e-Personals Edition

Feature Summary

The following features are included with our e-Personals Edition:

Installation Wizard

• Our seven-step installation wizard guides you through the installation process with comprehensive web-based wizards for registering yourself as the administrator, creating your flagship affiliate web site, defining system variables, and performing various diagnostic tests. It even contains progress bars to track your progress and the status of your installation.
• Installation wizard automatically attempts to obtain certain system variables

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 one million 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.). The administrator can easily add more sections for even greater scalability.

User Interface and Layout

• Sophisticated interface that is intuitive and easy to use.
• Ten separate default personal ads database sections for Men Seeking Women, Women Seeking Men, Men Seeking Men, Women Seeking Women, Just Friends, Missed Connections, Activity Partners, Pen Pals, Alternative Lifestyles, and Other.
• Graphics included
• Administrator can change the general HTML layout for the various pages displayed by the program
• Front page display for each section contains links for each category and can optionally display the number of ads posted in that category next to its listing.
• Can optionally display the total number of ads in each section on the front page for that section.
• Auto-generation of listing of sections in the toolbar, which makes it easier to add new sections, since the HTML will be automatically updated.
• Sophisticated navigation bar includes navigation arrows and buttons below search results to help users quickly jump to different sections of their search results without having to keep hitting the “Next” button.
• Navigation bar at top of pages that indicates current section and category, with links to overall site home page and personals home.
• Includes “Go Back” buttons on certain pages, such as error message pages.
• Displays “New” text or graphic next to sections and categories in which new ads have been posted since this user’s last visit.
• “Tell Your Friends” option that allows users to e-mail their friends about your personals section right from an online form. It’s a great way to help build traffic to your site.
• Privacy Policy and Terms of Use pages.
• Sophisticated Help section that includes intuitive and context-sensitive popup Help windows. In many parts of the program, these windows will automatically display the help topic relevant to the action that the user is performing.

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 for each section.
• 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.
• Powerful database options that allow you to create your own unique personals sections or databases by simply editing a few variables. You can control the number and types of database fields, including the data types, names of these fields, the input formats (radio, checkbox, etc.), the output formats, display types, and many other criteria for each field.
• Template system allows you to easily customize the general layout of all pages generated by the program. The program also comes with eight default templates that you can choose from (you can see a few screenshots here), but you can easily customize these or create your own unique templates using standard HTML.
• The Template System allows the admin to create separate templates for each section and for each affiliate, including the (optional) ability of affiliate sites to create and modify their own templates online. The admin can also delete templates.

Fee-Based Features

• Flexibility to set up free or fee-based classified ads listings.
• Administrator has option of whether to use credit card billing or postal billing.
• An exclusive new Credit Check feature for optional fee-based classified ads systems. Unlike other programs that claim to be able to handle fee-based systems, Credit Check can accept credit card numbers, check them for validity, compare them against a list of stolen credit cards, and then include the credit card numbers in the registration notice that it sends to the administrator.
• Exclusive ability to handle real-time credit card processing through six different vendors, including Authorize.Net, E-Commerce Exchange, ATS Bank, iBill’s “TP Basic” account type, Plug’nPay, and Planet Payment (which allows customers from outside of the United States to use the Authorize.Net real-time credit card processing system, and which supports over 150 currencies). The system also supports Clickbank and most other vendors via an external form. The system can optionally create and require an access code, and it can optionally require a specific referring URL before it will create this access code. This allows you to earn money from your personals section each day without any manual processing of charges, as the ad fees are automatically deposited into your account.
• Ability for fee-based systems to store credit card information online. If this is done, the card numbers can be stored either in an unencrypted format (not recommended) or in an encrypted format where they are automatically decrypted on the fly whenever the administrator needs to see this information.
• Option of charging users for posting ads.
• Option of charging users for renewing ads.
• Option of charging users for viewing ads. This can be set up to allow users to view the “headlines” versions of the ads for free, but to require them to pay to see the full size ads, or it can be set up to charge them for viewing any ad information at all.
• Option of charging users for replying to ads.
• Support for charging different fees based on whether this is the first ad posted by this registered user, or a subsequent ad. This allows for discounts for multiple ads, and by allowing the administrator to set lower fees for additional ads, it discourages people from re-registering under a different username.
• Administrator can optionally charge for multimedia file uploads.
• Administrator can optionally charge users who subscribe to the Matchmaker feature.
• Administrator can optionally charge all users who register.
• Administrator can optionally charge users for including maps with their ads in certain sections.
• Priority ranking options that provide you the option of charging users extra who want to have their ads appear at the top of the search results. The prices, number of tiers, names of these options, and other options are completely customizable.
• Visibility options that provide you the option of charging users extra who want to have the visibility of their ads raised by having the ads placed in bold text, red text, or any other method that you choose. The number of tiers and visibility raising methods (bold, red, etc.) are completely customizable.
• Option to charge for ads based on the number of words contained in the ad.
• Option for admin to allow credit card payments or postal billing (via e-mail invoices) at the same time.
• Online variable for setting the credit cards to be accepted in a fee-based system.
• System automatically obtains the correct years to display in credit card forms.
• Ability to charge for posting or renewing ads in some sections and not others, and to charge different rates for different sections.
• Payments database and online reports.

Ad Display Options and Features

• One variable defines the section files, full names, and descriptions. The overall personals front page is automatically generated using these settings, which makes it easier to change or modify sections.
• 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, and the ability to charge different fees for ads posted for different lengths of time.
• Overall personals front page displays the number of ads in each section next to its listing.
• Option to turn off the counter on the front page of each section that displays the current number of ads in that section.
• Ability to automatically keep track of the total number of ads posted by users as they move from screen to screen, even if a purge has occurred after they logged on.
• Optional use of pre-defined values for Cities and States. Otherwise, users write in their own values.
• Ability for administrator to set the default method for displaying the ads (“full size” or “headlines”).
• Thumbnail photos displayed in the “headlines” format.
• 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. These options can be configured separately for each section.
• Administrator has option of whether to allow HTML in the ads.
• Display of expiration dates within ads displayed using the long format.
• Can display URLs and e-mail addresses as clickable links.
• Can display photos, sound files, and even video clips in ads.
• If the admin allows this, users can upload multiple photos to each ad.
• Users can modify or delete their multimedia uploads for their ads.
• Users can specify automatic generation of a map for their ads in certain sections.
• Ability to limit the number of words posted in each ad.
• Ability for administrator to set the maximum number of words that may be contained in certain fields (such as the “text” field that contains the body of the ad).
• Size of included text in ads can be controlled by the administrator.
• Support for uploads by users of multimedia files to their ads, including photos, sound, and video clips.
• 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, with options of viewing all ads posted by that user or using the power search form to search for a specific ad.
• Our exclusive Checklist feature allows users to mark certain ads for future viewing. When they come back in the future and click on “My Checklist”, the program will display all of their checklisted ads. We call this “the digital equivalent of circling ads in the newspaper.”
• Administrator can set maximum number of consecutive characters allowed in ads, thus preventing users from distorting the ad displays with really long strings of characters.
• Links to other ads posted by a particular user in either a particular section or in all sections.
• Counters within the ads for how many times the ad has been viewed and how many times the ad has been replied to.
• Alert Admin link from each ad so that users can alert the administrator about ads that are objectionable or otherwise may be in violation of system policies.
• Links within each ad for modifying or deleting the ad.
• Option for headlines display to have full text of ad displayed under the headline.
• Ability to scale thumbnails to maintain proportions of original graphic, and the option of having the program autoscale the thumbnails or allowing the admin to set the percentage in the e-Classifieds control panel.

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.

Matchmaker

• An exclusive new Matchmaker feature based on Auto-Notify that lets users set up their own personal search agent that will automatically e-mail them periodically with the new ads that match the database search criteria that they specified when they set up their agent. Their search criteria can include not only keywords, but also specific categories, features, or geographical locations, age ranges, date posted ranges, or any other database criteria. They can even choose to be notified only of new ads with photos, sound clips, and/or video clips.
• Users can choose how long their agent will last (from options defined by the admin) before it is automatically purged by the system.
• Users can set up as many search agents as they want for each section and throughout the personals.
• “Instant Matchmaker” option that causes the program to run the Matchmaker program for each new ad immediately after that ad is posted. Subscribers receive notification immediately after the ad has been posted.
• Admin can modify or delete users’ Matchmaker profiles from the web interface.

Private Messaging

• Ability for administrator to turn on or off the “personal inbox” feature throughout the personals. The Personal Inbox feature functions as a full-strength, private, and secure messaging center. When someone replies to an ad, the poster is notified that they have a reply and is given a URL where they can retrieve it. The e-mail address of the person who replied is not revealed. When the original poster retrieves the reply, he or she has the option of sending a reply back, again without revealing his or her e-mail address. That way, the parties can send messages back and forth through this system without revealing their e-mail addresses or other personal information until they feel comfortable in doing so.

Searching

• Optimized search engine for seven different types of searches: browsing, keyword searches, category searches, retrieval of a specific ad by its database ID number, retrieval of all of a specific user’s ads, retrieval of one specific ad for modification, and full database power searches.
• Powerful database searching capabilities that allow users to search for ads by many different fields and even by discrete ranges within fields, such as age ranges.
• Optionally can be set up to allow users to select more than one item for certain items during searches (such as city, etc.) using new OR logic.
• 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). The short results format tables allow users to re-sort their search results on the fly by clicking on the table headers.
• Alphabetical, numeric, or date sorting on any field, as well as reverse sorting, case sensitive, and exact match options.
• Contains a powerful sorting routine that is sophisticated enough to properly recognize various inputs that users may use (for example, it understands that $40k means $40,000).
• JavaScript popup calendar and buttons to activate this in the date range searching section of the Power Search Form.
• Users can decide how many ads are displayed on each search results page through a menu choice on the search form (administrator can set the default number).
• Users can decide how search results should be sorted through a menu choice on the search form (administrator can also set default).
• Global text search that can now span across multiple databases or personals sections.

User Registration

• Simple user name and password registration.
• Can optionally send an automatic e-mail reply to users who register for an account. The message welcomes them and gives them their username and password. This might also encourage users who register but don’t immediately post an ad to come back later and post their ad.
• Logs all user actions, including posting, modifying, or deleting ads.
• Ability to keep track of the number of ads posted by each registered user and to limit the total number of ads posted by an individual user.
• Includes dates in registration information and an update routine to the main program that updates the registration date when the person posts, modifies, or deletes an ad. That way, the administrator can purge old registration entries of people who haven’t been back in a long time if necessary (in order to improve system performance).
• Ability to purge old user registrations.
• “Forgot Your Username” routine e-mails usernames for a particular e-mail address to that address.
• Users who have forgotten their user name can search for it using their e-mail address.
• JavaScript popups alert users who have not filled in all required fields on the registration form.
• Users can optionally have the system remember their logon username and password during future sessions through the usage of cookies.
• Users can update their registration information at any time.
• Admin can modify or delete user registrations.
• Admin can optionally allow only registered users to access any portion of the personals program.
• Improved registration system that also automatically inserts the user’s contact information into the appropriate fields on the Post Ad form.

Additional User Posting and Searching Options

• An exclusive new Matchmaker feature that lets users set up their own personal search agent that will automatically e-mail them periodically with the new ads that match the database search criteria that they specified when they set up their agent. Their search criteria can include not only keywords, but also specific categories, features, or geographical locations, age ranges, date posted ranges, or any other database criteria.
• A Personal Inbox feature that allows users to post personal ads without having to reveal their e-mail addresses. Users respond to these ads through a form.
• Users can send an ad to a friend.
• Users who have forgotten their user name can search for it using their e-mail address.
• Users can search for ads by many different fields and even by discrete ranges within fields, such as age ranges.
• 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 have the option of searching only for ads with photos, sound clips, or video clips.
• Users who forget their passwords can search for them based on their username and have the password e-mailed to them.
• 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.
• Allows users to e-mail an ad to a friend.
• Admin can turn off all e-mailing by the program if necessary.

Anti-Spamming

• Includes Spam Guard, which allows the administrator to block specific users from posting ads based on their usernames or 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.
• Log files keep track of users whose ads were blocked for some reason, so that the administrator will know who is actually being blocked and can adjust these settings if necessary.

Additional Administrative Controls

• Administrative Control Panel allows administrator to manage virtually all aspects of the program through the web interface.
• Configuration utilities allow administrator to set all global system variables from the web interface. Popup help windows with additional information and recommended settings are available for every variable.
• Ability to define the administrator’s title and the name of this personals site.
• Administrator can specify the fields in each category that users must fill out when posting ads.
• 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.
• Includes global variables for listings of cities and states.
• Ability to strip out Server Side Includes (SSI) in user inputs.
• Ability for administrator to turn on or off the “personal inbox” feature throughout the personals. The Personal Inbox feature now functions as a full-strength, private, and secure messaging center. When someone replies to an ad, the poster is notified that they have a reply and is given a URL where they can retrieve it. The e-mail address of the person who replied is not revealed. When the original poster retrieves the reply, he or she has the option of sending a reply back, again without revealing his or her e-mail address. That way, the parties can send messages back and forth through this system without revealing their e-mail addresses or other personal information until they feel comfortable in doing so.
• Includes file-locking variable that can be set to use either the system’s flock command 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.
• Master On/Off switch allows the admin to temporarily turn the personals “off” during upgrades or maintenance.
• Allows admin to check permissions on all files and directories that need to be writable.
• Contains ability to create HTML pages for each ad, as well as a summary page for each section. This can help search engines find your classified ads, since they can’t normally find the material inside a database.
• Control Panel contains tests for the location of Sendmail (Unix only), as well as various system paths and directories, that can help you quickly and easily determine the correct values for these settings.
• Logoff option provides added security when you are administering the system from a remote computer, such as at an airport, because it prevents others from using your administrative login session to gain control of the system.
• Auto-generation of cron files with all extensions, paths, and other system references set automatically
• Ability to set the maximum number of characters that will be displayed for each field in the headlines format.
• Ability to set maximum number of characters that users can enter in each field when posting ads.
• Section Manager that includes an online wizard that makes it easy to create new top-level personals sections or databases (such as Senior Dating, Blind Dates, etc.), as well as the ability to modify or delete existing sections through an online interface. You will also be able to activate or deactivate sections with the click of a mouse, which can be useful if you want to temporarily deactivate a section while making changes to it or if you want to deactivate a section without necessarily deleting all of your old data.
• Administrative approval option for uploaded multimedia files. If this option is turned on, uploaded photos and other multimedia files will not be visible or included in users’ ads until they have been approved by the admin. The system also provides an online interface where the admin can approve, delete, or defer action on uploaded multimedia files awaiting administrative approval. The admin can also view the associated ad for each multimedia file.
• Online wizards for setting the Visibility options and the Priority Ranking options.
• Variable that allows the admin to specify the name of the records (“ad”, “personal”, “profile”, etc.).

Security

• Encryption based authentication for the administrator.
• Option to hide the “Administrator” link in the toolbar until a registered administrator has logged in.
• 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, when they register, and when old ads are purged.
• Allows the administrator to easily modify or delete any ad at any time from the web interface (you can also delete multiple ads at a time).
• 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.
• Backup routine that can be run from the Control Panel, through a cron job, or automatically using the built-in routines. This routine backs up the important data files, including the ads databases, the Auto-Notify profiles, and the user registration database. The admin can restore complete backup sets or individual files at any time. Old backups can be deleted manually or the system can be set to purge them automatically.
• DataGuard system that checks the important data files periodically and notifies the admin if there appears to be a problem with any of them.

Banner Ad Module

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

Affiliate Web Sites

• Ability to set up “affiliate” web sites that tie into your classified ads database, yet maintain the “look and feel” of their own web sites.
• Online Affiliates Manager allows the administrator to easily add, modify, or delete affiliate web sites online.
• Administrator has the option of allowing other web sites to sign up as affiliates online through a “Join Our Affiliate Program” link.

Internationalization

• Ability for administrator to modify the default time and date obtained from the program if the target audience is in a different time zone from where the server is located.
• Ability to set up country fields.
• Support for European date formats (DD/MM/YYYY).
• Support for multiple currencies.
• Multiple language support allows you to run the same installed version of the program in multiple languages (distributed version only; separate language modules are not included or available at this time, but the program can run in multiple languages if translated), while providing access to the same ads database.

Upgrades

• Free updates for one year from the date of purchase.

Which version should I choose: hosted or distributed?

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