Classify Me
November 2, 2008 1:50 AM Subscribe
Wanted: Flexible PHP classified ads or listings system that actually generates attractive, table-less output.
I have a client who wants to start a site that allows people to sell their used widgets for charity. She has a budget of about fifty cents, but I'm all for charity so sure, let's just do that.
I would, however, like to reduce dev time by not having to roll my own backend. My thought was that I could start with a basic classifieds system, one that would:
* Allow sellers to register.
* Allow them to place an ad with some defined fields (size, age, condition), a number of photos auto-thumbnailed on the fly, and a description of the widget.
* Allow buyers to contact sellers if they have questions.
I can manage the buying and payment bits on my own without a problem, and I'm willing to do a lot of front end redesigning, but I would love suggestions for any classified or listing system that:
* Does not output tables
* Does not look like complete ass out of the box
* Is not geared towards paid listings or auction based sales
* Ideally, generates an RSS feed
If anyone has used anything that was fairly flexible on output, approached some sort of web standards and wasn't completely painful to use, I'd appreciate any suggestions.
I have a client who wants to start a site that allows people to sell their used widgets for charity. She has a budget of about fifty cents, but I'm all for charity so sure, let's just do that.
I would, however, like to reduce dev time by not having to roll my own backend. My thought was that I could start with a basic classifieds system, one that would:
* Allow sellers to register.
* Allow them to place an ad with some defined fields (size, age, condition), a number of photos auto-thumbnailed on the fly, and a description of the widget.
* Allow buyers to contact sellers if they have questions.
I can manage the buying and payment bits on my own without a problem, and I'm willing to do a lot of front end redesigning, but I would love suggestions for any classified or listing system that:
* Does not output tables
* Does not look like complete ass out of the box
* Is not geared towards paid listings or auction based sales
* Ideally, generates an RSS feed
If anyone has used anything that was fairly flexible on output, approached some sort of web standards and wasn't completely painful to use, I'd appreciate any suggestions.
Response by poster: OK thanks guys. I know Drupal can do this with a module but I thought it was worth asking about anything designed specifically for what I needed. Cheers!
posted by DarlingBri at 6:12 PM on November 8, 2008
posted by DarlingBri at 6:12 PM on November 8, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
My suggestion would be to consider starting with a well-known CMS and adding extensions that give you the classified ad features without having to code them from scratch. Often the better extensions cost money, but not always--here is a free one for Joomla that appears to meet your requirements (and there are several others in the Classified Ads area of the site).
Another advantage to a CMS is the number of good-looking templates (free and otherwise) you can get. Many of these will allow you to use them as a starting point for your own design; some even include the original PSD file. Nearly all of the (mostly Joomla) templates I've seen do not use tables.
posted by [user was fined for this post] at 7:21 AM on November 2, 2008