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Multiple Photos for Listings

While migrating MT we have been trying to include commonly requested items, such as allowing for multiple photos for machine listings. 

Not only have we decided to include multiple photos but we also built an easy way to manage them as well as present them.  On detail pages users will be able to toggle through listing photos or watch a video while flipping through listing information, such as specifications and seller contact information.

Also – we are leaning on either unlimiting the number of photos you can upload/attach or at least keep it as high as we can to ensure best peformance. 

It is features like this that really has us fired up to get this project done.  We’re confident that this will be a big hit amongst our users – both sellers and buyers alike.

Please check out the attached screen shot for a sneak peak at this new feature.

 

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Thumbnails on List-views

We are excited to announce that we are working on the ability to add thumbnails to list-views.  Currently this feature is functioning (beta) and will be launched with the new MachineTools.com web site (MT 2.0).

List-views are our most used pages and adding this feature will be a nice addition for our users.  Please check out the attached pic for a sneak peak of this upcoming feature.

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Migrating MachineTools.com

A great aspect about being a member of the MachineTools.com (MT) development team is the frequency of which we develop new items – such as new modifications and features. Having the opportunity to work with leading technologies while supporting a solid user base gives great meaning to our positions.

As we continue to grow it became evident that our web infrastructure wasn’t able to keep up with our expectations. This led to our decision of moving (migrating) MT to an entirely different infrastructure, one that would allow us to better serve our users. Although very exciting, this is a complex project due to nearly 10 years of legacy code and sensitive data that would have to moved and cloned. Not to mention, along the way taking the time to include several long awaited features. To take it a step further, we also decided to take great measures in improving our web site’s international capabilities.

Without going into technical details, we have made significant improvements and progress. Some may find it interesting to know that we have also made a conversion to open-source software. This has allowed us to build a custom solution with a strong sense of flexibility to fit our needs, such as scaling w/o having to make licensing considerations.

Now perhaps the most complicated aspect of our migration is addressing the question of “when will it be done?”. The most precise answer is “soon”, as soon as we are confident that our application is solid and complete enough to handle a production load. Migrating takes time because it is a very careful and complicated process – not just in the sense of software development, but also subject matter familiarity. When we migrate sections we have to take great care in the preservation of the business logic as well as analyze improvements along the way.

This project has been a mountain of work. And as we continue to climb closer to our goals, it is important that we take the time to ensure that the path we leave behind is solid for our future. This development blog will help us keep you informed with our migration progress. We will continue to post updates and possibly occasional sneak peaks – with the intention of receiving feedback from our users.

MachineTools.com Widgets

We have been discussing different methods on how to offer the ability to use MachineTools.com off-site. Optimally we envision granting the ability for other sites to use our services/data as easy as implementing a banner or link.

A common method for doing this is to use widgets. Widgets are quite simply “web gadgets” hence “widgets”. Commonly, a ‘parent’ site will offer widgets that allow a user to embed a search or other mechanism on their site or blog. Typically the widget calls to the parent site and interfaces its data/services.

Doing this benefits both parties – the ‘parent’ gets more exposure and the ‘children’ other get a nice gadget offering a direct link to powerful services w/ little installation hassle. In most cases, installing a widget onto a blog or web page is as easy as copy/pasting a banner or image into your web page or blog.

Currently, we’re experimenting with low impact areas on our site to offer initial prototypes. As we get closer to a usable beta widget, chances are we’ll post here for you to use/experiment with.