ToplistX - Toplist Management Software

License: $25.00

Must Have

- Unix or Linux based server
- PHP 4.3.0+
- PHP open_basedir no restrictions
- PHP safe_mode disabled
- PHP shell_exec() function available
- PHP CLI version installed
- MySQL 4.0.4+

Optional (but highly recommended)
- PHP GD extension
- PHP cURL extension

Browser Requirements

- Firefox 2+
- Internet Explorer 7+

ToplistX Product Overview

ToplistX will allow you to quickly setup and completely manage top sites list on your page. Setting up a top sites list on can be a great way to bring new traffic to your site, in more ways than one. Creating a top sites list with large amount of related data and having external sites put links to your site can quickly boost your search engine position, and will also help to bring in traffic from the sites that are listed. Your member sites will be motivated to send you more traffic, since that will put them higher on your list and give them the potential to get more traffic in return!

Be sure to have a look at the huge feature list to get an idea of what this software is capable of doing. All of these features are included in the standard ToplistX package, there are no addons or additional purchases required.

Fully Template Driven Output

All of the pages that your users will see are controlled by templates that you can modify at any time. You will also have full control over the e-mail messages sent by the software so you can customize them to meet your needs. A key to success on the internet is to offer features that are different from other websites. People get tired of looking at the same old thing, and with ToplistX they won't have to. Using the software's template system you can completely customize the appearance of your toplist pages. This means you can use almost any look you want for your site, and easily integrate the software into your existing site design.

End User Search Engine

The end-user search engine included with ToplistX allows your users to perform quick searches of your member site database. The search engine will index the member site titles and descriptions description to provide your users with the most relevent results. You can also include the banner image associated with each site in the search results.

The search engine utilizes some built in MySQL functions to provide very quick searches. Even if you have a database of several thousand sites, the search results will be generated in a fraction of a second. While this may not seem that important, it has been shown that web surfers don't like to wait long for pages to load and will stay on a page longer if it has faster load times. With the ToplistX search function you can be assured that the search results will display quickly for your surfers.

Traffic Skimming

In addition to the standard toplist features, ToplistX also includes traffic skimming capabilities. With this feature you can setup any link on your site as a skimmed link. For each skimmed link you can set a percentage value that tells the software what percent of the clicks on that link should go to the URL defined in the link and what percent should be sent to your member sites. For example, you could setup a link that goes to Google 70% of the time, and the other 30% of the time it will send surfers to one of your member sites.

The specific member site that the surfer will be sent to when they click on a skimmed link will be determined by which of your members are owed the most traffic. The statistics kept by the software allow it to determine which sites have sent you the most traffic and in-turn which are owed the most return traffic. The skimming feature is a great way to ensure that the sites which deserve traffic back from you receive it.

User Defined Database Fields

The software's user defined database fields feature allows you to store any additional information about member sites that you like. There is no limit to the number of user defined database fields that you can have, so you can store any amount of extra data that you like. You will also be able to configure validators for your user defined fields so they can be checked to meet a specific format when they are submitted by end users.

Each user defined field can be configured to display on the account submission and/or account editing interface. You can also make any of the fields required for signup or when editing an account. Any of the additional fields that you configure can be displayed on your toplist pages next to the associated account!

Complete Source Code Provided

When you purchase a license for TGPX you will have complete access to all of the software source code. There is no need to have Zend Optimizer, ionCube Loader, or other PHP extensions installed on your server. This also gives you the option to customize the raw PHP code in case you want to tweak the existing features or add your own.

Comments & Ratings

In addition to simply tracking the visitors that are sent to and from your site, ToplistX offers additional features that allow your site visitors to interact with your toplist. The comment system allows visitors to view comments about each site that have been left by other viewers. This is a great way to get your visitors involved in your site, and will provide you with additional content that you can use to promote your site's value.

Visitors will also have the ability to rate sites on a scale that you specify (for example 1 through 10) so your site viewers will have another gauge to determine which sites in your toplist are the best. Each site can have it's surfer rating displayed next to it in the toplist so your visitors can easily see which sites are preferred by other surfers.

Hands Free Operation

ToplistX was built on the "set it and forget it" principle. What this means is that once you setup the software on your server, it can run on its own for weeks, months, or even years without any outside intervention. This frees up your time to take care of other important tasks for your website.

Of course, the software includes a complete administrative suite, so if you want to check up on things every day you can. This also gives you control over all of your members, the HTML that is displayed, banning items from your list, and much more. The administrative interface is one of the most user friendly and intuitive available. If you do run into problems, the software includes a complete manual that describes all of the major functions.

Member Site Management

Once you've got your toplist up and running, your main task will be to manage the member sites in your database. Users will be able to submit new sites to your toplist and edit their existing sites that they had previously submitted. You can optionally require that all new site submissions be approved by an editor before being displayed, and also optionally require all edited site data to be approved before the changes appear. This allows you to make sure there are no inappropriate sites added to your toplist.

The ToplistX control panel allows you to quickly view and edit any member site in the database at any time. If you need to modify the site URL, description, or any of the other site data it takes only a few clicks in the control panel to do that. The control panel also has "quick" functions which allow you to change many links at once. You can use a search and replace function to change a value in your link database on hundreds or thousands of links at a time.

You will also want to make sure the sites in your database are following your rules, and ToplistX offers plenty of features for that purpose. The control panel has an interface where you can specify blacklisted items which are not allowed to appear in the site data. The blacklist can check the site URL, HTML code on the site, words in the site title and description, and more.

Member Account Scanner

The of the most important features of ToplistX is the member account scanner. The scanner will check member site information when a new account is submitted to make sure that the URL is working. There is also a built in blacklist feature of the software that the scanner will check against to make sure a previously banned site cannot be added again to your top sites list. The banned HTML feature of the software allows you to define HTML that the scanner should look for and reject any sites if that HTML is found on them.

Besides checking member sites when they are submitted, the account scanner can be run at any time to check some or all of the accounts in your database. It will run all of the same checks that it did when the accounts were submitted. A report will be generated telling you what the scanner found, and you can also set it to automatically delete or ban member accounts that have started breaking your rules after their site was submitted.

ToplistX Feature List

ToplistX has all of the features you would expect in a standard toplist script. Below you will find a list of the major features included with ToplistX, however please don't consider this a complete list of features.

Account Submissions

Allow other webmasters to create accounts for your top sites list
Close the account submission form at any time
Accounts checked for the following during submission:
- Check that the site URL is working
- Check if URL forwards or redirects surfers
- Check for blacklisted items
- Check the length of the site title
- Check the length of the site description
- Check banner size by downloading the file
Optionally allow webmasters to provide keywords with their account data
Verification codes (CAPTCHA) can be used on the submission form to prevent spam submissions (GD required)
Webmaster can optionally provide a banner for their account
- Banner can be downloaded to check dimensions and filesize
- Banner can be stored and served from your server for faster page loads
Optionally require that submitters confirm their account through their e-mail address
Optionally review accounts before they will become active in your top sites list
Webmasters can optionally select a category which suits their site

General Account Features

Each account can be assigned to a specific category
Each account can have a banner assigned that can optionally be displayed with it in the top sites list
User defined database fields allow you to collect and store any additional information about accounts that you like
Accounts can be scanned at any time to make sure they are still working and following your rules
Delete or suspend accounts at any time
Lock accounts to prevent the site owner from editing the account settings

Statistics Tracking

Two different tracking methods:
- Embedded: Sites send surfers directly to your site; click tracking script is embedded in your page(s)
- Unique link: A unique tracking link is provided to each account which they need to place on their site
Embedded tracking method gives you better search engine ranking
Software will track the number of surfers each member account sends to your site
Both unique and raw clicks will be tracked
Software will track the number of clicks that each surfer makes on your site
Software tracks statistics for every hour for the past 24 hours
Software tracks statistics for every day for the past 365 days
Software tracks the number of visitors that you "owe" to each site so you can be sure to return traffic to them with skimming

Traffic Skimming

Setup any link on your site for traffic skimming
Set the percentage of clicks that will go to one of your member sites
Remaining clicks will go to the URL passed to the skimming script
Member site selected based on which one is owed the most
Will not send a surfer to the same member site more than once
Great for use with TGP sites

Powerful Control Panel

Manage all aspects of your top sites list from the control panel
Nearly all data is searchable and displayed paginated so you can locate items quickly
Setup multiple control panel accounts so you can have others help you process accounts
View statistics for each of your accounts
Manage all of your top sites list pages and their templates
Add new top sites list pages at any time
Perform database backups
Check for new versions of the software
Run the account scanner at any time to check the accounts in your database
Add a single account, setting all of it's configuration options
Quick tasks interface to perform search-and-replace queries on your accounts, TGP pages, and page templates

Categories

Setup as many categories as you like
Each category can have it's own settings
Each category can be set to accept picture or movie galleries or both
Each category can be configured with a banner size that you allow
Set the allowed site title length for each category
Set the allowed site description length for each category
Easily rename categories at any time
Setup hidden categories that webmasters cannot select from, but from which you can maintain through the control panel

Toplist Pages

Configure as many toplist pages as you like (within your server's hardware limits)
Each toplist page can have it's own template so you can customize the design and accounts that are displayed
Each toplist page can be configured to only display accounts from a specific category
Extremely powerful template system to allow nearly any design imaginable
Template wizard to help you generate the code needed to display accounts on your pages
All generated pages are static so they don't cause excessive load on your server
You choose the name and file extension for all of your toplist pages

Account Scanner (PHP CLI version required)

Run the account scanner at any time to check up on the accounts in your database
Make sure the accounts are still working
Can be started through cron for automatic operation
You select which accounts get scanned
Report of galleries breaking your rules will be generated

End User Search Engine

Surfers will be able to search for accounts based on the title, description and keywords they have set
Surfers can limit searches to a specific category
Search engine uses boolean mode search for powerful custom searches
Caching system for common searches to reduce the load on your server

Integrated Ad Management/Rotation System

Configure advertisements to display on your toplist pages
Limit which categories advertisements can be displayed in
Track the number of clicks your advertisements receive
Advertisements can be rotated each time you build your toplist pages

Surfer Site Rating Feature

Surfers can rate any of the accounts in your database
Display the site's rating on the ranking page as a number, stars, or other methods
Sort your sites by the ratings they have received

Surfer Submitted Account Comments

Surfers can leave comments about any account in your database
Comments can be viewed by other surfers
Require that comments be approved before they are displayed
Easily manage the comments through the software control panel
Comments are checked against your blacklist

Ranking Images for Member Sites

Each member can display an image on their site
The image for the top ranked sites can include their current ranking
You control how many of the top ranked sites will have their rank on the image

Review New Accounts

Optional feature can be enabled at any time
Be notified by e-mail when a new account is created
Quickly make changes to an account before approving it
Send approval e-mail to account when it is approved
Send customized rejection e-mail to account if it is rejected

Review Account Editing

Optional feature can be enabled at any time
Be notified by e-mail when an account is edited
See the old and new information side by side
Reject or approve account editing at any time
Helps keep your list clean

Cron Script Included (cron required)

Allows you to rebuild your ranking pages at the times you specify
Allows you to backup your database at the times you specify
Reduce server load by handling statistic updates only when needed

Icons

Assign specific icons to each account which are displayed on the ranking page
New accounts can have an icon displayed next to them
Icons can be displayed to show how the site has moved within the rankings