Previously, in either hosting company, the Geo software worked “out of the box” with concern to the IonCube/Zend Optimizer minimum requirement, as both worked using the “Ioncube Run-Time Loading” option.

Now both hosting companies are in the process of upgrading their servers to PHP 5.2.5, which does not work with IonCube Run-Time Loading. (More info posted in the user forums) This means that when the server you are on is updated, it may make the Geo installation stop working. The good news is that you can get it working without too much trouble, by following these steps:

GoDaddy Hosting Instructions:
(thanks to RonDawes)

1. Download the IonCube loader specific to your server. For convenience, we’ve created a package for GoDaddy users with only the loader files you will need, you can download it from here.
2. Un-Zip the loader package you just downloaded, and upload the entire ioncube/ directory using BINARY MODE to your home directory using FTP.
3. If there is not one already, create a file named php5.ini in your home directory. This should be the top level directory you can access using FTP. (this is also where you should have uploaded the ioncube/ directory to in step 2) You should now see the file php5.ini and a directory ioncube/ when you FTP to the home directory on your server.
4. Edit the file you just created, and add this line:
   zend_extension = /home/content/m/y/w/mywebsite/html/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so
5. In the line you just added, you will need to change it to match your site. If your domain name is “www.example.com” then you would change it to be “/home/content/e/x/a/example/html/ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so”. If you are having trouble, you can also find what the path is, by logging into our client area and looking at the license details. The license details will have the path that the Geo software is installed in, you will not use the whole path, but the first part will be the same (for instance, the Geo software may be installed in a sub-directory of your home directory).
6. Save the changes and upload the php5.ini file. Now access your site and see if it is working. If it is still not working, you may need to adjust the path as described in step 5, if you are having trouble with that contact GoDaddy support and they will be able to tell you what your home directory is. (Note that Geo support will not have access to that information, only your host will be able to tell you what your home directory path is)

1&1 Hosting Instructions:
(Only needed if running in PHP 5 mode, which on 1&1 requires a custom line in the .htaccess file)

1. Download the IonCube loaders that are specific to your server. For convenience, we’ve created a package for 1&1 users with only the loader files you will need for PHP 5, you can download it from here.
2. Un-Zip the loader package you just downloaded, and upload the entire ioncube/ directory using BINARY MODE to the same directory that the Geo software is installed. There will probably already be a directory with that name, you will over-write all the contents of that directory to ensure you have the latest version of the IonCube loader.
3. If there is not one already, create a file named php.ini in the Geo installation’s directory. It should be in the same directory as the config.php file for the Geo software installation, and the same directory you uploaded the ioncube/ directory to.
4. Edit the php.ini file you just created, and add the line below:
   zend_extension = /ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/GEO/INSTALLATION/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so
5. In the line you just edited, replace “/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/GEO/INSTALLATION/” with the correct path. The path will probably match the directory as it is set on your license information, so if you log into the Geo client area and view your license key information, it will tell you.
6. Save the changes and upload the php.ini file. Now access your site and see if it is working. If it is still not working, you may need to adjust the path as described in step 5, if you are having trouble with that contact 1&1 support and they will be able to tell you what your home directory is. (Note that Geo support can look up your installation path as long as you have already successfully installed the software so that your installation information is on file, but you can imagine that our response time in the helpdesk will be long due to everyone needing help, so please be patient.)
7. Once you have the client side working, upload the php.ini file to your admin/ directory as well. In the future, when you run a Geo software update, you will need to upload the php.ini file to the upgrade/ directory so that the minimum requirements page does not fail.

Other Hosting Companies:

If you are not using GoDaddy Hosting or 1&1 Hosting, but your site suddenly stops working, you are also probably one of many victims of an upgrade to PHP 5.2.5. Refer to this post for information on steps you can try in order to get your site working. There are general steps we suggest, and people in the Geo community have also been posting the steps that worked for their host, so more than likely you will find something that works somewhere in that thread. The post is in a client-only area of the forums, if you need forum access to view the post, register a new user and send an e-mail to support@geodesicsolutions.com with the forum username, and we will activate the user for you (Geodesic clients only).

We have been hard at work and are getting somewhat close to a release of version 4.0 which is going to be the first Major release of this year. Below are some details with new minimum requirements. The new minimum requirements are very important so please take the time to read. We can’t wait for this release as it will put us in a great position for future growth.

Version 4.0 Details (requires forum user account)

Best,

All of the Geo Staff

The GeoSales Team

I am happy to announce that the latest new feature release of our software, version 3.1, is now available. This has been a very important release due to the complexity of some of the coding that was done. This version places the software in a better position for growth which we plan to take full advantage. Details of this release are given below…

RELEASE DETAILS

Thanks!!!

Brian Warburton
Operations Manager

I wanted to post a quick announcement here concerning our recent downtime starting June 26, 2007 and ending June 27, 2007. It appears we are not immune to server side problems as we had a fairly large hardware failure on one of them. This pretty much shut us down for the last 18 hours but we are rapidly getting everything back in order. Phew!!!

We all apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. Additionally, we are a day and a half behind on support requests and sales inquiries so please give us a little time to catch up. It should not take us too long to be completely functional and on track. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Best,
Brian Warburton
Operations Manager

I am so excited to announce that we have finished the release of version 3.0 for all commercial Editions of our software. We are going to be re-creating the Lite products as well but the biggest hurdle was to finish our commercial line. Below are some of the highlights and please contact our Sales Team (sales@geodesicsolutions.com) for more information if you are interested.

• Installation / Upgrade Wizard for seamless updates (All Editions)
• Complete HTML Template Control added to Basic and Premier Editions
• New Payment Gateway Options to Basic and Premier Editions
• New Admin Panel for Basic and Premier Editions
• Ability to purchase Addons (formerly Enterprise only features) for Basic and Premier Editions
• New Addon Infrastructure added for 3rd Party Applications (All Editions)
• New SMTP Integration for Email Processing (All Editions)
• New Client Area on Geodesic Solutions site for managing your Licenses and Orders (All Editions)
• New WYSIWYG Editor (HTML Editor) in Admin Panel for managing text and templates (All Editions)
• Re-formatted Templates, Modules and PHP-Generated HTML to be W3C Compliant (All Editions)
• Improved Email Notification process for Expiring Listings (All Editions)
• User Group specific “My Account” home page (Enterprise Edition)
• Improved Security (All Editions)
• New Security Controls (Enterprise Edition
• Improved IP Banning (Enterprise Edition)
• New Admin Password Reset Tool
• Category Specific “Listing Extra Fees” (Enterprise Edition)
• New Beta Switch Section to Admin Panel for preview and use of features to come (Enterprise Edition)
• Improved SEO through bot handling

If you have an active support and updates contract and are not able to access the new client area to get this version please contact Sales. If you have let your support and updates expire and have not renewed please also contact Sales as we can square you away with access to these new versions.

You can also get more information regarding this release in our user forum where a complete change log was posted and direct discussions with development have been held.

Thanks as always

Brian Warburton
Operations Manager
www.geodesicsolutions.com

Our original intent behind the development of the software…

When the software was originally written, the intention was to create the most feature rich classified and auction applications in the market. Additionally, we wanted to leave the code open or unencrypted to allow for client side development. This ultimately would either provide, for our clients, a great piece of software “out of the box” or a large jump forward to achieving the functionality desired. At that time, php was relatively in its infancy along with the tools associated with php development therefore limiting the scope of the software. This has drastically changed over the last few years forcing us to change as well. While the intentions of the development are the same, we soon were left with a choice to make with respect to the code architecture and its extensibility. So now what??

Today’s intent behind the development of the software…

When faced with this decision, we chose to devote the last half of this year rewriting the software. This re-factoring has taken place in the ClassAuctions code set. As mentioned previously, due to the lack of tools available, infancy of our company, and the platforms we were using, we created the software editions (Enterprise, Premier, Basic, and Lite) as independent code sets. At the time, it was thought that this was the only way to offer different product levels while still offering an available source code set. This is no longer necessary. So, we are re-factoring the code at the ClassAuctions Enterprise level and going to re-create the remaining products and editions from this single code set while adding a new licensing system that will control it all.

You may be saying now “Sounds great for you but what does that do for me as an end user?”. Well, it is going to offer many advantages. The biggest advantage to you is going to be a dramatic increase in development efficiency. We will be able to rapidly improve the code and add new features as one edit will improve all products and editions. Additionally, with respect to improving the organization of the code, you will see advantages like, performance, modularization, security, separation of display and function, etc… External developers will be able to more easily extend our software to meet needs that aren’t met in the “out of the box” feature set. Our intention in the future is to continue with this development so to ultimately and continually offer a product that is superior at every level.

What about a timeframe???

We have recently released what we hope to be our final beta release of the ClassAuctions Enterprise software. This being true, we will release 3.0.0 RC1 following the successful evaluation of the current beta release. Soon after this, we will release a 3.0.0 RC1 version for all software. Once the release is complete for all products we will be off to the races as we have a fairly large development team chomping at the bit to apply their creative skills to the code. It is going to be good times and I am so excited for next year.

Thanks as always

Brian Warburton
Operations Manager
www.geodesicsolutions.com

Brian Warburton
Operations Manager
Geodesic Solutions