Hi guys,
I am back with a new tutorial for DirectoryEngine users. As you know, in the latest DirectoryEngine update 1.9.5, the authority to set a place as claimable is now restricted to Admin only. Once a place is set as claimable, author can request to become the owner of that place listing. Thus, in this tutorial, I would show you in details what an author needs to do to claim a place.
Only Admin can set a place as claimable
When building a directory listing website, the admin would collect and post multiple places on his site in order to attract more users. However, admin is not the owner of all place listing so Claimable checkbox was developed to allow true owners of those places to request the ownership and better manage them with more accurate information, increasing listing quality of admin’s website.
The availability of Claimable function is now restricted to Admin only. This would help admin control the content quality of his website. With this restriction, author is expected to have responsibility for place information he provides. Otherwise, an author would post different places and enable Claimable function, causing the significant risk when no one claims those places and your website is full of “empty places” with no details provided. Therefore, it is reasonable to limit the use of place claim feature.
How can an author claim a place in DirectoryEngine?
I would show you a brief guide from the beginning when admin sets Claimable mode for a place to the final step when an author can successfully claim a place.
Go to DirectoryEngine theme, choose to see as Admin, click on Submit a place, then follow the steps filling in necessary information. Don’t forget to tick on Claimable box (see image):
After this place is posted, an author sees it and clicks on Claim this place.
A form shows up, requiring that author to provide convincing evidence to prove that he owns the place.
*Note: When a place is claimed and still waiting for admin further process, “Claim this place” button is not available on the website. It means only one claim per place is sent to admin at a time so that admin is not bombarded with a lot of requests.
After the request is sent to the admin, he would go to the claimed place, open the claim by clicking on this below button:
The claim form shows up and admin would review the information provided to decide whether to approve or deny this claim.
If admin approves the claim, place ownership is transferred to that author and he is now able to edit the place details.
If admin denies the claim, he has to explain the reasons. After that, “Claim this place” button is available again for other authors to claim.
*Note: If admin approves the claim but after that for some reasons changes his decision and wants to assign another author for that place, he can edit place author in back-end: Places → Select the specific place → Scroll to Author box to choose another author.
This is how the flow goes when an author wants to claim a place in your multipurpose directory website. These steps are quite simple so I hope this tutorial is useful for you when enabling “Claim a place” option. I’d love to hear what you think about this feature and how it might help your directory listing site.
Enjoy your week!
