• Fixed a bug in the creation of the search url
• Watermark image must be a PNG
• Fixed a minor bug in item settings
• Show the correct numbers in the footers of the datatables
• Bug fixed in the upgrade from versions previous 2.4 that have the country translated into multiple languages
• Use osc_esc_js function to do not have javascript errors due to the language
• Add currency is clickable again
• Fixed javascript error when creating new custom fields
• Corrected multiple typos in texts

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Changelog

When I started tuffclassified.com I needed a simple, easy-to-use script to build a classifieds portal, and I came across ClassiPress. For 2-3 years everything went reasonably well, and I learned a lot of amazing things through being a webmaster. But after some time, I came to the realization that ClassiPress is not able to cope with the high volume of traffic and listings that came with my site’s growth. So I started the search for another classifieds script, and I found a free open-source classifieds script called OSClass. It was exactly what I was looking for. Tuffclassifieds is now running on OSClass, and I’m able to provide a comparison and explain why I chose OSClass over ClassiPress.

ClassiPress

Pros

1. The biggest advantage of ClassiPress is its WordPress backend. You can customize your ClassiPress installation and add features with just a few clicks thanks to the thousands of plugins that are in the WordPress ecosystem.
2. ClassiPress has very well commented and structured code, so a novice PHP developer can easily customize it to his/her needs.
3. Integrated Google Checkout/ PayPal payment gateways, manageable through an easy-to-understand dashboard. Customizable ad posting form and custom fields, as well as a multistep category selection.
4. ClassiPress has very advanced search options necessary for any classified portal.

Cons

1. The WordPress database structure is not optimized for heavy transaction based database queries. Too much of the information is in a single table, which is ok for blog publishing purposes but can prove disastrous for a classifieds platform, which uses mainly transactional queries as opposed to selective queries.
2. An aggressive database abstraction layer is great for newbie and non-technical users, but it’s also slow. With a high volume of ads and visits, a WordPRess database can become too busy and cluttered.
3. Dependence on the WordPress platform. ClassiPress can’t increase its performance because it has to deal with WordPress’ database structure, whereas OSClass developers can deal with performance issues head-on.

OSClass

Pros

1. It’s not just a theme that will be based on any third-party CMS system. Actually, the whole CMS is created to be used for the needs of any general classifieds system. It supports a growing collection of plugins and themes, built by community members.
2. It’s quite a bit faster than its WordPress counterpart. It has a well-structured database, queries are fast and pages are quick to generate.
3. OSClass is open-source and free, that’s hard to resist! And it includes all the features that any general classifieds portal needs.
4. The dashboard is easy-to-use: it allows you to effortlessly manage all your plugins, listings, comments and OSClass itself.

Cons

1. The UI where you manage listings and comments could use some improvement. It’s manageable for listings (and much better than WordPress) but comment moderation is not as good as it could be, especially when managing hundreds of comments.
2. Search result accuracy could improve as well. It’s a very important feature for classifieds sites. Integration with Sphinx Search server like is used at Craigslist could be an option.
3. User roles would be appreciated, in order to establish different tasks for different users. A single administration option is ok if the site is managed by a single person, but when managing single-handedly is not possible, multiple user roles would be great.

Final thoughts

In my three-year experience with ClassiPress, everything was manageable until we hit 400,000 listings. After that, I switched to OSClass and it’s handling +19,000 users daily (generating over 56,000 pageviews a day) and over a thousand new listings every day with minimal resources. ClassiPress is adequate for sites with a local or small community, and WordPress backend and features are unparalleled, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a large-scale project. For my needs, OSClass is the best solution for a highly active and popular classifieds portal, due to its well-structured database and scaling.

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For users

One of the most important changes is the admin – known as oc-admin for most users – redesign. It has a cleaner design and a better user experience. In addition, there are available two more types in custom fields: url and checkbox.

The performance has improved a lot, now it’s faster than ever! Furthermore, you can customize the permalinks. So, now you can change the structure of most urls.

For those new users, you can install OSClass in your language. In the following days we’re going to upload the new translations (you can register to our translation backoffice if you haven’t done yet).

Finally, just in case your category or location stats doesn’t seem right, you can recalculate them through the admin panel.

For developers

There are some changes for developers as well. Plugin developers can throw exceptions during the installation to stop the process and display custom messages. It’s easier sanitize the text in themes and plugins in order to show it correctly in forms as well as not breaking javascript. There are more filters and hooks (we’re going to add  them in the following days in the documentation) and of course the list of improvements on the Changelog and in Github issues.

What’s next?

For next version our focus is in improving the user experience and the items manager. Remember that you can always suggest new features in our forum.

We recommend to backup the database and the files before upgrading. Please, read how to update OSClass before starting the process. Finally, if you’re using some of the attributes plugin, there are a new version available.

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Here’s some of what’s new:

• Admin layout redesign.
• Better performance, now it’s faster than ever! (Most important: improved search queries)
• Install OSClass in your language! (Note: first we must have the translations)
• Customize permalinks. You can change most of the urls if you have permalinks enabled. (Please test!)
• Recalculate category and location stats. (Please test!)
• New alert system, now the alerts are saved in a JSON format. (Please test!)

As always, it’s still in development and we don’t recommend that you run it on a production site - set up a test site just to play with the new version. If all goes well, we hope to release in the following days OSClass 2.4. If you find a bug, please report it in the issues tab in github.

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• Changed blog feed url #207
• Fixed a js bug with quote marks in manage comments #195
• Pagination bug in manage media #178
• Added osc_resource_preview_url helper #181
• Don’t show duplicated items when “pics only” filter is selected in search #180

For those who don’t see the last OSClass news in the dashboard or they see some warning errors, I encourage them to update to the last version. It’s a problem caused because of the new web site, the blog feed url has changed.

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Changelog

• PHP Warning in user profile when the description was empty #153
• Added missing helper: osc_reset_resources #149 (thanks TurbineJesse!)
• Contact publisher is working OK now #134
• Database errors during the installation are caught correctly. Now if you don’t set well the database configuration, it warns you #133
• Fixed redirect after wrong reCAPTCHA code after posting an item #132 (thanks again TurbineJesse!)
• We’ve removed PHP warnings from HTMLPurifier library #130
• Default currency is selected in item forms #129 (thanks trains58554!)
• We’ve added more checks in image deletion

Special thanks to Filippo Cavallarin again for reporting a security vulnerability in combine.php file. If you’re using that file in your theme, I strongly recommend to update it. Please, remember to visit the wiki if you don’t know how to update OSClass.

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Changelog

How it will affect you? All the attached files in the forum since October/November are missing. So, if you have attached files in the forum you should upload them again.

Please, contact us if you see something inusual. We’re still recovering: demo.osclass.org and download packages from geo.osclass.org/downloads Sorry for the inconvenience, we are going to improve our backup system and recovery from this kind of failures.

Update 23 January 2011 16:36 (UTC+1): demo sites and geo.osclass.org/downloads are working fine again.

• Escape quotes in attr values of input tags using a new helper: osc_esc_html #105
• PHP Warning if the user doesn’t have a description in his profile #108
• PHP Warning in Search model #110
• Modified behavior in add/edit form of custom fields #112
• Style of radio buttons in custom fields #117
• JS error in add/edit page in oc-admin #119
• XSS vulnerabilities in search page
• SQL injections in search page and AJAX request in oc-admin (need to be logged as an admin)

Special thanks to Filippo Cavallarin and High-tech Bridge for reporting discretely the security vulnerabilities until we’ve published a new version. Last week we uploaded a Romanian .sql file to geo.osclass.org/downloads (thanks to Eduard Mihai). During this week we’re going to upload Latvia (thanks to Edgars Burmistris). If you want to add or improve your country locations, please contact us to info@osclass.org.

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Changelog

UPDATE 17/01/2012: Upload again the version because a mistake in custom fields of a last minute change

Release highlights:

• Deleting all admins bug fixed
• Multiple installs bug fixed
• Feeds url using permalinks
• SQL error using picture only items bug fixed
• Some hooks were added on admin
• SQL optimized a little more

As a reminder, if you are upgrading from a version 2.3.2 or earlier and it’s not a clean installation, please, remove the following files:

• oc-admin/themes/modern/tools/upgrade-plugins.php
• oc-admin/upgrade-plugin.php
• oc-admin/upgrade.php

It’s important to remove this files for security reasons. For security issues of OSClass you should send an e-mail with the details to security [at] osclass.org. Include as much detail as you can. Please, you should not publish the details.

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