PHP Link Directory 2.0 Features

[David]

Compatibility:
Runs on Linux or Windows
Works with muliple database formats: tested with MySQL, Postgres and MS SQL, but many others are supported (it uses the ADOdb library)

Versatilty: All of the following options can be turned on or off:
1. Enable URL Rewrite: This makes categories appear as folders, so for example if you have a category called "Computers", the url will be yoursite.com/directory/computers/
2. Visual Confirmation: To prevent bots from submitting to your directory, you can require users to type in a code from a picture {old url removed}
3. Require Reciprocal Link: This requires people submitting their site to enter the url of the page where they are linking to your site. When they hit "submit", the script will check their page to make sure the reciprocal link is indeed present. If not, they will be asked to resubmit.
4. RSS/XML Feed: Each category can allow for a feed like this: {old url removed}. In addition, search results can have xml enabled as well: {old url removed}
5. Allow Multiple Submissions: Here you can decide if you want the same site to be able to submit to more than one category or not.

More Configuration Features:
1. Link Validation: You won't have to waste your time with approving broken links.
2. Choice of Email methods: PHP Email Function, SMTP, Sendmail

Of course, this is the short list on new features. Please check the homepage of the site for many other features that are already a part of this script. Oh...and coming shortly there will be versions in other languages (ex. German), and the ability to display the Google PageRank of each link in your directory. :)

To see the admin area, got to {old url removed}
login: admin
password: 123456

(Settings & Profile cannot be changed on the demo site and also the emails are not sent)

[Anonymous]

awesome - this is a very professional application. just amazing quality - im really excited about it!

a few comments:

on the dashboard, it would be nice to click on all categories to see active links, pending, etc
{old url removed}

on the submit page, the dropdown list is a bit confusing - would be nice not to have extra dashes.
{old url removed}

would be nice to have a second group permission to allow employees and link builders to access directory without high level permissions (this is a minor issue)
{old url removed}

in site email, it would be nice to be able to enter entire site details (description) so the owner merely has to click on the link in their email program, enter recip link location, and the recip process is done.
{old url removed}

another helpful feature would be admin setting for reciprocal link info, IE what anchor text and description WE want others to use. Would be nice to have multiple options that could be rotated so link anchor text/description is not the same on EVERY reciprocated site. example of the link code:
{old url removed}


keep up the GREAT work!

[kwirl]

For the record, I happen to work in the SEO industry, and for the best results, you don't want to have pre-written site descriptions for reciprocal links. Most current search engines give added weight to links that use varying anchor-text.

When the search engine scouts for your links, and it finds that a large majority of them use the same anchor text, it will devalue those links, which defeat the purpose for a lot of directory usage.

An interesting coding feat would be to allow a webmaster to enter a multitude of site descriptions and anchor text options, and the reciprocal site owner would receive a random combination of the two from this 'database' when they retrieve your information for their site.

As version 2 goes live, I will continue lurking on the forums while i install, configure, customize and launch this application on my web sites. I'll try to help with any non-developmental issues as I'm able.

[David]

Sure, I have heard this before about the descriptions.
I believe that you can create multiple templates, and then pick a different template each time when you send the email. Does that somewhat solve your problem?

[dcb]

I think kwirl has a point. This should not be very hard to implement, without messing with the email templates.

[kwirl]

I'm trying to steer my private interests from design into development, so if I can contribute here I'm certainly going to try my best.

I'm more than happy to help out if its needed on the forums with generic troubleshooting, god knows i have enough experience with it irl :P

[Anonymous]

yes- having rotating reciprocal link descriptions/anchor text that are emailed as well as displayed on the live site is what i meant. THis way you can give suggestions to other webmasters who are looking for link swaps.

it would be really nice to have a dropdown selection for link status directly on this page, so you dont have to click on the edit button and go to a different page.

{old url removed}

in the URL field it would be nice to be able to click on the icon to go directlly to the recip page, to verify your link is actually there.

also, for me, the admin login does not redirect to the admin page



another thought - i have come accross unscrupulous webmasters who exclude their links pages through robots.txt is it hard to check for this?


you have some **censored****censored****censored****censored** good developers

[dcb]

There is no need to check the reciprocals manually.
Validate Links script does that for you. It checks that the reciprocal link URL exists and that it really contains an A tag with the href poiting to your site.

The robots.txt check might be tricky, but I'll certainly look into it for the next version. (The PR of the recriprocal link URL might be a hint, in the meanwhile)

I know there are some issues with the login redirect, hopefully fixed by the time we finally release it today.

[kwirl]

will there be an ability to include the rel="nofollow" tag to outgoing links?

[David]

Content visible to registered users only.

Yep. Look again in the admin area and you will see you have a couple of options, which we can expand if needed. For example, we can add no follow on links without recip. Again, this feature is completely optional.

[Anonymous]

Can you tell us the expected release date for version 2.0?

Thanks.

[David]

Yes, we actually did releast RC1 today (release candidate 1), but there were a couple of issues on the install, so I am deeming it nor ready for general use. If you want to play around with it, you are welcome to look here: {old url removed}
I think whatever the bug is on the install, it will be solved tomorrow, so to answer your question, any time now. :)

I was able to bypass the install, and you can see I was successful here:
http://www.webmasterplexus.com/directory/

Thanks for your interest.
David