The Fields to Use page allows you to control the various fields that will be displayed to users while they are placing listings(classifieds & auctions), browsing, and performing searches. Each section within this page highlights the individual settings. In most cases your choice will be a simple checked or unchecked checkbox concerning whether or not that particular field is used and/or whether that field will be displayed in specific pages within the system. The settings on this page are applied across all categories of the site.

At the top, in certain editions you can set up group specific fields to use settings as well.

<tip c h>NOTE: You have the ability to further customize your site, by editing these same settings on a category by category basis through the Category Specific Fields section of the Categories Menu.</tip>

When the system is determining which "set of settings" to use for the fields to use settings, it does the following:

1. Looks for settings that match both the group AND the category.
   • This does not mean that there are separate user group and category configurations. This means that while you edit a specific category's field configuration you set a configuration for a specific user group also. This sets a field configuration for that specific user group while they are viewing that specific category. You can set group/category specific field configurations through the category specific field configuration. You simply choose a user group from the "group dropdown choice" when editing a category's specific field configuration. Make your changes and save.
2. If no settings found for a group/category combination, the software looks to see if any settings match the same group, NOT specifically tied to any category.
3. If no settings found for just the group, the software looks to see if any settings match the same category, not specifically tied to any group.
4. If no settings found for just the category, the software uses "site wide" settings.

Note that each group, can either be set to use group specific settings, or use the site default. If a particular group is set to use site default, it would basically skip over steps 1 and 2 above. Note that there is no "group hierarchy" like there is with categories, each group either uses "group specific" settings or "site wide", there is no "parent groups".

Each category can use either "category specific" fields to use, or "use parent category's settings", or use "site default". If set to "parent", it will travel up the category tree until it finds the first parent that is set to either "category specific" or to use "site default". Similar to group settings, if the current category is set to use "site default", it will skip step 1 and 3 above.

This section allows you to specify certain attributes to the most commonly used fields on your site. These fields help the seller provide clear and concise information of their listings(classifieds & auctions), as well as, provide the site visitor fields to search by on the Search Page. The various columns are explained below:

Check this box if you want to use this field on your site. Some 'fields' are required for you to use. Therefore, there is no box to check.

This is simply the name of the field.

You can make this a required field for the seller to fill out. If they attempt to skip this field during the Listing Process an error message will display informing them that they need to complete this field.

<tip c n>Special Case: Email Field - The email field will always be required for listings(classifieds & auctions) that are not placed anonymously (in other words, if user is logged in when placing the listing). If the client empties this field when placing their listing the software will automatically fill that field with the email address from their registration information. The only time the "required" configuration will have an effect is in conjunction with the anonymous listing addon. Anonymous listings(classifieds & auctions) can have an "emtpy" email address field if you allow it within the admin tool here. Any logged in user placing a listing must fill that field in with an email address they wish to receive email with for that listing or the system will automatically use their registered email address within the contact seller feature.</tip>

Check this box if you want to allow your sellers to be able to edit this field within their "active listings(classifieds & auctions)".

This describes the type of field element is used to collect this information on the client side and/or a simple description of the type of data saved within that field.

Specify the maximum number of characters a seller can enter into the box during the Place a Listing and/or Listing Edit Processes.

<tip c w>IMPORTANT: With regards to description field length - If you are allowing the user to place HTML in their description, you will want to make this a large number as each character of all html tags are considered in the character count. If you limit this field to a low number, and the seller's HTML gets cut off, the listing display page will not display properly.

Also note that if your clients cut and paste from something like Microsoft Work or Microsoft Office there is a LOT of html code that can be included in html created within that software. If the client did a lot of edits to that text within a program like that old html tags are not removed or changed. They seem to only add more tags to get the wanted look making for very bloated html.</tip>

This section has a series of checkboxes that allows you to control whether that specific field is displayed in the specific pages mentioned.

This determines whether the field mentioned will display as a column in the category browsing feature. In most cases, this will automatically become a "sortable" column for your customers to sort the listings(classifieds & auctions) they are viewing by clicking on the column header for this field. Click once on this column header sorts by that column in ascending order. Another click sorts in descending order. While a third click returns the category browsing results to default order.

Checking here displays this field as a column in the browse tag results.

Checking this box makes that field appear in the site wide default advanced search form. This allows the client to obtain search results based on the criteria they can possibly enter for this field. This will also affect the search box module, the drop down that selects what field to search by.

Checking this checkbox makes that field appear as a column in the search results page from any search conducted by the software.

This section allows you to further specify various attributes across all categories of the site. These settings are explained below:

Choosing "yes" will set the wrap attribute for any text area field for the Listing process. For example, if a user clicks the return/enter key on their keyboard while typing their description the carriage return will be stored in the database and shown in the display. This will help if you want your users to be able to create lists in their description or any other field that is set as a text area.

<tip c w>WARNING: Do not use this feature if you are also using the Rich Text (WYSIWYG) Editor specified on the LISTING SETUP > GENERAL SETTINGS page.</tip>

<tip c n>Also note that changing this setting does not change current listing descriptions within the site. Once this admin tool setting is changed you will need to edit the listing descriptions you want affected, make the format changes you want and save those changes. You should then see the effects of this change then.</tip>

Checking will allow the seller to edit the "category specific fields" of their active listings(classifieds & auctions).

Setting added in Version 6.0.4

We recommend to keep this setting disabled for the majority of sites. When you enable this setting, the HTML on the listing descriptions will be kept intact on category browsing pages when that category is configured to show the full description¹⁾. As it warns below the setting, turning this on can affect the browsing pages layout if your site contains any badly formatted listing descriptions.

Note that even if this setting is "enabled" it will only affect categories set to show the full listing description. If a category (or site-wide) setting is set to only show part of the description, all HTML will be removed as there is just no getting around possible problems caused by "cutting off" in the middle of an HTML tag.

This setting is specifically added for those sites where the admin controls all listings(classifieds & auctions), so can easily prevent badly formatted listing descriptions, or sites where the HTML allowed is restrictive enough so that it is unlikely to allow a badly formatted listing description to be posted.

<tip c w>Warning: You need to be aware of the following before you turn the setting on:

• One "badly formatted" listing can affect the page layout on any page where the listing description is displayed "un filtered", such as when browsing a category. The results can vary widely, anything from causing the rest of the page to not display, to making the entire site "blue", to causing the rest of the listings(classifieds & auctions) to "shift" over into the right or left column instead of the center… The different ways it can be messed up by a badly formatted listing are endless. This is why we only recommend turning it on for sites that have strict control over the listing description and can easily "watch out" for problem listings(classifieds & auctions) like this.
• If you allow the HTML to do so, this would let listing posters format the description to bring attention to their listing, thus making "paid listing extras" become useless. Even if you do not allow the normal "bolding" HTML or image HTML, someone familiar with HTML and styles can still do a lot by adding a style to a tag that you do allow. It then becomes almost a contest of who can make their listing "stand out the most"; it could easily progress to the point of making the site look like a scam even though they might be "legitimate" ads. You may want to set some "ground rules" posted somewhere on your site if you do choose to turn this on, and ensure that ads adhere to the rules, as to avoid your site looking like a scam marathon.

</tip>

If you choose to display the description in the browsing or search results pages as configured above in this same admin tool page you can choose here to display the description in a column of its own or below the title in the title column.

You can specify the maximum number of characters that will be displayed within the category browsing tables. The full description will be displayed on the individual Listing Display Page.

Select the appropriate date format that you want to display within the listings(classifieds & auctions) of your site.

Select the appropriate date format that you want to display for the "member since" field within the listings(classifieds & auctions) of your site.

This affects how the site-wide optional fields that are marked use as cost will be displayed on the listing details collection page, during listing placement and during edit listings(classifieds & auctions).

With other optional site-wide fields: Select this option to display the fields in the normal location, along with any other optional site-wide fields that are used. Displayed near the bottom of the listing details collection page.

With 'pricing' fields: Check this option to display all the use as cost optional site-wide fields together, directly below the other "price" fields such as auction minimum bid, reserve price, etc.

Optional Site Wide Fields are similar to "category questions" in that they can be displayed as additional fields during the Listing Process to help sellers better explain their listing. If you decide to "use" (check enabled for that field) one of these fields, it will automatically be displayed during the listing process of every category. That is, unless you turn off its display on an individual category by category basis as explained in the Category Specific Fields section of this User Manual. When used, Optional Site Wide Fields can become searchable criteria on the Search Page. The advantage to using Optional Site Wide Fields as opposed to Category Questions is that these fields can be set as "sortable" columns while visitors are browsing your site. The disadvantage is that you only have 20 of them, whereas Category Questions are unlimited.

Note that you can turn a site wide optional field off for the whole site and then turn it on for specific categories within the CATEGORIES admin tool.

Although the use of these fields is entirely optional, they can provide you with the ability to gather more information from your sellers and/or make it easier for them to place their listings(classifieds & auctions). You will notice that each optional field has its own individual column settings and properties. These columns are explained below:

When deciding to use each of these optional fields, you will need to specify "how" you are going to use the field. You have a several different options for this field:

This field is essentially "for your eyes only". To help you organize each optional field we have given you a text field for you to label what you are using the field for. This is a very helpful tool, as later you will discover that for each optional field that you decide to "enable", you will also have to edit that field's text on every single page that displays that field. The text you enter here will only be visible in the admin, not by any of your site visitors.

The site wide optional fields have the same controls as the general fields do at the top of the same page so consult the description of those controls above….with the following exceptions.

With site wide optional field you can determine the way information will be collected for that field within the client side forms that collect information from a seller in a site wide optional field. You can choose to allow the client insert what ever text they like by selecting the single or multi-line text boxes. You can set the field to "numeric" which displays a single line text box to collect that information but only accepts a numeric value. More on the benefits of this selection below. You can also choose the "adds cost" option which displays the same as numeric and also only accepts numeric values. More on the benefits of this selection below. You can also choose to have a predetermined dropdown displayed to the client on the client side form. You can create and manage these dropdowns in the following admin tool and those dropdowns will automatically appear as a choice in this field type dropdown:

LISTING SETUP > PRE-VALUED DROPDOWNS

You can also choose the client to insert their own value in field even if you have set a pre-valued dropdown to appear. You only need to check the "use other box" and a blank single line text box will appear as an alternative next to the dropdown box that appears.

This feature is not available in all editions of the software. It is only available in the Enterprise edition.

Select the "use as cost" field from the dropdown if you want to implement this field on your site and use it as a "cost" field for your sellers to tack on additional costs with their auctions, such as "shipping cost". You will notice that until you select "use as cost" from the dropdown, all other column fields in the table for that question are grayed out. After you have made your selection, only the fields pertaining to your selection will become available.

The software forces the value of this field to be a numerical value.

There is little use for this field for classified listings(classifieds & auctions). There is no "total" for a classified computed within the software. This field is more useful for auctions as there is a winning bid for any successfully closed auction that the "cost" values will be added to for a total.

When you use a specific field "as cost" the value within this field and entered by the seller at the time of listing placement will be added to the winning bid as a total for that auction item within the closing emails for that auction. The winning bidder always receives an auction closed email notifying them of their win. The totals within this email will include a list of costs added to their winning bid to obtain a "total". Any "costs" added by the seller when placing the listing will appear in that total value. You as the admin can setup up several "cost" fields if you wish. Each could be a different cost that the seller can add to the winning bids on their auctions.

Note that if you use Seller to Buyer gateway(s), the amount "charged" to the winning bidder is the total amount due, which includes all "adds cost" fields as mentioned above.

Check this field if you want to limit your sellers to entering only numbers within this field. Implementing this setting will automatically display a "high" and "low" box on the Search Page for this field. Clients will be able to search "ranges" for this value in the advanced search form if you choose to display this field within the search form.

Use this field type to allow entering a specific date. It uses a calendar popup date selector when choosing the date. Within searches, for date fields it allows "date range" searching.

This feature allows you to have the software dynamically generate the Listing Titles for all listings(classifieds & auctions) on the site using the Optional Site Wide Fields that you specify for this field. If enabled, users will not be able to add their own custom titles to their listings(classifieds & auctions). The values in the site wide optional fields that you set will be used to automatically create the listing title for your clients listings(classifieds & auctions).

This feature is mostly used on Cars sales sites where the make, model and year may be site wide optional fields and the title would best be created from those fields saving the seller a little time and your searching clients a standard title format that is easy to scan quickly.

Once you turn this feature on make sure that you choose which fields to use to populate this feature. Once you turn this feature on ALL TITLES on the site will be generated from the fields you choose and in the order you choose them. So you may require fields accordingly to make sure your listings(classifieds & auctions) actually have titles. If you turn this feature on and do not configure which fields to use your site will have no values in their titles.

You are not quite finished yet. As mentioned earlier, any Optional Site Wide Fields you decide to "enable" from this page will automatically be displayed on the search forms, search results, category browsing and the listing details pages. And in any place/page that displays field you will need to edit that fields text in that pages text admin tool to display the label you need. Therefore, you must access those pages in this Software’s Admin and adjust the label (name) that will be shown on the page for your each field.

Access each of the pages below and click the [edit text] button. Scroll down the page until you find the Optional Field text that you need to edit. Note that the "field admin name" that you entered for each field on the Fields to Use page will also be displayed as a reference. Also, if you chose "display" for any of your fields, you will need to edit the text for the "column header" that represents that field as well. Furthermore, you may noticed that each field contains its own error message as well. This message will only display if you selected to make this particular field a required entry on the Fields to Use page. If applicable, edit the desired error message. In most cases the default "error" message will state "required field", but you can change this if you like.

<tip c i>We would recommend setting up all of your Optional Site Wide Fields first and then access the following pages to make your text changes all at once</tip>

PAGES MANAGEMENT > BROWSING LISTINGS > LISTING DISPLAY PAGE
PAGES MANAGEMENT > BROWSING LISTINGS > BROWSE CATEGORIES
PAGES MANAGEMENT > BROWSING LISTINGS > BROWSE FEATURED LISTINGS TEXT ONLY
PAGES MANAGEMENT > BROWSING LISTINGS > NEWEST LISTINGS PAGE
PAGES MANAGEMENT > BROWSING LISTINGS > SELLERS OTHER LISTINGS
PAGES MANAGEMENT > BROWSING LISTINGS > SEARCH AND SEARCH RESULTS
PAGES MANAGEMENT > LISTING PROCESS> LISTING DETAIL
PAGES MANAGEMENT > USER MANAGEMENT > USERS CURRENT LISTINGS > EDIT LISTING DETAILS