The content and functionality of this page is essentially the same as the Add Listing page, but with the data pre-populated by the listing that was selected when the Edit button was clicked.

The Add Listing page is accessed when you click the Add Listing button, which you can see on the demo here.

The new Add Listing screen looks like this (yours may appear differently if you don't have all modules installed)

Category & Plan Selection section

This section is where you select one or more categories for your listing. It will be hidden if there is only one category and only one plan available.

Once you pick a category, you can then select from available plans that are showing for that category.

You must pick at least one category before you will see plans. The reason for this is that plans are tied to categories and we only show the plans that are relevant to the category you've selected. This makes it easier for your users to pick the “right plan” for their listings.

Here's what the plan selection looks like when a category has been chosen, but a plan has not:

Once BOTH have been picked, this section changes to this:

You can change the plan or category by clicking the link in the lower right corner Change Category/plan.

Listing Information section (always visible)

This section is where you fill out the main details for your listing, including any custom fields you've defined under Directory → Directory Content → Form Fields. Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*). You can change whether a field is required or not on that page.

Listing Images section (only visible if a listing is allowed to submit images)

If you allow users to attach images to listings, they can manage that under this section. It looks like this:

You can drag and drop images from your local computer in the box labeled Upload Images, or you can click on Select images link to start the upload process. The user's image restrictions are shown on the right side of the upload box. These can be configured under Directory → Settings → Appearance → Image.

As the user uploads images, they will appear in above the “Upload Images” box and can be deleted, or made the “primary image” (the one shown on the list view and the first one in the detail view).

Listing Attachments section (only visible if you have the Attachments module installed)

The Attachments section is only visible if you have Attachments module installed. If you do, then you will have these options available:

Start by clicking the “Browse” button to locate a file on your local computer to upload. The attachment limitations are shown on the right, similar to the image upload section. You can enter an optional description to show under the file name. When you're done, click Upload File and the attachment will be uploaded to the directory.

The attachment limits can be configured under Directory → Settings → Attachments.

Fields that are marked to display “In Listing” are fields that will show up for data entry in Submit Listing. Fields marked In Excerpt or have the option checked Include this field in the search form? have no effect on what displays on this page.

• The Quick Search Field, located at the top of most pages in the directory with a Search button
• The Advanced Search Modal, which is a pop-up that is opened when the user clicks on the Advanced Search icon

How Quick Search Works

The Quick Search box is the search box on the front page of your directory (typically). It uses a keyword search function, and it will search only the titles of the listings by default. If no fields are selected, the following fields will be searched in Quick Searches: Listing Title, Short Description (as excerpt), and Description (as content).

You can set this feature to search for data in additional fields by making those selections under Directory → Settings → Listings→ Searching (your list of available fields may look different from the ones pictured):

A best practice would be to choose only those fields to search where you think the most relevant search terms will be located. Usually, those are long and short description boxes, as well as the title.

Choosing too many fields for inclusion in Quick Search can slow search performance.

How Advanced Search Works

By contrast, the Advanced Search modal has more options for searching, and when you enter data into any of the fields, the data will only be matched against that field. For example, if you enter a value in the Short Description field, no other field will be searched for that value.

Advanced Search from the demo can be accessed here and looks like this:

If you enter a value in both the Short Description and Listing Title fields, the search will be for all listings that match the value in Short Description AND the value in Title.

Advanced Search is designed to allow fine-grained control of search results. The Quick Search is a quick-and-dirty search mechanism to find the most common data in the three most heavily used fields. We avoid searching all fields for these keywords, as this would have a negative performance impact on directories with large listing counts.

Customizing Advanced Search

You can control the fields that appear in your Advanced Search Form in the form fields themselves.  Fields with the option checked “Include this field in the search form?” will appear in the Advanced Search form.

You can add or exclude a field on the Advanced Search modal in the form field settings themselves, under Directory → Directory Content → Form Fields by editing the Field Display Options for each field. To exclude a field from the Advanced Search form, uncheck this option in the field settings:

Search Results

Listings that are featured will show up in the list of results at the top and may appear differently than other listings, based on your settings.

Shortcodes

You can display the Quick Search Box on any page using the Quick Search Shortcode.

You can display the Quick Search Box on any page using the Advanced Search Shortcode.

Widgets

Business Directory Plugin comes with a search widget for listings in the plugin. It can be added wherever your theme allows for widgets. Find the widget under Appearance > Widgets in WordPress:

Basic Search Widget

You can simply select “Done” on this screen if you want to add a simple search widget for your directory. Here are those settings:

And here is the result on the site:

Advanced Search Widget

If you want to add additional fields to be searched, you would choose the Advanced Search button and select multiple fields to be searched. You can select more than one field by holding down the Ctrl or Cmd button on your keyboard while making those selections:

And here is what that looks like on the front end:

You can have dropdown fields and checkbox fields here as well. You would just need to adjust the field type in the Form Fields section of the plugin.

NOTE: These search widgets only search Business Directory Plugin listings and not the entire site.

Note for users of both the Regions Module and the ZIP Search Module:

You can choose to enable the Regions Module on the Quick Search menu, which adds the Located at <City, State> search field OR you can choose to enable the ZIP Search Module on the Quick Search menu, which adds a ZIP code field to the Quick Search.

Here is what the ZIP Search Module looks like when it is enabled on the Quick Search Menu:

If you have enabled both modules in the Quick Search bar,  then the Regions Module will take precedence. Only one of those options can be added to the Quick Search Bar, so you must make a choice between the two modules here.

Listings that are “featured” will also include a ‘Featured’ image that overlays the upper right corner of the listing.

You can see a sample listing detail page:

Not all of the fields available in that listing are shown, but you can get an idea of the difference between this and the List View page.

Fields that are marked to display “In Listing” are fields that will show up for a single listing. Fields marked “In Excerpt” or have the option checked “Include this field in the search form?” have no effect on what displays on this page.

Here is an example of the Category Page from the demo where we've selected the “Food and Beverage Category”

You can see a sample listing category page here.

Listings that are “featured” will show up at the top of the list with a yellow highlight color (by default). This can be changed using custom CSS with BD, if desired.

Fields that are marked to display “In Excerpt” are fields that will show up for each listing here. Fields marked “In Listing” or have the option checked “Include this field in the search form?” have no effect on what displays on this page.  The fields marked “In Listing” will only show up on the Detail Page.

Here's an example of a List View page from the demo directory.

Listings that are “featured” will show up at the top of the list with a yellow highlight color (by default). This can be changed using custom CSS with BD, if desired.

Fields that are marked to display “In Excerpt” are fields that will show up for each listing here. Fields marked “In Listing” or have the option checked “Include this field in the search form?” will not show up on this page.

Here is a sample picture of the directory (shown with optional modules enabled):

At the top, you see these buttons: Add Listing, View Listings, along with a search field, search button and Advanced Search link.

• Clicking on View Listings will take you to the List view page. This is where you can browse the listings by the sort order determined in the Directory → Settings area.
• Clicking on a category name below the buttons Category view page for that category. You will see listings filtered for only that category.
• You can enter keywords in the search field and click Search, which will look for titles and descriptions that match the keywords entered. Or clicking Advanced Search will take you to Search page where you can do more refined searches
• Clicking the Add Listing button will take you Add Listing page, where you can enter the details to post a new listing.

These options can be shown or hidden, depending on the settings you have under Directory → Settings → Listings tab.

You can also click on markers shown on the optional Google Map and these will take you directly to the listing at that location. You can also do some basic sorting if the ratings module is installed by clicking on the rating value/count links above the listings.

The “Displaying all listings” area is enabled when you have the Regions Module installed. This allows you to also filter the listings shown by location (city/state/province/etc).

Fields that are marked to display “In Excerpt” are fields that will show up for each listing here. Fields marked “In Listing” or have the option checked “Include this field in the search form?” will not show up on this page.