Html Design and Graphic Design - #2

[Ivillages]

Hi, just bought my Geodesic Classifieds Enterprise today.

Similarly good flash template can be bought at templatemonster.com, but I am not sure if the above is from there.

I went over to Interactive Village and saw that you are selling the pulldown menu for US$150... that is very expensive.

I thought such feature should be part of an enterprise version software. At least this is what we saw on Ebay's category selection, which has been around for so many years. And their category selection is much nicer. Didn't notice the lack of this feature on the Ent version before I buy... hmmm....

Well, when you consider that it is a major functional change, $150 is not a lot of money. Also, considering the amount of time you would have to spend to do this or hire someone to do this, $150 is quite a bargain. There is much about the default Geodesic products that leave room for improvement, and we develop sub-applications to fill in these needs. It would be great if the Geodesic development team could make every change requested by customers, but I think that is unreasonable to expect that since they cannot be everything for everyone!

Bob

[jovi]

"There is much about the default Geodesic products that leave room for improvement, and we develop sub-applications to fill in these needs."

After trying it out these few days, I have to agree with you that there is quite a bit of room for improvements. Some of the missing areas (not mentioned above) are actually quite common on other scripts that I owned... In fact, the mod that you did above is considered an "advanced" feature which most scripts may not have - unless we compare it sites like ebay, etc.

The only thing I can say is that this software has powerful Classifeds features, but some basic stuffs missing. I will be publishing these in the other forum section. I won't say that all these are special feature request... but I really wondered why aren't they there in the first place... just a simple one is the contact us form. I know how to create one... but I would expect this simple feature to be included in any good scripts (in fact most that I have).

Regards

[Ivillages]

"The only thing I can say is that this software has powerful Classifeds features, but some basic stuffs missing. I will be publishing these in the other forum section. I won't say that all these are special feature request... but I really wondered why aren't they there in the first place... just a simple one is the contact us form. I know how to create one... but I would expect this simple feature to be included in any good scripts (in fact most that I have).

Regards

I agree. The guys at Geo do their best to have as many features as possible, but since they are not Microsoft, they can't do it all That is why independent developers such as Interactive Villages exist and provide custom modules to supplement the Geo products.

[identity]

I agree, there has to be a middle ground.

I think it is great to have 3PD's to develop additional, addon functionality (as long as it is reasonably priced), which is better for everyone than trying to builc in every bell & whistle into the core... if only a small precentage of the users will use it, why weigh down everyone's code?

That said, there is a point where basic functionality needs to be there. This can either be from something that has really been overlooked, or something that has become basic over time. In which case, I don't believe Geo should hinder their products by not including functionality to avoid stepping on 3PD's toes. Anyone developing addon code obviously realizes there is always the chance that their code will become unnecessary... but this also gives them good reason to continue to develop and evolve their code so that it provides better or additional functionality beyond the core code.

I also think it may make sense for Geo (or any company) to consider a buy-out of a 3PD's code... in the end, if the code is up to par and it costs less to buy-out than to develop, that's only smart.

For eveyone's sake, it would be great to see the Geo code get more evolved to allow easy integration. There have been comments about some of the benefits of some of the CMS scripts, and I've just started looking at Drupal and while a bit overwhelmed, am excited and very impressed. The keep the core very light and basic and nearly all modules, core and contributed, can be switched on or off with a simple click. Additional modules can be added in many cases just by loading the module folder and files into a special directory on the server... Drupal then checks that directory and presents you with all the available modules for you to decide what to use, or not. Getting operation like that would greatly extend Geo's functionality, further increase the chances for 3PD's to develop even more.

I think one of the issues here is that the "what's wanted" is fairly decentralized. There are a number of posts where someone has mentioned an interest in something, admin has explained why it maybe hasn't been included b/c there hasn't been much interest, and then there is a number of posts following backing up that interest. A lot of times people may have an interest and just haven't voiced it, but that interest may be desired by many.

In the end, I'm still very impressed with what Geo provides and their responsiveness to customer interest, but some areas seem to be lacking. In the end, a more centralized approach to features needed might make everyone's lives easier.

[Ivillages]

That said, there is a point where basic functionality needs to be there. This can either be from something that has really been overlooked, or something that has become basic over time. In which case, I don't believe Geo should hinder their products by not including functionality to avoid stepping on 3PD's toes. Anyone developing addon code obviously realizes there is always the chance that their code will become unnecessary... but this also gives them good reason to continue to develop and evolve their code so that it provides better or additional functionality beyond the core code.

I don't think that Geo has ever hindered their feature development just because an ISV has developed some module. They have some sort of functional priority list that they use for new releases. I've asked them to publish this so that customers can 'vote' on what is important, but no results on this one to date.

Bob

[identity]

True, I should say in general, this should be the case... can't really say whether I think they are holding back or not.

I think you've highlighted part of the issue... it may be more perception... there is a list that they are marching too, but customers may not be aware of it.

Granted, it can be a touchy issue... publicly announcing where you are heading obviously tells your competition where they should head also, and if they get there faster, not so good.

But you also want to make sure that you are really building in functionality that meets customer needs, rather than just guessing. Or reworking when you find out you missed the mark. At the same time, you also want to make sure that what you build in meets the majority of customer's needs... certainly not an area of development that I envy.

You could create a private area of the forum for licensed users, but in a highly competitive market, it would probably be foolish to assume that your competition wouldn't be in that area of the forum as well... it is a little harder to buy and try your competitors services, but not so hard in a product industry.

While it won't hit as broad of audience as posting on the forum, I'd say the safest middle ground is to develop a list of primary customers, those which you feel highly confident don't include any competitors, could provide postitive and useful feedback, and could help represent a broad view on what the customer base as a whole would be interested in... sort of a specialized focus group.

I think trying to develop any scripts at this level of complexity and feature sets, without very active input from the customer base could make for a very challenging task and highly diminish the ability to stay ahead or even in step with the competitive market and customer demands/expectations.

Geo support is phenomenal, and I think that would keep most of us here, regardless... but you really have to be a customer before you realize that. On the front end, if you start to fall behind the industry and your feature set is no longer in step with demand, it may become a downward spiral to keep up.

And with all the special functionality, some of it somewhat frivolous, being found on the web in general from the advancements with AJAX and similar, I can only imagine the expectations for functionality is at an all time high.

[jovi]

Sorry that I have no clue what is 3PD or ISV... all I know is that I am getting a neck ache trying to fill up the list of countries and their codes. Taking a break here...

Frankly speaking, I really really have many many high-end scripts on my hand, but this is the first time in my LIFE that I have to fill up the complete list of countries on my own after paying more than US$500.....

I know that we can control what countries need to be there... but shouldn't All be there in the first place so that we can choose, mass delete, etc? btw, I haven't even find the time to put in the contact form yet, because I cannot figure out why the Categories can't simply go by Alphabetical Order.

I like this script, but some of the functions are simply just there... just there yes, but somehow feels like they are half done or half baked. Simply put, if this script doesn't meet all my expectations, there is little left out there unless I pay for a programmer... *back to work, where was I???*

[Robertc]

You can update the countries table in the GEO database directly if you wish or you can just import directly into the database using SQL statements created in wordpad.

This is how i loaded mine for testing when i was first developing my site.

[jovi]

You can update the countries table in the GEO database directly if you wish or you can just import directly into the database using SQL statements created in wordpad.

This is how i loaded mine for testing when i was first developing my site.

Tks, but too late.

btw, any quick solutions as to how to make the categories run on alphabetical order just like most classfieds or directories? I have made the initial mistake (thinking the display would be alphabetical order) and started to load and use my own categories.
---- Update----
Ok found the answer in the forums

[rotor]

I am interested in having users of Geodesic products contact us for development work. We offer website development, hosting and domain name registration.

You can visit us at http://www.gaulard.com

Two new Geodesic Classified Sites that were just developed are:

http://www.petclassifieds.us
http://www.cycleclassifieds.us

I have dropped you 2 emails at info@gaulard.com - is your email working?

Regards

Geoff