SiteBuilder Documentation

LANDMACHINE SiteBuilder

The LANDMACHINE SiteBuilder allows users of the LandManager application to create and publish dynamic listings of your available land for sale along with static content to share information with your customers.

A Simple site can be generated in 1 click and can be further customized using the SiteBuilder tools.

Features:

• Static Content Pages
• Dynamic Listings Pages
• Filtered Listings Pages
• Photos on Listing pages
• Theme support
• Custom Header Image support
• Build a dynamic website in 10 seconds
• RSS Feeds

Getting Started:
SiteBuilder supports 3 ways to display your website. As a sub site of landmachine.com ie: http://land.landmachine.com/yoursite, as a hosted site ie: http://www.yourdomain.com, or lastly as a custom XML/Atom feed you can parse and display on your site hosted elsewhere.

To get started, login to the LandManager application, click on My Account -> SiteBuilder. This will open the general settings page for your account. Once you pick a site name your website is automatically created and the system defaults are used for displaying your properties (All land in All Land Groups which are currently marked For-Sale, Sorted by the Date it was added to the system).

Once you've selected a site address you can further customize your site with the many options available

General:

Site Address - Defines the url end users will use to access your site. This can be up to 20 characters, no spaces or punctuation and should be something associated with your land business, e.g. labowski would be accessed via the url http://land.landmachine.com/labowski. Note: Once set this it cannot be changed! For those wishing to use other options suchas RSS feeds or a hosted domain please contact info@landmachine.com for configuration instructions.

Theme - This defines the look and feel of your site. You can click the preview links next to the theme name to preview an example site using that theme.

Title - The Title of your site as seen by end users, this will also be displayed in the header of every page (if enabled) and also on all your in-world property vendors. e.g: Labowski's Virtual Land Sales

For those using a custom header image with the Title as part of the graphic, you can uncheck the Display site title in header checkbox.

Header Image - You can upload a custom header image to further customize the look and feel of your site.

Filters:

Filters allow you to limit which parcels will be displayed on pages and on your in-world property vendors.

You can create, edit, and remove filters at any time, and there is no limit to the number of filters you can have active

To Create a new filter click the New Filter button shown at the bottom of the list of your current filters 

Filter Name - This is description used in RSS feeds and displayed in the pages and vendor dialogs to optionally select which filter to apply.

Included Landgroups - Each filter can display one, many or all of your currently active landgroups. The current parcel count is displayed next to the Landgroup name. Check the checkboxes to select which landgroups you wish to include in this filter.

Sort Options - You can have the results filtered by Date, Price, or Parcel size, and select which direction (Ascending or Descending) to display these properties.

When you are satisfied with your choices you can click the Save button to activate the new filter.

The system creates a default filter for you which automatically includes all parcels you currently have for sale in any active Landgroup

Show - You can click the Show button to display an RSS feed which will list parcels currently selected by the filters. This will display the first 10 properties matching your filter.

Edit - You can edit filters at any time to change the properties displayed

Remove - This will allow you to remove filters which you no longer use.

Pages:

You can create two kinds of pages, Listings and Content.

Content Pages contain static information, such as an "About me" or "News" page, this allows you to share information about you or your land business with your customers.

Listings Pages contain your properties for sale, and can optionally contain some static content which could be used to describe the types of properties contained on this page, or purchase instructions. Listings Pages are dynamically generated for you.

Both Content pages and the Description in the Listings pages can contain both text and html for formatting.

Creating a Content Page:

From the SiteBuilder screen, click the Pages link, the the Create button in the content box. This will bring up a form which you can enter the specific information for this page.

Page Title - This is the title of the page and will be displayed on the menu of your site. Titles can be up to 20 characters in length.

Page Editor - The page editor is where you will place and content you wish to be displayed on this page. You can click the ? icon on the editor toolbar for more detailed instructions on how to use the toolbars to format your content.

Page Order - You can select the order this page will be displayed on your site.

Make Default Start Page - if this box is checked, this will be the first page displayed to end users when they visit your site.

Create a Listings Page:

From the SiteBuilder screen, click the Pages link, the the Create button in the Listings box. This will bring up a form which you can enter the specific information for this page.

Page Title - This is the title of the page and will be displayed on the menu of your site. Titles can be up to 20 characters in length.

Description - This is where you can put any static content which will be displayed before the dynamically generated listings

Filter - Use the dropdown to select which filter you wish to apply to listings on this page

Page Order - You can select the order this page will be displayed on your site.

Make Default Start Page - if this box is checked, this will be the first page displayed to end users when they visit your site.