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Realty Manager - Our Agents Display Order

 
 


pdted
New User

Jun 8, 2004, 7:09 PM

Post #1 of 11 (9175 views)
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Realty Manager - Our Agents Display Order Can't Post
Hello

We really like this product, but as with anything new I am seeking information on how to change the display order of the page showing all agents, and where you jump to their individual homepages.

Basically the realtor was entered in the system first, then the assistant. Now the Assistant is at the top of the page /listman/homepages/ and the realtor wants her homepage at the top....

Anyone know how control the display order on this page or how to do this simply, especially now that there are listings in the system.

Any help appreciated.

Thank you!

Ted


Eric
Product Specialist


Jun 9, 2004, 4:01 PM

Post #2 of 11 (9139 views)
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Re: [pdted] Realty Manager - Our Agents Display Order [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi Ted,

Thanks for the forum post Smile.

I did some testing, and the default order for homepages in the homepage index is alphabetical by the person's Full Name. So it would seem that the assistant is listed before the Realtor's for that reason.

There are several approaches to making the realtor's name appear before the assistant's (from least amount of work to most amount of work):
  1. Add a numeric order or something to that extent to the name. For explain, instead of entering Joe Average as the full name, enter "1 - Joe Average". That'll appear all right in the homepage pages and it'll dictate an order that'll satisfy your needs.
  2. Bump up the realtor to the top by adding symbols or other characters in front, such as "*** - Sue User". You can cleverly justify the symbol by stating some sort of captioning or comment at the homepage template pages.
  3. If you don't expect frequent user changes, you can manually create the homepage index page as a static page (rather than a page managed by Listings Manager).
  4. Using the free unsupported search_homepage fields script, you can customize the order of homepage listings. This involves the most amount of work, but it's ideal if you expect frequent user changes and you simply cannot accept option 1 or 2 as a solution.


I hope this helps. Let me know which option you think is good for you and if you have other questions please let me know.
Cheers,
Eric Lau - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com


pdted
New User

Jun 9, 2004, 6:18 PM

Post #3 of 11 (9134 views)
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Re: [Eric] Realty Manager - Our Agents Display Order [In reply to] Can't Post
Eric

Thanks so much!

I put a space in front of the Lead agents name, and it achieved the goal of gettting the lead/primary agent at the top of the list. And the page doesn;t even reveal that, so looking at it there are no formatting issues remaining from it.

I appreciate the point in the right direction.

Ted


Eric
Product Specialist


Jun 10, 2004, 12:25 PM

Post #4 of 11 (9123 views)
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Re: [pdted] Realty Manager - Our Agents Display Order [In reply to] Can't Post
HI Ted,

Thanks for the reply! Cool

I'm glad you found a solution that works for you. Thanks for the tip and I'll pass it on to other clients as well! Cool

If you have other questions please let me know.
Cheers,
Eric Lau - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com


designby5
Novice

Jun 17, 2004, 1:27 PM

Post #5 of 11 (9080 views)
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Re: [Eric] Realty Manager - Our Agents Display Order [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi Eric,

I'm a long time Realty Manager user. I recently upgraded to the latest version of Listings Manager. I am having the same problem.

The way Realty Manager used to sort the homepage index was the last agent added was last on the page. Basically, however each line item was listed in the user.dat.cgi file, that is how they were listed. So, if you needed to change the order you could just rearrange that file in the order you wanted and click re-publish homepage index...

I can understand that through the development of the software and with suggestions of people along the way, why you guys changed it to be listed alphabetically. However, for my site, your three suggestions are unacceptable for my situation.

Our site is a "pay to list" site and has been up for years, now (www.lakesoftexas.com). The agents that have been on the site from the beginning, of course, want top billing (as they should). However, there is no way I could police all the agents to ensure they left their number in front of their name. Not to mention when agents realize that it sorts alphabetically now, I will soon see agent names like "!!!A1 Agent Tony Watson" so they get top billing...

I cannot manually create the homepage index because agents come and go so often that the owners of the site are not going to pay me $100 everytime they have a new agent sign up to re-order the index page.

The developers had to have changed the script somehow to make it list alphabetically. If you guys could let me know what file it is in and what to change to make it do it the old way, then I can do it myself.

*** If i could change the way it sorts using the field "Created On" under the User Manager area for each agent instead of alphabetical by name, That would be GREAT!!!



Thank you for your help,

Tony Watson
Design By 5, Inc.
-Computer Solutions-877-597-5362


(This post was edited by designby5 on Jun 17, 2004, 1:45 PM)


Eric
Product Specialist


Jun 17, 2004, 4:20 PM

Post #6 of 11 (9072 views)
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Re: [designby5] Realty Manager - Our Agents Display Order [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi Tony,

Thanks for the forum post Smile.

In my previous response I mentioned about a 4th option:

Quote


Using the free unsupported search_homepage fields script, you can customize the order of homepage listings. This involves the most amount of work, but it's ideal if you expect frequent user changes and you simply cannot accept option 1 or 2 as a solution.


That's how we're going to resolve your issue and get the agents sorted the way you want them :). For specific instructions, here it is! Cool:
  1. Email support@interactivetools.com and request the search_homepage script for Listings Manager.
  2. Backup your entire installation to a safe location.
  3. UnZip the file and read the readme.txt file.
  4. In case you didn't read the readme.txt file, note that the script file itself goes to the /exec folder and the homepage template files go to the /templates folder.
  5. If you do this correctly, you should get a search results page when you run this URL:

    http://www.lakesoftexas.com/cgi-bin/rm2/exec/search_homepage.cgi?search=1
  6. Notice the ordering of the agents. They should be listed chronologically as you requested. Smile
  7. Find all links that link to http://www.lakesoftexas.com/rm/homepages/index.html and replace them all with the link in step 5.
  8. Edit the _search_homepage_results.html template file to match the look and feel of your site.


That should do the job! Smile If any of the steps didn't work as expected or you have other questions please don't hesitate to ask!
Cheers,
Eric Lau - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com


stanb17
User

Jul 30, 2004, 6:31 AM

Post #7 of 11 (8842 views)
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Re: [Eric] Realty Manager - Our Agents Display Order [In reply to] Can't Post
Eric,

I thought of another "possible" solution to this issue of sorting agents alphabetically by last name. This would involve splitting the Full Name field on the "_userman_add.html" interface template into two sections. 1. First Name, 2. Last Name. Then creating a search string add-on that would look something like...

....Search+$name_he2$++&sort_order=5,abc,forward

and have the $name_he2$ field point to the second name field. Or $name_he1$ to the first name.

I have not tested this out because I'm affraid of blowing away my client's site with my hacking.

Am I barking up the wrong tree here? If you can test this out for me.. I think it might result in a less arduous and potentially dangerous remedy than your last option offered above.

Have a great weekend.

Stan
StanTheMan


Cliff
Staff


Jul 31, 2004, 11:15 AM

Post #8 of 11 (8825 views)
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Re: [stanb17] Realty Manager - Our Agents Display Order [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi Stan,

Thanks for posting.

You can certainly sort the agents alphabetically by last name if you want to, though I wouldn't recommend doing this by modifying the interface templates since that can get a bit tricky

What I would do is add two new Homepage Fields through the Setup Options, one for the agents first name, and one for the last.

Then for the search query all you need to do is search on the last name field, and set the sorting order. So the query string would look something like this:

http://www.yoursite.com/path/to/search_homepage.cgi?search=1&sort_order=5,abc,forward

Then, you can change the reference to list "Our Agents" in all your templates, so that instead of pointing to
Code
<a href="$homepage_url$">

they pass through the homepage search, like this:

Code
<a href="$search_homepage_url$?search=1&perpage=10&sort_order=5,abc,forward">

So do an extended search and replace for <a href="$homepage_url$"> in all your templates and replace it with <a href="$search_homepage_url$?search=1&perpage=10&sort_order=5,abc,forward ">

This will pass the link through the homepage search engine; and have 10 agents appear on the page, with the sort order alphabetic forward based hfield5.

I hope that helps clarify, but if you need any more details please don't hesitate to ask!
Regards,
Cliff Stefanuk - Customer Service Manager
[email]support@interactivetools.com[/email]


stanb17
User

Aug 1, 2004, 6:44 AM

Post #9 of 11 (8807 views)
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Re: [Cliff] Realty Manager - Our Agents Display Order [In reply to] Can't Post
Cliff,

Me likey. I think somewhere in my elongated diatribe I was touching on that exact solution. Thanks for streamlining it... that's what PERL seems to do best.

Thanks


Stan
StanTheMan


joand
New User

Oct 26, 2004, 8:20 AM

Post #10 of 11 (8500 views)
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Re: [Eric] Realty Manager - Our Agents Display Order [In reply to] Can't Post
I have Listings Manager installed on a client site and they want to be able to control the sequence of the Agent listings also. Will the search_homepage function work if I add a new "sort order" field to the agents listings and then sequence the page by that field?

Joan


MikeB
Staff / Moderator


Oct 26, 2004, 4:13 PM

Post #11 of 11 (8488 views)
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Re: [joand] Realty Manager - Our Agents Display Order [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi joand,

Thanks for the post and welcome to the forum!Smile

Using the search_homepage add-on you would be able to create a new field and have your search results sorted on that field. You would be able to follow steps similar to what was outlined above by replacing the field number in the examples with your new field number. If you would like the search_homepage add-on feel free to send an e-mail to support@interactivetools.com.

In the meantime if you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask!Smile

Cheers,
Mike Briggs - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com

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