Fixed "logic" problems introduced in 3.1.3, that caused problems under certain configurations when attempting to renew or upgrade a listing.
Fixed bug in some configurations, where the setting did not save when it was changed on the fields to use page in the admin. This only affects sites that were upgraded from before the 3.* platform.
If the e-mail configuration in the admin had the method set to SMTP, on some servers it defaulted to use the native mail() method instead.
The PayPal IPN needed to be updated to work on some of the GoDaddy hosting accounts, as some GoDaddy hosting account configurations cause the PayPal IPN to fail.
Fixed display of category-specific pricing when applicable within the admin listing approval display.
Fixed code to use the user's default price plan if the price plan attached to the listing is deleted from database. This fixes an error in the listing details display of the admin tool.
Re-coded the Cache system file writing process, to use file locking to prevent corrupted files in extremely high traffic sites. This change prevents the cache system from being usable on certain
server configurations, such as servers that use network storage, but is necessary to prevent cache file corruption.
The file structure of the cached files has also changed, so you must clear the cache if you currently have the cache system turned on.
The changes to the file structure are to change how the expiration of a certain cache file is stored, they are no longer stored in a centralized _age.php file
(which was part of the problem of why file corruption was happening),
they are instead stored as the first line of the actual cache file. The system has also been changed so that if cache updates are needed,
it waits until after the page has been loaded to write the files.
Expiration e-mails are sent without e-mail subject, and with most of the e-mail message missing. Fixed to properly get the subject and message text.
Fixed bug in close listings cron routine, that made the cron routine exit pre-maturely, preventing certain e-mails from being sent, such as the winning bidder notification.
Changed transaction details pages (or any pages that display payment options) to be much more small-width friendly. The original transaction detail re-design (see release notes for 3.1.0) was
done with larger fixed width layouts in mind (and required tweaking the transaction_details.css file if your layout did not match), the additional changes done here make the default layout and styles work with almost any customized page layout, with little or no modifications needed to the
transaction_details.css file.
Other minor problems with HTML on those pages have also been addressed.
If you have already customized your transaction_details.css file, further modifications may be needed to keep the same look. We recommend starting from the transaction_details.css file that
comes with 3.1.3, then re-applying any changes needed, rather than trying to make your custom transaction_details.css file work with the changes.
Fixed a very rare (but crippling) bug in the new Cache system, where if 2 people are writing the same cache
file at nearly the same time (within milliseconds of each other), it causes conflicts and results in a
corrupted cache file.
Also fixed a bug where if the admin logs into the client side, it can potentially cache parts of
the page with the "edit" or "delete" buttons, so that normal non-admin users may also see
the buttons. It is now fixed so that if an admin user logs in, the "output" cache is disabled, much
like is done if a user that has zip or state filters turned on.
Fixed bug introduced in 3.1.1 that broke the pre-valued drop down links in the dynamically generated admin menu.
Fixed a bug with the license validation for the security image, where accessing the security image would cause a license log entry because the directory was detected incorrectly.
Fixed a few issues in transaction details for listing upgrade process, to fix page layout issues when there are attention getters.
Fixed bug that prevented the admin site map from displaying when using PHP 4.
Fixed a bug affecting PHP4 sites, where when you save a template, it gives a PHP error.
Fixed bugs in the new Cache system and PHP4. Also made improvements across the board for
the cache system, to prevent doing certain things more than once.
As a result of the improvements (and
bug fixes in PHP4), Page load-time has significantly improved
in both PHP4 and PHP5 when the cache is turned on, when comparing to page load times on 3.1.0 with the Cache system turned on. The demo now defaults with the
Cache system turned on, even when running as Premier or Basic editions.
Fixed a JS bug in the image gallery view, when there is only 1 image to view, so that the image no longer disappears.
In the update, an old column in the pages table sometimes causes problems. To fix, removed the non-used column from the table.
Fixed alignment issues on the new transaction details page, when using certain configuration (when the site balance system is used).
Made various other minor bug fixes in the software.
Removed use of re-directs to verify saving of a cookie (AKA redirect_check).
Added a step on login and registration pages, that verifies that cookies are saved and working. The "in between" step shows a message similar to "Validating Credentials", along with the in progress gif image. Both the image and the text use page text, so can be customized on a per-language basis by editing the text for the page in the admin.
If there are any problems detected with saving cookies, when trying to log in or register, it displays an appropriate message, which can also be changed by editing the text for that page, on a per language basis.
Added a new connection type, Native mail() Connection, to work on hosts that do not work with Sendmail or SMTP, but do work using the mail() function.
Added the ability to use HTML in the register user agreement page, if the software sees that there are HTML tags in the user agreement, it will use a "div" tag so that the use of HTML tags is possible.
Added ability for addons to display messages during the install, uninstall, enable, disable, and upgrade processes. See the updated example addon for more details.
The Admin home page now has a News section that shows the latest entries from the Geodesic Solutions company blog. This allows site owners to easily see when a new release has been made, along with other important notices that may pertain to their software.
Added a new field for listings for the address field, that can be customized just like other fields on the "fields to use" page in the admin.
Previously, the state, country, and zip were built-in fields for listing display, but not the address. The address was previously only associated with a user, it was not associated with a listing and able to be shown on the listing details page. Now the address is a built-in field for listings, and can be shown on the listing detail page if desired.
Added many new core functions AKA software hooks into the main software files, to give addons the power and flexibility to do more things in the software. To see all the new core functions, download the new version of the Example Addon. Most of the new hooks have been added at the request of 3rd party developers, if you are a developer and wish to have a hook added into the system, don't be afraid to send in a request to support.
This feature mainly benefits sites that use "non standard" charsets, such as Arabic or Farsi, that are not supported directly in the htmlspecialchars() function.
Added the ability to convert the charset before and after cleaning it (independently of each other). This conversion is sometimes necessary when using a charset that is not compatible with
the PHP function htmlspecialchars(). The recommended work-around (from php.net) is to first convert the charset to one that is compatible with the htmlspecialchars(), then run the function, then convert it back to the original charset.
These new settings in the config.php allow for doing this.
Also added the ability to specify whether to use the PHP function iconv() or mb_convert_string() for the conversion by making a change in the config.php file.
The charset conversion/cleaning settings are currently site-wide set in the config.php, and there are plans to change the setting to be language specific in future releases.
See the "charset settings" sub-section in the config.php for the new version, for information on how to use this new feature.
New payment gateway available for credit card processing: Moneris
Created new browser filter module to allow browsing by:
[All Editions]
All Listings (basically a "reset" button)
Listings ending within 24 hours
Listings with pictures
[ClassAuctions]
Classifieds only
Auctions only
[Auctions & ClassAuctions]
Auctions using Buy Now (includes auctions using buy now only)
Auctions using Buy Now Only
Auctions with bids
Auctions without bids
Added a new help link that shows on every page in the admin. The link goes to a search in the user manual on http://geodesicsolutions.com that searches the user manual for the title of the page.
This makes it easier to find related help resources when looking for help on how to do something in the admin.
Added the ability to add images during the upgrade process when charging for images in the price plan.
Added admin tool to be able to view the listings that have expired within the last 30 days maximum. The admin can select the number of days in the past they wish to view expired ads. This feature does not display archived listings.
Added quick category dropdown link module to allow quick linking directly to categories. Look for the new module in the category navigation section under modules.
Image thumbnails now use the listing's title as the alt text, which is considered to improve search engine rankings. This affects any thumbnails on main pages, not listing details pages.
Changed admin tool to set the "notify admin of registration attempt" setting when the admin sets the admin tool to have the admin approve all listings. If you have previously set the e-mail verification system to Admin Approves all Registrations, you may need to re-save the page in order to turn on admin notifications when someone attempts to register.
Added ability for the badword filter to filter badwords on a "whole word" basis, or a "partial word" (e.g. bad in badwords) basis.
Added "incomplete" transaction column to awaiting approval admin tool to let admin know that the transaction displayed has not completed through payment gateway yet.
Reworked the payment collection screens (AKA Transaction Details) within the place a listing, listing renewal, subscription renewal, invoice/balance purchase and storefront subscription renewal forms to improve look and css use.
Added javascript character count feature to the description field of the place a listing process, that lets the user know the number of characters left. The feature currently only works with the WYSIWYG editor for the description turned off.
Added New Zealand, Swiss Franc, Hong Kong Dollar, Danish Krone, Polish Zloty, Norwegian Krone, Hungarian Forint and Czech Koruna currency types to Paypal admin tool
Created the ability to add advanced custom CSS in the font management in the admin, to allow greater control over styles if needed.
Improved the list users page in the admin to be easier to use, and more functional.
Changed the look and feel for the pages in the admin. With the new look, the pages with a lot of different settings are now better structured and grouped into different sections, to make it easier to find and identify settings in the admin.
Changed look of the result messages in the admin, and made results easier to quickly identify if settings were saved correctly or not.
The Geo API has been replaced by the new Bridge Addon. The Bridge Addon has been re-designed from the ground up to be much more 3rd party developer friendly, and make it easier to add additional bridge types and features in the future.
The main Bridge Addon that provides the structure for software bridges will be distributed in the packages for all editions, but it will only come with a template bridge for developers to use to create their own bridge. As of the time of this release, the bridges for vBulletin and Geo 3.1 software can be purchased in a package together.
Anyone that has previously purchased the Geo API Module, and has access to it in the client area of our site, will now be able to download the addon package containing the bridges for vBulletin and Geo 3.1 software.
New features of the Bridge Addon in addition to features of the Geo API
- Ability to "sync" existing users, so that it will copy users that exist in one installation but not another (depends on installation types)
- Back-end allows external developers to easily create a new "Bridge Type" to help with bridging the users between different software installations and the Geo software.
- Because of the ability to easily create new bridge types, we will be able to create new bridges developed in-house to popular software that was not available before in the old Geo API module.
Compatibility Notes
- If you have multiple Geo software installations that are linked with the old Geo API, if you update one Geo installation to version 3.1, all linked Geo software installations must also be updated to 3.1 for compatibility. (Keep this in mind when deciding whether you want to update to 3.1.)
- If you have API installations currently set up, it will require copying your existing API installations to the new Bridge addon, otherwise they will no longer be linked as the Geo API is not compatible with 3.1. You will still be able to view the API installation settings so that you can easily migrate them to the new Bridge Addon.
- The bridge with vBulletin was fully tested using vBulletin 3.6.8, if you have an older version of vBulletin we recommend you update to ensure best compatibility. If you cannot update vBulletin to 3.6.8, contact Geo Support and we will be happy to work with you to ensure the bridge is compatible with your version.
- At the time of release, the Phorum bridge has been dropped due to lack of use. If you wish to use the Bridge Addon to link to Phorum, contact Geo Support.
Created a new file caching system, that should significantly speed up sites with high traffic.
Since the file cache system is brand new, and server configurations can vary widely, the cache system will be considered as "beta" until it has had a chance to be tested and used on a large variety of different servers with different server configurations.
The admin for the new system is on the page "Admin Tools & Settings > BETA Tools > Cache". The cache system will remain an Enterprise-only feature at least until it is no longer considered "BETA".
Created new "Cron task" system, to more efficiently run tasks that need to be run on a periodic schedule, for instance closing the expired listings or sending expiration e-mails.
The new system will be in all editions of 3.1, but the admin page to control the advanced settings is Enterprise only. The new admin page is at Admin Tools & Settings > BETA Tools > Cron Jobs.
The new file cron.php is able to be called using a server-side "cron task", by default it will be called the way the "close routine" used to be called, using an ajax call on each page load, and is (currently) the only way it can be called in Premier or Basic. That way use of cron tasks on the server is not required to use the software.
Added a new beta setting, to allow specifying custom javascript to use for the WYSIWYG editor on the client side.
This is meant to be temporary, we plan to add more in-depth controls for the client-side WYSIWYG in the future, this is the first step toward that.
To see the new setting, look in "Admin Tools & Settings > BETA Tools > BETA Settings"
Added feature to automatically build the title field from answers within the site wide optional fields (which are Enterprise only).
Added feature to charge for auction placement by length of auction duration chosen.
Added Paytrace payment gateway as choice within Authorize.net payment gateway admin tool. In the admin, see the page Payments > Payment Types > Credit Card Setup > Authorize.net/Paytrace
Note that since this is a new payment gateway, it is considered a BETA feature until it has had a chance to be tested and confirmed on a wider variety of different servers.
Added ability to edit the payment types accepted by a client within their auction details.
Added ability to charge a fixed fee within each increment of the final fee schedule setup within the price plan admin tool. Admin can charge by fixed fee instead of percentage of final cost for auctions.
Added beta switch to force the use of the credit card verification field within credit card payment forms within the software. It will be the last setting on the Beta Settings page in the admin.
Improved script to not send out expiration notices for a listing if the sold sign feature has been turned on for that listing
Added the ability to set the number of free images on a category by category basis within the category specific options in the price plan.
Made it show an error message if the discount code entered is not correct.
Fixed a bug that sometimes forced users to payment gateways (Paypal, etc) even when a listing was made free by a 100% discount code
Fixed a bug that could cause an ad to lose pictures while being upgraded.
In the admin, on the page "Listing Setup > General Settings", fixed it so that the setting "Reset Start Date of Listing when Seller Edits" works properly on the client side.
Changed the constant BASE_DIR to be named GEO_BASE_DIR to avoid name conflicts on rare server configurations which pre-set this constant to a value that is different than the software uses.
If you have manually changed this setting in config.php, you will need modify your configuration to use GEO_BASE_DIR instead of BASE_DIR.
3rd Party Developers: If you use the constant BASE_DIR to include files in any addons, we recommend to change this to GEO_BASE_DIR to ensure compatibility with those servers that have a naming conflict. BASE_DIR is still defined, but is no longer used by the main software.
Made the renew/upgrade process use it's own text for the image label and description, on the price confirmation page. If you have a non-English site, note that this means there are new text messages for those pages you may need to translate. The update process will add the new text messages for every language you have, but the text will default to the English text.
Fixed a problem with the database structure, which prevented users from being able to add money to their site balance, while at the same time be in the middle of the listing process. Now, a user can add money to their site balance, and when they return to the listing process it will pick up where they left off.
Registration Allow/Block Email Domains now has improved support for wildcards and domains with non-standard formats (e.g. mywebsite.co.uk)
Fixed a bug where the admin deleting a pending ad would not give credit back to a user's account balance if the ad was paid for out of the positive-only site balance feature.
Fixed Linkpoint gateway code to allow completion of transaction when certain configuration settings are set.
Fixed bulk uploader code so that it better handles special characters within import data
Fixed the update user information form in the client side admin tool to properly check the current existence of an email address within the system so there are no duplicate email addresses in the system before updating the user's information.
Fixed code in basic edition image upload settings admin tool to stay on the javascript popup selection to display full size images
Fixed affiliate listing detail display code to properly place the additional text fields within the affiliate listing display template
Fixed code to not display the make a bid link within the auction detail display page before the preview period is up
- fixed bolding cost within the renewal/upgrade form to properly display cost according to money formatting set within admin tool.
- fixed total cost within the renewal/upgrade success page to properly display cost according to money formatting set within admin tool.
- fixed display of pictures cost within renewal process.
- fixed display of add picture selections and costs within the upgrade listing form
Fixed code to properly check the current image count for a listing against the max number of images allowed by the site before choosing to display the upgrade link within the current listings display of the client side admin tool.
Fixed code to not allow bidding before the preview period is up within an auction if the "start time" is used
Fixed code to check if feedback is already in the database before the closing cron routine tries to close the listing
Fixed css issues in featured category modules 1 and 2
Fixed bug in state filter module where the currently browsed state will be the default choice in the state dropdown when state filter module is in use
Improved code to properly display the total cost to place/renew a listing within the Listings Awaiting Approval admin tool
Improved/added more controls to give the ability to change the date format for different areas of the software.
Removed dutch auction from detail collection form of the place an auction process when set to not be an option within the admin tool.
Fixed the script-generated HTML for the user management pages to be W3C compliant.
Fixed listing display bug in the admin, that reported an incorrect end time if the listing has already expired. This bug only affects viewing the listing in the admin.
- Fixed display of price of auctions while browsing categories
- Fixed display of description while browsing categories
Fixed code to properly consider current client language choice when displaying help popup text
Added code to bulk uploader to check the full size dimensions of url referenced images, get thumbnail dimension and place in the database with the image data
Fixed code to display the cost of renewal within the listings awaiting approval admin tool
Fixed text misreference at the php code level within the browsing vote feature
Fixed all featured ad pic modules to have the proper css tag for the header row
Fixed html within "back to client home" link within the view communications configuration form
Fixed Japanese money formatting display
Fixed code to not update the minimum bid until all items have been bid on
Fixed code to use the category specific full size image template when they are set within the categories > templates admin tool
Fixed code to have the "must be logged in to contact seller" feature within the premier edition
Added query to upgrade to make "choose a state" field appear in non-classauction installations
Fixed code to properly display discounts and affect upon totals within the admin approval tool listing detail display
Fixed display of images within the listing details page to display the images in the order that was set for them within the image upload process
Changed price plan amount to allow $500 as a choice within the price plan increments form
Changed the code to not display the html for the header row of newest modules 1 and 2 when there is no title row text to display
Fixed code to redisplay message text within the contact seller form if there was an error in submitting the contact seller form