drupal classified ads module
http://drupal.org/project/ed_classified 6.x-2.0-alpha6 on 6.14
Main function:
Adds a classified ads section.
Example function:
When you want to offer classified ads fucntionality to your site, where users can post ads.
Alternative:
There are no alternatives. Other modules that deal with ads are focused on banner and other commercial advertisements - not classified ads. A prominently displayed "ClassifiQ" classified ads solution is defunct. Yes, one alternative is to build such a module from scratch with CCK, views, etc., but you'll need to know what you're doing.
Multilingual capability:
Ok. It reacts nicely to string translations. But the vocabulary (category selection box headings and instructions appear to have an issue. They can be translated in the strings, but they don't display on the user page. [Date: 091111]
Manage:
Before starting out, it's probably best to read the documentation, including installation and setup instructions. Also, beforehand, devise at least an initial structure for your classified ads section, because this needs to be set up first.
I changed the name from "Classified Ad" to "Classified Ads", which also reflects in the admin items here:
- User management > Permissions
- under ed_classified module: set user permissions - Site configuration > Classified Ads
- gives you a warning to set up vocabulary terms (taxonomy) if you did not do so yet
- once terms are added to the Classified Ad Category, several options are available:
-- New ad default duration (days)
-- Expired ad deletion grace period
-- Body length limit for standard ads
-- Show contact link on classified ad posts (yes/no)
-- Show ad body in taxonomy lists (yes/no)
-- Use/alter classified ad create/edit form file attachment text (yes/no)
-- Set the duration of ads for each vocabulary (by category that was made in step1) - Content management > Content > Classified Ads
- Title, Created (date), Published (yes/no), Expires (date), Edit - Content management > Taxonomy > List
- for Classified Ad Category > Add term
-- add terms as needed, like: For sale, Wanted to buy, For rent, wanted to rent, cars, tv's , pets...
(actually my structure looks a bit different from this...) - Site building > Menus > Navigation
- contains a Classified Ad menu link (view ads)
- contains under Create content a Classified Ad link (add ads) - Site building > Blocks
- Enable available blocks
-- Classified Ad - Latest
-- Classified Ad - Popular (requires access log enabled)
-- Classified Ad - Stats
Issue: Privacy
The user profile tab My Classified Ads list is visible to users with View profile permission. Maybe that should not be the case. Not sure how to fix it. Similar issue mentioned in the module's pending patches, so this might be addressed at some time.
Problem: Block: Latest Classifieds - title tooltips show "n/a"
Strange I'm noticing this only a few days after starting testing. The title attribute tooltips show an "n/a", but only for the Latest Classified Ads block haven't tried the other blocks yet). Quite bad looking. Another issue to figure out. I had moved the ed_classifieds module from the subdomain location to the "all/modules/... directory, but can't imagine this to be related. Another round of testing and research... WIP Testing on a second site confirms the error.
Multilanguage issues:
Translating predefined blocks:
Since i18n 1.2 some issues of block translations are solved. The predefined blocks will now translate - if the custom "override" block title/heading is used. See also http://www.janroe.com/node/125
Translating the end-user interface:
- taxonomy terms translate ok according to i18n taxonomy translation.
- string translation of vocabularies and their help texts do not show in the end-user interface.
- I can't make a new .po file work, this may be due to my inexperience with it. However, the string translation does work nicely. Exception is the vocabularys. WIP
- disabling and renabling the module creates strings, but i think these were there before (translations not showing):
* Created string type:ed_classified:name for text group nodetype: Classified Ad
* Created string type:ed_classified:title for text group nodetype: Ad Title
* Created string type:ed_classified:body for text group nodetype: Ad Text
* Created string type:ed_classified:description for text group nodetype: Contains a title, a body, and an administrator-defined expiration date
Character count is inconsistent/wrong for Asian character set:
For translation to Thai, at actual displayed word count of 445 words, when saving the ad the over-limit warning comes up: You have more than 500 words. It appears there is more than one way to count these characters... Another one to solve.
Translation "Expires on"
The word "on" from "Expires on" [date]: can't be translated or removed. The word "Expires" is translatable as a string, without the word "on"; "on" does not appear as a translatable string, and remains regardless of language. Looking for it:
- found "Expires On" [in caps] in ed_classified.views_default.inc around line 63
- found "Expires On" [in caps] in ed_classified.views.inc around line 50
In the actual on-page text "on" is not capitalised. So, the removal of "On" [in caps] in the module's source (.views.) files did not change the on-page display.
Translation "Ad Text"
The translation of the text "Ad Text" does not display on the user interface for create/view/edit/translate. It can be found and translated with string translation, but it does not display on page (all other texts like "Ad Title" etc. have no issue).
Latest Classified Ads Block
The ads listed int eh latest classified ads block belong to various languages. The block does not split according to language. Also, these listings do not follow the proper lanaguage path, they remain inside the current language path also for the other language ads. Note: these are the so-called duplicate language paths that must not be followed, neither by users nor by search engines - users and search engines must stay within their designated language paths. If not, at least search engines will a) get lost in content that is not intended for them (or anyone) and b) find lots of duplicate content, which will penalise pages and possibly the web site.
The idiosyncracy of duplicate content for differnt languaga paths is inherent to the way Drupal handles languages - there's nothing to be done about it, until the system may be changed.
Now, this block has been online for a while, since it looked so good, until I realised what it was doing. I think the only way to get se's off these paths is to manually ad robot.txt entries to forbid them certain nodes. Lucky that the site is still in development, so it's not more than the total of all taxonomy terms and content nodes /2 languages, only half needs to be robot.txt'ed. Better get to work on this now - before more content is added.
Come to think of it, it would be great if there were a contributed module to take care of generating these robot.txt entries.
Stuck in front of the goal. Made this support request:
http://drupal.org/node/630638
Re: Taxonomy vocabularies, Character counts, "Expires on", "Ad Text".
Much thanks to the module authors, onw of whom reacted immediatly with the message that he would have a look at it over the weekend.