Our team has been brainstorming for months now on how to most effectively allow users to place images on their classified ads. We wanted to keep the interface simple and easy. This meant absolutely no annoying window pop-ups and no unnecessary new page directs.

The current functionality is the result of our brainstorm. We wanted the images unobtrusive so that the ad’s layout is not compromised. We decided that an image gallery per ad was the best way to go. Users who are interested in a particular ad should opt to click on that ad to maximize it, then click on a particular image to view the ad’s gallery.

Adding images to the ad was another thing. Again, we wanted to preserve the Web 2.0 interface and yet find a very meaningful and easy way to show the users the images they have been uploading to their ad, just as we show a preview of their ads before they submit.

If, say, a user decided to post a Philippine real estate ad, the user would want to add several images (like the map, the floor plan, and the model), the user can see thumbnails of each image, and can readily remove these images. The user can also see how much more free space is available for images.

Ultimately, we hope that this new functionality will make your experience in our classifieds site that more meaningful.

Speaking of images, we are still offering a limited offer of free banner ad space on the right side of our website. If you are interested, simply send us a gif or swf file of your ad with dimensions of either 120pixels width x 90pixels height or 120pixels width x 240pixels height, and send it to admin @ classifiedsph.com with the site you want the ad to redirect to.

Posted: September 13th, 2007 under ClassifiedsPH Development.
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Prototype.js is a handy tool for getting info from the database without having to direct the user to a new page, or refreshing a particular page. For instance, when you edit one of your classified ads, you can simply go to “Manage your Ads”, and click the “Edit” button pertaining to the ad you wish to edit.

When you click on the button, the edit form is immediately shown on the same page. Once you make the necessary changes on your ad and click the “Post this Ad” button, the edit form disappears and your ad is now updated. We believe that minimizing refreshes and redirects allows more ease of use.

Another nifty feature of the site is the preview box that updates itself in real time, as you edit or post a new ad, and fill out the necessary fields in the form. This allows you to readily see the final output, which can drastically reduce the chances of making errors.

Posted: August 14th, 2007 under ClassifiedsPH Development.
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ClassifiedsPH is one of our baby projects, and is a Philippine classifieds site. It started out as your classic buy/sell UI with the table format showing off the ads per category.

My co-programmer, however, had a stroke of genius recreating the UI to have the site mimic the newspaper-style format for classifieds, of course, with added functionalities that the newspaper cannot provide; for instance, searching. You can view the newest look at our classifieds site, http://www.classifiedsph.com

We also decided to give this site a Web 2.0-based front-end, to remove the hassles of page redirect and to provide a more user-friendly interface. One of our favorite features is the preview screen which you see when you post an ad in our site. While typing the details of the ad, you can see a preview of how the ad will look like once it is posted, on the right side of the screen. This is updated as you type in your text fields, done by the wonders of AJAX.

We still have quite a lot of features up our sleeves to make classifiedsPH more than just your ordinary Philippine classifieds site. Stay tuned for more updates, and more tidbits about how the site was programmed.

Posted: July 28th, 2007 under ClassifiedsPH Development.
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