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business directory / local search ?

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business directory / local search ?
Hi,

I am starting to build a business directory (yellow pages).

I would like to have categories and subcategories like for example:


Home > Properties > Apartments > Apartment for Rent

1)
When a user is viewing the subcategory "Apartment for Rent", I want him to be able to select from a list of states and sub-list of cities in order to localize his search.

2)
Besides the search-box where the user is putting in his search-term, I do also need a second "search-box" (or drop-down-filed) on which the user is able to select from a list of states and sub-list of cities in order to localize his search.


BTW: I do have a full list of ZIP-Codes, state-names and city-names available.



How can I make something like this work ?
Is there a plugin or a ready-made solution available ?



Appreciate your help !



Erich
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Re: [erichcyber] business directory / local search ? In reply to
Perhaps you could have the category "Apartment for Rent" with state subcategories (all the states.. ex. "FL" or "LA" as a subcategory.) Then you could edit your apartment for rent category template to not display the subcategories, but instead display a map or a drop down menu.

Or you could have subcategories for types of apartments, the create an include that pretty much reads from the db "Where category = "apartment for rent" and state = "AR" for example. It just depends on exactly what you are trying to do.

Hope this helps,

- Jonathan
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Re: [jdgamble] business directory / local search ? In reply to
Hi Jonathan,

many thnaks for your answer !

Unfortunately, I am not a database expert. I would like to have it working the same way as on the following website (it is in german language, but should explain what I need):

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http://www.herold.at/...223208180105&rd=

There is a search-box at the left called "Wer, Was", where a user can put in his search-term like "hotel", "barber", etc. and there is another search-box at the right called "Wo", where the user can input the name of the city or the ZIP-Code or he can simply select the province or city from a link just above this search-box (see following link).

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http://www.herold.at/...H5_11560223208180105

If you click on this link above the search-box, you then see a yellow box called "Bundeslander", where the user can select the provinces and cities.

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http://www.herold.at/servlet/at.herold.sp.servlet.SPYPRefineSearchServlet?ref=hbdheadingidnav&drillItem=INET_1694&context=YP&sd=AH2_11560218210010102&rd=GSO_4


At the left of this website, you see a yellow box called "In der Umgebung" which actually shows 9 different states and if you click on one of these states like "Burgenland" , it shows the cities within this state.

There is another yellow box called "Branchenauswahl" which lets you actually select from different industry-branches (like hotels, banks, barbers, etc.).

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How to achieve this with G-Links (I do have the very latest G-Links-installation and also using Multiple-language-plugin and also G-Community) ?



Best regards,

Erich

Last edited by:

erichcyber: Aug 19, 2006, 2:28 PM
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Re: [erichcyber] business directory / local search ? In reply to
The map and the city listing can easily be done with categories. Just have the appartment subcategories all the states, and each state category all the cities. Then you can edit the apartment category template and add the map (looks like this site is using dhtml or some kind of basic java). You can edit each state template the same way to add the map.

As far as the search and zip code... little more complicated. The first search box could be done just using the regular search in links. The second search box will need to be a custumization... especially to get it to work with zip or city name and automatically refresh to the selected category.

Without the zip code part working, you could probably write a new search file, say city.cgi, that pretty much checks for the subcategory of apartments called "city name" and either displays (no city found) or does a refresh to the category page. If you know basic perl and how GT handles db's, this would not be difficult.

As far as the zip code, you would probably need a db called zip (or so..), that has two fields, a zip code, and a city name. They using your city.cgi file, if the input is a number, open the zip table, find the matching city, and refresh from there (or give no zip found).

It would not be too difficult, but it would require some time. If you think this is too complicated for you, I suggest you post an add under custumization.

Good Luck!

- Jonathan
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Re: [erichcyber] business directory / local search ? In reply to
Hi,

is there anybody out there who is using G-Links as a "yellow pages - business directory" already and using the functions I described in my original post ?
Would be interesting to see this in action.

Is there a ready-made plug-in available ?




Best regards,

Erich