New directory script

[hairybob]

Has anyone seen this script before:

www.edirectory.com

I stumbled on it a couple of days ago. I'd love to hear if anyone has had any experience using it. I love how professional the script appears. There's a demo at:

www.demodirectory.com

The only thing that puts me off is the price. But then again, if I want to have a professional looking directory, maybe that's the price I need to pay.

Has anyone seen anything as good as this before? I'd be keen to hear everyones thoughts as to whether the script seems like value for money, etc...

I'm just starting to learn php / mysql myself and I know it will be ages before I'll have the skills to be able to do anything like this myself. Can someone who knows about databases / scripting have a quick look at this for me and tell me if it's any good and also whether someone fairly amatuer (like me) would be able to manage it themselves. That is if I purchased the script instead of just having it hosted by this company.

Thanks a lot everyone.

Cheers

HairyBob

[Para]

This looks like a good directory script as it seems to have more features than regular scripts, it would be easy to manage from what i can see even without much knowledge.

What kind of site are you going to be using this for ? That will help me give you more recomendations.

[hairybob]

Hi Para

Thanks for taking a look at that script.

My intention is to start a directory of pet products and services. I want to make it international, so for example, if someone is looking for a pet store in Auckland New Zealand they'll be able to find it easily. And I don't want the site just to be a huge series of links. I want each company that submits their details to be able to explain about their products and services as well as providing users with images of their product / service. And I want to be able to take payments from customers.

I hope that helps you understand where I'm coming from.

Given your status on the forums, you must have significant knowledge of coding, etc... Can you give me some idea of how big of a job it would be for someone fairly new to databases / scripting to make a directory such as the one available at www.edirectory.com ? I'm trying to work out if putting together something like this would be possible if I dedicated a couple of months to it.

I've had a look at other directory scripts, such as phpmydirectory, phplinksdirectory, etc but feel that they are lacking.

Thanks

HairyBob

[ruhani]

The URLs are not working. I have tried opening both of them buet I get "Page Not Found" for both links.

[Ainslie X11]

costly, tables, no dtd, otherwise looks interesting

[hairybob]

I'm still pretty keen to get some feedback to my earlier posts if anyone can add something. Thanks in advance.

[hairybob]

I'm thinking of buying this script. Can anyone find any reason why it might not be a good purchase. Thanks

[guillon]

I search for a good directory to install on PHP/MYSQL. In case of a sudent problem I want to be able to reinstall keeping the content as it previously was. Where could I download such a stable script and fpr free?

[kiviniar]

Well if you are looking for a directory portal script, you could try this

http://www.nicecoder.com/

Demo http://www.indexu.net/

This is my personal favourite

The one u are looking at is a bit expensive and well havent seen it used...
Interact a lot with dirs

[dalt]

Both 'edirectory' and 'indexu' are nice scripts. The 'edirectory' demo is excellent and it is good to see some effort in projecting a script in its best light.

Fully optioned, Edirectory seems to more of a portal with a very good directory capability. I question the cost of edirectory in light of other good scripts. If you purchased the full options and unencoded, expect to be out of pocket for at least $3000.

Once you start talking these amounts, it is worth creating your own script.

If you check-out edirectory's recently created website links, you will find all of these look decidely amateurish compared to the demo. If you're interested in buying, I would question how close to the demo is the script that you are purchasing as it would cost considerably more money to get a new template created that combines the clean design and typography that the demo projects.

Dalt

[rui]

way too pricey for that edirectory script. Would definitely rather invest in a proprietary script myself.

[hairybob]

Can someone give me a roughidea about how much I could expect to pay for a proprietory script of the quality of edirectory?

Also, can you let me know where I would go, or who I would talk to about doing a proprietory script.

Thanks

[Sola]

rentacoder.com

[TopWeb]

Is rentacoder.com the best place to seek script coders?

What's wrong with indexu, by the way. Or, is the concern more about changing the default html/web page formatting / look and feel?

I'm considering INDEXU in addition to ESYNDICAT PRO (the new version 2, just released).


These seem to be pretty flexible, or am I missing something?

[dalt]

I would be reluctant to build a site like edirectory from scratch.

Unless you have good knowlege of the coder and a long pocket, I would get someone to check the coding on the edirectory script and purchase the unencoded version. It would be less pain and probably cheaper in the long run.

Scriptlance.com is another alternative. I have had good results and bad from their coders.

Dalt

[Iimitk]

Too much expensive! I would definitely go with phpMyDirectory for $99.95 & alsmot the same features, if not more.

[hairybob]

Thanks for everyones comments. I'm thinking that INDEXU looks fairly nice. However, there seem to be a few negative reviews about lack of support. Anyone got comments one way or the other???

Also, eveyone seems to rave about phplinkdirectory, but it looks really pretty amatuerish to me. Am I missing something? What I would say though is that the people who code this script and then market it throughout various forums by adding bogus positive self-congratulatory reviews are doing a fantastic job.... Much better than the script itself.

Any comments???

[hairybob]

I'm unable to find one decent looking site using phplinkdirectory. Everyone that uses it seems to go in for these terrible generic link farms that add absolutely no value to anyone or anything !

What is going on? Are the people who do this actually making money? If so, very strange....

[Iimitk]

I'm unable to find one decent looking site using phplinkdirectory. Everyone that uses it seems to go in for these terrible generic link farms that add absolutely no value to anyone or anything !

What is going on? Are the people who do this actually making money? If so, very strange....

Did you look at the script I suggested earleier? Anyway what kind of directory you're looking for? A business listings directory or just a links farm directory?

[hairybob]

Yes - thanks SimSim

I've checked out www.phpmydirectory. You are right it's a lot better than www.phplinkdirectory.com , but I don't feel that the sites using this software look particularly good. It's pretty easy to tell, after you've had a look at one or two of the example sites, that they are all using the same software. They tend to look and feel somewhat amatuerish. Most of them have a 3 column layout and cheesy graphics!

BTW - I definitely want to build a proper directory - not just another link farm. I can't work out why people build those link farms like the ones you can make with www.phplinkdirectory.com There must be absolutely bugger all money in them, and they aren't providing anything useful whatsoever. I don't think there is any future in a site unless it solves a problem or creates an opportunity. A link farm does neither - they are just a waste of everyone's time!!! And I don't reckon it will be too far in the future before google starts penalising link farm sites. Who knows, they might even target the software by looking for output patterns consistent with www.phplinkdirectory.com ' s attrocious software.

[hairybob]

I'm actually amazed at how many people appear to have purchased www.phplinkdirectory.com ' s crap software. It just shows how many thick people there are out there putting pathetic link farms together that target no one and offer nothing.

Personally, I wouldn't pay $1 for an unlimited licence of that software.

[Sola]

Why don't you just buy your edirectory and stop knocking others? Isn't it their business what they do with their money? Or for that matter, how and what kind of site they build?

[dalt]

Hmmm, I send an email to edirectory over a week ago. Still waiting for a reply to my questions as I have (had) a client interested in their software. Based on this and I assume the support would be as bad or non existant, they wouldn't be spending their money on anything as they don't sell anything.

Dalt

[Simon Gooffin]

Greetings,
Actually I do not understand why pay more if you can get better software for less money Check eSyndiCat 2.0 version and please let us know if there are any things that you would like to see in your directory that miss in eSyndiCat.

[TopWeb]

Greetings,
Actually I do not understand why pay more if you can get better software for less money Check eSyndiCat 2.0 version and please let us know if there are any things that you would like to see in your directory that miss in eSyndiCat.

I would like to see the ability to search on custom fields. I'd also like to see Yahoo maps and Google Maps integration, and a preloadable list of all US states, cities, and zip codes (for regional directory).