- Dashboard- the dashboard section shows a general statistic of your website, like the total number of users and the number of users for each Membership Plan. You also find the latest info on reports, payments and newly registered users.
Clicking on All users, All Payments or All reports will take you to their respective section in the backend menu where you can see the full list.
- User Management- a full list of users is displayed along with some basic information:type of membership and when it ends, registration date and current status(banned or not).
The user list can be used as a fast way to ban or unban users, you can either click on the ban/unban sign in the Banned column or check the boxes next tot the names of the users and click Ban/Unban in the upper right corner of the window.
You can filter users by membership type or status.
- Reported Messages and Comments- All reports regarding offensive comments, messages or pictures are shown here, they can be filtered by type or status.
To view a report click on view in the Report column.
Information about the report is shown, like when it was submitted, by whom and who was reported. The reporting user's comment is displayed and the appropriate actions you can take:
Send warning message, Delete Comment/Message/Picture and Ban user.
When clicking on Send warning message a text box with a template message will open.
After dealing with the report select Resolved from the Status bar and click Save in the upper right corner of the window.
- Payments Management- this is a list of all payments, pending or completed along with some general information about them, price, type of membership or method of payment (PayPal or Moneybookers) that are waiting for validation.
The Love Factory features a very easy to use field management option that allows the administrator to create custom fields, define their name, type(text field, drop down, radio buttons..), group them in pages and set parameters. You can remove or add any fields in the users profile pages with anything you want, this gives you the option to further personalize your website, make it more unique and get a much better user description that what Joomla generally offers thus making The Love Factory an ideal Date and Matchmaking component.
- Fields- Here you can add fields and organize them in the pages, they can be grouped by row and zone, you can choose on what pages they will show and all this can be done with a very easy to use drag & drop method.
There are multiple options for the fields, to create a new field click on New in the upper right corner of the window.
Love Factory features up to 9 types of Fields: Text field, Text area, Drop down
(single text), Drop down (multiple select), Checkboxes, Radio buttons, Birth date, Sex and
Looking for. Each type of field has Specific Parameters that will be shown on the right.
- Text field: choose a maximum number of characters.
- Text area: choose a number of columns and rows.
- Drop down (single select): add the options, one per line, that will show in a drop down bar.
- Drop down (multiple select): same as single select but with a row/column display option
- Checkboxes: add the options, one per line, and choose how they will be displayed, row or column.
- Radio buttons: add the options, one per line, and choose how they will be displayed, row or column.
- Birth date: choose a minimum and maximum age.
- Sex: write your gender options, one per line.
- Looking for: friend, sex, life partner,etc..., one per line.
After selecting the type and writing the parameters, you can write the Title of the field,
choose if it will be published, make it mandatory or not, and write a short description.
As for the Pages, there are 6 of them in the Love Factory component: Advanced Search,
Profile Edit, Profile Search, Profile View, Quick search and Registration.
Click on a Page to open the Field setup screen, some pages may have additional fields
which you can't edit. For example the Advanced search page has Online members and
With pictures.
You can drag & drop fields from the Available fields column to Page fields and place
them in the desired column and zone, zones and rows can be added or deleted as you
want.
- Pricing: For the upper class memberships (1-3) you can set individual payment plans where you can set the price and number of months.
To create a new Membership Plan click on New on the upper right corner of the screen. Here you can select one of the memberships you have created, in the Settings menu, and set a price for a number of months, 0 being for unlimited.
- About: Your version of Love Factory and the latest version, along with links to the developer are shown here.
Revised "Love Factory" version 1.2.x.
The Love Factory is a Joomla 1.5 Dating and Matchmaking component with all the common social interaction functions and more. Users can send each other messages, leave comments, upload pictures, leave ratings and interact by sending kisses.
A common Menu Layout in your installation would look like this:
Of course you can set up the menus as you need - using Joomla standard menu management.
The profile status option allows you to choose whether you will appear online, online for friends or offline.
After setting up your profile you can go to My Photo Gallery where you can upload pictures and arrange them in the way you want them to appear when someone is browsing your gallery.
Clicking on Add a new photo will open the explorer window where you can select the picture you wish to upload. To delete a picture click on the red delete sign over the picture. If you want to arrange the pictures in a particular order simply click and drag them in the order you desire then click on Save order. The first picture in the slide will also be shown as your thumbnail picture(the one other users will see first).
In the Pending requests tab you can see the request you have sent or received. You can View the message sent with the request, Accept or Reject the proposal.
The advanced search form has all the quick form and many more options set by the site Administrator that can vary from City of origin to Job, basically anything the Administrator decides to include.
A common Menu Layout in your installation would look like this:
After creating an account using the standard Joomla registration, click on Edit my Profile, complete the required fields, click on Update profile and get closer to finding a friend or soul mate. All the profile fields can be configured and arranged in the administrator backend along with adding custom fields or deleting others.
To view your profile with the information and avatar picture you have entered click on View my profile.
All the information about your profile can be found here, your Rating average and User comments. If someone posts a comment that offends you, you can click on Report comment and an admin will look into it. You can also delete any comment and post comments on your profile.
Interactions are ways to socialize and interact with other people.
When looking at other people's profile you get some extra interactions, like Sending a kiss, message, asking for friendship or even add the user to your blacklist/ignore list.
If you click on Ask for friendship a message window will appear where you can write something for your possible future friend.
You can find your friends in the Friends page found in the Love Factory menu, regular users have a limited number of friends depending on the administrator settings, to increase your friends list capacity a Membership Plan can be purchased. The friends list allows you to quickly locate your favorite users and send them messages.
You can find your friends in the Friends page found in the Love Factory menu, regular users have a limited number of friends depending on the administrator settings, to increase your friends list capacity a Membership Plan can be purchased. The friends list allows you to quickly locate your favorite users and send them messages.
The next interaction is Send a kiss, if you click on this the user will find Kiss in his interactions menu, where he will have the option to kiss you back.
If you find you Interactions tab too full, click on Empty list and they will be deleted.
Adding a user to your blacklist will automatically ignore all his messages and interactions towards you. To remove him from your blacklist go to Ignore list in the Love Factory Menu and click on Remove User.
When viewing another users profile you can also rate it from 1 to 10, see other people who have rated it and how much.
The messaging system allows you to quickly interact with other users and friends, you can even choose to receive messages only from friends. The number of messages can be limited as well.
Message Inbox: Here you can see all the messages you have received, sent (in the Outbox), and also your friendship requests.
Messages can also be deleted by clicking on delete or on Empty Inbox.
To write someone a message click on New message in your Message page or on Send a message in the Interact tab while viewing their profile(this will auto complete the To: field).
Friends: This is your friends list, here you can see your friends, send them messages or break your friendship.
The Search option is a great way to search for a friend or your perfect match. Fill the fields with your personal data and what you wish to find in your future friend and press Search!
Searching for people: The Love Factory has two search versions, a quick search and an advanced search.
The quick search form has only 3 search criteria: I am a (depending on the configuration of the website you will have to choose from Male or Female), Looking for a (Male or Female), and age filter, this will only show you Users that fit within your set values.
Both the search forms have display options for your search, they can be sorted by: Last Seen, Username and Age-Ascending or Descending
The search results will be shown in a list based on your criteria.
Having a membership plan is a must in order to get full benefit from the Love Factory, purchasing one gives you access to all of it's functions, more or unlimited messages, friends and photos. It is also the fastest way webmasters can financially benefit from their site.
Membership Plans: Here you can find the membership plans and buy them, you can view the prices for each type and the period for which it will be active.
To purchase a membership, click on it's price and you will be taken to the Buy Membership menu where you can select the desired membership and a method of payment
Click on purchase to forward to the confirmation screen then click on Buy Now to be directed to the Paypal/MoneyBookers site.
Revised "Love Factory" version 1.2.x.
You can now add custom fields without any php coding. Just administrate your fields and display them in the templates, where you want.
How to create a new custom field?
Just follow this simple steps:
- Enter the Custom Fields Administrator in Component Administration: "Settings" / "Custom Fields" menu icon.
- Hit the "New" menu in the toolbar and enter your new field properties.
- Compulsory settings for functioning are the label, db name, type and section. In the screenshot it's been created a Zip code field for a Auction item. You can create custom fields for auctions and users (for the latter only if CB is not used). Also you can select the propper field type from the list: textbox, textarea, select list, radio, editor. Some types of fields require extra parameters to setup. The list types require the options to be stored to.
How to display the new created custom filed?
First of all if you are an inexperienced user, we recommend to check first our template tutorial. There are four places where you may want to customize your fields appearance.
- Edit Forms
The fields are automatically displayed by the code blocks for "user profile" and "auction":
1. bids.html.php / editUser() or editAuction() method
/**
* CUSTOM Fields
*/
$Fi = & FactoryFieldsFront::getInstance();
$fields = $Fi->getHTMLFields(__SECTION__, $user->userid);
$smarty->assign("profiler", $fields);
OBS: __SECTION__ is one of "user_profile" or "bids".
2. t_myuserdetails.tpl or t_editauction.tpl
{foreach from=$profiler item=field}
<tr>
<td>{$field.field_name}</td>
<td>{$field.field_html}</td>
</tr>
{/foreach}For manual positioning in the template just display the {$profiler} smarty list element that you want:{$profiler.0.field_name}: {$profiler.0.field_html}
- Display on auction / user page
On the auction page (t_auctiondetails.tpl) you can manually add your fields by inserting {$auction->custom_field_db_name}.
{$auction->my_custom_field_db_name}
or in the user page (t_userdetails.tpl) the same but the smarty variable name is {$user->my_custom_field_db_name}
- Display on search page
By default the fields setup as searchable are displayed automatically by this sequence of smarty in the t_search.tpl:
{foreach from=$profiler item=field}
<tr>
<td>
<table>
<tr>
<td>{$field.field_name}</td>
<td>{$field.field_html}</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
{/foreach}- Display on auction list page
Auction fields can be manually added in the list template in the specific/ desired list template cell: t_listauctions_cell.tpl / t_myauctions_cell.tpl / t_mybids_cell.tpl / t_mywatchlist_cell.tpl / t_mywonbids_cell.tpl
<div>You can choose to display the field as a filter link:
<span>ZIP</span>
<span >
{$current_row->zipcode}
</span>
</div>
<div id="auction_date">
<span>{$smarty.const.bid_start_bid_text}</span>
<span id="auction_price_bold">
{$current_row->initial_price|string_format:"%.2f"} {$current_row->currency_name}
</span>
</div>
<div>
<span>ZIP</span>
<span >
<a href="index.php?option=com_bids&task=showSearchResults&zipcode=
{$current_row->zipcode}">
{$current_row->zipcode}
</a>
</span>
</div>
<div id="auction_date">
<span>{$smarty.const.bid_start_bid_text}</span>
<span id="auction_price_bold">
{$current_row->initial_price|string_format:"%.2f"} {$current_row->currency_name}
</span>
</div>
Revised "Auction Factory" version 1.6.5.
First of all check your Virtuemart version. Our Joomla 1.0.x component works with Virtuemart 1.0.x version and the Joomla 1.5.x Gadget Factory has support for Virtuemart 1.1.x version. For further requirements check here.
The Factory is providing three unique and very detailed VM gadgets for Windows which will work with any of the component version as long as the requirements are fulfilled. Since we are also Virtuemart users and we appreciate the powerful tool, we wanted to bring also a significant contribution to the community with this special featured gadgets.
All three gadgets should be installed like described in our gadget configuration documentation. After this you can proceed with each particular settings.
VM Orders displays the latest VirtueMart (e-Commerce) Shop Orders information. Following information are available directly in the widget display:
- Order number
- Order status
- User name
- Order value
- New orders marked
VM Orders flyout contains in the title the order number and the order status. In the flyout are then displayed the following:
- List of aquired products and their number
- Payment method
- Order Value
- Customer email address
- Customer complete name
- Customer Address (address 1 from VM)
- Customer Area code
- Customer City
- Customer Country
VM Orders has the following particular settings available:
- Gadget Title (more info under http://www.thefactory.ro/documentation/gadget-factory-installing-windows-gadget.html).
- Title and pagination color.
- Fetch latest x orders from server (the number of latest order to be retrieved from the server and displayed in the gadget).
- Fetch All/Pending/Confirmed/Canncelled/Refunded/Shipped orders (in case you are interested in checking only orders with a certain status).
- Supress first x order number characters (usually Virtuemart orders are starting with 0000; using this you can supress the 0's and display only the last digits.
- Mark latest x hours orders as new (a small icon will mark the newest orders).
- Show first x username characters (in case the usernames are to long, you can limit them, without messing the gadget display).
VM Orders allows you to configure the display as follows:
- Order details (color, size)
- Username (color, size)
- Order value (color, size)
- Background theme (gray, red, violet, blue, olive, green, brown)
VM Totals displays various VirtueMart (e-Commerce) Shop Reports information, representing one of the smallest reporting tool for Virtuemart but also the fastest and convenient one, making reports accessible directly on the Windows desktop. Following information are available directly in the widget display:
- Cell 1: Items/Orders number and New/All Clients.
- Cell 2: Confirmed Orders value (check the component configuration to define exactly what statuses will be calculated as confirmed!).
- Cell 3: Pending/Refunded/Cancelled/Shipped Orders value.
- Cell 4: Refunded/Cancelled/Shipped Orders value.
VM Totals flyout is available for cell 2, 3 and 4, displaying in the title the correspondent order name status and showing a graphical (bar type) representation with the monthly values. By clicking on the bars, a tooltip will display the exact value for that month. The flyout will display all the months fetched by the widget.
VM Totals has the following particular settings available:
- Gadget Title (more info under http://www.thefactory.ro/documentation/gadget-factory-installing-windows-gadget.html).
- Title and month color.
- Number of months to fetch from server (the number of latest months to be retrieved from the server and displayed in the gadget).
- Cell 3 configuration replacing the pending orders with Refunded, Cancelled or Shipped orders; this settings will change only the display for previous months, not the current month.
- Cell 4 configuration to display Refunded, Cancelled or Shipped orders.
- Show Currency in widget (will display the currency in cell 2, 3 and 4).
- Select tendency type between Values and Percantages. The calculated tendecy for the current month is calculated with the exact period from the previous month, taking under consideration also the exact hours, minutes, sec. For the rest, complete months are calculated.
- Override display settings for tendency positive and negative values (color, size).
VM Totals allows you to configure the display as follows:
- Statistics including Items/Orders number and New/All Clients (color, size)
- Cell 2: Confirmed Orders (color, size)
- Cell 3: Pending Orders (color, size)
- Cell 4: X Orders (color, size)
- Background theme (gray, red, violet, blue, olive, green, brown)
VM Reviews displays the latest VirtueMart (e-Commerce) Product Reviews information. Following information are available directly in the widget display:
- Product name
- Rating (1 to 5 stars)
- User name
VM Reviews flyout contains in the title the product name which received the rating. In the flyout are then displayed the following:
- User name from Joomla that rated the product.
- Rating (1 to 5 stars).
- Complete review.
- Date and time when the review was given.
VM Reviews has the following particular settings available:
- Gadget Title (more info under http://www.thefactory.ro/documentation/gadget-factory-installing-windows-gadget.html).
- Title and pagination color.
- Fetch latest x reviws from server (the number of latest reviews to be retrieved from the server and displayed in the gadget).
- Mark latest x hours reviews as new (a small icon will mark the newest reviews).
- Show first x username characters (in case the usernames are to long, you can limit them, without messing the gadget display).
VM Reviews allows you to configure the display as follows:
- Product name (color)
- Username (color, size)
- Background theme (gray, red, violet, blue, olive, green, brown)
After installing and configuring the website extension you are now ready to install the widgets on any of your computers, which are having a internet connection.
Download the widgets and components only from our site! Our company has all the copyright marks of this applications and you will avoid exposing your data to any malicious code developers who may altered our components!
Locate on your HDD the widget you want to install and double click on it.
After the widgets are installed they will appear automatically on your desktop (on Windows Sidebar for Windows Vista). Then go to the Widget options in order to configure it.
On the first tab "Connection" type in the URL of your site where you installed and configured the Gadget factory Extension. The main URL is sufficient, you wont have to type in any component path, etc. Type in the password you required at the Extension configuration and set in a refresh interval.
The "Connection" tab is standard for all our widgets. The "Settings" and "Display" tabs may vary depending on each widget functionality. Generally the "Settings" tab is very specific to each widget and the options are functionality dependent. On the "Display" tab, you can choose a widget theme (background) and separated colors for the various information displayed in the widget. A standard setting is the Gadget Title.
Here you can ad for example the URL of the website, in case you have several website to maintain and to be able to differentiate them better on the desktop.
All our gadgets are comming with a ini-file, where all the setting are saved in case you remove the gadget from the desktop, then add it back. This will save users allot of time, without having to configure again the gadget. Note that the ini file saves only the last instance of the gadget, so in case you have multiple instances of the same gadget only the last saved values will be taken under consideration. The ini-file will be deleted from the system, when unsintalling the gadget.Please note that the ini-file contains the access password to the fetched data, so be carefull if you are using a shared computer. if the data is ultra confidential, then we recommand the install only on your own personal computer.
The last tab displays a short note and the link to our website in order to check for documentation and updates.
Data Refreshing.
The widget data will be automatically refreshed according to the value you entered in the "Connection" tab. If you need to refresh the data now (manually) then just press the the widget logo.
This will manually refresh all the widget information, displaing then the most recent information available on your site.
For more information and settings check also the Virtuemart Gadgets documentation.
