User_manual

Clemson Classifieds –
Real Time Online Classifieds for Web Portal

USER REFERENCE MANUAL

Clemson University,
School of Computing

Srikanth Vanama

CpSc 662 Clemson Classifieds 1

Table
of
Contents

1.
System
Overview
................................................................................................................... 4

2.
Implementation
Details .......................................................................................................... 4

3.
Functional
Design ................................................................................................................... 5

a.
User
Registration ...................................................................................................................5

b.
Login ......................................................................................................................................7

c.
Home
Page .............................................................................................................................8

d.
Navigation
Tabs .....................................................................................................................8

e.
Sort
By....................................................................................................................................9

f.
View
Profile...........................................................................................................................10

g.
Edit
Profile............................................................................................................................11

h.
Post
Deals ............................................................................................................................12

i.
View
Product
Info .................................................................................................................13

j.
Email
a
Post...........................................................................................................................15

k.
Search
Deals .........................................................................................................................17

l.
Forums ..................................................................................................................................18

m.
Category
Based
Search .......................................................................................................20

n.
Calendar
Based
Search.........................................................................................................21

o.
View
User
Deals ...................................................................................................................23

p.
Edit
User
Deals.....................................................................................................................24

q.
Administrator.......................................................................................................................24

r.
Email/SMS
Alerts ..................................................................................................................29

s.
Logout ...................................................................................................................................30

4.
Troubleshooting ................................................................................................................... 30

a.
Frequently
Asked
Questions .................................................................................................30


Table
of
Figures

Figure
1.
User
Registration
–
1 ..................................................................................................... 6

Figure
2.
User
Registration
–
Sample............................................................................................ 7

Figure
3.
Login............................................................................................................................. 8

Figure
4.
Sort
By .......................................................................................................................... 9

Figure
5.
View
Profile ................................................................................................................ 10

Figure
6.
Edit
Profile .................................................................................................................. 11

Figure
7.
Post
Deals
–
1 .............................................................................................................. 12

Figure
8.
Post
Deals
–
2 .............................................................................................................. 13

Figure
9.
View
Product
Info
–
1 .................................................................................................. 14

Figure
10.
View
Product
Info
–
2 ................................................................................................ 14

Figure
11.
View
Product
Info–
Product
Image............................................................................. 15

Figure
12.
Email
a
Post
–
Send
Email .......................................................................................... 16

Figure
13.
Email
a
Post
–
Email
Received!................................................................................... 16

Figure
14.
Search
Deals.............................................................................................................. 17

Figure
15.
Forums
–
1 ................................................................................................................ 18

Figure
16.
Forums
–
2 ................................................................................................................ 19

Figure
17.
Forums
–
3 ................................................................................................................ 19

Figure
18.
Category
Based
Search
–
1 ......................................................................................... 20

Figure
19.
Category
Based
Search
–
2 ......................................................................................... 21

Figure
20.
Calendar
Based
Search
–
1 ......................................................................................... 22

Figure
21.
Calendar
Based
Search
–
2 ......................................................................................... 22

Figure
22.
View
User
Deals ........................................................................................................ 23

Figure
23.
Edit
User
Deals .......................................................................................................... 24

Figure
24.
Administrator
–
Login
Page ........................................................................................ 25

Figure
25.
Administrator
–
Homepage........................................................................................ 26

Figure
26.
Administrator
–
Add
new
Category ............................................................................ 26

Figure
27.
Administrator
–
Approve
new
Post ............................................................................ 27

Figure
28.
Administrator
–
New

Post
Approved! ........................................................................ 28

Figure
29.
Email
Alerts............................................................................................................... 29

Figure
30.
Logout ...................................................................................................................... 30


1. SYSTEM
OVERVIEW

Clemson Classifieds is a web portal, which features online classifieds of the Clemson community. This web
application is used to bring the buyer and seller closer by providing a web based platform.

The portal has been designed to be very user friendly. There are categories in the portal in which a user can
post deals. This categorization provides easy navigation. A client can do a lot of things on the website like
post new items, comment on existing items, subscribe for Email/SMS alerts etc. Subscribing for Email/SMS
alerts means that the user gets latest updates on what is happening in that specific category. All the updates
can be emailed to the interested user and thus he can check for updates right from his inbox. There is also an
“Email this” link, using which the user can send a post as an email to anyone he wishes, including to himself!
This is a very convenient and useful feature.

Since all the members in the website are from the university, the system makes interpersonal interaction
easier and more feasible. As a user of the system has the choice to actually see the product before paying for
it, this system does not give leverage to fraud products. This also eliminates the need for relying on
(sometimes) fraudulent images posted related to a product.
There is also a search feature included in the website where a user can do an item based search or category
based search. Advanced search is also provided and the user can search using appropriate filters. For
example, in the motor vehicles category, the user can choose specific price range and type and make his
search easier and more precise. Apart from the search, there is also a calendar that is provided on the website.
If a client remembers the date a deal was posted, he can directly click on the date and reach the relevant post.

All the latest and hottest deals are posted on the homepage so that the current trends can be observed. Given
all the features, we feel that this would be of great help to the Clemson community.

2. IMPLEMENTATION
DETAILS

This project has been implemented using PHP, HTML, JavaScript and AJAX on the front end and a MySQL
database on the backend.
Also, the project has been hosted on a server belonging to the Clemson’s School of Computing named pba.
The URL for the website is http://pba.cs.clemson.edu/~f09t14.


WEB BROWSER COMPATIBILITY
This application is compatible with the following combinations of operating systems and browser
specifications:

On a Windows system:
Microsoft Internet Explorer: Version 5.0 and higher
Opera: Version 9.25 and higher
Mozilla Firefox: Version 3.0 and higher
Google Chrome: Version 3.0 and higher
Apple Safari: Version 3.2 and higher

On a Linux system:
Opera: Version 10 and higher

On a Mac:
Google Chrome (Alpha): Version 3.0 and higher
Apple Safari: Version 3.2 and higher
Opera: Version 9.25 and higher

3. FUNCTIONAL
DESIGN

a. USER
REGISTRATION

A new user is required to register with the system to be able to access most of features of the website.
Most of the required fields in this page are self-explanatory. Entry of information into all the available
fields is mandatory for a profile to be created. Interested categories are available on the right of the User
Registration page, where the user can select categories of products they might be interested in.

If any inconsistent data is entered (for e.g.: wrong format of date and any incomplete field), the
application provides a prompt about the error to the user. Also, all the date entered by the user in this
form can be modified later if and when needed.


All the information entered will stay only within the database of this website. Information will not be
shared with any other party under any circumstances.

Creating a profile shall allow the user to also provide an image to associate with their profile, could be a
picture of the user, or any image to be associated with the user. The system allows uploads of the
following types:
• jpg
• gif
• png

The limit to the size of the image that can be uploaded is 300KB.

Figure
1:
User
Registration
–
1

Figure 2 shows a sample of a completed registration page. As mentioned earlier, the values of these
fields can be modified later.


Figure
2:
User
Registration
–
Sample
b. LOGIN

Once the user has registered with the system, the user is redirected to the login page. Invalid
combination of Username and Password shall not allow the user to login.


Figure
3:
Login

c. HOME
PAGE

After successful login, the user is now directed to his homepage. This shall be the user’s main page with
respect the system, this is where he shall begin his navigation to different products and profiles.
The user is greeted with all the latest posts.
Each post has a “View Product Info” button and an “Email This” button. The first button takes the user
to a page called “Product Info” (discussed later) and the second button guides the user to a form used to
send emails (again, discussed later).

d. NAVIGATION
TABS

Tabs on the top of the page are available for easier navigation. These tabs provide links to various
sections of the website. For example “View Profile” takes the user to his/her own profile page, the “Post
Deals” tab takes the user to the page where he/she can add deals to the website and the “Forums” tab
guides the user to the discussions page.


e. SORT
BY

The page mainly displays all the latest deals that have been posted by other users recently. The user can
sort the displayed posts using various options like “Price: Low to High” or “Price: High to Low” or
“Date Posted” or “Ratings” and “Deadline”.

Figure
4:
Sort
By


f. VIEW
PROFILE

This tab guides the user to their profile page. All the last updated information provided by the user will
be displayed here, along with their display image.

Figure
5:
View
Profile


g. EDIT
PROFILE

The Edit Profile page is where the user can edit information they have in their profile currently. This
includes ‘checking’ more Interested Categories, ‘un-checking’ existing Interested Categories,
subscribing/unsubscribing for email/sms alerts and changing user login details including his Username
and Password.

Figure
6:
Edit
Profile


h. POST
DEALS

The Post Deals page leads the user to the stage in the system where the user can post deals on the
website. For a given the product, the user can enter the posting title, its price (in US dollars), the product
description (within a couple of sentences) etc. A user can attach multiple artifacts associated with the
product. This could include a set of images, documents or/and videos. The “Click to add more files”
functionality can be used by the user to upload multiple files related to the product. An expiry date for
the validity of the deal should also be entered as part of the deal.

The various tags associated with the product are entered in the field “Keywords”. A product gets
featured in the search result based on these keywords. So both the quantity (number of keywords) and
quality (accuracy of the word with respect to the product) are vital for the product to appear in relevant
searches.

Figure
7:
Post
Deals
–
1


Figure
8:
Post
Deals
–
2

i. VIEW
PRODUCT
INFO

This page on the website shall provide complete details of a particular product including its ratings and
comments to be displayed on the webpage. All the images related to the product are displayed here. In
order to view each image in a separate applet, the user can click on any image and they will be in for a
surprise!

The contact information of the user who posted that particular deal is also displayed here. Comments
and Users’ Ratings by various users with regard to this product are also present to help a potential buyer
decide.

There is also an “Email This” button that the user can use to send details of that particular deal to
themselves or their friends/colleagues. Clicking on this button will direct the user to another form
(described later).


Figure
9:
View
Product
Info
-‐
1

Figure
10:
View
Product
Info
–
2


Figure
11:
View
Product
Info
–
Product
Image

This is surprise we referred to earlier!

j. E-‐MAIL
A
POST

Upon clicking the “Email This” button, the user is directed to a page shown in Figure 11. This form is
used by the user to send an email to their friend/colleague. The “To” field requires the destination
address, and multiple addresses can be entered, separated by a comma (“,”). The remaining fields are
self-explanatory, and the user hits the ‘Email!’ button to send the email successfully.


Figure
12:
Email
a
Post
–
Send
Email

Figure
13:
Email
a
Post
–
Email
Received!


k. SEARCH
DEALS

A Search bar provided at the top right hand side of the page can be used to search for particular
products. This is a Keyword based search which returns results of products related in any way to the
keyword. Example of such keywords include: “iphone”, “android” etc.

A search query with “apple” as the keyword would display results related to the company Apple, the
fruit apple and also an apple pie whereas the query “apple pie” would return results related to only apple
pie. So, as the user increases the number of keywords, the accuracy of the search result also increases.
Various sort options are also provided.

Figure
14:
Search
Deals


l. FORUMS

Forums provide a platform for different users to discuss on a variety of topics related to a particular
field. On clicking “Forums” in the navigation bar, the user is asked to select the interested category and
sub category.

Figure
15:
Forums
–
1

When a particular category is selected, a user can now view the various topics of discussion related to
that category. It also displays the topic name, topic starter and the date and time created it was created.
A user if interested can start a new topic in this category.


Figure
16:
Forums
–
2

Once the topic is created/decided, a user can click on it to begin the discussion.

Figure
17:
Forums
–
3


As seen in the figure above, the Thread Starter is depicted by the text displayed in bold accompanied by
the users’ comments regarding the topic. A user can add a new comment or comment on the previous
comments thus providing a two layer hierarchy of comments.

A user is also allowed to delete his previously posted comments. Also, if a user is the owner of a thread
(i.e. the thread was started by the user), the entire thread (along with all the comments for the same) can
be deleted by the user.

m. CATEGORY
BASED
SEARCH

A user can also choose to view deals available present in a particular category by doing a Category
Based search. This is done by choosing a category and the corresponding sub-category, and then hitting
‘Submit’.

Figure
18:
Category
Based
Search
–
1

For example, on choosing the category “Automobile” and sub category “Cars”, the following results are
returned as shown in Figure 17.


Figure
19:
Category
Based
Search
–
2

This shows the summarized view of all the deals falling under the “cars” category. Detailed information
about each can be viewed by clicking the “View Product Info” button (described earlier).

n. CALENDAR
BASED
SEARCH

The website also offers search based on Date. A user is allowed to enter a date range to view all the
deals posted on the website in that specific range of dates.
A user can also choose to view only a particular category of products in that specific range of dates by
entering that product name in the “Product” field.
If the “To” field is left empty, the website returns deals belonging to the current date.


Figure
20:
Calendar
Based
Search
–
1

For example, suppose that the user selects a date range of 11/12/2009 and 12/03/2009, the website
shows all the deals present in that particular timeframe, with respect to the begin date and expiry date of
each deal. This is an extremely useful feature especially when a user can recollect only the approximate
date of when the deal was posted.

Figure
21:
Calendar
Based
Search
–
2


o. VIEW
USER
DEALS

“View My Posts” takes a user to the page where he/she can see all the deals posted by him/her till date.
Comments, ratings and keywords are also made visible to the user.
A user is also allowed to edit a particular post by clicking the “Edit This Post” button (described below).

Figure
22:
View
User
Deals


p. EDIT
USER
DEALS

This page is similar to the “Post New Deals” page except that this time it is used to update fields and all
the fields are not mandatory. The user can change price, deadline and also increase the tags associated
with that product.

Figure
23:
Edit
User
Deals

q. ADMINISTRATOR

When a deal is posted, an administrator has to approve the deal for it to appear on the website.
There is a login page for the administrator.
Features of the administrator:
• Can add categories and approve posts.
• All the pending posts will be displayed on his/her home page.
• An administrator can accept or deny the post. If denied, a mail will be sent to the user who
posted the deal stating the reason for denial.
• The administrator can also add new categories to the website to improve classification. The new
category shows up dynamically in the Post New deals page (described earlier) and also the
Category based search (described earlier)


Figure
24:
Administrator
–
Login
Page


Figure
25:
Administrator
–
Homepage

Figure
26:
Administrator
–
Add
new
Category


Figure
27:
Administrator
–
Approve
new
Post


Figure
28:
Administrator
–
New
Post
Approved!


r. EMAIL
/
SMS
ALERTS

This is one of the special features of Clemson Classifieds. If the user has subscribed for E-mail/SMS
alerts he/she will receive Email updates on the deals posted in that specific category. For e.g. a user has
subscribed for email alerts under mobile-phones category, will receive an email (about the deal posted
above) to his/her inbox. The email will contain basic information like name of the products, price and
the URL of the deal. This way a user can stay updated right from his inbox!

Figure
29:
Email
Alerts


s. LOGOUT

Shown below is the Logout page that the user encounters when he clicks the “Logout” button; the page
also provides the user with a link to log back in, in case the user wishes to.

Figure
30:
Logout

Thank you for going through the user manual. You are now ready to use Clemson Classifieds!

4. TROUBLESHOOTING

a. FREQUENTLY
ASKED
QUESTIONS

- Can the system have 2 usernames with the same name?
No, each employee should have unique user name.

- Are there any restrictions for the password?
No, the user can choose any password.

- How soon does a posting expire?
Based on the deadline provided by the seller.

- Is anonymous posting allowed?


No, the user has to post only after logging in with valid credentials

- Did not receive E-mail?
Re-check the E-mail address or configure your browser settings (E.g.: SMTP server).

- I self-published my posting but I don't see it on the list?
It takes approximately 1-2 days from the time you self-publish the posting until it has been
approved by admin.

- Can I add a picture to my posting?
Yes, you can. The website features the option to post multiple images for a new post.

- Can I add multiple postings?
A user does not have any restrictions on the number of postings. He is free to post any
number of products.

- I saw a posting and I want to say something about it - can I?
If you feel the need to give your opinion, please respond to the poster directly via e-mail or
comment on the product in the “Product Info” page or the user can participate in the
discussion forums to have a say.

- I saw this great posting 6 months ago and would like to see it again. Can I?
The website features the option of date based search. A user can search deals posted on a
specific date or between a specific dates range. If no results have been found, The product
would have got deleted by then. It actually depends on the deadline or product expiration
date of the product.


User_manual

More Related Content

What's hot (18)

Viewers also liked (6)

Similar to User_manual (20)

More from Srikanth Vanama (6)

User_manual