting the Submit button multiple times.

Includes IP address logging in log files and in e-mail notices sent to the administrator.

Administrator has option of whether to use the log files that monitor all user posts, modifications, and deletions of ads, including IP address logging.

Additional Administrative Controls

Our exclusive Web-based Control Panel allows the admin to add, modify, or delete categories; define unique data fields for each category; delete or ban users; add, modify or delete user ads; add or replace the photo in any ad, review and activate ads awaiting approval; delete inactive users; send expiration notices; purge expired ads; run the Auto Notify program, view the mailing list, clear the mailing list, send out mass e-mails to subscribers, post payment information, view revenue statistics, and edit system variables and design options, all from a point-and-click graphical user interface. It even includes pop-up help for all administrative functions.

Ability to define the administrator's title and the name of this classifieds site.

Ability to optionally screen new ads by not making them immediately viewable until the administrator has approved them from a special form. They can also be deleted from that form.

Ability to strip out Server Side Includes (SSI) in user inputs.

Ability for administrator to turn on or off the "Privacy Mail" feature throughout the classifieds.

Includes file-locking variable that can be set to use either the system's flock command (on most Unix and Windows NT/2000 servers) or the program's own built-in file locking mechanism.

Dynamic generation of HTML pages (of course, you can still create regular static HTML pages if you really want to)

Only one CGI program controls all operations, which makes it easier to set up and maintain

Allows admin to define ad durations in any number of days (not just by the week or the month)

Option to allow or disallow HTML in ads

Built-in version checker allows the admin to check for new releases of the software

Multiple options for running the maintenance routines. These can be run automatically using built-in routines or through cron jobs.

Security

Extensive data integrity measures (for example, try searching on "*", "c++", or certain other characters on any other classifieds program on the market and watch it blow up)

Intelligent data handling that doesn't just "slurp" data into memory like virtually every other program out there, which causes memory overruns and data wipes in those programs. Due to the efficient manner in which e-Classifieds handles rewrites, your data is much better protected, and your system can scale higher. Your web hosting company or server admin will be happier too, since your system won't be pounding the server.

Session based design conceals your users' e-mail addresses and passwords

Option to automatically send e-mail replies to users who post ads in order to validate ads.

Optional notification by e-mail to the administrator when users post, modify, or delete ads, and when old ads are purged.

Allows the administrator to easily modify or delete any ad at any time from the web interface.

Ability to strip out "bad words" as defined by the administrator.

Verifies e-mail addresses and URLs entered by users.

Checks to make sure that users entered contact information.

Can limit number of categories ad is posted to

Can limit number of times an ad is renewed

Can limit number of words per ad

Can block duplicate ads

Admin can ban abusive users from the system

File locking (prevents data files from being written to by two different processes at once)

Banner Ad Module

Ability to display advertising banners within the program. These can be configured through program variables.

Internationalization

Almost all of the HTML output, error output, and mail output is contained in a separate area, which makes it much easier to translate this program into different languages. It also makes it easier for the administrator to modify these if so desired.

Ability to set up country fields.

Support for European date format (DD/MM/YYYY).

Support for multiple currencies.

Upgrades

Registered owners receive a full credit for the purchase price of this version when upgrading to higher versions.

Free updates for one year from the date of purchase.

In short, it's these and many other examples of intelligent design and careful thought that have gone into e-Classifieds. To see for yourself, please follow the link below to try out our online demo of the Commerce Edition.

Feature Summary (Distributed Version)

The following features are included with the distributed version of the e-Classifieds Commerce Edition: