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View Full Version : Petition for Feature Drop-Down Boxes on Insertion of New Ads



Marco Morais
September 17, 2012, 11:51 AM
Good afternoon,

Since there is a major interest in having the Ad Insertion changed from tree mode to drop-down boxes, i'd like every user to post their interest in this post, as a way of showing Flynax how important this feature is for all of us.
Currently when one of our users want's to insert a new classifieds ad, they'll have to use a tree to select the sub-category where they want to place their post. This translates "old" methods, which doesn't tag along with all the great features of Flynax Classifieds Software.
Personally, i think the drop-down boxes form translates a faster and cleaner website.
If we compare the user experience, for sure it's quicker to use two or three drop-down boxes than going to roll down the page to search for the or category and sub where they want to insert.
My opinion is that It's a well deserved enhancement for Flynax.
I give the Flynax team the hand, there have been a lot of features update and upgrade lately, so please, just consider this one as well.

Ps: can't we make a poll on this, i'm sure you'd be surprised on how many people would actually want this.


Best Regards,

Marco

Riba
September 17, 2012, 12:49 PM
While the tree method is not perfect, I don't think that drop-down form is much better. It is also very cumbersome if there is a large number of categories to manage. What I feel would be the best method is a drill-down navigation, as shown for example here:
http://www.designchemical.com/lab/jquery-drill-down-menu-plugin/examples/

This should be easy to implement as a replacement for the tree menu.

Marco Morais
September 17, 2012, 01:50 PM
Well, i don't disagree, anyways, one way or the other, i think any change that eliminates the tree, and implement's drop down or drill-down is welcome.
Although i do have to agree with you regarding the drill-down, not a bad choice since it'd leave room for categories to grow without limitations.
Anyways, count you in for the support of the petition?

Riba
September 17, 2012, 02:16 PM
To be honest, both (or all three of them) work fine for me because I have a limited number of categories. I do think that drill-down navigation has better functionality and aesthetics, compared to the other two, but yes, I do think that improvements are welcome in this regard.

Ahmad Raza
September 18, 2012, 09:21 AM
Seems like we all have our own opinions. In my understanding, the quickest and ideal way is to have the ad submission done in a single page. When user lands on ad posting page, he should be shown a category Drop Down, from where when he selects the category and then the ad submission form is displayed. That way we can maximize the ad posting, its speedy and very less intriguing.

Step 1

Only Category Drop Down

http://s18.postimage.org/8pg88m661/image.jpg

Step 2

Rest of Ad submission form shows up after selecting category

http://s7.postimage.org/hbdns17ob/image.jpg

Petrache Nicolae
September 18, 2012, 03:31 PM
true. each has his own vision on this depending on his site. in my case, i prefer the one from www.okazii.ro wich is better than the dropdown or tree or drill-down (since i have a large number of categories/subcategories). looks like i will have to pay for that customisation...

Marco Morais
September 18, 2012, 06:23 PM
true. each has his own vision on this depending on his site. in my case, i prefer the one from www.okazii.ro (http://www.okazii.ro) wich is better than the dropdown or tree or drill-down (since i have a large number of categories/subcategories). looks like i will have to pay for that customisation...
Nicolae, in regards to the "menu" itself, giving that the area of interest here is for the insertion part, i'll have to disagree with you.
By far, the simplest way for the selection would be the drill-down, since the user, can go up or down a level in a simple way.
The objective of this petition is to ask Flynax to develop the ad insertion form feature making it quicker and shorter.
It's all about end user experience.

Petrache Nicolae
September 18, 2012, 07:44 PM
the system i was talking about is more advanced than anything i have sean. first, you see a box in wich you will fill in the name of your ad and the system show a selection of 5 diferent categories(sugestions) to chose from (and usualy the good one will be shown) or you can manualy chose your category. if you chose manualy, you will see it like in the atached image
the first box from left is shown first, the moment you select one category (listing type in our case), the 2nd level categories will show and so on.
olso, after you list an ad, you can select by one click to add another ad in the category you used before.
at any time you will have available the 3 options -sugestions/category/recent to chose from and olso, in manual category, you can go from the 3rd level category to another main category or 2nd level category. a feature wich drill category doesn't have. you can go back or forword in a straight line in drill category

Ahmad Raza
September 18, 2012, 08:29 PM
Well on a second thought, Olx has nailed it really well, i like their ad insertion strategy the most.

Ahmad Raza
September 18, 2012, 08:30 PM
the system i was talking about is more advanced than anything i have sean. first, you see a box in wich you will fill in the name of your ad and the system show a selection of 5 diferent categories(sugestions) to chose from (and usualy the good one will be shown) or you can manualy chose your category. if you chose manualy, you will see it like in the atached image
the first box from left is shown first, the moment you select one category (listing type in our case), the 2nd level categories will show and so on.
olso, after you list an ad, you can select by one click to add another ad in the category you used before.
at any time you will have available the 3 options -sugestions/category/recent to chose from and olso, in manual category, you can go from the 3rd level category to another main category or 2nd level category. a feature wich drill category doesn't have. you can go back or forword in a straight line in drill category

Any live example of what you are preaching?

Petrache Nicolae
September 18, 2012, 09:33 PM
Any live example of what you are preaching?

have mentioned already - www.okazii.ro

Marco Morais
September 19, 2012, 08:04 AM
Well, after going trough some of the major players, one thing i've noticed... they-re all using the same style of menu.. and if anything, although it won't enrich the the user experience in any way, it'll actually make the bridge between systems, so making them a lot easier to use. So as Petrache Nicolae (http://www.flynax.com/forum/member.php?543-Petrache-Nicolae) showed and well, in the attachment, most of the more advanced "players" are using inline menus with sub-categories.
Anyways, heres another example of what could be..
Option1 - http://codecanyon.net/item/jquery-infinite-sliding-menu-plugin/164115?WT.ac=search_thumb&WT.seg_1=search_thumb&WT.z_author=slashc
or getting a bit crazier..
Option 2 - http://codecanyon.net/item/jquery-infinite-slide-menu-plugin/full_screen_preview/2871420
Yet another one...
Option 3 - http://codecanyon.net/theme_previews/235809-sherpa-complete-navigation-system-css-edition?index=4

Open to some other options, if anyone else cares to share, but please, if possible share sites with snippets or something alike, so we can try and join a few ideas. Perhaps we can make a vote on it later on and ask Flynax for something more or less specific.

Marco Morais
September 19, 2012, 10:22 PM
And yet a few more examples.
Inline
http://codecanyon.net/item/javascript-huge-vertical-menu/full_screen_preview/307334 (http://codecanyon.net/item/javascript-huge-vertical-menu/full_screen_preview/307334)
Drill-down
http://codecanyon.net/item/jquery-drilldown-menu/full_screen_preview/2852431
Vertical Menu
http://codecanyon.net/item/css3-horizontal-vertical-three-tier-menus/full_screen_preview/1086420
http://codecanyon.net/theme_previews/148244-utopian-css3-dropdown-menus?index=1

Any comments anyone?..

Marco Morais
September 20, 2012, 09:33 PM
If you are visiting this thread, i can assure you this subject in debate here, surely is of your interest.
Being of general interest, i'd like you to submit a reply to this thread stating your opinion, and if you agree this could enhance your classifieds website, then please let us know.
This is a matter of asking Flynax for this development, and Flynax will only look into this, if there are enough people demonstrating some interest in it's development.

Kind Regards to Everyone,

Marco Morais

Mike
September 21, 2012, 06:52 AM
Seems all have different view of the subject, so most likely you will request customization to get this done :D

For me, i like the way it has several boxes (one for each level) where you select first level then it shows 2nd box with 2nd level etc.

It's very fast and easy to change or choose category. I mean as picture in this post-

http://www.flynax.com/forum/showthread.php?613-Petition-for-Feature-Drop-Down-Boxes-on-Insertion-of-New-Ads&p=2509&viewfull=1#post2509

Marco Morais
September 21, 2012, 07:13 AM
Good morning Mike,

Most likely... if and when it comes out, shouts will arise why isn't it made this way or that way or some another way... but until then .. no one gives it a second thought :-/ .... typical
I'm still trying to sell you the idea, although i don't see this going very well.. lol
There's just one point i'd like to "talk" about. Making the three boxes for filling the cat, sub-cat and sub-sub-cat, although i don't see many things where we could have four or five levels, will limit the existance of these one's, that's the reason why i was suggesting something that could take up to an "unlimited" levels without needing work afterwards.
Anyways, let's try this one other way.. let's say that i could come to "making" something of my own, if i wanted to change the menu as it is today, where could i start looking, which file(s) ?

Best Regards,

Marco

Mike
September 21, 2012, 08:12 AM
Yes you are right, several boxes is convenient when you have many levels structure (4-5)..

The code which prints categories tree is placed in templates/your_template/tpl/controllers/add_listing.tpl :



<!-- print sections/categories tree -->
<div class="area_category step_area">
<div class="caption">{$lang.select_category}</div>

...


</div>
<!-- print sections/categories tree end -->


What you have to do is make correct link to next step

Please feel free to ask if you have questions or problems with the implementation, i'm sorry i'm not doing it on my own i don't have time for this unfortunately, but i will be happy to help :) as i know it will be useful for others too.

We are going to implement something in next version but it will be long to wait next release (not update with bugfixes) for this thing.

Petrache Nicolae
September 21, 2012, 08:14 AM
Seems all have different view of the subject, so most likely you will request customization to get this done :D

For me, i like the way it has several boxes (one for each level) where you select first level then it shows 2nd box with 2nd level etc.

It's very fast and easy to change or choose category. I mean as picture in this post-

http://www.flynax.com/forum/showthread.php?613-Petition-for-Feature-Drop-Down-Boxes-on-Insertion-of-New-Ads&p=2509&viewfull=1#post2509

good to know that you, as developer, like the type i have sugested. maybee in time you will make a similar system to speed up the process in case of general ads websites wich do have plenty of categories/subcategories.
can you tell me please if i would want to install a old save into a subfodler so i can easy copy data and settings from 4.01 to 4.1 wich files should i edit to reflect the new location? thanks

Mike
September 21, 2012, 08:26 AM
You have to edit includes/config.inc.php, i think you will see what to edit there:
it's website url - you have to add your directory to the url with the trailing slash
and also it's system path to the root script folder - same thing - you just have to add your directory to the path.

And for working links you have to add RewriteBase /new/ in case your folder is "new"

Mike
September 21, 2012, 08:30 AM
And database too.. you have to add new database or use same database but use another tables prefix. You have to change database details in the config.inc.php file or both websites will use same data from one database.

Petrache Nicolae
September 21, 2012, 08:42 AM
And database too.. you have to add new database or use same database but use another tables prefix. You have to change database details in the config.inc.php file or both websites will use same data from one database.

ok. will do that. thanks for the help. the ticket IQE-300223 will have to be delayed untill i will notify you since i will try to remake whole website starting from clean 4.1 install

Petrache Nicolae
September 21, 2012, 09:02 AM
And database too.. you have to add new database or use same database but use another tables prefix. You have to change database details in the config.inc.php file or both websites will use same data from one database.

is it posible to save somehow all the settings/categories/pages from 4.0.1 and add them into a clean 4.1?

Mike
September 21, 2012, 11:37 AM
is it posible to save somehow all the settings/categories/pages from 4.0.1 and add them into a clean 4.1?

Easiest way is use old database but apply sql_update.sql file to make necessary for 4.1 version things.

If you think that old database has lot of garbage or unnecessary changes, it may be harder. I would make it next way: prepare two database backups in same format and merge them.

Copy all things you want from old database backup (sql file) to new database backup and import sql file back. (you have to use any merging tool as araxis merge or WinMerge)

But if you have installed old version it's easier to do next way:

1. Using export/import categories plugin export categories from 4.0.1

2. import them to 4.1 using the same plugin

3. Uninstall all plugins.

4. apply sql_update.sql from 4.0-4.1 patch

5. copy config,config_groups tables without any changes to new database (replace existing table in new database)

6. copy pages table (replace existing) to new database

But your old version in temporary folder will be broken after this

So always keep all original backups (including new clean version if you made any changes already). in case you will need to start over


That's how you can do the trick, i think.. but i can't remember all specific. maybe i forgot about something.

Kristopher Catterall
October 2, 2012, 08:59 PM
I would also like dropdowns for adding listings from the backend, We produce a magazine in print and currently enter thousands of classifieds a week this would make it alot faster.

Lee Bliss
March 31, 2013, 03:21 PM
Hello All...

After using Flynax for a while now, I believe that it is time for this feature to be introduced as standard to the software. In doing this, I believe flynax would then make it more desirable to new clients...

Please see picture...

This is how many uk sites allow listings to be added through the front end.

Will this feature be added as standard, or is it only available as a custom?

Mike
May 1, 2013, 10:04 AM
We think to add something similar to the software next version,

For now easiest for solution is to get drop downs instead of tree is to use dropdowns as in new mobile version template.

what you have to do it to apply changes from here

http://www.flynax.com/forum/showthread.php?972-Ahead-of-time-Mobile-Version-Upgrade&p=4191#post4191

and then few other changes to enable it for standard version (not mobile). If somebody interested i can post this changes

Arabuy Arabuy
June 5, 2013, 11:27 PM
Mike F.

When will be the date for the new version?

Kemoid Wilson
June 7, 2013, 02:09 AM
Sure post the changes. Always willing to try something new that is user friendly.

Giuseppe Zappala
June 28, 2013, 09:15 AM
Hello Mike are very interested in this change, could you kindly tell me what to change to make categories like Mobile ad placement?
Thank you very much



We think to add something similar to the software next version,

For now easiest for solution is to get drop downs instead of tree is to use dropdowns as in new mobile version template.

what you have to do it to apply changes from here

http://www.flynax.com/forum/showthread.php?972-Ahead-of-time-Mobile-Version-Upgrade&p=4191#post4191

and then few other changes to enable it for standard version (not mobile). If somebody interested i can post this changes

Giuseppe Zappala
July 1, 2013, 09:57 PM
Hello Mike,
I tried to copy the file:

templates> mobile_default> tpl> Controller> add_listing.tpl

and replace with:

templates> auto_modern> tpl> Controller> add_listing.tpl

and

templates> mobile_default> tpl> blocks> category_level.tpl

and replace with:

templates> auto_modern> tpl> blocks> category_level.tpl

But I do not work select the dynamic
Can you help me?
What I forget to do?

Giuseppe Zappala
July 1, 2013, 09:58 PM
Hello Mike,
I tried to copy the file:

templates> mobile_default> tpl> Controller> add_listing.tpl

and replace with:

templates> auto_modern> tpl> Controller> add_listing.tpl

and

templates> mobile_default> tpl> blocks> category_level.tpl

and replace with:

templates> auto_modern> tpl> blocks> category_level.tpl

But I do not work select the dynamic
Can you help me?
What I forget to do?

Viktor
July 2, 2013, 04:02 AM
Hello Giuseppe Zappala,

You shouldn't move files from desktop version to mobile. You can download latest mobile template and upload to your ftp.

Giuseppe Zappala
July 2, 2013, 05:12 AM
Hello Viktor,
I was referring to the post by Mike
I would like to have select the ad placement such as mobile (http://m.venditamotori.com/inserisci-annuncio.html)!

Viktor
July 2, 2013, 10:47 AM
Hmmm I hope you know smarty code and jquery because you need move some files and may be change some conditions jquery code too and may be some css styles.

I didn't move code from mobile to desktop version before. But it shouldn't be difficult I hope :) .

Giuseppe Zappala
July 2, 2013, 10:54 AM
I tried it, and with the css and jquery I have no problems.
The problem is that I do not work in dynamic select the desktop.
Mike said he, in his post, if interested could post the steps to make the desktop version as the version add listing add listing furniture.
I hope you know how to do

Giuseppe Zappala
July 2, 2013, 12:54 PM
Hello Viktor,
could you tell me the files to be moved?

Athanasios Christou
February 3, 2014, 02:16 PM
Hello,
I have adapted some files, dropdown elements are displayed.
As far as I like it.

But an error still exists and I can not find it.

Below files i have adapted from mobile_simple_red tamplet to my Desktop tamplet.

/includes/classes/rlCategories.class.php

this Code




/* desktop version */
else
{
$postfix = $postfix ? '_'. $postfix : '';
$_response -> script("xajaxFix = $('#tree_cat_{$category_id}{$postfix}').find('inpu t').attr('checked');");
$_response -> append("tree_cat_{$category_id}{$postfix}", 'innerHTML', $rlSmarty -> fetch( $file, null, null, false ));
$_response -> script("
$('#tree_cat_{$category_id}{$postfix}>ul').fadeIn('normal');
$('#tree_cat_{$category_id}{$postfix}>img').addClass('opened');
$('#tree_cat_{$category_id}{$postfix}>span.tree_loader').fadeOut(function(){
$(this).hide();
});

if ( xajaxFix == 'checked' )
{
$('#tree_cat_{$category_id}{$postfix}>label>input').attr('checked', true);
}

flynax.treeLoadLevel('{$tpl}', '{$function}');
");
}


i changed to



/* desktop version */
else
{
$_response -> append("type_section_{$section_key}", 'innerHTML', $rlSmarty -> fetch( $file, null, null, false ));

$_response -> script("
mobileTreeLoadLevel('{$tpl}', '{$function}', '{$section_key}');
$('#type_section_{$section_key} select:last').css({backgroundColor: '#fdfb75'}).animate({backgroundColor: 'white'}, 1000);
");
}



/templates/carspin/tpl/controllers/add_listing.tpl


this Code



<!-- print sections/categories tree -->
<div class="area_category step_area">
<div class="caption">{$lang.select_category}</div>

{if !$sections}
{$lang.add_listing_deny}
{else}
<div class="dark" style="padding-bottom: 12px;">{$lang.add_listing_notice}</div>

<div class="tree">
{foreach from=$sections item='section'}
{if !$section.Admin_only}
{include file='blocks'|cat:$smarty.const.RL_DS|cat:'fieldse t_header.tpl' id=$section.ID name=$section.name}

{if !empty($section.Categories)}

{include file='blocks'|cat:$smarty.const.RL_DS|cat:'categor y_level.tpl' categories=$section.Categories first=true}


{else}
{$lang.no_items_in_sections}
{/if}

{include file='blocks'|cat:$smarty.const.RL_DS|cat:'fieldse t_footer.tpl'}
{/if}
{/foreach}
</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
{literal}

$(document).ready(function(){

flynax.treeLoadLevel();
});

{/literal}
</script>
{/if}
</div>
<!-- print sections/categories tree end -->


i changed to



<!-- print sections/categories tree -->
<div class="area_category step_area">
<div class="caption">{$lang.select_category}</div>

{if !$sections}
{$lang.add_listing_deny}
{else}
<div style="padding-bottom: 12px;">{$lang.add_listing_notice}</div>

<div class="tree">
{foreach from=$sections item='section'}
{if !$section.Admin_only}
{include file='blocks'|cat:$smarty.const.RL_DS|cat:'fieldse t_header.tpl' id=$section.ID name=$section.name}

{if !empty($section.Categories)}
<div id="type_section_{$section.Key}">
{include file='blocks'|cat:$smarty.const.RL_DS|cat:'categor y_level.tpl' categories=$section.Categories first=true}
</div>
<a href="" class="button hide">{$lang.select_category}</a>
{else}
{$lang.no_items_in_sections}
{/if}

{include file='blocks'|cat:$smarty.const.RL_DS|cat:'fieldse t_footer.tpl'}
{/if}
{/foreach}
</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
{literal}

$(document).ready(function(){
mobileTreeLoadLevel();

});

var mobileTreeLoadLevel = function(tpl, callback, section){
$('div.tree select').unbind('change').change(function(){
/* clear next already created dropdowns */
$(this).find('option:selected').attr('selected', 'selected');
$(this).prev().prop('selected', false);
$(this).nextAll().remove();

/* run xajax function */
if ( $(this).find('option:selected').attr('id') )
{
var id = parseInt($(this).find('option:selected').attr('id' ).split('_')[2]);

if ( !section )
{
var set_section = $(this).attr('class').replace('section_', '');

}
else
{
var set_section = $(this).attr('class') ? $(this).attr('class').replace('section_', '') : section;

}
xajax_getCatLevel(id, false, tpl, callback, '', set_section);
}

/* next button handler */
if ( $(this).find('option:selected').hasClass('disabled ') )

{

$(this).parent().next().fadeOut();

}
else
{

$(this).parent().next().fadeOut();
$(this).parent().next().fadeIn();
$(this).parent().next().attr('href', $(this).val());
}
});
};

{/literal}
</script>
{/if}
</div>
<!-- print sections/categories tree end -->



this file
/templates/carspin/tpl/blocks/category_level.tpl

exchanged with file from

\mobile_simple_red\tpl\blocks\category_level.tpl

in File
/templates/carspin/css/style.css

added this code



/* tree */
div.tree select
{
/* display: block; */
margin: 0 0 15px;
width: 250px;
}
div.tree .fieldset_body
{
padding: 5px 0 10px;
}
div.tree div.body
{
padding: 5px 25px 5px;
}
div.tree a.button
{
padding: 5px 20px 5px;
margin: 0px 425px 0px;
text-decoration: none;
}
option.disabled
{
background: #ffebeb;
color: #6d3030;
}
/* tree end */



so far so good!

The Locked categories have an error.

1. Select first Dropdown Category locked
2. second dropdown is loaded with the correct content,
but the first dropdown jumping to an old selected deeper entry.

I have the whole evening yesterday trying to fix this, unfortunately without success. :wacko:

see video:

http://screencast.com/t/sfno9jLS7AZ

Can someone help me, please?

Thanks in advance !!!

Chris Brown
February 3, 2014, 05:48 PM
I tried to do similar myself, but couldnt get it to work. Would be nice to have the movile version of select category on add a listing instead of the category tree.

Hopefully someone can help or flynax can post instructions :D

Athanasios Christou
February 3, 2014, 08:24 PM
Now it works almost.

I added these lines (red in the code).

/templates/carspin/tpl/controllers/add_listing.tpl



...
var mobileTreeLoadLevel = function(tpl, callback, section){
$('div.tree select').unbind('change').change(function(){
/* clear next already created dropdowns */
$(this).find('option:selected').prevAll().removeAt tr('selected');
$(this).find('option:selected').attr('selected', 'selected');
$(this).find('option:selected').nextAll().removeAt tr('selected');
$(this).nextAll().remove();
....





Results:

Firefox 26.0 ---> runs
Iron 23.0.1300.0 ---> runs
IE 11 ---> makes trouble , the problem of my last post still exists.





--- HELP --- HELP --- HELP --- PLEASE --- PLEASE --- PLEASE ---:D

Thanks in advance !!!

Athanasios Christou
February 4, 2014, 05:25 PM
Hi, there was a problem in the admin area, tree not built up.

I have adapted this still in the code.

insofar as it now seems to be working.

only the error with IE 11 is still there.

/includes/classes/rlCategories.class.php



/* mobile version */
if ( defined('RL_MOBILE') && RL_MOBILE )
{
$_response -> append("type_section_{$section_key}", 'innerHTML', $rlSmarty -> fetch( $file, null, null, false ));

$_response -> script("
mobileTreeLoadLevel('{$tpl}', '{$function}', '{$section_key}');
$('#type_section_{$section_key} select:last').css({backgroundColor: '#fdfb75'}).animate({backgroundColor: 'white'}, 1000);
");
}
/* desktop version Admin*/
else if (defined('REALM') && REALM == 'admin')

{
$postfix = $postfix ? '_'. $postfix : '';
$_response -> script("xajaxFix = $('#tree_cat_{$category_id}{$postfix}').find('inpu t').attr('checked');");
$_response -> append("tree_cat_{$category_id}{$postfix}", 'innerHTML', $rlSmarty -> fetch( $file, null, null, false ));
$_response -> script("
$('#tree_cat_{$category_id}{$postfix}>ul').fadeIn('normal');
$('#tree_cat_{$category_id}{$postfix}>img').addClass('opened');
$('#tree_cat_{$category_id}{$postfix}>span.tree_loader').fadeOut(function(){
$(this).hide();
});

if ( xajaxFix == 'checked' )
{
$('#tree_cat_{$category_id}{$postfix}>label>input').attr('checked', true);
}

flynax.treeLoadLevel('{$tpl}', '{$function}');
");
}
/* desktop version modified mobiele*/
else
{
$_response -> append("type_section_{$section_key}", 'innerHTML', $rlSmarty -> fetch( $file, null, null, false ));

$_response -> script("
mobileTreeLoadLevel('{$tpl}', '{$function}', '{$section_key}');
$('#type_section_{$section_key} select:last').css({backgroundColor: '#fdfb75'}).animate({backgroundColor: 'white'}, 1000);
");




}

Gytis Labanauskas
March 22, 2014, 12:27 PM
Its great idea, i have asked for it a year ago already. I think that would be much easier for customers to add listings.