Rank-List Manual

Content:

  1. Introduction
  2. Installation
  3. Customization
    1. Customizing Rank List Page
    2. Customizing Entry Page
    3. Customizing Login Page
    4. Customizing Member Profile Page ("Add Site" and "Edit Site" links)
    5. Customizing Result Page
    6. Customizing Error Page
  4. Control Panel Help
    1. General Settings
    2. E-mail Templates and System Messages
    3. Category Manager
    4. Site Manager
    5. Mailing List Manager
    6. Reset List
    7. Re-rank List
  5. Files Map
  6. Tips
  7. Support

Introduction

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Overview.

Rank-List is a powerful web application for automatic website promotion: automatic link exchange, categorized link directory for building link popularity and high quality traffic generation system. Rank-List's foundation principle is an ability to generate high-quality targeted traffic which works both ways - from List to participating websites and back. But the most significant fact for any website joining Rank-List is that it generates much more traffic than receives back. Why? Simply because any Rank-List visitor would customary click from 2 to ... whatever amount of times trying various links. Besides Rank-List is the best tool to build a link popularity with minimum effort from your side: it works automatically. Rank-List generates self-updating HTML pages that Search Engines love to index.
Rank-List uses HTML templates and can be easily integrated into any website design/layout.

Main features:

Installation

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Server Requirements:

We recommend to use web hosting at www.YourMagicHost.com they support almost everything and have a very good quality/price ratio.

Installation Steps:

  1. Unzip archive to your hard drive (You'll get ranklist directory containing all necessary files).
  2. Customize your Rank-List to fit your site (see Customization section for instructions).
    Note:
    If you prefer to edit HTML files directly on web server (for example using FrontPage) you may complete this step after step 3.
  3. Upload ranklist directory to your site's root directory using any FTP client.
    (Root directory is "www" or "public_html" directory. Contact your web host technical support if you need an assistance.)
  4. Set read/write/execute permissions to mtvars.php file (Chmod 777) using FTP client.
    Note: If you do not have privileges to assign appropriate permissions to your files, you should ask technical support to do it for you.
  5. Type http://www.yourdomain.com/ranklist/install.php in your browser to configure your MySQL database.
    You will be prompted to enter the host name or IP address of MySQL server, username , password and database name.
    Ask your host provider about this information if you don't have it.
    Important:
    Delete ranklist/install.php and ranklist/uninstall.php after installation.
  6. Open admin page (http://www.yourdomain.com/ranklist/admin/index.htm) and make all necessary settings according to you preferences.

    Default Control Panel password: admin
    • Change this password ASAP and keep it in a safe place!
    • Enter your Rank List settings.
    • Create categories of your Rank List.
    • Click on "Rerank List" to build Rank List pages.
  7. Now you are ready to call your Rank List from anywhere on your site:
<a href="http://www.yourdomain.com//ranklist/in.php">Our Rank List</a>

Customization

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Design and layout of your Rank List can be changed by editing the following files:
Very Important: Do not edit any other files!


Open template files in any HTML editor and make all necessary changes to adjust design/layout of your Rank List according to your preferences. Also you can design your own styles by editing style sheet file ranklist/style.css

Meta-variables (###variables###) and meta-tags (meta-variables inside HTML comments) are used to display dynamic content of your Rank List. If you delete some variables - corresponding data won't be displayed.


Do not delete meta-tags even if you don't need any variables to be displayed (just put two meta-tags together with a space character between).

Customizing Rank-List Page

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ranklist/list.htm - is a Rank-List Page template file.
Rank-List Page template is used for building actual Rank List pages. Building process starts automatically according to your settings.
You can use the following meta-variables to display details:

Customizing Entry Page

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ranklist/in.htm is a n Entry Page template file.
Entry Page displays "doorway" to your Rank List and may contain any information you want to display to rank list visitors.
Please do not remove or change <form> tag and its fields!
There is no meta-variables on this page.

Customizing Login Page

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ranklist/login.htm is a user Login Page template file.
Please do not remove or change <form> tag and hidden input!
There is no meta-variables on this page.

Customizing Member Profile Page

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ranklist/add.htm is Member Profile Page template file.
You can edit this page in any HTML editor. Do not delete any of meta-variables in this template.

The following meta-tags are used to handle user account details: The following meta-variables are used to handle user account details:

Customizing Result Page

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ranklist/added.htm is a Result Page template file.
It is used to display link code for the new members. You can edit this page in any HTML editor. Enter the actual URL of entry page. Do not delete any of meta-variables in this template.

The following meta-variables are used to handle user account details:

Customizing Error Page

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ranklist/error.htm is Error Page template file.
It is used to display error messages if any error occurs. You can edit this page in any HTML editor. Do not delete any of meta-variables in this template.
To edit actual error messages use the control panel as described in E-mail Templates and System Messages section.
The following meta-variables are used to handle error messages:

Control Panel Help

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Control panel allows you to manage Rank-List without any additional tools.
It contains seven modules:

General Settings

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General Settings form is shown below:


It has 4 sections:
  1. General Settings
    This section allows you to set admin details and common settings of your Rank-List.
    • Admin's Password - administrator's password. Change the default password ASAP and memorize it.
    • Admin's e-mail - e-mail address used to send all messages.
    • List title - the title of your Rank List to be displayed in the list pages and e-mails
    • Home URL - URL you want to assign to "Home" link
  2. Layout
    This section allows you to manage Rank List page layout details.
    • PageSize - number of sites per page
    • Featured Site - site you that want to show at the top of the list
      If you do not need this feature just select "None" from the pull-down menu.
  3. Schedule
    This section allows you to control automatic building of Rank-List pages.
    • Auto reset - enable/disable auto reset
    • Reset period - reset period in days
    • Auto rerank - enable/disable auto rerank
    • Rerank period - re-rank period in minutes
    Tip:
    If you want to manage building process with server Cron Jobs program - just delete ###script## meta-variable from the list.htm and call build.php from Cron program. Set re-rank time a little bit less than build.php Cron call period for better synchronizing.

  4. Traffic Control
    This section allows you to manage your Rank-List traffic to get the best quality of traffic by filtering (eliminating) script-generated fake "visitors". You can combine all filters together according to your preferences.
    • Use Doorway - enable/disable doorway (entry) page. Entry page is displayed to visitor before he enters the actual Rank-List pages. You can display here a general information or warning to your visitors. It is also used to filter false hits, generated by script or any other fraudulent technique (It is not necessary to use doorway page for this purpose only - Rank-List contains other traffic control tools to filter cheaters).
    • In trigger - number of minimum incoming hits that should be sent in order to get listed. Site that send more than "In trigger" incoming hits will appear in List pages in the next re-rank time-period. This filter blocks "passive" websites who do not send actual visitors to your site.
    • Out trigger - number of the minimum links that visitor should click on in order to score the incoming hit.
    • Unique period - period (days) to treat visitor as a unique. Next incoming hit of this visitor will be counted after this period ends.
    Note:
    Incoming hits are counted only for unique visitors who passed the doorway (if you choose to use it) and/or make the number (Out trigger) of actual clicks on the listed in your Rank List websites.

E-mail Templates and System Messages

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E-mail Templates and System Messages form is shown below:


  1. Add Site E-mail
    This section allows you to customize e-mail message which should be sent to the new member after submission.
    The following variables are used to send the account information:
    • "###site###" - member's site name.
    • "###name###" - rank-list name.
    • "###uname###" - member's username.
    • "###pass###" - member's password.
    • "###sid###" - member's user id (link code).
  2. Edit Site E-mail
    This section allows you to customize e-mail message which should be sent to the member after he updates his profile.
    The following variables are used to send an account information:
    • "###site###" - member's site name.
    • "###name###" - rank-list name.
    • "###uname###" - member's username.
    • "###pass###" - member's password.
    • "###sid###" - member's user id (link code).
  3. Password Reminder
    This section allows you to customize e-mail message which should be sent to the member as a password reminder.
    The following variables are used to send an account information:
    • "###site###" - member's site name.
    • "###name###" - rank-list name.
    • "###uname###" - member's username.
    • "###pass###" - member's password.
    • "###sid###" - member's user id (ink code).
  4. Error Message 1
    This section allows you to customize error message displayed if username/password exists.
    HTML tags and JavaScript code allowed.
  5. Error Message 2
    This section allows you to customize the error message that should be displayed if e-mail address is already in use.
    HTML tags and JavaScript code are allowed.
  6. Error Message 3
    This section allows you to customize the error message that should be displayed if e-mail program performed an error.
    HTML tags and JavaScript code are allowed.
    The following variables are used to display account information:
    • "###uname###" - member's username.
    • "###pass###" - member's password.

Category Manager

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Category Manager allows you to create/edit/delete Rank-List categories.
Category Manager page displays the list of categories, where each category name is a link to edit/delete category.


Add new category:
  1. Click on the "New Category" button and fill out the form:
    • "Category Name" - category name that should be displayed on the Rank-List pages and navigation bar.
    • "Category Short Name" - for internal use only. Make it in one word avoiding upper case and special characters.
  2. Click "Add Category" button to save your changes or "Back to List" to discard all changes.


Edit/delete category:
  1. Select the category from the list (we have selected the "Directories" in the example below).
  2. Change Category Name and Category Short Name by editing the corresponding text fields.
  3. Click "Update Category" button to save your changes, "Delete Category" to delete current category or "Back to List" to discard all changes.



Site Manager

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Site Manager allows you to edit/delete members' profiles.
Site Manager page displays the list of sites, where each site name is a link to edit/delete site.


Edit/delete site:
  1. Select the site from the list (you may use search form for a quick search).
  2. Change site details by editing the corresponding text fields:
    • "title" - site's title.
    • "category" - site's category.
    • "username" - member's username.
    • "password" - member's password.
    • "email" - site's contact e-mail.
    • "url" - site's URL (where visitors should be sent by Rank List script).
    • "logo" - URL to site's logo (absolute URL of logo file in any browser-supported format).
      Current logo is displayed next to this field.
    • "text" - site's description.
    • "in" - site's incoming hits stats (current)
    • "out" - site's outgoing hits stats (current)
  3. Click "Update Site" button to save your changes, "Delete Site" to delete current site or "Back to List" to discard all changes.



Mailing List Manager

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Mailing List Manager allows you to send e-mail messages to the all members or to the members from the specified category.
Just select the category, fill in subject and click on "Send Email" button.


Reset List

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This option sets all in/out counters to "0" and rebuilds Rank-List pages according to your settings.

Re-rank List

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This option rebuilds Rank-List pages according to your settings and current "in" values of counters.

Tips

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Support

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Technical support:
If you need an assistance we can install and customize Rank-List for you for a reasonably small price.

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