Lite Edition

Feature Summary

The following features are included with our e-Classifieds Lite Edition:

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 100,000 ads or more (This is a rough estimate of the recommended maximum number of ads that the program can handle without significant degradation in response times. There are no hard or absolute limits on the number of ads, but exceeding the number of ads listed here may result in slower responses to end users.)

User Interface and Layout

• Sophisticated interface that is intuitive and easy to use.
• Beautifully designed forms that are also intuitive and easy to use.
• Counters are displayed next to all category listings so that users will know which categories have ads in them without having to waste time "fishing" through empty categories
• Front page categories can have customized descriptions listed underneath each category
• Graphics included
• Administrator can change the general HTML layout for the various pages displayed by the program
• Includes "See Next X Hits" button below search results to help users move between different sections of their search results
• Includes "Go Back" buttons on certain pages, such as error message pages.

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 options 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 options 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

• Flexibility to set up free or fee-based classified ads listings.
• Option of charging users for posting ads.
• Support for charging different fees based on the number of categories that an ad is placed in.
• Optional e-mail invoices to posters on fee-based systems
• Can optionally charge for renewals and allows admin to set amount of renewal charge

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

Searching

• 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.
• Contains short results format for ads with links to details (long format).
• Case sensitive and exact match options.
• 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)

Logging

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

Additional User Posting and Searching Options

• 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 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.
• 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 to hit 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 modify or delete any ad, review new ads before they are posted, send out e-mail notices to users whose ads are about to expire, purge old ads, view the mailing list, clear the mailing list, and send out mass e-mails to subscribers, all from a point-and-click graphical user interface. It even includes pop-up help windows.
• 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.
• 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.
• Administrative Control Panel contains ability to check the version being used against the current version at the e-Classifieds web site.
• Dynamic generation of HTML pages (of course, you can still create regular static HTML pages if you really want to)
• Only one program file controls all operations, which makes it easier to set up and maintain

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.
• 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
• File locking (prevents data files from being written to by two different processes at once)
• Password protection for ads so that only the original poster can modify or delete
• Administrative password that allows admin to modify or delete any ad
• User passwords are stored in a secure area

Banner Ad Module

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

Internationalization

• 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 forever for the on-demand version.

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