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The Admin Interface REALLY Still This Poor?

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The Admin Interface REALLY Still This Poor?
It's been a couple years but I finally came back around to take a look at Gossamer Links. Was reviewing the features and thinking about switching from my present directory script, and wondering if I'd be able to manage to get my present directory database imported into Gossamer, and then I took a look at the admin demo and remembered that it was one of the big things that originally turned me off so much to it. Unfortunately, it doesn't look to have changed much. Is it really a condition of great featured software/scripts that appeal to the technically minded that they must have very bland, counter intuitive interfaces?

Please tell me at least that there's a nice graphical presentation of the categories if you own a copy, that you don't REALLY have to scroll through 350+ pages to see all the categories!
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Re: [imno007] The Admin Interface REALLY Still This Poor? In reply to
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Please tell me at least that there's a nice graphical presentation of the categories if you own a copy, that you don't REALLY have to scroll through 350+ pages to see all the categories!
What do you mean by that?

Best regards,
Webmaster33


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Re: [webmaster33] The Admin Interface REALLY Still This Poor? In reply to
Hi,

Personally, I'd say that GLinks/LSQL is the most intuitive admin panel I've seen ever. Its lets you do what you need to do, whether it be simple changes... or writing globals/plugins. Ton's of other directory scripts "boast" about having a better admin panel (i.e "prettier"), but TBH .. they very often don't live up to it.

Just my 2 cents Smile

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk
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Re: [imno007] The Admin Interface REALLY Still This Poor? In reply to
Webmaster33, what I meant by the category thing is simple: when you try out the admin demo and look at the categories what you see is hundreds of pages of categories assorted in no apparent order - or they're in alphabetical order, can't remember for sure - that you have to scroll through page by page.

Andy, I'm using Focalmedia's PowerSeek SQL right now. It has its limits, like its inability to move categories, which was why I was taking a relook at Links, but trip on over there and take a look at their admin demo. GossamerLinks might have more features, but I'd be truly surprised if you would try to argue that it has a cleaner, more intuitive interface than PS. When you're comparing the two, look at it from the perspective of a person with no code writing experience, who doesn't want to have to go "under the hood" to get things done, not someone like yourself who makes money off of writing mods for the script he's using.

Last edited by:

imno007: Apr 26, 2005, 8:40 AM
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Re: [imno007] The Admin Interface REALLY Still This Poor? In reply to
Hi,

Have you tried the Browse button in the admin area? This gives you a heirarchal view of your category structure, allowing you to expand/collapse any tree, as well as point and click to move links between categories and move categories itself:



Cheers,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
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Re: [Alex] The Admin Interface REALLY Still This Poor? In reply to
Alex, thank you! That was a mistake on my part, I was looking under the Database menu to get at the categories, glad you pointed that out to me. (Heh, it was late, I was tired.) So now the admin's starting to look like it has hope. Smile


Now if you can tell me there's a PPC add-on out there for Links that doesn't cost $1500! Focalmedia has one that's good enough to satisfy my needs for $89 - which, needless to say, is a huge difference.

Last edited by:

imno007: Apr 26, 2005, 8:54 AM
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Re: [imno007] The Admin Interface REALLY Still This Poor? In reply to
Hi,

Well, Gossamer Links does support payments out of the box for a variety of different payment models (priority listings, enhanced listings, etc). We also have a number of other plugins available for things like a pay-per-day model. While it won't come in at $89, there are some options less then $1500 if the included payment options don't meet your needs. Best bet is to contact us at info at gossamer-threads.com with details on what sort of payment system you are looking for, and we can give you some options.

Cheers,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
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Re: [Alex] The Admin Interface REALLY Still This Poor? In reply to
Thanks again, Alex. I'm probably going to wait till PS releases its 3.0 version to see if it addresses some of the main issues I have with it. If it doesn't, then I'll likely be coming over to you guys, since there's no way I'll be waiting another 2 years for PS 4.0 to come out. The thought of such a transition makes me more than a little uneasy, though, because at present I have over 70,000 links in about 11,000 directories, and thousands of the directories are cross-linked. I'm not at all sure that it will be possible to get the entire structure imported intact into Links or any other script.

Speaking of cross-linking: I'm not going to make the mistake of making another false assumption, but it APPEARS that LinksSQL lacks this feature. Is has 'Related' categories, I see, as PS does, but I didn't see a way to cross-link directories like I can in PS. By cross-linked directories I mean those directories that are listed in the regular category tree but followed by '@', as you see in most of the big commercial directories, that take you to another category when you click on them.
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Re: [imno007] The Admin Interface REALLY Still This Poor? In reply to
Hi,

That's what the related categories are for. They can be displayed either in a separate menu beneath the subcategories, or they can be merged into the subcategory list and prefixed with an @.

Cheers,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
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Re: [Alex] The Admin Interface REALLY Still This Poor? In reply to
Thanks again, Alex! A+ for reponse time.