I can only assume that these people are working through a proxy server that is caching content from the GeoProp site. Content cached by a proxy server would cause a session to timeout on the GeoProp server, and because the client (The web browser) is not getting content directly from the GeoProp server, the client session is never renewed.

I have put some HTML meta tags into the head section of all GeoProp pages that will hopefully instruct proxy servers to not cache content from GeoProp. Of course we do need to remember that proxy server administrators are notorious for not knowing what they are doing (Especially Microsoft type people running Microsoft Internet Security & “Acceleration” Server), so if it doesn’t work…

If you want to list your business premises on something similar to GeoProp, you are more than welcome to add them to Plak. I think a few estate agents are already listed on Plak, and if I remember correctly, they listed themselves in the shopping category - I guess that would be the most logical category for estate agents?

Any business premises list on GeoProp will be deleted!

When you are logged into GeoProp, you should see a button labeled My GeoProp at the top of each page.

Clicking the My GeoProp button will take you to a page that allows you to do two things.
1) The My Info button allows you to change various aspects of your GeoProp registration. i.e. Change your phone and/or fax number, change your email address and change your password.
2) The My Properties button allows you to view, edit and/or delete any of the properties you have listed on GeoProp.

Clicking the My Properties button should display a list of all your properties.

Clicking the Edit button will open the details of the property and allow you to change any of the data. Remember to click the Update button after making changes!

Clicking the Delete button will remove the listed property, and all of it’s comments, from GeoProp. It is a good idea to delete properties that have been sold, rented or, for whatever reason, are no longer available.

Clicking the Comments button will list any comments that have been posted against the property. Each comment will have a Delete button, which allows you to remove that particular comment. I often comment on various properties, asking people to fix or change some aspect of their listing. This is where you can get rid of my comment after doing whatever it is that I may have asked you to do.

For goodness sake people, you are trying to sell something! GeoProp gives you 65 000 characters to type a property description, and you still attempt to describe the property in a single line of text? Why? I assume that most people listing properties on GeoProp make a living from selling property. So what impression do you think it makes on a potential buyer when you can’t even take the time to type a proper description? As a non-estate agent type person, I can tell you that it puts me off straight away!

There is another very good reason why you should take the time to type a proper description - All properties listed on GeoProp are automatically submitted to Google and Bing for indexing. If you have typed bedr rather than bedroom, the indexing process is likely to ignore what it’ll probably see as a spelling mistake or typing error. Even if the “word” bedr gets indexed, how many non-estate agent people are likely to search for “bedr?”

So you make a living from selling property? At least make the effort to look like you are interested in your job!

The whole point of the property website link is that it is supposed to provide the viewer with a link (The link is shown on each property’s More Info page) to quickly and easily view more information on the listed property. I have noticed that most people, when listing properties on GeoProp, simply provide a link to their agency website homepage - which is incorrect!

The main feature of GeoProp is that it is supposed to make things quick and easy for someone looking for a property. Most South African property websites offer some sort of horrible search interface, which, in many cases, doesn’t even work. The point of the property website link is that you provide a link to the property details, without forcing the poor potential buyer to be exposed to the horrible, clunky and confusing search interface on your website.

By simply providing a link to your agency website homepage, you are not helping the potential buyer at all!

This is an example of an incorrect property website link - http://www.propertyconnectors.co.za/. It takes the potential buyer to the agency website homepage, which means that they are now faced with again having to dig through a whole pile of listed properties to find the one they are interested in. And after digging through the listed properties, they can’t even be sure it’s the same property the found on GeoProp!

This is an example of a correct property website link - http://www.propertyconnectors.co.za/showpropertySP405ZZ00005083.cp?&searchid=Fast. It takes the potential buyer directly to the information they are looking for!

Please get the property website link correct for the properties you list on GeoProp! If you are unsure how to get the correct link, please contact me and I’ll be more than happy to help.

Anyway, on using IE 7 to look at GeoProp, I discovered a few funnies. Firstly, some of the stylesheet styling was being lost. IE 8, Firefox and Google Chrome were rendering the elements as per the specified styling, but for some weird reason, IE 7 was refusing to comply. After hours of hacking through hundreds of lines of code, I discovered the problem - A single quote in Global.css! I guess IE 8, Firefox and Google Chrome are smart enough to ignore the errant quote, while IE 7 seems to have treated everything after the single quote and as unterminated literal string. I can’t really blame IE 7 for the problem (Pity) because I know full well that unterminated strings will cause problems.

So I removed the errant quote from Global.css, and everything seems to be working just fine.

The second problem I noticed was that IE 7 was not dealing with the text directions properly. This was due to the fact that I’d coded a reference to the iFrame that displays the text directions as iFrame.contentDocument. Of course this works in any normal browser - Even IE 8 - But IE 7 uses iFrame.contentWindow.document. I wonder if Microsoft have any idea how much grief their stupidity has caused web developers?

So I updated the code to deal with the idiosyncrasies of IE 7, and the test directions are now being displayed correctly.

The last thing I noticed - Not really a bug - Is that IE 7 is really pathetic at scaling PNG images. GeoProp uses PNG images for the map icons, and the map icons are simply scaled to fit in nicely on various different pages around the site. In IE 8, Firefox and Google Chrome, the scaling is nice and smooth, while in IE 7 the scaling results in an ugly jaggy icon - YUK!

Oh well… I’m not too sure that I’m going to worry about that one.

The currency conversion is done “on the fly.” i.e. No conversion rates are stored by GeoProp - Every time the currency is changed in the drop-down, a call is made to a web service that supplies the current exchange rate. The exchange rate received from the web service is applied to the ZAR price, and the converted price is displayed.

I have no idea how accurate the exchange rate supplied by the web service is. I also have no idea how often the exchange rate is updated. Anyway, regardless of the accuracy, the conversion should provide a potential foreign buyer with a reasonable idea of what the property will cost in their own currency.

If you’d like to have any additional currencies added to the drop-down, please let me know. Following is a list of all the currencies that are supported by the web service - I’m not going to add all of them: -

AFA-Afghanistan Afghani
ALL-Albanian Lek
DZD-Algerian Dinar
ARS-Argentine Peso
AWG-Aruba Florin
AUD-Australian Dollar
BSD-Bahamian Dollar
BHD-Bahraini Dinar
BDT-Bangladesh Taka
BBD-Barbados Dollar
BZD-Belize Dollar
BMD-Bermuda Dollar
BTN-Bhutan Ngultrum
BOB-Bolivian Boliviano
BWP-Botswana Pula
BRL-Brazilian Real
GBP-British Pound
BND-Brunei Dollar
BIF-Burundi Franc
XOF-CFA Franc (BCEAO)
XAF-CFA Franc (BEAC)
KHR-Cambodia Riel
CAD-Canadian Dollar
CVE-Cape Verde Escudo
KYD-Cayman Islands Dollar
CLP-Chilean Peso
CNY-Chinese Yuan
COP-Colombian Peso
KMF-Comoros Franc
CRC-Costa Rica Colon
HRK-Croatian Kuna
CUP-Cuban Peso
CYP-Cyprus Pound
CZK-Czech Koruna
DKK-Danish Krone
DJF-Dijibouti Franc
DOP-Dominican Peso
XCD-East Caribbean Dollar
EGP-Egyptian Pound
SVC-El Salvador Colon
EEK-Estonian Kroon
ETB-Ethiopian Birr
EUR-Euro
FKP-Falkland Islands Pound
GMD-Gambian Dalasi
GHC-Ghanian Cedi
GIP-Gibraltar Pound
XAU-Gold Ounces
GTQ-Guatemala Quetzal
GNF-Guinea Franc
GYD-Guyana Dollar
HTG-Haiti Gourde
HNL-Honduras Lempira
HKD-Hong Kong Dollar
HUF-Hungarian Forint
ISK-Iceland Krona
INR-Indian Rupee
IDR-Indonesian Rupiah
IQD-Iraqi Dinar
ILS-Israeli Shekel
JMD-Jamaican Dollar
JPY-Japanese Yen
JOD-Jordanian Dinar
KZT-Kazakhstan Tenge
KES-Kenyan Shilling
KRW-Korean Won
KWD-Kuwaiti Dinar
LAK-Lao Kip
LVL-Latvian Lat
LBP-Lebanese Pound
LSL-Lesotho Loti
LRD-Liberian Dollar
LYD-Libyan Dinar
LTL-Lithuanian Lita
MOP-Macau Pataca
MKD-Macedonian Denar
MGF-Malagasy Franc
MWK-Malawi Kwacha
MYR-Malaysian Ringgit
MVR-Maldives Rufiyaa
MTL-Maltese Lira
MRO-Mauritania Ougulya
MUR-Mauritius Rupee
MXN-Mexican Peso
MDL-Moldovan Leu
MNT-Mongolian Tugrik
MAD-Moroccan Dirham
MZM-Mozambique Metical
MMK-Myanmar Kyat
NAD-Namibian Dollar
NPR-Nepalese Rupee
ANG-Neth Antilles Guilder
NZD-New Zealand Dollar
NIO-Nicaragua Cordoba
NGN-Nigerian Naira
KPW-North Korean Won
NOK-Norwegian Krone
OMR-Omani Rial
XPF-Pacific Franc
PKR-Pakistani Rupee
XPD-Palladium Ounces
PAB-Panama Balboa
PGK-Papua New Guinea Kina
PYG-Paraguayan Guarani
PEN-Peruvian Nuevo Sol
PHP-Philippine Peso
XPT-Platinum Ounces
PLN-Polish Zloty
QAR-Qatar Rial
ROL-Romanian Leu
RUB-Russian Rouble
WST-Samoa Tala
STD-Sao Tome Dobra
SAR-Saudi Arabian Riyal
SCR-Seychelles Rupee
SLL-Sierra Leone Leone
XAG-Silver Ounces
SGD-Singapore Dollar
SKK-Slovak Koruna
SIT-Slovenian Tolar
SBD-Solomon Islands Dollar
SOS-Somali Shilling
ZAR-South African Rand
LKR-Sri Lanka Rupee
SHP-St Helena Pound
SDD-Sudanese Dinar
SRG-Surinam Guilder
SZL-Swaziland Lilageni
SEK-Swedish Krona
TRY-Turkey Lira
CHF-Swiss Franc
SYP-Syrian Pound
TWD-Taiwan Dollar
TZS-Tanzanian Shilling
THB-Thai Baht
TOP-Tonga Pa’anga
TTD-Trinidad&Tobago Dollar
TND-Tunisian Dinar
TRL-Turkish Lira
USD-U.S. Dollar
AED-UAE Dirham
UGX-Ugandan Shilling
UAH-Ukraine Hryvnia
UYU-Uruguayan New Peso
VUV-Vanuatu Vatu
VEB-Venezuelan Bolivar
VND-Vietnam Dong
YER-Yemen Riyal
YUM-Yugoslav Dinar
ZMK-Zambian Kwacha
ZWD-Zimbabwe Dollar

It is also possible to get driving directions to or from any other point on the map by right clicking on the map. If you are unsure how the driving directions work, please see the online help, where Flash presentations explain the workings of the driving directions. Driving directions on the More Info page work in exactly the way as explained in the online help, with one exception: there is no driving directions checkbox on the More Info page.

Anyway, the functionality to check for schools within the vicinity of a property is tied into the property’s More Info page.

Clicking the Schools button will look for schools within ± (In this case ± has nothing to do with guesswork. The symbol is being used in its correct mathematical context) 0.1 degrees of latitude, and ± 0.1 degrees of longitude, of the geographical coordinates of the property. Little green flags will be stuck into the map to indicate schools in the vicinity. A little green flag is probably not an ideal symbol. I might change it at sometime in the future.

I also plan (hopefully today) to integrate the driving directions functionality with the map on the More Info page. At sometime in the future, I will extend the “schools functionality,” so that potential buyers will be able to view other services within the vicinity of the property.