Dynamic IDX, LLC
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An Early Christmas For Myrsol’s Customers

Posted By: Mark Fitzgerald In: Development
Date: Wed, Dec 9th 2009 9:17 pm

Merry Christmas From Myrsol

An Early Christmas For Myrsol’s Customers.
Release Date By After Midnight December 23, 2009

Myrsol Real Estate CMS [Update to 2.0]
This is by far the biggest update we have ever done. I think we underestimated the time it would take to pass “quality assurance”. Yes, I’m a perfectionist when it comes to code, and I wanted to make sure everything was just “right” before we rolled this out. I didn’t want to roll it out early, but I definitely don’t want you all to continue to wait for all this great stuff.
There is once again a ton of stuff that will help improve SEO such as more control over page titles, and meta data.
Below is a list of the majority of the additions and updates. But far from being a complete list. There is a lot of “small” stuff you may notice that has been fixed or updated on the frontend as well. We’ve been listening to you!

[GENERAL CHANGES]

  1. Complete redesign of the backend to get things done quicker, find your way around easier, and work more efficiently.
  2. Bigger fonts, more clearer text, and many many bug fixes.
  3. (Frontend Update) Restructured the way images are “found” for properties which in turn speeds up property searching.
  4. (Frontend Update) Refactored the way google maps finds properties. Should see a slight improvement in finding listings faster.
  5. (Frontend NEW) Added ajax’d login/register system. Currently, if a user is not logged in, and tries to add a listing to their favorites – they will be redirected to the login page. With the new update, a non intrusive popup box will prompt them to login or register WITHOUT leaving the page. Even though the old system redirected them back afterwards, it may have been a “burden” to some people – thus we’re trying to please everyone J
  6. (Frontend NEW) Added the ability to pass in an agent_id into the url such as ?agent_id=4444222-bbb-ccc-3333 etc. Once done, a “cookie” will be set on that users computer and all contacts will go directly to that agent. Good for broker sites that have many agents. If an agent wanted to market their own agent_id url using the broker’s site, they can now do that.
  7. (Frontend NEW) Improved Saved Searches RSS, and ADDED Favorites RSS Feed. Will replace ALL email, since RSS is the future of “subscription” type services. This will take ALL email loads of the server, keep us out of email blacklists, and overall is MUCH easier for the user to manage. If they want to unsubscribe, they can do so without bothering you.

[PAGE MANAGEMENT]

  1. (NEW) Added page search to content manager. Searches title and body for a specific term.
  2. (NEW) Added the ability to “Require Login to View” specific pages, and the ability to define a message that users who are not logged in will see if they visit the page.
  3. (NEW) Added the ability to exempt specific pages from showing up in the global html sitemap, and XML sitemaps.
  4. (NEW) Pages that are created to “Act as Folder” will now recognize /index.html if typed in after the URL.

[MENU BUILDER]

  1. (NEW) Added the ability to define a CSS class name for an individual menu item. (Advanced users)
  2. (NEW) Added the ability to enclose a menu item in <span> tags (Advanced users)

[FORM MANAGEMENT]

  1. (NEW) Updated incoming form emails to be formatted in HTML tables.
  2. (NEW) Added the ability to associate your fields with a pre-defined Top Producer field for exporting directly into Top Producer 8i. So for example, if you create a Min Price field in the Myrsol CMS, you can now associate that field with the pre-defined field in Top Producer 8i called “Minimum Price”. (Top Producer 8i Required and Enabled for Myrsol Real Estate CMS)

[SETTINGS - MAIN CONTACT FORM]

  1. (NEW) Can now define the page title for your contact form at /contact.html

[LEAD MANAGEMENT]
There is MANY MANY changes to the lead management system. Going forward with this new system will allow us to roll out more robust updates (Drip Email anyone?) to the system that will be implemented with this update.

  1. (NEW) Combined “Users” into “Leads”. No more looking into 2 separate places for your contacts. All Lead’s, whether they are registered or not, will now appear under Lead Management -> Leads.
  2. (NEW) Added the ability to “Email Lead Details” directly to the agent when you assign a lead to an agent from the backend.
  3. (UPDATED)  Improved the Lead Filter to include date filtering. You can now find leads who registered between a start date and end date.
  4. (NEW) Added a new feature to force new leads to go to the actual listing agent ONLY IF THAT AGENT is an agent on YOUR SITE. So for example, if you have 4 agents added to your site, and someone makes an inquiry on a listing, and that listing belongs to one of them agents – that lead will automatically be assigned to that agent.
  5. (NEW) Brokers who management a central broker site and multiple agent sites will now have the privilege of managing ALL leads through one central shared database system. For example: Broker A has a site, and he also bought 4 sites for some of his agents on separate domains. We associate these agent sites, to Broker A’s site, and Broker A can now send leads directly to Agent1, Agent2, Agent3, or Agent4’s site, and will be able to see how the agent is handling that lead such as notes, emails, etc.

[SETTINGS – SEARCH FORM CONFIG]

  1. (NEW) Added the ability to toggle search tabs on and off. Don’t want to show the “Search By Area” tab anymore? You can now turn them off!

[SUBDIVISION MODULE]

  1. (CHANGE) Updated the way listings are “attached” to a subdivision that you create. It now works similar to the Page Management system listing section. You basically paste a “query” string into a text box. We’ve created this to be backwards compatible so it won’t break any current subdivisions with listings attached.
  2. (NEW) Added the ability to turn on/off certain tabs such as floorplans, inquiry, etc.
  3. (NEW) Added ability to change the page title for the /subdivisions/index.html page.
  4. (NEW) Added the ability to add content above/below subdivisions index page.
  5. (NEW) Added meta data fields for main subdivisions page.
  6. (NEW) Added a toggle to turn on/off a Google Map on subdivisions index page with all subdivisions with valid addresses plotted on map with main picture, address and title.
  7. (NEW) Added a toggle to turn on/off Walkscore on subdivision VIEW page.

[CUSTOM LISTING MODULE]
The custom listing module is our answer to people who want to add non-mls listings to their website.
An easy and quick way to add listings to your website with multiple image support, pre-defined listing status, beds, baths piclists, along with price, acres, sqft, year built, schools, and many more fields. Also add custom HTML to your listings and much more. Very robust for our first go at a custom listing module. Can only go uphill from here!
You will also have the ability to add content above/below your custom listings, and define how many to show per page, how to sort them, and define your meta data.
[BLOG MANAGEMENT]

  1. (NEW) Added a new Blog Settings page for various new things such as changing your blog title, add content above/below your blog and define meta data for your blog.
  2. (NEW) Added Tweetmeme toggle to turn on/off a “tweet” block that allows people to ReTweet your blog posts directly to twitter. (REQUIRES you to enter your Twitter username/password under Preferences)

[TRUE XML SITEMAPS]
A new XML Sitemaps system has been coded for your use. The “old/current” xml sitemap system was hidden, broken at times, and just clunky. The new XML Sitemap system is a TRUE fully working sitemap system that complies with all XML sitemap standards.
In addition, I’ve also added the ability to submit the sitemap index page directly to google.com, yahoo.com, bing.com and ask.com directly from the backend of your site. How cool is that?

[PREFERENCES]

  1. (NEW) Added google’s new site verification method. We will keep the old method for a few months as google still recognizes it, but we recommend anyone using the current “Google Meta Verify” under Preferences, to update to the new code once this update goes live. Your old google meta verify code will not work for the new site verification method, so you will have to get a new code.
  2. (NEW) Added Twitter integration. Requires you to enter your twitter username and password. (Your password is encrypted in the database). Once entered, you can take advantage of the new Tweetmeme blog functions and the new twitter snippet to show your last “X” amount of tweets on your website via {{twitter[limit=10]}}

[TASK/EVENT SYSTEM]
THIS IS A VERY ALPHA! BEWARE. This is a very rough but working implementation of a tasks/event manager system.
Calendar displayed on left column of new backend which displays tasks/events you define.
We wanted to get a working version of this in, so we can monitor activity of those who use it, and from there we can build upon it based on your feedback.

Have a Merry Christmas!