Submit a Link Question

[Induslady]

When I click on "Submit a Link", it takes me to a page that has

1. URL
2. Category

My question is to see if there is a way to not ask for URL at this stage and ask it in the following screen.

I want to do this because of two reasons.

1. I am using this as a catalogue of several entities, many of which don't even have a website. Examples of that would be Indian Priests, home-base beauty parlors etc. Having a link as first required field will make my members think that this directory is not intended for information that doesn't have a web presence.

2. Several of my categories are added new as they go. If members enter the URL field and come down and create a category, they anyway need to enter the URL again (in the process of creating a category, the original entered URL information is lost). Why not keep just the category as the only field in the first screen and have all other information in the second screen.

Please let me know how we can address this. Thanks.

[Brian]

Sorry, but I don't think there's really going to be an easy way to do that since the links directory is geared for managing links. vBa Dynamics may be a better solution for you though since it does not require links and is more flexible in most areas.

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[Induslady]

Brian,

A few questions for you..

1. If my intention is to create an online yellow pages with ratings and reviews, which vba product do you recommend? I expect that about 40% of the entries will not have websites and the rest 60% will have websites to link to.

2. What are the things that dynamics can't do that links can do? In other words, what would I be giving up by going with dynamics instead of links?

[Brian]

1). Probably vBa Dynamics.

2). The main things you would be giving up are the parts that are specifically geared towards a links directory. Going through the settings and such, this should cover the main features that are not included in vBa Dynamics:
The 'Status Reports' part in the Admin CP that allow you to scan for broken links.
Automatically populating the title, description, and keywords fields when submitting a link (The "Auto-Fill Fields" setting).
The "Link to Us" page (though it would be possible to create a custom page like this with the CMPS, or even by adding a simple plugin to vBa Dynamics, though the page would have to be hard coded in either case as it would not include options for uploading banners and such).
Reciprocal link checking.

If those are features that you don't really need, then I would say vBa Dynamics would be the better solution as it includes pretty much every other option and feature, and then some.

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[Induslady]

Brian,

A few more questions. I have to stay with this decision for many years and hence trying to do my full due-diligence.

1. I have bought vblinks from you and have just installed it in my site (but still haven't pushed it to production). If I decide to go with vbdynamics, can I pay the balance $10 and switch to vbdynamics? Obviously, I will then uninstall the vblinks in my site and surrender the license. Let me know how that would work.

2. From a future resource allocation standpoint, are you putting more effort and energy into adding features into vbdynamics as oppossed to vblinks? In other words, am I more likely to get a feature recommendation incorporated into vbdynamics as oppossed to vblinks?

3. Any possibility that the above mentioned features of vblinks become incorporated into vbdynamics at some point in the near future?

4. Is there any impending feature release of vblinks in the works?

Thanks Brian.

[Brian]

1). In most cases we do not allow for any type of refunds or "product switching", but I will make an exception here. Whenever you're ready to do so, you can just send the payment of $10 straight to sales@vbadvanced.com, and then let me know afterwards so I can add your Dynamics license and remove the one for the links directory.

2). There will most likely be more work to do on vBa Dynamics in the future since it is a more versitile product, and there are a lot of different/additional directions we can go with the product. That's not to say that we won't still be putting plenty of time into updates for vBa Links Directory, but the features and such added to it would of course be more geared towards a links directory product and not so much of a multi-use product like vBa Dynamics is.

3). The 4 items I mentioned above probably will not be added to vBa Dynamics in the near future (if ever) since those things are more geared towards a links directory and most would not be very easy to incorporate into vBa Dynamics.

4). Yes. We should have a new major release (probably v3.0) ready within the next few months or so. Some work has already been done, but it's early stages.

[Induslady]

Dear Brian,

I have sent $10 through paypal. Please let me know how I should go about downloading vbdynamics.

One request, after you provide me with the vbdynamics license, can you wait for 1 week before you remove the vblinks license. I just want to install vbdynamics and customize to my needs. In the remote chance, I hit a critical bottleneck in vbdynamics and find that vblinks better suits my needs, I would like to have the option to go back. Thanks Brian for the flexibility.