The classifieds module provides a mechanism for posting advertisements in the form of newspaper classified ads. Items can also be offered in an auction format, where users bid successively higher prices until the auction closes.
The classified ad system has been in use at photo.net since 1996 and has processed over 100,000 ads.
Discuss the high-level breakdown of the components that make up the system. You can go by functional areas, by the main transactions the system allows, etc.
Pavel Photographer, a member of the photo.net community, wants to sell his old Pentax P3 camera. He places an ad in the classifieds offering it for $100.
Joe Consumer is looking to buy a used Pentax and comes across photo.net. He visits the classifieds page and decides to look for a camera there. After browsing for a while he doesn't see anything interesting, so he decides to search for "Pentax". He comes across Pavel's ad; checking his community history, he finds Pavel to be a long-time community member, and so sends email to Pavel offering to buy the camera.
Jane Smallberries also wants to sell some photo equipment. She places an ad for her Canon lens, specifying the auction format, which allows members to place bids. She starts the bidding at $50.
Tom and Ray Cheatham are both looking for a Canon lens. They see Jane's ad, and since they have always been competitive siblings, they successively bid up the price to $500 until the ad expires. Tom wins the auction and purchases the lens from Jane.
Sue Smithers is also looking to buy a Canon lens. She is put off by the high price on Jane's auction, so she places a wanted-to-buy ad. Another community member sees the ad, contacts Sue, and completes the transaction.
10.10.10 Domains have a unique identifier.
10.10.20 Domains have a unique short name which is used as a human-readable identifier for the domain.
10.10.30 Domains have a short description which is displayed to users.
10.10.40 Domains have a primary maintainer who is responsible for maintenance of the domain.
10.10.50 Domains have an optional type, such as "employment" or "automotive" which can be used to classify domains into categories.
10.10.60 Domains have optional annotation text which is displayed at the top of the domain page.
10.10.70 Domains have additional annotation text which is displayed at the bottom of the domain page.
10.10.80 Domains have a list of HTML form fragments which are used to determine what attributes of a classified ad will be filled in for this domain. For example, "color" might not be appropriate for ads regarding travel services.
10.10.90 Domains have optional annotation text which is displayed to users who are deleting an ad.
10.10.100 Domains have a default expiration time for ads, recorded in days, which if not specified for a domain is 100 days.
10.10.110 Domains are flagged as allowing users to add new categories or not.
10.10.120 Domains are flagged as allowing users to place "wanted to buy" ads or not.
10.10.130 Domains are flagged as allowing users to place auction ads or not.
10.10.140 Domains are flagged as to whether ads are geographically located or not.
10.10.150 Domains are flagged as being active, which means they will be displayed to users, or not.
10.20.10 Categories have a unique identifier.
10.20.20 Categories belong to exactly one domain.
10.20.30 Categories have a name.
10.20.40 Categories have annotation text which is displayed when users place an ad in that category.
10.30.10 Ads have a unique identifier.
10.30.20 Ads have a record of the posting user.
10.30.30 Ads belong to exactly one domain.
10.30.40 Ads record the originating IP address of the user who posted them.
10.30.50 Ads record the date of posting.
10.30.60 Ads have an expiration date that is greater than the posting date.
10.30.70 Ads are flagged as "wanted to buy" ads or not.
10.30.80 Ads are flagged as private or not.
10.30.90 Ads are flagged as to whether respondents can mail the poster directly or not.
10.30.100 Ads have a category name which matches one of the categories in the category table.
10.30.110 Ads have an optional manufacturer name to describe the item being sold.
10.30.120 Ads have an optional model name field to describe the item being sold.
10.30.130 Ads have an optional date of production field to describe the item being sold.
10.30.140 Ads have an optional item size field to describe the item being sold.
10.30.150 Ads have an optional color field to describe the item being sold.
10.30.160 Ads have an optional location field to describe the geographic location of the seller.
10.30.170 Ads are optionally flagged as being available to US citizens only or not.
10.30.180 Ads have a short one line description.
10.30.190 Ads have a full description body.
10.30.200 Ads are flagged as having their description body in HTML format or plain text.
10.30.210 Ads may optionally contain a URL of an image to be displayed with the ad.
10.30.220 Ads contain a price.
10.30.230 Ads contain the name of the currency for the price.
10.30.240 Ads are flagged as being an auction or not.
10.30.250 Ads may optionally contain a country code for the location of the seller.
10.30.260 Ads may optionally contain the state code for the location of the seller.
10.30.270 Ads record the date and time when they were last modified.
10.30.280 Ads record the IP address of the client that last modified the ad.
10.30.290 Ads are flagged as being deleted by the domain moderator or not.
10.40.10 Auction bids have a unique identifier.
10.40.20 Auction bids refer to exactly one classified ad.
10.40.30 Auction bids record the bidding user.
10.40.40 Auction bids record the bid amount.
10.40.50 Auction bids record the bid currency, which defaults to US dollars.
10.40.60 Auction bids record the bid date and time.
10.40.70 Auction bids can optionally record a description of the bidder's geographic location.
10.50.10 The email alert record table has exactly one row.
10.50.20 The email alert record has a unique identifier.
10.50.30 The email alert record stores the last time that weekly spam was sent.
10.50.40 The email alert record stores the number of messages sent during the last weekly spam.
10.50.50 The email alert record stores the last time that daily spam was sent.
10.50.60 The email alert record stores the number of messages sent during the last daily spam.
10.50.70 The email alert record stores the last time that biweekly spam was sent.
10.50.80 The email alert record stores the number of messages sent during the last biweekly spam.
10.60.10 Email alerts have a unique identifier.
10.60.20 Email alerts belong to exactly one domain.
10.60.30 Email alerts are sent to exactly one user.
10.60.40 Email alerts are flagged as being valid or not.
10.60.50 Email alerts contain an expiration date.
10.60.60 Email alerts record whether the email sent should contain entire ads or one line summaries.
10.60.70 Email alerts record how often they should be sent: immediately, daily, twice a week, once a week, or monthly.
10.60.80 Email alerts record the type of alert: all ads in a domain, ads in a certain category, or ads matching keywords.
10.60.90 If the alert is for a certain category, the alert contains the category name.
10.60.100 If the alert is a keyword alert, it contains the keywords to match in ads.
10.60.110 Email alerts record the date they were created.
| Document Revision # | Action Taken, Notes | When? | By Whom? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Created | 2000-08-28 | Curtis Galloway |