Geodesic Solutions

You have spoken, and we have listened! Thanks to customer feedback, we have gotten rid of all the complicated and expensive pricing options for the new iPhone app. There are now just 2 options: a 1 time cost for the GeoMobile iPhone app and a 1 time cost for the Personalized iPhone app, as listed below. And as before, the GeoMobile iPhone app is one of the addons included for free with leased licenses.

For everything you need to know, including steps from "start to finish", see the user manual. And for general info about the app itself including screen-shots, see this page.

We are currently working on an exciting progression of the software, code-named GeoOne! In order to fast-track this new product, we will be releasing client preview Beta releases hopefully every 1-3 weeks, that any current customer of any of our products with a current support/update contract, will be able to download and try out. We expect to have the first Beta ready for testing as soon as 2 weeks. No date yet for when the final version will be out, as it is still too soon to predict accurately. But here is a hint: we would not be offering beta preview releases if the actual final release was close to being ready, so the final is still a ways out.

What is it you ask? As the code name might imply, we will reduce the products that we offer down to a single product, built on the shoulders of our current GeoClassAuctions Enterprise.

Stay Tuned for future developments! Discussion about this new product can be found in this forum post.

We are pleased to announce that the highly anticipated GeoMobile iPhone app is ready to use on your site! We have 2 options available, either use the GeoMobile iPhone app, or get your very own personal iPhone app. There are 2 main parts: the Mobile API Addon, this is the part you download from the client area on our site and install in your Geodesic software. The addon is how the app is able to "talk to" your website, to pull up listings and such and display them in the app. The second part is the iPhone app itself. The iPhone app is what your visitors will download from the app store to use on their iPhones.

For the iPhone app, you have 2 choices, either your visitors can use the main GeoMobile iPhone app and enter a "site key" to connect to your specific site. Or you have the choice to have your own personalized version of the app, that your visitors would download and connect to your site without having to enter in any site keys.

See below for a comparison of the 2 choices you have, using the shared GeoMobile iPhone app or having your own personal iPhone app:

Version 6.0.3 was just released, which contains a security fix reported by one of our clients. Since this vulnerability is not known "in the wild" that we know of, we are not revealing the details of the vulnerability, as doing so would give potential hackers the info they need to exploit un-patched sites. The vulnerability affects versions 3.0.0 through 6.0.2, if you are currently using an affected version, we highly recommend to either update to 6.0.3 as soon as possible, or apply the security patch for your version available in the client area.

You can find additional technical info about version 6.0.3 itself in the forum post. If you have any questions, or need help applying the security patch or updating to version 6.0.3, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Update: We've gotten a few clients asking how to apply the patch for older versions. You can find the instructions for this below, if you have any trouble or have questions feel free to contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

1. Simply login to your Client Area on our site, go to "My Downloads".
2. Now, choose the product you need to apply the patch to (i.e. GeoClassAuctions Enterprise - Single License) and then Security Patch for Older Versions, if you are not going to update to version 6.0.3 at this time, and choose the patch for your current version (Your current version number is displayed in the footer of your software's admin panel).
3. Download the zipped patch file to your pc, unzip it, then upload (FTP) the unzipped contents of the patch folder to your site, to the location where the software is installed, over-writing existing files. To ensure you are uploading the files to the correct spot on your site, the main thing is to make sure the uploaded files are "lining up" with files that already exist, that they are over-writing files and not uploading them to a new folder or uploading them "below" the folder the software is installed.

That's all there is to it. Simply overwrite the files in the software with those contained in the patch, and you're done.

* NOTE: If you are already running version 6.0.0 or later, you must update to Version 6.0.3, as there is no separate patch file available, the 6.0.3 update contains the patch you need along with other important fixes.

We at Geodesic Solutions are always watching out for our clients, so when we learned the extent of the SOPA and PIPA bills, we wanted to make sure our clients were aware of what this could mean for them. Geodesic Solutions is against the SOPA and PIPA bills. Many other websites across the net, including Google, Youtube, Twitter, and many others, are speaking out against this proposed legislation. You can see more info about those bills at http://sopastrike.com/strike/ or by watching this video:

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Rather than re-hashing what that video already goes over, and what everyone else has already said about the bills, I'll go into why they are especially bad for websites running classifieds and auctions and why they will be bad for YOU.

For any websites running our software, these acts would make the website owners liable for any copyrighted material posted in a classified ad or auction, or even links to such copyrighted materials. Your site could even be shut down! This would mean not only dealing with potential lawsuits, but in the meantime your site would be shut down, shutting off any revenue stream that might have helped pay for legal bills, and potentially driving away your website users!

This does not affect just sites that let links to "pirated" material "slip by." It is much more broad than that. By way of example, if someone were to auction off a CD, and in the details decided to post lyrics (a legitimately good idea, as it allows people "searching" for parts of the song to come across the auction), those copyrighted lyrics would be grounds to have your site shut down. Even if auction seller were to merely link to another site with lyrics, YOU could be held liable and have your site shut down! If you already run a site with our software, and have "spam issues" now, think how bad it will be when you not only have to look for "spam," which is very easy to spot, but also have to look for ANYTHING that might possibly be copyrighted, or even LINKS TO something that is copyrighted! High traffic sites that get hundreds or thousands of new listings a day would need to sift through every one looking for problems. A lot of sites would probably shut down in order to avoid just the risk of being sued for letting some copyrighted material "slip through".

On geodesicsolutions.com if SOPA and PIPA were to pass, we will be forced to close down the public section of the forums, disable user posts in the demo, shut down trial demos, and shut down any other parts of our site that allow users to post content. We simply don't have the resources it would take to "patrol" everything people post on our website, especially since this will dramatically cut down on the number of "new clients." Think about it, if you knew that you might be the target of a lawsuit because you let a link to some site that has copyrighted material on it "slip by," how enthusiastic would you be to start up a new site? Just the "uncertainty" alone this would cause would stop many sites from even starting at all.

Note that I am by no means a lawyer, the above is my own understanding based on what others have said about SOPA and PIPA.

We are pleased to announce that version 6.0 was released today on schedule! There were a few delays (as can be expected) but we were still able to release 6.0 at 6PM CST today (November 28). We have also released new versions of almost every addon (current addon owners can download the new versions from the client area), and even 2 NEW ADDONS! You can read all the info about it in the 6.0 release info post[1]. Anyone updating be sure to read that, even if you are having us perform the update for you, as it has important info about possible template changes needed. Note that technically speaking, help with custom templates is not covered by support or the installation service, but in this case we will still TRY TO HELP AS BEST WE CAN if you have problems specifically caused by the new version of Smarty, just start a support ticket.

Anyone who has purchased INSTALLATION SERVICE: We will start new installations and updates for 6.0 first thing tomorrow morning, in the order that we received the installation info. Please be patient with us as we have quite a lot of installations and updates to go through, due to the overwhelming demand for 6.0.

I wanted to clear up some confusion a few clients had on our last e-mail: If you are still within the 1 year of support/updates, you get version 6.0 free, you can now download it from the client area! If it does not let you download, you are past the 1 year of support/updates in which case you can purchase a year extension, remember to use the promo code when checking out to receive the discount! (note that you CAN renew early if you wish)

For those WAITING FOR IPHONE APP: The community app has been approved by Apple, and should be available in the App Store within 24 hours under the name GEOMOBILE! Once it is available in the App Store you will be able to download it and try it out to connect to our geoaddons.com[2] website, and in about a week we will release the addon that lets your visitors use the app to connect to your own website. We are still finishing up the infrastructure on our site to allow the app to connect to websites via a unique "site code", that should be finished in roughly a week.

We are excited to announce the upcoming release 6.0 for GeoClassifieds, GeoAuctions, and GeoClassAuctions, for Enterprise, Premier, and Basic editions, planned for Monday, November 28 next week! This will be a major feature release, the primary reason we decided to increment to 6.0 instead of 5.3 was the update to latest version of Smarty 3.* template engine (previously version 2.* was used in the software), which may require template compatibility adjustments for some sites. We'll have more info about that when we release the software on Monday. Below is a brief list of highlights for the new version 6.0:

• New version Smarty Template Engine 3.1.5
• Reverse Auctions added
• In GeoClassAuctions, Classifieds and Auctions each have their own tabs when browsing categories.
• New "Verified Account" feature, useful on free listing sites.
• Category specific "meta tags"
• New date field type, uses calendar popup to select calendar date, for optional site-wide fields and category questions.
• Search algorithm re-written from the ground up.
• In advanced search, able to select multiple dropdown values to search by.
• Use Google Libraries API for faster loading of JS libraries
• Ability to create orders from admin panel (place listings as a user, edit listings, purchase renewal, etc.)
• New "mega dropdown" navigation option for Geographic Navigation Addon
• Assign template sets to specific language
• New Addons not available to previous versions:
  • Social Connect Addon (Login with Facebook) - Paid addon, NOT included with software
  • Token addon - Users can now purchase Tokens! - Addon Included with Enterprise, paid addon for other editions
  • Community iPhone App (see below)
• Plus 70+ other features and enhancements!

We are also pleased to announce the upcoming release of a community GeoMobile iPhone app, that we hope to release roughly a week after 6.0 ships, pending approval by Apple. For a visitor to use this app to connect to your site, you would purchase the addon (pricing to be announced) and follow a few steps to get your own unique "site app key". The visitor would go to the App Store, download the GeoMobile iPhone app, enter in a 4 digit site code that is unique to your site, which will connect the GeoMobile app to your site after that point on that visitor's iPhone or iPad.

Once the "community version" of the app is released that can be used to connect to different sites, we will start a waiting list for customized iPhone app. We already have a huge demand for this, so we expect at minimum, a 2 week wait to get your own customized iPhone app. This is because unlike the shared app, the customized one we have to set up manually for each site. This customized iPhone app would allow:

• App locked exclusively to your site
• YOU name the app
• YOU control the app price! Make it available for free or earn 70% of any download cost
• customized text
• customized logo and graphics
• customized colors
• App updates going forward

We will be posting more info closer to release date for the app, including instructions on what is needed to get on the waiting list, what the price is, etc.

Not only can you follow us on Twitter (which we have been on for a while now), but you can also follow us Facebook and Google+ as well!

It should be a lot easier now to follow us on your favorite social site, to keep up to date on new versions, special deals we're having, and sometimes even just casual conversations about what is going on. For Google+ users, we encourage you to circle us and even send us a message! Facebook users can become fans to stay up to date on what is going on with the company. While some of the posts might be shared between the sites, different developers manage each one so you will likely get unique content on each venue if you choose to follow us everywhere.