Out of the blue, here we come with our most exciting product yet!
After months and months of work, team Templatic is excited to introduce Directory – the only directory solution you will ever need. Over the years, we have released some unique themes for different niches, and we started this unique concept of themes that help you create a money making site, also allowing your visitors to submit content on your site. Thanks to you, these ideas were well received and rewarded.
If you are a website owner looking to create a directory site these days, you are definitely in luck.
View Demo or Purchase Directory
Directory is essentially a culmination of our directory efforts over the last few years. In this system we’ve included literally hundreds of features that you guys requested in the comments, forums or social media. It is powered by multiple plugins and themes with even more available as optional/paid extras.
Upon purchasing Directory you will receive:
- Tevolution 2.0 – the upgraded version of our base app plugin released last year
- Directory theme – contains most of the design, fully responsive
- Directory plugin – powers the “Listing” post type and other content-management features
- Location Manager plugin – enables the multi-city functionality
Better directory navigation and content management
One of the things we really wanted to perfect with Directory is the browsing experience, for both the admin and the user/visitor. Category pages now feature AJAX-based view switchers for quick transitions between grid, list and map view. They also come with a customizable sorting dropdown – you decide which options show in the box.
Similar approach has been used for detail pages. Instead of clumping everything together we’ve added tabs. For instance, if you add a video to a listing it will be shown inside a tab. Detail pages now also come with proximity-based related posts section. Along with filtering content based on categories (or tags) you can also set a perimeter from which related content will be pulled. The map available on the detail page can even generate directions to the listings location.
The two most important content management features must be the custom post type manager and the custom fields manager.
Post type manager gives you the tools to create a fully functional post type (e.g. Properties) and matching taxonomies (Property categories and tags).
Custom fields manager on the other hand allows you to define custom fields for those post types. With the post type created and custom fields defined you can generate submission forms and allow visitors to post content from the front-end.
Focus on monetization
Templatic themes have always been known for they money-making abilities, Directory is no different. Your primary source of revenue will be user submissions. This is achieved by creating price packages, i.e. payment plans for the submission form. Price packages can be added for every post type you create using the post type manager.
There are two package types available; pay-per-post and pay-per-subscription. Along with being post type specific, price packages are also category specific, allowing you to define different packages for different categories. Categories themselves are also monetized so feel free to set a different price for each category. Use the “featured post” option to get set featured price and get additional income from submissions.
There are other ways of making money as well. Read all about them in the dedicated Directory monetization page.
Global city management
In Directory, cities are organized into countries and states. We’ve pre-loaded a bunch of them (240 countries / 3900 states) so you don’t have to waste time doing it. With the change in location structure we also had to change the way cities are selected. City selector in Directory can be hierarchical with three consecutive dropdowns for country, state and city. It can also be list-based; with cities sorted into lists with countries as columns.
Or… you can just rely on the geo-location tracker. The tracker will analyze the visitors IP address and determine his/hers location. The visitor will then be placed into the city that’s nearest to them. This behavior can be controlled. Three options are available:
- Ask for geo-location – user is asked to share his location. If approved, the city nearest to them is loaded
- Force geo-location – the nearest city is always loaded
- Show default city – 1st time visitors always land on the default city
City customizations are another cool Directory feature. While creating a new city you’ll have the opportunity to define an HTML message for that city (which will show in the city selector), a custom header and a custom body background. You can use either images or simple colors for the header and body backgrounds.
Extend the functionality
The features we’ve mentioned here are just a few slices of a much larger cake. Directory was designed to be modular, meaning you pay for what you truly need. All the stuff mentioned so far was part of the Directory core, i.e. the themes and products you get after purchasing the Directory theme (starts at $99). Directory can be extended with specific Directory add-on plugins, Tevolution Payment gateways, Tevolution app plugins (e.g. Templatic Booking) and dedicated Directory child-themes.
Possibly the most important Directory add-on is Events Manager. This plugin will enable the “Events” post type and let you create, showcase and monetize events. Recurring events are also possible with recurrence settings ranging from days to years. Another cool feature is the listings integration, i.e. the listing-event bridge. When connected, events will appear on listing detail pages under a new tab.
Another mention-worthy Directory add-on is Field Monetization plugin. With this plugin you’ll be able to connect custom fields with specific price packages. Charge more for price packages with more input fields! Events Manager and Field Monetization plugins are in final stages of development. They are not available for purchasing at the moment, but will be very soon.
Google Maps
Maps have been an important part of our themes for a while, but we’ve really taken it to the next level this time. Maps are so prevalent in Directory that there isn’t much that cannot be displayed using them. There are now two homepage map widgets, two maps for the category page and two different detail page maps. Along with all that you can also generate a map in any post type (existing or created by you) using the map shortcode.
Google Map features in Directory include:
- Marker clustering – works for all listing maps, can also be disabled
- Homepage map search – search for map markers/listings from the map itself
- Custom category markers – add them while creating the actual categories, they work with all maps in the theme
- Street View – available for all maps
- Full page map toggle – show the homepage map across the whole screen by clicking a toggle button in the corner
To clarify, this is not GeoPlaces v5
Several months ago, after much deliberation we decided that it’s time to try something new when it comes to creating a directory theme. The problem with upgrading GeoPlaces is design single city directory vision it was built around, we cannot deviate from it. Directory gave us that blank canvas we wanted. However, considering we drew a lot of inspiration from our own GeoPlaces forums and forum members, it is fair to offer something special for those looking to upgrade from GeoPlaces.
We will be providing a 40% discount to all of you who decide to switch from GeoPlaces to Directory. Click here for details.
A new beginning
As a team, we are very excited about this project and can’t wait to truly make this the best directory site platform out there. Bunch of add-ons that will extend your directory site and child themes are coming up. Soon, very soon.
The quest begins now.