Hey GT Community!
Been a while since I posted here, hope everyone is doing well.
I had begun development on a project several years ago, but back-burnered it to pursue other things. That project never did see the light of day sadly, and so my Glinks license has been just "dormant" all this time.
I recently had an idea for a new website and thought that GLinks might work for it. But, I've forgotten almost everything relating to customizing it.
For business reasons, I can't disclose *exactly* what we are developing in a public forum, but here is the jist of what I need to accomplish. I'm hoping someone might have an idea or two on how I might go about it.
Basically, I need to have 2 user types. One type of user would be an "advertiser," the other would be a "consumer".
Advertisers would be able to submit links, but they can't search or otherwise view the directory.
Consumers can search and view the directory. However, they need to be logged in to do so. (People can't view the directory just by visiting the site, they need to register and log in)
That's the first and main thing.
Beyond that, there are some related tasks, like:
1. when a consumer logs in, I want to display a half dozen or so "recommended" links to them without them performing an actual search. I'll need to create some kind of criteria that would try to match links they would find interesting. This could either be done by asking them to provide some "interest" info on the registration form, or possibly keep track of clicked link history and match the categories with links they've clicked in the past. Not sure which of those methods would be best vs. which would be easiest to implement.
2. Advertisers can only submit one link unless they upgrade to a paid account, and then the amount of links they can submit will depend on their "level" of participation. Like a bronze, silver, gold deal where bronze gets a few, silver gets more, gold gets a bunch. That kind of thing.
3. Ideally (and I'm not even sure this is doable) I'd like to be able to offer "local" links as an option, where an advertiser can perhaps specify his or her link as being of "local interest", include a zip code, and then when I present the consumer with the "recommended" links I mentioned in #1 above, it does some kind of IP based check (similar to Google local search) so if there is a local match it displays the local interest link to the consumer. BTW, I mentioned the advertiser being able to specify a link as being "local" (like with a checkbox)... The reason for that is I am trying to keep the number of categories to a manageable (and rather small) level, so don't think having a completely different set of local categories is the best way to handle this, although I did consider it.
4. Etc.
We're in the very early phases of development, more of a brainstorming phase really, so I'm sure more will pop up.
Anyone have any advice on the above? Not really expecting a full response to every little thing, but if anyone has any input on any part of it (and particularly the two user types bit) I'd really appreciate it. Just something to get me started would be swell. :)
Thanks folks,
Matt G
Been a while since I posted here, hope everyone is doing well.
I had begun development on a project several years ago, but back-burnered it to pursue other things. That project never did see the light of day sadly, and so my Glinks license has been just "dormant" all this time.
I recently had an idea for a new website and thought that GLinks might work for it. But, I've forgotten almost everything relating to customizing it.
For business reasons, I can't disclose *exactly* what we are developing in a public forum, but here is the jist of what I need to accomplish. I'm hoping someone might have an idea or two on how I might go about it.
Basically, I need to have 2 user types. One type of user would be an "advertiser," the other would be a "consumer".
Advertisers would be able to submit links, but they can't search or otherwise view the directory.
Consumers can search and view the directory. However, they need to be logged in to do so. (People can't view the directory just by visiting the site, they need to register and log in)
That's the first and main thing.
Beyond that, there are some related tasks, like:
1. when a consumer logs in, I want to display a half dozen or so "recommended" links to them without them performing an actual search. I'll need to create some kind of criteria that would try to match links they would find interesting. This could either be done by asking them to provide some "interest" info on the registration form, or possibly keep track of clicked link history and match the categories with links they've clicked in the past. Not sure which of those methods would be best vs. which would be easiest to implement.
2. Advertisers can only submit one link unless they upgrade to a paid account, and then the amount of links they can submit will depend on their "level" of participation. Like a bronze, silver, gold deal where bronze gets a few, silver gets more, gold gets a bunch. That kind of thing.
3. Ideally (and I'm not even sure this is doable) I'd like to be able to offer "local" links as an option, where an advertiser can perhaps specify his or her link as being of "local interest", include a zip code, and then when I present the consumer with the "recommended" links I mentioned in #1 above, it does some kind of IP based check (similar to Google local search) so if there is a local match it displays the local interest link to the consumer. BTW, I mentioned the advertiser being able to specify a link as being "local" (like with a checkbox)... The reason for that is I am trying to keep the number of categories to a manageable (and rather small) level, so don't think having a completely different set of local categories is the best way to handle this, although I did consider it.
4. Etc.
We're in the very early phases of development, more of a brainstorming phase really, so I'm sure more will pop up.
Anyone have any advice on the above? Not really expecting a full response to every little thing, but if anyone has any input on any part of it (and particularly the two user types bit) I'd really appreciate it. Just something to get me started would be swell. :)
Thanks folks,
Matt G
Two User Types? ... (plus misc)