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Battler45 / SierraMigrationToGitHub

Migration from unfuddle to GitHub
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Export to Craigs List Functionality #95

Open Battler45 opened 4 years ago

Battler45 commented 4 years ago

Vihar,

Along with the manually uploaded listings and the XML syndication (that George is working on), the last piece of new functionality we need to add for the HuffRealtyRentals.com site is the ability to export Featured Listings and Manually Uploaded Listings to CraigsList.org.

CraigsList.org is the largest classified advertising network in the US, and many of our clients (not just Huff) are eager to have the ability to export their listings to it -- this is also a feature that many of our competitors already offer.

CraigsList.org does not offer an API or a way to export directly to their platform. Instead, each post on CraigsList.org must be created manually by the user by hand, and so what we will provide for them is the ability to copy HTML generated for one of their listings by our system to their clipboard so that they can then paste this into the listing creation form on CraigsList.org to help them quickly and easily post the listing.

Here are links to a few listings that the client currently has on Craig's List:

(These are temporary postings and will eventually expire, and so I've also attached screen captures of these posts.)

The client is currently using a service called vFlyer.com to manage their manual listings and produce their Craigs List postings, and we basically want to emulate the functionality they have with vFlyer.com (the client plans to drop that service eventually, once our new site goes live).

Here is the login info for the client's vFlyer account:

Username - Huffrental@gmail.com Password - RockAndRoll20122013

Please log in there and play around to review the Craigs List posting functionality there, as that is what we will want to emulate. Actually, I just logged in and noticed that the client does not currently have any flyers created. So, please login using bpeskoe@yahoo.com / b3nb3n, which is a test account that I set up. There is one flyer there -- go to "Flyers" in top menu.

Once logged in, go to Edit Listing and scroll down -- you'll see a "Choose Theme" section. The themes in the select box are the ones that vFlyer has available by default for all clients, and we will want to do something similar, but we will only need 2-3 themes to start, rather than dozens.

If you click the "Preview" link, you'll see an example of what the flyer would look like when published to craigs list (at top left, change select box from Property Website to Craigslist Template).

If you then click yellow "Republish" button, you'll see the mechanism that vFlyer provides the user for exporting to Craigslist -- they have a text area which includes all of the necessary HTML for the listing flyer, with links below for "How to post to Craigslist", "Launch Craigslist," and "Copy HTML."

Those are the essential elements of what we will need to do for the client via the CAA, though our workflow and presentation will probably be fairly different.

Here are my initial thoughts & comments:

1 - In the CAA now, we have a "Listings (Manual Uploads)" navigation item which is specific to the manually uploaded listings functionality. Because our clients need to have the Craigslist posting ability for both manually uploaded listings and also their featured listings, I think we should change this navigation button to "Listings (Your Listings)". On mouseover, a drop-down menu would appear with the sections, "Manual Listings Manager" and "Featured Listings Manager".

2 - The links in the Manual Listings Manager would be the same the ones there now in the drop-down menu. The links in the Featured Listings Manager would be "Current Listings"

3 - In the Manual Listings Manager home page, we will add a link or button to use the Craigslist functionality for each listing (more on that later) -- I'm not sure if this should be a separate page, or a tab within the edit listing page, but I'm thinking either an overlay or a separate page, because we will want to re-use the same functionality for the Featured Listings.

4 - In the Featured Listings Manager home page, it will look basically like the current page here: http://client.sierrainteractivedev2.com/featured-listings.aspx (and will, in fact, replace that page). We are going to merge the three map-centered columns currently on that page into one column (more on that later) so that we have room to add a button for the export to Craigslist functionality.

I think this approach will make more sense to clients in general, because it will consolidate all of their listings in one place (manual and featured), and will allow us to build in more functionality around this topic (reports for sellers on their listing activity, etc.) as time goes on.

So, when you are ready, please take a look at the export to craigslist topic and begin thinking about the database-specific requirements (to host the templates, to host the associations between specific listings and specific templates, to keep track of the dates on which listings are exported to craigs list by users, etc.), and let me know what questions you have.

Thanks.

Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

Battler45 commented 4 years ago

Please place further comments on this ticket in Basecamp, here:

https://basecamp.com/1767592/projects/359352-123-export-to-craigs Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

Battler45 commented 4 years ago

Ben,

A couple of queries in creating listing-export page:

1 -- I wanted to know about the permissions to apply to this page. Will it be accessible to all users having edit access to manually-uploaded / featured-listings? Per the current implementation of manually-uploaded listing permissions - a Primary Manager or above can have full permissions. In case of Managers, there are three groups

a -- can have full permissions

b -- can have permissions to create and manage their own listings

c -- cannot have create permission but can be assigned certain listings which they can edit

Agents can also be assigned listings on which they will have edit permissions.

In case of featured-listings, any user with security-level of Manager or above can have access to the featured-listings and featured-listing-map-form pages.

2 -- The listing-export page will also show the HTML generated based on the listing data / selected template. Should this HTML be displayed in a text-area? I thought it may be a good idea to show it in TinyMCE editor so that the end-users can tweak the HTML as per their needs. Of course they won't be able to save the modifications but it might be useful in certain cases.

Pls let me know your thoughts.

Thanks. Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

Battler45 commented 4 years ago

Ben,

I've incorporated changes per your feedback in #12. Pls note that there was some issue with auto-generating html post title change. I've fixed the same so the preview should now correctly included the added / changed title.

Thanks. Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

Battler45 commented 4 years ago

Ben,

Thanks for the feedback. I'll create a new page as discussed above. I believe we'll need the following two new tables to support the export-listing functionality:

CAA_ExportTemplates

ID int
Name varchar(50)
Content varchar(max)
Site_ID int - can be null (for global templates) or can have id of the site

CAA_MLSExportTemplates

MLS_ID int
ExportTemplate_ID int
Title varhcar(255)
DateLastExported smalldatetime

I understand that for now we'll add records to these tables manually. The template-contents (Content field) will have place-holders for title, and other sections. Those place-holders would be replaced with appropriate listing values. In addition, if a template contains style-specific place-holders (e.g. MainTextColor, ReversedTextColor etc...) then those would be replaced with appropriate values from the MLSSitesCSS table. And, of course, if the listing being exported has one or more photos associated with it then those would be appended at the end.

A couple of queries:

1 -- about adding interface to set template and site association - I believe this will need to be handled in the "add / edit template" page as and when it is created. For now, it would be fine to do this manually from back-end.

2 -- will photos always be included? Or do we need to support templates that may not include photos?

Thanks.

Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

Battler45 commented 4 years ago

Vihar,

1 - Yes, you are correct. If "Include First Photo Only" option is selected, then the photo gallery would not be included in the page -- the first photo would be included to the left of the property description, but that is all. I do agree that your suggested change in wording would be better -- let's go with an "Include Photo Gallery" label with radio button options for Yes and No, with Yes being the default selection.

2 - Yes, that's correct. However, we do want to specify a max-width on these photos of 600px when displayed.

3 - Regarding the placeholders, I believe we do need a few more:

4 - The BEDROOMS value should take into account BedsStudio and BedsLoft from MLS table. When Loft is true, BEDS value should be, for example, "4 + Loft". When Studio is true, Beds value should be "Studio" (replacing any other Beds value).

5 - The BATHROOMS value should take into account both BathsFull and BathsHalf as in, for example, "3 Full / 2 Half". If only Baths value is present for a listing and both BathsFull and BathsHalf are NULL or 0, then the value would be displayed as "3" (without indication of Full or Half).

6 - The Listing Agent Name & Listing Office Name would both (most likely) not be displayed in the Craigslist post. Because client will only have the ability to generate these posts for their own featured listings, the MLS Listing Agent & Listing Office would not be required to be displayed.

Thanks.

Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)