Category setup
In order to setup the categories for your classifieds system, you will need to login to your System Administrator account. You may login by clicking "Login" on the top menu of your classifieds. After you are logged in, you will be presented with the user account screen. On the left hand menu, you should see a link labeled "System Admin". Clicking this link will take you to the admin control panel.
When you enter the admin control panel, you will see a list of links in the left hand column. This section of the manual deals with the "Manage Categories" section of your control panel. After clicking the "Manage Categories" link, you will be presented with the categories setup for your classifieds.
Only System Admininistrators are able to view this section of the admin panel.
Creating new categories
To create a new category, all you have to do is enter the name of the category into the box provided, and click the button. The new category will be created as a "base line" category, at the level in your directory that you were currently viewing. This means that the category will have a name, but there is no pricing information, no allowed ad types, no description or banners. In order to finish setting up the category, you will need to edit the category. If you wish to create a new category under a current category, you must first click on the parent category to change to that level, and then add the new category.
Editing categories
To edit a category, click the "edit" link next to the category name. You will then be presented with a screen where you can flesh-out the category. The description field will allow you to place a small description under the category title on the index page. You may upload an icon for the category, which will appear to the left of the category title on the index page.
The related categories section will allow you to create pseudo-links between categories. Visitors when viewing a category which has related categories, will see a small series of links at the top of the category which will allow them to go to other categories which are related. To select categories in the selection box, hold down the CTRL (option on Macintosh) key on your keyboard while clicking the category names. To unselect categories, again hold down the CTRL key and click the category name, this should unhighlight the category name. Always make sure to click on the page outside of the selector box to ensure the web browser records your desired selections.
The optional fields section will allow you to create up to 5 optional fields which can be used to collect additional information about the listings posted to that category. These fields can be radio buttons, check boxes, input boxes, etc. Please see the section on optional fields for details on what needs to be placed in these boxes. If you wish to assign the same optional fields to all of subcategories of this category, check the provided box.
The ad types section will allow you to choose which types of ads may be placed in this directory, and the baseline price for the ad. If you do not have any ad types chosen, visitors will not be able to place ads in this category. If you wish to assign the same ad types to all of subcategories of this category, check the provided box.
The banners box will allow you to assign banners to the top and bottom of the category display. If you wish to show a specific banner, select it from the pulldown box. To display a random banner, select random in the pulldown box. Likewise, if you wish to display a particular banner group select it. If you wish to assign the same banners to all of subcategories of this category, check the provided box. For more information about the banners, click Manage Banners in the side menu of this manual.
Global options
In the main Manage Categories screen, you will find a box for automatically sorting categories. You may sort them alphabetically, or sort them by number of ads. To fine tune the sorting, you may move individual categories up or down the listing by using the up/down links next to the category names.
You may also globally set which ad types, and their pricing for all categories at once using the selectors at the bottom of the screen. After globally setting the ad types and pricing, you may go back and edit individual categories to set them up differently if you so desire.