[Support Center] Most Popular Articles

Am I required to leave the Geodesic Solutions "powered by" logo on my site?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:12:14 GMT

Problem:

Am I required to insert the Geodesic Solutions "powered by" logo on my site?

Solution:

No. Although we do appreciate our customers who insert the "powered by" logo on their sites we DO NOT require you do so. Many of our competitors require you to leave their logo on your site, and actually have the nerve to charge you extra for the ability to remove it.

In fact, with our default template(s), you will not even find a "powered by" reference to our company, accept with the Lite version.

Do you offer upgrades for your software from one version to another? What is the cost?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:13:31 GMT

Problem:

Do you offer upgrades for your software from one version to another? What is the cost?

Solution:

Absolutely. We offer upgrades on all of our software versions. The cost is simply the difference in the price of the two versions, plus $50.Â If it is still within the first 30 days after your initial purchase, we will even wave the $50, so that all you pay is the difference between the two versions.

What are the minimum server/software requirements for the software?

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:20:13 GMT

Problem:

What are the minimum server/software requirements for the software?

Solution:

Refer to this page of the support wiki for our requirements:

http://geodesicsolutions.com/support/wiki/server_requirements/start

What do I get with your installation service? Why is it needed?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:11:24 GMT

Problem:

What do I get with your installation service? Why is it needed?

Solution:

Our installation service is completely optional for you. Some people would rather us install the software on their server for them rather than having to bother with it themselves. They'd rather "hit the ground running". Installation is rather easy if you have ever installed PHP/MySQL software onto a server before. Simply follow the guidelines we send to you with the software and you should have no problems.

One thing to consider is that installing software on a server is a little different than installing software on your PC. More information on our installation services can be found here:

Installation Services

How do you deliver the software after I order?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:09:39 GMT

Problem:

How do you deliver the software after I order?

Solution:

All software is deliverable directly through your 'client area'. The reason for this is that our software is constantly changing as we are adding new features on a continual basis. We want you to always have the latest version of your software and this would not be possible if we were to send you a hard copy on cd.

Most versions of our software are "direct download", meaning as soon as you enter your credit card information (or Paypal information) those merchants send a signal back to us stating an approval of your purchase. We then send an email to you with a special code that will allow you to download our software.

Do you encrypt your source code?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:11:59 GMT

Problem:

Do you encrypt your source code?

Solution:

No, we currently provide the source code without encryption. If you are planning to make modifications to the source code, please contact us for prior approval and instructions on how to receive and implement future updates that we periodically send out.

NOTE: There are a couple of php files that are encrypted. These files control the software's license key, but have no bearing on your ability to customize the software with your own feature enhancements.

Do you offer hosting? Do you recommend any hosting companies?

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:56:10 GMT

Problem:

Do you offer hosting? Do you recommend any hosting companies?

Solution:

We do not currently offer hosting. Our core competency is in programming and software development and until we have the resources available to offer a premium hosting service we prefer to simply recommend hosting companies that we have had good experiences with.

Below is a link to resources that we think might be helpful when considering our software. Among these resources is a list of hosting companies that we currently recommend.

Click Here For Our Resources Page

Do you offer phone support?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:10:53 GMT

Problem:

Do you offer phone support?

Solution:

Because our support services are free we do not have the ability to offer phone consultations. However, if need be we will initiate a phone consultation when the standard support methods are not proving effective.

What types of support do you offer for your products?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:10:37 GMT

Problem:

What types of support do you offer for your products?

Solution:

We provide FREE email/ticket support with all of our software. We have a team of support engineers to handle support related questions. Our standard protocol is to answer all emails no later than one business day. If you send a support email during normal business hours, we will make every effort to answer it before the end of the business day.

Do I have to be a programmer or know PHP to operate the software?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:12:49 GMT

Problem:

I am not familiar with PHP. Do I have to be a programmer or know PHP to operate the software?

Solution:

No. Not at all. PHP is simply the language we chose to program our software. HTML knowledge is helpful but still not required. We do however currently offer access to the PHP source code if you are familiar with PHP/MySQL and would like to get into the code.

How are software updates handled?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:11:09 GMT

Problem:

How are software updates handled?

Solution:

We are constantly working on improving our software and regularly update the version levels of our software once the improvements are complete and at a release state. We also make some updates available upon request prior to any version updates in an attempt to make new features available without the client having to wait for a complete version update.

We also write the update file for the database in such a way that when executed no changes are made to the database unless they are needed. This prevents any problems from occurring related to executing the update file more than once.

All updates are 100% FREE for one year from your purchase date. This means any features that we add to the your product for one full year after your purchase, you will receive for free.

To receive your updates, simply log in to your 'client area' and download the latest available version.

Is the software compatible with Windows and/or Unix based operating systems?

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:56:01 GMT

Problem:

Is the software compatible with Windows and/or Unix based operating systems?

Solution:

The software is compatible with both Windows and Unix based operating systems. However, the software is meant to be run on an internet server and not a local pc. In addition, some hosting companies that offer Windows based hosting do not offer support for software that is written in PHP.

How does the affiliate system work?

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:46:32 GMT

Problem:

How does the affiliate system work in the Enteprise products?

THIS FEATURE WAS REMOVED FROM THE SOFTWARE WITH V5. THE STOREFRONT FEATURE REPLACED IT AND PROVIDES MUCH MORE FLEXIBILITY FOR THE CLIENT

Solution:

You can grant affiliate privileges on a group by group basis. The affiliate privileges allows the affiliate a backdoor link to the classifieds/auctions software that will only display that affiliates(sellers) ads/auctions. The page templates and ad/auction display templates used within this back door section will be determined within the group administration for the specific user group that user belongs to. You can also allow the affiliate/seller the ability to place their own html within the affiliate backdoor template. The affiliate/seller has an "affiliate html" textbox within the affiliate/seller's client side user information edit form. Any html entered into this box and saved by the affiliate/seller will be placed within the affiliate side templates where you place the "" tag within that template.

The affiliate/seller side does not use the category navigation. The ads/auctions are displayed from newest to oldest and spill onto a secondary navigation page if necessary.

If the user has affiliate privileges an affiliate link will appear automatically
within the personal information section of the client side admin (only
viewable if the user is logged in).

The user can use the affiliate link provided within their personal information page as a link from their own site or any site on the web directly to their affiliate section displaying only their ads.

No external links (lead out of the affiliate section) are created within the dynamic part of the content. You can however determine your own links within the page and ad display template that could possibly link to your mainstream site or other sites on a group by group basis. No affiliate stats are currently generated.

Each user group (with affiliate privileges) can have their own set of "affiliate-side" page and ad/auction display templates...or you can set all groups to the same templates.

The following templates can be determined for each group for use within the affiliate site:
Affiliate Home template - page template viewed when the affiliate link is used. Essentially the template used on the "home" page for affiliate section. When the affiliate link is used this is the page that the system "defaults" to. Together with all the most recent ads. If there are more ads/auctions than can be displayed on this page a link to the secondary page will be displayed. You can place the "" tag within this template.

Secondary Template - page template for subsequent page results beyond the affiliate home template. If there are more ads/auctions than can be displayed on the affiliate "home" page a link will be generated to this page...and to any subsequent pages if necessary. You can place the "" tag within this template.

Ad display template - body detail of the ad display.

Ad display extra question template - controls display of category specific extra question values attached to each ad.

Ad display checkbox template - controls display of category specific checkbox question values attached to each ad Each template can have a different template for each language attached to the site.

The below article in the forum has additional information with image representation.

http://www.geodesicsolutions.com/products/user_forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=786

How do I backup and restore my database?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:13:59 GMT

Problem:

What is the best way to perform a backup of my database?

Solution:

Please reference the Tutorials section of the User Manual (available in our Support Center), as it goes into great detail on how to back up and restore your database.

Do I need to know HTML to administer the software?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:21:01 GMT

Problem:

Do I need to know HTML to administer the software?

Solution:

As with operating any website, some degree of of HTML experience is required to get the most out of your website (and the software). This software offers an html template based configuration which allows for extreme design flexibility. Recent versions of the software contain a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Editor which allows you to make basic changes, such as editing text, without any HTML Knowledge.

If you have no familiarity with HTML, and would like to create your own custom design, please ask us for a list of HTML developers who are familiar with our software that can provide you with a quote for your project.

Not all items are secure when in ssl

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:32:07 GMT

Problem:

When set to use an ssl address I am getting a warning that not all items are secure.

Solution:

The reason that you ever see a message like that is because there is
something being reference improperly in the html for use on an https
address. Typically this is because something is referenced absolutely
instead of relatively.

Below is our best attempt to explain this and please forgive any html inaccuracies as it is for point demonstration only.

If you were wanting to call an image in html and the image is located at:

http://www.geodesicsolutions.com/images/someimage.jpg

You could do so with the below image tag absolutely:

<img src=http://www.geodesicsolutions.com/images/someimage.jpg>

Or relatively

<img src=images/someimage.jpg>

If done relatively then the missing path information is filled in relative to where the page is located that is being viewed on the site in either http or https. So if done relatively, viewing the page from https the image is called from https://www.geodesicsolutions.com/images/someimage.jpg and if viewing the page from http then the image is called from
http://www.geodesicsolutions.com/images/someimage.jpg. Either address the image is called properly but most importantly it is being called from https when needed and is therefore secure and will not cause any warnings in the browser.

TIP: To find out where the image is being reference when viewing the page in a browser, right click on an image an view its properties.

Hope this helps

Is my credit card secure when ordering your software?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:12:34 GMT

Problem:

I am worried about giving out my credit card number online. What precautions have you taken to ensure my privacy and security?

Solution:

We use PayPal and Authorize.net as our merchant services. We have chosen these merchants with your protection in mind as they are industry leaders in the services they provide and the security measures that they emplace.

All of these merchants employ the industry standard 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) 3.0 technology security encryption when processing your transaction to ensure your privacy.

If you still feel uncomfortable using an online merchant service we also accept checks, money orders, and Western Union payments.

Unable to upload images/photos within a listing

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:47:22 GMT

Problem:

I am receiving errors when attempting to upload an image during the listing process.

Solution:

This is typically a problem where the 'user_images' folder on your domain does not have it's permissions set properly. They need to be set to "777".

The next thing to check is to make sure that the url path(s) on the LISTING SETUP > PHOTO UPLOAD SETTINGS page are set properly. Reference the tool tip for that setting to ensure that you are entering the appropriate information. We see this most often when customers are changing hosts/servers. This path must reflect the new host's path to the software's "user_images" file.

Configuring Multiple Languages Information

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:47:35 GMT

Problem:

How to create an additional language.

Solution:

Creating a multi-language site with our software is very easy. The first thing to find out is which language do you wish to be the "dominant" language for your site. If you wish a language other than english to be the dominant language we would recommend that you create another language within the language/text administration. When you create another language the language that currently has language id 1 will be duplicated. When the software comes to you english will have language id of 1. If you want 3 separate languages for your site create the three languages first. If you want english to be the dominant language of your site leave engish as language id number 1 and translate the other languages. If you wish another language to be the dominant language translate the language that has language id number 1 into the dominant language and leave any secondary language as english...if you still want english used on your site.

We recommend that you always keep an "english" language within the language admin (even if it is not live). This gives you a possible reference in speaking with Geodesic Support as we only speak english.

When a user comes to your site the script sets a cookie with the default language. This cookie has a life of one year. The user can change their language at any time through your site language choice screen. This will be saved within the cookie and until their cookie expires they will see the language they chose.

If all else fails and the language cookie can not be set the language that has language_id of 1 will become the language that user will see your site in. Thus the reason we say to make your dominant language the first language in the language list within the language administration.

How do I force the need for a subscription to view or register on my site?

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:06:28 GMT

Enterprise Editions only:

Firstly note that all your price plans will need to be subscription based price plans. You could conceivably have fee-based price plans but clients in the fee-based user groups/price plans will not be able to view any listing details. Also note this applies to either classauction, classified ad or auction configurations of Geo software.

You must first turn on this beta setting to force the need for a client to have a current subscription within the software before they can view a listing details page within your site:

ADMIN TOOLS & SETTINGS > BETA TOOLS > BETA SETTINGS > "must_have_subscription_to_view_ad_detail"

Changing this beta setting to 1 and saving should be all that is necessary. This settings force any browsing client to have a subscription to view the details of a listing. The only thing required is an active subscription and that subscription could have been purchased under any user group/price plan combination. This setting allows the clients to browse the categories of your site. When the client clicks to view the details of a listing they are redirected to login if they currently are not logged in or purchase a subscription if they are logged into your site.

The following two things are not necessary but help make sure the client purchases or knows they have to purchase a subscription to view listing details on your site:

1) Create a specific page template for the registration success page that redirects to the subscription purchase/renewal page. Within the page template you create for this purpose should have a meta tag refresh like this one in the html statement:

and then attach that page template to the following page in the admin tool.

PAGES MANAGEMENT > REGISTRATION > "Registration Success Page"

Once the client successfully registers they will be redirected immediately to the subscription renewal page where they can choose the length of subscription they wish to purchase that has been setup in their user group/price plan.

2) Place a link in the registration success page text that links directly to the subscription purchase/renewal page. The following text is only displayed when the client successfully registers:

PAGES MANAGEMENT > REGISTRATION > "Registration Success Page" > [edit text] > "registration success instructions"

Place a link in this text something like:

http://www.mysite.com/index.php?a=24

index.php?a=24

https://www.mysite.com/index.php?a=24

Make the text for the link a "call to action" to purchase their subscription so that they can browse listing details. Otherwise the client will not be able to view listing details.

Notes:

a) If the client does not purchase a subscription immediately after registration they are essentially treated as clients whose subscriptions have expired.Â They are able to login to the site but will not be able to view listing details until they go to the personal information page in the client side account management tool, click the renew/extend subscription link and purchase/renew a subscription through the software.

b) The links above are assuming that your geodesic software is installed in the base director of your domain and in some examples that your site domain is mysite.com which it isn't. Change any of the absolute urls you use are pointing to your domain.

Links and Registration Codes

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:35:44 GMT

Problem:

How do I put a registration code in a url link so that the user that clicks the link will by pass the code form and automatically get placed into that group.

Solution:

You can put the registration code that is attached to a specific user group can be placed within a link to registration. The registration code allows users to be directly placed within a specific group (and the price plan attached to it) upon registration. For the following example we will assume....

Registration Group A (with price plan A attached to it) and has "regcode-group-a" for a registration code would require the following register link:

register.php?registration_code=regcode-group-a

and

Registration Group B (with price plan B attached to it) and has "regcode-group-b" for a registration code would require the following register link:

register.php?registration_code=regcode-group-b

This automatically bypasses the registration code step within the registration process. If you use registration codes with your user groups the registration code page will automatically appear unless you automatically enter it through something like the link method above.

The registration code can be set within the user group administration tool for each user group.

Extra questions use in the ad/auction templates

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:35:17 GMT

Problem:

I am confused about how to display the extra questions in the auction or ad display template.

Solution:

Within the auction/ad template you want to have the tags associated with displaying the extra questions and extra checkboxes that you create. See the ad/auction template tag list for a list of tags and the specific tags for displaying these.

These tags can be designed separately within their specific areas of the ad/auction configuration section of the admin.

Pre 3.0 Enterprise versions:

The category specific question and checkbox templates should be designed as an HTML table row (...). In the ad display template where the templates will be used surround the tags with HTML table tags (

). This will allow the easy display of the extra question/checkbox easily and flexibly. No matter how many questions there are the HTML of the ad display template will not be corrupted.

All GeoProducts 3.0 and up:

The category specific questions and checkbox templates have been removed. The new tags (!EXTRA_QUESTION_NAME!), (!EXTRA_QUESTION_VALUE!) and (!EXTRA_CHECKBOX_NAME!) display unordered list elements which must be styled using css. The (!EXTRA_QUESTION_NAME!) displays a list of all of the extra question labels while (!EXTRA_QUESTION_VALUE!) displays a list of all of the extra question responses. The (!EXTRA_CHECKBOX_NAME!) displays a list of all of the checkboxes that the user selected. Default styles for these elements are provided with the geostyle.css stylesheet and are as follows...

/* extra questions and extra checkboxes */
.extraCheckboxes {
margin:0px;
padding:0px;
float:left;
list-style-type: none;
}
.extraCheckboxes li {
background-image: url('images/checkbox_arw.gif');
background-position: 0px 50%; /* X-pos Y-pos (from top-left) */
background-repeat: no-repeat;
padding-left: 15px;
border: 0px solid black;
white-space:nowrap;
margin:0px;
}
.extraQuestionName,
.extraQuestionName li {
margin:0px;
padding:0px;
list-style: none;
}
.extraQuestionValue,
.extraQuestionValue li {
margin:0px;
padding:0px;
list-style: none;
}

Table locking with MySQL- Blank white screen when accessing the software

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:34:58 GMT

Problem:

I am receiving a blank white screen when accessing the admin and/or the front side of the software.

Solution:

There has been a problem with MySQL and CPanel/Vdeck(domain management software) where a bug in CPanel/Vdeck will lock MySQL tables. The geodesic_sessions table has been affected by this combination of software. You may also see this error if this has happened to your installation.

delete from geodesic_sessions WHERE last_time < 1064412780

Your host can fix this issue by applying a fix for CPanel/Vdeck.

Ad Approval Button is missing when placing an ad/auction or images not viewable on site

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:50:21 GMT

Problem:

The button to approve an ad or auction is missing during the place an ad or auction. Any images can sometimes not be viewable on your site.

Solution:

Norton Ad Blocker can sometimes be a bit of problem. It is designed to block any image or object that contains the word "ad" in the file name. The Approval button image on older versions of the software is named "btn_user_approve_ad.gif" with an alt tag of "approve my ad".

To fix this so that users who are running Norton Ad Blocker, rename this image to some other name. Upload it to your server. Go to Admin > Pages > Place New Ad (ENTER) > Classified Ad Approval (EDIT) > Edit Text > approve (EDIT). Here change the image reference to correspond to your new image and hit submit.

If all/several images around the site are blocked the url/file path may be the culprit. Do you happen to have "ad", "ads" or something like it in the url (http://....) of your site? Something like:

http://www.yoursite.com/ads/index.php

Norton Ad Blocker may react to the "ads" part of the url and block all images being displayed on your site. You make need to change the path of your installation to something like:

http://www.yoursite.com/classifieds/index.php
http://www.yoursite.com/auctions/index.php

My site user statistics (stats) always seem to be wrong. Why?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:36:14 GMT

The current count of users by the user count module sometimes seem to not report the true count of users on your site because this statistic is a count of current sessions within the database table that keeps track of sessions to your software. The count of sessions in the database can sometimes seems quite inflated when you may think you are the only user on the site. This is a statistic not of the number of users but the number of unique user sessions opened on the client side. This statistic measures the number of individual sessions opened by clients visiting your site within the last hour or even longer if you have stretched the length a session is kept in the database within the geo admin tool. The number of sessions in the database is constantly culled according to your session length settings and the longer you allow the session to be the greater the count of user sessions will grow to before they are automatically removed for inactivity.