This feature only SENDS listings TO Oodle.com. It does NOT receive listings FROM Oodle.com.

You can find the Oodle feed in your software, named oodle_feed.php. This file is an extension of the RSS feed feature of the software. We simply created an "Oodle specific RSS feed file" within the software to speed up this process for you. The Oodle feed comes "turned off" when you first install the software, since the Oodle feed can get pretty big on large sites and potentially take a lot of resources to generate.

Resources:

• What is an Oodle Feed? <
• Oodle Feed Submission <
• http://www.oodle.com <

<tip c n>Note: The Oodle feed in the software only generates the feed, that can be submitted to Oodle.com to possibly show your listings on oodle.com's site. There is no guarantee that the submitted listings will be accepted, the decision on if a submitted feed is accepted or not is solely up to oodle.com. See the documentation on their site for more information on the best ways to get your Oodle feed accepted.</tip>

These instructions will walk you through the steps needed, to allow the Oodle feed to be submitted to oodle.com for possible acceptance. These are the minimal steps only to simply turn it on. There are additional settings that you can use to further customize how your Oodle feed is generated.

Skills

• Comfortable with using FTP (to upload and download files from your site) <
• Basic understanding of how PHP works will help, but not necessary. <

Instructions

1. In the "base" of where the software is installed, the same folder that the oodle_feed.php file is located, create a new file named oodle_feed.config.php. This file will overwrite the settings in the oodle_feed.php file, without actually editing that file, so that the setting changes we make will not be un-done when the software is updated. In the file, add the contents:

   <?php
   //oodle_feed.config.php - settings for the oodle_feed.php feed
    
   //turn the feed on:
   $enabled = 1;
    
   //the maximum number of listings to use:
   $feed->maxListings = 5000;

   <

2. In the file, change the number "5000" to be much larger than the maximum number of listings your site could have. If it is not large enough and your site has more classifieds that that, some of your site's classifieds might not be included in the feed. <
3. Save the file and upload it, remember it should be located in the base of the Geo installation, in the same folder as oodle_feed.php file. <
4. View the oodle_feed.php file in your browser, for example if your software is installed on example.com then in your browser, go to http://example.com/oodle_feed.php
   • Do you see a bunch of stuff displayed? If you see something on the feed¹⁾, your feed should be working, you can now submit your feed to oodle.com. <
   • If you get a blank page, something did not go right, your feed might not be properly turned on. Make sure you are viewing oodle_feed.php and NOT the config file you just created, the config file should not be viewed directly. <

<

These instructions will walk you through the steps needed, to generate a "category map" that will allow you to map the categories on your site, with the categories that Oodle uses.

Skills

• Comfortable with using FTP (to upload and download files from your site) <
• Basic understanding of how PHP works will help, but not necessary. <

Instructions

1. You will first need to follow the instructions above for How to Enable Oodle Feed. <
2. Edit the file oodle_feed.config.php, and at the bottom of the file, add the line:

   $generateOodleCatMapFile = 1;

   Save and upload the file. <

3. Go to the Oodle feed using your browser. If your software was installed at example.com you would go to http://example.com/oodle_feed.php
4. Follow the instructions listed on that page to complete the process. <
5. Once you are finished, remove the line from the config.default.php that you added in step 2. <

The Oodle feed is going to be displaying every single classified found on your site. If you have a lot of classifieds, the more you have the better chance that there will be a problem with displaying them all. If your site is having trouble displaying all of the listings, follow these instructions to find how to fix.

1. In your oodle_feed.config.php file, add the lines:

   $feed->debug = true;
   ini_set('display_errors','stdout');

   <

2. View the oodle feed in your browser, it should show the oodle feed inside a textarea. Be patient and wait for it to finish loading, it will take a long time to load on sites with a lot of classifieds. Scroll to the bottom to see what the error message is (if there is any). <
3. Based on the PHP error message that is generated, you will know what needs to be adjusted to allow more of your listings to display. For instance, if it says it reached the maximum memory_limit, you would raise the memory_limit set in your php.ini setting file for the server. You may need to contact your host to make configuration changes like this, or may need to make the changes in your hosting control panel, depending on how the host is set up. <