Community Directory

Instructions for District Administrators

To access the Administration Links page for merchant forms and district reports, click on the "Log in to maintenance" link at the bottom of the GoThere.org main page. Enter your User Name and Password then click on the Submit button.

1. Add Merchant

2. Edit/List Merchants

3. Generate Reports

4. Update Listings

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1.  The first link on the Administration Links page is Add Merchant. Click on this link to open a blank form to add a merchant to your district.

• User Name:  (Page Package listings only) This is the field where you would enter a one-word name to identify the merchant and that the merchant would use to log into to make updates. If the merchant is not getting access to update their listing, this field should be left blank. Only letters and numbers should be used, no punctuation or space. This field is case-sensitive, so if you enter upper and lower case letter, the merchant must enter their user name in exactly the same way. For example: PizzaHouse is NOT the same as pizzahouse.

• Password:  (Page Package listings only) This field is for the password that the merchant will be using to log into make updates to their listing. As with the User Name, this field is case-sensitive, no spaces.

• Status:  (Required) From this drop-down list select what kind of listing the merchant is getting:

  1. Basic Package is for free listings. The listing will show only the merchant name, address & telephone. The default image for the merchant district will automatically show on the listing page.

  2. Inactive will cause the merchant listing to temporarily not show in the district directory.

  3. Out of Business will also cause the listing to not appear in the district directory. This is useful to keep the address information in the database. The information could be updated for that location after a new business opens there.

  4. Page Package is reserved for paid listings. This allows a merchant access to a merchant update form via a user name and password to add photos, text and links to email and Web addresses.

• Merchant Name:  (Required) This is the full name of the business as it will appear in the district directory. Letters, numbers, spaces, upper and lower case is permitted. An example would be: Pizza House Restaurant

• State:  (Required) Use this drop-down list to select the state name in which the district/merchant is located. Only states having Community Directories will be listed.

• City:  (Required)Select the city name from the drop-down list. Only those cities having Community Directories in the state selected above will be listed.

• District:  (Required) Select the Community Directory from the drop-down list. Only valid districts will be listed for the city selected above.

• Primary Business Type:  (Required) Select the business category from the drop-down list that best describes the merchant. Typing the first letter of the listing will take you to the first listing starting with that letter. This is the category that will contain this business listing in the Community Directory. These categories are based on SIC and NAICS codes. (For a listing of the codes and corresponding business categories see our Business Codes page.)

• Secondary Business Type:  (optional) If there is a second category of business that also fits the type of business of the merchant, select one from the drop-down list. The list is the same as the Primary Business Type list, but allows the merchant to be included in both categories .An example might be a used clothing store listed under Thrift Stores, Discount & Used Merchandise might also want to be listed under Clothing & Accessories Stores.

• Short Description:  (Page Package listings only) This is a one-line (5 - 6 words) "headline" description of the merchant listing. The online Community Directory listings under a particular business type or category will show this line under the Merchant Name.

• Address:  (Required) Enter the street address followed by the street name followed by any suite numbers or letters.

• Zip:  (Required) Enter the 5 or 9 digit zip code for the listing. Examples would be: 92111 or 92111-2009

• Telephone: (Required) For consistency's sake, enter the area code without parenthesis, and with a dash between the prefix and the rest of the number. Example: 619 555-1212

• Fax:  (Page Package listings only) Same format as for Telephone.

• Email:  (Page Package listings only) Be sure to the the name@domain format. Example: webmaster@GoThere.com

• Web URL: (Page Package listings only) Enter the full URL address of the Web site. Example: http://www.GoThere.com  This will cause the Merchant Name in the listing to be linked to the Web address entered here.

• Business Hours:  (Page Package listings only) Enter the business hours in any format desired, and will show exactly as entered. Example: Hours 9 - 5 daily, 10 -4 Sat, Closed Sun

• Default Image 1:  (Required) Select the name of the district from the drop-down list. This image will appear as the default image on all Basic Package free listing pages. "Blank" will show no image.

• Default Image 2:  (Optional) This is reserved for future use. A second image will appear below the Default Image 1 on all Basic Package listings.

• Custom Image 1:  (Page Package listings only) Enter the full URL of the image that will appear in the top position on the merchant listing page. This will replace any Default Image 1 above. Example: http://yourdomain.com/businessphoto.htm  Please note that the space reserved for images on the merchant listing page is exactly 250 pixels wide. Images wider or narrower than 250 pixels will be automatically resized to that width. The height of the image will be automatically resized to retain the same proportion as the original image.

• Custom Image 1 Description: (Optional) Enter a brief text description of the Custom Image 1 above. This is the text that will show as an alternative for the image for those browsers who do not show images. This is useful for sight-impaired visitors to the site. Also, the text will show in a message box when the browser mouse pointer moves over the image.

• Custom Image 2:  (Page Package listings only) Same as for Custom Image 1 except that Custom Image 2 is shown in the lower position on the merchant listing page.

• Custom Image 2 Description: (Optional) Same as for Custom Image Description 1.

• Long Description:  (Page Package listings only) This is a free-form text box that is designed to proved one paragraph of text description of the merchant. It appears below the merchant information and to the right of the images. No more than 80 - 100 words should go here. A long paragraph can be broke up into shorter paragraphs by typing <P> where a new paragraph should start. <P> will add a blank line and start the following text on a new line.

• eBay Seller ID:  (Page Package listings only) Entering the merchant's eBay seller ID in this field will automatically create a listing of that merchant's current eBay auction items to be displayed on their merchant listing page. If there are no current listings, a generic link to eBay will show.

• Merchant Description:  (Page Package listings only) This is a free-form text box that extends from the left margin of the merchant listing page to the right margin. Hyper text markup language (HTML) may be entered here to provide control of paragraph, text, font and color control. The box is limited to 10,000 characters. An online HTML generator can be found at: http://sub.discoveryvip.com/editor/edit.htm  You can design your page in a familiar Windows-like format, then copy and paste the code that is created into the Merchant Description form field.  Also, an excellent interactive HTML tutorial can be found at http://www.alternetwebdesign.com/htmltutorial/lesson1.htm

• Contact Name:  (Optional) Enter the name of the person with whom we are dealing. This will make it easier to contact the right person about the merchant listing should questions arise.

• Contact Title:  (Optional) It is important to know if the Contact person belongs to the owner, manager, secretary or webmaster of the business.

• Email Address: (Optional) This may the same or different than the public email address in the merchant listing above. This is the email address that the Contact person wishes to receive email from us. Importantly, this is the email address where the contact person will receive his/her user name and password.

• Telephone:  (Optional) This may be the same or different than the telephone number show above in the merchant listing. This is the telephone number of the contact person.

• Form Buttons:

  • Save:  This saves to the database all of the information entered above.

    • If the form was accessed though the Add Merchant link, you will be returned to a new, blank Add Merchant form page.

    • If the form was accessed through the Edit/List Merchant link on the Administration Links page, you will be returned to the listing of merchants.

    • If the form was accessed through the Merchant Login link on the merchant listing page, you will be returned to the updated version of that merchant listing page.

  • Clear:  This removes all of the information entered into the fields above. It does not remove any of the information that may have been saved to the database. This button shows only on the Add New Merchant form.

  • Delete:  Caution! This removes from the database all information about the merchant listing displayed on the form. This button is shown only of the form if accessed from the Merchant Login link on the merchant listing page, or from the Edit/List Merchant link on the Administration Links page.

  • Return: This button return you to the Administration Links page without saving the information from the form.

  • Send to E-mail :  This button sends the User Name and Password to the Email address listed under the Contact Name & Contact Title fields.

More instructions

2.  The Edit/List Merchants link on the Administration Links page allows you to list and sort the merchant listings in your district. The Merchant Listing Criteria drop-down list boxes allow you to select the districts for which you are an authorized District Administrator.

Select the type of information you wish displayed in your edit list. The items that are checked by default are:

• Business Name
• Category of Business
• Telephone No.
• Address
• City
• State
• Email Address
• Fax Number
• Zip

If you wish to see all of these items displayed for each listing, leave each item checked. If you don't need to see any of the items, click on the check box in front of each item to remove the check.

If you wish to sort your listings by the type of information, select the sort criteria from the drop-down lists. Sort #1 causes the listings to be first sorted by the selected criteria. Sort #2 caused the the first sort to be sorted again by the second criteria, etc.

For example: if you selected for you listing Business Name, Category of Business and Address, then selected Business Name as sort #1 and Category of Business as sort #2, you would see a listing of all your merchants in alphabetical order, grouped by Category of Business.

To edit a merchant listing, click on the "edit" link at the beginning of the line. This will open a Admin Merchant Maintenance form with that merchant's information filled out. Make any changes to the form and click on the appropriate button at the bottom of the form:

• Form Buttons:

  • Save:  This saves to the database all of the information entered above. You will be returned to the listing of merchants.

  • Delete:  Caution! This removes from the database all information about the merchant listing displayed on the form. You will be returned to the listing of merchants.

  • Return: This button return you to the Administration Links page without saving the information from the form.

  • Send to E-mail :  This button sends the User Name and Password to the Email address listed under the Contact Name & Contact Title fields.

More instructions

3.  The Generate Reports link on the Administration Links page allows you to list and sort the merchant listings in your district and download a file to your computer that you can use in Microsoft Excel to create printed reports, add email addresses to Microsoft Outlook, or add fax numbers to an automated fax dialing program.

The Merchant Listing Criteria drop-down list boxes allow you to select the districts for which you are an authorized District Administrator.

Select the type of information you wish displayed in your edit list. The items that are checked by default are:

• Business Name
• Category of Business
• Telephone No.
• Address
• City
• State
• Email Address
• Fax Number
• Zip

If you wish to see all of these items displayed for each listing, leave each item checked. If you don't need to see any of the items, click on the check box in front of each item to remove the check.

If you wish to sort your listings by the type of information, select the sort criteria from the drop-down lists. Sort #1 causes the listings to be first sorted by the selected criteria. Sort #2 caused the the first sort to be sorted again by the second criteria, etc.

For example: if you selected for you listing Business Name, Category of Business and Address, then selected Business Name as sort #1 and Category of Business as sort #2, you would see a listing of all your merchants in alphabetical order, grouped by Category of Business.

When you click on the "Submit" button you will be shown a Web page of how the list. If you want to make changes to the the items shown on the list, click on the "Back" button to reselect the items or sort criteria, then click "submit" again.

If you are satisfied with the list contents and sorting, click on the "ReportDownload" button. You will be asked if you want to save the file. Click on the "save" button. You will then be shown a dialog box where you can choose where on your computer you want the file save, and what name the file should be saved as. You should then be able to locate the saved merchant list file on your computer in the location you specified.

To best take advantage of the information in the file you saved to your computer, start your Microsoft Excel program. Open the file you saved. When searching, you may have to change the "Files of Type" to "All Files".

The Excel text import wizard will ask "Choose the type of file that best describes your data:" You should select "Delimited".
Click on the "next" button.

From the Delimiters choices, select only "comma"
Click on the "next" button.

"General" should be selected in the Column data format area.
Click on the "Finish" Button.

Your report should display properly in an Excel spreadsheet. If it does not display properly, consult you Excel documentation.

More instructions

4.  Another way to modify or Update a Merchant Listing is to log in from the merchant's listing. Start from either the top GoThere.org page or from Community Directory page where that merchant is located.

At the bottom of the Merchant Listing page, click on the "Merchant Login" link. On the Login page, enter YOUR District Administrator User name and Password. An Admin Merchant Maintenance form will open with the merchant's information already filled out in the form fields. Add or modify any of the form fields just as you would in the  Edit/List Merchants section above. Click on the "Save" button at the bottom of the page. You can also delete the listing or send the merchant an email with his/her User Name and Password.

More instructions