Script documentation

Here you can find useful documentation that we have created and keep updated all the time.

Script Installation Guide

If you do not feel very comfortable following the script installation guide, we can install it for you for free!

Installation instructions

1. Unzip the package into a folder on you local disk

2. Upload the folder to your server in the root folder, or any other subfolder, you will want to hold your application files. Do not forget to change the upload mode to BINARY instead of ASCII in your FTP client.

Database install

3. Run install.php - This file will ask you for administration information (admin username, password) and also for mysql database information (server host, username, password and database name).

4. You should see "Application installed! You should now remove the file install.php from your web directory." message on the screen. If errors appear, please review them, as the install file is noticing how to fix the errors. For example if directory rights cannot be changed by the script, you will be asked to change them manually. If the error occurs again, please report it to us using the below email address.

That's about it, enjoy!

Script Usage FAQ

Please read carefully the following before starting to configure the script. Reading and understanding the application will lead to the correct set-up of the application. Before starting to configure it for the final website appearance, we encourage you to test its functionalities in order to understand the way it works. If you somehow realize that you have set it up wrong, you can reconfigure it at anytime.

The application comes with an initial configuration (that is done by us in order to provide a starting point). You can continue configuring it, or reconfigure it from zero just the way you want.

Public Area usage guide

The Public Area is the script part that is accessible to every user connected to the Internet. It is the script front end. The Public Area looks and functions depending on the way the script was set up in the Admin Panel.

How is the Public Area organized?
What kind of pages can I have?
Can I change the way the Public Area looks? How do I do that?

Admin Panel usage guide

The admin panel is a secured area accessed only by a username and password. This is the place where the script can be set up to look and function the way you desire.

What is a Category?
What is a Product?
What is the Product Internal Code?
What is a Field Set?
What is a Field?
What is a Field Type?
What is Field Preview?
How can I add new pages and manage their content?
How can I customize the scripts look and feel?
How can I display the property location on a map?

How is the Public Area organized?

The Public Area is made up of:

• The Header (contains the logo and the page header graphics that you can customize and upload)

• The Main Menu (lies just under the Header. The Main Menu is customized by you and it contains links to the inner pages that you create in the Admin Panel)

• The Left Menu (contains the Quick Search engine, and the categories that the admin defined in the Admin Panel)

• Content Area (displays the content for each page. The pages content is also managed from the Admin Panel)

What kind of pages can I have?

You can have any kind of pages that you want. There are basically two types of pages:

• Pages where the entire content is defined by the admin in the Admin Panel (You can have as many pages you need. Each page will have a Main Menu link, so it can be accessed by the visitors). For example these pages can be: "Contact Us" page, "About Us" page, "Team Presentation" page, "News" page, or whatever other pages you might need.

• Automatic generated pages (pages that have the content automatically created from the properties database: "Properties Listings" pages, "Property Details" pages, "Featured Properties" page, "Last Added Properties" page.)

Can I change the way the Public Area looks? How do I do that?

Yes. You will be able to change the colors (text colors, menu colors, link colors, backgrounds colors), the logo and the header graphics. You should access the Admin Panel in order to change this. In this way you can customize the script to look the way you think is better for you business.

What is a Category?

The products that you want to list are grouped into categories. There is a tree structure (a hierarchical structure) that you should customize the way you want. On the first level - there is the "Root" category. The "Root" subcategories should be your most important categories (that you define).

A subcategory is a category that belongs to another already defined category. The subcategories are the categories children, while the categories are the subcategories parents. A subcategory can also contain its own subcategories.

You will be able to manage your categories: • add a new category

• delete a category

• edit the category name

• edit the category description (that will be displayed in the Public Area, on that category listing page, above the listing table)

• edit the category parent

• choose the Field Sets that define the products inside that category.

What is a Product?

The products are the items that you want to list on the web site i.e. in this case - properties. They can be houses, apartments, lands, farms, or any of the other items defined in your Categories section. Each product should be listed under an already defined category, and each product should be assigned an Internal Code (the Internal Code will only be seen in the Admin Area, and it is only ease of management).

To add a new product you should click the "Add New Product" link on the bottom of the "Products" page. For each new product you will have to fill in its "Product Details" that is required by the category.

The "Product Details" form contains the Field Sets (with their associated fields), and is generated based on the product's parents categories (so the form will contain all the Field Sets that are associated to all product's parents categories - considering the categories hierarchical structure).

The Field Sets associated to a product respect the category inheritance base on its hierarchical structure.

Lets consider the next categories hierarchical structure:

-For Sale
     -Townhouses
     -Family Residences
          -Single Family Residences
          -Multi Family Residences
     -Land
-For Rent
     -Commercial
     -Land

In this case, the product that belongs to the "Townhouses" category will be described using the Field Sets associated to "Townhouses" category and also the Field Sets associated to "For Sale" category. The product that belongs to "Single Family Residences" category will be described using the Field Sets associated to "Single Family Residence", "Family Residences" and "For Sale" categories.

What is the Product Internal Code?

The Product Internal Code is used for your products management and is not displayed on the public web site. You can set whatever code you desire in order to differentiate one product from the other. It can be a label, an ID number, a small description, etc.

What is a Field Set?

Field Sets are grouping the fields that are somehow related. For example the fields like: "Email", "Phone No.", "Fax No. ", "Address" can be grouped in "Contact Information" Field Set. Another example would be to group the "Lot size", "Cul-de-Sac", "Corner Lot", "Lot Picture" under the "Lot Features" Field Set. The products details are defined through these sets of fields (features) that you may attach to categories. A category can contain zero, one, two, or even more Field Sets.

You will be able to manage your Field Sets:

• add a new Field Set

• delete a Field Set

• edit the Field Set name

• edit the Field Set description (that will be not visible on the Public Area, its puropose is to ease your Field Set management jobs)

• define and manage the Fields that belong to the Field Set.

What is a Field?

A "Field" refers to a feature related to a product. It can be for example: number of room in the house, property photo, the year when the house was built, the price, the property address, the phone number to call, etc... More related fields are grouped in a Field Set. (For example the "Email", "Phone No.", "Fax No. ", "Address" fields can be grouped in "Contact Information" Field Set.

For every Field you should set:

• The field name

• The field description (not necessary to be filled in. As the field description is not visible on the public web site, it can only help you differentiate the fields better)

• The field type (see below for more comments)

• 'Is Table Field?' checkbox. If checked, that field with the associated data for every product will be present in the product listing tables. It is recommended that you check this only for the fields which are important and have little content (otherwise the listing tables are at risk to become very large as they display all the information for the selected fields.)

What is a Field Type?

There are different types of information that can be displayed within a field. When you want to insert images you will have to choose an "image" type field. For a description field you will have to choose "Text" type field, and so on. Type of fields are:

• Text (intended for texts with less than 256 characters)

• Text Area (intended for larger texts with multiple rows)

• Image (intended for the photos you want to post)

• Yes / No checkbox

• Email

• Link (intended for web address links)

What is Field Preview?

The Field Preview column helps you to see what are in the fields contained by the Field Sets inside a category. There you can also see the field types. Having them listed in this manner makes for better management. In the Field Preview column you can not add/edit any data. The fields are disabled as it is only a preview.

How can I add new pages and manage their content?

In the Admin Panel press the "Pages" tab. You will see a list of all the pages that there are already defined. On the right of each listing there are "Actions" buttons: Modify and Delete page. As you may have guessed, the Modify button will let you modify the content of that page. The Delete button will completely erase the page and it's content. On the bottom of the list there is a "Add a new page" link that lets you create a new page and insert content into it.

If you want your page to contain the last 10 added products, then add this label in the page content:

[latest_products:10]

If you want to list your 20 last added products, then use this label:

[latest_products:20]

and so on.

If you want a page to be the "Home" page, check the "Is Home" checkbox. Only one page can be the homepage for your script.

If you want to conceal a page, without deleting it for good, uncheck the "Is Active" checkbox. This way no user will be able to see it.

How can I customize the Public Area look and feel?

In the Admin Panel press the "Settings" tab. On that page you can change

• Some of the script texts

• The public pages colors (colors for texts, links, main menu, backgrounds, etc.)

• The pages header (the logo image, and the header right image)

How can I display the property location on a map?

In order to be able to show your visitors the properties location on a map, you will need to choose a mapping service like those offered free by maps.google.com or maps.yahoo.com. Configure your script so you have a "link" type field, that you should name something like "Map Location". Then for each property you should get a link (a link from the mapping service you choose e.g. a link from Google Maps can look like this: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8...&om=1). Fill in the "Map location" field with the property's area map location link that you get from the mapping service and submit it. The users will be able to see the link to the property area location.