User Guide

Log in Osclass

To login to your Osclass Administration panel, direct your browser to http://www.yourdomain.com/oc-admin (for root installations).

If your installation is in a subdirectory, then the address should be http://www.yourdomain.com/subdirectory/oc-admin.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is the first administration page you're presented with when you login. The Dashboard contains four different modules, which gives a visualization of various information and statistics about your Osclass installation, including:

Items by category
Statistics
Latest comments
Latest news from Osclass

These modules can be enabled/disabled from view by clicking the Settings button located in the top-right corner of the dashboard screen.

Listings

The Listings menu tab will give you access to the necessary tools to edit/add/delete all the listings published in your Osclass installation.

Manage listings

You can edit any listing from this page. Place your mouse over the ad you're interested in editing. A submenu will appear for that listing giving you the choice of the following options:

Edit - allows you to edit all properties of the ad
Delete - deletes the ad
View comments - view all comments associated with this ad
View media - view all media (pictures) associated with this ad
Deactivate (Activate) - deactivates/activates the ad
Block (Unblock) - blocks/unblocks the ad
Mark as premium - makes ad premium
Mark as spam - marks the ad as spam

Add new listing

To add a new listing just go to your oc-admin -> Listings -> Add new

or just click on the icon.

From this page, you can add a new listing, including the following details:

Title
Category
Description
Price
Photos
Expiration date

You may also need to add your name, email address and ad location.

Comments

This page allows you to view and edit all comments left for any ad.

Manage media

This page allows you to view and delete all media/images uploaded to ads.

Settings

The 'Listings Settings' page allows you to configure how your Osclass installation functions. These are the available settings:

Enable listing validation by users - requires users to activate their new ad. After the listing is published, users will receive a validation link to their email address. You may also set the number of listings a user must validate before they no longer have to validate by email. By default this value is "0", which requires validation for every ad by that user.

Show reCAPTCHA - enables reCAPTCHA for the entire site. You MUST also have entered a public & private reCAPTCHA key for this to work. This setting can be found under General Settings > Spam and bots

Logged in users don't need to validate listings - optionally, you can require listing validation only for those users who aren't logged-in.

Only allow registered users can post listings - requires users to be registered and logged-in before posting new ads. There is an additional setting to force the user to wait a specified amount of time before posting another ad. This can be useful for preventing spam.

Contact publisher

Only allow registered users can contact sellers

Allow attachment files in contact publisher form

Notifications

Notify admin of new listings

Send admin a copy of the "contact publisher" email

Send admin a copy of the "share listing" email

Set ad expiration warning

Details

Title length

Description length

Enable price (for ads)

Enable images (for ads)

Maximum number of images per ad (0 for unlimited) - sets the number of images a user can upload per ad.

Custom Fields

What are custom fields?

Custom fields allow you to create new fields for users to fill out when publishing a listing. It is especially useful when you require extra information of the listings, for example: number of bedrooms in real estate classifieds website, fuel type in car listings, number of vacancies for jobs, etc.

Add new custom fields

To create a new custom field, access Listings → Custom fields → Add new, and then edit the required information.

Get the title for the field (it will appear on your website)
Choose a type of the field you want to add (you can choose between text, dropdown list, etc.)
If you want, you can make your custom field a required field by ticking a box below the type.
Choose categories where you want the field to appear (you can choose all of them by clicking “check all”)
You can also edit the identifier name in advanced options.

Your new custom field will appear when users publish a listing on the selected categories.

Example:

You can delete custom fields anytime, by clicking on Delete. Furthermore, since version 3.2, you can search filter listings according to the custom fields!

Appearance

Manage themes

Allows you to manage installed Osclass themes. The currently active theme will be shown at the top, under Current theme. Any additional themes that have been installed will be shown under Available themes, and can be activated at anytime.

Add a new theme

There are two different ways to add a new theme:

1. Browse through our Market. Access Osclass Market through the upper right tab and you'll be able to choose among a wide variety of themes.

2. Upload it manually

This is ideal if you want to upload a theme of your own or any other theme not available at Osclass Market. Browse your computer for the downloaded zip file, select it and click Upload. If the upload was successful, you'll be taken to the Manage themes page.

You can then activate your new theme by clicking the Activate link that appears just above the theme preview for the new theme.

Add or remove widgets

On the Appearance menu, you can also Manage widgets. Yo can add or remove widgets either from the header or the footer of your site. To add a new widget, just click on the "Add HTML widget" button. You'll be directed to the following editing screen:

You just need to enter a description (for internal purposes) and the HTML Code for the Widget.

Theme Settings

Most of Osclass themes are highly customisable and allow to configure and edit some features. If your theme is customisable, you'll see a "Theme Settings" option among the "Appearance" menu.

Through these options you can change the search placeholder text, modify the listing view, remove the Osclass link on the footer or even place advertising on your Osclass website.

Furthermore, many themes also allow you to change the header logo. If this option is available, you'll see it in the Appearance drop-down menu.

Plugins

In computing, a plug-in is a set of software components that adds specific capabilities to a larger software application. If supported, plug-ins enable customizing the functionality of an application. For example, plug-ins are commonly used in web browsers to play video, scan for viruses, and display new file types. (from Wikipedia)

There is a large variety of plugins available for Osclass at our marketplace: Osclass Market. Here you will find all sorts of plugins, either free or premium, and well categorised, so you can easily find what you're looking for.

Manage Plugins

From this Plugins submenu you'll be able to manage all the plugins you have downloaded, access Osclass Market or check for plugins updates. On the top right side of the screen you'll find three tabs:

Available plugins Here you can see all your downloaded plugins. On the far right columns of each plugin you'll be able to "Configure", "Disable", "Install" or "Uninstall".

Market Access to Osclass Market from your oc-admin.

Updates Here you'll see a list of the plugins that have recently added new updates.

How to install a plugin

There are two ways you can install a plugin in your Osclass installation: from Osclass Market or from your manually from your oc-admin.

Osclass Market

You can download Osclass plugins either from Osclass Market website or from your oc-admin, by clicking on the shopping bag icon on your left sidebar.1. Go to Market → Plugins. From your oc-admin you'll see the plugins tab on the Market menu. You can also access Osclass Market from Plugins menu and click on the top right corner tab "Market".2. Browse and choose the plugin that best fits your needs. Before installing, you can see all the plugin info on "View more".3. Once downloaded, you need to install your plugin from your oc-admin, "Plugins" --> "Manage plugins" tab.4. Once installed, most of them offer you the possibility to adjust their own settings. These settings will show up somewhere below on the Plugins menu on the left sidebar.

Manually

Have you developed a plugin and want to upload it to your Osclass site? Here we tell you how to manually install a plugin.

Go to your oc-admin and access Manage Plugins screen on your Plugins menu.

Then click on the icon to add a new plugin.

Click Browse to find the plugin's zip file on your computer. Then click Upload.
If upload was successful, you'll be taken to the Manage Plugins page. Click Install to install your new plugin.

How to uninstall a plugin

If you have installed a wrong plugin in Osclass or have changed your mind and would like to simply uninstall it, here you can learn how to do it. As a general rule, you can uninstall all the plugins from the "Manage plugins" screen. Choose the plugin you want to uninstall and click on Disable. Once it’s disabled, you should choose Uninstall and then confirm uninstalling once again.

Note that some plugins might require to get some code removed. It's also recommended to remove the files of the plugin you don't plan to use.

Download Theme - Plugin

Statistics

This page shows several statistic about your website for the following metrics:

Listings
Reports
Users
Comments

All of them can be filtered according to the following time intervals:

Last 10 days
Last 10 weeks
Last 10 months

Listings

This page shows several statistics about listings/ads, including:

Number of new listings
Total number of listings' view
Number of new alerts
Number of new subscribers

Reports

This page shows statistics about the total number of reported listings. Reported reasons include:

Spam
Repeated
Bad category
Offensive
Expired

Users

This page shows several statistics about your website users, including:

New users
Users per country
Users per region
Latest users on the website
Average listings per user

Comments

This page shows the number and the content of the latest comments posted on your website.

Settings

General settings

The General Settings page contains vital site information, such as the page title and description, admin's email address, default currency, timezone, etc.

From this page you will be able to manage other settings like the following:

Category settings - Allow (or not) users to select a parent category as a category when inserting or editing a listing.
Contact settings - Allow people to attach a file to the contact form.
Cron settings - Some Osclass functionalities require a cron in order to work. Check if your host isn't able to do them. Uncheck if you want to set up your cron manually. Refer to the manual to know more about the Osclass cron system.
Market settings - Connect your oc-admin to your Market profile and download your purchased products directly from your dashboard.
Software updates - Enable or disable software updates for core, plugins, themes, languages or market external sources.

Comments

The Comments page allows you to set up the following options:

Default comment settings:

- Allow people to post comments on listings- Restrict comments to registered users- Enable comment moderation by admin- Minimum approved comments, before a comment appears.- Number of comments per page

Notifications:

Adjust wether you want or not to receive and send emails whenever:- A new comment is posted (to admin)- There's a new comment on his/her listing (to the user)

Want to learn more? See how to moderate comments on this video tutorial.

Locations

To add a new location:1. Click, Add new2. Enter the two-letter country code and country name3. Click, Add

Email templates

Although there are already default versions available for email messages such as “Tell a friend”, “Validate your listing”, “Edit options for the listings” etc., you might want to change them. You can easily do so, by entering your Dashboard → Settings → Email templates.

Languages

This page allows you to manage all your currently installed language translations.

Enable/disable friendly URL's - By default, Osclass uses web URLs which have question marks and lots of numbers in them. However, Osclass offers you friendly urls. This can improve the aesthetics, usability, and forward-compatibility of your links.

Permalinks

Example link to an ad, with...Permalinks disabled: http://www.yoursite.com/index.php?page=item&id=1Permalinks enabled: http:/www.yoursite.com/category-name/title-of-ad

Spam and bots

There are several ways to avoid spam listings on your classifieds website and manage it easier. Here we tell you how to get and configure your Akismet and reCAPTCHA keys. Both, reCAPTCHA and Akismet, are available from your Oc-admin → Settings → Spam and bots. However, please note, that you must register first on their websites in order to use these services.

Currencies

This page allows you to Add, Edit and Delete currencies for your site. The default currencies include:

European Union euro
United Kingdom pound
United States dollar

Important: You will not be able to delete a currency if ANY ad on the site are using it. Additionally, you can not delete a currency if it is set as the default currency on the General settings > General settings page.

Mail server

See: Setting up a mail server

Media

This page allows you to set the preferred dimensions for all the images on the website.

Latest searches

This page will allow you to decide if you want to store the latest queries of your users and for how long. It may be useful to know what queries users make in your website. You could have an idea of what your users are looking for or show them on the site as "hot topics".

By default, this option is unchecked.

Advanced Settings

Allow you to choose if you want to enable subdomains on your Osclass website. If you enable them, you can choose by which subdomain type they will be based on: user, category, country, region or city.

Remember that if you enable subdomains, you are required to provide your host name. Add it without "www".

Email templates

This page allows you to view and edit all Osclass email templates.

To edit an email template, just place your mouse on the desired template and click the "Edit" button. You'll access to the following editing screen:

Languages

Manage languages

This page allows you to manage all your currently installed language translations. To manage languages, access Settings menu and then Languages submenu.

Placing your mouse over the language you wish to manage will bring up a menu bar. There are several options that will appear, including:

Edit
Disable or Enable (website)
Disable or Enable (oc-admin)
Delete

Note that your oc-admin will always show in the default language. To change the default language, go to Settings > General > Default language and save the changes.

Edit

Edit option will take you to a separate page, which allows you set several important options for your site.

You'll see several parameters that can be edited. A few notable ones include:

Currency format - allows customization of price formatting (example: you could change {NUMBER} {CURRENCY} to {CURRENCY} {NUMBER} or ${NUMBER}, etc)
Number of decimals - number of decimal places in price format
Decimal point - allows customization of decimal point (can be comma "," or decimal point ".")
Thousands separator - customize thousands separator (ex: "," for 1,000 or "." for 1.000)
Thousands separator - Date format
Stopwords - these are not currently used by OSClass, but exist for future implementation

Add a language

To add a language, download the language(s) you'd like from Osclass Market on your oc-admin. Just click on the shopping bag icon and select the Languages tab. Choose the language you want to add, click on Download. Once it’s done, you should activate it by clicking on enable/disable language for your oc-admin or website.

You can also manually add a language just by clicking the icon or "Add new" button. Note that language files must be in .zip format and must contain all the required files for Osclass.

Pages

Create page

This section allows you to create and add new pages on your site. Simply enter a page title (which will be used as the link text to the page), an internal name for the page and the content/body of the page. You can use the WYSIWYG editor, where everything looks as the final result. Or you can even edit in HTML, where you can edit the html directly.

Here you can see how to create a new page:

A link to the page will show up in the footer of each of your website pages, like this:

Note: The Contact page is a default page that comes with Osclass. This page file, named contact.php, can be found within the root of your OSClass installation.

Manage pages

From this screen, you're able to edit and delete all user-created pages on your site. Place your mouse over the page you wish to edit and a menu will appear with the options: View Page, Edit, or Delete. You may also reorder the pages by clicking on the arrows located on the far-right, under the "Order" column.

Dynamic custom pages

If you need more freedom for your pages, you can create dynamic custom pages, for example to run PHP code and create special pages. This can be easily achieved following the next steps:

Go to Add new from the Pages tab on the admin panel.
Enter a custom internal name, for example my_custom_page
Enter a tittle, body could be left empty
Create your custom file, call it page-my_custom_page.php
Upload it to your theme folder. If your theme folder is modern, upload it to oc-content/themes/modern.

Users

Manage users

Allows you to manage all registered website users. Options include:

Edit user
Activate/Deactivate user
Disable/Enable user
See public profile
Block user
Delete user

Add a new user - takes you to Add new user page, where you can manually register a new user.

You can also search filter users according to many parameters. Just click on "Show filters" right left to the search box and refine your search.

User settings

Allow you to manage user settings like the following:

Users enabled
User validation enabled
User registration enabled
Notify admin when a new user registers
Username blacklist

Administrators

In case your classifieds website is managed by various people, you might want to create different access data for each of them. That might improve managing your website in case it gets more and more traffic each time.

You can also control the permissions the users have in your administration panel. You can choose between administrator and moderator. Administrator has access to the entire admin panel, while moderator can only modify listings, comments , media files and see statistics.

Just click on "Add New" administrator and introduce admin’s name, username (used when accessing the dashboard), email address and password (no worries, the admin can change it later on). As mentioned, you should also choose between administrator and moderator option.

You can easily remove all the administrators and moderators of your classifieds website that you’ve created before by choosing “Delete”.

Your profile

This page is only visible for Administrators. Here you can edit your name, username, email and password.

Alerts

You can see and manage the alerts set by users on your website. You'll see a list of users with the following information:

Email address
Subscribed alert (keywords or categories)
Date of subscription

Ban rules

Thanks to this feature you can set extra rules to avoid spamming or publishing ads by users with defined email or IP addresses.

You have two options:1. Ban users with certain emails addresses (to do so, click on “Add New” and fill in the ban name – that’s only for the internal use. Add email starting with “*”, for example: if you want to ban users with “hotmail” addresses you should introduce *@hotmail.com)2. Ban users by IP addresses (click on “Add New”, fill in the ban name for the internal use and add IP address ending on “*”, for example: 192.168.10-20.*).

Please keep in mind that ban rules prevent users to register, publish or comment on listings. You can add new rules, edit or delete already existing ones any time from your dashboard.

Tools

Import data

You can modify your database to add, remove or modify its data here. It's usually used to import countries, regions and cities. Remeber that the file format must be always .sql.

Backup data

You can back up Osclass here. You can choose either to backup SQL (on server or to download the file) or to backup all files (on server).

WARNING: If you don't specify a backup folder, the backup files will be created in the root of your Osclass installation

Upgrade Osclass

Your Osclass installation can be auto-upgraded. Please, backup your database and the folder oc-content before attempting to upgrade your Osclass installation. You can also upgrade Osclass manually, more information in the admin.

Location stats

You can recalculate your location stats. This is useful if you upgrade from versions older than Osclass 2.4.

Category stats

You can recalculate stats by category. This is useful if the stats seem to be incorrect.

Maintenance mode

While in maintenance mode, users can not access your website (but you can). Useful if you need to make some changes on your website. Use the following button to toggle ON/OFF maintenance mode.

User Guide

Log in Osclass

Dashboard

Listings

Manage listings

Add new listing

Comments

Manage media

Settings

Categories

Manage categories

Settings

Custom Fields

What are custom fields?

Add new custom fields

Appearance

Manage themes

Add a new theme

Add or remove widgets

Theme Settings

Plugins

Manage Plugins

How to install a plugin

How to uninstall a plugin

Download Theme - Plugin

Statistics

Listings

Reports

Users

Comments

Settings

General settings

Categories

Comments

Locations

Email templates

Languages

Permalinks

Spam and bots

Currencies

Mail server

Media

Latest searches

Advanced Settings

Email templates

Email templates

Languages

Manage languages

Edit

Add a language

Pages

Create page

Manage pages

Dynamic custom pages

Users

Manage users

User settings

Administrators

Your profile

Alerts

Ban rules

Tools

Import data

Backup data

Upgrade Osclass

Location stats

Category stats

Maintenance mode