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Wayne Berry
Editor, 15 Seconds
Contents
Introduction
Use Newspaper Classified Features
Beyond the Newspaper
Development Goals
Site Differences
Summary
This article is an overview of the design goals and feature set of the 15 Seconds Job Classifieds site 
and the downloadable classifieds site code, which you can customize for your own use. This article also describes the development goals and main code differences between the 15 Seconds Job Classifieds site and the downloadable classifieds site. For more technical detail on any of these features, see 15 Seconds Job Classifieds Technical Architecture.
A main goal was to simulate the look and feel of a newspaper's classified ads section. This brought about several challenges, such as creating aligned columns, avoiding blank pages or large blank spaces on any pages, and inserting graphics between ads. The newspaper theme allowed for a large amount of text in a high-density format, with multiple columns of ads. A large number of people are familiar with the traditional layout of classified ads, and could easily intrepret and navigate the site's interface.
Newspapers have evenly spaced columns that fill up each page and leave no wasted space. They also have an advantage over Web pages: a fixed width, height, and font. Web pages have neither a fixed width, height, screen resolution, nor font, making evenly spaced columns a difficult goal to achieve.
The solution was to write an Active Server Pages (ASP) function that arranges the postings before writing them into the HTML table structure. The function loads the postings into memory, computes the number of characters per column to display, and arranges them in the best order to display on the screen. (The technical details of this and other functions are listed in http://microsoft.com/workshop/server/scenario/classtech.asp#func.) Unlike a static HTML page, the number of columns can be adjusted with a global variable that the function uses in its computations.
Newspapers have no blank pages. Imagine an editor waking up in the morning to open a newspaper, and seeing a blank page as a placeholder because there were no ads for cars that morning. Many static Web sites do this, making them appear bigger and leaving the reader with dead ends. Because all pages are served dynamically, we have the option of excluding any categories without ads.
The solution was to create the drop-down menus with every page request. This enables users to not display categories where there are no postings, reducing the number of blank pages the user can navigate to. With each page request the Active Server queries the database and returns only categories that have valid postings.
A newspaper classifieds section brings a large number of ads to a reader in an efficient format. However, the Web allows for more flexibility, especially on Web site designed with dynamic pages. Using the Web's capabilities, we designed this site to sort ads by topic, sort ads by region, enable keyword searches, and provide real-time ad placement.
Much like a newspaper, the ads are sorted by categories that are predefined by the site administrator. However, unlike the newspaper, the user can see all the ads for one category on a single page, making it much easier to read. Also unlike most newspapers, which are by definition strictly regional, Web-site classifieds are global and yet can meet global interests as well as more customized, local interests.
Finding what you want in the classifieds section of the newspaper requires flipping through pages and visually scanning several of them. With a Web site, you can more easily find what you need using keyword searches in the pop-up search dialog box.
Most newspapers are very responsive when posting advertisements; however, they cannot compete with the real-time nature of the Web. One goal of the site is to place, manage, and remove advertisements in real time.
The 15 Seconds Job Classifieds site had two major development goals to meet, and two deliverables: a functioning job classifieds Web site and the downloadable classifieds site code, both of which demonstrate Microsoft technology.
When designing demonstrations of technology, it is best to use simple code with a limited number of pages and keep the demonstration flexible enough to do other tasks. Such is the case with the 15 Seconds Job Classifieds site and the downloadable classifieds site code. The downloadable code can be expanded to do other types of ads without many changes.
However, the working site needs to be robust enough to handle real users and have text that is specific to a job classifieds section without hindering the flexibility of the demonstration. The 15 Seconds Job Classifieds site is a dynamic system that can be fine-tuned to handle different traffic loads.
The sections and subsections of the classifieds site display entries in the database, and are easily changed by changing the data in the tables. Because of this design, the classifieds can be expanded to meet the Web site owner's needs as they change.
At a lower level, the page layout and some of the look and feel can also be changed through the global.asp file. Included are the number of columns, the column size, page color, length of the description, and number of days before an ad isn't new.
Another design goal was to show how third-party tools can help provide a site more functionality. The 15 Seconds Job Classifieds site uses two third-party Active Server components from Sign Me Up Marketing, called XSession and XCheck. XSession saves the user's preferences between visits and XCheck makes sure that the postings have valid input. For more information on the Microsoft tools used to build the site, see 15 Seconds Job Classifieds Technical Architecture.
The are two sets of code: one for the 15 Seconds Job Classifieds site and one for the downloadable classifieds site. Basically they are the same; but there are a few differences to note, especially if you are looking to create a classifieds site that is the same as the 15 Seconds Job Classifieds.
The downloadable classifieds site contains neither a banner nor a header with a logo. It is up to the Web administrator to get a logo that represents the brand of the site being deployed. Banner administration code can be found in Dynamic Banner Administration on the 15 Seconds Web site.
The MSDN Online Web Workshop logon pages are also removed from the downloadable site. This means that the user does not have to log on to read the contact details for an ad, nor to they have to log on to post ads. In this regard, the site is completely open to all users.
The 15 Seconds Job Classifieds site is not only a working demonstration of Microsoft technology, but a flexible set of code that you can download and use in a variety of ways. With the ability to download the code and deploy it on your own servers, and the flexibility to give it multiple themes, you can create a classifieds site that caters to automobiles, sells condominiums, or provides various kinds of classifieds on a company intranet.
See also the downloadable classifieds site code and the article on the 15 Seconds Job Classifieds Technical Architecture. If you are interested in MSDN Online membership so you can access contact information on the site and post job openings, see the Community home page.
15 Seconds is a free Internet resource for developers working with Microsoft Internet Solutions and product lines of Sign Me Up Marketing SMUM, a leader in Internet marketing. Established in 1996, SMUM is a Seattle-based business owned by Wayne Berry, a well-known global programming consultant and co-author of Active X Programming Unleashed, Windows NT 4 Registry, and IIS 4.0 Special Edition.
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