Advice Please about search Engines with Classifieds

[pilot]

I am not sure if I want to allow Search Engines spider my Classifieds directory.
I have 3 Categories that are publically viewable and 3 that are required to be a member to view and post.

I am under the impression that the spider will be able to list the Publically viewable categories and will not be able to list the membership only catecories, am I correct here?

There is not the issue that photopost has with large amounts of images, as classifieds will only have relatively few, and pictures can be blocked with:
user-agent: robots
Disallow: /*.gif etc

I want the public categories list with say Google but not the private ones have I got my fact right?


Thanks

[b6gm6n]

Hi..

Yes i believe so, the theory is sound, i'm sure a spider wouldn't have permission to access a private cat because it would have to squirt in a password, it wouldn't and then give up (as they should)...

-T

[pilot]

I have my Classifieds set up with some categories that are private, so that only Admininstrators, registered and subscribed people can see them.

www.yourdomain/classifieds/showcat.php?cat=all in the command line will show these categories publicly, which is a surprise to me. This happens with http://www.yourdomain/classifieds/sh...php?cat=last14 variable too.

If I can see these private categories then so does google, and sure enough these categories have been listed by google. So it seems that I had thought that the permissions in admin to make categories private . . doesn't.

What does happen is that you click on the category to read further details, and you are then asked to log in, but the category advert and description has already been seen, which is something you cannot do from within classifieds, only by pasting the above command line into the browser can you go one stage further.

It seems that there should be some permissions on the variable showcat.php?cat=all to stop these being publicly viewable?

[Chuck S]

If you have category permissions set to not view it the category should be be viewable at all

What version of classifieds you using? I would suggest upgrading to 2.3 so we not backtracking fixes issues.

If I mark in category permissions a category not viewable it or none of its products are viewable from any link

[pilot]

I have re-installed a brand new stand alone version 2.3 of Classifieds and it is still the same.

Set up a category so only registered people can see it, and it disappears from unregistered viewers OK, but then hit the 'show all' button and the categories that shouldn't be seen, are listed.

This means that the private categories get listed on all the search engines as well because the link on 'show all' will allow the search engines to look at it with out a password.

This is a major problem for my site as parts of it need to be confidential.

[Chuck S]

Here is a simple test.

what integration you using etc.

Here is a brand new classifieds install and there is no issue I can replicate here

http://www.reeftalk.com/classifieds

Logged in you see this product

login testing
password testing

http://www.reeftalk.com/classifieds/showcat.php?cat=all

Now logged out you see no products

http://www.reeftalk.com/classifieds/showcat.php?cat=all

I need more info about your integration urls to installs etc

[Chuck S]

I will tell ya how I have things configured.

In edit categories I have made sure unregistered in the view permissions of edit cat can not view so the category does not appear for them. Therefore products as well will not either.

I think if there is any issue it has to be with Catperms of a specific integration so who is using what?

[Chuck S]

Okay well I have two people who report the same thing and digging through there responses try this as I have been digging through looking for site links to see integration types

in sellerspost.php

line 186

global $ugcat, $uganno, $ugview, $ugpost, $ueditpho, $ueditposts, $exclude_cat;

change to this

global $Catperms, $ueditpho, $ueditposts, $exclude_cat;

Line 245

if ($ugview[$thecat] == 1) {

change to this

if ($CatPerms['ugview'][$thecat] == 1) {


TRY THAT OUT

[Frost]

Subcategories don't seem to inherit permissions from higher categories, i.e., assume the following:

- Main (no permission to view)
-- A Category (permission to view)

Note: You cannot see "A Category" initially, but click "all ads" to see ads in "A Category" and then click an actual ad in "A Category" and now you can see the ad, and while there are links at the top that go to "Home > Main > A Category" if you click "Main" then it'll say that you don't have permission to view the "Main" category. So, let's assume that the classifieds code was meant to not have inheritance, then in order for a user to see the ads in "A Category" that user would need to click several times to see just those ads in the "A Category" category.

So pilot, you might want to try and set the main category and its subcategories with all the same permissions.

PS: Oh, and "Most Viewed" still has links to "no permission" ads even though you cannot see certain ads if permssions are set correctly.

[Chuck S]

That is correct you need to set category permissions explicitely for each category. There is no checkbox like our photopost product to inherit parent permissions yet in this product.

[pilot]

The test set up with the new 2.3 is a stand alone so no complications with 3rd parties.

I set up the main Parent categories the same as child categories with no permissions to view unregistered on both.

I can make the changes as you recommend,and see if that changes anything.

[pilot]

Originally Posted by omegatron

Okay well I have two people who report the same thing and digging through there responses try this as I have been digging through looking for site links to see integration types

in sellerspost.php

line 186

global $ugcat, $uganno, $ugview, $ugpost, $ueditpho, $ueditposts, $exclude_cat;

change to this

global $Catperms, $ueditpho, $ueditposts, $exclude_cat;

Line 245

if ($ugview[$thecat] == 1) {

change to this

if ($CatPerms['ugview'][$thecat] == 1) {


TRY THAT OUT

I can't find a sellerspost.php in classifieds 2.3 ?

[Chuck S]

it would be your integration file in classifieds and is under the forums subdirectory

[pilot]

Originally Posted by omegatron

Here is a simple test.

what integration you using etc.

Here is a brand new classifieds install and there is no issue I can replicate here

http://www.reeftalk.com/classifieds

Logged in you see this product

login testing
password testing

http://www.reeftalk.com/classifieds/showcat.php?cat=all

Now logged out you see no products

http://www.reeftalk.com/classifieds/showcat.php?cat=all

I need more info about your integration urls to installs etc

OK found it thanks, but hasn't changed anything that I can see.

Checked out you demo and when logged in I see 2 products in two categories =>Additives and Books
when I logged out I van only see Additives but no books at all even when I click on show all.

Also I saw a message saying all 'cookies cleared' is that a mod?

[Chuck S]

Nope no mod thats the normal working of the $Catperms.

If logged out you dont see the cat or products your not suppose to as noted.

Thats why I posted the alteration I did and it should work as $Catperms is correct

Try this file out. Rename it to php and upload to your forums subdirectory under classifieds

[pilot]

Did you try the test set up on my server after I made the alteration in code ?

still the same.

I sent you admin permissions in my last email.

can you see the problem still ?

[Chuck S]

Did you upload the file I just posted?

[Chuck S]

If you upload the file I posted I show no issue.

http://omegatron.net/classifieds/showcat.php?cat=all

If you login with test and testing you will see the product. If your logged out there is no product

[pilot]

Just uploaded the file and it looks OK now.

That's great thanks Chuck !

[pilot]

Made the change to my live site also and works perfectly.

Thanks again ! Great product and support !!