Thread: Some questions about Vantage

Some questions about Vantage

Hello I am considering purchasing Vantage or ClassiPress and to help me decide which one, I have some questions.

I want to make a website that features listings of events. So users can post details about their upcoming event.

1. The user can specify the date of their event, after that day, the listing is automatically taken down. Does Vantage support this kind of functionality?
2. The listings need to be searchable primarily by geographic location rather than by category. (Similar to the search on the Vantage homepage where it allows searching by city and country). Is it possible to have search by geographic location as the only search option on the Vantage home page?
3. The Vantage theme has a number of features on each listing that I would not want. Is it possible to turn off the following features / functions associated with listings:
-Listing type - category
-remove buttons that say 'claim listing' and 'upgrade listing'
-remove the area for people to leave reviews.


Thanks for the help. I fully intend to purchase either Vantage or ClassiPress as long as I can be convinced one of them can be customized to my needs. I have investigated a number of other competing classified and jobs/business directory themes and it seems that the AppTheme themes are the best choice.

Any help you can provide to assist me making a decision is much appreciated. Could your recommend which theme would be best for me given the type of website I want to make?

Thanks

1. No, listings are currently posted for the duration of the listing package, not determined by a specific date
2. If you're referring to the removal of the keyword "Search For" field on the main homepage search bar, there is no Vantage setting which would allow this to be switched on/off so it would require customization on your part if you were to remove it.
3. Listing type and category are part of the default listing requirements and as such do not have an option to be turned off. Claim listing can be removed via a setting, but upgrade listing cannot. Reviews also cannot be turned off via a setting, so any of those which cannot be set from the Vantage admin would require customization.

Ultimately either of the themes "could" potentially be customized to suit your needs, however my opinion based on the information given is that Vantage would probably be better suited. I say this because it seems the modifications would appear to be less involved than that required for ClassiPress, and also taking into account a feature yet to be implemented. Neither of the themes at this time include an events functionality, however this is a feature planned for a future release of Vantage. This being said, unfortunately I cannot confirm exactly when this feature will be available. I have seen a lovely example of a highly customized ClassiPress site used for events purposes which was created prior to Vantage being available, however this was some time ago and I cannot recall the URL at this time, sorry.

Ok. Just say I buy Vantage and have it customized for the time being, then in a few months you guys bring out an update that provides the functionality I wanted, would it be simple to apply that update? Or would it be a case of, once its customized future updates can cause conflicts?

Updates in general are pretty straight forward in terms of replacing all the existing files and replacing them with the new ones. For this reason you'd definitely want to ensure that any changes you do make are created in the form of a child theme, to lessen the blow when an update is released. Please free to check out some of the "getting started" docs on our AppThemes developer center page for some info on how these work. This being said, if you're including events in your child theme, and then this particular feature is added by default, you'd possibly want to make additional changes to your child theme in order to use the default functionality rather than the one you customized in (assuming it works the same way you have it set up). Thanks.

Ok thanks for that information. Ill make sure I stress with any developers that they need to create a child theme for any customizations.

I want to avoid a situation where I get it customized, then down the track AppThemes releases an update that has all the functionality I wanted plus extra cool features, but I cant easily update due to customisations I have made or something...

Maybe it would be better for me to wait for this updated functionality for Vantage to handle events, rather than going off on my own and getting a bunch of custom work done?

Yes that's a good idea, you definitely want a child theme for this work as I think some people do get caught out when making modifications without much thought to the future in terms of updates.

It's ultimately your decision about whether or not you wish to wait for the purchase, and I'm sorry we don't have a confirmed date as to when you may expect to see the event functionality included (which I'm sure would help to know). Perhaps if you have a better idea of the time frame you're looking at for getting your project started you may be able to decide how much time you can afford to wait and check back then? In the meantime, it doesn't hurt to see how much is involved with the cost of the modifications if you have already contacted a developer about a quote for the custom work. Thanks.

Thanks Pepsi.. Well I have received some replies from your certified developers. I received a range of quotes, from affordable up to the $5000-6000 range :o (outside my budget lol).

In all honesty my preferred solution would be to wait until you guys bring out an update with events functionality. If that was a wait of a month or two then I can wait. If its 6 months + then that's probably longer than I want to wait.

Actually it clicked with me that 'Events' themes are a whole separate category of theme.. different to 'Classified' and 'Business Directory'... so I went searching and there are already dedicated 'events' themes for Wordpress about the place. Its possible that one of them might be what I am after...

I guess I am prepared to keep looking into this until I find exactly what I need.

Although AppThemes does seem like a good bunch to throw my lot in with, as the support seems very capable and willing to help / advise. Many theme developers don't even respond to initial pre-sale inquiries.

Cheers

Yes you're right there are likely other themes available elsewhere specifically for events, and again, we're sorry we don't have more information to offer at this time regarding the availability of this feature with Vantage. It is definitely planned though and something many of our existing customer are also keen to see ;) I would hope that by the end of this year we'll have a better idea of how far away the feature will be, but I'm not certain we would see the actual functionality itself at that time.

If while you're looking around, you want to keep informed of any developments relating to Vantage - please feel free to subscribe to our blog, or follow us on Twitter, or Facebook for announcements. Thanks and good luck! :)