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Link Expiration
Hello,

I have seen a mod for Links 2.0 but nothing for LSQL. Is there such a addon to LSQL, and is it a plugin or a hack.... is it easy to do. Can you explain for the technically challenged?
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Re: [Evoir] Link Expiration In reply to
There is no formal plugin/code hack that I am aware of, but this request has been discussed before in this forum...

Example:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/...tring=expire;#176140
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me
Quote Reply
Re: [Evoir] Link Expiration In reply to
Alex or anyone else from GT: are you planning on adding this feature to LSQL?

The link Heckler gave did have a discussion about the subject, but it went over my head. I know other's would be thrilled to get an expirator going as well...
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Re: [Evoir] Link Expiration In reply to
I'm still twiddling away at this based on my posts last month.

Because of the number of requests I'm getting,and the similarity of some, I'm going to set up the forum area on the PUGDOCS.com site to track the requests, and what I've got being worked on, and how close to completion.

I'm just getting my sites back up, the postcards sites should start to go live today, which means I'll be devoting more time to "upgrades" and "plugins" rather than "installs".

Note to the community at large: if you send me a Private message, and you have private messages turned off in your profile, and you don't list your email address, I can't reply to you!! I have gotten several messages like that in the past week or two.


PUGDOG� Enterprises, Inc.

The best way to contact me is to NOT use Email.
Please leave a PM here.
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Re: [Evoir] Link Expiration In reply to
I created an expirator for Links 2.0, and worked very well, so I used it until now.
The expiration was triggered by a form submit event, e.g. when a link was added, modified, etc.

Now I change to Links SQL, so I will have to create the Expirator mod again.
I'm thinking to create an Expirator plugin. Basically I planned to develop it for myself, but if there is need for it, I may release it as shareware for reasonable price.

Let me know if somebody really needs it.

Best regards,
Webmaster33


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Re: [webmaster33] Link Expiration In reply to
Expirator would be great to have.

It would be neat if you had options for how to link is expired:

1. Number of days
2. Date

In fact, it could even be interesting if you could make a link valid only during certain periods. For example, you might have a link owner who wants their link to display only during Valentine's Day, or whatever. This would sort of be a Super Expirator, I guess.

Thanks!

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Re: [DogTags] Link Expiration In reply to
Yes, very good ideas.
Until now, the my expirator function was based on idea 1. (number of days).

It is possible to write a Links SQL plugin to have both (even all your 3 ideas) implemented into it.

Options, how links could be expired:
1. Number of days (expire after X days)
2. Expiring Date (expire on date 2002.03.30)
3. Valid within date interval (2002.02.01-2002.03.01)
4. After displaying X times

Also expiration checking could be activated several ways:
a) Form submit Event based expiration checking, e.g: link submit or modify (may be very inaccurate for sites with low traffic, because there will be many lately expired links).
b) Page display Event based expiration checking (better expiration, but can be still inaccurate for sites with low traffic, takes more server resources & page display is slower).
c) Cron based expiration checking (very scalable solution, checking interval can be set by the user).

The first 1.0 version of LinksSQL Expire plugin, will have the following features:
- expire by days (1)
- Form submit Event based expiration (a).

All other features will be implemented in later versions, if there will be need for them...
I'm thinking releasing it as commercial (instead of shareware), because there will be a lot work with the development of new features. When I will finish & release the 1.0 version, it would cost $50+, which will include free upgrades & free support.

If somebody needs such Expirator plugin, post the extra ideas & opinions here in the Link Expiration thread. If you are interested in this plugin, you can send me private message to notify me, that you need it.
The more private requests I get, encourages me more to try to finish the plugin earlier.

Waiting opinions & private requests.

Best regards,
Webmaster33


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Re: [webmaster33] Link Expiration In reply to
All suggestions sound good, webmaster33. Has anyone else expressed interest? This could be a nice plugin for paid listings:

"Your listing is good through _______"

Suggestion: it would be good if the link owner were to receive periodic reminders to renew their listing. For example, perhaps two different reminders could go out. One at 30 days, one at 7 days, and then one on the last day, and then, if needed, a last email to tell the link owner that they've been dropped.

In fact, this could get more interesting. Perhaps the script could create an "On Hold" set of listings that do not show up in the live listings but that can be "Re-activated" when the link owner renews it. This way, the link owner doesn't have to re-enter all of their data again. It's all there just waiting to be fired up again. Does this sound do-able?

This could be setup as a cronjob, or, as you suggested, the script could crank out the reminders by checking date fields or whatever every time the script is run. A lot of reminder scripts do it this way so that you do not have to have cron to run it.

Thanks.

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Last edited by:

DogTags: Feb 20, 2002, 4:20 PM
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Re: [DogTags] Link Expiration In reply to
Quote:
All suggestions sound good, webmaster33.
Thank you very much!

Quote:
Has anyone else expressed interest?
Yes, but not really much. Maybe later there will be more interest, as more people read this thread.

Quote:
Suggestion: 1) the link owner were to receive periodic reminders to renew their listing 2) create an "On Hold" set of listings that do not show up in the live listings but that can be "Re-activated" when the link owner renews it
Well, these ideas was in my mind since a long time... You guessed my thought. Wink
However the more implemented features require more work, so that might increase the price a bit (the final price will be $60, if I implement all suggestions we discussed).

So the following special Expiration options could be also implemented:
1) Reminder option: the link owners can receive 2 optional reminder to renew their listing, before their link expire. The reminder options will require day as input.
2 default reminder option value will be used (but can be modified on the plugin admin interface):
  • a) e-mail reminder 3 day before link expiration

  • b) e-mail reminder 1 day before link expiration

  • 2) Re-activate option: when a link expires, it will be not deleted, but gets a "Hidden" setting.
    These expired hidden links will not show up in the live listings, but there is a possibility to "Re-activate" the link by the link owner (from a somekind of "link management interface" of the user).
    The "Hidden" links are kept for X days after the original expire, then are deleted (expired) finally.
    Days to keep after expiration option:
  • a) keep for X days


  • I feel, that this plugin is getting to be professional, even before the actual development is started Wink
    I hope there will be more interest for this plugin, so I can start the development.

    Requests can be posted here or by private message.
    Thanks.

    Best regards,
    Webmaster33


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    Quote Reply
    Re: [pugdog] Link Expiration In reply to
    Ok,

    Here's what I have so far, but I have not gotten a PayPal or other automated
    payment interface. This payment/approval system is up to the admin, at this
    point, manual in other words. It seems to do much of what is described above.

    Each link has several new fields:
    Expire_On_Date - date after which link is considered "expired"
    Expire_Display - number of hits decremented each 'Display'
    Expire_Jumps - number of jumps decremented each jump
    Expire_Display - Yes/No - to display or not.
    Expired - Yes/No - is link expired or not

    1) A user can choose an expiration date (defaults set by the admin, or arbitrary) (Jan 10th, 2002)
    2) A user can choose an expiration number of days (35 -- which is translated into an Expire_On date)
    3) A user can choose a number of "displays" for an ad, or it has an admin default. (display in listings)
    4) A user can choose a number of "hits" for an ad, or it has an admin default. (jump to site)

    Links expire either by date, hits, or jumps, or by all 3, whichever happens first.

    Once expired, the Expired flag is set, and the link is considered expired.

    The Expire_Display flag is can also be set, to allow a user to have a grace period, or to allow a
    link to still display, but no longer have whatever special features were attached to it. You can
    argue that Expire_Display and Expired are the same thing, but I know from programming the Logo and
    image mods, they are not quite exactly.


    the "display" counting code is not finished, some problems are there for category listings.

    jump.cgi counts "jumps" to each site.
    site_HTML_display_detailed counts "displays"

    detail_page.cgi is the preferred method of counting "displays" and you can use an additional
    flag in your links system to let classifieds link to the counting system, and non-classifieds
    link to regular jumps or page.cgi

    <%if CLASSIFIED%>
    detail_page.cgi
    <%else%>
    usual link to whatever
    <%endif%>

    Under the same system, CLASSIFIED could also be Expired, so you can turn off extra features
    of expired links, such as detailed listings, etc.

    I've got more to work on with this, and it's not stuffed into a plugin yet, but I needed this
    for some of the other mods I'm working on.


    If I do stuff it into a plugin, I might 'force' some issues, such that rather than using
    jump.cgi, detail_page.cgi and/or page.cgi you must use expire.cgi to call the link, or it
    won't track expirations properly. It gets pretty complicated, and trying to make all the
    various calling conventions "behave" is a lot harder than just forcing you to use a separate
    program and some <%if%> tags in your templates ;) And, it's probably a lot more portable.

    One *BIG* issue, is link counts. Unless you use the "isValidated" flag, link counts are
    innacurate if you have something like Expire_Display=0.

    This goes back to Alex centralizing additinal flags for link processing -- isValidated,
    isVisible, etc.


    Honestly, if you need something more complicated than this, you should consider modifying
    something like AdvertPro to use "links" rather than banners, or buying the pay-per-view/click
    positioning engine.

    I haven't seen the pay placement engine, but I'm sure you could modify it to do this more
    easily than trying to build it up from scratch.

    Why? The permutations get really, really out of hand really fast. I actually built in
    (or am trying to) more than I need, in a simple expirator mod. I might actually back off
    on some of it, as not falling in an effort/value equation.

    One more note: adding in webmaster notification is not hard -- I hesitate to say trivial,
    but it is. If you don't use flag fields, you would need to use a cron job to do this, to
    prevent multiple notifications, but you could easily have the mailer send out a notice at
    whatever intervals you wanted. That is virtually a cut/paste from any one of the scripts
    that sends out mail wrapped in a set-up routine. If you used jump/display tracking, you
    could have the script trigger when the count hit a predetermined number. Again, "trivial".

    The trick here is a low-impact (on performance) means of expiring links at a certain time,
    or after a certain number of events (displays, jumps, etc), while not messing up Links
    internal tracking.

    One solution to keep counts correct would be to use an "expired" table, where the link
    was moved from the Links table to the Expired_Links table. A user could reactivate it
    and once approved, it was simply moved back to the Links table. Sometimes old tricks
    are the best tricks ;)

    PS: this was done for my "attachments" system, not Links, so I'm kind of shoe horning it into the Links table. It was designed to allow attachments and added features to expire, yet still be available for reactivation if necessary.


    PUGDOG� Enterprises, Inc.

    The best way to contact me is to NOT use Email.
    Please leave a PM here.
    Quote Reply
    Re: [pugdog] Link Expiration In reply to
    Whew! I have to get my notebook out!

    I'm eager to see the final versions of both. Smile

    Thanks very much.

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    Quote Reply
    Re: [DogTags] Link Expiration In reply to
    Hi

    Just checking in to see the status of things. Howz it goin?

    Thanks very much.

    ------------------------------------------
    Quote Reply
    Re: [DogTags] Link Expiration In reply to
    It's going, but I got sidetracked by the rating/review rewrite. These little programs are sort of all interrelated.... it's kind of like what Alex was going through as he kept rewriting Links 2.0 into Links SQL... and SQL 1.x to 2.x. The more you do, the more you have to do. :)


    PUGDOG� Enterprises, Inc.

    The best way to contact me is to NOT use Email.
    Please leave a PM here.
    Quote Reply
    Re: [pugdog] Link Expiration In reply to
    Super thanks. This will be neat. I'll check in once in a while.

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    Quote Reply
    Re: [DogTags] Link Expiration In reply to
    Well, I'm still migrating my all changes from Links 2.0 to LinksSQL, so this might take at least a month. There are a lot of problems I have to solve during the upgrade, because I had a lot of changes over the standard Links 2.0.
    I can start developing of the Expirator after the time I was able to upgrade my site.

    Sorry if this causes you any problem.

    However when I will start development of the Expirator plugin, it will be professional (if there will be need for it) Wink

    Best regards,
    Webmaster33


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    Quote Reply
    Re: [webmaster33] Link Expiration In reply to
    ^^ Bumpski ^^

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    Quote Reply
    Re: [DogTags] Link Expiration In reply to
    I also need the expirator plugin as soon as possible... This makes me hurry Wink
    But currently I'm developing other plugins for my site, too. This takes a few weeks.

    Patience is the key Smile

    Right now, I found a (dynamic URL) bug in LinksSQL, and I'm working to correct it... I will make it available for public & for Alex to correct the bug in next release.

    Best regards,
    Webmaster33


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    Quote Reply
    Re: [webmaster33] Link Expiration In reply to
    No problem, webmaster33. I am very grateful for your help and pugdog's. I'm not around the forum much these days. So, I try to catch up every couple of weeks.

    Sounds good, too, that you're squashing a bug.

    Thanks very much.

    ------------------------------------------
    Quote Reply
    Re: [webmaster33] Link Expiration In reply to
    I'll keep my eyes open for the expiration mod. My needs are simple. I know some links that are submitted are only good for a short time so I'll assign them, 10 days, 30 days or never. That's about it for me.
    Quote Reply
    Re: [SirMoby] Link Expiration In reply to
    Hi,

    I am very keen to see the link expiration mod as it is something that I will find useful. My use will be to have a link in my directory for say 12 months and then at that time in order for the person to maintain their listing they will need to renew their subscription. I am not too worried about the payment system as I intendto get that hooked up through verisign or something like that.

    I would like the feature to send reminder notices and the suggestion of 30 days befire, 7 days before, 1 day before and 1 week after are all features I would love.

    However, in terms of the expiration I do not want to exclude the expired link from the directory, rather that it just loose some features. For example as part of the subscription the person will be able to have a detailed page which will have photos and a detailed description. What my preference would be is to disable the detailed page once their link has expired so that all they then have is the url, short description and reviews. And if they wanted to come back in six months and renew they could be simply paying for another year. To this end I think if a message could be displayed across their detailed page when they try to edit it would also be helpful. For example lets say they are updating their detailed page then if a countdown (ie six months left) could be seen that would also be helpful (or maybe just your accounts expires on 3 Jan 2003).

    Anyway just some thoughts.
    Webmaster
    http://www.e-bannerx.com
    Quote Reply
    Re: [fulcan] Link Expiration In reply to
    Hi,

    Your needs seem very much like what I am working on.

    Using <%if%> clauses in the templates, the user can see their links "as it would be" when they log on, and "as it is" if they log out. They get a pretty good visual as to the difference in what the link looks like.

    I hope to have something soon, but Alex threw another curve with the "updated editor/user" system, which this stuff has to tie into pretty snuggly.


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    Quote Reply
    Re: [pugdog] Link Expiration In reply to
    Would there be such a thing as a link that never expires?

    basically, I am trying to do all of our site in one LSQL database, and there will only be one section that I'd like to have expiration dates. Is this possible?

    Really, all we need is a start date, an expiration date and notification of expiration sent to the link owner. In addition, we'd like to be able to set links to "never expire".

    Is this possible with these plugins? Would it be a different plugin? Anyone up for it?
    Quote Reply
    Re: [Evoir] Link Expiration In reply to
    I decided to collect those features, which was requested for the Expirator plugin.
    The following list contains those features, I plan to implement into the later versions of my planned Advanced Link Expirator plugin.

    Requested & planned features for the Advanced Link Expirator plugin:
    1) Expiration types:
    . . . a. Number of days (expire after X days)
    . . . . . . I) expiration start date (Exp_date_start) field is filled (when to start expiration)
    . . . . . . II) expiration days (Exp_days) field is filled (after X days to expire)
    . . . b. Expire by Date (expire on date 2002.03.30)
    . . . . . . I) expiration start date (Exp_date_start) field is left blank
    . . . . . . II) expiration end date (Exp_date_end) field is filled (when to expire the link)
    . . . c. Valid within date interval, then expire (2002.02.01-2002.03.01):
    . . . . . . I) expiration start date (Exp_date_start) field is filled (when to start expiration)
    . . . . . . II) expiration end date (Exp_date_end) field is filled (when to expire the link)
    . . . d. After displaying X times
    . . . . . . I) expiration after X display times (Exp_disp_num) field is filled
    . . . e. After having X hits (clicks) on link with jump.cgi
    . . . . . . I) expiration after X hits (Exp_hit_num) field is filled
    2) Expiration checking could be activated several ways:
    . . . a) Form submit event based expiration checking
    . . . . . . + works for Dynamic & Static mode
    . . . . . . + faster page display, especially in Static mode (only by comparing to option b.)
    . . . . . . + does not take much server resources in full Dynamic mode, when adding, modifying, deleting links
    . . . . . . - used form submit events: link Add, Modify, Delete
    . . . . . . - may be very slow link adding, modifying, deleting
    . . . . . . - takes very much server resources in full Static mode, when adding, modifying, deleting links (for many minutes, depending on rebuild time of changed pages)
    . . . . . . - may be very inaccurate for sites with low traffic, because there will be many lately expired links
    . . . b) Page display event based expiration checking
    . . . . . . + accurate link expiration
    . . . . . . - works only in Dynamic mode
    . . . . . . - page display is slower (comparing to the case, when no expiration is done)
    . . . . . . - takes a bit more server resources, when displaying a page
    . . . c) Crontab based expiration checking
    . . . . . . + very scalable solution
    . . . . . . + works for Dynamic & Static mode
    . . . . . . + is as much accurate as often the expiration checking is often done (the more often is more accurate)
    . . . . . . + expiration checking interval could be set by the user
    . . . . . . + does not take much server resources in full Dynamic mode
    . . . . . . - takes much server resources in full Static mode, for each check (each check can even last for minutes, depending on last rebuild time of changed pages, and on amount of pages to rebuild)
    . . . . . . - each expiration checking process should have enough time to finish page rebuild job. If 2 expiration checking process job overlaps themself the server may become unstable
    3) feature to select categories where to expire links
    4) feature to set some links to "never expire" (if no expiration start date and no expiration end date is set for the link, then it will not expire)
    5) e-mail notification X days before the link will be expired (might be improved later to be a periodic Reminder feature)
    6) e-mail notification when the link expired
    7) On link expiration:
    . . . a) delete the link
    . . . b) just put "on Hold", and do not display it. The link can be Re-activated by the user anytime.
    . . . c) move to Expired_DB table and delete from there after X days (look at 8.a point). The link can be Re-activated by the user within this second expire time.
    8) Re-activate option: the user can be Re-activate those links, which was inactivated in 7.b or 7.c.
    . . . a) keep for X days

    Please note:
    - it is very likely, that the first v1.0 version will contain only a few features of those listed above
    - the remaining features will be implemented in later versions.
    - altought I got the suggested features into the list, it does not mean that the feature can be developed into the plugin. All these development problems will appear only when I start the real development.
    - the development will start, when I finish my current developed plugins

    BTW: comments, opinions are always welcome!

    Best regards,
    Webmaster33


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    Last edited by:

    webmaster33: Jul 23, 2002, 5:38 AM
    Quote Reply
    Re: [webmaster33] Link Expiration In reply to
    Okay, webmaster33. We'll be on the lookout Smile

    Thanks.

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    Quote Reply
    Re: [DogTags] Link Expiration In reply to
    I opened a new thread about my new planned plugin Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE), on which I just started the development work.
    You can find description, feature summary, detailed list of planned features, and links to Expiration related threads collected into the following thread:
    [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news
    (I hope, the related threads links on the page above, will be help you to find the popular expiration related threads I found)

    Please note (FYI):
    There are several expirator plugins under development. The mentioned plugin is developed, by me, Webmaster33. Pugdog, also have an expirator plugin under development, so about his plugin ask him. Others may also have expirator plugin under development, so do not confuse the plugins.

    By the way, here is Pugdog's thread about his developed expiration plugin:
    Expirator, Expiration Mod, etc,

    Best regards,
    Webmaster33


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