After almost nine months the 3.3 version of phpLD (PHP Link Directory) was released on January 17th, last week. David, the phpLD Administrator posted on the phpLD boards:

After nearly 9 months since the release or phpLD version 3.2, we are pleased to announce the release of version 3.3. Many users have now tested the beta, as well as upgraded from 3.2, and we feel that we have reached a very stable version, and hope that you will find this latest release the best ever!

Here are some important links and info for those wishing to get started with 3.3:
1. Screenshots and Preview – here you can read about and view some of the new features of 3.3
2. Template Changes – if you are a template maker or have a template that needs upgrading, here is a guide to the changes needed in the smarty code for your template files.
3. How to Upgrade – if you are running an earlier version and wish to upgrade, we have provided some detailed instructions for how to do it, though we also recommend getting professional help when possible.
4. Download it! – You just need to login to the phpLD user area and download the files to get started. Login on the left side of the homepage of this site, and then click on My Downloads.

Thanks to everyone for your support and patience. We are hopeful that we have placed even more important tools in your hands that will lead you to having a successful site that you enjoy running. We will be immediately starting into the next version of phpLD, and promise to get the next one faster (though surely a few months still).

Best Wishes,
phpLD Team

(note: we are announcing this in the supporters forum first, and then we will expand the announcement in the coming days)

There was a patched release on January 18, which is available in the download area of the PHP Link Directory site – if you have the purchased version. For the most part the release has been very solid. I am extremely pleased with what they have done with addition of Article Submit, New Page Creation, and other similar features. We will soon be announcing our phpLD driven directory. We hope you will all take time to visit and provide feedback once we do!

Well – Busy day today, spent a lot of it getting back into the swing of things at the main biz. But, I am about to wrap up my day at 2:48a.m. as I have an appointment with a client at 8:00a.m. in about 5 hours and need my beauty sleep… man do I EVER need my beauty sleep!

Currently, I am using the LemonShadow2 phpLD Template by OS Designer. This thing is nifty and OS Designer has also made a companion WordPress template to go along with the directory template called LemonPress. I have not used LemonPress, but for those using the free version of PHP Link Directory they can directly link the LemonPress blog to their directory and keep visual continuity across both sites.

LemonShadow2 is a really great, and “simple to customize” template. It comes with some of the following features:

• Really nice 3 column format
• Pre-configured space for banner and text link ads
• Google AdSense Ready
• Easily editable Google Template file which allows for customization of links and your publisher ID
• The 3.2 version comes with Articles and Contact Me pages already installed
• Very few images to load in the template makes its load times extremely fast
• What I really like is that this is a free template and OS Designer does not require you to “pimp out” the directory by listing 3 sponsors in addition to phpLD and himself. All you need to do is leave his link in the footer alone, the rest of the template you can “go to town” with…

So, today I spent a few hours customizing the image files and CSS into a color scheme which I preferred to the LemonShadow colors, but still need to work on a logo… well – there is always tomorrow.

I stayed up all last night working on modifying / creating a new template for my directory site (still to be named… as it is not anywhere close to being ready for prime time).  It was a tangled mess of digging through *.tpl and *.php files spending hours modifying a couple of lines in the CSS file that I did not understand and had no point of reference for to make them “just right.”

I was able to work through a lot of it though, which really left me with a feeling of accomplishment, then I read from David over at the PHP Link Directory Forums that the 3.3 version of PHP Link Directory will be released soon and has a whole new template structure *grins*  I will chalk it up to part of the “learning curve” that is the world of Directories.

David’s article titled – phpLD 3.3 Preview contains a link which describes some of the new features being rolled out.  From lurking on the forums over the past few days, I believe that many in the phpLD community will be really excited about these new features some of which are listed below:

• Business Listings and Google Maps
  • You will now be able to run phpLD as a business directory of physical locations, not just a link directory.  This is something I am very excited about, and am looking forward to as it fits my new site, “like a glove.”
• Admin Template Manager
  • This was a bit of an annoyance to me – probably just because I was so new, but I found the navigation method in the 3.2 Admin Panel to be very cumbersome as the only option was to have the main navigation in the left panel.  With this update, we will have the opportunity to have the navigation inside the Panel at the top as well as modify other options to make the Administrative tasks a little more intuitive.
• Article Submit
  • The phpLD team has enabled the ability to have members of your community, subscribers or even anonymous contributors add content to the site – completely customizable to the needs of the site
• Article Ratings Settings
  • In addition to being able to have articles submitted to your site, they are also implementing an article comments and article rating scheme.
• Many other features…
  • Per Dawzz on the board, there are many other features which will be part of the 3.3 release which have not been disclosed yet – so stay tuned – it should be a pretty exciting month… well – exciting if you consider staying up and playing with your Directory all night – well… exciting… I guess for those of you with real lives to live *contemplating my own life*, this may not rank right up there… but … well… never mind

Like I said, for users and potential future users of the PHP Link Directory software, this should be an exciting month!

Onward and Upward!

We made it!

We are back from Tokyo – but let me tell ya – “jet lag” really sucks!  It is 2:59a.m. and I am not tired at all, I am working on my new project (a directory site). I slept all day today, couldn’t stay awake – I tried, but failed… Ah well, at least I will get some quality work done on the directory.

I am hoping to have a ton of new articles on all of my trials and tribulations with putting up a directory site.  However, it is so labor intensive right now having to climb another learning curve, that I do not want to get too distracted by writing a bunch of articles – I actually would like the site to go live with something resembling an acceptable format and content before the next millennium!

For starters, I looked at two different directory packages, eSyndicat and phpLD – Right now I have decided to go with PHP Link Directory as I think the support response I received was much quicker and more in line with what I was looking for – please understand, that I did NOT have a bad experience with eSyndicat and, in fact, that package seemed to have more of the features I am looking for, however, the response I received from phpLD and the ability for that package to get up and running right away where I was not able to get the eSyndicat package to work with my host GoDaddy was the largest influence in why I have decided to go with phpLD for the time being.

If you would like to comment on your experiences with these two packages or provide your .02 cents on other Directory software packages, I welcome your feedback!