This feature is not within all editions of the software prior to GeoCore. But this feature is within all GeoCore(v7 and up) versions of the software.

This feature allows you to configure the fields found in the LISTING SETUP > FIELDS TO USE on a category by category basis. If you want the settings you make at LISTING SETUP > FIELDS TO USE to work for the whole site make your configurations there and leave these configurations alone. If you want specific LISTING SETUP > FIELDS TO USE fields to only appear in a specific category you will need to use this specific admin tool to do so. You can set category specific configurations of these fields within the following admin tool:

CATEGORIES > CATEGORY SETUP > [EDIT] (in the "edit category" column next to the category you wish to make the configuration change) > FIELDS

This admin tool page looks just like the LISTING SETUP > FIELDS TO USE admin tool page but will only affect this category. This page gives you the ability to override the default site-wide settings (all categories settings) and instead implement only the fields that you want to display specifically for this category and its subcategories unless they themselves have their own category specific field settings that you create to override it's parent category specific configuration. By default, the "Use Site Default Settings" selection will be selected in the top of this page. However, if you change this choice to "category specific settings", the page will automatically display a page like the LISTING SETUP > FIELDS TO USE admin tool page.

If there are no category specific settings for a specific category these settings will be inherited from its parent categories unless there are no settings within its parent categories. In that case the site wide settings are used.

<tip c n>If you make changes to the fields for this category, the remainder of the categories on your site will still be governed by the site-wide settings under the site wide Fields to Use submenu.</tip>

The following is a short video on getting to the admin tool that allows you to setup a category specific field configuration.

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

Check this box if you want to use this field in this category on your site.

This is simply the name of the field. If you set a site wide optional fields name in the LISTING SETUP > FIELDS TO USE admin tool it will be displayed here. You cannot edit the site wide optional field name from the category specific fields to use admin tool.

You can make this a required field for the seller to fill out in this category. 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.

Check this box if you want to allow your sellers to be able to edit this field for their currently live listings in this category in their "active listings" client side admin tool.

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.

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 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.

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 this category. These settings are explained below and if adjusted will override the site wide Additional Miscellaneous Settings on the Fields to Use submenu.

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 while browsing this category and subcategories. The full description will be displayed on the individual Listing Display Page.

While browsing your site, visitors will typically see the "newest (most recently placed) listings first" in that order. However, you can alter this default display by using this setting. For instance if you want to offer a "directory" listings (Yellow Pages) site, you would likely want to have your customers create their listings by entering their "name" or "business name" as the "title" of the listing. In this case, you would specify this category (or all categories) to default the order of the listings by "title". Therefore, all of the listings would appear in alphabetical order by "title" (or name).

<tip c n>This setting will be applied to this category and all of its subcategories.</tip>

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. 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.

You will need to duplicate the field type you have in the LISTING SETUP > FIELDS TO USE admin tool here. There currently is no tool to automatically apply that setting to the category configuration for a site wide optional field and configuration issues can happen on the client side if the field type set here does not match the field type set site wide.

Setting changes made within a specific category affect that category's subcategories also. You can if you wish make category specific settings for this category and its subcategories then go to the same admin tool for a subcategory and make further changes. When looking for category specific field settings the system starts looking at the current category browsed/placed in and then works it way through parent categories until it finds a category specific field configuration or finds none thereby using the site wide default field configuration.