Noah's Classifieds has a very intuitive interface, so most of its features don't require further explanation. This is especially true for the interface it provides for the advertisers and other visitors. However, there are some elements of the administrator's interface that we consider worthwhile to write some words about it, because they are tricky, or simply not usual in other similar applications. This faq is written for the administrators of Noah's Classifieds to help them customize the lookout, create the necessary ad categories, specify the variable fields for the ads, and customize some other important elements of the program behavior. If you don't find an answer for your question in this FAQ, try to have a look in the following forum: http://www.noahsclassifieds.tk Ok, I have successfully installed the program. What should I do now and in which order? How can I customize the lookout of the program? Is it possible to bring in my own design? How can I replace the "NOAH'S CLASSIFIEDS" banner? How can I define custom header and footer, and hide menu points that I don't want to show? How can I change the colors and font styles? How can I create a new layout template? How can I create, modify and delete categories and subcategories? How can I define the category specific variable fields for the ads? What are the known limitations of variable fields management? I can't change the type of a variable field. Why? I have a lot of subcategories under one of my main ones, and all of them has actually the same fields (or just a little different ones). Do I have to define the variable fields in each of the subcategories? What does 'Allow to keep private' means in the variable fields wizard? What does 'A new ad appears immediately' means in the 'Settings' form? When I use the password reminder feature, I got the following warning: 'Undefined property: active' When I want to upload a picture, I got the following warnings: fopen("pictures/listings/21.gif", "w") - Permission denied fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid File-Handle resource fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid File-Handle resource When I try to view, or upload a picture, I got the following errors: Use of undefined constant gif - assumed 'gif' Use of undefined constant IMG_GIF - assumed 'IMG_GIF' Fatal error: Call to undefined function: imagetypes() My registered and logged in users can't modify and delete their ads. Why? Some of the categories are not displayed in the drop down list of the Search form. Why? How can I increase the number of variable fields? 10 is not enough! How can I change the language of the program? How can I delete a user? I can't find any possibility. I get a 'Warning: Cannot modify header information'. What does this mean? The ad counters are wrong. They display negative numbers. What should I do? The user authentication doesn't work. I can't log in, can't register. I am running MySql 4.x. What is wrong? The The quality of the thumbnails of the uploaded pictures is very poor? How can I improve it? Q: Ok, I have successfully installed the program. What should I do now and in which order? A: If you have just installed the program, you are logged in as admin, and you can see the four main demo categories. They are intended to give you a first impression about the system. Later they should be deleted and replaced with your real, desired categories. The suggested order of the main steps of program customization is the following: Customize the lookout of the program. Replace the demo categories with your desired categories. Create subcategories and define the variable fields per category, so that they perfectly serve your needs. Make the program available on your site for your visitors. You can reverse the order of point 1. and point 2. Q: How can I customize the lookout of the program? Is it possible to bring in my own design? A: Yes, it is. The customization has different levels according to how deep you want to change the existing layout. The higher the level, the more advanced it is: Replacing the "NOAH'S CLASSIFIEDS" banner, Defining custom header and footer, and hiding menu points, Changing the colors and font styles, Creating a new layout template. First of all, we would like to emphasize that all the above steps are optional. If you are satisfied with the existing design of the program, you needn't do anything. Q: How can I replace the "NOAH'S CLASSIFIEDS" banner? A: There is a directory called 'i' under the application directory. You can find there the images, the program interface uses. You can replace any of them with your own image. The banner image is called 'headpic.gif'. Q: How can I define custom header and footer, and hide menu points that I don't want to show? A: Click on 'Settings'! You can find there three fields (besides others): 'Head template', 'Top template' and 'Bottom template' and several checkboxes to hide/show menupoints. In 'Head template', you can write a html code, that you want to be included in the head-section of the program pages. This is typically a title tag, or meta tags, but you can even include here additional style sheets, or specify JavaScript code. In 'Top template', you can either write html code, or a single php file name. If you write there a html code, that code will be included in the page source right after the head-section, and before the application content itself starts. You can create this way an additional banner above the "NOAH'S CLASSIFIEDS" banner. If you write there a single php file name, e.g. header.php, that php file will be included, before the application echoes its content. This allows you to extend the program with additional dynamic possibilities. It works only if that php file really exists in the classifieds application directory. 'Bottom template' works the same as 'Top template' except that it does whatever it has to do after the application script has completed. Q: How can I change the colors and font styles? A: All the font colors and styles, table backgrounds and some other element of the program layout are defined in a separate style sheet called 'style.css', which you can find in the application directory. You can modify there whatever you dare. Q: How can I create a new layout template? A: If not even the above possibilities have brought the desired result and you are experienced in php programming, you can experiment with even more dramatic changes. The application uses a single php file called 'template.php' for creating the html page layout. The program is designed so that you can easily replace this file with an other one - template1.php, or template2.php, and so on. There is right now a template1.php under the application directory, that you can activate the following way. Open 'constants.php' and locate the line //$otherTemplate=1; Remove the comment markers and the program will take template1.php instead of template.php. template1.php realizes a more simplified layout, and also contains further instructions on how to create your own template file. Q: How can I create, modify and delete categories and subcategories? A: In Noah's Classifieds, you can manage an unlimited hierarchy of categories and subcategories. If you are on the home page of the application, you can see the main categories and a menu point 'Create new category', with which you can create a new main category. You can browse into a category, if you click on its name. This way, you will find yourself under that category, and you can see the subcategories of that category (if it has any) and the list of ads in that category (if 'Allow ads' was checked in during the category creation). If you are in a category, you can see three menu points 'Create new category', 'Modify category' and 'Delete category'. With 'Create new category', you can create a new subcategory under the main one where you are. With 'Modify category' and 'Delete category', you can modify, or delete the main one, respectively. If you delete a category, every ads of that category, every subcategories, and every ads in the subcategories will be automatically deleted. Q: How can I define the category specific variable fields for the ads? A: You can define the variable fields of the ads in a category if you go in that category and click 'Variable fields' in the header of the ad list, You can define different variable fields for each category even for the subcategories, The variable fields wizard has two steps: In the first form, you must specify which of the 10 columns should be active, specify the names and the types of the columns, If you click 'Ok' you will be forwarded on the second form: there you can specify the details for that columns you have set to active in the first form. The details you can set here are different by type. We set up already different variable fields for our demo categories, so that you can see and test it easier. E.g. In 'Cars', there are 'Consumption', 'Broken', and 'Price', in 'Hardware', there are 'Type', and 'Price', etc. There are three non-variable fields that you can't change: the 'Title', 'Creation time', and 'Days left until expiration'. However, you can define if 'Creation time' and 'Days left until expiration' should appear in the list, or not. Q: What are the known limitations of variable fields management? A: You can count with the following limitations in the current version of Noah's Classifieds: You can define only 10 variable fields (but you have the possibility to increase this value in 'constants.php' BEFORE the installation!), You can't change the order of the variable fields, You can change the type of a variable field only in a limited way, in order to avoid type mismatches. If the given category has already ads the admin can't change the type of such a field that had been ever set to active (since this is just the operation that could lead to the type mismatches with the existing values). However, he can furthermore change the type of such a field that he haven't activated yet, or he can change the types of every fields in a category that hasn't got any ads yet. Q: I can't change the type of a variable field. Why? A: See, the previous point! Q: I have a lot of subcategories under one of my main ones, and all of them has actually the same fields (or just a little different ones). Do I have to define the variable fields in each of the subcategories? A: No, you can save some boring work there. The program is written so that the subcategory "inherits" the varfields of its main category during the subcategory creation. This means, if you specify x, y, z varfields for the main category, and AFTER that create a subcategory of that main category, it will per default include the x, y, z varfields. So you don't have to copy them into the subcategory. Note: after the creation of the subcatogory, however, the varfields of the main- and its subcategory will live already separate lives: if you create one more field in the main category - say 'w' - it won't appear automatically in the subcategory. So the reasonable order of building the category structure is the following: Create a main category Think over thoroughly what its varfields should be and define all of them Create the subcategories (they will automatically contain the varfields of the father) Define also the specific varfields in the subcategories. Q: What does 'Allow to keep private' means in the variable fields wizard? A: If you check this box in at a variable field 'A', it has the following result: if someone creates a new ad under this category, he can see a '(private)' marker after the label of A, and he can also see an additional field in the create form called 'Hide the private fields'. If he checks in 'Hide the private fields', the field A (and all the other fields marked with '(private)') will be invisible for the normal users. However, admin can view even the private fields. This way, admin can separate the information about an ad that is important for him, but that is not for public interest. Q: What does 'A new ad appears immediately' means in the 'Settings' form? A: If this box is checked in, the ads the users submit appear immediately, without any moderation. If you check it out, the ads won't appear immediately, but will be put in a pending list, where you can view them and decide if you approve, or reject them. In this case, admin has two additional menu points 'Approved ads' and 'Pending ads'. If you fill 'Admin email' correctly, you will also get an email notification about the new ads the users submit. Q: When I use the password reminder feature, I got the following warning: 'Undefined property: active' A: This is a bug in the 1.0 version. Update to the latest version! Q: When I want to upload a picture, I got the following warnings: fopen("pictures/listings/21.gif", "w") - Permission denied fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid File-Handle resource fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid File-Handle resource A: The problem is that the application has no write permission under 'pictures/listings'. Noah's Classifieds tries to save the advertisement pictures under 'pictures/listings' and the category pics under 'pictures/cats'. So, you should go in 'pictures' and execute the following Unix command: chmod 777 listings cats Q: When I try to view, or upload a picture, I got the following errors: Use of undefined constant gif - assumed 'gif' Use of undefined constant IMG_GIF - assumed 'IMG_GIF' Fatal error: Call to undefined function: imagetypes() A: This is a bug in the 1.0 version. Update to the latest version! Q: My registered and logged in users can't modify and delete their ads. Why? A: This is a bug in the 1.0 version. Update to the latest version! Q: Some of the categories are not displayed in the drop down list of the Search form. Why? A: Only those categories are displayed there that have at least one advertisement. Q: How can I increase the number of variable fields? 10 is not enough! A: You can do this only BEFORE the installation! Open 'constants.php' in the application directory and locate the variable $variableFieldsNum! Rewrite its value, save the file and install the program! Q: How can I change the language of the program? A: Open 'constants.php' in the application directory. You can find there instructions and the currently available list of language versions. If you don't find your language amongst, email us - we may have it already, or we provide instructions of how to make your own translation. Q: How can I delete a user? I can't find any possibility. A: Update to the latest version. It is supported from version 1.3 and up. Q: I get a 'Warning: Cannot modify header information'. What does this mean? A: If you get the following warning: Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at file_name.php:297) it means that you have probably modified file_name.php and you left an empty line after the trailing '?>' sign of the file. Some stupid text editors write empty lines after the end of the file automatically! Delete every white spaces after the '?>' tag and the program will work again. Q: The ad counters are wrong. They display negative numbers. What should I do? A: This is a known bug in version 1.2. Update the program to the latest version. Q: The user authentication doesn't work. I can't log in, can't register. I am running MySql 4.x. What is wrong? A: The version 1.3 you can download from this site is now compatible with both Php5 and MySql5. If you have an older installation and your server provider updates the server from Php4 or MySql4, you should simply download this version and replace all the .php files of the program with the new ones (maybe except 'template.php' if you previously made some customizations in it!). Q: The The quality of the thumbnails of the uploaded pictures is very poor? How can I improve it? A: Open 'advertisement.php' in a text editor and search for two lines which look rougly like this: $dst_im = ImageCreate ($newWidth, $newHeight); imagecopy ($dst_im, $src_im, 0, 0, 0, 0,... Rewrite them so that you replace 'ImageCreate' with 'ImageCreateTrueColor' and 'imagecopy' with 'imagecopyresampled'. This won't change the quality of the already uploaded picture, but will help at improving the pictures you upload afterwards.