Web Classifieds 1.0 Details

Source Code Provided

This system is written in Perl and full source code is provided. It expects to run on a Unix system.

No Database Required

All ads are kept in files. Administrators may delete files or modify them by hand and the system will still function perfectly.

Free Ads or Pay Ads

You may setup a free ads site or pay ads site. Users submitting to a pay ad site do not see their ads immediately after they post them. The administrator must approve the ad using the "approve ad" web form. There is no credit card validation in this version.

Free Ads allow users to edit their ad at any time. Users will self assign a password to each ad they submit. A user has the ability to delete his ad as well.

Viewing Ads

Ads can be viewed in date order (latest ads first) or by category.

Categories

This system supports up to 999 categories. All the names of the categories are kept in a file called categories.txt. This system uses the category number in sequence when assigning ad id numbers. So, once its running only ad new categories onto the end.

Keyword Search

You may search through the ads by keywords. The results of the search are ranked by relevancy.

Administrator Customization

Each web page displayed is really just a template that the administrator sets up. You can have a single template or a custom one for each function, such as search or place ad, etc.

Point the template to the home page for any function you don't want users access to.

HTML Extensions (templates)

In order to show data in the right spot, the templates use extensions to HTML as place holders for data such as: <!--%adnumber-->

This includes all form submission field names. So, form data can be displayed on the resulting web page right after submission.

Expiration Dates and Purging

The ads have expiration dates. The users may set their own expiration date. A purge function can be run interactively by the administrator or as a background cron job. The purge function can be run as a test (dry run) or for real. Also, purged ads can be moved to a purge directory or they can be deleted forever.

If using the purge directory, simply copying an ad back to the ads directory makes it appear again.

Ad Numbering

All ads are assigned a number. This system will uniquely assign up to 1 million ads before the numbers wrap around to 1 again.

On The Fly Pages

This system can generate all web pages required for normal operation on the fly using a single template. This function can be overridden on an individual function basis. So, if you wanted a static category page but left all the other pages generated on the fly, its easy to set up.

Automatic Email Monitoring

This system has the ability to automatically email the administrator when a new ad is created. This way you can monitor content.

Function List

Place New Ad (Display Form)
Place New Ad (Submit Form)
View Latest Ads From All Categories
View Ads In A Specific Category
Keyword Search (Display Form)
Keyword Search (Submit Form)
Edit An Ad (Display Form)
Edit An Ad (Submit Form)
List Categories
Display Main Menu
Approve Ads (Display Form)
Approve Ads (Submit Form)
Display Ads Requiring Approval 
Purge Ads
Purge Test
Renew Ad (Submit Form)