[Support Center] Recently Updated Articles

What happens in the database when an ad expires?

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:51:04 GMT

Problem:

What happens to the ad/auction in the database when it expires? Does it go away? Is it archived?

Solution:

When an ad/auction expires it initially remains in the "live" database table geodesic_classifieds table for a default period of thirty days and is marked as not live. Once it has been thirty days (set at default and editable in the admin tool) and marked as not live the ad is then moved to the geodesic_classifieds_expired database table and is stripped of any images, category id, extra questions,...etc. This leaves it with only the core data...i.e. ad id, ad title, ad description, etc... The amount of space required to store this information is extremely small and is therefore stored indefinitely as an archive. These ads can be removed by if you feel that this table is becoming large. Please note that the information that is stored in this table is extremely small and will not hender the performance of the database.

For more on why the listing isn't immediately archived, how and where to adjust the date of archiving from expiration and even having archived listings removed from the database by the software look to these support wiki articles

http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/admin_menu/listing_setup/general_settings/start#listing_management_settings

http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/admin_menu/listing_setup/general_settings/start#expiration_settings

Changing servers - How do I do this?

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:41:44 GMT

Problem:

I want to move my software to a new server. How do I do this and what do I need to consider in the software?

Solution:

Look to our steps explained in the support wiki here:

http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/tutorials/server/moving_installation

How do I turn on the country and/or city fields within my site search page?

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 20:06:43 GMT

This modification will only work on pre v5 installations of the software

The admin tool LISTING SETUP > FIELDS TO USE has settings to turn on the use of the city and country fields within the software but these fields do not appear in the site search field when you turn them on in the above admin tool. The reason the country field is this way is that so few of the site using our software are multiple country sites that need this field turned on within the search form specifically yet want it displayed in several other places this field was commented out within the php code of the software.

The city field does not display for a slightly different reason. The city field in the search form can cause more problems than it solves. With the proliferation of suburbs many searchers could be missing listings right next to them because the city search does an exact match search for the city and not a proximity search which they may be expecting. Problems in spelling city name is another major problem with the city search. Cities may be spelled correctly between a person posting a listing and another person looking for that listing. Fort Lauderdale will not match Ft Lauderdale even though both are acceptable spellings of the city's name. Because of these problems we have suggested that area based searches be based on the postal/zip codes. The script can do proximity searches with the use of the longitude/latitude data that comes with the postal/zip code addon.

If you still wish to use these fields in your site search form you can. The code to search by these fields is still in the php code but has been commented out. The changes you will need to make these fields appear are within the search_form function of the search_class.php file.

To uncomment the city form field search for the following line within the php code mentioned above:

//if the client wants to search by city they can uncomment
//otherwise the zip filter feature makes this unusable

/* if ($this->field_configuration_data->USE_CITY_FIELD)
{
   //search by city
   ......
}*/

You will need to remove the comments coding to make the above appear like:

//if the client wants to search by city they can uncomment
//otherwise the zip filter feature makes this unusable
if ($this->field_configuration_data->USE_CITY_FIELD)
{
   //search by city
   ......
}

To uncomment the country field to make it appear in the default search form look for the following php code:

//un-comment the following to add a drop down for countries.
/* 
//Begin Commenting out
if ($this->field_configuration_data->USE_COUNTRY_FIELD)
{
   .......
}
// End Commenting out
*/

You will need to remove the comments coding to make the above appear like:

//un-comment the following to add a drop down for countries.


//Begin Commenting out
if ($this->field_configuration_data->USE_COUNTRY_FIELD) 
{
   .....
}
// End Commenting out

our site same settings that turn on the use of the city and country fields within the

How can I protect my admin from visitors

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:25:28 GMT

Problem:

Although the admin is very well protected by the login and authentication routines used by the software, there are additional actions that you can take to further protect the administration of the software.

Solution:

All admin files and functionality are stored within the "admin" directory. Because of this separation, from the files/functionality of the front side of the software, you can do two things to further "hide" the administration.

1. Password protect the entire admin directory using htaccess. This is a server side feature so talk to your host about protecting directories if you are not familiar with this process.

2.Use the following support wiki article to change the name of the admin directory to something "not standard" like it is at default: /admin

http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/tutorials/admin/change_dir_name

How do I move my installation from one directory to another?

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:23:37 GMT

Problem:

I want to move my installation from a one directory to another on my site. How do I do this?

Solution:

These instructions are in the support wiki here:
http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/tutorials/server/moving_directories

How do I set up my site to use Turkish charset?

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:20:25 GMT

How to set up a site to use Turkish text:

Versions 3.0+
These instructions are included in the following support wiki article:

http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/tutorials/using_different_character_sets/start

Versions Before 3.0:

1. Edit the file xss_filter_inputs.php (or clean_inputs.php if that file exists instead). Find the line:

$input_vars=htmlentities($input_vars);

Replace with:

$input_vars=htmlspecialchars( $input_vars, ENT_COMPAT, 'UTF-8');

2. In the same file, find the line:

$_REQUEST['b']['username'] = htmlentities($_REQUEST['b']['username']);

Replace with:

$_REQUEST['b']['username'] = htmlspecialchars($_REQUEST['b']['username'],ENT_COMPAT,'UTF-8');

3. Follow the instructions 2-4 of the Versions 3.0+ section at the top.

Changing and finding css controls

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:16:48 GMT

Problem:

If you know the css tag you wish to change or the page it is attached to and want to know where to change it....

Solution:

We've moved these instructions into the support wiki here:

http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/tutorials/finding_changing_css/start

Category links only produce server 404 error pages...pages not found? Why?

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:56:07 GMT

If linking within the software (mainly category browsing) is broken the SEO addon has most likely been turned on without all the steps to install SEO Addon being completed. The error you most likely see looks something like this:

404 Not Found

The requested URL /index/listings/categoryXXX.htm does not exist.

Where XXX is the category id.

You will need to either turn off the SEO addon in the Addon Management tool of your Geodesic admin tool or complete the SEO module installation instructions within the online user manual here:

http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/addons/seo/installation

and the following section of the admin tool:

ADMINISTRATION MENU > ADDONS > SEO > SETTINGS

How Do I Insert Meta Tags?

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:51:48 GMT

Problem:

How Do I Insert Meta Tags?

Solution:

The following pages of the support wiki answer how to do this in v5:

http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/tutorials/v5_meta_tag_management/start
http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/tutorials/v5_meta_tag_management/category_specific_meta
http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/tutorials/v5_meta_tag_management/listing_details_meta

Configurations to speed up your post 3.1 performance.

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:49:42 GMT

This support wiki article provides suggestions on speeding up page load within v5:

http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/tutorials/speeding_up_pages/start

There is text all over the site/emails that I don't like. How do I change it in my v3.0 version software?

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:48:16 GMT

Problem:

There is text all over the site/emails that I don't like. How do I change it? For example the registration email does not contain the information that I would like my users to see. Also, the weclome text on the home page is not right. ???

Solution:

This is fully explained in the support wiki here:
http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/tutorials/finding_editing_text/start

How does the affiliate system work?

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:46:32 GMT

Problem:

How does the affiliate system work in the Enteprise products?

THIS FEATURE WAS REMOVED FROM THE SOFTWARE WITH V5. THE STOREFRONT FEATURE REPLACED IT AND PROVIDES MUCH MORE FLEXIBILITY FOR THE CLIENT

Solution:

You can grant affiliate privileges on a group by group basis. The affiliate privileges allows the affiliate a backdoor link to the classifieds/auctions software that will only display that affiliates(sellers) ads/auctions. The page templates and ad/auction display templates used within this back door section will be determined within the group administration for the specific user group that user belongs to. You can also allow the affiliate/seller the ability to place their own html within the affiliate backdoor template. The affiliate/seller has an "affiliate html" textbox within the affiliate/seller's client side user information edit form. Any html entered into this box and saved by the affiliate/seller will be placed within the affiliate side templates where you place the "" tag within that template.

The affiliate/seller side does not use the category navigation. The ads/auctions are displayed from newest to oldest and spill onto a secondary navigation page if necessary.

If the user has affiliate privileges an affiliate link will appear automatically
within the personal information section of the client side admin (only
viewable if the user is logged in).

The user can use the affiliate link provided within their personal information page as a link from their own site or any site on the web directly to their affiliate section displaying only their ads.

No external links (lead out of the affiliate section) are created within the dynamic part of the content. You can however determine your own links within the page and ad display template that could possibly link to your mainstream site or other sites on a group by group basis. No affiliate stats are currently generated.

Each user group (with affiliate privileges) can have their own set of "affiliate-side" page and ad/auction display templates...or you can set all groups to the same templates.

The following templates can be determined for each group for use within the affiliate site:
Affiliate Home template - page template viewed when the affiliate link is used. Essentially the template used on the "home" page for affiliate section. When the affiliate link is used this is the page that the system "defaults" to. Together with all the most recent ads. If there are more ads/auctions than can be displayed on this page a link to the secondary page will be displayed. You can place the "" tag within this template.

Secondary Template - page template for subsequent page results beyond the affiliate home template. If there are more ads/auctions than can be displayed on the affiliate "home" page a link will be generated to this page...and to any subsequent pages if necessary. You can place the "" tag within this template.

Ad display template - body detail of the ad display.

Ad display extra question template - controls display of category specific extra question values attached to each ad.

Ad display checkbox template - controls display of category specific checkbox question values attached to each ad Each template can have a different template for each language attached to the site.

The below article in the forum has additional information with image representation.

http://www.geodesicsolutions.com/products/user_forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=786

How Do I Edit/Delete Live Ads/Auctions as the Admin?

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:44:28 GMT

Problem:

How Do I Edit/Delete Live Ads/Auctions as the Admin?

Answered in the support wiki here:

http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/tutorials/delete_edit_listing/start

What are the minimum server/software requirements for the software?

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:20:13 GMT

Problem:

What are the minimum server/software requirements for the software?

Solution:

Refer to this page of the support wiki for our requirements:

http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/server_requirements/start

I need to edit report abuse link email in my listing details.

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:09:01 GMT

Problem:

The email address in the listing details page is wrong. How do I change it?

Solution:

There is no specific "report abuse" feature within the software but we have put an "email link" within the listing details page that will popup a box within the browser that will allow the client to send an email to the email address contained in the link. The email address field in the popup will automatically be populated with the email address contained within that email link.

To change the email address contained within that link you will need to edit the listing details template used on your listing details page to display the listing detail information. You can find out which detail template by going here in the admin tool:

PAGES MANAGEMENT > BROWSING LISTINGS > LISTING DISPLAY PAGE

If you have not changed the default design the template you will look for is "CLASSIFIED DETAILS TEMPATE 1". After finding the listing details template you use you can find that template within the template admin tool. Click the "edit" link next to that template in the template admin tool. If you have the WYSIWYG editor in use you will need to click the "html" in the WYSIWYG editor to see the html source code. If you do not have the WYSIWYG editor on you will see the html source code to edit. Search for the email address (default: admin@yourdomain.com) in that html source of your listing details pages. Once edited click the "update" and "save" if using the WYSIWYG editor...click the "save" if not. This should save your change to the listing details template. If a refresh of the browser on the client side does not change you most likely did not edit the correct template. Start again above to verify.

Within the default installation the text for the report abuse link is within "additional text 10" text field in the text admin tool of the LISTING DISPLAY PAGE page admin tool.

Not all items are secure when in ssl

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:32:07 GMT

Problem:

When set to use an ssl address I am getting a warning that not all items are secure.

Solution:

The reason that you ever see a message like that is because there is
something being reference improperly in the html for use on an https
address. Typically this is because something is referenced absolutely
instead of relatively.

Below is our best attempt to explain this and please forgive any html inaccuracies as it is for point demonstration only.

If you were wanting to call an image in html and the image is located at:

http://www.geodesicsolutions.com/images/someimage.jpg

You could do so with the below image tag absolutely:

<img src=http://www.geodesicsolutions.com/images/someimage.jpg>

Or relatively

<img src=images/someimage.jpg>

If done relatively then the missing path information is filled in relative to where the page is located that is being viewed on the site in either http or https. So if done relatively, viewing the page from https the image is called from https://www.geodesicsolutions.com/images/someimage.jpg and if viewing the page from http then the image is called from
http://www.geodesicsolutions.com/images/someimage.jpg. Either address the image is called properly but most importantly it is being called from https when needed and is therefore secure and will not cause any warnings in the browser.

TIP: To find out where the image is being reference when viewing the page in a browser, right click on an image an view its properties.

Hope this helps

Why can't users renew certain listings, or why does the renew button not display?

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:49:24 GMT

There are 2 main factors that determine if a listing can be renewed or not.

In the admin, on the page Listing Setup > General Settings, look at the setting renewal period. See the tooltips help on that setting for more info.
If the listing has been expired for more than 30 days, the listing may have been archived. Archived listings can not be renewed. If you wish to change the amount of time before a listing is archived, you can do so by adding the following line to your config.php file:
Code:
```
define("BETA_OVERRIDE_DAYS_TO_ARCHIVE",30);
```
To change the number of days, in the line above you would change 30 to be whatever the number of days you wish it to be.

Note that changing the number of days to a high number will result in slower page load times and more disk usage, since images for listings are kept until the listing is archived.

Also note that the archive # days setting was first introduced in version 3.1.0.

Images upload fine in non ssl but do not in ssl - why?

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:08:48 GMT

Problem:

When I turn on ssl mode in the software, I can no longer upload an image during ad/auction placement. What is wrong?

Solution:

Typically this is caused because the funtcion getimagesize within GDLibrary is not reporting any size. Your host can correct this by making the below change within the php.ini file.

open_basedir "/var/www/yoursite.com/httpdocs:/tmp:/var/tmp"

Quick css tag search within browser address bar

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:08:21 GMT

Problem:

Need a quick way to search for css tags within the admin tool without waiting for the css font list page to load.

Solution:

Enter the following urls to search for individual css tags within the admin tool:

Within the auctions enterprise admin tool:
http://www.usedcarfactory.com/auctions/admin/index.php?a=1108&b=1&z[search]=xxx

Within the classifieds enterprise admin tool:
http://www.usedcarfactory.com/classifieds/admin/index.php?a=108&b=1&z[search]=xxx

Just replace the "xxx" in the links with the css you want to search for. Like "display_auction_label" or "display_ad_label".

Some pages on my site are pulled from cache

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:07:45 GMT

Many hosts are employing proxy servers and/or your clients browser may cache content too often.Â All pages within the Geo software are created dynamically each time they are accessed and many of the pages that may have the same url will have completely different content within them.Â This is because there are different pieces of data to create each page and not all are passed to the script through the url.Â So there are times where clients will see content or transaction information that comes from a cached page.Â If the problems reported by your clients are caused by browser caching the following meta tags will most likely correct the problem:

must-revalidate" CONTENT="NO-CACHE">

The "expires" meta date just needs to be set in the past to make sure the browser (and proxy server)Â goes to get fresh content.

How does the site filter system work within the Enterprise versions?

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:07:14 GMT

Several users have asked for a better explanation of the "site" filters contained within the admin. The client side "search filters" should not be confused with them. Below is a better explanation of the site filters to alleviate any discrepancies...it is a long one. Hope it helps and lets people know how powerful tool the site filter tool can be.

Site filters can be a powerful tool to simplify browsing throughout your site. The site filter is used to pre-populate a specific field used within a classified ad (and possibly a registration field) and then use that field to filter out classified ads that do not have the value chosen with the filter.

You begin by attaching creating a hierarchy of filters much the same way you create categories. The main or top level filter values are more general while sub-level filter values get increasingly specific. To illustrate the use of filters better we will use a state and county hierarchy example. The first level of filters will contain the states. The second level will contain the counties in each state (remember this is just to illustrate...thatâ€™s a lot of states and counties). Any counties within a state will be contained within that state (added to that state) as if it were a subcategory of another category.

Once you have your hierarchy you then attach each level of the filter organization (state and county in above example) to an optional site wide field using the filter administration tool. For our example we will attach the state level to optional site wide field 1 and the county level to optional site wide field 2. Also turn on the use of optional site wide fields 1 and 2 on a site wide basis within the AD CONFIGURATION > FIELDS TO USE admin tool.

The next step is to attach each filter level to a registration optional field. For our example we will attach the state level to the registration optional field 1 and the counties to registration optional field 2. Also turn on the use of registration optional fields 1 and 2 within the registration configuration screen.

From now on when a user registers they will be asked to choose a state and county as steps within the registration process. The first level choice will appear immediately after the registration code screen (if you choose to use registration codes). The county choice screen will come next with the appropriate county choices that belong to the state chosen in the previous step (all based on the category->subcategory model used within the category administration). We are assuming the user will choose their state and county from the choices...so give explicit instructions to do so within the instructions on the filter choice page. The normal registration form will now appear asking for the usual personal information. Registration optional field 1 will contain the state choice and registration optional field 2 will contain the county choice. An edit link will appear next to each allowing the user to edit the values if they need to.
Once the user completes registration those fields can be edited within their personal information edit screen.

These fields/values within the registration field 1 will now be used to automatically populate the optional site wide field 1 when the user places an ad. The registration optional field 2 value will be used to populate optional site wide field 2 within the place an ad process. This information will be saved along with the ad. Every ad the user enters will automatically have this filter information within it. And if these values are edited within the user information administration section on the client side these values will automatically be updated within all ads attached to that user.

Now insert one of the â€œfilter dropdown displayâ€ modules into your browsing pages. Where they are placed will appear dropdown(s) prepopulated with the state and county information. If no state has been chosen (in our example) the state dropdown will contain the states built within the â€œstateâ€ level of the filter administration. Once a state is chosen the second level counties attached to that state will appear in the second dropdown.

Now only ads that fit the filter value chosen will appear while browsing. If you chose a state only ads that have that state value will be displayed. Once a state (or another state) has been chosen the page will refresh and show only ads belonging to that state. Now the second level counties for that state will be in the second dropdown. If you choose a county only ads within that county and state will appear (in our example). Both filters can be changed to display different ads fitting the criteria within the filters or cleared to display all ads.

In conjunction with the category system a user can quickly narrow down the number of ads to browse through to reach the content they are wanting to view.

The filter system can be adapted to any hierarchy. We just used the state-county hierarchy as an easy way to illustrate how the filter system worked.

How do I force the need for a subscription to view or register on my site?

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:06:28 GMT

Enterprise Editions only:

Firstly note that all your price plans will need to be subscription based price plans. You could conceivably have fee-based price plans but clients in the fee-based user groups/price plans will not be able to view any listing details. Also note this applies to either classauction, classified ad or auction configurations of Geo software.

You must first turn on this beta setting to force the need for a client to have a current subscription within the software before they can view a listing details page within your site:

ADMIN TOOLS & SETTINGS > BETA TOOLS > BETA SETTINGS > "must_have_subscription_to_view_ad_detail"

Changing this beta setting to 1 and saving should be all that is necessary. This settings force any browsing client to have a subscription to view the details of a listing. The only thing required is an active subscription and that subscription could have been purchased under any user group/price plan combination. This setting allows the clients to browse the categories of your site. When the client clicks to view the details of a listing they are redirected to login if they currently are not logged in or purchase a subscription if they are logged into your site.

The following two things are not necessary but help make sure the client purchases or knows they have to purchase a subscription to view listing details on your site:

1) Create a specific page template for the registration success page that redirects to the subscription purchase/renewal page. Within the page template you create for this purpose should have a meta tag refresh like this one in the html statement:

and then attach that page template to the following page in the admin tool.

PAGES MANAGEMENT > REGISTRATION > "Registration Success Page"

Once the client successfully registers they will be redirected immediately to the subscription renewal page where they can choose the length of subscription they wish to purchase that has been setup in their user group/price plan.

2) Place a link in the registration success page text that links directly to the subscription purchase/renewal page. The following text is only displayed when the client successfully registers:

PAGES MANAGEMENT > REGISTRATION > "Registration Success Page" > [edit text] > "registration success instructions"

Place a link in this text something like:

http://www.mysite.com/index.php?a=24

index.php?a=24

https://www.mysite.com/index.php?a=24

Make the text for the link a "call to action" to purchase their subscription so that they can browse listing details. Otherwise the client will not be able to view listing details.

Notes:

a) If the client does not purchase a subscription immediately after registration they are essentially treated as clients whose subscriptions have expired.Â They are able to login to the site but will not be able to view listing details until they go to the personal information page in the client side account management tool, click the renew/extend subscription link and purchase/renew a subscription through the software.

b) The links above are assuming that your geodesic software is installed in the base director of your domain and in some examples that your site domain is mysite.com which it isn't. Change any of the absolute urls you use are pointing to your domain.

registration agreement shows html tags within it

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:06:12 GMT

Problem:

In versions before 3.1.*, Html is showing within the registration agreement box. How do I remove it?

Solution:

The registration agreeement is displayed within an HTML textarea box. The html textarea box cannot render html as a browser can. You cannot use html within a textarea as that html will display exactly as you have entered it.Â The only "formatting" you can do within the html textarea is to place "backslash n" (that isÂ a backslash on your keyboard immediately followed by the letter n...no spaces in between them) where you want a carriage return to appear. You cannot put html "
" tags within the registration agreement.

We suggest turning off the wysiwyg editor to edit the registration agreement. You can turn off the wysiwyg within the SITE CONFIGURATION > GENERAL admin page.Â Place "n" where you want carriage returns to appear.

Once you have finished editing this piece of text you can turn the wysiwyg editor back on to edit other text around the admin tool.

When I try to save a template or text, I get a forbidden page (403) error

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:04:33 GMT

The 403 forbidden error is generated by the server, usually because there is a "script" tag in the text that is being submitted, that the server perceives as a possible hacking attempt. Contact your hosting provider and ask them how to disable the "mod_security" feature.

On some servers, you may be able to disable the feature by creating a new file, admin/.htaccess that contain these lines:

SecFilterEngine off

How do I make the HTML button show on the description text editor in 3.0.*?

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:04:18 GMT

Problem:

How do I make the HTML button show on the description text editor in 3.0.*?

Solution:

The following steps are un-necessary once you have updated to 3.1, since 3.1 shows the HTML button by default.

These steps require making a change in a PHP file. To ensure that you can restore the original file in case anything goes wrong, make a backup of the file classes/site_class.php.
Edit the file classes/site_class.php with a text editor such as WordPad, or an editor that is PHP friendly.

Search for the text:

theme_advanced_disable : 'visualaid,help,styleselect,code,cleanup,image',

Replace that line of text with:
```
theme_advanced_disable : 'visualaid,help,styleselect,cleanup,image',
```
Note that what has changed, is that the text "code," was removed from the line.
Save the changes, and upload the edited file.
Go through the place a listing process, and the HTML button should now show on the editor.
If you do not see the HTML button, be sure to clear your browser's cache and refresh the page.
If there are any problems, restore the backup you created in step 1 above.