Classifieds Site Starter Kit

Welcome to your new Classifieds Site sample application. The key features are:

This site is ready to run! No changes are needed. Press CTRL+F5 to run the site and navigate to site start page Default.aspx.


Site Members and Roles

Your Starter Kit Web site allows visitors to register as members and then log in. Members have specific privileges defined by roles such as administrator or guest. Each Starter Kit Web site defines site-specific roles. The following table describes what features are available to visitors in different roles.

Visitor

Privileges

Anyone (not logged in)

May view and respond to ads.

Logged in

May additionally post and manage ads and maintain a list of bookmarked ads.

Logged in as administrator

May additionally edit all ads and classified categories, locations, general site settings, and activations and deletions.

Important: Running the site will automatically generate the site's predefined roles.

After running the site for the first time, be sure to create a user name for yourself and assign yourself to a role (such as administrator) that can manage the site. Note: do not create users with the Web Site Administration tool because user information will not get persisted to the correct table in the CLASSIFIEDDB database. Instead, create users by clicking the Register link. New members are activated automatically, and are assigned to the Guests role.

Administrators can manage users roles using the ASP.NET Web Site Administration tool when the Starter Kit database is hosted locally.  Only use the tool to manage roles. In hosted scenarios you can not use the Web Site Administration tool to manage roles.  For more details on creating users for local and hosted scenarios, see Appendix A.


Posting Ads

As a registered user of the Classifieds Site you can post an for a wanted item or an item for sale. Registered and unregistered users can browse all ads and respond to them. When you post an ad, you specify characteristics of the ad including the category the ad is in, the title of the ad, the description of the ad, a price, and a location.  Additionally, you can include photos for an ad.

To create an ad

1.       Log in to the site as an registered user.

2.       In the top navigation bar, click on the Post an Ad link.

3.       Select the category in which you will place the ad.

4.       Click on the Next button.

5.       Enter the characteristics of the ad. For both For Sale and Wanted ad types, the required fields are Title, Description, Price, and Location.

6.       Click the Finish button when you are ready to submit the ad.

To upload a photo for an ad immediately after creating it

1.       After you clicked the Finish button for an ad click the Upload Photos for your Ad now link.

2.       In the Manage Photos section, click Browse to select the image to upload.

3.       Click Upload.

4.       Repeat steps 2 through 3 for any additional photos you wish to upload.

           

To upload a photo for an existing ad

1.       Log in to the site as a registered user.

2.       In the top navigation bar, click My Ads & Profile.

3.       In the My Current Ads section, click the Edit link of the ad you wish to upload pictures to.

4.       Click the Manage Photos link in the Actions section of the page.

5.       In the Manage Photos section, click Browse to select the image to upload.

6.       Click Upload.

7.       Repeat steps 5 through 6 for any additional photos you wish to upload.

           


Managing Your Ads and Profile

The Classified Site allows you to manage your active and inactive ads, your saved bookmarks, and your profile characteristics. Profile characteristics include your first name, last name, email and password.

To change your profile

1.       Login to the site as a registered user.

2.       In the top navigation bar click on the My Ads & Profile link.

3.       Click on the My Profile link.

4.       Your profile information consists of:

a.       First name, last name and email.

b.       Password.

5.       To change your first name, last name, or email

a.       Change the appropriate text box.

b.       Click the Save button to commit the changes.

6.       To change your password

a.       Enter your existing password, new password, and confirmation in the appropriate text boxes.

b.       Click the Change Password button to change the password.

To remove bookmarks

1.       Login to the site as a registered user.

2.       In the top navigation bar click on the My Ads & Profile link.

3.       Click on the Saved Bookmarks link.

4.       Click the the Remove link of a bookmarked ad you wish to remove from the bookmark list.


Site Administration

The Classifieds Site includes an administration feature users in the administrators role can use to perform administrative tasks including:

·          modify any ad in the Classifieds Site

·          manage activated and deleted ads

·          create, modify, and delete categories

·          create and delete locations

·          manage site settings

The site settings are the business logic of the Classified Site. The settings are managed using the Web form Settings.aspx page and stored in the site-config.xml file in the App_Data folder. The site settings include:

·          whether ads require validation before appearing on the site

·          number of days an ad remains active

·          whether users are allowed to edit their ads

·          how ads are treated when a user removes an ad

·          maximum number of photos that can be associated with an ad

·          whether to notify the administrative contact email when new ads are posted and at what frequency

·          whether to store photos in a database or in a directory

·          name of the site that is ad response and notification emails

·          site contact email

·          SMTP host name

To create a category

1.       Log in to the site as an administrator.

2.       In the top navigation bar, click the Site Administration link.

3.       Click the Manage Categories link.

4.       Select the category that will be the parent category of the new category. Click a category name in the Sub-Categories list box to drill down into that category.

5.       Type in a name for the category in the Add Sub-Category text box.

6.       Click the Add button to add the new category.

To manage site settings

1.       Log in to the site as an Administrator.

2.       In the top navigation bar, click the Site Administration link.

3.       Click the Manage Settings link.

4.       Change settings as needed.

5.       Click the Update button. The site-config.xml file is updated as well as the copy of the settings stored as an application object.


Appendix A - Managing Members and Roles

Your Starter Kit Web site allows visitors to register as members. Members have specific privileges defined by a role you assign to them. A special administrative role has rights to perform all functions in the site. How you manage users and roles will depend on how the Starter Kit is hosted.

If the kit is hosted locally you can use the Web Site Administration tool to manage user roles. For example, you can assign a user to the Administrators role using the tool. Do not use the Web Site Administration tool to create new users because new user information will get persisted to the ASPNETDB database but will not be persisted to the CLASSIFIEDSDB database and the account will not function correctly. If possible, create user accounts using the Register link in the kit. Advanced users can use custom administration tools to create users automatically, or interact directly with the membership database tables in both the ASPNETDB and the CLASSIFIEDSDB database.

In scenarios where the kit uses a hosted SQL server database you will not be able to use the Web Site Administration tool to manage roles. In this case you will need another means of managing user roles either through a custom administration tool or by interacting directly with the ASPNETDB tables. As in the local scenario, create users with the Register link in the kit whenever possible.

Note: After creating your Starter Kit Web site, create an administrative user for yourself so you can manage the site.

To create an administrative user [local or hosted database]:

1.       Create a user using the Register link in the kit.

2.       Use the one of the procedures below to change the new user's role to Administrators.

To modify an existing user's role [local database]:

1.       In the Website menu, click ASP.NET Configuration.

2.       Click the Security tab.

3.       Under Users, click Manage users.

4.       In the user list, click Edit roles for the member. (If you do not see the member's name, use the search box.)

5.       Under Roles, select the role to assign to the selected member.

6.       Close the Web Site Administration Tool.

To modify an existing users's role [hosted database]:

1.       Connect to the ASPNETDB database and open the Users, Roles, and UsersInRoles tables.

2.       In the Users table, find and note the UserID of the user to modify.

3.   In the Roles table, find and note the RoleID of the role to include the user in.

4.   In the UsersInRoles table, find the UserID identified in step 1 and replace the existing RoleID with the RoleID found in step 2. Make sure changes are saved to the table.


Appendix B - Publishing Your Site

When you are ready to share your Web site with others, you can copy it to your Web server. You need to know the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) address of your server, and if required, the user name and password assigned to you.

1.       In the Website menu, click Copy Web Site. The Copy Web Site tool displays the files from your Web site under Source Web Site.

2.       In the Connections list, select Connect to....

3.       In the Open Web Site dialog box, click the FTP Site tab.

4.       Type the FTP address of your server, and if required, the user name and password that your hosting site has provided. The FTP URL usually has a format like this:


            ftp://ftp.servername/foldername

5.       Click Open. The files on the Web server are displayed under Remote Web Site.

Note: If you have trouble connecting to the server, contact the server administrator.

6.       In the Source Web site box, select all the files.

7.       Click the Copy selected files from source to remote web site button.

The files from your site are copied to the server.