Group Affiliation

This page describes the phpYellow Group Affiliation tool. This tool is a standard component of phpYellow Pro Edition^TM. [Note: Currently this tool is available by paid install only as we finalize the coded remote installation procedures in version 7.x].

What is it?
Benefits
How does it work?
Leverage the Power: Membership Data Import
Summary

A network of related groups

The Group Affiliation tool helps build a network of related groups.

Creating a network of like minded groups promotes the interests of the groups and the group membership. Group members may have national branding, and or widespread industry recognition in their field.

Benefits of creating Group Affiliates

Direct advantages to your website directory are:

the quality of content and richness of detail is enhanced
average visitor time-on-site will increase
your site gets stickier
you offer more value to paid advertisers
you can create a nucleus of potential customers from industry memberships
you become an industry information aggregator and possible leader in your field
the value of listings in your directory is increased

By creating a place for such groups - affiliates - on your website you:

promote the industry
promote the membership
promote the brands
promote your website
enhance communication in the industry

In a nutshell

In a nutshell you may harness and leverage the power of national branding, recognized products and industry associations by creating related Group Affilations on your own website.

How does it work? : Group Affiliation Implementation

There are 3 main parts to the software consisting of:

webmaster tool
customer dashboard
front end

webmaster tool

As webmaster you control who is added and how their information is presented. There is a point and click interface provided for the easy addition of new Groups.

Group Affiliation is a directory feature and tool. A global setting allows the webmaster to toggle the use of Group Affiliation on or off. This is done by a simple point and click in admin > Settings.

customer dashboard

The directory customer may log in to the customer dashboard, review the available Group Affiliates, and choose to add some, none or all of the Affiliates. Affiliates then become part of the customer listing. The customer has the ability to add or remove any affiliation at any time, but only with respect to their own listings. The customer and website visitor may also request the webmaster to add a new Group Affiliate.

front end integration

With the Group Affiliate in place, and the directory customer choosing to add affiliates to their listing, the remaining part is showing the choices to the website visitor. The website front end lets website visitors:

review all affiliates on one page
browse all groups
obtain more and contact details about any group
browse members of a group by category
browse members of a group by individual listing
see the groups each customer belongs to

The file fullpage.php displays a business listing including any Affiliations. By default a link on the index page provides a handy reference and hyperlink to summary Affiliate information.

Membership Data Import

Membership data lists may be available from groups or industry associations. An included point and click tool lets the webmaster upload such a Membership data list. The file may contain thousands of members. The script makes a directory listing for each member.

Format required

The file source format must be a comma separated value (CSV) format. Third party tools such as Microsoft Excel can export a list to .csv, so if your source is an association excel list then that excel file may be used to create a csv file for import.

The source CSV file must have the following format:

name_first,name_middle,name_last,title,organization,address,address2,city,state,zipcode,country,phone,email,url

The format requires exact number of fields and precise order of fields. Each part like name_first is a data field. Each data field should be in your source file, with one business per line:

Code reference
define('_csv_cols','name_first,name_middle,name_last,title,organization,address,address2,city,state,zipcode,country,phone,email,url');

Summary

The Group Affiliation tool allows the webmaster to create unique groups or affiliations within a business directory. Customers may select and display the groups they belong to. Visitors may browse the collection of groups and members. Using the Group Affilation tool has many positive benefits all of which can improve the overall performance of your directory including the bottom line. This tool is a standard included component of phpYellow Pro Edition^TM.

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