classAd 4.0 - user manual

ClassAd administration

The administration is rather self-explanatory. To start the administration, open the script admin.php.

If you are using the administration for the first time or if you have restarted your web browser, you have to log in. For security reasons, it is highly recommended that Admin name and password are changed before using the script on a website (see inc/config.inc.php)

After a successful login you should see the following options:

Edit ads

In some cases it is necessary to edit the inserted ads. Select menu item "Edit ads" to edit, release, delete, or to use other ad options. In detail, the following actions are implemented:

Ad overview

In the upper left part of the dialog you see the ad overview. All ads stored in the market's database are displayed here. Every entry includes the following information:

Ad filter

To edit an ad, you have to select it with a left mouse click. If your market runs well and you have a lot of ads shown in the ad overview, you should use the filter function to find a special ad.

To use the filter function, simply put in the search key into the related text input and click "Set Filter". After that, only the matching ads are displayed in the ad overview. To display all ads again, click "Delete filter".

The filter allows for ad id, ad title, and name of ad inserter.

Edit ad

Click on the "Edit ad"-button to edit the details of the selected ad. After editing the relevant fields, click "Save" to store the changes into the database.

Release ad

Click on the "Release ad"-button to release the selected ad. The release may be necessary, if an user inserted an ad with inappropriate 'direct submit'-rights (see inc/config.inc.php). As an alternative, you can use the link contained in the Administrator's notification of an unreleased ad.

Delete ad

Click on "Delete ad"-button to delete an ad, before the regular end of lifetime, from the market. Please keep in mind that this action is irreversible, i.e. the ad and all attached pictures are permanently deleted from the database.

Prolong ad / (unlimited)

Prolong a selected ad for 30 days or unlimited (10 years).

Featured on / off

The Administrator has the privilege to mark an ad as 'featured', what mens that it is displayed on the homepage/index of the market. The marking can be revoked by the Administrator at any time.

Closed usergroup on / off

Every ad can be defined whether it belongs to the closed usergroup. With this option, an ad can be defined as only visible for users that are members of the closed usergroup.

Edit and delete users

For some circumstances it is necessary for the Administrator to edit user data. Select "Edit users" to start the ClassAd user management.

What you should know about users in ClassAd:

The following function are available for user management:

User overview

In the upper left part of the dialog you can see an overview of all existing users. Each entry contains the following information:

Select user / Filter

For all kinds of actions it is necessary to select a user with a mouse click. If your market runs well and you have a lot of users shown in the user overview, you should use the filter function to find a special user.

To find an user, enter the search key in the related text input and click "Set Filter". To inactivate the filter, click "Delete Filter". The filter allows for username, realname and city of user.

Edit user ...

This function enables you to change the contact and address data of a user. Furthermore, you can assign one or several user types to an user.

More information about the available user types in ClassAd can be found here.

Activate/ deactivate user

An user account can be blocked temporarily in case of breach of market rules (general terms and conditions or similar). This means that the user may not login for a certain time period and hence cannot use any market functions.

This blocking can be done or cancelled any time.

Delete user

An user can be deleted from the database due to false entries, breaches by users or other. If the user should be able to take part in future market transactions, the user account should be blocked temporarily only.

When a user has been deleted, his ads remain in the database.

Warning: This step is irreversible, i.e. user data are deleted from the database and are lost irrecoverable.

Closed user groups on / off

This option clears a certain user for the closed user group or deletes the clearing. A cleared user can access ads and categories which are marked as only visible for closed user group. A user who hasn't been cleared cannot view these categories and ads or cannot access them.

User authenticated on / off

An user can be authenticated or not, according to his market status and security settings which have been set (further details of security options are here). The button is an abbreviation for the path user editing / set user rights / save.

Define free fields

With free fields, you may add further fields according to your wishes and requirements according to standard input fields. Further details of this feature are here.

Add category

This option enables you to add new categories to the database. The category overview on the upper left serves to your information only and a chosen category has no effect on new categories.

A new category needs three inputs:

In case you are working with the enhanced (structured) category model, you must choose a mother category ("superior category") additionally. The new category will be subsidiary to this mother category as a child category. To create a category on the upper level ("top level"), choose "----" as mother category.

Additionally, you may define whether a category should be accessible for all users who are part of closed user groups. Members who are not part of this group cannot view or access the ads in this category.

Further information about category planning and administration please look here.

Edit category

Created categories can be changed or restructured by the admionistrator at anytime.

To change a category, choose the category from the upper left list box by marking it with a left mouse click. All actions conducted from hereon refer to the chosen category.

Next, edit the input fields you would like to change - for category characteristics which should not be changed, leave the input fields empty or choose the respective option. To save your changes to the database, click "Submit changes ".

When editing categories, a circular reference may occur. This error needs a short explanation. A circular reference can occur when a superior category in a category which is to be changed needs to be switched. Through this action it can happen that a superior category is changed in a way that a category, directly or indirectly, becomes its own mother category (i.e. is linked over several other categories). This behavior would destroy the category tree, as this is not linear anymore, but shows a circular reference. ClassAd checks this with every change of the superior category.

Delete categories

To delete a category from the category tree, click "delete category". The marked category will be deleted irreversibly - for this reason, this function should be used with care only.

Optionally, cou may click the check box "also delete display of marked category". When this option is activated, all included ads will be deleted when the category is being deleted. This deletion is irreversible also.

Update category cache

ClassAd has a two-step cache model which enables you to high-performantly build a large category tree with many levels. Under certain circumstances (e.g. when switching between test and active database) it can be necessary to induce the reorganisation of cache.

For further information about caching of ClassAd please click here.

Note: After a change in categories no manual cache update is necessary as ClassAd executes this autonomously.

Delete expired ads

Ads in ClassAd dispose of a defined expiration date. This expiration date can be defined by the user when the ad is entered. In the ad overview, the expiration date can also be prolonged by the user.

Expired ads are deleted in three ways by ClassAd:

In the ad selection area, all ads are displayed whose expiration date is before the current date. Mark one or several ads which you want to delete and click "delete marked ads". The marked ads are deleted from the database irreversibly.

Display statistics

In ClassAd 4.0, a rudimentary statistics module was implemented which displays an overview of top ads, top categories, top users, and general performance indices.

In detail, the following statistics are currently implemented:

Show logfile

This option is for display of all important recorded events. The name logfile is actually deceptive as the events are stored in the database and not in a file.

In detail, the following events are recorded:

To every entry the IP address and user ID are recorded also (if available).

Choose the kind of logfile information and click "show logfile". Then you can view the list of records as well as information to all actions. Sorting is chronologically descending.

In periodical intervals - according to their effective use - of ClassAd the logfiles should be deleted to unload the database. To do this, choose a logfile and put the option button to "delete logfile". Start the deletion process with the button below.

Display PHP information

This menu item displays PHP information.

Maintain database

This menu item makes functions available for the Administrator, which allow him to maintain the ClassAd database. Generally spoken, MySQL is a very stable database system and it is improbable that your tables will ever be destroyed. But on systems with heavy traffic (mainly write-access), tables should be checked and optimized regularly.

!Warning: Database maintenance should only be done, if it is really necessary. Further more they should be done by someone, who has database knowledge and a working desaster-recovery strategy!

The following maintenance options are provided by ClassAd:

Logout Administrator

Please leave the administration with this button, because this is the only *really* safe way to do that.