Designing the Classified Ad

The classified ad consists of several forms, each used for a different stage in the advertisement and sales process. Each form contains a set of custom properties that are useful to sellers and potential buyers. Also, each form is distinct, and rendered with its own ASP scripts, which are described briefly here:

  1. Advertisement Creation The seller uses this form to create the initial sales (or "item wanted") announcement. When a form of this type is created, custom advertisement-specific fields such as Category, Subcategory, and ContactInfo are used.
  2. Advertisement Viewing The potential buyer uses this form to read the sales announcement. This form renders the custom advertisement-specific fields and displays the values specified by the seller.

    A different form is used to view the advertisement than to create it because certain controls are used only for one action and not the other. For example, the person submitting the ad first selects "Wanted" or "For Sale," because the item described in the ad may be either sought or offered. The viewer of the ad need only see the outcome of this choice — that the item is, for example, for sale. In the viewer's form, only one of "Wanted" or "For Sale" is displayed.

  3. Purchase Offer Creation The buyer uses this form to respond to the advertisement.
  4. Purchase Offer Viewing The seller uses this form to view the buyer's response.
  5. Purchase Offer Response After the preceding forms are used to initiate a sale, one or more standard e-mail messages (of message class IPM.Note) can be sent to verify the details of the sale.